So a while back I wrote a cultural appropriation post and said I had lots of questions I wanted to think and blog about. I was wrong. A little more reading convinced me I didn’t have anything really worth saying about it (at least not yet). The basics are “research. dialogue. basic human consideration. understanding of how society works, and behaving respectfully towards others,” in the words of this blog. Translating the basics into actual stories can be complicated, but instead of my fumbling thoughts, here are some assorted links on appropriation, writing the other and such.
•Michal Wojcik says that given how Uprooted was hyped as drawing on authentic Polish folklore, he was all the more disappointed how little folklore it actually used.
•Jim Hines looks at how “gypsies” AKA Roma, are treated as a kind of fantasy race rather than a real people who suffer extensive discrimination.
•Stina Leicht’s The Fey and the Fallen is a series set in Ireland in the 1970s. One Irish reviewer says she got everything wrong. Liz Bourke also points out some errors. Aliette de Bodard vents about errors in fiction set in China.
•Cora Buhlert discusses the use of European fairytales in fiction as a form of cultural appropriation.
•Foz Meadows looks at male/male romantic tropes in m/m stories written for a straight audience.
•Some people say Doctor Strange was drawn to be Asian in his first appearance. Brian Cronin thinks not; the Fusion website says definitely.
•Fantasy Matters suggests that if you’re reprinting a Fu Manchu book, it’s only fair to discuss the racism via, say, a foreword. io9 looks more generally at the history of “Yellow Peril” fiction.
•Kate Elliott looks at the omniscient breast problem — writing female characters through male eyes, even when that’s not the narrative POV.
•JK Rowling has drawn a lot of criticism for how she handled Native American religions and beliefs in some recent stories. Here’s a roundup of links.
•K. Tempest Bradford offers an overview of the appropriation.
•Some suggestions from the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage project.
•Cultural appropriation in steampunk and how to avoid it.
•The Angry Black Woman argues that appropriation can be a good thing, and a necessary thing. And that maybe we need a term that doesn’t sound quite so negative.
