Being surprised that a Gaiman work is open to recasting people on race, sexuality, gender, sex, etc. is like being surprised that Rage Against the Machine makes political music. Have these people...
Being surprised that a Gaiman work is open to recasting people on race, sexuality, gender, sex, etc. is like being surprised that Rage Against the Machine makes political music.
Have these people even read his work at all? Gaiman's work was some of the first I was exposed to when I was younger that treated such things in a normalized way. Especially Sandman. Death and Dream are explicitly portrayed in all kinds of different forms, including black and Asian appearances, along with alien and animal forms.
I don't know ow where I heard of it, but there was a thought that conservatives loved how pervasive the military structure and hierarchy in general were in the federation (especially human)...
I don't know ow where I heard of it, but there was a thought that conservatives loved how pervasive the military structure and hierarchy in general were in the federation (especially human) society. It was something to aspire to by many people in universe, and that sort of society was portrayed as a utopia.
I just watched an episode of Enterprise last night that was basically a thinly veiled, scathing criticism of the Reagan administration's handling of the AIDS epidemic. If some of the people...
I just watched an episode of Enterprise last night that was basically a thinly veiled, scathing criticism of the Reagan administration's handling of the AIDS epidemic.
If some of the people complaining about Discovery's diversity saw that episode today I think they would flip their shit. Discovery has a lot of problems, but the artificially diverse cast is not one of them. This has been a core tenet of the IP since its inception.
I loved reading Anansi Boys as a child and only realizing after the fact that not once in the entire story was race mentioned or pandered to - and it was a great story regardless. It was about...
I loved reading Anansi Boys as a child and only realizing after the fact that not once in the entire story was race mentioned or pandered to - and it was a great story regardless. It was about people being people.
This is a bit of a tangent but, a few years back, Gaiman actually made an interesting comment on his tumblr in response to a question about how race is described in Anansi Boys. It's a good read,...
This is a bit of a tangent but, a few years back, Gaiman actually made an interesting comment on his tumblr in response to a question about how race is described in Anansi Boys. It's a good read, here's a link for anyone who's interested.
His comment that readers often tend to assume characters are white unless otherwise described is thought-provoking. I've been much more aware of my own assumptions while reading ever since.
That's a lovely read, thanks! Interestingly, I'm not white and while reading Anansi Boys I always imagined Anansi as the spitting image of my grandfather who I loved dearly and was incredibly...
That's a lovely read, thanks! Interestingly, I'm not white and while reading Anansi Boys I always imagined Anansi as the spitting image of my grandfather who I loved dearly and was incredibly mixed race (not at all what Anansi was supposed to looked like). It never occurred to me that they were black - but then again, it never occurred to me that they were white. Like NaraVara, I just sort of filled them up in my mind with what was familiar to me and adjusted as the story went on (Such as the little bit when the characters were older), which says a lot about the power of good storytelling - and the effect filling things in can have.
That's interested. When I read I tend to imagine kind of featureless entities interacting until descriptions fill in details initially. It takes a little while of "getting to know" a character...
That's interested. When I read I tend to imagine kind of featureless entities interacting until descriptions fill in details initially. It takes a little while of "getting to know" a character before my brain starts inserting people or features from "central casting." I even tend to hear them speaking in my own voice until I get a description of voice up until the "central casting" figure gets subbed in.
Being surprised that a Gaiman work is open to recasting people on race, sexuality, gender, sex, etc. is like being surprised that Rage Against the Machine makes political music.
Have these people even read his work at all? Gaiman's work was some of the first I was exposed to when I was younger that treated such things in a normalized way. Especially Sandman. Death and Dream are explicitly portrayed in all kinds of different forms, including black and Asian appearances, along with alien and animal forms.
Absolutely. This is like people complaining that Star Trek is getting too progressive. "Really? It took you that long to notice?".
I don't know ow where I heard of it, but there was a thought that conservatives loved how pervasive the military structure and hierarchy in general were in the federation (especially human) society. It was something to aspire to by many people in universe, and that sort of society was portrayed as a utopia.
I just watched an episode of Enterprise last night that was basically a thinly veiled, scathing criticism of the Reagan administration's handling of the AIDS epidemic.
If some of the people complaining about Discovery's diversity saw that episode today I think they would flip their shit. Discovery has a lot of problems, but the artificially diverse cast is not one of them. This has been a core tenet of the IP since its inception.
I loved reading Anansi Boys as a child and only realizing after the fact that not once in the entire story was race mentioned or pandered to - and it was a great story regardless. It was about people being people.
This is a bit of a tangent but, a few years back, Gaiman actually made an interesting comment on his tumblr in response to a question about how race is described in Anansi Boys. It's a good read, here's a link for anyone who's interested.
His comment that readers often tend to assume characters are white unless otherwise described is thought-provoking. I've been much more aware of my own assumptions while reading ever since.
That's a lovely read, thanks! Interestingly, I'm not white and while reading Anansi Boys I always imagined Anansi as the spitting image of my grandfather who I loved dearly and was incredibly mixed race (not at all what Anansi was supposed to looked like). It never occurred to me that they were black - but then again, it never occurred to me that they were white. Like NaraVara, I just sort of filled them up in my mind with what was familiar to me and adjusted as the story went on (Such as the little bit when the characters were older), which says a lot about the power of good storytelling - and the effect filling things in can have.
That's interested. When I read I tend to imagine kind of featureless entities interacting until descriptions fill in details initially. It takes a little while of "getting to know" a character before my brain starts inserting people or features from "central casting." I even tend to hear them speaking in my own voice until I get a description of voice up until the "central casting" figure gets subbed in.