Yes, I had that issue with God too, though I've heard various apologetics explaining why it's "necessary".
Sticking a token character of any sort in is just making life difficult for your narrative, and possibly being insulting.
Well yes, but deliberately avoiding non-white characters can be just as damaging. See the works of Joss Whedon (when white Australians notice how unrealistically white your setting is, you're doing something wrong) *adds extra footnote*
I mean if you (general you, not you you :)) really only feel like writing white characters and to write anything else would make your writing suck, well, I guess you should only write white characters..but you're still somewhat complicit with the extreme whiteness of fiction. It's just that in this particular case it's the lesser of two evils. Same way some authors really are better off not writing any female characters (or at least not giving them any dialogue or plot) But all things being equal...
I've been trying to make my writing more diverse and have found it's helped my writing, helped shake up some of my preconceptions etc (I ask myself "WHY is this character white/male/straight etc?" And either there's a good answer and I understand the character better, or there's no good answer and I design them more thoughtfully). But I'm still probably not going to add any POC to my Jane Austen fic :)
EDIT: An example where avoiding diversity really detracts from a story imo: science fiction and fantasy which plays around with gender and reproduction and doesn't ask "How does this affect GLBT people?" or has aliens which are completely and compulsorily heteronormative and implies this is exactly the same as humans and so on. One of the glaring flaws in the otherwise excellent "Lillith's Brood" series, for example.
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Sticking a token character of any sort in is just making life difficult for your narrative, and possibly being insulting.
Well yes, but deliberately avoiding non-white characters can be just as damaging. See the works of Joss Whedon (when white Australians notice how unrealistically white your setting is, you're doing something wrong) *adds extra footnote*
I mean if you (general you, not you you :)) really only feel like writing white characters and to write anything else would make your writing suck, well, I guess you should only write white characters..but you're still somewhat complicit with the extreme whiteness of fiction. It's just that in this particular case it's the lesser of two evils. Same way some authors really are better off not writing any female characters (or at least not giving them any dialogue or plot) But all things being equal...
I've been trying to make my writing more diverse and have found it's helped my writing, helped shake up some of my preconceptions etc (I ask myself "WHY is this character white/male/straight etc?" And either there's a good answer and I understand the character better, or there's no good answer and I design them more thoughtfully). But I'm still probably not going to add any POC to my Jane Austen fic :)
EDIT: An example where avoiding diversity really detracts from a story imo: science fiction and fantasy which plays around with gender and reproduction and doesn't ask "How does this affect GLBT people?" or has aliens which are completely and compulsorily heteronormative and implies this is exactly the same as humans and so on. One of the glaring flaws in the otherwise excellent "Lillith's Brood" series, for example.