Mieville says neat stuff.

[judd_sonofbert]

From a goodreads interview here.

"In the broader sense, I absolutely do think that the implicit politics of our narratives, whether we are consciously "meaning" them or not, matter, and that therefore we should be as thoughtful about them as possible. That doesn't mean we'll always succeed in political perspicacity-which doesn't mean the same

Comments

[linaerys]

Thanks for the link. He is a very interesting thinker.

[pbeakley]

I think the gamers who get wound-up and angry and defensive about stuff like this represent the worst of the hobby. It's just...incredibly immature, if not outright stupid, to NOT look at the notion of "evil races" as fundamentally racist.

How's the audiobook thing going? Who's the reader?

[judd_sonofbert]

Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really well, being that it isn't that the orc are born evil but that their culture has them in a Hatred rut. Neat stuff.

The reader is John Lee and he's doing a fantastic job with a staggering cast of characters.

[pbeakley]

+1 BW Orcs. Love love love the fact that it's about culture, and that mechanizing the causes lets the players address the why-and-how and decide for themselves whether to hew to the culture or break free.

[bluegargantua]

> Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really
> well, being that it isn't that the orc are
> born evil but that their culture has them
> in a Hatred rut.

This raises the question: has anyone played an orc in a BW game outside of orc culture? Because my reading of it suggests that orcs have hatred as an innate thing -- the way that elves have grief as an innate thing. I'm not so sure BW gets a pass on this one.

If I'm an orc who's been raised by elves, do I have hatred? grief? Something else?

later
Tom

[yeloson]

Thanks for the link

Anansi Boys

[judd_sonofbert]

I haven't read about why. Why?

The total lack of people of color is also really noticeable in Angel ("But there is that black guy!" "Right...what's his name?" "...um...Gunn...") and Supernatural to the point where after two discs or so, I just stopped watching.

Re: Anansi Boys

[yeloson]

http://ladyjax.dreamwidth.org/509567.html

You know, when a big name white guy can't even get a movie about POC...

Danny Glover also met resistance in getting funds for a movie about the revolution in Haiti until he went to Chavez...

Re: Anansi Boys

[dumnbunny]

It looks like his recent successes have given him some more juice. Just this last April, he wrote this on his blog:

"I'm currently working on the ANANSI BOYS film script, though."

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/04/to-bat-hive-bee-wonder-and-other.html

[electricpaladin]

I agree with Mieville completely.

You'll note what he doesn't say. He doesn't say that these ideas are bad and can't be used. He doesn't say if you have an idea about a clan of female vampires who steal men's strength you shouldn't write it. He simply says that you should be aware of the consequences of what you write, which will result in some evening out later on. Maybe you need to include more context for your orcs or include some non-strength-stealing female characters among your vampires to balance things out. Incidentally, I think those choices also strengthen your story.

I accidentally wrote a very anti-choice (<- is pro-choice) plot point into a novel I'm working on. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but it belongs in the story at that point, so there really isn't much to do, except try to even things out as the story goes on.

Carrying our meaning

[judd_sonofbert]

I did note that he doesn't say that and it made me pretty happy.

A few weeks ago I was on the Canon Puncture podcast and we talked about a blog entry about escapism and how their game's fiction doesn't mean anything and I said that we carry our meaning with us. It was nice to read someone else very eloquently saying something similar.

[electricpaladin]

Oh, it really is fascinating. I can't wait to see where it goes.

[mickbradley]

Wow.