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aloevhello · 4 months

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Is LYLA’s Design Based On Xina?

If you read Miguel’s 90’s comics, the answer is an obvious yes. However, a lot is left unknown about what aspects of Miguel’s comics will be adapted, causing SV LYLA’s origins to be up to speculation. However, I think LYLA’s design in the SV films provides evidence that she is based on Xina, Miguel’s ex-girlfriend and childhood best friend.

Starting off are LYLA’s heart-shaped sunglasses, while a quirky detail, could also hint at Miguel’s lingering feelings for Xina, as hearts usually have a romantic connotation to them. Sunglasses also play a prominent role in Miguel’s comics, where he would frequently wear them to both protect his eyes from light and conceal his Spider identity, since their redness indicates his powers. In a way, Miguel’s sunglasses symbolize him shielding his true self (the combination of his Spider and personal identities) from the world, considering how the eyes are often referred as windows to the soul. However, when it comes to LYLA’s sunglasses, the opposite effect is created because with them being heart-shaped, they serve as a projection of Miguel’s inner desires to be with Xina again. There’s also how the ATSV art book states that Miguel is the one who programmed Lyla, which could indicate that on a subconscious level, Miguel knows he can’t escape his romantic feelings for Xina or the presence she had on his life.

In the 90’s comics, LYLA was programmed by Xina and her design is based on Marilyn Monroe (shown left), Xina’s favorite 20th century actress who she believes she resembles as they’re both “gorgeous and brainy.” While a lot of this original design is lost, likely due to how out of place a Marilyn Monroe look-alike would be without that context (the SV films aren’t Clone High), Marilyn’s influence remains. This is indicated by LYLA’s fur coat, since furs were used as a fashion staple for many Old Hollywood icons like Marilyn Monroe. Though with LYLA’s coat being oversized, making her toe the line between goofy and glamorous, it extenuates her playfulness and eccentricity, a staple of Xina’s personality. Plus, the brainy aspect remains intact as LYLA is described to have the intelligence of a super computer who’s advanced enough to create her own personality and Marilyn herself used her own intellect to curate her public image and become an enigma in pop culture. In that respect, if SV LYLA were to be based on Xina then her absence in these films and mainstream knowledge on Spider-Man 2099 makes Xina an enigma as well.

LYLA’s design change for the SV films will likely be the design used for her future iterations as seen in her design for sm2099’s 2019 comics (shown left), which were released a year after ITSV. Granted, there is speculation that SV LYLA’s design could based on Dana D’Angelo because of how Lyla has a similar hairstyle to her and how Dana is Miguel’s love interest for the 2019 comics. While Xina and Dana are important women in Miguel’s life, especially in the 90’s comics, Xina is more likely to be the main inspiration based on what SV LYLA is programmed for. The ATSV art book states that LYLA acts as Miguel’s “only friend in the world” and is meant to keep Miguel in check when he oversteps his boundaries. Even though Dana was Miguel’s fiancée, she never seemed to really connect or keep him in check the same way Xina did. After all, Xina was Miguel’s only friend growing up, along with consistently challenging Miguel to do the right thing even when he believed it wasn’t possible. There’s also how SV LYLA is designed after her VA, Greta Lee, who is of East Asian descent like Xina, whereas Dana is white. While Xina and Greta’s specific ethnicities differ, the former is Chinese and the latter is Korean, it’s mostly a moot point as Miguel is Mexican-Irish, but his VA is Óscar Issac who is Guatemalan-Cuban. Plus, with the character designs for ATSV emphasizing their racial and ethnic backgrounds, poignantly so for Miguel, there’s a chance that LYLA intentionally looks East Asian to allude to both Greta and Xina’s ancestry. While LYLA was programmed by Xina in the 90’s comics, the ATSV art book reveals that Miguel programmed her in this iteration. This change is particularly interesting because if LYLA is based on Xina then LYLA is shaped by Miguel’s perception of his past flame, essentially making Xina his muse. There’s also how this changes LYLA’s role as the connector between Xina and Miguel, even when they’re separated. While Xina creating LYLA serves as her way of looking after Miguel and shows how much she wants to be in his life, Miguel creating LYLA serves as his way of preserving his memory of Xina and demonstrates how much he wants her in his life. Admittedly, there isn’t much in text evidence from the films that confirms this theory and SV LYLA doesn’t even resemble Xina’s look from the comics, other than them both being East Asian. However, LYLA’s original Marilyn Monroe design does not resemble Xina either, but she still represents Xina’s presence. In the end, this theory relies on the premise that Miguel is projecting his lingering feelings towards Xina onto LYLA and it’s reflected in her design, along with how LYLA reminds Miguel of the various roles Xina played in his life. Whether it’d be an equal. A mystery. A regret. A lover. A friend. It all becomes more tragic if Miguel’s story in the SV films acts as a continuation of his 90’s comics. At the end of this run, Xina who is overwhelmed by guilt and grief over Dana’s death, leaves Nueva York and Miguel, potentially for good. Thusly, it leads to Miguel’s current position in the SV films where he believes that she will never come back and that LYLA is the only form of connection he has left with Xina.

#Xina is always here but well hidden #lyla #xina kwan #miguel o'hara #xinamiguel #holofang #atsv lyla #lyla spiderverse #marilyn monroe #norma jean baker #greta lee #spiderman 2099 #into the spiderverse #across the spiderverse #spiderverse

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goblins-riddles-or-frocks · 4 months

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What are your thoughts on Alina being Shu in the show? If canon Alina was from Shu Han do you think it would've made any difference? The show kind of wasted this storyline but idk if I prefer Alina actually having a solid backstory or book Alina being this nobody from nowhere that's now a reverred saint. Also I've seen a lot of people from the book fandom hc darkling as shu looking.

I like her being specifically mixed race a lot! Especially with how it ties into her unmoored feeling where she isn’t sure there’s anywhere she truly belongs. I think it could bring really interesting context to her perspective.

When the show and casting were announced I suspected they chose to have her be half Shu because the books are uh pretty racist in that regard! It starts out in subtler ways with the only Asian characters being either the fucking karate teacher trope or Tolya and Tamar as both having essentially renounced their heritage and country completely in order to be counted “one of the good ones” but also the way they’re employed as the only genuinely faithful characters (devoted to the in-books white lead) in the main cast, while shdhff also being presented as untrustworthy when they sell them out to the Apparat?

But then the SoC duology gets sooo much worse with the parem being given a not!opium position as the scary dangerous Drug From The East and the hardcore dehumanized super soldiers from Shu Han whose name I forgot how to spell but omg it really felt like they only existed to be killed in really gruesome and mean spirited ways. Not to mention Wylan’s magic yellowface! That would be terrible on its own but then that’s how the book attempts to remotely deal with racism sjfhfgff by the character in yellowface experiencing micro agressions. It’s just. It’s bad!

I think someone must have said something to LB by KoS or she just realized the implications were decidedly not great because she tries to course correct really hard and shift most antagonistic focus to Fjerda instead. (Too little too late imo 🥲)

So I was assuming the half Shu Alina choice was in a similar vein? But yeah the show did absolutely nothing with it! What a missed opportunity! I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt with season one where Alina being Shu was only used as an excuse to hurl made up slurs at her, thinking that it might be building to something? …But then it didn’t lol. And that retroactively made the slurs and focus on racism feel so pointless and mean spirited. It felt like an admittance that her being hit over the head constantly with racism wasn’t at all integral to the story and she could’ve been a mixed race protagonist all along without any of that!

But yeah all that being said, I like the concept of Alina being mixed. But I also wouldn’t trust Leigh Bardugo with it? Like everything I already mentioned in the books aside, I think she has a terrible habit of giving her POC characters very racialized suffering in their backstories. I strongly disliked how she handled race with both Inej and Zoya. Zoya was worse imo because she was initially clearly written to be white, but once we got a race retcon for her she suddenly has a never before hinted at poverty and child bride backstory when she’s primarily been associated with privilege before? Like the problem isn’t that she has a tragic backstory, but all the choices felt very racialized. I also just found it slimy how officially commissioned art etc had her visibly brown then the books make a point of saying multiple times that she just… looks white? Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth like she wants the representation brownie points without being willing to commit in canon. So idk as much as I’d love a POC protagonist, if Alina was half Shu in the books as well I wouldn’t trust LB to not give her a weird racial caricature tragic backstory. I do think we could still have the “no backstory just came out of nowhere” thing with her being mixed, I don’t think that has to be canceled out. Like it’s mentioned that Keramzin regularly takes in “war orphans” and border areas tend to be racially mixed. But yeah I just think LB would probably get weird with it. (She was admittedly better with race in Ninth House, but I suspect that also had to do with the real world contemporary setting)

Also the Darkling thing isn’t an HC it’s from a one off line in Demon in the Wood! It’s mentioned that he can, and has, passed as Shu. It’s ahdhf never mentioned again though and kind of wild tbh considering the very visibly white face casts she’s talked about for him in the past?? But that’s just word of god whereas the line in DitW is canon so 🤷‍♀️

#grishaverse #shadow and bone #i ramble sometimes #all the bendy punctuations #a mysterious stranger has appeared

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hawkfurze · 2 years

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wait what happened with penumbra podcast? i dont listen to it currently but i used to

It's gonna be a bit long and I might get some details wrong as this happened around last September. Also please note: I haven't been keeping up with anything involving Penumbra Podcast and the people who worked on it since these events happened, nor listened to the podcast past S3, before these events, and everything I saw I saw through Twitter, where these events happened, and through videos on tik tok from the TPP community there. I'm white and a lot of other creators, ones more affected by this than me, have made more detailed videos about this on tik tok (I never check the TPP tag here but there most likely are more better posts about it on here too). Also I don't condemn this post being used as an excuse to harass the people involved cause I'm not about that. The best thing to do is just to stop listening and posting about Penumbra Podcast.

CW for racism, ablieism, and transphobia

TDLR if you don't want to read the whole thing: The TPP creators hired an artist with a lineup of the Junoverse story characters portrayed with racist and abliest caricatures. After people expressed their concerns, Harley makes a vague thread about bullies that was targeted towards people that expressed their concerns about the racist art, pulling more of the fandoms attention towards the situation. The thread is deleted and the TPP creators are silent. The artist makes their own apology, holding themself accountable for the art they have made and promises not to make the same mistakes in the future. After a week, TPP posts a public statement made by the other creator of TPP, Kevin, shifting the blame for the events and "apologizing" for what had happened but giving no clear plan going forward to make sure this doesn't repeat for a third time. Harley theirself still hasn't apologized for the thread they made. I don't listen to The Penumbra Podcast anymore and you shouldn't''t either.

So last year, a couple weeks before the first episode of Season 4 was supposed to come out, TPP announced the artist they hired for the art for the new episodes of S4. You can go on their Twitter and find the artist there if you really want to, but a lot of people were not happy with the choice, specifically because of the artists lineup they made around 2 years ago (at the time of the announcement) of the main cast of Junoverse, mainly because of their designs for Buddy, Peter, Vespa, and Alessandra. Buddy and Alessandra's designs were both racist caricatures of black women, Peter's of east Asian men, and Vespa, a canonical paranoid schizophrenic woman, was portrayed as violent and bloodthirsty (I also saw some comments saying her design was also transphobic, but I believe this lineup was made before it was confirmed that Vespa is trans).

A lot of people were vocal about their choice for the artist saying it wasn't a good idea and that they should consider hiring another artist to do the promotional art for TPP because of this line up. They could have listened or made a public post about peoples concerns, but instead threw more fuel into the fire. I don't know how long after the announcement this post was made, but one of the creators, Harley Takagi Kaner, conveniently and undoubtedly was targeted towards the people pointing out the artists racism in their work, made a thread about "bullies." I admit, I don't remember everything that was in it and don't have screenshots as the thread has been deleted, but the timing of the post as well as the content of it, made things boil over and the fandom was collectively pissed. Kevin Vibert, the other creator of TPP, says Harley gets a lot of transphobic messages sent to them, but that's not an excuse when it's pointed out that the artist you hired has made racist and abliest fan art of your show.

The thread got deleted a day or so after it was made, but the damage was already done and there was only silence from the TPP creators as people directed their messages to the artist in question. The artist did apologize and promised to not lean into those caricatures again, though they used the word "goofy" instead of calling it what it is, but was left to deal with the fallout by theirself with silence from the TPP creators.

