We're all familiar with the problem seemingly every couple faces where one person tells the other about some terrible thing that happened, and the partner tries to fix the problem, only the person with the problem isn't looking for a solution, he/she just wants to be heard. Although it's stereo-typically the woman who just wants someone to listen to her problems, I've often been the one in relationships who wanted more emotional support than solutions. Maybe it's because I had a mother of strong German roots who was always and only ever focused on solutions, to the exclusion of a sympathetic and neutral ear.
But when it comes to my literature, I want a story to have an opinion on the problem. It's great that the story can make me care about the issues a character is facing, but I also wouldn't mind hearing a suggestion or two about how the character ought to go about extricating herself from the problem. I read to enjoy, but I also read to learn, and if a writer with some life wisdom can somehow drop a bit of knowledge into the narrative in a manner conducive to me not being such an idiot all the time, I'm usually pretty grateful.
Youmna Chlala's story does a great job presenting the problems of its two characters, who are stuck in some kind of refugee camp. The scenes are evocative and vivid, and I have some idea of the stresses of living in the camp, even though I don't really know what country the camp is in or what nationality the refugees are. But the story doesn't offer much in terms of what the characters ought to do to survive, or what society ought to do in order to do better by them. It's just a snapshot, which does a lot to humanize the characters, but doesn't attempt much beyond that.
When I wrote stories based on the Eritrean refugees I knew, I made some attempt to transfer what it seemed to me they had learned that gave them the ability to survive things I never could have made it through. I may have taken the wrong lesson from their lives, but I made some effort to guess what the lesson might be.
I liked Chlala's story, but I think it will probably only leave a brief impression on me and then fade away. There really isn't much more I can say about it, so I won't labor to squeeze seven more paragraphs out just to prove I tried.
Yeah, this one went by me, too. then again, I didn't try very hard. Is this the way most people read? I found the vagueness troubling; for a refugee camp, some aspects of it seem awfully middle-class. Apparently it was part of a longer piece. Removing the background has the effect of focusing on people, the relationship, but I never felt connected to any of it somehow.
ReplyDeleteYour intro re hearing vs problem solving is a big can of worms. Offering solutions ends up feeling useless, because the I-want-to-be-heard person has probably thought of them all herself, and either tried them or sees other obstacles, yet the wannabe-helper can end up feeling rejected if solutions aren't used. And really, when someone tells you about her husband dying, how do you say, "I hear you" and shut up and wait for the speaker to offer more or change the subject?
To be honest, I sometimes feel this way with you when you're fretting about writing. I don't have the means to help, but I feel a need to try, however stupidly, because how many times can you say "Yeah, it sucks, and I'm sorry you're stuck there" without sounding like the "Have a nice day" automated response?
This is why I'm a hermit.
I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge, in a full-throated way, that the issue of "I can't get my stories published" is not even worth mentioning on the same page as "I'm a refugee." Yes, it's frustrating to me, but you don't feel like you need to know what to say or even care about my frustration. We are way, way, way up in the higher levels of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs when we're talking about succeeding as a writer.
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