Both sci-fi and fantasy are super fucking guilty of making everything that’s supposed to be mysterious/backwards/magic in universe, for lack of a better wording, sound Arabic. Or make literally every desert people have Arab aesthetics. There are certain things like architecture and clothing that simply make sense in this setting, but the language? The names? Really was that necessary? It’s lazy at best and racist at its worst.
Fine if the entire setting is framed like this, but something just doesn’t sit right when a European writer starts naming exclusively one culture/area/religion like this. Immediate red flag.
Also extremely prevalent and annoying: infantilization of female characters though obviously this can span literally every genre
People write their fantasies, and unfortunately many authors are mediocre men whose fantasy is to come across a woman who is way out of their league but she’s too traumatized or socially unaware to know it.
Gonna fight back against the first one by making a race of "exotic" lizardfolk where the most common name is Jared and they all eat cheeseburgers or something
Race of redneck snake/lizardfolk who hunt with ridiculous big 17th century blunderbusses but only for selling the pelts and subsist entirely on hot wings
I also notice that in thrillers (or tv episodes) if there's a drone/helicopter scene over a desert in the Mideast (or North Africa) - the music sometimes has plaintive wordless with - I don't know what to call it - "Arabic" vocalizations. It's become a go-to musical thing for Hollywood.
The only only time I've ever liked anything even remotely like that is in Khyber Pass by Ministry.
I'm guilty of writing one culture/area/religion as real world analogues. Mostly because I find it easier to vaguely base the world's shape and climate on ours because I'm too dumb to know how planets can realistically form.
There’s nothing wrong with doing that imo, just when it starts to get a little bit too direct is when it verges on being weird. A story almost everybody under the age of 35 loves is ATLA and its corresponding universe which is very much a real world analogue. The difference is that it’s done respectfully and clearly well thought out to ensure it remained that way. (Disclaimer: there are also some quite glaring shortcomings in ATLA though, kindly brought up by @muddihere)
Frank Herbert’s Dune, the piece of art it is, is definitely riding that fine line of being weird (in terms of naming of course, let alone the MANY other weird things in the story). Of course Dune is a product of its time, but
spoiler
a desert people, with an arab-esque aesthetic and language, on a planet being colonized for its one resource, coming across a prophetic leader, and proceeding to launch a religious war literally named a jihad in the name of said prophet, is a bit on the nose lol.
I should have mentioned that specifically, because it is actually very disrespectful and you are correct. Of course the show isn’t perfect, and honestly it’s really amazing how so much of it IS very respectful and then they somehow just totally drop the ball like that in regards to Guru Pathik and Indian cultural references, religious influences, etc, which could have been some of the most powerful pieces of story telling and imagery that already naturally fit into the story very well.
I’ll add a disclaimer in my comment to read yours in addition
The only good thing to come of Korra was the JackSaint videos about its heavy-handed misrepresentation of political ideology, and the fact that a lesbian relationship wasn't portrayed as :awooga:
Agreed. I would’ve liked to see what the writers could have created given a real three season budget and timeline though. They really got screwed over having to make each season a stand-alone story.
The prequel books were actually quite good. Yangchen’s has a ton of proletarian focus and plot, which was very surprising considering how Korra was so lib that it was painful
I genuinely think the show writes might have been SO railroaded in the Korra storyline that they desperately wanted to go the opposite direction with the prequels. Like from war profiteer who gets to hang around because he’s rich and funny and aligns himself with the protags, to a book with entire story arcs directed by working class politics. It was very jarring because I definitely see where you’re coming from. I probably wouldn’t have read them at all because of the sour taste Korra’s liberalism left in my mouth had I not been given a copy for free
Both sci-fi and fantasy are super fucking guilty of making everything that’s supposed to be mysterious/backwards/magic in universe, for lack of a better wording, sound Arabic. Or make literally every desert people have Arab aesthetics. There are certain things like architecture and clothing that simply make sense in this setting, but the language? The names? Really was that necessary? It’s lazy at best and racist at its worst.
Fine if the entire setting is framed like this, but something just doesn’t sit right when a European writer starts naming exclusively one culture/area/religion like this. Immediate red flag.
Also extremely prevalent and annoying: infantilization of female characters though obviously this can span literally every genre
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People write their fantasies, and unfortunately many authors are mediocre men whose fantasy is to come across a woman who is way out of their league but she’s too traumatized or socially unaware to know it.
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Gonna fight back against the first one by making a race of "exotic" lizardfolk where the most common name is Jared and they all eat cheeseburgers or something
The ways of the Nacirema are inscrutable.
Geico is doing their part with a geckofolk named Martin that talks about insurance.
He has a name?? Always thought he was just the Geico Gecko
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Lmfao. And the fact that your comment is so funny speaks volumes to how right my comment is
Race of redneck snake/lizardfolk who hunt with ridiculous big 17th century blunderbusses but only for selling the pelts and subsist entirely on hot wings
I also notice that in thrillers (or tv episodes) if there's a drone/helicopter scene over a desert in the Mideast (or North Africa) - the music sometimes has plaintive wordless with - I don't know what to call it - "Arabic" vocalizations. It's become a go-to musical thing for Hollywood.
The only only time I've ever liked anything even remotely like that is in Khyber Pass by Ministry.
I'm guilty of writing one culture/area/religion as real world analogues. Mostly because I find it easier to vaguely base the world's shape and climate on ours because I'm too dumb to know how planets can realistically form.
There’s nothing wrong with doing that imo, just when it starts to get a little bit too direct is when it verges on being weird. A story almost everybody under the age of 35 loves is ATLA and its corresponding universe which is very much a real world analogue. The difference is that it’s done respectfully and clearly well thought out to ensure it remained that way. (Disclaimer: there are also some quite glaring shortcomings in ATLA though, kindly brought up by @muddi here)
Frank Herbert’s Dune, the piece of art it is, is definitely riding that fine line of being weird (in terms of naming of course, let alone the MANY other weird things in the story). Of course Dune is a product of its time, but
spoiler
a desert people, with an arab-esque aesthetic and language, on a planet being colonized for its one resource, coming across a prophetic leader, and proceeding to launch a religious war literally named a jihad in the name of said prophet, is a bit on the nose lol.
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I should have mentioned that specifically, because it is actually very disrespectful and you are correct. Of course the show isn’t perfect, and honestly it’s really amazing how so much of it IS very respectful and then they somehow just totally drop the ball like that in regards to Guru Pathik and Indian cultural references, religious influences, etc, which could have been some of the most powerful pieces of story telling and imagery that already naturally fit into the story very well.
I’ll add a disclaimer in my comment to read yours in addition
Is it really that popular?
It was a good show
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The only good thing to come of Korra was the JackSaint videos about its heavy-handed misrepresentation of political ideology, and the fact that a lesbian relationship wasn't portrayed as :awooga:
Agreed. I would’ve liked to see what the writers could have created given a real three season budget and timeline though. They really got screwed over having to make each season a stand-alone story.
The prequel books were actually quite good. Yangchen’s has a ton of proletarian focus and plot, which was very surprising considering how Korra was so lib that it was painful
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I genuinely think the show writes might have been SO railroaded in the Korra storyline that they desperately wanted to go the opposite direction with the prequels. Like from war profiteer who gets to hang around because he’s rich and funny and aligns himself with the protags, to a book with entire story arcs directed by working class politics. It was very jarring because I definitely see where you’re coming from. I probably wouldn’t have read them at all because of the sour taste Korra’s liberalism left in my mouth had I not been given a copy for free
hey that's just realism
It's an incredible show and one I genuinely recommend you watch if you haven't yet