About a week later they announced they will issue a public statement, and one was made by Kevin. In the statement, Kevin apologizes and talks about the harassment Harley receives (even before this event) vs the harassment he receives, mainly these messages being transphobic attacks towards Harley, focusing more on this than on the fact that most people were respectful when raising their concerns about the racist art before Harley made that thread calling members of their own fandom bullies and that everyone only wanted to hear some kind of accountability from the creators. Kevin also admits that of the two POC people they had hired to review the artists they were considering hiring, neither of them were black, despite most of the cast for Junoverse being headcannoned as such, and that what pushed him to make the statement in the first place was because the Patreon was losing patrons as people pulled their pledges away from the show because of these events. He talks about the show being a part of his and Harley's livelihood but no real clear indication about how and if they will try to stop something like this from happening again, especially since this was not the first time this has happened (tho I didn't find that out until after this whole thing). Harley hasn't made a public apology yet, at least on twitter, and I think is taking a much needed break from Twitter. The apology, as a whole, was a messy thing that shifted blame and highlighted the mistakes behind the scenes, without giving some kind of clear statement of if the creators even intend on making sure that nothing like this will happen again.

Personally I think the way this situation was handled was sloppy and unprofessional, and as Harley Takagi Kaner still hasn't made an apology on Twitter, I am not holding out much hope that they will say anything about it at all, though I am glad they're taking a break from Twitter as they very much need it. I can't support a show that claims to be inclusive and diverse when you are alienating a whole part of your fandom, especially if you are actively encouraging people to design the main cast of characters as POC, and behaving like this when people point out your racism instead of apologizing and trying to do something better. Also by taking so long to even announce that there will be a public statement made, leaving your artist to handle the backlash alone, but, in Kevin's case, still being able to do a livestream while the shows fans are practically begging for some accountability, and only making a statement once it started affecting your patreon, doesn't make me feel like there will be any changes in the future when it comes to how things like this will be prevented before they even have the chance to happen, and how they will be handled when they do.

If you were unaware of this having had happened, I highly encourage you reconsider continuing listening to the show, and if you must must must listen to it, figure out how to without directly supporting the creators, as well as not post about the show anymore. I haven't listened to TPP since this all happened, even though it was one of my favorite shows at the time, and there are other creators out there who can and have had handled situations like this more sensitively than how the TPP crew has. Racism from the creators shouldn't be ignored in favor of the queer rep The Penumbra Podcast brings, and no show should call itself inclusive if it's creators are going to treat it's non-white audience like this.

#damn it hawkfurze #the penumbra podcast #tpp #racism tw #ablism tw #transphobia tw #yeah thats why I dont post about tpp anymore #and again dont go harassing the creators or the artist again cause this is year old drama and honestly it'd be better if you just #stopped posting about the show and find something new with gay people to listen to

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thecartooncorner · 2 years

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For this week’s post I’ll be doing a review of what is probably one of the best animated series of our time, Avatar: The Last Airbender. This post is also a collab with @grown_ingup. Check out her post where she talks about the growth and development of the characters throughout the show.

"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzo, the series premiered from 2005 - 2008 on Nickelodeon. With only 3 Seasons the show quickly became a pop culture phenomenon, with follow up series such as The Legend of Korra and comics expanding this made up universe.

Regardless of if you’ve ever seen the show or not you’ve definitely heard the iconic intro explaining the plot or at least are familiar with the equally as iconic imagery that is the Avatar’s blue arrow tattoo upon his little bald head. But if you’re not, the series follows the story of our main protagonist Aang, the avatar, and his friends as they attempt to save the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai and bring an end to the 100 year war with the Fire Nation. “Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished”

Heavily influenced by Asian culture, the avatar universe draws inspiration from east and south asian, as well as western culture while also incorporating the use of elemental manipulation and martial arts. The series itself is a creative blend of Japanese anime and Western cartoons that resonates well with both of these audiences.

Now I will admit, the first season is a little slow and has a lot of what could be considered filler, but coming to the end of the first season is where all the big action and major plot points start to really heat up.

Despite it’s Y7 rating and goofy cartoonish antics, ATLA appeals to both its intended younger audience and a much older and wider audience as the series incorporates themes of genocide, female empowerment, imperialism and posing philosophical questions regarding free will and destiny. These themes are explored more in depth through incredibly well-written characters, as well as through the exploration of the 4 Nations and their culture.

Aside from the extensive plot, one of the things that makes Avatar so great are the characters, especially the growth and development they go through. From iconic characters like Zuko, the main antagonist turned deuteragonist to more complex characters like Azula, a villain who’s psychology has been analyzed hundreds of times by fans.

Being able to witness their journey from how they started to seeing how far they’ve come by the end of the series is truly one of the best parts of ATLA. For those of you who have already seen the series, if you want to see more about the characters and their development, check out @grown_ingup’s post.

Overall Avatar the Last Airbender is an iconic and arguably one of the best animated series of all time. From the amazing writing, to animation and even more amazing soundtrack, it’s no wonder the series has impacted pop culture so greatly, from memes to references that any fan or anyone even remotely aware of its existence would recognize. ATLA is favourite to many including myself and I would recommend it to anyone who hasn’t already seen it, you’re definitely missing out by not watching it.

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warisara · 7 months

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Notes to expand on for assignment.

6 Oct 23 (will continue to edit this)

500 words (3-4 paragraphs) due 16th October

Reflect on issues implicated contextually through what is emerging in your practice.

Develop key questions.

- Sketching out a space for myself by exploring and expanding with my writing -

Field - other works that remind me of my own. Other writers, politics, theories, cultural implications.

Nam June Paik - use of technology, video art, sculpture and installation methods to question religion and culture.

Hito Steyerl - the use of the poor image.

Martha Rosler - public sphere, investigating topics such as daily life, the media, architecture, and the physical environment, particularly as they apply to women.

Method - Why are these methods and materials used?

Using older technology as an ode to my school years in Thailand, having demonstration videos shown to students from a young age. Eg. How to correctly bow to royals, monks, buddha statues, etc. How to be respectful to elders and what level of language to use with elders, monks, royals, etc.

Using mini architectural sculpture to accommodate video work. Recreating Thai buddhist shrines in a western-esque architectural style which is also void of colour as a way to communicate my uncertainty with religion and believing and finding it hard to fit in a culture being mixed race.

Ideas - What does the work physically indicate, visually represent, symbolise culturally.

Trying to claim a space in a culture, feeling more comfortable claiming that space as a character.

Finding it hard to pray and wish for a blessing, but desperately needing one due to on-going health issues.

Religion as a last resort, religion as a spiritual anchor.

Key questions - What is the work opening up in this conversation? How does it add, enforce, contrast, establish discourse? How do I and my work add to this investigation and conversation?

I think it opens up space for those who are confused and don’t know where they fit in or where they stand. And it’s okay to be in that space for however long you need or forever.

I started this exploration trying to answer these questions I had in my mind, however working through the questions I realised not every question needs or has an answer. Being able to be content with this is the main thing that my work enforces.

Wanting to discover a space where I could fit in comfortably, and I did. The space is a perfect little nook between everything. Not everything is black and white. Just like my ethnicity and my religious beliefs, I sit in the middle. I know there are many others who feel just like I do but it’s not really a topic of discussion. So here I am with my work hoping others will be able to relate, even if they don’t I hope they can understand what I am conveying with my art.

22 Oct 23 -

Using older technology as an ode to my school years in Thailand, having demonstration videos shown to students from a young age. For example, how to correctly bow to royals, monks, buddha statues, and how to be respectful to elders and what level of language to use with elders, monks, royals, etc.

A couple of Thai artists that have influenced my work are Sakkarin Suttisarn and Kamonlak Sukchai. Sakkarin Suttisarn and his series of digital collages that, Transformation of Object to Worshipping, makes light of the possibility that Thai-style rituals exist and are practised elsewhere. Kamonlak Sukchai analyses South-east Asian folklore and its influences on history, national identity, religious belief, and sexual mythology. She frequently uses collage and photography techniques in her work.

I have been using small scale architectural sculpture to accommodate video work. Recreating Thai buddhist shrines in a western-esque architectural style, as well as referencing artists and writers such as Nam June Paik, Hito Steyerl, and Martha Rosler by combining elements of video art, technology, performance, and the poor image, as well as my interest of the act of performing to an audience, theatre and stage design.

By doing this I believe my work touches on the delicate topic and the action of trying to claim a space within two cultures and trying to become more comfortable expressing confusion about religion and spirituality. Whilst referencing my experience growing up in a country where religion is heavily intertwined within culture. Also, the sculptures being void of colour as a way to communicate my uncertainty with religion and believing. Whilst also finding it hard to fit in a culture that sometimes doesn’t feel like it fully accepts me because I am mixed race.

It opens up space for those who are confused and don’t know where they fit in or where they stand. And discovering that it is not a big deal to be in that space for however long you need or even forever. It’s about being able to find comfort in the grey area.

Wanting to discover a space where I could fit in comfortably, and I did. The space is a perfect little nook between everything. Not everything is black and white. Just like my ethnicity, I sit in the middle, although not perfectly right down the middle, it’s still an in-between. I know there are many others who feel just like I do but it’s not really a topic of discussion. So here I am with my work hoping other will be able to relate, even if they don’t I hope they can understand what I am conveying with my art.

#wtmfa

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revenge-of-the-shit · 3 years

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Writing Chinese characters set within Western worlds

If you don’t want to read it on tumblr, go check this out on medium or go follow me on instagram at @annessarose_writes!

Alright. You know what. I’ve seen plenty of stereotypes in fiction (and in social media) that are so incredibly pervasive I’ve seen many Chinese people within the western world internalize it themselves. So here’s a rough guide on writing Chinese characters in an English-speaking Western setting, written by me, a Chinese Canadian woman.

If you’re here to say something racist fuck off. Otherwise, welcome! This is not a comprehensive guide by any means. This is merely a brief overview based on my own experiences. My experience (as someone in North America) will differ from someone living in, say, Europe or South America. I’m not representative of every Chinese person because everyone’s experience is unique. So here were are.

1. Our names

Chinese names are usually written as follows: [family name] [name]. Let’s take a Canadian historical figure as an example: 黃寬先. In Chinese, it’s pronounced “Wong Foon Sien.” On Canadian documents — which are written [First name] [Last name], he’d be called “Foon Sien Wong.” He went by “Foon Sien” for most of his life. That’s his full “first name.” Nobody would call him Foon because that’s just half of his name (unless given permission). It’d be like meeting a stranger called Alex and calling them “Al” right off the bat. Sure, they could go by Al, but you don’t know that.

For those of us living in the Western world, some of us have both a Chinese name and an English name. In these cases, our Chinese name becomes our middle name in English (e.g. a character could be called John Heen-Gwong Lee).

For some people who immigrated to the Western world but were born in China, their legal name would be their Chinese name. Some choose to keep that name. Some choose an English name as their “preferred” name but keep their Chinese name on legal documents. It varies.

2. Parents & Stereotypes

There’s two stereotypes which are so pervasive I see it being used over and over in jokes even within Chinese (and, to a larger extent, asian) communities:

The [abusive] tiger mom and the meek/absent dad

Both parents are unreasonably strict/abusive and they suck

I have yet to see any fiction stories with Chinese parents where they’re depicted as kind/loving/supportive/understanding (if you have recommendations — please do send them my way). Not all Chinese parents are tiger parents. Chinese parents — like all parents — are human. Good god. YES, they’re human! YES, they have flaws! YES, they are influenced by the culture they grew up in!

That isn’t to say there aren’t parents like those tropes. There are. I know this because I grew up in a predominantly Chinese community where I had many a friend’s parent who was like this. Parents who compare their kids to the best kid in class. Parents who force kids into private lessons and competitions that the kid despises because the parents think it’s for the best. Parents who have literally called their kid a disappointment because they didn’t get 100%.

But please, also consider: there’s parents who support their child’s goals and who listen. Not all parents force their kid into the stereotypical trifecta of lawyer/doctor/engineer — I know of a good number who support their child in choosing the path they want. There’s parents who make mistakes and learn and try their best to support their child. So please, for the love of god, if you write a Chinese character, don’t reduce their parents to stereotypes.

3. Language & Learning

When I first read The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, I was so excited to see a Chinese Canadian character in Frank Zhang. Finally, there was someone like me. Finally, there was representation in well-known western media.

While I do appreciate that RR added in Frank Zhang, it’s pretty obvious that he didn’t really know how to write a Chinese Canadian character. One of the most glaring examples: in The Son of Neptune, Frank reveals he can’t really read Chinese. In like, the next book (I think — it’s been a while since I read it), Frank is suddenly able to read Chinese because he “learned” it in two week’s time.

Nope. Nuh-uh. Learning Chinese is a pain, let me tell you. There’s thousands of different characters and it is something you need to devote a lot of time to learning (especially if you’re progressed past the best childhood years for learning a language). So if you’re writing about a Chinese character living in the western world, here’s what you need to know:

A character who was born and raised in the western world does not necessarily know how to read/write in Chinese.

If they were raised by their own family, the character would very likely know how to speak their own dialect. They’d be able to understand the language used in movies/TV and they sound like a native speaker, but they may not know how to use language outside of certain contexts (the term for this is heritage speaker).

