Reading Eleanor and Park in 2020 So You Don't Have To | Rainbow Rowell
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ค. 2020
- Hi guys! Just here talking about how problematic Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell is. I just wish I knew what Rainbow was aiming for when she wrote this...
I didn't even begin to touch on the anti-Blackness of this work but it's very much there. Lots of other problematic details that I couldn't fit in or didn't want to say. And then there's a whole paragraph about how honors students are nicer than kids who aren't in honors classes???) It's just a mess of a book, sort of like this is a mess of a description box so I'll stop here :)
*okay LOL what rock was I under, the movie was announced May 2019?!! But it seems like it's being talked about again because last week Rainbow tweeted that they have a director set and they're starting to cast it this month!
Please check out these posts about E&P:
My favorite rant review from back in the day is gone and i'm sad lol
Excellent TH-cam video by Nish B - bit.ly/2Ek42B9
Twitter thread by Naomi Giddings - bit.ly/38Y0mjW
Article by Chantal Cheung - bit.ly/30fp3V5
Article by Lynn D Jung - bit.ly/2CHDVTM
Blog post by Wendy Xu - bit.ly/308m5S0
Blog post by Parkourdeer - bit.ly/3ekWzhv
Twitter thread by Alexa - bit.ly/3gW3oYO
Twitter thread by Clary Ahn - bit.ly/32m4PLW
Twitter thread by Jenny - bit.ly/3exb4iw
Reddit thread by ayanna - bit.ly/2Ow9KBK
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@Read With Sarah 's review - bit.ly/2Wc5XOr
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A wonderful breakdown of how Rowell’s portrayal of Park is hurtful in so many ways: th-cam.com/video/UvO4RQjef78/w-d-xo.html by
Seeing a few of the same comments so I wanted to add more info here:
1. If you're thinking "the racism was the characters POV not Rainbow's, it was just how people thought back then." I ask you to consider the treatment of the Black characters in this book. It has nothing to do with any characters point of view, only RR's. The Black girls, who are meant to be Eleanor's only friends, are rarely mentioned and when they are it is to threaten to beat people up and act sassy. Their friendship begins because one character says "that ain't no thang." RR wrote problematic anti-Black women stereotypes and none of that was via any POV but RR's.
2. "This was written in 2012, the movie will be better" Rainbow is the only credited screenwriter and hired a Japanese director. RR badly told a story about an Asian American, has been actively blocking any Asian Americans who call her out for the problems in this book, and doesn't have a single Asian American (that she's publicized) working on the film. So when she had a HUGE opportunity to help Asian American representation, she dropped the ball again.
3. I should have focused more on Eleanor's weight. Sure, I agree with this. It almost makes it worse. RR takes the time to help Eleanor grow and realize she can be desirable, and does nothing for Park. Park tells Eleanor she's incredible and he gets all lusty after seeing her in skimpy clothes, but for Park, Eleanor just says "Maybe I'm attracted to Korean guys" after he tells her he's upset that people only see him as Korean.
** also adding: I personally *don't* think RR is racist, I think that she is ignorant. Along with that, she's never responded to 8+ years of criticism and is actively blocking people who comment asking her about it. That's not growing and learning from mistakes. That's not being an ally. That's just another layer of privilege and ignorance **
Thank you all for the great discussion in the comments!!
Pretty sure authors don't pick the directors who get to adapt their works either way great video
@@hikikomori_3708 Thanks! But she posted how excited she was to work with him ("extremely delight and over the moon" about it) so even if she didnt' hand pick, she's showing full support for the director while still ignoring the countless people who have asked her to acknowledge the hurt she's caused :/
@@hikikomori_3708 sometimes they do (even more believable if she's working on the screenplay), it all depends on the deal that was made.
On. Freaking. Point.
Dude no offence, but wtf. Selecting a Japanese director is bad because Japanese people did horrific things to Korean people? Isn't that a purely racist thing to say? "Your group did something bad and we're going to take you as a representative of your groups past action AND conclude that despite both the director and character being individuals that their MOST important attributes are their race and thus one can never understand each other because of their racial differences."
Like, if a Korean person were to direct would it be better? But this time they were female or overweight or upper class; opposite from Park in a million ways but because they share the same skin colour they're supposed to understand each other better than ANYONE else of a different ethnic or cultural background? (Same story for gender, body weight, income, etc btw.)
I can't see how I'm reading the implications of your comment incorrectly, what am I missing here?
I thought after Harry Potter people would have learned to not give asian characters two surnames as a whole name
🙃🙃🙃
agreed, the clownery
I'm Asian and personally, Cho-Chang is fine with me. It wasn't her whole character. They had mentioned that she was pretty and smart. Cho is not necessarily a last name either. It could be, but it's not. It was a bit iffy but compared to Eleanor and Park, this is nothing.
yeah，Cho Chang is a pretty normal name to me(I'm Chinese too)
It's a pretty lazy name, but some parents are lazy like that.
And it's catchy, which is good for a character. Chinese names can be hard to pronounce sometimes and difficult to remember when it's written in English.
JK just likes names that sound catchy like that.
Fleur's name is super cliche too
Lily Pond isn’t the name cho korean or something？maybe it’s cantonese but i’ve never heard it in chinese before.
And those black friends being sassy was so cliche. Saying mhmm and girl all the time.
ALX BO I know it’s so annoying
All I remember about them is that one was short and one was comically fat and both were sassy
@@silvercheetah92 and one of them was engaged i guess? So we have it. How to write a black girl side character: being sassy. Saying Eheeem and gurl 24/7 . Being fat. And short. Getting married at 17 18??? Perfect. Im not even black and im sick of this representation
Sara Gh I didn't remember the engaged part WTF this book is trying to be nasty
@@silvercheetah92 i dont remember but i just KNOW that she was like yeah we're gonna get married like at 17 18 i guess
She was so focused on giving plus size representation for eleanor (+ her whole storyline) that's she completely disregarded the research necessary to build park and other poc. Why am I not surprised that she only bothered to put in the work for the white main character (even though the book is literally named after two characters)? I read this book a couple of years ago and I remember really enjoying it, but your video made me realize stuff 15 year old me unfortunately couldn't. There are elements of the story I really like, I'll give her that, but her poor job with poc rep cannot be ignored, specially considering it's a book that deals with racism directly.
same for me, it was one of my favorite books :( not anymore
u said it all, 15yo sarah didn't understand some stuff.
Same, I don't even know why I got this book in the first place cos I don't rly like pure romance stories, but when I read it I actually kinda liked it...how oblivious I was
I don't even think she had noble intentions of plus-size representation; Rowell's description of Eleanor is honestly eerily close to how she (Rowell) looks in real life. I feel like this whole thing was written just to fulfil her fantasies of... getting crushed on by a Korean guy? For like no reason...? (He seemed to like her out of NOWHERE)
Bro you KNOW that girl from Sierra Burgess is a loser/barb from stranger things is gonna play Eleanor
Wasnt that the film where she pretended to be deaf? 🤢 she’s got the problematic female protagonist down already.
cari can read YES exactly
cari can read i’d also argue a case of sexual assault, when she kissed him and he was under the impression he was kissing the other girl, it just seriously didn’t sit right with me and i think if gender roles were reversed that would never have made the script
@@justimogen9023 yessss! that film was just all kinds of problematic, honestly
Oh damn, I dont like her.
