Question: Does genuine enthusiasm make a difference?

[thelana]

There is usually a lot of talk about why certain characters of color don't get embraced by fandom or don't get embraced by fandom as much as they should. People often try to give explanations or excuses why a particular character didn't explode as much as they should have. Which got me thinking. I was wondering about the opposite case, when a COC

Comments

[cellshader]

hmm...really astute observations, and I was wondering if you could expand on the cultural influence comments you made, specifically, where do you see examples of people ignoring the background culture, and it having a major effect on the validity of the fic? Because I'm thinking now of mohinder fics I've done and that others have done, where maybe there should be something there about Mohinder's background.

Also, I agree on almost all your points, except that I do believe the majority of Heroes slash fics (particularly mylar) are quite well written. Especially when you look at other fandom (random ie: Cain/Glitch from Tinman).

anyway, thanks for the thoughts! ^_^

[thelana]

Sorry it took me so long to reply I was slightly less computer accessible the last few days.

Personally, I don't think that people have an obligation to write in a lot of cultural background or do a lot of research and I particularly don't think that they are obligated to do better in their fact checking or be more deeply informed than the show portrays the characters.

I was thinking about it mostly in the context of people who are from that culture reading those things and who know what it feels like to be part of that culture and who might pick up on subtilities that a writer has gone wrong that nobody else would pick up on. Culture has a way of defining people. It might be random things like the kind of fairy tales Mohinder grew up with, the kind of movies he watches, the kind of humor he has, the kind of sports he likes, the kind of political opinions he has, the kind of authors he admires, what kind of cultural events he uses as reference points etc. I think the way Mohinder is portrayed on the show itself is probably not

[tiferet]

I'm not a non-white reader, but one of the things that I have done is talk to Indian friends who watch Heroes and asked them to beta for this kind of thing. Of course they are American desis and they always say that they may miss things, but I feel it's better than just throwing in a bunch of stuff from Wikipedia without any knowledge of proper context.

One thing you mentioned though, mean traditional parents--I'm sorry but every Indian friend I have asked has said that it would be very very very unlikely for Mohinder's parents to be other than upset at him choosing to identify as gay and live openly with a male partner. Even if it's not a creepy serial killer

[thelana]

One thing you mentioned though, mean traditional parents--I'm sorry but every Indian friend I have asked has said that it would be very very very unlikely for Mohinder's parents to be other than upset at him choosing to identify as gay and live openly with a male partner.

Oh, I do bet that it's in character or in character enough. I generally think that mean parents are a slash trope that is beloved and people have the wish to write it in because it creates angst, sometimes regardless of whether it would fit into canon. Mohinder just happens to be a case where it fits with canon (though of course I'm sure everybody still has the liberty to write about how much he would care about his parents' disapproval or how much of a role it plays in the story).

I have a friend who's supposed to be writing me one where Molly wants a Christmas tree but of course neither Matt nor Mo know how to do Christmas and there are fights about curry powder in the latkes and what not, but I've been waiting for this kind of fic forever.An Indian friend of

[tiferet]

That fic's adorable, but I hope she won't be upset that I told her Matt's Jewish. *wince*

[thelana]

If you liked it well enough, she has written a bunch of pairings including Mohinder/Sylar and Mohinder/Peter, as well as Gen fic.

[tiferet]

Mmmm, I'll check that out. I think I would like her Mo with anyone, but I had to overlook what she was doing with Matt--she gave him a line which made me see red even though the rest of the fic is adorable, and she doesn't seem interested in fixing it.