They probably went to Chinese school. They probably hated it. Chinese school is usually universally hated and does not teach you jack shit other than a hatred for the place and a vague memory of learning how to read the language without actually retaining knowledge of what you learned.

Most of my friends who know how to read/write in Chinese learned from tutors, parents, or were born in China.

There’s two main types of written Chinese: Traditional (used by Cantonese speakers) and Simplified (used by Mandarin speakers).

There are MANY other dialects (which I don’t know much about). The most common ones are Mandarin (usually spoken by people from the mainland), then Cantonese (usually spoken by people from Hong Kong).

4. Fitting into the community

Usually, the story is one of two things: they’re the only Asian kid in the entire school, or they grew up in a predominantly East Asian community. Things to consider for both of these when you’re writing:

Growing up the only Asian kid

They’re “that Asian kid.” They’re different. They walk into a class and feel weird and out of place.

They bring food from home (usually ethnic cuisine) to school. Other classmates stare at it, make fun of it, demand what that strange food is.

“Where are you from?” “Here.” “No, like, where are you really from?”

“Your name is funny.”

People literally never getting the character’s name right.

And that horrible, horrible feeling: wishing that they were white so they could avoid all of this.

Growing up in a predominantly East Asian community

It’s not uncommon for Chinese cuisine to mix with other east Asian cuisines. For special occasions (or just for a casual night out), your character could very well go out to get some sushi, or go for some KBBQ, or get some Vietnamese noodles.

Screaming “AIYAA” at/with their friends unironically if they’re annoyed (I’ve done this a lot with Cantonese friends. Less so with Mandarin friends).

Slipping into Chinese for like, two words, during a mostly-English conversation to talk about food or some other topic that can’t be adequately conveyed in English.

Reading books by white authors and learning about white history and growing up thinking white names, white books, and white history is the norm and standard even though the community is surrounded by East Asian people.

When the character leaves this community, there’s a brief culture shock when they realize how sheltered they’ve been.

Things in common for both of these:

The character has grown up on ethnic cuisine. Yes, Chinese people do eat rice with many of our meals. Yes, boba (bubble) tea is extremely popular. No, rice isn’t the only thing we eat. No, not all Chinese people love boba (though as a Chinese person I admit this sounds sacrilegious to say…)

The character likely grew up watching film/TVthat originates from East Asia. It’s not uncommon to watch Studio Ghibli films. It’s not uncommon to watch Japanese or Korean shows with canto/mando dub (examples: Ultraman, Kamen Rider). If you want to see a classic Chinese film from Hong Kong that’s fucking hilarious, watch Kung Fu Hustle.

The character has felt or been told that they’re “too westernized to be Chinese, but too Chinese to fit into the western world.” They’re torn between the two.

5. General portrayal

It’s quite simple, really. We’re human. We’re regular people. We have regular hobbies like all people do. We’re good at some subjects and bad at others. We have likes and dislikes like all people do. So here’s a list of stereotypes you can avoid.

STEREOTYPES TO AVOID BECAUSE WE’RE REGULAR HUMANS AND WE DON’T FIT INTO A SINGLE COOKIE CUTTER SHAPE, DAMMIT.

The character is a maths whiz and perfect at all things STEM.

The character is a straight-A+ gifted/IB/AP student.

The character is the next coming of Mozart and is amazing at piano/violin.

The character’s free time is spent only studying.

The character is insanely good at martial arts.

The character is either meek and submissive or an explosive, dangerous force.

I’m not going to mention the other stereotypes. You know, those ones. The really obvious ones that make fun of and demonize (sometimes through multiple untruths) how we look and how we live our lives. You should know.

Of course, there are people who fit into one or more of these. That’s not the point. The point is: molding all Chinese characters to these stereotypes (which white media tends to do) is harmful and reductionist. We’re more than stereotypes.

—

6. Conclusion

We need more diversity in portrayal of Chinese characters. Reducing us into one-dimensional caricatures has done nothing but harm us — look at what’s happening now. This guide is by no means comprehensive, but I hope it has helped you by providing a quick overview.

If you want to accurately portray Chinese characters, do your research. Read Chinese fiction. Watch Chinese films/TV. Initiate a conversation with the community. Portray us accurately. Quit turning us into caricatures.

#non sw #writing #writing reference #reference #writing bipoc characters #Chinese representation #asian representation #asian characters #chinese characters #stop asian hate #chinese diaspora #chinese american #chinese canadian #writing guide #abuse tw #racism tw #long post #annessarose writes

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writingwithcolor · 3 years

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Jurassic period alien interacting with key cultures and historical figures in Middle East & Asia throughout history

@ketchupmaster400 said:

Hello, so my question is for a character I’ve been working on for quite a while but wasn’t sure about a few things. So basically at the beginning of the universe there was this for less being made up of dark matter and dark energy. Long story short it ends up on earth during the Jurassic Period. It has the ability to adapt and assimilate into other life animals except it’s hair is always black and it’s skin is always white and it’s eyes are always red. It lives like this going from animal to animal until it finally becomes human and gains true sentience and self awareness. As a human it lives within the Middle East and Asia wondering around trying to figure out its purpose and meaning. So what I initially wanted to do with it was have small interactions with the dark matter human and other native humans that kinda helped push humanity into the direction it is now. For example, Mehndhi came about when the dark matter human was drawing on their skin because it felt insecure about having such white skin compared to other people. And ancient Indians saw it and thought it was cool so they adopted it and developed it into Mehndi. Minor and small interactions though early history leading to grander events. Like they would be protecting Jerusalem and it’s people agains the Crusaders later on. I also had the idea of the the dark matter human later on interacting with the prophets Jesus Christ and Muhammad. With Jesus they couldn’t understand why he would sacrifice himself even though the people weren’t deserving. And then Jesus taught them that you have to put other before yourself and protecting people is life’s greatest reward. And then with the prophet Muhammad, I had the idea that their interaction was a simple conversation that mirrors the one he had with the angel Jibril, that lead to the principles of Islam. Now with these ideas I understand the great importance of how not to convey Islam and I’ve been doing reasearch, but I am white and I can understand how that may look trying to write about a different religion than my own. So I guess ultimate my question is, is this ok to do? Is it ok to have an alien creature interact with religious people and historical events as important as they were? Like I said I would try to be as accurate and as respectable as possible but I know that Islam can be a touchy subject and the last thing I would want is to disrespect anyone. The main reason I wanted the dark matter being in the Middle East was because I wanted to do something different because so much has been done with European and American stuff I wanted to explore the eastern side of the world because it’s very beau and very rich with so many cultures that I want to try and represent. I’m sorry for the long post but I wanted you guys to fully understand what my idea was. Thank you for your time and hope you stay safe.

Disclaimer:

The consensus from the moderators was that the proposed character and story is disrespectful from multiple cultural perspectives. However, we can’t ignore the reality that this is a commonly deployed trope in many popular science fiction/ thriller narratives. Stories that seek to take religious descriptions of events at face value from an areligious perspective particularly favor this approach. Thus, we have two responses:

Where we explain why we don’t believe this should be attempted.

Where we accept the possibility of our advice being ignored.

1) No - Why You Shouldn’t Do This:

Hi! I’ll give you the short answer first, and then the extended one.

Short answer: no, this is not okay.

Extended answer. I’ll divide it into three parts.

1) Prophet Muhammad as a character:

Almost every aspect of Islam, particularly Allah (and the Qur’an), the Prophet(s) and the companions at the time of Muhammad ﷺ, are strictly kept within the boundaries of real life/reality. I’ll assume this comes from a good place, and I can understand that from one side, but seriously, just avoid it. It is extremely disrespectful and something that is not even up to debate for Muslims to do, let alone for non-Muslims. Using Prophet Muhammad as a character will only bring you problems. There is no issue with mentioning the Prophet during his lifetime when talking about his attributes, personality, sayings or teachings, but in no way, we introduce fictional aspects in a domain that Muslims worked, and still work, hard to keep free from any doubtful event or incident. Let’s call it a closed period: we don’t add anything that was not actually there.

Reiterating then, don’t do this. There is a good reason why Muslims don’t have any pictures of Prophet Muhammad. We know nothing besides what history conveyed from him.

After this being said, there is another factor you missed – Jesus is also an important figure in Islam and his story from the Islamic perspective differs (a lot) from that of the Christian perspective. And given what you said in your ask, you would be taking the Christian narrative of Jesus. If it was okay to use Prophet Muhammad as a character (reminder: it’s not) and you have had your dark matter human interacting with the biblical Jesus, it will result in a complete mess; you would be conflating two religions.

2) Crusaders and Jerusalem:

You said this dark matter human will be defending Jerusalem against the Crusaders. At first, there is really no problem with this. However, ask yourself: is this interaction a result of your character meeting with both Jesus and Prophet Muhammed? If yes, please refer to the previous point. If not, or even if you just want to maintain this part of the story, your dark matter human can interact with the important historical figures of the time. For example, if you want a Muslim in your story, you can use Salah-Ad-Din Al-Ayoubi (Saladin in the latinized version) that took back Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. Particularly, this crusade has plenty of potential characters.

Also, featuring Muslim characters post Prophet Muhammad and his companions’ time, is completely fine, just do a thorough research.

3) Middle Eastern/South Asian settings and Orientalism:

The last point I want to remark is with the setting you chose for your story. Many times, when we explore the SWANA or South Asian regions it’s done through an orientalist lens. Nobody is really safe from falling into orientalism, not even the people from those regions. My suggestion is educating yourself in what orientalism is and how it’s still prevalent in today’s narrative. Research orientalism in entertainment, history... and every other area you can think of. Edward Said coined this term for the first time in history, so he is a good start. There are multiple articles online that touch this subject too. For further information, I defer to middle eastern mods.

- Asmaa

Racism and Pseudo-Archaeology:

A gigantic, unequivocal and absolute no to all of it, lmao.

I will stick to the bit about the proposed origin of mehendi in your WIP, it’s the arc I feel I’m qualified to speak on, Asmaa has pretty much touched upon the religious and orientalism complications.

Let me throw out one more word: pseudoarchaeology. That is, taking the cultural/spiritual/historical legacies of ancient civilizations, primarily when it involves people of colour, and crediting said legacies to be the handiwork of not just your average Outsider/White Saviour but aliens. I’ll need you to think carefully about this: why is it that in so much of media and literature pertaining to the so-called “conspiracy theories” dealing with any kind of extraterrestrial life, it’s always Non-Western civilizations like the Aztec, the ancient Egyptians, the Harappans etc who are targeted? Why is it that the achievements of the non West are so unbelievable that it’s more feasible to construct an idea of non-human, magical beings from another planet who just conveniently swooped in to build our monuments and teach us how to dress and what to believe in? If the answer makes you uncomfortable, it’s because it should: denying the Non-West agency of their own feats is not an innocent exercise in sci-fi worldbuilding, it comes loaded with implications of racial superiority and condescension towards the intellect and prowess of Non-European cultures.

Now, turning to specifics:

Contrary to what Sarah J. Maas might believe- mehendi designs are neither mundane, purely aesthetic tattoos nor can they be co-opted by random Western fantasy characters. While henna has existed as an art form in various cultures, I’m limiting my answer to the Indian context, (specifying since you mention ancient India). Mehendi is considered one of the tenets of the Solah Shringar- sixteen ceremonial adornments for Hindu brides, one for each phase of the moon, as sanctioned by the Vedic texts. The shade of the mehendi is a signifier for the strength of the matrimonial bond: the darker the former, the stronger the latter. Each of the adornments carries significant cosmological/religious symbolism for Hindus. To put it bluntly, when you claim this to be an invention of the aliens, you are basically taking a very sacred cultural and artistic motif of our religion and going “Well actually….extraterrestrials taught them all this.”

In terms of Ayurveda (Traditional holistic South Asian medicine) , mehendi was used for its medicinal properties. It works as a cooling agent on the skin and helps to alleviate stress, particularly for the bride-to-be. Not really nice to think that aliens lent us the secrets of Ayurvedic science (pseudoarchaeology all over again).

I’m just not feeling this arc at all. The closest possible alternative I could see to this is the ancient Indian characters incorporating some specific stylistic motifs in their mehendi in acknowledgement to this entity, in the same vein of characters incorporating motifs of tribute into their armour or house insignia, but even so, I’m not sure how well that would play out. If you do go ahead with this idea, I cannot affirm that it will not receive backlash.

-Mimi

These articles might help:

Pseudoarchaeology and the Racism Behind Ancient Aliens

A History of Indian Henna (this studies mehendi origins mostly with reference to Mughal history)

Solah Shringar

2) Not Yes, But If Ignoring the Above:

I will be the dissenting voice of “Not No, But Here Are The Big Caveats.” Given that there is no way to make the story you want to tell palatable to certain interpretations of Islam and Christianity, here is my advice if the above arguments did not sufficiently deter you.

