I'll start with this: I think Francesca Lia Block likes Indians.
I'm just not sure what she knows about us. I kinda think she doesn't know a Native person.
By that, I mean one who is on-the-ground Native, as in living on the reservation, or hanging with the Native community in whatever city or suburb they're in, or, if they're in a part of the country where there is not a Native community, then, one who goes home to that community and/or talks to people from there a lot.
That on-the-ground identity is in stark contrast to the person who has a family story where a great great ancestor was Native. This group tends to romanticize who Native people are, and it comes out in dreadful ways. Case in point: mystical Indians. With powers.
Let's talk about Francesca Lia Block's Teen Spirit. I'll start with the synopsis (pasted here from Amazon):
Francesca Lia Block, critically acclaimed author of Weetzie Bat, brings this eerie and redemptive ghost story to life with her signature, poetic prose. It's perfect for fans of supernatural stories with a touch of romance like the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.
After Julie's grandmother passes away, she is forced to move across town to the not-so-fancy end of Beverly Hills and start over at a new school. The only silver lining to the perpetual dark cloud that seems to be following her? Clark—a die-hard fan ofBuffy and all things Joss Whedon, who is just as awkward and damaged as she is. Her kindred spirit.
When the two try to contact Julie's grandmother with a Ouija board, they make contact with a different spirit altogether. The real kind. And this ghost will do whatever it takes to come back to the world of the living.
Francesca Lia Block's latest young adult novel is a haunting work about family, loss, love, and redemption.
Block has tons of fans. You can go to Goodreads and read all the things people like about her book. I'm giving you my view on what she does with Native content.
In the first chapter, Julie is with her grandma. First clue that you gotta pay attention to is that her grandma is wearing "Native American turquoise" (p. 13). That's fine. I hope it was the real thing, though, made by a Native person.
Hitting the pause button: did you know it is against the law to sell something as though it is Native if it isn't? Go read the text of the I
ndian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990. My best guess, given what Block did in the Weetzie Bat books and in
Teen Spirit, is that she doesn't know about that law because she doesn't know much about us at all. Somehow, I think that she has some image in her head, some super cool image of who she thinks we are, and that is what shapes what she does when she writes us into her books.
Back to
Teen Spirit.Julie is living with her grandma and her mom. But, alas, Julie's grandma dies suddenly. Right there in front of her. As she is dying, she tells Julie she has something to tell her but doesn't get it out. Looking at her lifeless body, Julie sees "a pale lavender radiance" (p. 14) hovering over her body and she hears some "baroque and strange, otherworldly" music playing, too. She doesn't tell her mom about it. With grandma dead, there's other things to worry about.
As that chapter closes, we learn about Julie's dad. She never met him. Julie was an in vitro baby. All her mom told her about him is (p. 18):
"that he was over six feet tall, full-blooded Cherokee, and had a master's degree in psychology."
And that he was a sperm donor.
Let's hit that pause button again. That bit of info raised all kinds of questions for me that I kinda doubt even occurred to Block. I went to a donor site online to see what I might learn. I wondered, for example, how they know a person is "full blooded Cherokee" or "Blackfoot." On one site, a chat window popped up immediately. I asked my "how do you know" question and they answer was that it is self-reported. I asked about tribal ID and learned they don't ask for it. Those questions matter, in light of another law (that I'm guessing Block doesn't know about): the
Indian Child Welfare Act. It was passed in 1978, to keep Native children within Native communities. I could do some research to see if there have been any cases in which a sperm donor sought information about his child and how that would play out in a courtroom. But, I'll set that aside and get back to
Teen Spirit. Why did Block go with a "full blooded Cherokee" sperm donor? Asking that question makes me think that maybe she knows that claiming a great great Cherokee grandma wouldn't cut it. If she has Julie's dad be Cherokee, for real, does that mean we're to believe that Julie's ability to see those lights around her grandma are legitimized by the sperm donor? Scary thought! Scary because it isn't any better. It is STILL mystical Indian stuff that does not work.
In the next chapters, Julie and her mom move across town, she gets a job in a dress shop that sells vintage clothes, and she meets a guy named Clark (his aura is green) at her new school. She also finds a Ouija board in the dresser drawer in her new room. She is intrigued by it, wondering if she can use it to talk with her grandma. Clark is freaked by it. Later, she meets another guy. His name is Grant (his aura is red), and though he tells her he is Clark's twin, we're going to learn that Grant IS Clark's twin, but that he died a year ago and that his spirit has entered Clark and takes over Clark's body from time to time.