As an Asian girl, I think self-hate with Asian boys is a real issue that needs to be discussed (I have heard my cousins say they wish they were white) but this IS NOT the way you go about exploring this issue. This is disgusting.
100%. Its not a story a white women whose “dad dated a korean woman once” should write.
Exactly. I think this is also really pronounced in mixed asian dudes too (obviously probably not all or even most mixed asian dudes feel this way), but there’s a subreddit called r/hapas supposedly for mixed white/Asian people, but the majority of the users are specifically bitter asian/white mixed teenage dudes feeling frustrated. It’s like incels with a racial flavor.
I think it is interesting to see though. Why is such a specific community fairly large? I think there are definitely societal issues that produce that mentality and maybe we should examine it.
But maybe this book wasn’t the right place.
Self-hating Asian girls are also a big problem too. They literally call white guys as a God (갓양남) here in Korea lol. They romanticize white guys too much its actually gross..while giving so much flak and racist remarks to Asian guys, esp Korean.
so are white-worshipping asian girls
Strong Boss It weirdly flows the same way with some white guys doing similar things to asian women. Like, they’re looking for their “perfect, submissive, asian waifu”
a few of my personal favorite elements of this book, as a korean american:
- park’s first name literally being park. just name him kim while ur at it
- park’s mother being the quintessential “omg i’m a sad asian lady who never discussed emotions with my family
i’d also like to add that i feel like the casting for the movie isn’t gonna be great, considering that eleanor is supposed to be overweight and park is (obv) half asian. i feel like the movie’s gonna pull an “oh nooooo, well we couldn’t FIND any plus sized actors or korean actors, we just HAD to go with these 25 year olds who are conventionally attractive by western standards!! uh oh!!!!!”
There's actually a character named Kim and when she was introduced i was like OMG NO SHE DIDNT but luckily (?) she was a white girl hahahaha
I'm so sorry you had those experiences and I hope that as time passes we keep calling stuff out so that even if the racists still exist, the people suffering from it dont feel what you felt :( we need some actually empowering representation!!!
I'm so sorry you have to go through that :( however i will say that rainbow's mom characters almost always have some type of issues like that, i think she even recognized it herself
I love the way you explained this. This book felt relatable to a lot of young people is because it’s a rare representation of the Asian community, despite it being a terrible representation but it only makes it more harmful to the community
Anime Cake
thank you :) and yeah i’ve read a few of her other books and it seems like there’s always something going on with the mom! it just left a bad taste in my mouth in this book bc combined w all the other racial stereotypes it was just not a smart move
Also, Eleanor seems to invalidate his feelings by calling him cute when he's trying to open up to her.
Ikr
Eleanor is a bitch
I totally agree with you, Park was talking about his insecurities and struggles of being Korean-American but Eleanor was acting like it didn't matter at all. But it did matter a lot, being identified as only Korean and people assuming that you know kung fu is tough. Eleanor will never understand that because she is white.
Eleanor is a 16 year old who grew up in a broken,abusive family .to me personally everything she said made sense with who she is . Thats more of my personal preference, where the main character's are faulty and not always making the best decisions or saying the right thing
@@bunniesforjenny Then isn't it realistic?
isn’t Park a last name? she really didn’t want to give him a korean name huh?
Bro yeah now that i think about it that's so confusing. Like my first name is just like a white name while my last name is my Korean first name... if the writer just searched this up on google for 10 seconds she would've found out...
Why couldn't she just do Parker or something?
I'm black, but I'm currently living in a US community that's mostly white and Asian (Indian, Chinese, Korean, and Bangladeshi primarily). I noticed that a lot of the Koreans actually go by their last name here. A friend of mine said he did it because white people couldn't pronounce his first name lol. Anywho, your comment makes a great point
@@Stopfollowingmeplz8 interesting, I've never heard of that but it makes sense. I only know they sometimes have a korean and english name like my friend Grace who's name is a direct translation from her korean name
pakit that’s actually quite strange lolll, I’m Indian I live in a predominately asian and white town, so mostly korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indian, etc., and they either had an English name to begin with, decided on an English name to go by, or just went by their asian name. I’ve actually never met anyone that used their last name as the name they go by. But not question u or anything, just don’t think that’s what’s going on here
As Chinese-Irish person who liked this book at one point, coming back to this book makes me squirm
Same as a Jewish person who liked it. "Diary of Anna Frank crazy" :(
@@chocopeach7517 Hi! Can you explain what "Diary of Anne Frank crazy" means? I'm not aware of this term or the controversies.
Momo please listen at 9:56. Eleanor compares her life, to the life of Anne Frank, a teenage girl who had to hide from Nazis and later died in a concentration camp. It’s a gross comparison 🤢
@@caricanread thank you for explaining! Loved your video ❤️
ayyyee another chinese Irish person who liked this book and now sees how icky it is!
that cole sprouse overlay when you said "weirdo" took me out ahhahaha
he is THE weirdo
In case you haven’t noticed, i’m weird. I’m a weirdo. I don’t fit in and i don’t wanna fit in. Have you ever seen me without this stupid hat on? That’s WEIRD.
@@dagbebo1299 The fact that you took the time to write the whole quote just makes it better
cari can read :’)
Senor Chang The fact that I can recite this from memory😩
you forgot the part where she went like "park held my hand, i can feel all of my nerves(??)"...."is it possible to rape a hand" downright unnecessary lmao tf
I remember reading that part and being like 🤨🤭
wtfff
i’ve never read this book but was considering buying it
did rr really write that??? shit i’m ROLLING bro what world am I on
What the actual f*ck
Very glad I never read this book because wtf
this is so so horribly shocking to me?? I read this when I was in middle school and I don’t remember taking note of any of the racist remarks in this book. it scares me that this material is something so many young adults took as a cute love story. young people are very impressionable and whether we realize it or not we carry a lot of these ideas with us into adulthood. The stuff in this book is just such a toxic thing to absorb. makes me disappointed that i didn’t even question the story. I think these conversations are so important because it helps us to face the internalized racism a lot of us harbor. Thank you for taking the time to talk about it!
Definitely! I could see younger people only focusing on the romance and not the other parts so it could easily go unnoticed. I’m glad so many people are talking about it so people can reread or at least reconsider!
stuff like this really does stick with you, whether you realise it or not. the racism in this book went consciously unnoticed for me when i read it, but manifested itself as self-hatred. i didn't realise how much it affected me until now, around 7 years after i first read the damn thing.
Samee
@@scorpinope I have heard so many things about Asian-Americans saying that reading the book made them hate being Asian. I have even seen a mixed Chinese/white person on Tumblr saying that reading the book made them think they were too proud of being Asian and then they went through self-hatred for years because of it.
