writerly ways

[cornerofmadness]

In a way I'm glad that this topic got delayed. I mean to do it about three weeks ago after seeing an episode of NCIS New Orleans which was episode 3 (I hadn't realized the season had started) and it was obvious they were trying to work in BLM and police brutality issues but it was SO ham-handedly done (and has continued to be like a sledgehammer

Comments

[honor_reid]

I hear you about NCIS: New Orleans I watched the first few episodes and they definitely were being very ham fisted about the whole thing. Considering they are a law enforcement show I appreciate they were trying to address the whole issue but I think they could have gone about it a different way.

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks. Yeah like I said I'm sure the writers' hearts were in the right place and they meant well but man that was just a bad take. They really should have chosen one topic and worked it but they had at least three or four issues so it came off badly

[momma_66]

You wrote some really thought provoking stuff here that I am definitely going to come back and read a few more times.

I saw this article which I was going to share with you anyways but now I feel it ties into what you've written.

And I found it odd while reading it the first time, and now I find it kinda annoying, that Lou Diamond Phillips talks about the story in a joking haha manner. Like oh isn't just (not) funny that everyone mistakes my ethnicity?

[cornerofmadness]

thanks. It's a tough subject, a very tough subject.

Yes I've seen that article. Honestly I had a different take. I didn't think he was making light of it but in some ways I guess I wouldn't blame him that much. These were some powerful men in the industry. Upsetting them isn't wise as Raymond Fisher found out unfortunately. Still he's glad he did even if it got him canned (which there should be much more backlash than I've seen for that). LDP's career could survive that. I hope Fisher's can too. I find sometimes if you've been kicked in the teeth repeatedly you tend to make light of it so it doesn't eat you up. I've been guilty of that in my career and that's more of how I saw that article but your mileage might vary

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[classics_lover]

I really feel like authors and show/movie writers really need to at the minimum check in with some of the people they are writing about.

I posted about John Boyne's transphobic mess last year and his claim was that as a cisgender gay man he couldn't possibly have been transphobic when actual trans people were telling him he'd messed up and how he could un-mess-up and he claimed "cancel culture" was attacking him. He both deadnamed and misgendered his trans character in the title of his book. I don't experience the things that trans people do, but at least I know enough to not deadname and misgender someone in the title of a book. And yet, he was trying to centre a trans story. An attempt was made. (and then he went and supported Graham Linehan and JK Rowling, so... yikes

[cornerofmadness]

I agree, especially ones with a big publishing house behind them. Sensitivity readers do want paid of course and looking at the asking price, my self pubbed book would be in the hole a few hundred bucks off the bounce (and people will still criticize, thinking on Maggie Stiefvater who had three Latinx sensitive readers and people still screaming she shouldn't be writing Latinx characters

[shanachie_quill]

I feel like as a white woman... I should not be addressing it, except maybe as a bystander. Or supporter.

I agree with you on the NCIS stuff.

[cornerofmadness]

I know but there's a catch 22 in that in that we're all expected to write diversely. For me it's finding a balance between mentioning/dealing with an issue as a side plot vs tackling it head on. That isn't my place and the backlash against American Dirt is proof of that. People don't want to see White authors appropriating those stories and I agree.

NCIS was so heavy handed. I hope Prodigal Son continues to handle it better

[shanachie_quill]

Yeah. I can understand that.

It really was. SWAT really got into it this last episode, but it was good. I need to catch up on PSon, but I haven't been in the mood.

[cornerofmadness]

I don't watch SWAT but I have been here since I don't have many stations. I'm not impressed (sorry Shemar) but I'm glad they handled it well . I have seen bits of it. Pson was...uneven this season. Mostly good but a few real WTF moments