RaceFail '09; or, Art Does Not Exist in a Vacuum

[puella_nerdii]

I've done my best to avoid the whole RaceFail debacle so far for a number of reasons, chief among them that while I can point and laugh at wank with the best of them, what I read of RaceFail gave me hives. I had, and have, a lot of respect and admiration for some of the authors featured most prominently in the fracas -- at the very least, I think

Comments

[a_white_rain]

In the end, I might not agree, but I can do my best to understand. I can accept someone else's worldview as valid and coherent in context without embracing it and denouncing my own, and I think that's what a lot of people are missing here.
Also, sometimes it's more.. expanding your worldview. And that's hardly a bad thing. In fact, in my opinion, it's one of the most defining parts of being human.

[puella_nerdii]

Oh, agreed, and I think that's important. I guess I'm examining this from baby-anthropologist perspective, where the goal is to understand the native's point of view (native here meaning those born and socialized into the culture you're studying), not necessarily to make determinations about who's in the right or in the wrong, and I think the former part gets forgotten a lot in favor of the latter.

[a_white_rain]

I really honestly do get that, since I have a not so secret desire to become an anthropologist. Though man I think maybe since I've been reading lots of history, there's a real hindsight that sometimes things are clear-cut wrong (though mostly I'm unsure. But that's probably influenced by reading on the Koreas. HAHA FUCK I HAVE ANY CLUE HOW TO SOLVE THAT).

But I think you did a good thing. You vented and figured things out on your own/with friends instead of writing everything out for everyone to see. We've all got some racial issues and blind spots and often the best way to figure out lots of things is to internalize that on your own/people in the same head spaces as you.

[puella_nerdii]

Oh, there's some shit that's just plain wrong, yes. Cultural relativism only goes so far. But at the same time, people often have reasons for doing completely atrocious things, and those reasons make sense to them, and if we can understand why and how we can stop it from happening again, or head it off before it starts.

Join our ranks! We are geeky and awesome and write very interesting books. (Sometimes.)

And thanks. *smiles* I do try to catch myself when I'm being an idiot, and own up to the fact. The hard thing for me is, and always has been, understanding that a critique of a work I like is not an attack on me. Because it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the critic and their relationship to the work, and I shouldn't make it about me.

[a_white_rain]

Those are important questions. Though sometimes people just need to vent about pain and shutting up if you don't get where they're coming from is the best thing you can do.

I'm going to point you over to here because she says it better than me.

Join our ranks! We are geeky and awesome and write very interesting books. (Sometimes.)
Right now I'm just trying to to make countries personified countries in shapes of Japanese type chibies. Okay and maybe I'm reading various history books.

Because it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the critic and their relationship to the work, and I shouldn't make it about me.
That's something that a lot of us, in fandom esp, have to learn how to do. I've gotten pretty zen about what I like, but I had to work at it a lot.

[puella_nerdii]

-- yeah, those are very good points. And she's right, sometimes you really do just have to shut up. I know I'm one of those people who generally really likes engaging in dialogue and having lots of thinky conversations, but not everyone works that way, and I have plenty of times when I don't really want to be rational, and I hate it when people bring in what she talks about in her post.

...it's a learning process, I guess. It's all a learning process. I think I'm getting better at it, though.

Hetalia has made me even more of a research nerd than before. I swear it takes me forever to write some of the fic because I spend hours researching fidgety little details.

[a_white_rain]

Just knowing when/where to do that is key. There are plenty of places to talk about various issues. And you can even bring them up on your own journal. But you know sometimes you just feel the need to write something, often targeted to a small group of people, and not really want to debate about it.

I mean to say trying not to make chibi countries wrt to Hetalia.

I honestly like writing crack more in some ways because I can ignore all those pesky details. Cold War fic is taking much much longer.