Comments for A Toast to Dragons

Comment on Race, Fantasy Literature, and Political Correctness (part III) by atoasttodragons

atoasttodragons — Mon, 13 May 2013 02:03:48 +0000

I suppose. But sometimes I like to nitpick.

Comment on Race, Fantasy Literature, and Political Correctness (part III) by debyfredericks

debyfredericks — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:52:29 +0000

Well, it is Hollywood. They have their own ideas about what the story should be, always. Faithfulness to the source material is just a nice bonus. This is something we writers have to think seriously about before we sell film rights.

Anyway, if as viewers we let that sort of variance bother us, we’ll never have any fun at the movies. (The Hobbit, anyone?)

Comment on Race, Fantasy Literature, and Political Correctness (part III) by atoasttodragons

atoasttodragons — Sat, 11 May 2013 16:06:45 +0000

Wasn’t insisting that all characters be white at all times. That would be silly and then some. Only saying that sometimes the needs of the story may on occasion require non-PC characteristics. Insisting on being PC all the time can sometimes hurt the story. Like in the case of “Thor.” Yeah, they were aliens, but you still have a body of Earth lore that doesn’t quite agree.

Comment on Race, Fantasy Literature, and Political Correctness (part III) by debyfredericks

debyfredericks — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:03:11 +0000

I would point out that we all feel comfortable writing about people who look like us. So if we’re white, naturally we imagine our characters as white. Black writers naturally imagine their charactes are black, Latino writers as Latino, and so forth.

That said, it doesn’t hurt anybody to stretch their imaginations and think about the experiences and cultures of people who DON’T look exactly alike. I did that with my first two novels, The Magister’s Mask and The Necromancer’s Bones. It was fun to put myself in the skin of a very conservative yet independant Island woman.

If you think about it, the Thor movie said Asgardians are actually not humans, but aliens from another dimension… thus, there might have been more than one “black” person or some other ethnic grop, instead of the token Heimdall. Or, for that matter, the one black extra in Mos Eisley who was so commented on in the first Star Wars.

White people are no longer the majority in the United States. For white writers to insist that everyone in our stories be white? That is a fantasy indeed.

Comment on Race, Fantasy Literature, and Political Correctness (part III) by atoasttodragons

atoasttodragons — Thu, 09 May 2013 23:47:30 +0000

I don’t think I’d classify it as rage … More like mild irritation. I mean, I didn’t even notice it the first time through. As for Friends … Yeah, that about sums it up.