I really, really enjoy Rainbow's writing style and I'm slapping myself in the face for not seeing the problems with the book. My main takeaway when I first read this when I was much younger is that it was just this depiction of this raw attraction between two teenagers despite all the insecurities they have and I thought that was refreshing. This was during a time when most YA novels described their protagonists in ambiguous terms. But I see now that none of the protagonists' issues on their identity were really resolved. (there wasn't even a proper ending omg really NOTHING at all was resolved).
As much as I love her other books, I'm really disappointed that Rainbow hasn't addressed any of these valid issues. I also think we should hold the publishing company accountable. When race is depicted in a book and such a central theme of it as well, they should really have beta readers of that race and ask about their opinion. This could have easily been revised had people pointed out pre-publishing.
This described my feelings about everything pretty well
Same! You said how I exactly feel!
^^ this summarizes a lot of my feelings
I agree
Yeah I think instead of making a film adaption of Eleanor and park they should make one for Carry on cuz it’s like ten times better
I am definitely one of the readers who read this book in 2012 when I was 13- and literally, all the problematic things went OVER MY HEAD. Now I want to do a reread in 2020 to see what I personally catch since I have recently become very interested in and doing a lot of literary analysis
I’m sure many books i am still fond of from my teen years are really problematic now! Its always good to reflect.
I'm the exact same, it was my favourite book for a while. Then when I started reading more diverse books and studying English lit etc. I started to realise how certain diverse characters were negatively portrayed by white authors, this book being one of them. so yeah, it's always good to re-read, reflect and educate yourself more :)
ok, but when are ppl going to jump into the deep end and write about FULLY Asian protagonists instead of having one foot out of the door with half-Asian characters. It’s nice to see more effort being made with Asian representation (even if it just misses the mark) but I still find it difficult to relate to these characters because there are way more Asians than half-Asians, yet representation of this is disproportionate. Maybe it’s bc having half-Asian protagonists opens more opportunities to dive into more interesting, complex internal conflict (on that same note, it just makes feel as though Asians alone aren’t interesting enough beyond the stereotypes lmao). I mean, all of my passions have nothing to do with being Chinese. I’m not good at maths or piano because I’m Chinese, I’m good at those things because I WORK HARD. Let’s stop undermining the hard work of Asians please! Also, another thing that bothers me to no end is the fact that Asians will rarely ever be “hot” and will almost always be labelled as “cute,” like with Eleanor and Park. It kinda feels like borderline fetishisation if you don’t mind me saying. I don’t fully know what I’m talking about, just ranting, so take this with a pinch of salt :/
100%!
and this is why we stan David Yoon for Frankly In Love (although i didnt like the book cause of a cheating subplit but that's for another conversation)
I'm not even Asian, but THAT'S what I loved more about Crazy Rich Asians! The world needs more non-white authors, directors, actors, etc. The world needs more GOOD stories about non-white people.
Tbh I don’t see a problem with mix races especially because there’s also not a lot of mix races in books. Especially because In real life mix races tends to feel alienated if they don’t look like the stereotypical features that are shown with their races.
I get it that you want someone who is pure of a certain race, but there should also be mix races as well. To not be so exclusive.
Fairy Mystonight there’s absolutely nothing wrong with mixed-race characters and I see your point completely! I think the problem lies when sometimes writers use specifically half-white (ofc mixed race ppl of other races not including Caucasian are a different story) characters to tick off the ‘diversity’ box but use the fact that they’re half-white as an excuse ignore the other crucial cultural part of their being. In other words, they feel as though they can have a diverse character without going into depth about those implications because it’s only ‘half’ of them. That being said, this obviously isn’t the case for every book concerning mixed-race characters!
Lol she probably just googled “popular names in korea” smh
My first job was to organize a database of names because it was a mess. I had to explain myself to my boss of how Korean names work differently from occidental names because they had put the last names as names. People don't know and is ok but what did bother me is that despite knowing it now, they kept doing it wrong
She might have well named him Kim
The fact that the end conversation between Eleanor and Park when Park's ethnicity is basically undermined just irks me soooo freaking much. (Thank you for reading and reviewing this so we don't have to omg)
I'm half-Filipino and half-white, and that part in particular got my hackles up. You can't just write off someone's ethnicity like it doesn't exist or isn't important or SHOULDN'T be important to them. This is something I fight for from both sides every single day, and I don' know, I was just very bothered by the conversation in the book.
And like, sometimes peoples' ethnicities _don't_ matter to them, but "I don't even think I know what it means to be Korean" is so awful in this context.
Right?? I’m half chinese and if someone told me it didn’t matter I would be so hurt, it’s not entirely who I am but it’s a big part of me that I enjoy embracing
As a person who's half Turkish and half Malawian I agree wholeheartedly because my dad's side of the family is just trying to make my brother and I to just accept my dad's culture because of dumb patriarchal family stuffs that think is logical. And we're like no??? My mom's malawian culture is a part of us as we are a part of Turkish culture. We ain't getting rid of it. It makes us who we are not what you say were supposed to be. I really dont like my dad's family because of this but I love my mom's side because they're more accepting since a lot of us are mixed.
@@user-fm3mw7ep1e I agree with your other points, but 1986 and being the only asian is definitely common. It depends on where you live. I'm in socal so I see a lot of asians around me (and not just east asian) but in the middle areas of the US and stuff, you see MUCH much fewer asians. My sister grew up in Texas (not Austin/Houston) and she was basically the only asian around.
As a Japanese American, this book just sounds nasty. The way RR refers to Park’s mom as a china doll further perpetuates the notion that asian women are fragile and submissive. Fetishization of asian women is exceedingly common and this book doesn’t help. Also the way Park describes his mother’s accent is also cringey. My relatives that immigrated to America and have lived here 30+ years have never lost their accents, and it’s nothing to be ashamed about. This is not the way to create asian representation.
I'm not Asian-American (just Asian in asia) but a lot of my relatives are and I have visited them and met a lot more. Has Rainbow Rowell not met a single Asian-American woman? A lot are pretty smart and cutthroat and high achievers but we have to be fragile and submissive because.......reasons?
I do like to note that I've seen first hand younger Asians teasing their older relatives about their accent. My partner Viet/Laos regularly does that sterotypocal Vietnamese accent when talking to his grandma and he teased her about it. This is very likely a him being whitewashed issue and not the norm but it does happen
Park also says that his mother is beautiful and eleanor does the same for her mother.
cry about it
@@raoulakhatov4242 calling your mom beautiful doesn’t make disrespecting them ok
The fact that some of us weren’t bothered by these parts goes to show how desensitized we are to subtle racism🤦🏻♀️
* Blatant racism*
I was 11 reading this so I didn't understand until later
you came with RECEIPTS. and i definitely agree that it seems suspicious about the timing that this book came out and when the adaptation is announced
Yeah hmmm....
RedMD exploiting a culture for your own monetary gain is a good reason to call someone out lmfao and if that wasn’t reason enough for you to question rainbow rowell watch the rest of the video smh
"his name was Josh" cracked me up. Thank you for doing this, I was obviously mad, but your personality really just calmed down and solidified my believe that I have to be better, thanks ✨
yeah rainbow tried to justify why park's name was park and it was just...wrong hahahahah
@@caricanread I call bullshit on her claim that Park's parents wanted to keep him connected to Korean culture. His mom threw away her entire culture and I'm pretty sure she only did it to other him.
