One of my all-time favorite TED Talks is 2008 McArthur Fellow and writer Chimamanda Ngoze Adichie's " The Danger of a Single Story ." In her Talk, she makes a case for the importance of publishing varied and numerous stories, particularly about those who historically have been marginalized. As she brilliantly articulates, the lack of variety and availability of some groups' stories has resulted in "single stories"--stereotypes--about them: "[ S]how a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become." Her concept of "single stories" explains why I have sometimes been...reserved in reading "ethnic" or "urban" literature. A girl gets tired of reading the same type of victimization-type of stories, you know? I find many "ethnic" or "urban" stories to be very limiting and repetitive in setting, plot, and genre. They seem to always be based on reality or...
One year, 52 reviews (more or less): My Cannonball Read Blog