seriously, people, do we need to have a conversation about AUs?

[jlh]

Hey, it's cultural erasure in a big bang part two! Hopefully this will not get lost in the wake of the spn incident.

Comments

[honestys_easy]

This this this. It is way too late on a Sunday night to get into great debates on racial identity (which I should have thought of BEFORE posting on Fandom Secrets, ffs) but there are certain cultural and racial experiences that should be put into account in an AU. It's one thing if a character's religion is not important to the plot or it's just not mentioned, but to completely disregard it and give them a significant role in a different religion is quite another

[jlh]

I think I saw your thread this morning when I was replying to something else-it was in the Rachel Maddow secret, y?-but you know, those people were just being pedantic, which is how geeks always try to shut you down. I'd go back and smack them around with a little Tiger Woods but there isn't much point

[jehane_writes]

bb, I realize you hardly know me, but I was wondering if I could ask you your opinion about something I am consulting on that tangentially involves the topic above. Would it be possible to PM you?

[jlh]

Yes, or you can email me; my email is on my info page.

[jehane_writes]

Thank you! I've PMed you, because I (in my usual fail!fashion) couldn't find your email. (I made a tiny Iberian historical fantasy where Archie is a Spanish artisan and DCook and gang are Saxon mercenaries, which I thought was not racially inappropriate; it also kind of explains their names, which I retained.)

[jlh]

Ugh, that stuff is just, ugh.

I don't even get that ST AU. It's pretty standard to make Spock Jewish, for the reasons you refer to. I mean, there are other things one can do-I read a western AU that made him half-Native American-but that's just really strange. I can't think of an AU where you'd be like, "You know what I need? A member of Hezbollah!"

Mexican joke?

[sistermagpie]

Not even just that you need a member for your fic, but that you think Spock best fits the bill? It just seems completely counter intuitive to me.

[empath89]

As sad as it is, I do know that anti-semitism exists (not from personal experience - I'm not Jewish - but beased on comments from people I know).

AU's, if done well, can be epically awesome, but in some cases, very sadly, things like this happen.

[annearchy]

The Jewish angle of this AU story is the sort of thing that makes my eyes roll back in my head. And I hear you about the anti-semitism stuff, esp. re: the Tea Party.

You're reminding me of why I have so much trouble with AU's in general. I don't mean simply AU's like "epilogue? what epilogue?" stuff in Harry Potter, because at least in those you have a chance for recognizable characters who've simply gone on a different path than the one the author laid out. I'm talking about stuff like where Harry Potter is an 18th century English noble and Hermione is a poor charwoman who cleans his house and he falls in love with her (or substitute Ron for Harry; it really doesn't matter). The characters aren't actually Harry or Ron or Hermione; they're someone from the Planet Zombo with familiar names attached. This evokes a different sort of eyerolling.

[jlh]

I have to take exception to that. I don't think that's true in any way. If it's not a good AU, then it's just not a good story, and in-universe stories can be as "OOC" as any AU. However, if the AU is well thought out, where the author has taken care to set each of the characters in the right place relative to their new setting, then the AU can be illuminating and enjoyable.

I'm not sure if you hadn't noticed that I've written four historical AUs for Idol, beta'd and written side stories for another, and have one more in planning, plus have written an historical Star Trek AU that got more comments than anything I've ever written and am working on modern-day one right now, or seen my posts where I talk about how much I love a really good AU. I would have to think that if you had noticed that, you might not have written a comment dismissing the entire concept of an AU, rather than lamenting that sometimes writers get it wrong.