As a half-Korean with a redhead mother, I remember loving the concept of Eleanor & Park addressing an interracial relationship, but revisiting how Park was characterized through this video hit me harder than I thought it would have. In a way, I guess part of me wanted to pass all of these things off by saying, “well, how can you expect the writer to know if she isn’t half?” However, now, I think that’s the biggest problem. Why would you make a character’s race a focal point of their personality if you’re not willing to do the research and reach out to people who might understand the headspace of someone like Park a little better? I would love to know what the demographics looked like in the editing chain of command. Thank you for giving me something new to mull over :)
We really wanted to be represented at all that we just looked over this. I'm fully Chinese and years ago I settled and I thought the book was decent because hey, at least it had an asian who wasn't a nerd as a whole personality:/ It could have been such a great book because talking about being a teen who wants to date inter racially is such a slept on topic but she failed.
It sounds like having a "Asian cute looking boyfriend" without bothering in getting interested or respect in another peoples culture :/ , I'm sorry as a Mexican maybe we at some point in history were fine with being a token in white narratives but NOT anymore
@@ridhimagohiya1662 I wouldn't be surprised at all if Rainbow Rowell IS a koreaboo/insane Kpop stan herself
I'm so glad you made this video because I absolutely loved this book and I didn't realize how problematic it is :(
yeah i heard that from so many people! i think a lot of people read it when they were too young to notice a lot of details but now that we're older its a good time to re-visit and re-evaluate haha
yes! i was 16 back in 2012 so i didn't even thought about it and i only read it once.. i'm kinda scared of her books now, especially Fangirl because i remember loving that book as well!
cari can read re-reading books from my childhood is always interesting, with what details I see now as opposed to what I remember
Same.
I love this book
this is the only book I ever read that I threw across a room. I read it when I was 16 and all I remember was the abusive step father(?) and how nothing was ever done. I didn't realize just how problematic the whole book was until now. a book has to get read by multiple people (editors, beta readers, etc.) how did they let this slide? how did no one say anything?
yeah i know there was lots of problematic content sliding through the cracks in 2012 but come on!!!!
I also hated the book back in the days because of the horrible abusive stepdad and how nothing was ever done about it. But I completely missed the racist issues it has. Now I'm just like... how could I have overlooked that?!
if you ever feel like giving yourself an aneurysm, look up diversity in publishing. p much your answer tbh lol.
same, its was really bad. and i think she left her siblings and mom with him when she tried to leave. sketch
Omg when she read "Sometimes Park thought she kept the accent on purpose because his dad liked it" made me SO MAD. Saying she's "keeping the accent" sounds like she could drop it whenever she could. But that's not the case for my mom and many others.
My mother has been made fun because of her accent and vocabulary for all her 18 years she's immigrated here. It affects me too seeing my mother made fun of like that. It's so important doing research writing characters and backgrounds for poc. It can really hurt them if there are inaccuracies like this. One example, my friend who read the book. She really believed these things, laughed at them and that was representation of Asian ppl for her. After that she thought it was okay saying these casually racist jokes towards me, cause they're funny and "harmless". DO BETTER OR DON'T WRITE AT ALL.
omg yeah the accent thing, coming from Park, really hurts. My mom gets so much unfair treatment and shit at work (and she technically works for the government too) for her accent and grasp of the english language. And ppl higher up regularly use the excuse of "not understanding" even though her emails are perfectly understandable if not grammatically impeccable. And it's really not fair. And for Park to say that about his mom... T.T
"Sometimes Park thought she kept the accent on purpose because his dad liked it" just makes it sound Jamie (the dad) has yellow fever.
Well actually, that is the impression I got from the relationship between his parents. It was extremely unsettling.
I read this recently for the first time. I'm definately out if its target audience and it's not surprising I found it problematic. I'm also white living in a predominantly white country so I'm not pretending to understand the struggle a "real" Park would face in the real world, I'm just giving my opinion on Rowell's abilities as a writer.
Eleanor and Park fails to depict realistic characters in all aspects, but especially race. Race is threated as an accessory, much like pins on jeans and vanilla drops behind the ear, something that aims to give a clear image to the reader of whom the character is but ends up feeling much like a caricature.
The endings of her books (I've only also read Fangirl so far and don't plan to keep on going) are also frustrating. Not because she doesn't deliever happy endings but because so much is left untouched, especially in Eleanor and Park. When I finished reading it I only had questions. Why didn't she write about the most compelling part of the story, how the protagonists deal with what happened? Two minors left for another state with no legal consequences? What happened to the step dad? I don't know, it felt like the character arc was cut just at the climax.
Completely!!!
I could feel the PAIN when you were reading out loud haha! But seriously, I can't believe some of those quotes are actual book quotes and not twitter memes or sarcastic jokes. I guess it has a lot to do with a time period when people reading the book were oblivious to these issues (not justifying it, of course) but now I'm very curious as to how the film will deal with the script and the huge storytelling problems... As the title says, thank you for reading it so we didn't have to!
PS after finishing the video: The timing of the movie... you're right, it just doesn't feel right...
definitely! it also seems like she's going to be in charge of the screenplay so i dont have much hope honestly :/
Like a bad romance novel from the 80s.
Except that RR doesn't have ANY excuse for the bit on page 7 where the one character calls another character the "r" word because even back in 2012, the neurodiversity movement was in full swing and the "r" word was already considered a disabled slur. The responsibility for not doing one simple Google search to figure that out falls completely on her shoulders.
I was part of the population of middle schoolers who LOVED this book and I feel silly now because the racial issues seemed so obvious. This review made me want to reread the book and really look at it from a new perspective.
I think the majority of its biggest fans read this in middle school so its really lost - i hope more people give it another look now that we;re older haha
It's okay, honestly, I never read this book but middle school you (so like 12? years old?) didn't have the social awareness or critical thinking skills to recognize that kind of thing (at least probably not to this depth).
I find that most people who look back and go "yikes!!" about things we used to like or think are okay do so after getting into the adult world and being exposed to different people and ideas, having discussions, learning and growing.
Now all we can do is have these discussions going forward. :)
Me too haha, but even then the fact that Park’s name is a Korean surname bothered me.
Oh god, back when this came out, I remember taking to tumblr and calling the writer out, particularly in relation to the name Park and her depiction of Korean culture. Her response was this troubling story about how her father had fought in the Korean War and fell in love with some korean woman...with no comment on the war, and the troubling history of American GIs in Korea and American army bases in Korea, etc. etc. etc. Many Korean Americans called her out back then, but she and her fans really loved explaining our culture back to us. As you say, people really should listen the first time.
AHAH "explaining our culture back to us" dude RR and her fans are on another world istg
@@fionaapplestan6983
me: has an issue with a rainbow's book
15 year old fangirls and rainbow: OmG, YoU'Re WrOnG, hAvEn'T yOu ReAd AnYtHiNg In YoUr LiFe ?11!//?/??!!!!!?//??!11!11!!!11, I nOw NeEd tO wRiTe My BaZ X sImOn MpReG sMuT sOnGfIc 1000X heart icons
me: bruh
@@thischannelisajoke6810 even I liked the book a lot. I still do because I read it just today and am not ready to tarnish the warm feeling already. Will watch the video in a few days. But then I don't argue because no point 🙃
i stopped reading after the only black girl says "she's trifling!"
