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Unspoilery thoughts: Overall awesome, cast all did a pretty good job, Spock and Bones especially. But Bechdel test FAIL(*) (also physics fail, but I can live with that).
Spoilery thoughts:
( Read more... )
Spoilery thoughts:
( Read more... )
The word "race" means many things in sff: real life ethnic groups (europeans, africans etc), fictional ethnic groups (Numenorans, Darthacans etc), and (possibly non-human) sentient species (vulcans, elves etc)
Often these fictional "races" are used as a metaphor for, or draw upon, real life ethnic or cultural issues. This can be done well, part of the long tradition of sff using metaphor to make broad and powerful statements about the human condition. But often these stories are warped by the authors unexamined prejudices, as well as the problems inherent in equating the arbitrary divisions of race and culture to the objective biological divisions between species.
In Part One of this essay I go through some of the issues involved with using non-human species as a metaphor for race. In Part Two (if I write it) I'll go through some of the issues with using made-up ethnic groups and cultures as a metaphor for real ones.
EDIT: I never wrote Part 2, but here are the notes for a panel I took part in on the subject.
Disclaimer: I'm feeling sleepy and stupid but need to get this out of my head (I've been putting off posting it for like a year while it gets longer and longer in my head) I know I'm prone to over-generalisations and am not all that good at expressing myself, but please don't point out my minor errors without also thinking about my actual point. Though really, if anyone read the whole thing at all I'll be grateful :)
I don't really have a point as such (beyond pointing out how dodgy it all can be), just disconnected thoughts. It's not something I've seen explored beyond discussions of individual stories, and I'd like to get the ideas out of my head and hear other people's POV. I'm considering a Swancon panel on a topic like this, and also may do a redraft and post to a relevant community, so any and all suggestions, corrections or thoughts would be VERY appreciated.
Oh, and if the length of the disclaimer didn't tip you off: it's LONG.
( Part One: Different Species )
Often these fictional "races" are used as a metaphor for, or draw upon, real life ethnic or cultural issues. This can be done well, part of the long tradition of sff using metaphor to make broad and powerful statements about the human condition. But often these stories are warped by the authors unexamined prejudices, as well as the problems inherent in equating the arbitrary divisions of race and culture to the objective biological divisions between species.
In Part One of this essay I go through some of the issues involved with using non-human species as a metaphor for race. In Part Two (if I write it) I'll go through some of the issues with using made-up ethnic groups and cultures as a metaphor for real ones.
EDIT: I never wrote Part 2, but here are the notes for a panel I took part in on the subject.
Disclaimer: I'm feeling sleepy and stupid but need to get this out of my head (I've been putting off posting it for like a year while it gets longer and longer in my head) I know I'm prone to over-generalisations and am not all that good at expressing myself, but please don't point out my minor errors without also thinking about my actual point. Though really, if anyone read the whole thing at all I'll be grateful :)
I don't really have a point as such (beyond pointing out how dodgy it all can be), just disconnected thoughts. It's not something I've seen explored beyond discussions of individual stories, and I'd like to get the ideas out of my head and hear other people's POV. I'm considering a Swancon panel on a topic like this, and also may do a redraft and post to a relevant community, so any and all suggestions, corrections or thoughts would be VERY appreciated.
Oh, and if the length of the disclaimer didn't tip you off: it's LONG.
( Part One: Different Species )
First off, I ended up being sick for three and a half weeks (!!) so have horribly ignored many people's posts, comments etc. I do care! Really!
I have been converted to the total joy that is rosemary on roast potatoes after eating the ones Katie made at Terracon. She is a culinary queen.
Watched Enterprise with Cam, and it's actually not that bad once you get past the incredibly bad first season, especially in seasons 3 and 4. As in, not that bad for Star Trek. I realised recently that watching Babylon 5 significantly raised my tolerance for superficially crappy tv sf, since underneath the crud lies a really good story. Of course Star Trek is frequently crap all the way down, but now I can enjoy the good bits here and there.
I have been playing Final Fantasy X and really enjoying it, I think partly becuase it's a lot quicker and easier to get into the meat of the story than with the others, and is also very pretty. I find myself liking the somewhat cheesy voiceover, even. Unfortunately my FF8 saves were lost when I discovered that our 8mb ps1 cartridge was not designed for ps2s, and since the fact monsters level up with you takes a lot of the fun out of my level-up-till-you-know-you're-invincible approach I may not get back to it. Anyone got a copy of ff7 I can borrow for a Very Long Time once I'm finished with ffx? (I'm crap at computer games)
Oh! And we've decided on our wedding cake, we're booking them tommorrow. I designed it myself, keeping it a surpise :) (Except from other upcoming bride-to-bes like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nico_wolfwood)
I have been converted to the total joy that is rosemary on roast potatoes after eating the ones Katie made at Terracon. She is a culinary queen.
Watched Enterprise with Cam, and it's actually not that bad once you get past the incredibly bad first season, especially in seasons 3 and 4. As in, not that bad for Star Trek. I realised recently that watching Babylon 5 significantly raised my tolerance for superficially crappy tv sf, since underneath the crud lies a really good story. Of course Star Trek is frequently crap all the way down, but now I can enjoy the good bits here and there.
I have been playing Final Fantasy X and really enjoying it, I think partly becuase it's a lot quicker and easier to get into the meat of the story than with the others, and is also very pretty. I find myself liking the somewhat cheesy voiceover, even. Unfortunately my FF8 saves were lost when I discovered that our 8mb ps1 cartridge was not designed for ps2s, and since the fact monsters level up with you takes a lot of the fun out of my level-up-till-you-know-you're-invincible approach I may not get back to it. Anyone got a copy of ff7 I can borrow for a Very Long Time once I'm finished with ffx? (I'm crap at computer games)
Oh! And we've decided on our wedding cake, we're booking them tommorrow. I designed it myself, keeping it a surpise :) (Except from other upcoming bride-to-bes like
nico_wolfwood)
Well, despite being very (ok, slightly) ill I have drawn...another comic. Not an entirely true and accurate account, we actually watched season 2 first but I felt that would be an unneccesary complication.
Cam's anti-spam measures seem to be working which is nice.
While I did enjoy some of the episodes I still don't think I'd watch it except over Cam's shoulder. I find myself increasingly put off dramas which use the reset switch every episode, probably because I've been spoiled by Buffy. Still, the fact that very few if any episodes ended with the moral "See, if only you silly aliens had been more like the crew of the enterprise (ie mildly liberal middleclass americans) none of this would have happened!" was a definite plus. And I now understand why the one black human character gets so little attention, it's not racism it's because the actor is really annoying.
Cam's anti-spam measures seem to be working which is nice.
While I did enjoy some of the episodes I still don't think I'd watch it except over Cam's shoulder. I find myself increasingly put off dramas which use the reset switch every episode, probably because I've been spoiled by Buffy. Still, the fact that very few if any episodes ended with the moral "See, if only you silly aliens had been more like the crew of the enterprise (ie mildly liberal middleclass americans) none of this would have happened!" was a definite plus. And I now understand why the one black human character gets so little attention, it's not racism it's because the actor is really annoying.
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