After following the
race (and context) fail that's the big topic of discussion all over my flist yesterday and this morning, it feels a little weird to talk about Treme, a show that is set in the aftermath of a huge tragedy, but which doesn't, imo, fall into the same traps as the big bang story in question. (As always, native New Orleanians may
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But I think the point here isn't that it's never okay to tell a fictionalized account of a tragedy. It's in how it's told, and the representations and how it comes across.
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I think Treme handles it well. The stories are about the people, dealing with the devastation of Katrina, not about two white well-off guys who come to New Orleans to escape their manpain and fall in love against a backdrop of tragedy.
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Also, you know, Treme is not about two white guys having sex because the tragedy of New Orleans has taught them the meaning of life.
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Also, you know, Treme is not about two white guys having sex because the tragedy of New Orleans has taught them the meaning of life.
And that sums up my whole post very pithily. If only I could have done it without using so many words.
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People are asking "why didn't the betas say something?" They probably didn't know it was wrong. Unless you've taken the time to educate yourself about the culture and the society, and the psychology of disaster, you're going to write fics like this one. If you have taken the time, or you are part of the culture, you get something like Treme.
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Also, yeah, I was talking about this last night but you pointed something out that is so true: Just using the people of the tragedy as background is just SO wrong, they are the heart of the issue not setting.
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Exactly.
I still don't get how nobody involved in writing/betaing etc. didn't stop and say, "hold up, this is extremely sketchy."
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I know that I would be unlikely to watch a show set in downtown Manhattan in the latter months of 2001
I wasn't there, and I still don't think I could watch something like that. But if it were made by actual New Yorkers, I at least wouldn't object to it existing...
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Treme has a lot of locals involved, which I think definitely makes a huge difference, just in terms of representing them respectfully and authentically. I also think avoiding exactly the set up of the problematic big bang story - heroic (white) outsiders come in to save the devastated (poor brown) natives locals - works hugely in its favor.
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