1. Admiration ≠ Research: It is not enough to just admire cultures for their richness and beauty. You need to actually do the research and learn about them to determine if the story you want to tell is a good fit for the values and principles these cultures prioritize. You need to understand the significance of historical figures and events to understand the issues with attributing the genesis of certain cultural accomplishments to an otherworldly influence. 1.

2. Give Less Offense When Possible and Think Empathetically: You should try to imagine the mindsets of those you will offend and think about to what degree you can soften or ameliorate certain aspects of your plot, the creature’s characteristics, and the creature’s interactions with historical figures to make your narrative more compatible. There is no point pretending that much of areligious science fiction is incompatible with monotheist, particularly non-henotheistic, religious interpretations as well as the cultural items and rituals derived from those religious interpretations. One can’t take “There is no god, just a lonely alien” and make that compatible with “There is god, and only in this particular circumstance.” Thus:

As stated above by Asmaa and Mimi, there is no escaping the reality the story you propose is offensive to some. Expect their outcry to be directed towards you. Can you tolerate that?

Think about how you would feel if someone made a story where key components of your interpretation of reality are singled out as false. How does this make you feel? Are you comfortable doing that to others?

3. Is Pseudoarchaeology Appropriate Here?: Mimi makes a good point about the racial biases of pseudoarchaeology. Pseudoarchaeology is a particular weakness of Western-centric atheist sci-fi. Your proposed story is the equivalent of a vaguely non-descript Maya/Aztec/Egyptian pyramid or Hindu/ Buddhist-esque statue being the source for a Resident Evil bio weapon/ Predator nest/ Assassin’s Creed Isu relic.

Is this how you wish to draw attention to these cultures you admire? While there is no denying their ubiquity in pop-culture, such plots trivialize broad swathes of non-white history and diminish the accomplishments of associated ethnic groups. The series listed above all lean heavily into these tropes either because the authors couldn’t bother to figure out something more creative or because they are intentionally telling a story the audience isn’t supposed to take seriously.*

More importantly, I detect a lot of sincerity in your ask, so I imagine such trivialization runs counter to your expressed desire to depict Eastern cultures in a positive and accurate manner.

4. Freedom to Write ≠ Freedom from Consequence: Once again, as a reminder, it’s not our job to reassure you as to whether or not what you are proposing is ok. Asmaa and Mimi have put a lot of effort into explaining who you will offend and why. We are here to provide context, but the person who bears the ultimate responsibility for how you choose to shape this narrative, particularly if you share this story with a wide audience, is you. Speaking as one writer to another, I personally do not have a strong opinion one way or the other, but I think it is important to be face reality head-on.

- Marika.

* This is likely why the AC series always includes that disclaimer stating the games are a product of a multicultural, inter-religious team and why they undermine Western cultures and Western religious interpretations as often (if not moreso) than those for their non-Western counterparts.

Note: Most WWC asks see ~ 5 hours of work from moderators before they go live. Even then, this ask took an unusually long amount of time in terms of research, emotional labor and discussion. If you found this ask (and others) useful, please consider tipping the moderators (link here), Asmaa (coming eventually) and Mimi (here). I also like money - Marika.

#alien character #historical fiction #science fiction #pseudoarchaeology #Middle-Eastern cultures #South-Asian cultures #Islam #writing with Islam #mehendi #cultural appropriation #areligious perspectives in writing #asks #WWC

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hunxi-after-hours · 3 years

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Hello! Firstly, thank you for everything that you do- your meta is always fascinating and your fic may have gotten me into ballet. Secondly- She Who Became The Sun: why is that book so good? I went in with such high expectations and yet somehow it completely met them!

words cannot contain how excited I am that folks are enjoying She Who Became the Sun!!!! look I just want the best things for Shelley Parker-Chan, all the time, okay

I feel like the reason SWBTS is so good is because it's so goshdarned competent on multiple levels of fiction writing, like:

plot: did you see that second-to-third act twist coming because I sure didn't

character: I feel like a lot of epic fantasy (or historical epic!) can struggle with humanizing their characters and allowing them to be flawed, hesitant people beyond their epic, prophesied purpose, but SPC manages to strike that careful balance between human and legend

themes: sometimes you read a book with excellent plot and characterization but then you get to the end of it and you're like "well, guess that was that" because when you actually look at it, the ideas and concepts in the book aren't all that complex. and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! I love rollicking good yarns! but SWBTS deals with some very morally gray characters and situations, especially with its main characters (love it when authors make their protagonists morally gray in a morally gray world, instead of morally pure in a morally gray world), and that's what gives it staying power in my mind

language: I lost my goddamn mind over SPC's use of translation and style in this book, the absolutely mind-boggling thing is that SWBTS reads like it's in translation and I'm just. yelling

content/concept: I mean, just like "founding of the Ming Dynasty but make it queer/historical fantasy/not at all what you'd expect" is just. SPC your MIND. and the fact that SPC sets their novel in identifiably Ming Dynasty China, from material details (can we talk about the scene where Ma is repairing armor with pages torn from books because holy shit) to place names to twists of language is so fucking cool. look, I respect authors who take their East Asian inspirations and set them in secondary world SF/F. in fact, I prefer those works (Ninefox Gambit my beloved), but for SPC to go "nah, I'm going to set it in what is identifiably China" is super fucking kickass, okay

novelty: Brandon Sanderson wrote a wild epilogue in Stormlight Archive where one of his characters (Hoid, I love you) muses on the nature of art, asking what is the most important thing in establishing the greatness of a work? And he comes to the conclusion that's not quality, nor is it ingenuity--it's novelty. It's doing something before anyone else does it. And I don't think anyone is doing it quite like SPC is--not Ken Liu, not R.F. Kuang, not Zen Cho (though don't get me wrong, those three authors are also creating incredible content). SPC really was like "I couldn't find any cdrama-like stories in English so I wrote my own" and then proceeded to do exactly that

tl;dr SWBTS is a tour de force on multiple levels

#tbth I wasn't super into SWBTS while I was reading it #weirdly enough I struggle somewhat with silkpunk because now I'm always like #'(squints at page) okay but are you doing it RIGHT'#but I think I finished the book and then let it sit for a bit #and this slowburn realization of 'holy fucking shit this book is GENIUS' came for me in the week after I closed the book #this book makes me so mad and so happy at the same time and I think that is honestly a good sign #hunxi book tag #She Who Became the Sun #ALSO ANON tell me about your ballet journeys!!!#always interested in hearing ballet journeys considering mine is uh #(checks notes) on hiatus

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47crayons · 3 years

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THE WICKED WITHIN—A COMIC SANS WIP REINTRO

!!!!! it's here :D the wip that started to consume me and has been continuing to do so since, now with a much better sense of what exactly is Happening

current tww taglist let me know to be +/- !! @a-completely-normal-writer @writing-is-a-martial-art @wannabeauthorzofija @magic-is-something-we-create @croctears @writeblrfantasy @opes-magnas @author-a-holmes @zoya-writes@fuyugomori @ink-fireplace-coffee

transcript is under the cut!!!

[transcript: a powerpoint presentation of black text on white background, written entirely in comic sans.

start slide one the top left corner reads in red, "warnings (most relevant) war, death, drugs (& addiction), poison". in the center, "the wicked within", and underneath it in smaller font, "a comic sans reintro by @47crayons". the comments around the entire slide read "a family that is so found!!!", "gang rivalry :D and gang content in general", "crime found family basically", "childhood friends to STILL FRIENDS", "all queer cast :p", "eat the rich (not quite, but it’s the right sentiment aldskjfls)", "kickass women, yeah bay bee", "nuanced relationships between different groups :D", "morally grey characters!!!", "so many different governments!!!", "a (mostly alsjflksdj) stable relationship!!!" end slide one

start slide two in the beginning of time… there were four gods: eltenjer, he/him, earth; skari, he/him, fire; aenged, they/them, air; thilda, she/her, water. i didn’t /mean/ for them to have genders, but a quiet breeze whispered “psst. i use they/them.” in the beginning? so you mean… they’re not there anymore? kind of! the gods need followers to survive, and after several unfortunate events, they lost the majority of their followers. the aforementioned unfortunate events: the great ruination, in which natural disasters caused several years of famine and other hardship. the restoration era, in which renovation led people to believe they can live without the gods. if the gods are dead, what’s the point? the gods aren’t /really/ dead, closer to dormant. they can’t actively interact with the mortal realm, but IF they had followers, they would come back to life. oh. did i mention that they control the magic. end slide two

start slide three the dormant gods who can't do... anything control the magic??? hey, no one said magic always has to work. foreshadowing alert huge foreshadowing alert. let’s talk about how magic works, shall we :D people use the Spirit to do magic. people have a Vessel (representation of stamina or how much Sprit can be used at once, can be trained!). people also have a Strength (a type of magic that works well with the user, these have varying frequencies which also depends on location). there’s too much i could say here, but the important thing is the main characters’ Strengths. the right depicts an image of a flowchart showing that gods need followers and produce sprit. people need spirit to do magic. end slide three

start slide four okay but where are we??? where could the magic be so fucked? well, here, of course! the left side shows a line art map, split into five parts going clockwise: portingdale, worchester, the hooks, elderwood, unlabeled. the legend shows that there are mountains in portingdale, forests in elderwood, and rivers that run from portingdale to everywhere else. the place where the four labeled regions meet is called the Inner City. the text on the right reads. welcome to Kjer! there are 3 districts. but wait! there are five? sections? and one isn’t even labelled. worchester used to be a district,,, but it left after the war began. the unlabeled section is the disputed region (re: war). let’s talk more about this war. elderwood wanted easier access to water (see: the rivers in the Wetlands) elderwood & portingdale have been fighting there on and off for over half a century. the hooks has three wards: west (hella rich), south (lower income), north (somewhere in between). end slide four

start slide five whomst. skip to the next slide if you want the actual characters. character basics: the unnecessarily-winded-and-cram-a-lot-of-lore-in version. in the North Ward of The Hooks, there are three main gangs. Kaer Styen, meaning “wicked ones”, Ghetfaer Skarnen, meaning “trickster lords”, Ad Knesten, meaning “the grumbles”. that was so many capital letters i don’t like capital letters alskjdflksjd. they have rivalries and conflicts from time to time, but it’s pretty rare. the tww cast is kaer styen !!! their main means of profit is a drug called jezdin. relieves physical and mental pain. lethal in high. quantities/ when tampered with. can also be addictive. they operate out of a dingy tavern-like building, and they live upstairs!!! okay so this is purely for vibes. how did u know. end slide five

start slide six the Gang. literally :3 Kaer Styen, my beloved. the first thing in each of their bios is their Strength (re: the magic slide). artbreeders!!! i fixed quite a few of them, but my artbreeder skills are questionable at best. this slide is split into three columns. the first column shows a white person with short, brown, curly hair and a firm, but not angry, facial expression. len, he/him, pan. Shifter (can manipulate physical properties). cynical, very cynical (because he has killer instincts). “oh people are dying? am i dying? are you dying? why should i care?” in a relationship with cal. the second column shows a person who appears east asian with long, black, wavy hair and fair skin. chloe, she/her, aroace. Chemist (chemistry but magical). literal archery god. also she’s so quiet it’s SCARY. seems welcoming, emphasis on /seems/ she’ll destroy your ass. knows what you’re feeling. she just. knows. the third column shows a white person with dirty blonde hair. they are smiling. cal, they/them, bi. Whisperer (can persuade others through speech/music). so casually funny all your burdens disappear for a hot minute. gets very attached very deeply. grew up in Portingdale which becomes Important later. end slide six

start slide seven cont. also they have piercings!!!! maybe i will make some picrews later (listen, i KNOW i’ve said this before but. maybe i’m for realsies this time, okay?) this slide is also split into three columns. the first a smiling white female with light blonde hair. eden, she/her?, demi lesbian. Healer (healing magic <3). seen hell and doesn’t want others to suffer. still believes in the gods’ existence. we Don’t talk about her awful parents. raised by a lovely woman in the South Ward, known as Nana. this eye (left) is almost PURPLE which i didn’t do on purpose but is honestly such a cool idea. the second column shows a partially smiling black man with short curly hair. jereth, he/him, gay. powerful life magic thing (will be spoilers if i talk any more). joins them at the beginning. honestly kind of scared of them (who wouldn’t be), but wants to live up to expectations. throws himself into stuff to avoid Thoughts. the third column shows a woman with brown skin, black wavy hair, and a small smile. she is NOT a member of Kaer Styen, but i’m talking about her here all the same. adalaide, she/her, bi (i didn’t like the e in adelaide alskdfjlsj). Melder (metals and the like). heir to the Portingdale throne (assuming her dad doesn’t disown her). Cal’s ex from a few~ years ago she’s still a lil’ hung up on them. technically an antagonist but i love her. so all my characters are queer sue me </3 end slide seven

start slide eight some semblance of plot? coming right up!! the four (jereth isn’t there yet!) are attacked in the Inner City. turns out it’s portingdale soldiers. and then they discover that portingdale has been poisoning the southern rivers (affects worchester and the south ward) because worchester doesn’t really contribute to Kjer as a whole. word gets out, and elderwood, naturally, is even angrier at portingdale (remember, they've been at war). so, they try to stop portingdale from being power hungry enough to poison the entirety of a country while learning about why worchester is so isolated while ALSO trying not to get killed by everyone who hates them. end slide eight

start slide nine memes :> the first is the meme of spongebob reading a sheet of paper and burning it. the paper reads, "going into worchester by yourself is going to get you KILLED", and spongebob is labelled "chloe". the second is the levels of brain template labelled "jereth". from the weakest to most powerful: "trying to figure out his magic", "doing it by accident", "saving everyone's lives". the third is the sleeping person and brain meme. brain: "you're going to portingdale". cal: yeah, i know. brain: you'll see adalaide. cal's eyes are wide open in fear. the fourth says "corporate needs you to find the difference between this image and this image". the first image says, "family", and the second one says, "len, chloe, cal, jereth." eden says, "they're the same picture". the fifth is the spiderman copycat meme where jereth is copying len. end slide nine