My mom and grandparents always called me trifling.
What does that mean?
@@christinaa8531 it means a mess
crackcreatures luv Oh, I see. Is it a stereotypical phrase?
@@christinaa8531 Yeah she might as well have snapped her fingers in a zigzag while moving her head left to right
I read this book in high school a couple years ago for a 'young adult novel' class, and when I finished it I felt drained in a way but could never pin point why. This video made it make sense as to why. I feel like as a young teen the problematic issues just went over my head, but I still felt the residue of the problematic parts even if I couldn't identify the specifics of why they made me feel that way.
I definitely agree with that and had quite a few books leave me with a similar bad taste in my mouth for reasons i couldnt pinpoint!
it was exactly how i felt as well. thank you for describing the feeling i struggled to put into words for so long
i loved the book when i was younger, but at the end i felt so tired and i remained quiet for 30 minutes.
SAME I READ IT WHEN I WAS IN HS and something about it kind of rubbed me the wrong way through the story--it was just something about the undertone about it and...y'know? It was a slog to get through and it was constantly a drag to read through.
One book that addresses growing up as a Korean-American is Frankly in Love. I thought that aspect of the book was very well-written but it’s also a teen romance so that part was lacking a bit. Otherwise, I totally recommend it!
Yeah, I also read Frankly in Love and I think the same as you. If there is a teenage romance involved, well ... it can get in the way, but I certainly think it was well written and not so racist.
A curious fact: in Spanish they translate it as "It had to happen", and well, I read it in Spanish ...
I have a feeling I'm one of the only people that really didn't like that book :// the characters were so unlikeable imo, and the plot was very bleh and the writing itself was nothing to write home about. There was just nothing I really liked about it at all
OK BUT the whole conversation where Eleanor is like “I don’t even know what it means that you’re Korean” is like the “I don’t see race” conversation which is really problematic. If you pretend not to see race then you refuse to see and acknowledge how their race impacts how people treat them etc. Bruh I never noticed how awful this book was in the representation department, as a happa, I’m disappointed
Wow... as a 17 year old half-Korean, Eleanor & Park was always at the top of my list of favorite books, because, of course, I felt represented by Park and simply loved the writing style. Seeing this video on my recommended made my heart drop. The controversial aspects of the book indeed had flown over my head. :( Rainbow Rowell has always been my inspiration when writing my own stories, but starting today... not anymore. I can't believe how naive I was and am ashamed of myself. Especially since, despite being raised in the United States, my Korean mother is very patriotic of South Korea and tells my sisters and I to identify and acknowledge the country's history, despite being only half Korean. So upon finding out that Rainbow has hired a Japanese director... that hits the nail on the coffin of any support towards her.
This book honestly just made me really sad. When I first heard about it, I was really excited because when I was a kid there were no Asian main love interests. I just wasn't really into YA romance novels, so I kinda forgot this existed and never read the book. I really wanted it to be good, but after hearing you review it, I'm so glad I didn't read it.
It seems as if Park was made into an "exotic" love interest instead of just being a kid who happened to be half-Korean and you got to learn about him as a person who is half-Korean. Almost as if Park was fetishized. (Which, by the way, Park's name! This is similar to JK Rowling naming the sole Asian character in Harry Potter "Cho Chang." Like how hard is it to figure out that it's a last name?)
yeah rainbow clearly did zero research for this (and if she says that she did do research, that just makes it worse!)
"Almost as if Park was fetishized" because he WAS.
If you two were the “real Eleanor and Park,” imagine how wholesome of a book that would actually have been. Park wouldn’t be named Park, for starters.
the "i'm the only korean in omaha" line KILLED ME like i grew up in omaha (not in the 80s but my point still stands) and it's not like a fucking one horse town it has almost a million people there's more than a handful of koreans........the way rainbow rowell made omaha seem like it was some farm town in western nebraska when it's like the 40th biggest city in america....
omaha has less than half a million people lmao and in the 1980s was around 250,000 which is still a lot but also if you leave omaha there’s nothing to do outside of that
@@ShayUnfiltered i should've been more specific there's just under a million people in the omaha metro area and while a lot of nebraska is small towns and farming i can confirm that there are still in fact things to do outside of omaha!!
chrissy gulseth ive driven through nebraska (to get to the omaha zoo lmao) and that was an exhausting two days lmao
Not to mention his brother is still half Korean even if he looks white
@@janner2006 and of course his Asianness is completely erased and he only exists to be glorified for his "whiteness" as a contrast to Park.
The only Rainbow Rowell book I’ve read is “Carry On” and, boy, is her writing a trip. As a bisexual person, all I could notice was the leaps and bounds she went to to avoid using the term ‘bisexual’ to address her character that was CLEARLY bisexual. I’ve considered reading the sequel, but honestly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ would rather spend my time reading something by an LGBTQ+ person who knows what they’re talking about. Have never felt the desire to read a single one of her books since.
The sequel sucks, trust me
Yes, exactly! I truly don't understand the hype that she gets or as to why. //:
I’m bi, also and i just wanna say that we shouldn’t force labels on other people, even if they are fictional characters. the character even states that he hasn’t thought about his sexuality and doesn’t really care for labels
Stella Schardan *nods in agreement* you’re totally right and I apologize! I just found it frustrating that the character would constantly be like “I’m straight because I have a girlfriend but I like this guy so maybe I’m gay!” And went on like that for the whole book without a single mention of bisexuality as a option.
In the end though, yes, electing to not label oneself is a perfectly viable option :-)
Stella Schardan You’re right but I feel like it works better for real people than for fictional characters...Because I’ve heard it so often for fictional characters that it feels like a weird way to *avoid* calling someone bisexual. It never happens when someone isn’t onto the opposite gender/same gender at all. It only happens when one might like multiple genders and by not giving it“labels” it feels like it treats it as a middle thing, as something that isn’t its own identity and something that is vague and uncertain when it isn’t always. It looks like it’s trying to avoid the topic that yeah, sexuality isn’t always binary. It really seems like Simon was at some point in love with Agatha before falling in love with Baz, yet he deadass thinks at some point “I like Baz so I guess I’m gay now ://“ !
I get not understanding one’s sexuality but it feels like lazy writing to at least not try to discuss it properly. And to be honest, coming from a cis straight author, I trust this narrative choice even less.
I always said jokingly that the last three words of the book were “stupid asian boy” because that’s literally what she referred to Park as throughout the book. ridiculous. I remember reading it years ago and being so confused why everyone raved about it. blatantly racist and unresearched
lmfao if she did, at least we could say RR is consistent 😂
I never read this book because it was so hyped and I was one of those “anti-hype” teenagers, honestly now I’m glad.
Sometimes it is good to be a contrarian.
