As a youngster, I didn't know who "Hong Kingston" was. The other schools around the city are named things like Hazelton, Chavez, Hoover, King, etc., I assumed that whoever they were must be some king of political person I just hadn't heard of in class yet.
Maxine Hong Kingston was born in Stockton. She's what those of us who came from Stockton would refer to as "someone who escaped" and the city has rewarded her for this with a school, seemingly in the same way we honored Janet Leigh with a plaque in front of the movie theater because she went to school at the University of the Pacific.
But I didn't know any of this. I knew who Janet Leigh was, but couldn't even tell you the gender of the person they named that elementary school after. Her name is on a list next to Pullman, Adams, Kennedy, and nothing. Is it because she's a woman? Because the education system in Stockton isn't the greatest? Because she's a writer and not a president? It begs the question of who we see as important and why we think they are important. We put her name on something because she came from the city, but we don't assign her books. Is location more important than the person? It makes me wonder if we read Tripmaster Monkey because it's an important piece of literature, or because it happens to be set in San Francisco.
Stockton is mentioned a few more times in Tripmaster Monkey than it is in most other "San Francisco novels", probably because anyone who isn't from there likes to pretend it doesn't exist. In the first chapter of the book, Wittman says something about people thinking he's a "dentist from Stockton" (UOP has quite a good dental school). I find it interesting that San Francisco is the type of place you write about, Stockton is the kind of place you mention in passing.
Stockton is not San Francisco by any stretch of the imagination. There's no beautiful coastal views, International Orange bridges, or Beat poets. It's a place you leave to make art somewhere else. But that doesn't make the people who are from there any less than people from San Francisco. You don't suddenly start your life or become a Person when you finally get to San Francisco. Artists come from anywhere and anywhere can inspire art. SF is an important place, but it's only important because people make it that way.
This is an interesting point. You definitely sound a bit bitter. Are you arguing here that Stockton also has a rich history that should be acknowledged and written about or that there is a long tradition of erasing people's actual hometowns in favor of the nearest big city? It reminds me a lot of when bands come out of tiny towns but list themselves as being from San Francisco or New York or some place like that, because they know that way people will recognize the city and "connect" with them more, thus making it seem like artists never come from small towns like Stockton.
ReplyDeleteThat is what I was getting at– it's rare that you ever hear of someone coming from a smaller city unless it's some kind of success story. Like, "Celebrity Person, living in San Francisco, grew up in Small Town with Dying Grandma and Sad Dog and everything got better because now they are in Big City." It makes it seem like small towns don't matter unless they're the setting for Gilmore Girls. Not only does it make it seem like no one comes from big cities, but it also makes it seem like big cities are the only places were interesting things can happen.
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