So. Julie finds a card that a lady at an occult store had given her, to a place in Chinatown called Black Jade. Julie and Clark go there and learn from the lady there that Julie is "an intuitive" and that she probably got that gift from her dad. She gives them some treatments and tells them to see Tatiana Gonzales to get rose petals they need for a tea she wants them to use.
They call Tatiana Gonzales and then go to her house. There, they see milagros embedded in the outer adobe walls of her house. Tatiana greets them (her aura is indigo). She has powers, too (of course). She's petite, black curls "adorned with fresh gardenias and cascading to her minuscule waist" (p. 151). She tells Julia that her ability to see auras can be developed with practice.
Back at her house, Julia picks up a book with a poem by Emily Dickinson. She'd been reading aloud from it to her grandmother when she died. A piece of paper falls out of it. It is an advertisement for a store called Ed Rainwater Designs. It sells figures carved of bone, dream catchers, jewelry, and sage. Since sage is one of the things that they need, Julie and Clark go to that store (p. 166):
When we walk in we see an extravagantly tall man in sunglasses, sitting on a stool behind a counter. At his side was a three-legged dog that resembled a coyote. Both of them shone with almost blinding white light in spit of the dimness of the room.
They tell him they need sage for a ritual. He asks them (p. 167):
"Looking for some kicks? Some native enlightenment?"
Julie replies:
"No, sir," I said. "With all respect, we take this seriously. And even though I don't know anything about it, I'm half Cherokee."
Ed looks them over and then takes them out back. He gives them some special sage he grows and tells her to burn it, and that she'll know when the time to do that is right. Like the others, he tells her to develop her skills. Clark asks if he means the ability to see the auras, and Ed replies:
"More than that. Your friend has a gift that can magnetize certain spirits."
Enter another character! Amrita (her aura is metallic gold). She has very long black hair, wears a bunch of gold bracelets, and looks (p. 70):
"like a Hindu goddess statue. I wouldn't have have been surprised if she was hiding a few extra arms behind her back."
A Hindu goddess. Are you groaning? Or shaking your head? Or your fist, perhaps?! Ed and Amrita invite Julie and Clark to stay for dinner. Amrita teaches Julie how to meditate and then it is time for a sweat.
Pause button! I gotta get up and walk around a bit. Shake off some of this nonsense.
.....
Back.
Inside, Ed pours water on rocks that are on top of coals. They sweat. Ed prays. They come out feeling great (sigh).
Things eventually get resolved for both, Julie and Clark. And of course, they figure out that Ed is her father. She thinks she'll go visit him sometime. For now, she's gonna explore her relationship with Clark.
THE END
I hope that is the end. I hope Block isn't going to go from this to a book where Julie's "powers" are more developed. My overall sense is that Block is really taken with "other." She likes not-white peoples. She's put them in this book and in
Weetzie Bat, too. People obviously love her writing. I wish she'd stay away from this kind of writing, though.
In a twitter exchange earlier this month,
she apologized for the problems I described in
Weetzie Bat. I thought it was a sincere apology, but she didn't say a word about
Teen Spirit. I wish she would. Without addressing it, her apology rings very hollow. Very hollow, indeed.
On November 11, 2014, the We Need Diverse Books campaign hosted a twitter chat about LGBTQ literature. During that chat, Emily Campbell (@Ms_Librarian) tweeted that Francesca Lia Block's book, Baby Bebop, was important to her. She included Block in the tweet. I replied, saying "The Native content in her bks is stereotyping 101." Here's a screencap:
Campbell asked for more information, and I sent her a
link to my analysis of Weetzie Bat. The next day, November 12, Block replied to me and Campbell, saying "No offense meant. My apologies. All respect for all." Here's that screencap:
I thanked her, saying "Most ppl mean well but lack awareness, esp of Native ppl & how culture is used/misused." Here's the screencap of that; I don't know why its font is larger than the others:
She replied again, saying "I would like to learn and grow, until I am no longer alive." And I thanked her again, saying "Your voice as ally pushing back on broad/deep misrepresentations of Native ppl is important." Here's the screencap of that exchange:
I don't know what, if anything, Francesca Lia Block has said or done about this since then. Most authors who respond to my critiques of their work are defensive. Her response was different, and I appreciate that, but I wonder if she's said anything more about my critique, elsewhere, to friends, perhaps?
Block's apology came up this morning in a tweet exchange I had with a colleague about Daniel Handler, the author of Lemony Snicket books who
made several racist remarks last night (November 19) at the National Book Awards. He called them "ill conceived humor" in an apology he tweeted today (November 20). His remarks weren't "ill conceived." They were racist.