Hahahaha same
Hahahah I feel this
It’s Rowell calling parks mom a “china doll” and the blatant fetishization of parks Asian features for me
It's so disappointing. The book was almost perfect, it was cute and wholesome. It captured feelings and I loved it. But the racist remarks made me feel really uncomfortable. It's so sad because I loved the cute scenes, how park read his comics slowly so Eleanor could read too.
But the way park was written and especially his mom. How she made park's mom have an accent, or how she had really broken English. It just made me feel weird and uncomfortable.
It could've been a great book if park's character wasn't *just* Asian and his other quirks were more emphasized instead. The book made me feel feelings but it's just such a waste.
Definitely agree. I read this years ago and I remembered being offended by some of the remarks, but not understanding why. I chalked it up to me being overly sensitive and overall rating it quite well. It's only now that I realize why exactly I was so offended by certain parts of the story. It's a shame because it really had great potential, but was all wasted due to the ending and the problematic parts of the story.
I completely agree! It's such a comefort book because of the tenderness of their relationship but even at first reading the portrayals of different ethnicities felt weird and uncomfortable
Racism aside I didn't like it. The book in general had potential but instead it failed horribly.
My dad is half Asian, he absolutely HATES this book, and he married a redhead and made three more with her!
I'm glad people are finally talking about how problematic this book is. Thank you so much for bringing some awareness to the issue! (Also, you're seriously killing the Booktube game!) x
Definitely check out the linked stuff in the description - i left out SO much!! and thank you!!
the least they could do with this mess of a book was to make sure the director for the film adaption is asian american (or mixed asian american) but they hired a japanese director? an asian person living in a western country is going to have vastly different experiences, especially a half asian person, to an asian person living in an asian country. i remember i saw an interview with the cast of 'crazy rich asians' and they talked about how michelle yeoh didn't understand what it was like to be discriminated against because of race because she grew up in malaysia. it's so important to have representation on screen AND behind the scenes, that's how we get accurate storytelling. there needs to be more films like 'the farewell', a movie about an asian american directed BY an asian american. the show 'mixed-ish' is great at showing the mixed experience for half black and half white kids growing up in america and it's created by black and mixed american filmmakers, it wouldn't be the same if a black filmmaker from ghana or nigeria made the show. i don't see how a japanese director can accurately tell the story of a mixed asian american dealing with racism and internalised racism when they've probably never experienced it.
To be fair people put too much weight on directors. Directors don’t control the plot, only the visuals.
You should be concerned that apparently Rowell is writing the script.
definitely! they should be hiring asian american writers. rowell's lack of research for the book should be enough to show that she's not fit to be writing screenplays.
Oooooof this is bringing back some repressed memories. I’ll never forget how Eleanor said Park’s dad smuggled his mom in a suitcase back to America??? Like PARDON?
ISTG Jamie only kept Mindy as his fetish toy
I audibly said “EW” at the comments you brought up like how was this ever ok
Yep and i only read a small percentage 🙃
man! I remember: I attended a small, predominantly-white middle school. all of my book-ly, non-Asian friends loved this novel, and recommended it to me. and sixth-grade me struggled to articulate how much I disliked the book amidst all of the love my friends had for the story.
(The “in hee-yah” part always rubbed me the wrong way. Just. When people write out Asian accents in that way - it’s quite mocking, and reminds me of the times when people would make fun of/question my relatives’ accents. And the descriptor of “China doll.” And “almond-shaped eyes.”)
(And the book as a whole had a lot of problems, but this is what i most remember from my reading experience)
you perfectly stated my thoughts on Eleanor and Park!!! I don’t intend to watch the adaptation (it’ll remind me too much of the book lol), but hopefully, asian-american voices will be amplified rather than smothered. We definitely need Korean people working behind the scenes and fixing what the original story really botched.
woah. this stuff totally went over my head when i read it when i was like 13. i'm japanese-australian and looking back, this novel is pretty disappointing. it kind of sucks that asian/mixed asian characters can't just... exist as an asian person? and be a character beyond their race? having said that, things like internalised racism and feeling isolated because of your race are issues that definitely need to be talked about, but they need to be talked about /well/. eleanor and park really didn't do that properly, and it seems like it wasn't an issue rainbow wanted to talk about properly anyway. rainbow used to be my favourite author, but looking back at this and some of her other books, it leaves me questioning why.
i read this when i was 12 years old, i had no IDEA how problematic it was. hadn’t even thought about it since then but UM WOW.....
"spoiled ahhh" that was great ahaha, but for real i'm so glad you brought this up. when people start to romanticize/fetishize things about people (their illness/race/unique features, etc.) there is a huge problem. it is one thing to write about your own experiences or your friend's experiences (if they allow you too) but to write such a blatantly ignorant, uneducated book? it just doesn't sit right with me...
Yeah I just really want to know what made her wake up one day and need to write a book about a half Korean boy's struggle with his ethnicity.
@@caricanread all i know is that if she wrote this with no experience from her friends struggles why would she would bring it upon herself to write about it (and not even properly) 🤔
Wow this book sounds like hot garbage! What does "Anne Frank crazy" even mean?? It'd be believable if it came out that Rainbow wrote the story as a joke and got caught off guard by its success.
yeah that line was really just like...come on rainbow
i remember Loving this book when i first read it as a 13 year old white kid who's never been outside of europe. now at nearly 20, i can't even begin to believe how shit this book really is. i'm honestly shocked haha. i think this video prompted me to check out more media that i enjoyed as a kid, and now i'm seeing a Lot of 'subtle' racism in media i used to consume and im honestly a little worried about how much of this i've internalised without knowing. thanks for this wake up call/reality check! i'm gonna evaluate a Lot of things i learned as a kid
As a Dutch Chinese kid, I didn’t like this book at all. I don’t understand how it got published lmao
I didn’t even remember that Park was Korean, I read it a really long time ago so, like you said, I didn’t notice how problematic this book is, omg
I worry that a lot of people just didnt notice and are now excited for the film so hopefully this vid and others gets the convo going again!
I remembered he was but it wasn’t one of the things that stuck out for me. I used to love this book because of how the POVs worked
This was my favourite book as a 12-year-old, and it still shocks me to this day how the actual horrors of/in this book went over my little pre-pubescent head. This was such a sensitive video on the book and it was so interesting to hear some of your opinions and thoughts on the specific passages. xxx
If i had been that age i think it would have gone way over my head too so im glad we're all returning to it and questioning it!!
I’m half Korean and I’ve been wanting to write a book with well developed Asian characters for quite some time, but I always tell myself no one will read it. But then I realised, if we don’t tell our own stories, we’re only ever gonna get books like this, which don’t do anything for representation and convey a TON of problematic issues.
And I’m not saying non-Asians can’t write an Asian character, but they need to be written AS A CHARACTER, not a stereotype or one-dimensional prop who exists solely for the white characters’ development
Do it!!!!
Somebody should rewrite Eleanor and Park except fix it. I alas have several ideas that I could share if you're interested.
