Sparkfest:I Hope Walter Scott Is Rolling In His Grave, Part I

I'm throwing my hat into the ring for Christine Tyler's 'Spark Blogfest'.
The prompt? "What author set off that spark of inspiration for your current Work in Progress"

 

Most people are spurred to write by books they love, to emulate authors they admire. I was inspired by a book I hate.  

Specifically, Walter Scott's first novel, Waverly.

If you're wondering how my seething hatred of a body of literature would prompt me to write, the situation takes a bit of explaining. 

Being raised by a Scot and a Scottish-Kali'na person, I was never exposed to Waverly or the like as a child. Instead, I got a variety of wonderful folktales, oral history, family stories and read-alouds (lots of Robin Hood stories and Robert Louis Stevenson). Because of this, I was protected from aggressively colonialist literature until I got to high school and college. 

My first exposure to Scott's novels came from an acquaintance who had recently returned from a trip to Edinburgh.  Curious about some oddities of Scottish culture he had encountered, he asked me to explain the clan system further. About a minute into my explanation, he cut me off. 

'No, that's not how it works,' he declared. 

What evidence did he have to counter my lifetime of experience? 'What do you mean?' I asked.

'That's not how it is in Waverly,' he said, his tone implying he had just cited an irrefutable source. 

Not sure how to respond, I extracted myself from the conversation and went off to the library to investigate.

There are not many books that raise my blood pressure, but this one certainly did-- and that's without making any critiques of craft or plot structure. Colonialism? Check. Mockery of local customs? Check. Mighty Whitey? Check. Ethnic sidekicks who worship the main character? Check. Revisionist history? GIANT RED CHECKMARK. Unfortunately, the book has gathered a large following since it's initial publication (and subsequent career as a runaway bestseller) because it combines romanticised adventure with a validation of those stereotypes which have seeped into our collective culture. In other words, it's entertainment, and the messages in entertainment have staying power.

I wanted badly to counter this book, to dig up a book or movie to show my friend so I could demand he read it and see really Scottish culture instead of ugly caricatures. 

At that point, I stopped. I realised I was at a loss. Trainspotting? Problematic in the same way as Precious. Braveheart? Revisionist history and Mel Gibson cooties. Doomsday? 2 hours of reheated 18th-century anti-Celtic propaganda. Outlander? Fetishism issues, colonialsm, and biphobia. Chasing the Deer? Soul-stompingly depressing.

In the end, had Stevenson's Kidnapped (and the sequel) and Rob Roy (starring Liam Neison). This left me-- an enthusiastic reader-- incredibly frustrated. I realised that I wanted to sit down and read an entertaining book, or watch an entertaining movie, featuring my culture without insulting us or misrepresenting our history. More importantly, something that was fun and interesting enough to pull in readers who had only absorbed Scott's representation.

As my mother has said on many occasions, if you complain about a problem, you've just nominated yourself to fix it. The stories of why I'm taking out my ire on Walter Scott specifically, and of how I recruited Michael into writing Forgotten Gods will continue tomorrow.