What I Did During My Weekend, by Katta. :-)

[kattahj]

I'm back from the Diana Wynne Jones conference in Bristol. I tried to talk as little as possible about Bristol before I went, in part not to jinx it, and in part because I'm always afraid that if I speak on the internet about leaving my home, burglars will show up. Irrational, but there you have it

Comments

[kattahj]

Possibly because one of the white characters says in exasperation that he could do with a spot of white supremacy?

He's described as a dick pretty much the whole way through, though.

Also the sheer effrontery of *making up* an African country, from a thoroughly colonialist point of view for the most part.

I'm... not sure it could have been done with a non-madeup country? I get your point, and I doubt it could have been written nowadays, but given the subject, I feel she could have done a whole lot worse. The African characters don't come off as any worse than the British ones. It's a minefield, though, and I think maybe it would have been better not to use Africa - made-up European countries have been used in The Mouse That Roared etc, and that would have saved her some pitfalls. (25 years later, though, it would have been pretty bad taste.)

(I have to say that _Castle in the Sky_ is not a whole lot better as far as cultural appropriation goes.)

Castle in the Air (I assume you mean this, and not the Miyazaki movie?) would be pretty horrible if it was meant to portray any actual culture, but since it's pretty firmly in 1001 Nights territory and doesn't differ greatly from the source (it even has the princesses kicking ass while the supposed hero is thoroughly useless! yay!) I don't mind so much.

[ethelmay]

I did mean _Castle in the Air_, thanks. I am always muddling those two names. If Miyazaki ever does that one, I suppose they'll have to change the title.

I agree that the made-up African country thing could have been done, and has been done, very much worse.