Local Writing

 

Book Ends in Kailua

What makes writing "local"?  Most often the descriptor refers to the geographic location of the individual writer.   For instance, if one moves to Oʻahu, one becomes a local Oʻahu author.  But the same title is bestowed upon someone who grew up here.

The subject of "local" is particularly interesting in Hawaiʻi.  

The term "local" is both a common English description, but also a cultural code word.  Being a "local," or talking about "local culture," here in Hawaiʻi, includes a lot more than geographic location.  It refers to a host of characteristics.  On Oʻahu, I have heard many ways to describe being "local," and yet universal agreement that it means something distinct and unique.

So there are at least two kinds of local writing, geographic and cultural.

In Hawaiian culture, the two are inseparable.  In Platonic culture (like my Western background), the two are separate. 

For writers, the important lesson here is to be aware of the space one occupies. 

Even when one writes a seemingly objective work, that purports to be universal, you are still writing from a particular place and culture.  Whether there is such a thing as "objectivity" is itself a matter of debate.

Even when one writes a seemingly subjective work, that purports to be purely local, you are still opening a door to the universal.  Whether there is such a thing as "subjectivity" is itself a matter of debate.

This blog was intentionally created out of a sense of place.  "Mauka Rain" refers to the most common place I do my writing, on the side of a mountain where it rains almost every night.   I do write in other places around Oʻahu, and a think about my writing everywhere I go.  But my primary writing space is unique.  I know the land, the rain, the air, and all of Creation, are shaping my thoughts as I write this blog and other writings.  I know our neighbors impact my writing, even though they may never know it.  I know the history of the land, being near a Heiau, and the various histories of the people in my neighborhood are influencing my writing.  I know my that past, my family, and my culture(s), are influencing my writing in this land and place.

Learning what "local writing" means has been a journey for me.  One of my favorite authors, Ursula K Le Guin, was always a disconnected hero for me, for much of my life.  I admired her from afar.  From childhood on, I have thoroughly enjoyed her books and poetry, beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968). 

 

It wasn't until midlife that I began to read some of her lesser-known work, featuring the Native American cultures of the Pacific Northwest.  I read her writing about writing, where she described in detail how her life had been transformed by interactions with these cultures, and with her native Portland, Oregon community.

As I read and listened to her on YouTube, I realized that Le Guin understood even her greatest masterpieces to be "local writing."  She understood that the environment in which she engaged was influencing every part of her work.

The late Ursula K Le Guin on her porch in Portland