/end transcript]

#rbs very much appreciated!!#the wicked within #tww reintro #writeblr #writing #wip #rose writes

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aelie · 2 years

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Fashion on the Outer Rim

Disclaimer: I am not a professional costumer. These are only observations that I’ve made over decades of being a huge nerd about fashion history and Star Wars. And my fashion history is mostly limited to European/western fashion. I’m making this to help a friend with references for drawing Star Wars art, and using tumblr as the easiest way to share it.

If you want to talk, know that I rarely check tumblr except to post fic-related things.

I suspect that life on the Outer Rim is very similar to living out in the American West in the 1800s. That means very few changes of clothing, as cloth is expensive. Garments are going to be multi-purpose and well taken care of. There will frequently be aprons, sleeve covers, undergarments, and accessories to protect the clothes from both bodily fluids and from stains. Clothes will be frequently patched and repaired until they can't be fixed anymore, then recycled into other uses.

That being said, there are definitely more sources of inspiration than just the American west! Basic East Asian clothing has a large influence on the design as well, with the use of wrapped garments and robes. On Tatooine, there’s also a lot of Southwest Asian and North African inspiration with the style of robes worn by both moisture farmers (well, Uncle Owen) and the Tuskens.

Here is the link to a pinterest board I’ve put together of both actual Star Wars art and costumes and inspiration references for future Star Wars art and costumes. I'll be adding to it occasionally.

Some tips on choosing clothes for your characters:

Undershirts are probably going to be common. They’d be very simple shirts with very simple seams with solid colors. Most undershirts in the past were white because color-fast dyes were really expensive, but this is Star Wars, so color everything to your heart’s content. Because they are the fabric that is against the skin, the shirts will have to be something that can really take a beating (aka be washed frequently) - meaning that lots of buttons and patterned fabric would not work very well.

Pants/Trousers/Jeans etc. are likely to be in a thick, tough fabric with thick seams that can endure a lot of wear and tear. Ironically, your best place to look for really tough pants are old style Levis. Those things were made to be used and abused. Color-wise, you’ll see a lot of solids, but in all shades of the rainbow.

Regular shirts would probably have the more fancy seamwork and loads of buttons than undershirts because they wouldn’t be washed as often as the undershirts. This is where you’d find your button-ups, your bib shirts, and your Lando shirts. You’d also find fancy embroidered tunics, your shirt pockets, your lacy trims, and your super bright patterned fabrics. The Jedi uniform-what-is-not-supposed-to-be-a-uniform-but-totally-is is supposed to resemble the clothing of the poorest in the galaxy, so shabby up some Jedi robes for spacers and smugglers. Tunics of varying lengths and styles are also a good place to look for inspiration.

On colder worlds/in colder climes, you’d see a LOT of layering like you do on Earth. For long skirts, though, you’d see a lot of petticoats under the main skirt to add to warmth. Also, stockings/tights, and wraps around the tops of boots to keep the cold and wet out.

Accessories wise, vests are awesome at protecting shirts and for carrying stuff! Sleeve covers used to be a thing to protect your clothes from food or dirt or stains, and would likely be used (it’s also a really good way to reuse old clothes!). Sleeve garters were similar - it would hold your sleeve up at the bicep so your cuffs would be pulled back. Aprons would probably be very common, especially in messier trades. Shawls would help with warmth, and scarves and hijab-like hoods are also commonly seen throughout Star Wars media. And let us not forget the humble and ubiquitous jumpsuit, or the omnipresent and tasteful poncho!

BUT KEEP IN MIND: these are all just my interpretations and opinions on a more realistic approach to clothing on the Outer Rim. This is STAR WARS, baybee! The only hard and fast rule is the RULE OF COOL.

#have a rough draft #star wars #outer rim fashion #art inspiration #art reference

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atelierwriting · 4 years

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let me try on your culture! a step by step guide of counterintuitive actions

[ scroll past if you don’t want to be involved in this discourse! blacklist the “discourse /” tag on my blog to block anything on this topic! ]

in light of recent events in the writeblr community, i would like to examine the work of lillie, formerly known as @/gildedink, as an example of what NOT to do when it comes to writing wips outside of your culture and how to avoid blatant racism and fetishization. this applies specifically to east asian wips.

i want to preface this by saying two things. one: while i am not the authority on racism, i come from a minority that has been targeted in this whole mess. i have spoken with numerous others, and have heard many of the same sentiments from them. two: the person in question has changed her url many times (i can’t tag her officially because her writeblr is password protected i do not know her main anymore and by the time i’m done drafting the last url i know will be gone), is emotionally abusive, lesbophobic, transphobic, pedophilic, and willfully ignorant.

i have already tried to speak with this person, but my attempts (along with other people’s attempts) have been brushed off and ignored.

if you think that’s a lot, just wait until i dive into the details! of course, i’ll be focusing on her frankly horrendous treatment of asian culture as a whole, but i will provide links to archived pages as well to let you come to your own conclusions about anything else i don’t cover.

TW: racism, pretty horrendous war crimes (do not click on provided links if you don’t want details), sexualization, homophobia, transphobia

step one. let me steal your aesthetic.

@mitskism will be going into depth about a specific wip

for those of you do not want to read it, though, it’s a whole clusterfuck of “treating all asian cultures as though they were the same” and also the blatant ignoring of other asian countries outside of china, japan, and korea.

the implications of this are staggering.

why don’t the other countries in asia make an appearance in these wips? why don’t we see cambodia, or mongolia, or vietnam, or any of the other nations? do they not fall into what counts as “aesthetic?” are they not pretty enough? are they too inferior to china, japan, and korea that you don’t even bother to look into them? these are cultures rich in their own history, their own beautiful art and architecture and stories. but they are oftentimes ignored--is it because they’re just not aesthetic enough to be considered asian because they’re “poor” and “dark” and “ugly?”

this is an incredibly colorist way of thinking.

if this seems like a leap, read this excerpt.

let’s break this down. gali’s skin is the color of “dark honey,” the opposite of yun’s pale skin. gali is described to be strong, as opposed to yun. why is gali described like this? not only is it generally poor practice (and i believe racist/fetishistic) to compare skin color to food, but it ascribes into the stereotype of darker people being stronger/more barbaric than lighter people.

but i believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. maybe the excerpt wasn’t meant to read this way.

hello????

regardless of where a person comes from, regardless of their skin color or their identity, they are human too, and they deserve to be treated as such when they are a character in your story.

step two. let me exotify you.

i will list out three facts.

the majority of asian characters in lillie’s wips do not have brown eyes.

gali is a dark skinned character who is sexualized and emphasized to be much stronger than yun

weilai lanhua is the second born princess who is described to have a soft voice and sweet temperament, the “ideal femininity” of the land, but takes many women and men as lovers

the exotification of asian cultures as a backdrop is incredibly common. i address this issue in my paper on the boxer rebellion as represented in european literature back in the 1900s, but i will copy in the paragraph about exotification it so you don’t have to slog through other points (unless you want to see an extreme case of the trivializing of an asian movement to push for orientalism/inferiority of the Other).

Another aspect of the Other is the exoticism of foreign culture, or the Chinese. The narratives that the stories spawned in the wake of the Boxer Rebellion easily could have been told using any of the other rebellions, such as the American Revolution, as the background. It was a conscious choice to use China as an “exotic backdrop” to display the effects of imperialism and conflicts that arise (Rhiel 132). The Otherness plays a role here, in which European readers are unable to fully identify with the people that their protagonists live amongst. Therefore, the protagonist is required to blend in and take from the culture they have been placed in to hide from the violent reaction against them. The Other is thus framed as both a threat and an exotic commodity. The American Revolution as a background would not work in this manner, as it is viewed to align with Enlightenment ideals. The Boxer Rebellion, on the other hand, cannot do the same because it is foreign. The full impact of the commentary in which European empires are able to simply take as they please is only made possible through the complete separation of the Chinese from Europeans in this manner.

exotification comes in the form of stereotypes and fetishization, both made apparent through these three facts i have listed above.

1. the majority of asian characters in lillie’s wips do not have brown eyes.

despite being asian, and despite brown eyes being the color of most asians, each character is consistently shown to have eye colors not typically found in asians. not only is this blatant Othering, or making the characters seem separate from what is considered normal now, it raises the question of why? what is so wrong with asian characters having their normal eye colors? why must they have “special” eye colors?

asa will go into more depth here, but these questions all eventually come back to the need to exotify asians.

2. gali is a dark skinned character who is sexualized and emphasized to be much stronger than yun

touched upon in step one, this blatant sexualization of a darker skinned asian coded character is the adherence to the stereotype of a “hypersexual dark skinned character.” furthermore, fetishization is often associated with an obsession with something in terms of sexualization.

3. weilai lanhua is the second born princess who is described to have a soft voice and sweet temperament, the “ideal femininity” of the land, but takes many women and men as lovers

if you are not yet familiar with the stereotype of submissive asian women, then you might want to read this page. weilai lanhua, whether purposefully or not, is a spot on stereotype in which asian women are hypersexualized, submissive people. as she is a character that is of a minority, modeling her after a stereotype will only strip away at real asian women. media proliferates, and its messages spread far and wide. written word lasts, and you can see it in how we still read books from centuries before in class. written word has effects outside of the story you are writing, whether you like it or not.

step three. let me worldbuild racism, but reverse.

again, asa will be going further into this. yun is a white character, with blond hair and blue eyes, amongst a cast of nearly completely asian/poc characters.

the post describing how yun is treated goes as follows (in response to someone asking about yun being blond):

it is stated that there aren’t any real issues between different “races,” that people “will . . . want to touch Yun’s hair or skin . . . stare because she looks so odd.” sound familiar? this is a prime example of reverse racism within media, where the white character is the minority.

this is beyond disrespectful. this is not a story you can give a white-coded character, regardless of what world you have put them in. the thing about stories, and the thing about media, is that they proliferate so easily and their messages can have a much wider impact than what you expect. in doing this, lillie is ascribing into an incredibly insidious belief that a minority’s story can just be taken and given to just about anyone.

lillie, it is not your story to tell. you cannot speak up over minority writers who have lived that experience, nor can you give that experience to a character who is white-coded. in doing so, you are telling minorities that their experiences are not worth anything. you are telling them that their experiences can be repurposed and given to a white character, of all characters, because their experiences are stories and nothing else.

but it doesn’t stop there. the screenshot below is an exchange between lillie and another user (lillie is the first and last response in the screenshot) where she demonstrates her belief in reverse racism.

through this exchange, lillie demonstrates the fact that she believes that minorities have a privilege in being, well, minorities. quite frankly, this is bullshit. throughout the majority of history, it has been people of color who have had their societies colonized, their rights and power stripped away, and even their recognition as human beings taken away. to claim that none of this matters, and that when they try to speak up that you are being oppressed, is inherently wrong. if you’re afraid when a minority speaks up about the injustices that they have faced, you need to reevaluate yourself.

(there’s also the transphobia, which isn’t fully captured in the screenshot.)

step four. let me take your world.

the tanaka clan rules over a chinese-coded section of the land. a japanese-coded family rules over a chinese-coded location.

let this sink in. japan and china have a long history of conflict, of which includes the “rising red sun,” a symbol of japanese imperialism. this goes back to the second world war, and possibly even before. however, during the war, japan invaded china and committed a number of war crimes.

this medium article describes it pretty well, but in summary: japan killed 20 million chinese people in their invasion, used “comfort women” from conquered countries, committed mass rape and murder, and so on. so yes, i’d say the history between the two countries is pretty rocky. even now, there are maritime disputes and many chinese people have not forgotten what has happened. it doesn’t help that there is widespread denial of these war crimes in japan.

