In an interview, Shani Mootoo describes how writing can serve as an escape from trauma by \u201cre-ordering\u201d lived experiences (110). This \u201cre-ordering\u201d of experiences in fictional worlds grants her \u201cpermission\u201d to simply exist in the world, away from the pressures and material results (like abuse) of marginalization and oppression (110).<\/p>\n
We have discussed in class how perspective and location impact how we view the world, and I think this relates to how Mootoo uses lived experience to inform her stories. While these stories are fiction, they embody some truth because they are a re-telling of reality from a particular perspective or location. In a sense, this \u201cfiction\u201d could technically be another version of reality, just through a different lens.<\/p>\n
I see this represented in the show Our Flag Means Death, which fictionalizes the historical figures Stede Bonnet (The Gentleman Pirate) and Edward Teach (Blackbeard)\u2013two pirates from the early 1700s. The show places their story in a world where their queerness is not \u201cothered,\u201d granting them \u201cpermission,\u201d as Mootoo puts it, to simply exist as they navegate the world as queer men (110). The show\u2019s writers, then, \u201cre-order\u201d the world in order to explore the relationship that forms between Stede and Ed without homophobia (internal or external) as the conflict. Moreover, not only is the show itself a \u201cre-ordering\u201d of events, but Ed also engages in what Mootoo describes about writing and storytelling as a means of coping with trauma. <\/p>\n
In episode 6, Ed tells the crew the story about the time he saw the Kraken, a mythical sea monster, kill his father. But later, he admits to Stede that it was not in fact the Kraken, but he who had killed his father after witnessing him commit an act of domestic abuse against his mother. In a sense, although he added some mythical elements to his story, he \u201cre-ordered\u201d what happened in order to disassociate from the trauma of having killed someone, let alone his father, and of having been witness to domestic violence at a young age. I think this moment also connects to Mala\u2019s story in Cereus Blooms at Night in how she kills her father in a moment of fear and in response to sexual violence, but then separates this memory from her childhood self Pohpoh, establishing a new story within her own life to protect herself from the trauma she has suffered. <\/p>\n
In revealing to Stede what happened in his past, Ed also admits that despite the legacy of violence and aggression that surrounds Blackbeard\u2014the performance Ed puts on to emulate the image of a ruthless pirate\u2014he has never actually killed anyone else. Instead, his performance as Blackbeard shields him from the trauma of his childhood, and protects him from potentially traumatic experiences as a pirate in the present. Mala, too, attempts to shield herself from her trauma in how she separates her experiences from Pohpoh\u2019s, \u201cre-ordering\u201d what happened to protect her younger self in her memories. I thought it was interesting that Ed’s and Mala’s storytelling \u201cdoes not attempt to pulverize \u2018bad,\u201d\u2019 as neither of them eliminate the traumatic experiences completely (Mootoo 110). Instead, they \u201cre-order\u201d their experiences in ways that allow them \u201cpermission\u201d to exist, and to live even just a little less burdened by that trauma (Mootoo 110). Their respective versions of events are no less real than the events that occurred in their pasts. Rather, they use that past to inform how they navigate the present in order to keep themselves safe. <\/p>\n
I am including the link to the scene where Ed reveals this to Stede, but content warning for domestic abuse and violence. The show is technically a rom com, but this moment is a bit heavy: https:\/\/youtu.be\/hYVB-z3KnLA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an interview, Shani Mootoo describes how writing can serve as an escape from trauma by \u201cre-ordering\u201d lived experiences (110). This \u201cre-ordering\u201d of experiences in fictional worlds grants her \u201cpermission\u201d to simply exist in the world, away from the pressures and material results (like abuse) of marginalization and oppression (110). We have discussed in class … Continue reading Trauma and Storytelling: A “Re-Ordering” of Reality<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4990,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2022-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4990"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}