Linkage and thoughts

[oyceter]

Wah. Woke up today and rushed to work for my 9:00 meeting, only to discover that... I had no 9:00 meeting.

*headdesk*

Need to check my calendar better.

Things that I've sort of been thinking about/reading online:

chi_zu complains about the Memoirs of a Geisha trailer.

Most of my complaints are in the comments. I liked the book when I read it, but that was a while back. I suspect I would be sporky reading it now. Also, I feel somewhat guilty in complaining because I don't feel like I know enough about the subject or the time period. But there is the instinctive sporky reaction.

Will probably end up seeing the movie anyway and have to bite my tongue through the whole thing!

greythistle's post on Crusie's Bet Me has some interesting comments on race in romances.

I also saw a book called Desperate Tigress in a bookstore during the last trip. It's by a Jade Lee, so I assume the author is Asian?

And here is where I feel guilty feeling better about the author being Asian, or at least assuming an Asian name. I mean... it by no means indicates "cultural authenticity" or anything, and I have issues with the entire notion of cultural authenticity and one-upsmanship in the name of authenticity. (and because I am self-promoting and also entirely too lazy to hijack this entire post, I will simply link to an older post which has more in-depth thoughts)

On one hand, yay non-European romance! Yay Chinese romance! On the other hand, the back cover copy made me cringe. White barbarians and Tao sexual enlightenment indeed. I flipped through the first two or three pages, and the very language made me cringe as well. It's hard to put my finger on why, just that... it feels like it's trying too hard to be "exotic" or "Chinese" or something. On the third hand (or tentacle?), people had good reviews on Amazon. On the fourth tentacle, the reviews set off my spork-o-meter (to coopt yhlee).

Has anyone read these?

I was telling fannishly my theory yesterday on her feeling imposed on by me and racism (I know, this sounds awful!). But it was just that what was an isolated, individual comment/incident to me was one more thing in a long chain of events to her. So, when I was sort of dismissive of the issue at first, it probably felt incredibly brush-off-y to her (lemme know if I am putting words in your mouth!). It feels like that with me too, only re: racism and feminism.

Maybe the one person who looks askance at me in a meeting for being young, Asian and female has got his reasons to doubt me. Maybe one book has got good reasons for having an all white cast. Maybe a tv show episode has a nifty creative reasons for killing off a homosexual character. Maybe another television writer just didn't have the opportunity to write in female friendships with all the other plot points. Maybe one con-goer just goes to a con without thinking about being white, like everyone else. Maybe one LJ-er writes without thinking about not having enough money.

They're all good reasons. They all happen. There are always good reasons (and often, really stupid reasons as well). And to each individual person, it's just one isolated incident in their lives, and he probably doesn't get at all why someone like me would want to make a giant fuss about racism or misogyny in reaction to one little thing. But for me (and probably for others), it isn't one isolated incident. It's one more incident in another long chain of incidents, all connected by race or ethnicity or class or gender or sexual orientation.

And that long chain of incidents is gradually strangling some people.

Should someone have to think about all these factors every day? I don't know. I know I think they should, but that's because I see these factors as a trend, as a cohesive whole. It seems rather unfair that the burden should fall on the people who perceieves the problem as a problem, as opposed to the many people who add little by little, bit by bit, to the problematic atmosphere as a whole. But even though I disagree, I can also see why

And this is not an accusation of racism or misogyny or classism or any other ism. But I suppose it is a request to think about this once in a while, because sometimes small things are not so small after all.

That was actually going to be some giant essay on race in romance and in genre, on race in fandom (I remember being one of three Asians at Norwescon, or so I felt. And one of the other Asians was my roommate). Or a ranty thing on being young, female and Asian in terms of my group, which is largely young, female and Asian and comfortable; in terms of my department, which is mostly young, female and of more than one race and of more than one nationality; in terms of my company, which is mostly male and of more than one race and of more than one nationality; in terms of my company's upper management, which is almost invariably older, white, male, and American. But I am too lazy to actually write it.

Comments

[oyceter]

I think it is a difficult balance! And I think it's tough to say if race is an issue or not. Mostly I guess I notice when a cast is all-white or if there are only one or two minority characters, because my life is not all-white. I've also found that I really like it when race is just sort of casually slipped in -- the minority characters aren't just a sum of various minority traits.

It's hard to say (sorry this is so rambly), but it's sort of... I get irritated when, say, there's an Asian character and all she can do is talk about Asian-ness and how Asian she is blah blah blah, but I also get irritated if race has absolutely no part of her life as well. Does that make sense at all? Wow, that must be tough as a writer.

But I've very much liked commercials airing here in CA with Asian spokespeople, just because it was like, wow! Asian person on TV! And I've liked books in which white isn't the fallback skin color (this is more sci-fi, since if your story is set in midwestern America, obviously one cannot ignore things). Or when there are minority-stereotype subverty things, and etc.

Uh. I hoped that made even remote sense...

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

It made total sense. I think part of my problem is that Oxford University in the 1980s is a very white setting, especially when you're looking at the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology. On the other hand I do wonder whether to give Charlotte in my current novel a black boyfriend so I can explore Susan's reactions in one of the subplots. Especially since I can turn that on its head and flashback to Charlotte's reactions when she first met Taj. Yeah, I might do that.

Gina