(side note: i’m presenting the issues from a chinese standpoint, because i am chinese and therefore am most familiar with this. i’d rather not talk about atrocities that are out of this scope so i don’t make any misinformed claims.)

so, let me say it one more time.

a japanese-coded family rules over a chinese-coded location.

you cannot treat all of asia as a monolithic entity that can have its cultures mixed together when their history is as long and riddled with conflict as this. you cannot create a world like this without researching or without acknowledging the real world implications. you are spitting in the face of war crimes, imperialism that the perpetrator refuses to admit, and the people who have suffered and died. you are ignorant, and you are feeding into a society that allows this to continue happening.

step five. let me discard you.

there is much more to unpack, and a lot worse behavior, but i’d rather not pull up screenshots and explain everything. i will include a link that has archived pages, though you might have to just take the archived link and substitute the old url for whichever new one she is hiding behind.

this brings me to my conclusion.

two days ago, i woke up to see a response to my original post about asian fetishization in writeblr wips. i thought to myself are we even human to you anymore? and went back to sleep.

but that thought still sticks with me.

ARE WE EVEN HUMAN TO YOU ANYMORE?

stop wearing our culture like it is something you can buy at a store. stop treating our culture like it’s a hot commodity.

do you want to write an asian wip, but aren’t asian? do your research. be respectful to the culture you are writing in. listen when someone from that culture tells you that something you’ve said or written isn’t right. don’t run away after saying that we are gatekeeping you and stifling your creativity. own up and learn from your mistakes. uplift other minority voices. treat us like human beings, because that’s what we are.

tl;dr: do you see something like this going on with someone else? talk to them. they might be willing to listen. if they don’t . . . well, then they aren’t worth your time. my askbox is always open to talk if you need support or want advice on what to do!

archived links of more information.

#discourse /#rb to boost ig #?

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fillingthescrapbook · 3 years

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Rewriting The CW's Kung Fu, Part 9: Reflections and Moving Forward

And we have reached the end of our Kung Fu journey. If you haven't seen where we began, here's a handy guide to the previous posts:

Part 1: The Characters

Part 2: The Pilot

Part 3: The Mythology

Part 4: The Story Map

Part 5: Act I

Part 6: Act II

Part 7: Act III

Part 8: The Finale

Before I start with the lessons I learned and my other reflections, I want to thank @flailingbloo for all of her help and support in this endeavor. Without her to talk to and commiserate with, I would probably have gotten stuck in Act II forever and everything I've written would've been riddled with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. So my eternal gratitude to flailingbloo. And now, we begin:

Lessons.

Going into this writing exercise, I already knew it was going to be hard. Writing stories is time-consuming, it's nerve-wracking, and it takes a lot of research...and patience. Writing, especially for television, is also not a solitary task. I mean, sure, the writing itself needs to be done alone--but everything that comes before, during, and after the writing needs input from so many people.

Although I have a lot (and I mean A LOT) of complaints about how The CW's Kung Fu was handled and written, I do have a lot of respect for the work that the writers put into their scripts. And I do appreciate all that they have done to have a show like this produced.

Doing this rewrite, I learned that it's really important to make the main character likeable. Like, every episode I broke down, I had to ask myself: is Nicky likeable here? Is she someone who viewers would want to root for? Like, for me she is, but only people who read what I wrote can say for sure. My perspective is now a bit skewered because I have bias.

Second, story maps are very helpful. There were times, especially during Part 6 (where I wrote breakdowns for Episodes 6 to 9) where I kept getting road-blocked by where I want the story to go. So I went back to the story map over and over again, to remind myself--where does the story itself need to go? How do I help the characters get to the point where they're ready for what needs to happen? (This is also where flailingbloo helped the most for me. Like, she really reminded me why I was doing this rewrite in the first place. Because I care about Nicky and the show. I wouldn't have funneled so much of my time and effort into this if I didn't.)

Another thing I learned, or rather re-learned, is the art of letting go. I created the character of Stanley to recur throughout the series as a reminder of who Nicky was and who she is becoming. And then I finished writing the first act without even mentioning him. By the second act, I was ready to use him finally--but, after multiple false starts, I realized Stanley was one of the reasons why I was having a hard time pushing Nicky's story forward. Because I kept trying to go back to the past. So I decided in the writing of the second act to shelve Stanley completely, only to find him popping up in the second to last episode in a, at least I hope, more organic way.

The last thing I learned in this exercise was that, whenever a new character needs to come in, I have to look at my existing characters first to see if any one of them can fulfill the role I needed for the story. Like, creating new villains for Nicky was fun, sure--but, at the same time, I realized that there were already existing villains that could recur. Like the Triad, who played villains in two more episodes after the pilot; and Henry's martial arts class at the community center became the source of two existing storylines from the actual show.

Reflections.

Do I think what my rewrite is better than the show? To me, yes. But, again, I am very biased. That said, I am proud of how I utilized the characters that the show created and didn't really give much importance to. Dennis, when he was introduced, felt like a rich character that could provide a very different point-of-view from the Shen siblings--but he was mostly relegated to being eye-candy. And I thought I gave him more meat by making him more involved in Althea's sexual harassment storyline, while also involving him in Nicky's stories.

That said, I also realize that I wasn't able to play up Nicky and Evan's past relationship as I was writing the episodic breakdowns. I was able to give them a lot of opportunities to explore their chemistry together, as I did with Nicky and Henry, but I kind of dropped the ball as a writer on guiding those planted moments into something more significant. Granted, I only wrote breakdowns and not actual scripts. Maybe I could've explored the romance angle more with a little sprinkle of direction and dialogue.

As I went deeper into the rewrite, I do see how easy it is to fall in love with characters as you write them. It's very easy to trap yourself into wanting villains to be more well-rounded. I keep having to remind myself that I don't have to redeem everyone. Just Nicky. Which became harder and harder as I went further and further into the story.

Another thing that became difficult as I went on? Keeping the mythology from just bursting open. That's how Henry, as I wrote him, evolved into becoming the son of a guardian--just so there's a reason for him to be so invested in Nicky's quest, while also having someone who can explain things to our main character. I'm actually really proud of that evolution.

All that said, I also have to recognize that I rewrote the show with the benefit of hindsight and the lack of budget constraints. In the real show, there's a group of writers who each have their own ideas of what the show should be. (This is where a head writer--not a show runner--would come in handy, so they could reel in the story to what needs to be told.) With more writers comes more chances for inconsistencies to happen. (And this is where a script supervisor, or a writing assistant, could come in handy.) And then there's production notes and budget. Not to mention, you know, the whole pandemic that's still happening. I didn't have to think about those things while doing this rewrite.

So, again, I want to give the writers kudos to actually producing scripts. I hope they haven't lost their minds--or their will to write--just because there are people like me who nitpick at everything. That's what people who love things do. We nitpick because we care.

Moving forward.

I do plan to stick with the real show for Season 2. I hope it's planned better. I hope they get researchers (plural!) and a writing assistant to help in the writing room. I hope the writers would sit down with the cast to discuss and develop the characters more. And I really hope they hire a better fight choreographer and fight director for the second season. (Like, rehire the people who choreographed and filmed the flashback scene in... Episode 11? The one with Nicky's maternal grandmother and Pei-Ling's own mother?)

I hope that the Nicky-Henry relationship gets explored realistically, and if a potential new love interest is ordered, they get introduced in a way that isn't antagonistic. Make them more well-rounded characters too, please. Make us want to root for their success. And while I think Nicky doesn't have an iota of chemistry with Evan, I do like Evan himself as a character. So I hope they get him more involved in future storylines--as an outsider looking in, sure, but also as an honorary member of the Shen family.

With regards to the Shen family, I do hope that we get to explore their relationships and dreams more before the show drops the reveal about Mei-Xue's daughter. I want Althea to have a cohesive storyline that doesn't pause for no reason. I want Ryan to explore being Asian AND gay as a first-generation Asian-American. And give the Shen siblings some recurring friends. They don't have to be semi-regulars (unless there's a story that can be explored) but let's not keep the Shens in a bubble. It was weird in the first season. Especially for Althea whose friends only showed up for her bachelorette party and never again. Not even when she was panicking about wedding preparations, which, considering how rich Dennis's parents were? They wouldn't let Althea be in charge of anything. They would hire a Chinese wedding coordinator. And an expensive and hard-to-book one at that. They donated an entire hospital wing, for crying out loud.

I want Jin to have an actual character, and not just be the supportive dad who loves his kids very much (admittedly my own rewrite also made this same mistake). And I want Mei-Li to be consistent as a character. Like, no more surprise twists about being the descendant of a legendary warrior without proper foreshadowing and plot-planting please.

Dennis shouldn't just be eye-candy. The same applies to Kerwin. Sure, I get that shirtless men are a must in a CW series, but please give their characters some meat too. Dennis's nerd-side was never showcased in the show, and Kerwin had that poor little rich boy background that didn't get explored either. Because the show was too busy keeping him and Zhi-Lan tearing each others' clothes off--when they're not tearing other people down.

Also, don't drop the ball on the tease that Bian-Ge is now everywhere. If I understood correctly, Bian-Ge is Kung Fu's version of Qi. If yes, then I hope they treat it respectfully as a force of nature--and not just the source of magic. The flowers from Bian-Ge itself can be magical, sure, I have no problem with a fictional flower being a McGuffin.

Finally, I hope the show also explores other Asian communities and cultures. Like, Kung Fu is great--but imagine if Nicky had to face someone who is versed in Silat Melayu? Or someone who uses Arnis? Someone who practices Kalaripayattu or Lathi Khela? Or Kuntao? Imagine Nicky having to use Wing Chun against someone who uses Karate or Krav-Maga? Asia is a big continent and there are so many different types of martial arts found from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. Kung-Fu is an umbrella term, so it'll be great to see the different styles found under it.

... This went long again. Sorry about that. Funny thing is, when I started this whole rewriting plan? I thought it would take three posts, tops. And look at us now. Nine posts deep, and it seems I still haven't run out of things to say. So I'm cutting myself off before I completely wear out my welcome.

But if you've read all my Kung Fu posts, please do reach out. Let's discuss the show and what it can do to produce a better second season.

#Kung Fu CW #tv talk #my words

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claraxbarton · 3 years

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Probably literally no one wants to read this, but on the off chance anyone wants to CHOOSE to read my thoughts on fanworks in relation to traditional western culture and not merely be subjected to them via DM during an innocent (though angsty as all hell) convo on the parallels between Stucky and Destiel well, here’s 1700 words on it:

—-

Actually. And here’s the thing that works so damn well with both bucky/Steve and Dean/Cas is that there is no clear “damsel/hero” dichotomy that we see in classic heteronormative relationships.

But like.

The thing about fan fiction, and AO3 specifically, is that it primarily features homoerotic and homoromatic relationships between two cisgender white men. Yes that is changing- mostly thanks to the rise of KPOP (the surprise lord and savior of 2020) and Hulu and Netflix optioning East Asian movies and television series to spread those narratives. Which is an entire thing on its own because so many of those like- is it Untamed? Feature homosocial environments and thus- the point is. The landscape is changing and yay.

But AO3s success is largely predicated on two main ships: Stucky and Destiel. Yes there are others that are huge and continue to grow, but these are the two that I feel (with no data or research to support my assertion) helped AO3 take precedence over ffnet as THE site for fan work hosting.

Now, the contradictory thing about fan work, the thing that is so often described as hypocritical and/or fetishizing is that the majority feature two cisgender white men engaged in homoerotic and/or homoromantic relationships when the majority of the readers and creators of fan works are neither.

Data supports the supposition that most fan work creators and consumers identify as non-male. And in that subset the majority identify as female.

Simply based on generic population data, the correlation can be made (again no effort put into googling this because I have sewing to do) that the majority of this group is likely cisgendered heterosexual (white) women.

However, fan works and fan engagement are a proven community for fans who do not ascribe to the heteronormative gender binary or heterosexual and/or heteroromantic relationship structure and are, in fact, not just white. Again- imagine numbers that are factual because sewing.

Fandom is not unique to entertainment media. We can trace it back to, well, as long as we can trace it back. What are the Venus of Willendorf statues of not fanart? The Parthenon? Egyptian funereal pyramids and their contents? Renaissance art in general? Is the King James Bible not a “fix it” for the previously canonical literature (that’s a hot take don’t come for me.) (you could also consider the King James Version an attempt at song fic).

