Your daily cup of fail.
Mar. 12th, 2009 22:12![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyDisclaimer/reminder: This post is not about me.
That said, though, I find that I do have something more to say that's at least tangentially related to, or somewhat inspired by, the ongoing racefail contretemps (it's sort of like the Worm Ouroboros at this point--the Internet is an echo chamber, not a series of tubes), namely the intersection (as in Venn diagrams) between genre, racism, and place.
In one of the many posts I've read on this topic, someone (and I'll try to find the link) said that racism is the systematic privileging of white people over everyone else (I'm paraphrasing), which is very true. But when I read that, I immediately added an "in America!" on at the end of the sentence in my head, since there are very definitely countries (cough! Japan! cough!) where the racial hierarchy is not quite so clear. A number of people asked me about race in Japan after I got back, and I think I've finally come up with a pithy way to formulate what I observed, a la what my 9th grade history teacher taught us about Confucianist yin-yang theory: yin is superior to yang in all areas in which yang has no presence. Similarly, in Japan white people occupy a distinct position of privilege, but one that is very much subordinated to Japanese-ness, and Japanese people. But that's a different discussion.
All of which is to say, I think that most of the discussion so far as I have encountered it has been centered implicitly in America, the excellent posts of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deepad notwithstanding--which is completely valid, though sadly unexamined, as most of the genre publishers are either explicitly American or local subsidiaries of global companies, and I think that most people in the discussion are residents of the States. [Why yes I am generalizing, and am open to specific corrections/rebuttals.] Moving along, I think part of the reason sff is still full of people who just don't get it is that it is explicitly characterized (I'm tempted to type "ghettoized") as a genre, out of the "mainstream" (though publishing in general is pretty white, judging by my bookshelf). I think another part of the problem is the paucity of literature in translation in America in general, and of science fiction and fantasy in particular. I mean, is Japan Sinks even still in print in translation outside of an academic context/edition? What about all the other Japanese science fiction that's great and completely untranslated? And while Japan is the only non-English speaking country I can speak of from literate experience, I'd be willing to bet the situation is quite similar in other countries. We're missing out on a lot of the world, and we don't even know it.
I think the root cause of the paucity of translated literature in this country is part of a story likecindy_pon's, or the white-washing of the Avatar movie. I think both of those stories are primarily artifacts of racism/the institutionalized privileging of white people/whiteness, but there's that xenophobic provincialism I hate at work too. In other words: I'm not sure that the thing keeping white Nobel laureates from having their work published and/or read in the States is exactly the same as what's keeping more chromatic authors, settings, characters, etc out of sf/f, but I'm dead certain they're related.
I had more to say about "genre" versus "not-genre", but I'm going to call it a night instead. I'll try to add specific links to this post as time permits.
That said, though, I find that I do have something more to say that's at least tangentially related to, or somewhat inspired by, the ongoing racefail contretemps (it's sort of like the Worm Ouroboros at this point--the Internet is an echo chamber, not a series of tubes), namely the intersection (as in Venn diagrams) between genre, racism, and place.
In one of the many posts I've read on this topic, someone (and I'll try to find the link) said that racism is the systematic privileging of white people over everyone else (I'm paraphrasing), which is very true. But when I read that, I immediately added an "in America!" on at the end of the sentence in my head, since there are very definitely countries (cough! Japan! cough!) where the racial hierarchy is not quite so clear. A number of people asked me about race in Japan after I got back, and I think I've finally come up with a pithy way to formulate what I observed, a la what my 9th grade history teacher taught us about Confucianist yin-yang theory: yin is superior to yang in all areas in which yang has no presence. Similarly, in Japan white people occupy a distinct position of privilege, but one that is very much subordinated to Japanese-ness, and Japanese people. But that's a different discussion.
