In response to the Avatar casting idiocy

[otoselkie]

I refer everybody to a short article, Diversity in Speculative Fiction, by Paula R. Stills, which sums up a lot of the problems very well.
It’s not just about shiny, phallic rocket ships populated by deep-in-the-closet Aryan brethren conquering the Final Frontier, people. It’s about different futures, alternate realities, dangerous fantasies. You’d

Comments

re: casting

[tmartian42]

aaaaaaaaargh.

I don't actually have anything more articulate to say :(

[usagi_alchemist]

Yes, we definitely need more speculative fiction that doesn't involve using non-Western European cultures solely as weird aliens and/or writing them out altogether. If only because I find my own culture boring and would love to see more of other peoples'.

Also, about casting: I had never known there was a live-action Earthsea adaptation until hearing about the casting for the live-action Avatar, which is also completely screwed up. Between the two of them, they have been my Rage Source for this week.

[otoselkie]

Have you read the old (I think published in the 70s?) novels that are based on Aboriginal folklore? Gwendolyn has three - which I think is all - of them. The author is a woman, McSomethingorother. Also Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom by Katherine Patterson, and Octavia Butler is bloody awesome.

I heard about it, but only when it meant that the Ghibli film couldn't be released in the US because SciFi has the copyright on any moving picture involving "Earthsea" until about Doomsday or so.

[usagi_alchemist]

Yes, I have; those were excellent but we've lost one.
I've heard of Octavia Butler before, but I was waiting for a source I trusted to recommend her. Thankee!

Ech. Although I hear the Ghibli film wasn't much of an adaptation either. >.>

[usagi_alchemist]

Oh, and on a sort-of-related note, have you ever run across this webzine? They've published a lot of really cool stuff. Especially check out the Rosamund Hodge stories, they seem right up your alley.

[otoselkie]

Yes, I have, and have peripherally seen Hodge, too.

Speaking of things up someone else's alley, I have an issue of Weird Tales that focuses on fantasy from Eastern European writers. I'll try to bring it home for you.

[usagi_alchemist]

Ooh, thank you!

[3rdragon]

Just on the topic of diversity in way-speculative fiction, if you haven't read Andrea Hairston's Mindscape, you should.

[otoselkie]

I have not, but thank you for the recommendation.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, the Avatar casting just makes my head hurt. I'd already resolved to not go see the movie; M. Night blew his cred with me some time ago, and plus, in general, Avatar got it right the first time, and I can't imagine that they'll do it justice distilling it down to one or even three movies.

But the casting of white kids for Katara and Sokka just takes the cake. I can cut 'em slack for Aang and Zuko; Katara and Sokka, no.

And indeed, Ursula K. LeGuin had every right to pitch a very public fit. Hers is perhaps the best and best-justified castigation of an adaptation I've ever seen.

[otoselkie]

I didn't watch the series and thus wasn't paying much attention to the film, but this is just bloody ridiculous. It's also very insulting to the original writers, who from what I heard put serious effort into building a solid, non-Western-based fantasy world.

[annathepiper]

We were loyally watching Avatar in our house, so yeah, we're familiar with it.

And yeah, overall, the setting is very heavily Asian-influenced. Three of the four nations have people that still ostensibly look white, though, so I can cut them slack on any characters that come from those three groups (the Air Nomads, the Fire Nation, and the Earth Kingdom).

But the Water Tribe? They're definitely brown. So Aang and Zuko may be okay in the movie's casting, but Katara and Sokka just look wrong.