In more contemporary culture, we have sports fandoms- primarily male dominated. Primarily cisgendered heterosexual white male dominated.

The fandom culture of sports fans has been described as that of collectors and curators- they want memorabilia and statistics and gatekeeping actions often require proof of knowledge or commitment via possessions.

Meanwhile, entertainment media fandoms- such as those experiences on AO3- are more creative than curatorial. Instead of efforts to organize, delineate and create hierarchies within fandoms (yes this happens but is not the overriding force), these sorts of fandoms seek to create fanWORKS and fanCOMMUNITIES. Yes, fantasy sports leagues exist and so do sports teams fan communities. But I ask you, where in sports fandoms is there a GISH?Or an AO3?

The reality of contemporary western dominated culture (entertainment,sports,economic,political, artistic and philosophical) is one that features white cisgendered heterosexual men at the apex-

Both as creators and consumers despite prevailing realities in population and cultural zeitgeist.

As such, most western dominated fandoms are homosocial: dominated by one group, that of white cisgendered heterosexual men.

All that is to say, most star athletes are straight white dudes. Most movie stars are straight white dudes. Most politicians. Most wealth holders and distributors. Most creators.

Why? Because patriarchy. But the WHY isn’t the point of this long ass word vomit.

It’s the So What?

Sports fandoms are the territory of these same homosocial networks.

But media fandoms are the territory of those NOT at the top of that hierarchy.

While the CONTENT and the original content creators remain part of that homosocial white cisgendered heterosexual group, the consumers of media are largely NOT OF THAT GROUP despite what the content creators may desire or believe (see: the creatives behind supernatural and their ridiculous ability to convince themselves that their core demographic are straight white dudes 15-40).

As such, content that features the patriarchy is primarily heterosexual, heteronormative, racist (acutely or passively), misogynistic, homophobic, homosocial and, well, lacking.

Take, for example, MCU and Supernatural as franchises. Our main characters are primarily white dudes. White dudes who mostly interact with other white dudes, whose “tribes” (brethren, compatriots, coworkers) are also white dudes. Yes, smurfs exist- the token woman or non-white person. Sometimes even a queer person (gender or sexual, though very, very rarely gender queer).

The fact that whenever our “heroes” interact with anyone outside their tribe or homosocial group they are almost inevitably evil, dead or about to die is telling. How many women die in supernatural? How many people of color? How many villains in the MCU (and while the X-MEN franchise isn’t necessarily within the MCU because Hollywood, the queer coding within X-MEN is encyclopedic) are queer coded?

Now, I’ve said repeatedly that heterosexual and heteronormative relationships are the mean within such media. Our white dudes bang white ladies, love white ladies, but act like manly white men and don’t put romantic feelings ahead of things like patriotism and pain unless they have “earned” the right to such (a trial that often involves a lot of deaths that are never addressed or given recourse. See:endgame)

Bros before hoes is more or less the rule of western mainstream media.

As such, relationships that demonstrate respect, trust, vulnerability, compassion and resiliency are almost always homosocial: or they are between two bros (no homo) and not between a man and a woman.

You trust the guy at your back, not the woman because you 1. Want to bang her 2. She’s probably going to die 3. She’s a damsel 4. Seriously she’s probably going to die.

Which all means: most of the well developed characters and relationships within mainstream western media are homosocial- they exist between two members of the same group. In our case, those straight white bros (which of course within supernatural can sometimes be taken literally in the case of Wincest).

Which means, the consumers of this media- mostly not white straight cisgendered dudes- are left with content that doesn’t represent who they are or what they want or even can aspire to.

So what’s the solution? Collect data and memorabilia? Sure why not.

OR: use your beloved media, those well developed characters and relationships, to create something new.

Fan work.

We circle back, at last, to the idea that fan work creators and consumers can be hypocritical or contradictory by creating works that feature that which they are not- these white dudes in love (romantic, sexual) with each other.

This supposition suggests that creators and consumers are using the characters and situations in fan work as replacements for what they lack in heterosocial relationships- either in media or in their own lives. Or, put another way, fans replace either Bucky or Steve with themselves and image the other to be their “love” interest.

To an extent, this may be true. That both parties are usually written to have male genitalia while most fans do not is where so many of the hypocritical and fetishization issues come into play.

But the reality is, fans are working with what they are given. Most fans don’t have dicks. A generous portion of fans don’t want to engage with dicks is sexual ways (or engage in sex at all) (and it must be emphasized that the majority of works on AO3 are rated T not E).

But the value in reimagining, subtextualizing, or deconstructing the mostly platonically presented homosocial relationships in western media as homosexual or homoerotic or homoromantic is not (for the most part) about fetish or about placeholders and substitutions for the fan.

It is about creating fanwork that reflects the society a fan lives in or wishes to live in.

Just as the sports fan will go to a bar and paint themselves blue and deride the Yankees because they want to envision a society that upholds a white cisgendered male patriarchy, media fanWORKS are created because we do NOT have a society that values romantic or erotic relationships between equals (for in traditional western society the only equal to a white cisgendered man is another white dude).

So, at last, a return to Stucky and Destiel.

The relationships created in fanWORKS between these two aren’t simply those where one is the “‘man” in the relationship and the other is the “woman”.

Yes those fanWORKS exist.

But most utilize the strong bonds of trust and respect and vulnerability and dare I say shared experience to create romantic and erotic relationships that are both more complex and more realistic than those actually portrayed in the same media.

In Stucky, we see Steve save Bucky and Bucky save Steve. We see Bucky hurt Steve and Steve hurt Bucky. We see their positions as EQUALS as a means by which to create a world where fulfilling relationships can exist that do not automatically restrict one (or more) parties to that of “chattel”.

The same is true of Destiel.

And both relationships feature key similarities within the original media that make for such rich possibilities.

Castiel saves Dean from hell. Castiel is brainwashed by the patriarchy to view Dean as lesser and even to kill him (this happens multiple times).

While Steve saves Bucky from Azzano, it is Bucky who saved Steve for almost their entire lives before that point. And after that point the two go back and forth to save each other. And let us not forget that Bucky was ordered to kill Steve but “he knew me”.

Dean and Castiel go through a similar ping pong match of saving each other.

This isn’t just about being equal in strength- it’s about being equal in vulnerability.

Which, to belabor the point, doesn’t exist in mainstream media’s romantic or erotic relationships nor is it widely taught or reinforced in western culture as a whole.

In conclusion.

Stucky and Destiel can save the world.

But probably KPOP would do it better and faster and cooler.

—-

Totally feel free to engage with your own opinions. Because I have to go sew now but later? Later we should talk friends and foes.

#fandom #meta #critical #fanfiction #fanfic #fanart #mcu #supernatural #SPN #stucky #destiel #Steve Rogers #captain america #bucky barnes #winter soldier #dean winchester #castiel #deancas

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purplesurveys · 3 years

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1256

surveys by taco-tuesdays

What steps would you take in order to track down a thief? Not too far, honestly. I accept things pretty easily so if I’ve processed that I’ve been robbed, I am most likely to just let it go. I’ll feel like shit, of course, but I would just let it go and scold myself for failing to be attentive.

What is something that one of your family member collects? My mom used to collect printed table napkins from different restaurants, but obivously she hasn’t been able to continue that for the past year and a half. My dad and brother used to collect magazines but both stopped a few years ago.

What would you do if you were able to have lunch with the queen? The journalist in me will probably just ask her questions about her everyday life, how she spends it, what she’s into and what she’s not into these days.

If you got to create a new flavor of ice cream, what would it be? This is a little hard considering there are a lot of small businesses out there already getting creative and quirky with ice cream flavors so it’s just hard to tell if a certain flavor has already been invented or not. One thing I haven’t seen, though, is curry. I’d buy a pint of that in an instant.

What are some questions that you would ask your favorite celebrity? His latest vlog finds. He once shared a video of this smaller content creator, so I’m guessing that’s what he likes doing in his spare time and I’m sure he would have a bunch of other just as interesting recommendations.

If you were able to set up a stand, what would you sell? Street food.

Would you like to go deep sea diving? Why or why not? Yeah. I’m always willing to try daring, not-the-safest-thing-in-the-world activities haha.

What would life be like if you lived on a cloud? The realist in me just wants to say I’d plummet straight to the ground.

What would you find at the top of a magic beanstalk? Idk, my creativity can’t be bothered to be challenged.

What is one food you would not want to have rain down from the sky? Durian. It would hurt and stink like shit.

Which animal's characteristics are similar to your own personality? I don’t really assign sets of personalities to animals.

If you were in a department store, which aisle would you check out first? I personally still go for the toys/video games section first HAHAHA

What are some of your hobbies? They include going to museums, exploring new food and restaurants, traveling to different cities and countries, and reading about history.

You've opened a store that only sells purple items - what do you sell? BTS merch hahahahah duhhhh

What is something important that you've lost, and did you ever find it? I lost a rosary that came straight from the Vatican. No, I never found it again. I feel bad about it not because it’s a religious object, but because it came from my grandma.

Have you ever moved to a new school before? If so, how did it feel? I mean, I had to change schools when I was moving up from high school to college, but I’ve never changed schools within the same chapter of my studies, like in the middle of elementary or high school. But to answer the question, it had been a very liberating and empowering experience. I hated the rules in my Catholic school and there were so many elements from that place that made me hide so much about myself. The fact that I could wear shorts and curse and attend rallies and cut class and make my own class schedules in college felt incredibly freeing and satisfying.

What would've happened if Cinderella never went to the ball? See magic beanstalk question.

If you had one day to do anything at all, what would you choose? I would drive to Tagaytay and find a cozy restaurant and eaaaaatttt awaaaayyyy.

What are a few of your favorite songs? I really really like Singularity by V, Over the Hills by Hayley Williams, and So Far Away by Agust D and Suran.

Have you ever legitimately forgotten to do homework? All the time. I never wrote down homework.

If you were a witch, what kind of a spell would you cast? On who? I don’t care about casting spells on people. I just want my cravings to show up in the snap of a finger hahaha. Can that be part of a witch’s scope of work? Kjdgfhsdfskjfhs

Do you enjoy autumn leaves or spring flowers more? Why? I wouldn’t know. I experience neither over here.

What is your favorite sport to play? What about watch? Table tennis. Favorite to watch would be either tennis or pro wrestling.

Have you ever gone on a cruise before? To where? Yeah. It was an East Asian cruise so I traveled to Shanghai, Jeju, and Fukuoka.

What would you do if you were invisible for a day? Probably go to the bigger houses in the village and see how fancy they get.

Depending on where you live, why might a day of school get canceled? Typhoon, floods. A lot of places are incredibly prone to flooding, so as long as it’s been raining super hard the chances for a class suspension will get high.

What types of transportation do you think we will see in the future? I dunno. It seems like we’re at that point where everything is in the process of being invented or perfected already.

What were some of your toys you always played with when you were little? I liked kitchen sets and anything with lots of buttons, so like toy telephones or cash registers.

If you were a movie star, what would a day in your life be like? I have no clue apart from the fact that I’m just glad I would assumedly have more than enough money to buy whatever I’m craving whenever I want hahaha.

If you invented a time machine, what year would you like to go to, and why? Realistically I wouldn’t change a thing; but if I had to answer this question I’d go back to 2016 and never ask out Gab a second time, so that the next four years wouldn’t end up being such a waste of my time.

What is your favorite holiday and why? I don’t have one. I’m not a big holiday ~celebrator.

What is something that you like to do while on vacation? Try food I’ve never tried before. The more unconventional or obscure, the better.

If you could meet any fictional character from a book, who would it be? Eh, don’t really have anyone in mind.

What are some common places that people tour when they come to your city? There’s the waterfalls in the upper part of the city – I’m just not sure if it’s still a popular spot but it certainly was when I was a kid. There’s also an art museum that I’m certain is a lot more frequented now.

What's one food that you did not enjoy as a child, but do as an adult? Curry.

How would having no electricity affect your daily routine? I wouldn’t be able to attend work, at least not for the whole day. It would also feel a lot warmer without the electric fan, which would in turn make me cranky.

If you had one wish, what would it be? A renovated room with a dedicated corner for all my merch.

Say someone gives you a magic sweater. What happens when you wear it? Idk.

If you built a new city, how would you convince people to move there? I wouldn’t.

What is one of your favorite movies? Why is it one of your favorites? Two for the Road. It has Audrey Hepburn, it’s a realistic rom-com, and the chemistry between the two leads is superb.

If you were given a certain amount of time to live, would you want to know? Yeah for sure, I would want to know in a heartbeat.

What would you do if you were able to stop time? I don’t know what I would do, but that would be a nice...opportunity, I guess? to experiment with or try out certain decisions and see how well or unwell they would work out to be. So that when time resumes, I’d know better on how to best handle a situation.

