Tu Quoque, Clotie
Feb. 25th, 2020 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyHad another spin on the Talons of Weng-Chiang wheel over at Gallifrey Base. Just the usual slightly panicked denial of the story's rampant racism, with nothing particularly new or interesting -- except for one posting which Jon mentioned to me (since I have the poster blocked). Alas, thanks to its persistent alt-right troll and his tedious transphobia, the thread was locked before I could address it.
Also alas, the posting wasn't as interesting as it had at first sounded: "It might be argued that The Room with No Doors is a work of astonishing orientalism that would make Edward Said cringe, if Edward Said were in the business of reading television tie-in novels. An act of cultural appropriation that reduces the richness of Japanese culture to a background setting for the actions of a bunch of white people. Maybe only people who know about these cultures should be allowed to write about them."
It's a pretty standard tu quoque / derailing / spotlight shifting, and I seriously doubt its author knows more about either Said or "the richness of Japanese culture" than he has gleaned from Wikipedia or anime, or that he has read Room. Nonetheless, I think it's interesting question to ask: what are the characteristics of Orientalism? Does Room display some or all of those characteristics? Is Japanese culture merely a "background setting" to the action, or does it figure in the story's plot or themes? The same questions could be asked about The Left-Handed Hummingbird, and perhaps Set Piece and Walking to Babylon as well. Doctor Who's format carries the danger of misusing the real places, times, and cultures with which it engages.
Exploring this properly would mean re-reading Room, and in complete honesty, I don't have the time or energy to do that now. OTOH, I should probably grab Orientalism off the shelf where it's been gathering dust for years and give the thing a proper read. Maybe I'll do that and make notes here.
Because: I'd love to write something set in Korean history. (I'll bet I've said this before. Still hasn't happened. Off on black holes at the mo.) When I was writing Room, a substantial part of the research, IIRC, was watching Kurosawa movies (there's at least one cheeky reference in the book). I've watched loads of sageuks, Korean historical dramas, but I'm not satisfied with that as a source -- I'm going to have to do a lot more reading first. Also -- this plugs into the "a bunch of white people" thing -- I don't want to try to write from the point of view of a Korean character. To avoid that means dropping a Western character into Joseon (probably) and conveying Korean culture to the reader through their eyes -- through my eyes.
That means, of course, engaging with that culture, not merely using it for decoration -- which is essentially what Talons does with Chinese culture; just as Sax Rohmer's Fu-Manchu stories were proudly Chinese culture-free, I'm not sure there's a single thing in Talons which actually comes from Chinese culture. (Maybe some costume stuff from stock?)
Also alas, the posting wasn't as interesting as it had at first sounded: "It might be argued that The Room with No Doors is a work of astonishing orientalism that would make Edward Said cringe, if Edward Said were in the business of reading television tie-in novels. An act of cultural appropriation that reduces the richness of Japanese culture to a background setting for the actions of a bunch of white people. Maybe only people who know about these cultures should be allowed to write about them."
It's a pretty standard tu quoque / derailing / spotlight shifting, and I seriously doubt its author knows more about either Said or "the richness of Japanese culture" than he has gleaned from Wikipedia or anime, or that he has read Room. Nonetheless, I think it's interesting question to ask: what are the characteristics of Orientalism? Does Room display some or all of those characteristics? Is Japanese culture merely a "background setting" to the action, or does it figure in the story's plot or themes? The same questions could be asked about The Left-Handed Hummingbird, and perhaps Set Piece and Walking to Babylon as well. Doctor Who's format carries the danger of misusing the real places, times, and cultures with which it engages.
Exploring this properly would mean re-reading Room, and in complete honesty, I don't have the time or energy to do that now. OTOH, I should probably grab Orientalism off the shelf where it's been gathering dust for years and give the thing a proper read. Maybe I'll do that and make notes here.
Because: I'd love to write something set in Korean history. (I'll bet I've said this before. Still hasn't happened. Off on black holes at the mo.) When I was writing Room, a substantial part of the research, IIRC, was watching Kurosawa movies (there's at least one cheeky reference in the book). I've watched loads of sageuks, Korean historical dramas, but I'm not satisfied with that as a source -- I'm going to have to do a lot more reading first. Also -- this plugs into the "a bunch of white people" thing -- I don't want to try to write from the point of view of a Korean character. To avoid that means dropping a Western character into Joseon (probably) and conveying Korean culture to the reader through their eyes -- through my eyes.
That means, of course, engaging with that culture, not merely using it for decoration -- which is essentially what Talons does with Chinese culture; just as Sax Rohmer's Fu-Manchu stories were proudly Chinese culture-free, I'm not sure there's a single thing in Talons which actually comes from Chinese culture. (Maybe some costume stuff from stock?)