Block and Handler are key figures in children's and young adult literature. They are authors of best selling books. They could change a lot of hearts and minds if they'd say more than either has said so far.
For
Francesca Lia Block, the highly acclaimed YA author who the L.A. Times
describes as “a Los Angeles writer with a unique voice that blends lush
imagery, hip fairy tales and punk poetic lyricism,” the writing process
is almost like meditation and very healing. “When
I’m writing,” says Block, who is known for her Weetzie Bat books, and
who has received the Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime
Francesca Lia Block, the author of the beloved Weetzie Bat series, has mounted an online campaign to avoid losing her family’s home.
The Save Francesca’s Faerie Cottage website explained her mortgage problems: “Francesca has good credit and an up-to-date mortgage for an over-encumbered property (which has declined in value due to current market conditions and the recession). In other words her house is, as they say, ‘underwater.’ In order to avoid foreclosure, she has been trying for an entire year to get the bank to modify the existing (and incredibly unfair) interest-only loan on the property, since it has declined so much in value.”
Block is urging her readers to write Bank of America about her situation. The single mother and novelist bought the home with her mother in 2007. She has kept up with the mortgage since her mother passed away, but has struggled with the terms of the current loan.
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Publisher: HarperTeen (September 28, 2010)
Hardcover: 272 Pages
Book from Publisher
Love is a werewolf, influenced by the moon and terror, and always about to change. Liv has a secret. Something happened to her when she was thirteen. Something that changed everything. Liv knows she doesn't belong anymore-not in her own skin, not in her family . . . not anywhere. The only time she truly feels like herself is when she's with her boyfriend, Corey, and in the woods that surround her town.
But in the woods, a mysterious woman watches Liv. In the woods, a pack of wild boys lurks. In the woods, Liv learns about the curse that will haunt her forever. The curse that caused the frenzy four years ago. And that may cause it again, all too soon.While Corey and Liv's love binds them together, Liv's dark secret threatens to tear them apart as she struggles to understand who-or what-she really is. And by the light of the full moon, the most dangerous secrets bare their claws. . . . (Source)
Review
THE FRENZY, by Francesca Lia Block, is an interesting new perspective on werewolves. Liv spent her time after "the incident" at thirteen avoiding the posibility that it might happen again, or why. It was a fun ride to figure out what she was and what caused this change within her.
It is like a breath of fresh air when I come across a paranormal book that truly seperates itself from the rest. I love werewolf books, but after reading so many they all seem to blend together. Block really stepped out of the "norm" for this genre and created something haunting, suspenseful, and pretty amazing. When most other books in this category experience how the person changes and then adapts, this one showcased the fight against the change. Liv had to live with being so different, internally and externally, all she wanted was to be herself. She had to hide the relationship with the love of her life, and hold the secret of her best friends identity along with her own.
The relationships among the characters were very complex and created an emotional turmoil in me. I absolutely hated Liv's mother, felt pity for her father, and loved Corey and Pace. I hated that Pace and Liv had to pretend to be with each other because it was socially accepted in their community. Neither could be with who they truely wanted to. Block's writing really tugged at my heart-strings.
One thing I would have liked to see more of was the family of wolves in the forest. I had a hard time deciding what part of Liv to side with. I understand her motivation to want to be normal, but I am always attracted to the 'paranormal' in these books. I wish I could have gotten to see more of Liv with the other wolves and what could have become of that.
The best way I think to describe this story is that it is gritty and rough around the edges. This community that Liv lives in is not an accepting place for anyone outside the norm and how a young girl struggles through it is the focus of this story. For anyone who is a fan of the paranormal and YA, I do recommend this book.
For more info, check out Francesca Lia Block's
website
Saw this at the bookstore last night and I do not like this cover change one bit.
It loses the magic and vibrancy that make the books so special. Instead, the cover is uninteresting and bland and doesn’t even hint at the colorful imagery that’s so vital to Block’s prose. I mean, lines like, “A kiss about apple pie à la mode with the vanilla creaminess melting in the pie heat. A kiss about chocolate, when you haven’t eaten chocolate in a year. A kiss about palm trees speeding by, trailing pink clouds when you drive down the Strip sizzling with champagne. A kiss about spotlights fanning the sky and the swollen sea spilling like tears over your legs.” (p. 29) Or, “She was crying and blowing her nose with pink Kleenex, and there were wadded up Kleenex roses all over the floor.” (p. 35) Not to mention, it doesn’t reflect some of the main characters…
I didn’t love the previous covers, but they’re much better than this one.
