Excerpt from Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
Pages 160-161
Izzy scowled. "Seriously, Tee: Shut up. Everyone can hear you."
"I'm being serious," Tee said. "If this Wick cat do all this research about Sierra's grandpa and all his Puerto Rican spirits, I don't see why I can't write a book about his people. Imma call it Hipster vs. Yuppie: A Culturalpological Study."
"But there's black and Latin hipsters," Sierra said. "Look at my brother Juan."
"And my uncle is most definitely a bluppy," Izzy put in.
Tee rolled her eyes. "There'll be an appendix, guys. Sheesh."
"What the hell is culturalpological anyway?" Izzy demanded.
"It's like the slick new term for cultural anthropology."
"You made that up!"
"So what? I'm on the forefront. If I say its slick and new, then slick and new it is."
---
I quite liked this book. I haven't read a YA novel in a long time, so it was refreshing. The passage above was probably the most hilarious for me; the characters sounded what actual teenagers do sound like. It's funny, and maybe coincidental, or maybe not, that the first book I've read this year and after my move, is a book set in New York, in which the city is very much a character.
Also, I love this cover:
I found some of the messaging to be a bit on-the-nose. But I'm questioning myself on why I feel this way. Hell, why should we be subtle, as writers/artists/etc? It's great that Older got this book published. All the more power to him. Maybe he wasn't subtle on purpose, actually, of course it was on purpose. Perhaps we've had enough of subtlety.
I first heard about this book via this profile of the author in the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/29/daniel-jose-older-black-heroes-ya-science-fiction
"Until 2014, Older worked by day as an emergency medical technician in Manhattan. He wrote mostly at night. And he sees himself, explicitly, as an outsider to the literary and publishing scene: “I entered the writing work clearly and strategically to do this thing, to write these books, to get them into the world and fuck with people, and to generally fuck shit up,” he says at a restaurant in Brooklyn."
Yeah! Let's fuck shit up! High five man.
I plan on checking out more of Older's writing on his website, where he discusses this piece by the Guardian: http://ghoststar.net/blog/a-clarification-about-the-hunger-games
Pages 160-161
"Funerals. No one danced at funerals. Or did they? Sierra had a vague memory of Gordo going on in music class about how, in certain parts of Africa, they used to throw big parties and parade through the streets when someone died. The tradition had carried on to the Caribbean - the Haitians would march in wild circles with the coffin so that the spirit wouldn't be able to find its way back home to bother everybody. And New Orleans...Something about New Orleans...
"Imma write a book," Tee announced. "It's gonna be about white people."Izzy scowled. "Seriously, Tee: Shut up. Everyone can hear you."
"I'm being serious," Tee said. "If this Wick cat do all this research about Sierra's grandpa and all his Puerto Rican spirits, I don't see why I can't write a book about his people. Imma call it Hipster vs. Yuppie: A Culturalpological Study."
"But there's black and Latin hipsters," Sierra said. "Look at my brother Juan."
"And my uncle is most definitely a bluppy," Izzy put in.
Tee rolled her eyes. "There'll be an appendix, guys. Sheesh."
"What the hell is culturalpological anyway?" Izzy demanded.
"It's like the slick new term for cultural anthropology."
"You made that up!"
"So what? I'm on the forefront. If I say its slick and new, then slick and new it is."
---
I quite liked this book. I haven't read a YA novel in a long time, so it was refreshing. The passage above was probably the most hilarious for me; the characters sounded what actual teenagers do sound like. It's funny, and maybe coincidental, or maybe not, that the first book I've read this year and after my move, is a book set in New York, in which the city is very much a character.
Also, I love this cover:
I found some of the messaging to be a bit on-the-nose. But I'm questioning myself on why I feel this way. Hell, why should we be subtle, as writers/artists/etc? It's great that Older got this book published. All the more power to him. Maybe he wasn't subtle on purpose, actually, of course it was on purpose. Perhaps we've had enough of subtlety.
I first heard about this book via this profile of the author in the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/29/daniel-jose-older-black-heroes-ya-science-fiction
"Until 2014, Older worked by day as an emergency medical technician in Manhattan. He wrote mostly at night. And he sees himself, explicitly, as an outsider to the literary and publishing scene: “I entered the writing work clearly and strategically to do this thing, to write these books, to get them into the world and fuck with people, and to generally fuck shit up,” he says at a restaurant in Brooklyn."
Yeah! Let's fuck shit up! High five man.
I plan on checking out more of Older's writing on his website, where he discusses this piece by the Guardian: http://ghoststar.net/blog/a-clarification-about-the-hunger-games
No comments:
Post a Comment