This post is about the attack on Catherine Ryan Hyde's book, Jumpstart the World, as posted by Leslie Feinberg.
Read about the issue: http://www.theresabook.com/2011/01/jumpstarting-the-world-one-book-at-a-time/#ixzz1BdL1ehRO
I am a huge fan of Jumpstart the World, and Catherine’s work. I also have read Leslie’s work, and respect it, too. And since I’m no stranger to biological family difficulties, especially estrangement, I am deeply sad for everyone involved.
Even if I’d known they were biologically related, I would not have automatically assumed Frank was Leslie in Jumpstart. Because here’s a shocker: I think stories are STORIES. Yes, we may be taught to “write what we know,” and certainly our experiences come through in our writing. But writing what we know and writing an autobiography are vastly different. Is Leslie the ONLY trans person Catherine knows? Is everything a writer writes into a character about ONE person? No and no.
In Jumpstart the World, Frank is a beautiful character. I fell in love with him, just like Elle. But, as Catherine and others have pointed out, this is Elle’s story. Frank is her love interest, but Elle is the one struggling to understand her own problems and prejudices. The story–the STORY, the fiction–is about Elle and her mother, Elle and her new friends, Elle and first love, and Elle and herself.
One part of this attack on Catherine’s book that hurts me personally: I am so, so tired of the infighting that happens within the LGBTQ community. I’m disgusted by it. Why? Because I can’t face the hatred; I'm a coward in the face of it. I’m not brave enough to put my personal gender identity out there anymore. I’m one of the letters in LGBTQ, but what I’ve seen in the community–how we keep hurting each other in the most undignified, base, and cruel ways possible–makes me understand how our community is still oppressed. Those who are hurt by bigger entities, like governments, turn on their own in frustration. This I see, and this I reject.
I wrote Catherine, after finishing Jumpstart, that I wanted to buy multiple copies and hand them out to strangers. I still do. It is a healing book. It could, if allowed, heal some of the rifts in any community.
Let’s let the book do its healing work. Let it not be about family dynamics, but about the characters. Let’s let it be.