All of which is to say, I think that most of the discussion so far as I have encountered it has been centered implicitly in America, the excellent posts of
deepad notwithstanding--which is completely valid, though sadly unexamined, as most of the genre publishers are either explicitly American or local subsidiaries of global companies, and I think that most people in the discussion are residents of the States. [Why yes I am generalizing, and am open to specific corrections/rebuttals.] Moving along, I think part of the reason sff is still full of people who just don't get it is that it is explicitly characterized (I'm tempted to type "ghettoized") as a genre, out of the "mainstream" (though publishing in general is pretty white, judging by my bookshelf). I think another part of the problem is the paucity of literature in translation in America in general, and of science fiction and fantasy in particular. I mean, is Japan Sinks even still in print in translation outside of an academic context/edition? What about all the other Japanese science fiction that's great and completely untranslated? And while Japan is the only non-English speaking country I can speak of from literate experience, I'd be willing to bet the situation is quite similar in other countries. We're missing out on a lot of the world, and we don't even know it.I think the root cause of the paucity of translated literature in this country is part of a story like
cindy_pon's, or the white-washing of the Avatar movie. I think both of those stories are primarily artifacts of racism/the institutionalized privileging of white people/whiteness, but there's that xenophobic provincialism I hate at work too. In other words: I'm not sure that the thing keeping white Nobel laureates from having their work published and/or read in the States is exactly the same as what's keeping more chromatic authors, settings, characters, etc out of sf/f, but I'm dead certain they're related. I had more to say about "genre" versus "not-genre", but I'm going to call it a night instead. I'll try to add specific links to this post as time permits.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-13 03:21 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-13 04:28 (UTC)About the matter i thnink all countries have their own racism, here is for the original and in extition indians, for the peruvian and bolivian and all who is not too white ('coz in here the mayority of people are spanish with a bit of indian blood, so more the indian blood, more the racism...
We are an strange country hated by Bolia and Perú, see from above for argentina and we hang out more with asia and australia and new zeland full of germans and spanish,
with the varieties of weather from desert to antartic
the south is very very similar to Japan in weather and i think too in in several social things, (must be the weather)
in the states the people is racist about latinoamericans, and all other countries, so think in all countries exist recism and are lack of cultural exchange why in my country we don't study asian history???? now is popular to learn japanese or Mandarin chinese...
Why the authors in here are hardly known in other countries we have a lot of great poetry authors, but the only world wide know is Pablo Neruda, i love to read about japanese great authors too
i love culture of diferents countries, and mitology and religion world wide, i study sanscrit and ancient indian religion, budism, and others... but i love to see this world more united and all the cultural legacy know by all
This live journal and internet has the power to concentrate people of same interest in diferent and distant countries i love that and i hope to learn mre about all my friends of europe, latin america,japan, asia and upside down this beatiful world.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-13 13:47 (UTC)Certainly racism exists pretty much everywhere, and so does insularity/parochialism. I'm not trying to put any country up on a pedestal; America and Japan are what I can speak from experience about, so I tend to use them as examples. I also know that LJ has people from all around the world--I know that the people who read my translations are a wonderfully international crowd--but I think, not in this journal usually but in the journals that have been talking about race in sf/f for the past few months, that internationalism is either discussed too much or not enough, and that not enough is the default mode as far as I've seen.
Anyway, thanks for your comments. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-13 18:44 (UTC)becuase all others in countries in america thinks america is the continent and no only one country of it
and about brazil i told you about is much larger to Untited states so non even in size United state could be "america"
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-13 20:30 (UTC)when people in the USA want to talk about the continent/s we usually say "the americas/north america/south america" because we live in "america."
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-13 04:36 (UTC)I'm no apologizing for the US at all, I'm just pointing out the oft-overlooked fact that Europe, with its progressive reputation, is pretty racist too.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-13 22:09 (UTC)The original creators obviously didn't have this trouble. And Shyamalan said in the commentary of Sixth Sense (and I think maybe Unbreakable) how writing himself its cameo was about the only way for him to get an acting job in the industry currently.
Of course the quotes from the lady in charge of casting seem to indicate she has a serious problem, but who hired her? And why does she still have a job?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-14 17:02 (UTC)"Trust me. You'll come back, eventually. Just like Sally."
Bastards.