Do you think that long distance relationships would be for you? I wouldn’t actively go for it, but I’m not shutting down the possibility either.

Is there a popular social media platform that you don't have an account for? I have one for all the main ones, I think. Even Instagram, I made an account not too long ago to finally join the platform.

How old were you when you found out about Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc? I never knew the Easter Bunny was a thing until I started taking these surveys at like 14. I never really believed in Santa either, and the only figure I was super disappointed to learn that it didn’t exist was the tooth fairy.

Who is your favorite Disney Princess? Rapunzel.

Which freaks you out more - clowns or porcelain dolls? Porcelain dolls. They look more innocent, which somehow makes them creepier.

What was the last mistake that you learned from? Hm, just a minor work thing that would be too complicated to explain here.

Do you prefer "regular pencils" or mechanical ones? Why? Regular. I always break off the tips of mechanical pencils.

What is one little-known music artist you'd recommend? Andi made me listen to The Drums recently and I’ve been loving their sound so far; they would be perfect on a road trip. I’ve only listened to one album, though.

What is your favorite Pixar film? Toy Story!

Who was the last person to send you any sort of message on social media? Angela sent me a video meme.

Where were you on September 11th, 2001? I don’t know...probably already being put to bed. Either way I wasn’t fully conscious yet as I had only been 3 and living on the other side of the planet.

Name your favorite green vegetable. Broccoli, spinach, bell peppers, or asparagus. IDK I love veggies hahahaha

Could you handle a friends with benefits type of situation? Not for me. I’m not even into sex.

Do you prefer using a brush or a comb on your hair? Comb.

What's your favorite flavor of potato chips? SALTED EGG. I’m obsessed; I had like five bags this week alone.

Would you rather build a snowman or a snow fort? Why? I dunno; I’ve never tried making either.

At what age do you believe children should begin having screen time? I’m not too sure at this point, but I do know I don’t plan on being too strict with my kids. I’d let them watch stuff on an iPad from like age 3 or 4, but one thing I would change from how I was raised is putting a limit on their screen time, maybe half an hour to an hour a day.

If you had to give a speech, what would it be on? I’d be down for any topic as long as I was given ample time to research, honestly. I like public speaking.

#survey #surveys

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nicolesophia · 3 years

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WORLD LITERATURE

World literature is used to refer to a literature being circulated outside the country where it was published, and it’s pretty sure that everyone nowadays is very familiar with literature, because, who isn’t? People these days lives their daily lives with literature, surely, it surrounds our lives. Ever wonder if there’s an occurrence one day in our life, a day without literature? Will we able to live with it? Well, I don’t think so, after all, literature is our life. Now, before we go to the topic, lets have a brief introduction about when did the literature began.

The literature began early before 17th century, and ever since that time, it had a big impact from all over the world, it almost had taken up the whole world, a world of literature, indeed. And since the literature continues to expand, its dominant themes and styles of each literature around the world, expands, as well. And of course, up until today, there are still many more surprising notions about the literature all over the world!

Today, I’ll show you different dominant themes and styles of literature from Southeast Asia, East Asia, South and West Asia, Anglo-America and Europe, Africa, and Latin America. I hope that in the end, you’ll learn something new about the different themes and styles from around the world.

1. SOUTHEAST ASIA LITERATURE

Southeast Asia consists of 11 countries in total, these are Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. All of these countries were colonized by the other countries, except Thailand, that’s why most of their literary works were mostly influenced by the countries who colonized them. Just like in the Philippines, The Philippines were colonized by the Spaniards, Japanese, and Americans; however most of the literature here in the Philippines were predominantly influenced by the Spaniards for they colonized the country for 333 years.

The Southeast Asian literature’s dominant theme are mainly diaspora (diasporic) theme. Diasporic theme focuses on stories outside the country where the writer is, it also talks about the experiences of an immigrant in a foreign country. Some example of a diasporic theme literature is “Banyaga: A song of War” by Charlson Ong, the story is about how Ernesto (protagonist) struggles living outside the country he came from, and fun fact, the author Charlson Ong’s relation with the main character is that they shared the same experiences! It’s like the author tells his very own life story in the presence of Ernesto as the character. “Banyaga: A Song of War” as well, portrays the Filipino culture, as the author being half Filipino.

2. East Asia Literature

East Asia consists of 8 countries in total, these are China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mongolia, and Macao. Without a doubt, East Asia is the most popular region in the whole world because of the countries it consists of. Mainly, the East Asia literature were mostly influenced by the Chinese writers; commonly, the China is the building block of the counties in the East Asia, on a fact that most of the East Asia country were colonized by the Chinese. With all of the 8 countries, the Chines and Japanese literature is the most prominent among the East Asia literature.

However, the Japanese literature has a different style, too. Their literature is mostly fond of ambiguous theme, wherein it has a deep meaning and sometimes, the reader wouldn’t get the meaning of it if you are from other countries or city in Japan. The Japanese literature is also well-known for its Haiku and Tanka poems.

Some example of the East Asia literature is Seol Gongchan-jeon (The Tale of Seol Gongchan), korean literature written by Chae Su, the novel was written during the early Joseon era and was originally written in classical Chinese text. The story of said novel is about a person being possessed by the dead spirit who tells story from the underworld. But, the said novel was banned during its era of publication.

Other example of the East Asia literature is a Tanka poem from the Japanese literature. Tanka poems are mostly commonly written as an expression of love and/or gratitude, it may, as well a self-reflection poem.

Narukami no sukoshi toyomite

(A faint clap of thunder)

sashi kumori

(Clouded skies)

Ame mo furanu ka?

(Perhaps rain comes)

Kimi wo todomemu

(If so, will you stay here with me?)

Narukami no sukoshi toyomite

(A faint clap of thunder)

furazu to mo

(Even if rain comes not)

warewa tomaramu

(I will stay here)

imoshi todomeba

(Together with you)

3. South and West Asia Literature

The South and West Asia consists of 17 countries, mostly the Middle East region, these countries are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Apparently, the South and West Asia is commonly known for their own films, “Bollywood” rather than other literature. However, they do, of course have a unique styles and themes of literature.

Literature from the 21st Century Middle East circumscribes a lot assortments of genres, it, as well talks about human experiences oftentimes through a realist manners. Also, what makes their literature unique is that they have or includes their own traditions and practices of their culture.

One example of South and West Asia Literature is “White Tiger” a novel written by an Indian author named Aravin Adiga. It talks about the life of an Indian in the light and darkness, although most part of the novel focusses on India of darkness. Also, the novel has a darkly humorous perspective of Indian’s struggles in life. Here’s some excerpt from the novel “The White Tiger”

“In fact, each time when great men like you visit our country I say it. Not that I have anything against great men. In my way, sir, I consider myself one of your kind. But whenever I see our prime minister and his distinguished sidekicks drive to the airport in black cars and get out and do namastes before you in front of a TV camera and tell you about how moral and saintly India is, I have to say that thing in English.”

4. Anglo-America and Europe Literature

The Anglo-America is a large region that covers up 14 countries in total, these are Canada, United States, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. And as we all know, Europe is a large continent that consists a lot of countries, well, we’ll not go to far with mentioning all those countries. The Anglo-American literature is closely linked to traditional English, since the American was colonized by the English, they adapted their literature, as well and was influenced by the English writers. However, the history of their literature is too wide, it covers up from the Old English until the Contemporary era.

In spite of that Anglo- American combined literature, the American literature is imposing to be separated to the Anglo (English), but why? The American literature has a distinct characteristic which evolves through eras and such; them, too have their own unique feature, themes, and styles of literature. In short, they have their own, so, for them, what is the essences of being together with the Anglo?

One of the greatest author in the Anglo-America is who we all know, William Shakespeare. With his one of the famous works “Romeo and Juliet” we can mirror the traditional style of Anglo-America literature that somewhat related to their culture, as well. Here’s some excerpt from the classic story “Romeo and Juliet”.

”’Tis but thy name that is my enemy;

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O! be some other name:

]What’s in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff

thy name;

And for that name, which is no part of thee,

Take all myself”

On the other hand, European literature includes writing for some dialects; among the most significant of the cutting edge composed works are those in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish, German, Italian, Modern Greek, Czech and Russian and works by the Scandinavians and Irish. Significant old style and archaic customs are those in Ancient Greek, Latin, Old Norse, Medieval French and the Italian Tuscan tongue of the renaissance. Moreover, the literature was written with regards to Western culture in the dialects of Europe, as a few topographically or verifiably related dialects. Various as they seem to be, European literature, as Indo-European dialects, are portions of a typical legacy having a place with a race of pleased countries which brag any semblance of Homer who composed Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil who composed the Aeneid, Dante who composed Divine Comedy, Chaucer who composed Canterbury Tales. These, and other abstract works of art structure part of what we call as Western Canon.

5. African Literature

The Africa consists of 54 countries in total, however, the African literature has a unique theme and styles. Their literature often to be relevant to its colonial background, and also connected to their traditions and culture, which makes their literature more unique. In addition, their literatures are often known as subversive and expressive contents.

Moreover, oral and composed narrating conventions have had an equal turn of events, and from multiple points of view they have affected one another. Old Egyptian recorders, early Hausa and Swahili copyists and memorizers, and contemporary scholars of famous novellas have been the conspicuous and essential momentary figures in the development from oral to abstract customs. What occurred among the Hausa and Swahili was happening somewhere else in Africa—among the Fulani, in northern Ghana among the Guang, in Senegal among the Tukulor and Wolof, and in Madagascar and Somalia.

One of the most famous African novel is entitled “Things Fall Apart” written by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart exhaustively envisions how the Nigerian Igbo people group worked preceding expansionism. The divisions in this network go with the deplorable fall of the legend, Okonkwo, whose chivalrous however careless remain against expansionism closes in a forlorn self-destruction. Achebe's astuteness is adequate to move perusers past recriminations or authentic fault, since the Igbo people group adjusts to oblige Christianity and new types of pioneer administration. Similarly as the novel's title cites Yeats' sonnet The Second Coming, Achebe's African way of thinking of equilibrium in everything runs after a millennial association with Western innovation. Here’s some excerpt from the novel “Things Fall Apart”

“The drums beat and the flutes sang and the spectators held their breath. Amalinze was a wily craftsman, but Okonkwo was as slippery as a fish in water. Every nerve and every muscle stood out on their arms, on their backs and their thighs, and one almost heard them stretching to breaking point. In the end, Okonkwo threw the Cat”

6. Latin American Literature

The Latin America is generally consists of all the countries in South America, in addition to Mexico, Central America, and the Islands of the Caribbean, indeed, there’s also a lot of country in the Latin America region. The Latin American mostly adapted their literature from the Aztecs and Mayans, two of the great ancient civilizations of our world, also, the themes of their literature are usually characterized by mysticism, magic, uniqueness, raw creativity, and wonder. Them, too give way and introduced “magical realism”.

Magical realism is a classification of writing that portrays this present reality as having a propensity of sorcery or dream. Mystical authenticity is a piece of the authenticity classification of fiction. Inside a work of supernatural authenticity, the world is as yet grounded in reality, however fantastical components are viewed as ordinary in this world. It is different from what we know “fantasy”.

One example of a magical realism novel is ”House of Spirits(La casa de los Espíritus)” written by Isabel Allende. The novel was published in 1982, Isabel Allende's presentation novel narratives the violent political occasions of post provincial Chile, through the lives of four ages of the rich Trueba family. The extraordinary is available from the start, with Allende portraying the supernatural capacities of one of the novel's principle heroes, Clara. Expect ghosts blended into the consistently, time shifts in the story and signs being figured it out. A genuine show-stopper, of the sorcery authenticity classification, yet additionally of women's activist and Chilean writing. Here’s some excerpt from the novel ”House of Spirits(La casa de los Espíritus)”

“That was Marcos’s longest trip. He returned with a shipment of enormous boxes that were piled in the far courtyard, between the chicken coop and the woodshed, until the winter was over. At the first signs of spring he had them transferred to the parade grounds, a huge park where people would gather to watch the soldiers file by on Independence Day, with the goosestep they had learned from the Prussians. When the crates were opened, they were found to contain loose bits of wood, metal, and painted cloth. Marcos spent two weeks assembling the contents according to an instruction manual written in English, which he was able to decipher thanks to his invincible imagination and a small dictionary. When the job was finished, it turned out to be a bird of prehistoric dimensions, with the face of a furious eagle, wings that moved, and a propeller on its back.”

With all of that, it may be seem that different regions from the world has their very own unique way in terms of literature, all of the literature around the world is really fascinating and amazing. Now that I’ve shown you the different dominant themes and styles of literature from Southeast Asia, East Asia, South and West Asia, Anglo-America and Europe, Africa, and Latin America. I hope that you’ve learned something new and surprising thing about the different themes and styles from around the world!

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