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Italian Stories, Without Bullets
By Felicia R. Lee, New York Times
Professor Robert Viscusi makes some outstanding points in this NY Times article in which he is the principal Italian American spokesperson. My comments should NOT be interpeted in any way to be critical, but merely very respectfully "expanding" on the topic.
The Professor is particularly incisive when he thunders: ''The debate over who shall represent Italian - American culture has reached a crisis.'' I see the competitors to represent I-A culture as Hollywood/Mass Media versus IAWA. Sounds like a monumental "Mismatch", and that you could use "Allies".
"Activists would like to be your allies ("shoulder to shoulder" or "behind the scenes"). Activists are strong supporters of Italian American Writers.On the otherhand, comments from members of IAWA often make Activists feel if not the "enemy", at least aimless rabble engaged in futile, or even counter productive efforts. Activists don't ask for any reciprocation, just a muting of the angry rhetoric aimed at the Activists. It would almost seem as if some members of IAWA write for the Sopranos,under pseudonyms.
Activists may be able to reduce the torrent of "Negativity", while IAWA struggles to increase the "Positivity", so at least a better "Balance" might be achieved in this competitition.
Viscusi's states: " the best solution for Italian-Americans troubled by stereotypes is to passionately support Italian - American writers" whom "many claim their work does not find a ready market."
However, Since IAWA is in New York, which is "the epicenter of publishing" and NY State has 2.8 million (16%), Italian Americans and neighboring New Jersey has 1.45 million (18%), and Pennsylvania with 1.38 million (12%), IAWA seems to be sitting on the "door step" of their problem for books.
IAWA is "unrealistic" if they rely on the relatively impotent and highly unorganized National I-A network to market their books, particularly, when most I-As don't know even know the books exist.
Further, why should IAWA expect much of a response from I-As, when half are trying to totally "Assimilate", and distance themselves from the Negative Stereotyping, and the other half revel/wallow in the 'Soprano' image, which will for "serious" writers be difficult competition.
I would also ask: Why is IAWA not talking to Hollywood????? Hollywood is a huge Problem! Hollywood is the obvious Answer !!!
If IAWA has talked to Hollywood, What have they said???? Let me guess. Your "stuff" won't sell. We want Mafia stories!!!! Right???
IMHO, Only when Activists make Mafia-like Film/TV less desirable, is IAWA going to get Hollywood's receptive "ear"!!!!
Hollywood is the enemy. Activists have no ability or resources to produce your books and/or scripts. However, we can try to make "mob" stories "non grata", hopefully this will "open the door" to I-A writers, making their "positive" books and scripts more attractive to Hollywood.
Can we talk?

ITALIAN STORIES, WITHOUT BULLETS
By Felicia R. Lee
April 22, 2001 - - The New York Times,The City Weekly Desk; Section 14 COPING ,Page 1, Column 1
THE real problem is not ''The Sopranos,'' the television mob opera, or all those movies and books showing vulgar Italian-Americans wolfing down pasta and working for the Mafia. The problem is that popular culture makes little room for defining Italian-Americans in other ways.
And the best solution for Italian-Americans troubled by stereotypes is to passionately support Italian - American writers creating different kinds of characters and exploring issues outside the crime matrix.
That message, communicated with not a little anger, comes from Robert Viscusi, a writer and a professor of English at Brooklyn College, who heads the Italian American Writers Association. In the April newsletter of the group, Mr. Viscusi thundered, ''The debate over who shall represent Italian - American culture has reached a crisis.''
It is a crisis, he said, because ''The Sopranos,'' while critically acclaimed, is just a more sophisticated take on the same old spaghetti-and-bullets formula and has revived old stereotypes. Meanwhile, Italian - American writers dealing with issues other than the mob or working-class life fail to win similar recognition.
People know Mario Puzo.But do they know Carole Maso, Diane di Prima, Dana Gioia or Anthony Valerio? The stereotype debate speaks to the way any identifiable group struggles with the issue of identity politics. What makes us a group? Who can represent the group? What do those images means when it comes to discrimination or assimilation?
The idea for the writers association was formed shortly after after the terror in Bensonhurst, the Brooklyn neighborhood where in 1989 a gang of Italian - American boys murdered Yusuf K. Hawkins, a black 16-year-old, because of his race. The neighborhood's name became shorthand for a widely presumed Italian - American insularity, violence and racism. At the time, Mr. Viscusi wondered about the absence of voices to counter those notions.
More recently, he fired off comments on the subject when a ''Sopranos''character took on the stereotype question. Dr. Jennifer Melfi, Tony Soprano's therapist, said Italian-Americans wouldn't be so sensitive about stereotypes ''if they felt better about themselves.''
Mr. Viscusi said he would have told Dr. Melfi that the struggle is not about feelings but about helping the larger culture understand Italian-Americans in a way that has ''nothing to do with a social club on Mott Street.''
Many people writing in this way can be found in New York. As the epicenter of publishing and theater, the port of entry for millions of Italian-Americans at the turn of the century and the home of an unsurpassed network of cultural institutions, New York is where writers will broaden the range of what is considered Italian, Mr. Viscusi said.
Writers like Steven Varni, who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and wrote ''The Inland Sea,'' a novel about 25 years in the life of an Italian -American family in California. Or Maria Laurino, who lives in Greenwich Village and wrote a series of essays called ''Were You Always Italian?,'' which looks at issues like education, dialect and class. Or even Mr. Viscusi, who lives in Midwood, Brooklyn, and whose novel ''Astoria,'' about Italians coming to America, won the American Book Award in 1996. And no mob in sight.
Italian - American poets, essayists and playwrights whose works represent a range of ideas appear at the monthly readings the writers' group holds at the Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village. The group has produced a 2,500-title bibliography of Italian writers, 80 percent of whom are Italian - American . Like other writers, they tell tales of love, family and identity, but many claim their work does not find a ready market.
''It seems to me that if I want to get recognized as an Italian - Americanwriter, there is a narrow criteria one has to meet: urban, Eastern or Chicago, and write about the mob,'' Mr. Varni said. ''It's also nice to throw in references to food or opera.''
Mr. Varni said a big part of the problem was that popular culture is built on easily recognizable types. Blacks are urban, and Asian-Americans do not look like Tiger Woods. Ms. Laurino said that when it came to books, the old belief that Italian-Americans are not avid readers limited what is published and showcased.
''But when we complain, it does not have the same moral urgency of othergroups,'' Mr. Viscusi said. ''We don't have slavery. We don't have the Holocaust.''
(RAA NOTE:Perhaps, but what moral urgency do the Hispanics or Asians have, yet they have protected, priviliged and preferred status??. And one could easily argue, that the Padrone/Indentured Servant system, and the "Company Town" mining towns particularly of Western Pennslvania, were far worse than being a "House Black")
What is at stake is not just selling books or screenplays, but self-image and respect. Mr. Viscusi believes too many young Italian-Americans get their ideas about who they are solely from shows like ''The Sopranos.'' Take that, Dr. Melfi.
(RAA NOTE: Yes, Dr. Melfi, how can one "(feel) better about themselves'', if they and society equate them with a torrent of 'Sopranos' like images????)

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