Forgiveness

Forgiveness



Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself. It is a release from the burden of anger and pain. When you choose to forgive, you choose to live in the present and the future instead of the past. It does not mean to forget but it does mean to release and go on. Forgiveness doesn't happen on it's own, you must choose to forgive.

Forgiving doesn't always mean resuming a relationship with whoever has hurt you. If a person won't meet you halfway or has been abusive, it may be better to forgive simply to make your own life less stressful, but continue to keep your distance, recommends Frederic Luskin, Ph.D., author of Forgive for Good.

The relationship between the author has his readership has always been a contentious one. Authors are often accused of writing just to please the popular book market so as to raise their book sales, and readers are often accused (by literary critics and authors alike) of being uninformed, and hence unappreciative (and in dire need of literary and cultural education) audiences of a critical, but less popular text. The charges of crowd-pleasing writing are even more severely ladled out to Asian American writers such as Amy Tan, whose popularity has put her under intense scrutiny by the critics.

Sau-Ling Cynthia Wong's critique of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club is one such charge. In her essay "Sugar Sisterhood": Situating the Amy Tan Phenomenon, Cynthia Wong accuses Amy Tan of writing to satisfy the needs and desires of her intended audience. She holds the view that Tan writes to please a white readership which is "nave and voyeuristic" "“ so eager to read and learn all about China as told by a supposedly trusted guide that they miss out or ignore the historical and anthropological errors that litter Tan's book.

She claims that Tan "invites trust" from her readers as a knowledgeable guide of the Chinese culture, and when this trust is obtained, proceeds to betray it with what Shirley Geok-Lin Lim calls this "easy exoticism" "“ a tendency to fake her depiction of China. Cynthia Wong gives numerous examples of where Tan gives "highly dubious or downright erroneous details" of China, such as Tan's unnecessary anglicized (and sometimes "unidiomatic" ) version of Chinese phrases when the translated English version will suffice; Tan's mixing up of the various Chinese festivals, and other such instances. Wong seems to be justifiably annoyed at Tan's inaccuracy because critics have lauded Tan's book for her accurate portrayal of Chinese culture.

However, despite all this, there seems to be a begrudging sense of admiration for Amy Tan's manipulation of her book market "“ that Tan has recognized what the reader wants, and has given it to them at the correct time. She writes that Tan's book is situated "at the confluence of a large number of discursive traditions, each carrying its own history as well as ideological and formal demands". Tan has managed to write at once a book that includes "matrilineal feminist discourse" ...