Racefail 09

[leana106]

You know, I've been watching Racefail 09 on the sidelines for the last few days because people more eloquent than I had already stated what I could have ever wanted to say about it. And by the time I came in, it seemed to be winding down--the overarching discussion has been occurring for many years before, but this incarnation just blew up at the

Comments

[leana106]

Yeah... when I've seen people say that (I've never had anybody pull the colorblind line IRL), they usually mean the former. =/

Thank you :) It's always fun to talk about this stuff.. but I suspect far more fun for me than the victim listener.

Heh, I'm sure some of my friends feel the same way when I go off on tangents about my research.

For reasons that are too lengthy to include here they're all basically east-Asian, and due to the fact that the cloned bodies have been monkeyed with at the genetic level quite a bit, they're all born female.

- which is of course a trope in itself, but what concerns me is that pretty much all of the female characters are members of this organisation and the fact that they're not actually human (due to having 54 chromosomes and being incapable of breeding with humans even if they weren't almost all sterile, which they are due to their genes being screwed with) is a moderate issue.Huh. Why are the soldiers East Asian (more or less)? I mean is everybody that way, like, the traits show up in the

[charlycrash]

many of her relatives died in the Holocaust, but that she'd never use that information to bludgeon someone into believing what she believed....um, I'd find that a pretty valid reason personally o.o But hey, I guess she's the one who's Jewish and not me, so it's her prerogative to do whatever

[leana106]

I dunno, I sort of seeing her point because once you start bringing up that sort of thing, the conversation tends to devolve into either the Oppression Olympics (TM) or accusations of the race card. But that doesn't mean that there is no legitimate reason to bring that up (and that those two responses are legitimate responses all the time). It's a difficult balance

[charlycrash]

and of course, the strategic use of the monsters to add credibility for their continuing existence.

This may well be where you're going already, but you could put a sort of Orwellian spin on this: somehow have the soldiers be completely creating the illusion of the monsters so that the general population don't turn on them.

But your version is probably more realistic, and has an allegory-for-al-Qaeda/communism/monster-of-the-week quality I'm digging. It generally sounds pretty awesome too though :)

It may also be interesting to have the soldiers actually secretly loathe the ruler who's in power, as s/he's just a regular human; perhaps deep down they feel that s/he would be far better replaced by someone "superior": one of their own number.

I have to admit the Mšökabašïn were the best part.Hehe, thank you. I have to admit they're something I'm quite proud of, because imo they are genuinely a kind of creepy idea. I'm also proud of the idea of Cecilian incorruptibles - basically, a powerful magician becomes kinda-sorta dead because

[leana106]

But your version is probably more realistic, and has an allegory-for-al-Qaeda/communism/monster-of-the-week quality I'm digging. It generally sounds pretty awesome too though :)

...That had not occurred to me, although it totally makes sense. I am GENIUS! *snort*

Maybe it could be a genetic mutation that means people's nerve and muscle cells produce waaaaay too much electricity but they're somehow able to channel it in a co-ordinated way - and although they have all these cool powers, using them makes them have seizures/slowly causes them to develop cancer/fries their brain/makes them die young/often makes their heart stop (I'm a big fan of the idea that any cool powers should come with an equal and opposite bill to pay).Haha, I'd just thought of the bioelectricity thing as I was typing out 'chi,' so you've thought about it more than I have. Although it does sync with one of my other thoughts about how the soldiers work--they were supposed to be more sensitive to electrical type weapons (like stun guns, cattle prods, that sort of

[charlycrash]

That had not occurred to me, although it totally makes sense. I am GENIUS! *snort*

Haha. I've done that with my own stuff more than once. Probably the wankiest one was when I realised the large number of parallels between my story and Götterdämmerung. So I sorta went YAH COUGH TOTALLY INTENTIONAL I R EDUCATED COUGH COUGH *surreptitiously introduces more blatant references*

they were supposed to be more sensitive to electrical type weapons (like stun guns, cattle prods, that sort of thing) than regular humans, which if their powers stem from bioelectricity, makes more sense than 'just because.'

This is totally off the top of my head so could be utter crap scientifically, but maybe that little bit of electricity from the stun gun causes a sympathetic reaction, producing large amounts of electricity in the person's body and setting off something like a tonic-clonic seizure? Presumably it'd be a lot harder to resist the burst of electricity if it was unexpected.

I love it when magic/cool abilities have consequences beyond a vague

[charlycrash]

threatened Bavarian secession with a Habsburg/Catholic ruler creating a highly-threatening Catholic Rhine superstate

Not Bavaria, and I can't think which bit it was.. oh, it doesn't matter, the point stands XD

[leana106]

HAHA, don't you love it when that happens?

This is totally off the top of my head so could be utter crap scientifically, but maybe that little bit of electricity from the stun gun causes a sympathetic reaction, producing large amounts of electricity in the person's body and setting off something like a tonic-clonic seizure? Presumably it'd be a lot harder to resist the burst of electricity if it was unexpected.