@@bunnybird9342exactly
@@bunnybird9342Park’s real name can be Sheridan Park
As someone who grew up in the late 80's in Wyoming with a Korean mom and a white dad, I was thrilled at the representation during my first read through. I literally cannot remember a single book growing up that showed me even a sliver of who I was. And then I realized that I was trying to make a meal out of scraps of representation. We don't have to settle for tokens when there are thousands of talented, capable, poc authors that can actually do a good job. Thanks for not putting up with the bare minimum, Young Ones.
i remember reading this at like 14-15 and not realizing how messed up it is at all! i was a fat girl and the book made me feel good and represented, so i didn't realize how bad it was at so many things
Me and my friends tried reading this book as a group since we had heard about all the issues with it. I knew it was going to be bad, but I was expecting funny-bad and not what it was. I’m half Vietnamese and half white, and it felt like the second I opened the book I was being made fun of. I actually couldn’t finish it. It was clear Rowell did barely any research. I’d believe it if she said she’s never met a mixed Asian kid. I read terrible books for fun, but this was on another level. The fact it’s being made into a movie is even more disheartening. Thank you for making this video
Now E+P is being talked about for being problematic, can we also talk about all the bright places romanticising mental illness 👀
Did it really do that? Forgive me if i sound ignorant but I thought it was comforting how finch was able to help violet heal from her sister’s death, tho his downfall was really upsetting :/
@@frogitude3106 the biggest misconception about mental illness is that someone can "save" another person and that their love can erase mental illness. This was definitely an attitude that Finch had towards Violet and a big part of her appeal to him. Being supportive is very important but their relationship crossed that line. The author also glorifies su*cide through having the main characters meet through an implied attempt and then later creating a scavenger hunt styled activity after Finch's death. There are a lot of very well written and emotional parts of this book that depict the emotional state mental illness creates very accurately and I think the author was well intentioned as she based it off some of her life but overall it isn't well executed and perpetuates a lot of harmful misconceptions from her depiction of Bipolar Disorder to a healthy and supportive relationship :/
isabella I understand thank you for pointing that out for me
i think the relationship dynamic between park's parents is actually a really important topic of discussion (white americans, especially men, potentially fetishizing east asian people, especially women) and a novel written framed partially/wholly around this topic from an author who personally has the perspective of being a mixed race asian american person would be a really wonderful piece of literature. it definitely is a topic very specific to mixed race asian american people, and i think those of us that not asian americans understanding the complexities of these varying experiences is really important. however, the way rowell goes about demonstrating park's understanding of his parents' relationship leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. the absolute lack of nuance in the writing of park's internal thoughts makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable to read, and it obviously is not my fault she chose to write about his mother in such a way. the constant racial microaggressions take away any and all real impact she intended there to be by showing this side of the parent's relationship, and instead is a glaring reflection of how deeply flawed and racist this novel is.
I hate how authors make Caucasian characters ‘unique’ by giving them red hair. My hair doesn’t make me unique! I’m unique because I’m me!
We'll just have to hope that RR becomes educated on racism towards the Asian community and, while she cant rewrite the book, fixes those problematic views and stereotypes within the films script. I can only guess that she had good intentions when writing the book and still has good intentions now when writing the film. I hope she relies that if she wants this film to do well she will have to learn a lot and learn it quick.
So, first of all, I really like Rainbow's books, I'm not that into romance or contemporary, but there's something about her books that just makes me want to keep reading, they're cute and fun, my favorite book is Carry on (yeah, even if the word bisexual isn't in it, there's more to the book than that), so yeah, I guess I'm a fan of her work, however, I can acknowledge that a lot of her books present problematic elements, specially this one, but I think they come from a place of ignorance, not hate, she made the effort of writing a romance about characters who don't fall into the beauty standards of the time, she messed up, yeah, but she tried, a lot of people weren't trying back then, I remembered reading this book when I was younger, and find it really cute and wholesome, because it is, looking back at it now, I can't believe I couldn't recognize how messed up a lot of things in it are, but it just shows how society changes, now we're aware of how bad things in the book are, we can do better, it makes me really sad that Rainbow hasn't accepted and apologysed for her mistakes, I don't think she's a bad person, and I genuinely think she has gotten better over the years, so yeah, I feel really conflicted about all this, specially now that a movie is in the making, I'm scared, sad and disappointed, I will probably always like her books, they mean a lot to me, but you can like something, and still be critical of it, I'll be watching the movie, expecting that Rainbow will do better this time. We all deserve the benefit of the doubt.
When she pulled out “a weirdo” with that Riverdale reference i.. 🤣
This is one of those books I read back in 2013 and completely forgot about. This video shows there's a reason I blocked it from my memory.
100%
I kinda relate to some of Parks thoughts as a Asian American bc they feel like the internalized racism I've had to deal with, but it doesnt feel right coming from a white author that will never faced american racism. And also in the same breath talks abt Parks female family like that. The small doll description made me really upset bc thats a judgement I still have to deal with. And while Parks thoughts echo common AA feelings, the fact that they're never resolved or he doesnt realize why his mindset is negatively affecting himself contributes to the idea that asians can just deal with hardship and live with generational and internal conflicts with no issues. Like well just accept or should accept things the way they are
i related to park to, but at no point in the book is his self-hatred properly addressed or resolved, so all it did was make me subconsciously hate myself too :/
The only rainbow rowell book i could read was carry on. I literally couldn't finish even 2 pages of fangirl and Eleanor and park
As an Asian American first reading this in high school, I knew there was a reason why I didn’t finish it and it left such a bad taste in my mouth while reading
I remember being young and reading this book in a day, I did not put it down until I finished it and I feel so bad now hearing actual thinks written in this book, like my heart broke a little (not from the fact that the illusion of the book is ruined (I’m thankful for that and seeing the true things that happened in it) but for the fact that those things are written and printed and scattered around the world, hurts) and the thing is I don’t remember anything from it, I just remember liking it back then. This video was definitely an eye opener to these remarks and I’m thankful that you posted this and helped (not only) me, this is definitely a “wait, what?!” moment for me, I’ll never look at that book the same way. Thank you.
so excited you started a booktube channel and that you discussed this!
thank you for watching!!!
Me, a Korean, with the last name Park: 👁👁
i've been trying to tell people how problematic this book is for the past three years thank god people are finally listening
I read this book three years ago because everyone had been talking about how good it was. It was a task for me to get through the book and finish it. It just felt so draining for some reason and I think a big part of it had to do with all of the things you’ve mentioned in the video. Even the romance part of the book didn’t appeal to me. I couldn’t really understand why I didn’t like a book that everyone was raving about. This video has made things so much more clear and articulated all the issues I probably felt but didn’t understand back then.
Thank you! :D
thanks for watching!!!
I read this book when it came out in 2012, as a middle schooler I didn't realize how problematic this book was. Only when people started to point out and I went back and re read some parts did I realize how bad it was. I think there needs to be more conversations about how white authors tend to miss represent non white characters in books. Not to say that white authors should only write about white characters but some of them really lack the culture knowledge to write about other people's experiences, for example, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
exactly! if a big part of your plot is about racial issues, either research the hell out of it and get a cowriter who is that race, or back away
i’m currently reading it now and honestly the racism makes me not want to finish it
This book always made me feel icky and I could never work out why, but now I can see why . Big yikes
So I could’ve even finish it. I’m old. Well, 43, and had young kids and. Sick hubs when it came out so I did not even read it until a few years ago. I couldn’t get past the random need to cuss and the fact the people sounded stupid. I teach middle school and it did not even sound right. Hearing your perspective makes me even happier I never finished.
