Rami Ungar The Writer

In an earlier post, I said that “I have no right to write a gangster story (get it?)”. The gangster story, of course, is Reborn City. 

Well, that bad pun has more relevance than people may think: I’ve mentioned that I’m Caucasian. Not only that, but I’m Jewish, suburban, and a college student to boot. I’m what’s known as privileged. Just like Kathryn Stockett and her novel The Help, I fear that a lot of criticism that’ll come my way if Reborn City ever makes it into the market is that it’s another white writer trying to write in the voice of minorities, and a similar novel written by a black, Hispanic, or Asian writer wouldn’t get the same reaction (I’m just assuming for the moment that Reborn City is at least as popular as The Help).

Maybe so. But I doubt that when Ms. Stockett wrote The Help, her goal was to step on people’s toes like people keep thinking she has. It’s the same with me: I started writing because J.K. Rowling inspired me enough to make me want to compete with her. I got into horror/sci-fi/fantasy because I wanted to emulate writers like Anne Rice, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz. I wrote Reborn City because it seemed like a totally awesome idea, an adventure story involving gangs and mutant-powers and shady governments. And I kept writing it, planning two sequels and sending off part of Reborn City to an agent because at some point, I realized there was an important theme here, among all the other themes I’ve laced into the story: that in the end, you, and only you, are the only person that can control your destiny.

I’m not trying to be like the great white redeemer or whatever, I’m just trying to help people through an engaging story become self-empowered. Is that so bad? And besides, the one who helps the other characters realize this important lesson is an Arab Muslim, and at least a third of the leaders of the main gang in Reborn City are white. So it’s kind of reversed, isn’t it?

And for the record, all writers write their stories becasue they love what they write and want to share it with people just for the story’s sake. Their’s no other ulterior motive behind it. I’ll keep that in mind while I attempt to find a night to go see The Help at the local theater (I’d read the book, but I cringe to think how long the reserve list is at my library!).

The first comment I ever got on this blog–left by a good friend of mine, actually–said that the language used in the exerpt from Reborn City made the story sound authentic. I was flattered by this, but it also reminded me of something from years ago:

When I went to a Jewish summer camp in the mountains of New York, it was a hobby among the boys in the older years to swear. I could understand a little swearing here and there, boys will be boys, and even I swear occasionally (I’m from the Midwest, so what do you expect?). However, these boys were using words like a derogative term for gays and the N-word. They were actually calling each other these terms, as if they were nicknames! And these were all white (and at least at the time I assumed) straight young Jewish males. Of course, I, who had been bullied in the past and was sensitive to prejudice, wanted my friends to stop, and several times asked them and the adults to make the swearing stop. No matter what happened though, they said these awful terms, ignoring the fact that if a black man or a gay-rights group heard them using these terms, they’d be in a lot of trouble.

However in Reborn City, I use plenty of bad words, and even a few racial ones in one chapter. These boys would call me a hypocrite if they read my novel. So what do I say in my defense? I use the same argument that they use for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: those words were used not in a mean way, but in an artistic way, to reflect the culture of a certain place and age. So too, do I use swear words and even racist terms to reflect the culture of Reborn City (though the latter I only use once; I had to read a passage from Huck Finn out loud once and choked on the N-word. Imagine what it was like having to write it).

And to all those people who use those words recreationally, not to be mean but to be funny or cool, I suggest you stop: you’re only hurting yourself and all progress to eliminate racism and prejudice.

Tell me what you guys think about this.