Yeah, the analogy I was thinking of was like a power overload on an unprotected circuit. Basically, they're having to negotiate a body balance and fucking that up with extra blasts sends them into shutdown mode. They'd never be able to completely wave it away, but the problems would be less as they trained since they'd know how to be their own surge protector, if that makes sense. Of course, if you rout enough through them or do it suddenly enough, they'd die anyway.

But, I'm probably kind of a brutal writer; I also make a point of killing off major characters in pointless, meaningless ways at unexpected moments. I guess

[charlycrash]

but I'm really not a fan of seeing the MCs die because the author's trying to be edgy (not saying you are, but there's a couple of mainstream authors that apparently do this and it irritates me)

I have to admit that when other writers do it it does kind of bug me, for instance in Serenity when.. well, I won't spoil it just in case, but there's a couple of deaths that happen in that and they're so utterly pointless.

I think depending on how you do it though it's good for reinforcing the gravity of a situation, especially if it's not just one token character doing it. In my thing there's this terrible, apocalyptic battle at the end of the second act where large numbers of name-brand characters die, because I wanted anyone who might read it to feel shock and some kind of sense of loss, just as the characters are feeling - although as you say, it could just really irritate the reader.

You know, everything's being run by the govt, but with the illusion of choice and democracy [...] I wanted the greater community to be placid because

[leana106]

I think depending on how you do it though it's good for reinforcing the gravity of a situation, especially if it's not just one token character doing it. In my thing there's this terrible, apocalyptic battle at the end of the second act where large numbers of name-brand characters die, because I wanted anyone who might read it to feel shock and some kind of sense of loss, just as the characters are feeling - although as you say, it could just really irritate the reader.

Yeah, I hear ya. I know some people don't like their favorite characters dying (me included), but I (and I think most people fall into this category too) can take it if there's a good reason for him/her to die or at least we get to see how the other characters are affected. Because if you're gonna write character death, you may as well do it right.

Haha, libertarian, are ya? :D

I don't think I've ever been this insulted in all my life. ^_~

I don't like depictions of authoritarianism where the populace aren't really getting anything out of it even if that something

[charlycrash]

Because if you're gonna write character death, you may as well do it right.

Totally. I guess what pisses people off is when popular characters die in stupid ways in the sense that like.. well, as an example, Judge Giant (a reasonably popular supporting character) in Judge Dredd got randomly shot in the back in one panel and it was pretty much never mentioned again.

Quoth writer Alan Grant:

"When we wrote the death of Giant, I thought it was a great idea to kill him off in such a casual, natural (for a judge) way. But when the reader outcry came, I was startled and forced to see things from their point of view."

I don't think I've ever been this insulted in all my life. ^_~

Bwahahahahahaha! Aaaaaah <3 A woman after my own heart, clearly.

Seems like that's a better way to keep the population in line than raw terror

Absolutely. If you look at something like Nineteen Eighty-Four, even in such extreme totalitarianism the population are getting something out of it

[leana106]

See, in that case, I might bitch about the character being killed if I was reasonably attached to him, but to have it seem like there was no impact on the other characters is what would have really pissed me off. I mean really, now, unless there's a reason why his death wouldn't have affected anybody, that's just cheap death.

Bwahahahahahaha! Aaaaaah <3 A woman after my own heart, clearly.:D Well, you know, LJ (and the entire internet, to hear some tell of it) is populated by the frothing liberal leaning horde

Er, also missed a part.

[leana106]

I have to admit the Mšökabašïn were the best part.

Hehe, thank you. I have to admit they're something I'm quite proud of, because imo they are genuinely a kind of creepy idea. I'm also proud of the idea of Cecilian incorruptibles - basically, a powerful magician becomes kinda-sorta dead because they can better exercise their powers from the "other side", and their body is actually dead for all intents and purposes - but they stick around and haunt their dessicated body to give people who want to talk to them something to address their words to, and such.

Both are really cool, and your Cecilian incorruptibles are just... damn. I am in awe. :D

Re: Er, also missed a part.

[charlycrash]

Wow, thank you, that means an awful lot to me :)

[charlycrash]

Sorry, forgot this:

I dunno, I sort of seeing her point because once you start bringing up that sort of thing, the conversation tends to devolve into either the Oppression Olympics (TM) or accusations of the race card. But that doesn't mean that there is no legitimate reason to bring that up (and that those two responses are legitimate responses all the time). It's a difficult balance.

Yeah, I hear that. I suppose rationality and sensitivity to how other people are likely to react to something are really two different things and as much as it sucks you have to bite your tongue sometimes. I suppose you really have to pick your moments for when to protest about stuff or people'll get all, "ugh, here s/he goes again, why won't s/he STFU and chill about everything for five minutes" and not listen when you're actually saying important stuff (well, stuff you feel is important anyway).

..which is pretty much what you said, but in more words. Ha *sigh*