[Schroeder]

Woohoo, children's lit paper
EDCI 311
November 12 2004

Aesthetics and Aliens: Laurence Yep’s Influence on Children’s Literature

Laurence Yep is one of the most renowned children’s science fiction authors in the world. His stories have delighted and entertained children since his first book, Sweetwater, debuted in 1973. Laurence Yep creates an identity for himself and for his readers through his writing. This paper will cover some of the works and style of Laurence Yep, as well as talk about major children’s literature issues. These issues include the role of creativity in children’s literature, what a children’s author should have the freedom to write, and whether children’s authors are obliged to touch on the positive and negative aspects of humanity.
Laurence Yep was born in San Francisco on June 14, 1948 (“Laurence” 1). Yep had a very diverse childhood. Raised in an African American neighborhood, Yep attended a bilingual school in Chinatown, a division of San Francisco (“Laurence” 6). Yep learned elements of both Chinese and American culture, and his family “juggled elements of both” (“Laurence” 6). Yep had a difficult time finding his place in the world. He didn’t speak Chinese, which made him feel like an outcast in Chinatown, and all his other friends could only see him for his skin color (“Laurence” 6). “I was the all-purpose Asian. When [my friends and I] played war, I was the Japanese who got killed; then, when the Korean war came along, I was a North Korean Communist” (“Laurence” 6). In high school, Yep discovered science fiction, and was a published author by eighteen (“Laurence” 6). Writing finally provided an opportunity for Yep to discover a cultural identity of his own. As Yep himself even once said: “In a sense I have no culture to call my own since I exist peripherally in several. However, in my writing I can create my own” (“Laurence” 6). Yep went on to earn a bachelor’s at Marquette and the University of California before earning his PhD at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975 (“Laurence” 6). He wrote his first book, Sweetwater, while at SUNY Buffalo in 1973 (“Laurence” 7). Since then, he has written more than 45 books for children, 3 books for adults, several plays, and has been included in many compilations and anthologies (“Laurence” 2-5).
One major point of importance in multicultural writing is the preservation of authenticity. Authenticity is a major concern in everything from cultural representation to the continuation of orality. Authenticity is the idea of a genuineness of what an author is writing. Every culture has its trials and tribulations that can only rightly be talked or written about by those who experienced those struggles, the members of that culture. Anglo-Americans can’t authentically write about the struggles of the African American equal rights movement. In the same way, a Catholic should not write about the discrimination he felt from being Jewish. Authors should write what they know. Laurence Yep knew the plight of the Chinese-American trying to adjust to his new home, and that is what he writes about. He knows what it is like to be the outsider, desperately trying to find his way in. “Probably the reason why much of my writing has found its way to a teenage audience is that I'm always pursuing the theme of being an outsider — an alien — and many teenagers feel they're aliens. All of my books have dealt with the outsider” (Authors). While Yep’s books usually deal with being a cultural outsider, they provide help for every person, because we all feel like outsiders sometimes. In a world where everyone’s so concerned with why everyone else is different, Yep is more inclined to point out how deep down, everyone is the same. We all have our own problems. We all have our own goals and dreams. Who we are goes beyond the color of our skin and where we are from. While that may all sound like a 1980’s after school special, it’s the truth.
Yep also seeks to bring to life those Chinese immigrants who came to America in the 20th century.
“Of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who flocked to these shores we know next to nothing. They remain a dull, faceless mass: statistical fodder to be fed to the sociologists, or lifeless abstractions to be manipulated by historians. And yet these Chinese were human beings—with fears and hopes, joys and sorrows like the rest of us (Dragonwings 316).
He wants others to realize the profound impact they had on this country, and to break down the stereotypes that White America has set forth.
“At the same time, it has been my aim to counter various stereotypes as presented in the media. Dr. Fu Manchu and his yellow hordes, Charlie Chan and his fortune-cookie wisdom, the laundrymen and cooks of the movie and television Westerns, and the houseboys of various comedies present an image of Chinese not as they really are but as they exist in the minds of White America. I wanted to show that Chinese-Americans are human beings who upon whom America has had a unique effect (Dragonwings 317).
While Yep seeks to deal with the idea of the outsider and Chinese culture, that does not mean he has just written historical non-fiction or historical-fiction about Chinese immigrants. Eventually, anyone would get sick of reading about that. No, Laurence Yep has always made sure to stay creative in his writing.
