So I am attempting to write a novel that has a lot to do with Race issues

[WCGreen]

in the 60's...

Should I or shouldn't I use the "N" word...

Especially in light of the NAACP's staged funeral...

I'm of the feeling that I should be true to the times and use the word because it was prevalent and it was hateful..

Please weight in and give some of your feelings about this...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I've been thinking about this...

And it seems to me that this is one of those times where it is appropriate to use that word...

Although I'm not sure what you mean by Especially in light of the NAACP's staged funeral...

Using that word is certainly ugly, but I think it's historically accurate...

My two cents...

[DavidDvorkin]

2. You always have to be true to your characters

Their attitudes, their language -- everything has to be appropriate to them and their time and place. That's part of your duty to them and to your art.

[Orrex]

3. Great answers so far

I'd add that it's important to be consistent, if you're aiming for historical accuracy. That is, you can't have one character using "the N word" while another is referring to African Americans, since the latter designation came much later than your setting. If you trip up and break the illusion of a 1960's setting, you taint the realism that you intend to convey by using the epithet.

Also, if you pepper your text with the word, you risk an air of sensationalism. Additionally, a word in print can have a bigger impact than the same word spoken; if a character repeats a word or phrase or obscenity too often in dialogue, then it will become conspicuous and unnatural, even if a real person might actually use that word/phrase/obscenity just as often.

Consider this less inflammatory example:

George: I was, y'know, processing these TPS Reports and, y'know, I didn't have the cover sheet. So I said to Bill, y'know, that I didn't have them, y'know, and he told me that I better get them or, y'know, I can't turn in my reports at all, y'know? I figured, if that's how it is, y'know, then I'm not going to, y'know, bother with them, especially since they're going to, y'know, downsize me anyway. Y'know?

George might actually speak like that (and, in fact, he does; believe me). But to see it transcribed that way, the phrase "y'know" becomes obtrusive and cumbersome, pointlessly weighing down the text. Once or twice is all you need to see that George says "y'know" a lot. The same would go for "the N-Word," especially given its inherent cultural/emotional impact.

I had an fiction professor who gave us this excellent piece of advice: The truth is no excuse for bad fiction. Even if a passage is an accurate portrayal, if it doesn't make good fiction, then it doesn't make good fiction.

[WCGreen]

4. I had the same advice from my own CW professor...

I'm just a Little nervous that people would see it as sensationalism...

Although it's only appropriate to three of the characters and it isn't the main thrust of the story...

Racism is, but more how it pointed to hypocrisy for a youngster starting to question what the older folks around him say and then compare that to what they do...

[valerief]

5. I like to write with settings in the mid-20th century, so I had to deal with that, too.

I decided to surrender to the time period and use the correct language in two novels so far. I'm now dealing with it in my fourth novel. (My third was set in 1978, so language had changed in the U.S. Northeast by then.)

When I heard the character say, "Niggrah," in my head, then that's what I wrote. When one said/thought "Colored" or "Negro," it was the same. I have a character in 1962 who wants to meet Oriental" people. I can't recall right now, but I probably have some Jewish and anti-gay slurs, too. You have to define the characters by their dialogue, both internal and spoken. Also, I know I'm not a hatemonger and I'm not promoting hateful attitudes, so I don't feel guilty about it.

I like playing with gender and race issues, because they're so damaging and yet so inherently ridiculous.