{"id":811,"date":"2021-03-11T11:27:21","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T10:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/11\/i-learned-about-storytelling-from-final-fantasy-novelist-raven-leilani-on-luster-and-video-games\/"},"modified":"2021-03-11T11:27:21","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T10:27:21","slug":"i-learned-about-storytelling-from-final-fantasy-novelist-raven-leilani-on-luster-and-video-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/11\/i-learned-about-storytelling-from-final-fantasy-novelist-raven-leilani-on-luster-and-video-games\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I learned about storytelling from Final Fantasy’: novelist Raven Leilani on Luster and video games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drawing on her own cathartic relationship with role-playing games, Leilani uses gaming as a narrative device and an inspiration in her acclaimed debut<\/p>\n

There is an extraordinary and telling moment in Raven Leilani\u2019s acclaimed novel Luster<\/a>, about a young black woman who has an affair with a middle-aged white man and ends up living with his family. The woman, Edie, is heading back to her lover\u2019s house with his adopted black daughter, Akila, when the pair are stopped and questioned by two police officers. Although Edie is compliant, Akila \u2013 younger and much less worldly \u2013 challenges the cops and gets thrust to the ground and restrained. The confrontation is rife with fear and tension, and when it\u2019s over (diffused when Akila\u2019s white mother intervenes), the first thing Edie and Akila do is go inside, sit down and play a video game.<\/p>\n

Much of the fervid discussion around Luster has focused on Leilani\u2019s astute and witty analysis of sexual politics and racial power structures in the 21st-century US. But a key part of her acutely realised portrayal of a millennial protagonist coping with crappy jobs and crappier love affairs is Edie\u2019s natural relationship with digital culture and technology. At a time in which video game references are still mostly consigned to YA and sci-fi books, Leilani has made them a central component of a literary novel.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nDrawing on her own cathartic relationship with role-playing games, Leilani uses gaming as a narrative device and an inspiration in her acclaimed debut
\nThere is an extraordinary and telling moment in Raven Leilani\u2019s acclaimed novel Luster, about a young black woman who has an affair with a middle-aged white man and ends up living with his family. The woman, Edie, is heading back to her lover\u2019s house with his adopted black daughter, Akila, when the pair are stopped and questioned by two police officers. Although Edie is compliant, Akila \u2013 younger and much less worldly \u2013 challenges the cops and gets thrust to the ground and restrained. The confrontation is rife with fear and tension, and when it\u2019s over (diffused when Akila\u2019s white mother intervenes), the first thing Edie and Akila do is go inside, sit down and play a video game.
\nMuch of the fervid discussion around Luster has focused on Leilani\u2019s astute and witty analysis of sexual politics and racial power structures in the 21st-century US. But a key part of her acutely realised portrayal of a millennial protagonist coping with crappy jobs and crappier love affairs is Edie\u2019s natural relationship with digital culture and technology. At a time in which video game references are still mostly consigned to YA and sci-fi books, Leilani has made them a central component of a literary novel. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drawing on her own cathartic relationship with role-playing games, Leilani uses gaming as a narrative device and an inspiration in her acclaimed debut There is an extraordinary and telling moment in Raven Leilani\u2019s acclaimed novel Luster, about a young black woman who has an affair with a middle-aged white man and ends up living with …<\/p>\n

‘I learned about storytelling from Final Fantasy’: novelist Raven Leilani on Luster and video games<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}