Creativity is one of the most important aspects of literature. Without creativity, all literature would be non-fiction. Every book would just be an account of what had happened, exactly as it happened. Without creativity, Laurence Yep’s only book would be his experiences growing up as a Chinese-American in San Francisco. It would be more like a biography or a set of diaries than a story. Then that would be it for Laurence Yep, as anything else would require imagination, which would mean creativity, which is nonexistent. Luckily, there is creativity, and creativity allows literature to do countless numbers of things. Laurence Yep has been able to write many different types of books. He has covered everything from Science Fiction like “Sweetwater” to historical fiction like “Dragonwings” to mysteries like his “Chinatown mystery” series. Creativity allows authors to write about the same themes and take completely different takes and ideas on them. Creativity would even allow an author to go so far as to cover the same basic themes but still write an infinite number of books by changing the plot, the setting, or any other number of factors in the story. To sum up, creativity is the most important factor in literature because without creativity, literature only exists at its most basic. Sometimes, however, authors are accused of taking too much creative license with their work, and overstepping their bounds.
So how much freedom should an author have when writing for young people? Lying at the root of this problem, it seems to me, is the idea of censorship, and any topic involving censorship is always quite controversial. Should authors be allowed to write whatever they want, even if the book they are writing is aimed at children? The answer is that authors should be allowed to write whatever they want, regardless of who it is aimed at. In a world that strives for the status quo and political correctness, one must remember that the written word is an art, just like drawing, painting, or sculpture. The moment anyone says, “I wouldn’t read that, and neither should you!” is just another step towards a fascist society. The idea of banning a book is ludicrous. If an author wants to write a children’s book about the downfall of a drug addict and in that book, also graphically describes that addict’s sexual experiences, that author has a God-given right to write that book.
What a children’s author can and cannot write for a children’s book is not mandated by the author. A children’s literary canon and the aesthetics that exist in those books are not determined by the author. Any book that is supposed to be for a child that is not very “child-like” will never be published, and even if it was, would never be accepted by the literary community. However, to say that an author should not have the freedom to write what they want is the purest form of censorship and censorship is wrong. Should Laurence Yep not have been able to write his books because they dealt with discrimination and that made a child feel bad? Should Robert Cormier not be allowed to write because he fights the system and rights endings to his books that are realistic, even if they are depressing? The answer to both of these questions is a stern no, but people fight to have them banned all the same. A quote from S. G. Tallentyre (a friend of Voltaire) holds just as true today as when it was written so long ago: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” (Quoteland).
The final issue is the idea of whether authors are responsible for presenting both the positive and negative aspects of humanity in there stories. While I will defend the author’s right to write about whatever they want, I do believe it creates in children an unhealthy and overly simplistic view of the world when they are fed nothing but “happily-ever-after” stories. Any life, including a child’s, does not always go like a Disney movie. You’re not always going to make the game-winning shot, get the girl, or miraculously snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. However, some people are convinced this is the only way children’s literature should be. As Donald Gallo reported of a high school social studies teacher’s comment: “The endings of The Chocolate War and I am the Cheese have depressed me to such an extent of that I will not read another book by [Robert Cormier…] unless I read the ending first so that I will know if it’s safe emotionally” (Murrill 357). Now, in my opinion, you are more “safe emotionally” if you mix in some depressing aspects in your reading from time to time. Certainly reading only depressing literature is not good for the human psyche, but reading only happy literature is just as bad. There is certainly danger in getting knocked down by depressing literature too much, but getting built up to such a high point by only happy literature and then having that all crash down is much worse. How does the child react when something doesn’t go there way? Well, I would argue that an overly happy child has no idea how to deal with it. He kind of just freaks out: This is not supposed to happen. This is not how I wanted things to go. The child who read some of those negative books and as Karina Worlton would say “would tend to have a negative attitude” (Murrill 357), can deal with this situation, and knows there is hope for the future. Positive and negative aspects of humanity are presented in every other facet of a child’s life. Why does literature have to be only upbeat and happy? In history, wars, famines, and the Holocaust are not avoided just because they are depressing. No, people would say that is unrealistic, but then you get to literature and any book with a negative ending is public enemy number one. It’s a double-standard that needs to be fixed.
Laurence Yep never had a culture of his own as a child except for the ones he created for himself in his writing. Yep kept his stories creative while still teaching themes of acceptance and the elimination of the outsider. Yep is not afraid to include what he wants in his books, even if some don’t agree with what he says. Finally, Laurence Yep is able to create stories that let the reader deal with both the positives and negatives of this world, and thus provide the reader with a more realistic outlook on the world. Laurence Yep is an irreplaceable piece of the children’s literary canon.