Side note. My TH-cam before a month ago when I seemed to become obsessed with Japanese and Korean vlogs was mainly booktube. So now with you having this channel I love you even more!
Thanks for watching and omg I'm so glad!!!!
I love this book honestly but I never noticed the things that you mentioned , even though I am Asian ( I am from India) ,maybe because I never went to America and have always lived in my country ,so I have never faced racism . Maybe that's why I wasn't able to see those things ,to me it was a beautiful love story because I am a curvy person too ,so I really liked it
Yea I so relate to you tho, I read this last year and I still think that the overall story between the two is just something that can't be described in words. In other words I really liked it...but in the end it's all a FICTION, it only exists in our fantasies. But now I fairly understand how it encourages and influences the readers from its so many racial remarks that I actually ignored from this book💀
I wished there were more Korean culture embedded into the book, like Park’s mom cooking some Korean dishes or introducing some traditions. All I got from park being Asian is the mom’s accent and his ‘honey’ skin.
This was my FAVORITE book growing up, and I honestly still cited it as my favorite book for most of my life. I have passages marked in my copy that I would read over and over in high school. I always saw the underlying issues but never really understood how problematic they were because I was uneducated too, but damn, this sucks to hear because you’re totally right. I loved the way Rainbow wrote romance. The passages describing how they felt about each other, the short quotes about love, the little bits in between were what I hung on to. I hate that some really nice (in my opinion) descriptions of the feelings of young love were interrupted by some bullshit racism. Thanks for making this. It’s a good reminder for me to do better and be more aware.
I’m so glad you made this video Cari and I hope it really starts a conversation and gets people to reevaluate the book! I read it probably when I was around 13 and as an East Asian mixed-race young teen it made me feel kinda uncomfortable and weird then, but I wasn’t old enough or had explored how I felt about my own race enough to fully understand why (that might be phrased wrong but I hope you understand what I mean haha). Watching your video really highlights how problematic and damaging to the East Asian and mixed race communities it was and still is with the movie! Love you Cari ❤️
Thank you! You should definitely check the links in the description too because they go into much more detail and its really eye opening!!
This was really enlightening, Eleanor and park used to be one of my all time favs, but looking back at it now, I see the many, MANY misrepresentations and ignorance surrounding the writing. I will always hold a special place in my heart for the Carry On books which helped me through some pretty dark times, but calling out these things is the best way to educate authors so their writing POC characters are better researched and represented.
Thank you so much for talking about this! I am 15 and reading this book for the second time, my first time when I was 13. I heard it was becoming a film adaptation, and got excited, and found your video. It made me realize that I got so caught up in the lust of the romance of between the two characters, that I didn't even see the racism, and the terrible metaphors. I guess I need a new favorite book...
this was such an interesting video! i really enjoy the way you explain it, i hope you cover similarly controversial/problematic books in the future! :)
I read this book back when I was 18 and never realised all of this.
Some part, like the one you cited with Park's mom and the fact that Park's name is... Park, kind of triggered me at that time, but not hard enough I guess because I never realised it was a very obvious racist book.
And I should've noticed it, being myself from a minor ethnicity in my country and being really aware of racism at that time...
Looking back, I feel so sorry for ever liking this book.
Like you said, had the book only been about the romance, it would have been an enjoyable book (and I think the reason why I liked it was because this was the only thing I got from it at that time) but it wasn't just that and that's the issue..
Thank you (really) for making us aware of this.
I can totally see how readers would focus on the romance and gloss over the problematic parts!! Glad we’re taking about it again!!
Oh wow. I never even read this book myself because I wasn't interested enough and after this video I must say that I'm not mad about it. I am honestly dumbfounded and extremely sad about the fact that Rainbow Rowell decided it was ok to write a story like this. Thank you cari for saving me the pain of reading this book and educating people about what is wrong with it.
❤️❤️❤️
this video happened to be suggested on my page and i just have to say, you are so pretty 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 i literally cant take my eyes off when you were talking 😭😭😭
and yeah wow i read this book as a teenager and never realised the racism it had...... glad to have it recapped again and learn something
Omg, you are literally so stunning. I’m sorry, this is the first video of yours that I’m watching, but I just had to say something. I hope your day is going well!!
oh man I'm so glad after getting the ebook years ago, reading the first few pages & being annoyed about the amount of hate in them (this is the only thing I remember about them, not sure if my memory is accurate) stopped reading and completely forgot it existed, really hope your video helps people open their eyes!
yeah its no good haha
oh jesus. i've always hated this book and remember being, idk, 14 years old, and thinking "oh... this is so problematic or it's just me". but, GUESS WHAT, the book's crap. the sad part is that there are good elements to it which, if worked better, had A LOT of potential. still, this was crap. i am soooo happy i wasn't wrong.
THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO. i genuinely forgot about this book but when i read it as a young teen i ate it up as i did all crappy ya novels but i did enjoy seeing myself in park (a half korean kid in california). none of the problematic details occurred to me because i was just so excited to see a character like me whose mom is described like my mom. going back through the passages and examining how poorly written both the characters as well as the plot in general were makes me sad that is is one of the only things to this day i have seen myself in. and the fact that it is getting a film adaptation is so upsetting. thanks for your being conscious of this and spreading this information
When I read this in middle school I was so happy and excited to read about a character who was like me (I’m also half Korean) because I’d never read about a character who I could relate to in that way, and the mixed race couple reminded me of my parents, now that I look back it makes me very sad that the first book with representation I could relate to had some very racist undertones I didn’t pick up on as a kid. :(((
Yeah I’m late but then to all the boys by Jenny Han which is much proper representation would come out 2 years later and be a huge seller by the end of the decade
I just finished the book today, I bought 3 days ago for my 13th birthday and I loved how fast-paced it was but I could feel myself disagreeing at times but I never made a point to wait and think about it. And one thing that struck me straight is this book talks describes east Asians and call them Asians. Other parts of Asia exist and many foreigners seem to neglect that. I tried to feel relateable but I couldn't, at all, being a South Asian. Like; not even a single thing!
Filipinos are mentioned in one part (early on when Eleanor was trying to guess Park's ethnicity and then immediately follows it with a comment about how Asia is too big), and Filipinos are Southeast Asians.
this book was so popular when i was in middle school but i never read it and after hearing what it's actually about i'm SO glad i didn't. i can't believe it was so well-thought of!!
i think in middle school a lot of stuff slipped past us but i cant believe it slipped past the editors/publishers!!
i read this book last year (i'm 14) because my friend loved it i read it and was kinda bothered with certain parts but ignored most of it because i had a crush on the girl who loves this book and i wanted something to talk to her about. this year i tried rereading it and i couldn't stand it i tried talking to my friend about the problems but she didn't understand. so thank you for giving me a wonderful video that i can send her in hopes of getting her to understand the problems with this book especially because she's super excited for the movie.
thank you so much for adding subtitles, love you