I will add my perspective as an Indigenous reader whose tribe is based in Canada and Maine. The information that has come out about Klune's inspiration/process has definitely had an effect on my desire to read his book. I had been highly interested in it for a while, especially because of all the positive praise it had received. But the last government-controlled residential school closed in 1996, just a year before I was born. And I can't help but think that if I had been born in Canada a few years earlier, that being sent to a residential school would be something that could have happened to me or that it could have happened to someone in my family. And his phrasing of "I'm just going to write this as a fantasy" bothers me.Asdf_lurker wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 8:29 pmI definitely can see why people are uncomfortable with it and that's a valid reason not to read it if you choose. The trauma for Indigenous people around Residential Schools and Missions is kind of specific to their experience - because it was done for the purpose of ethnic genocide - even though there were similar horribly run and abusive orphanages and institutions run by the church or state, like the Magdalene Laundries.LunarRadiation wrote: ↑Mon Jun 07, 2021 5:32 pm
Hm, looks like maybe a more direct influence than others made it out to be, then. My feelings are shifting as I read more. People do use real history as influence but I can see being uncomfortable with this maybe, it's not something that even happened that long ago really. My main take away now is that if he hadn't have been so explicit about his influences it looks like no one would have even been mad, the book seems to have been well received. I think authors and artists sometimes get a little bit caught up talking about their process and don't think about how other people could perceive or feel about it.
I agree that artist should be conscious of talking about their process and their process in general and where it crosses a line. But also it provides a sense of accountability and history that wasn't there before because no one was talking about their process. For Example, if Emily A. Duncan wasn't so open about her process would people have known that she purposely wrote an antisemitic plotline into her books.
For me though, TJ Klune is a bit murkier until someone goes through the book and says no this part directly references the Scoop and the concept is not just abusive state institutions in general, I personally have no problem with taking broad inspiration from that event. Though didn't he do some other thing - not related to this book. I remember hearing about another controversy before this one - cause I keep passing over his book in the store because of it - but I don't remember what it was about.
But I accept that this book means a lot to many people and I won't tell someone they are wrong for enjoying the book. Just for me personally, I no longer plan to read The House in the Cerulean Sea and I'm unsure at this point if I want to read any future books from TJ Klune.