Filed under:
Rants,
Things That Make Trisha Go, "Hmm" 
Looking Back on CWIM: The 2000 Edition
An Interview with S.E. Hinton...
This edition of CWIM saw the addition of Agents & Art Reps and section devoted to SCBWI Conferences. Among the publishing professionals interviewed: Caldecott Winner Jacqueline Briggs Martin; Allyn Johnston, then editor at Harcourt (who now has her own S&S imprint, Beach Lane Books); YA novelist Francesca Lia Block; SCBWI Executive Director Lin Oliver; Writers House agent Steven Malk; and more than half a dozen others including a feature with the iconic author of The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton who at the time was coming out with her first picture book.
Here's an excerpt from the Q&A by Anne Bowling:
You were 15 when you started writing The Outsiders, and wrote 4 full drafts for the next year and a half before you had the manuscript. Did you have a mentor at that time, or was someone guiding your revisions?
No. I love to write. Actually, The Outsiders was the third book I had written, it was just the first one I had tried to publish. The first two ended up in drawers somewhere--I used characters from them later in other books, but I certainly didn't go back and rework them. Everybody's got to practice.
When I was writing The Outsiders I would go to school and say "Well, I'm writing a book, and this has happened so far, and what should happen next?," 'cause I'd get stuck. Someone would say, "Oh, make the church burn down." And I'd say, "That sounds good, I'll make the church burn down." I was just doing it because I liked doing it.
Because there was very little being published at that time for young adults that included such violent content and emotional depth, were you concerned at all that the book was really pushing the envelope?
No, I wasn't. One reason I wrote it was I wanted to read it. I couldn't find anything that dealt realistically with teenage life. I've always been a good reader, but I wasn't ready for adult books, they didn't interest me, and I was through with all the horse books. If you wanted to read about your peer group, there was nothing to read except Mary Jane Goes to the Prom or
Block, Francesca Lia. The Waters & the Wild. HarperTeen, 2009.Most teenagers feel like misfits at least occasionally. Whether you’re a neat freak in a household full of slobs or a dark and brooding person in a household of sunny souls, every one of you once and current teens has had a moment – or several years – of being certain that you don’t belong in your family.
Which brings us to the irresistible allure of changeling fiction. What better explanation could there be for this glorious fey person living with a family of lumpen sods? And of course there are usually gifts and talents associated with being a changeling, anything from otherworldly beauty to heightened senses to magical powers. True, there is usually a downside – if the humans around you aren’t trying to kill you, then your human counterpart in the land of faerie is trying to get his or her life back.
And of course no one completely understands you.
And thus it is with 13-year-old Bee, who lives with her perfectly nice mom and stepdad in a nifty little beach bungalow in Venice, CA (my own town!). And yet – she is troubled. She has odd dreams and visions, is stick-straight (but eerily beautiful), is attracted to plants and dirt but can’t eat meat and doesn’t want to eat much else. Friends? Ha!
Luckily, Bee does find a couple other oddballs at her middle school – she even does teen-type things like crash the party of the local meangirl and hang out all night with her friends at the park – but this only makes more clear to Bee where she really belongs, which is in the fairy world. And the human Bee wants her own life back and is determined to have it. Because their desires are in accord, things turn out just fine – and though Bee’s two new friends lose her, they gain each other.
At 113 pages, this is a slim and mystical novel. The short scenes and occasional fairy poetry make for a fast, although occasionally confusing, read. The narration is sometimes distant, sometimes swollen with intensity – much like a 13-year-old, come to think of it. Although much of this story would appeal to 10 and 11-year-olds, be warned that condoms and sex are mentioned (nothing graphic – after Bee says to her mom, “No, I’m all right. I think I’m just over-stimulated or something,” her mom says, “Do you want to explain that one to me? Do we need to take you to buy some condoms?” And Bee comments that she knows some of her friends have had sex.) Bee's blossoming friendship with two strange and unique kids is understandable, special, and wonderfully described.
Due to its brevity and starkness, this fantasy isn’t completely satisfying; I wanted to know more. However, Francesca Lia Block is not only an expert at mystical teen alienation, but also is a writer of lovely prose. Recommended for fey kids in grades 6 – 8.
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Calvin Klein shocks again (with a recent billboard ad featuring teens engaging in a group makeout session. Plus, a surprisingly edgy viral ad from Tampax) (AP) (Ad Age, reg. required)
- Unithrive (an online network for Harvard alumni to sponsor... Read the rest of this post
Posted on 10/17/2006
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Thank you for this!
Love Francesca! Thank you for this interview :)
Thanks, Matsya Siosal and Cassandra, for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed the interview with Francesca.