by

Mieville says neat stuff.

From a goodreads interview here.

“In the broader sense, I absolutely do think that the implicit politics of our narratives, whether we are consciously “meaning” them or not, matter, and that therefore we should be as thoughtful about them as possible. That doesn’t mean we’ll always succeed in political perspicacity—which doesn’t mean the same thing as tiptoeing —but we should try. So for example: If you have a world in which Orcs are evil, and you depict them as evil, I don’t know how that maps onto the question of “political correctness.” However, the point is not that you’re misrepresenting Orcs (if you invented this world, that’s how Orcs are), but that you have replicated the logic of racism, which is that large groups of people are “defined” by an abstract supposedly essential element called “race,” whatever else you were doing or intended. And that’s not an innocent thing to do. Maybe you have a race of female vampires who destroy men’s strength. They really do operate like that in your world. But I think you’re kidding yourself if you think that that idea just appeared ex nihilo in your head and has nothing to do with the incredibly strong, and incredibly patriarchal, anxiety about the destructive power of women’s sexuality in our very real world. These things are not reducible to our “intent”—we all inherit all kinds of bits and pieces of cultural bumf, plenty of them racist and sexist and homophobic, because that’s how our world works, so how could you avoid it?

So I’d suggest that one should be open-eyed about the facts that the categories with which we think and write and read, are not innocent, and that we should do our best not to use them to replicate the worst aspects of the cultural bumf that put them in our heads in the first place. Does that mean being politically correct? If that is deemed to mean being conscious of and careful about the political ramifications of our writing, then surely that’s the only decent way to proceed.“

96 thoughts on “Mieville says neat stuff.”

  5. I think the gamers who get wound-up and angry and defensive about stuff like this represent the worst of the hobby. It’s just…incredibly immature, if not outright stupid, to NOT look at the notion of “evil races” as fundamentally racist.

    How’s the audiobook thing going? Who’s the reader?

    Reply

    • Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really well, being that it isn’t that the orc are born evil but that their culture has them in a Hatred rut. Neat stuff.

      The reader is John Lee and he’s doing a fantastic job with a staggering cast of characters.

      Reply

      • +1 BW Orcs. Love love love the fact that it’s about culture, and that mechanizing the causes lets the players address the why-and-how and decide for themselves whether to hew to the culture or break free.

      • +1 BW Orcs. Love love love the fact that it’s about culture, and that mechanizing the causes lets the players address the why-and-how and decide for themselves whether to hew to the culture or break free.

      • > Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really
        > well, being that it isn’t that the orc are
        > born evil but that their culture has them
        > in a Hatred rut.

        This raises the question: has anyone played an orc in a BW game outside of orc culture? Because my reading of it suggests that orcs have hatred as an innate thing — the way that elves have grief as an innate thing. I’m not so sure BW gets a pass on this one.

        If I’m an orc who’s been raised by elves, do I have hatred? grief? Something else?

        later
        Tom

      • Will do. Are there rules for exiting your racial/cultural lifepath tracks and going into another race/culture? I can’t recall any, but I don’t have the book in front of me either.

        It’s still kind of iffy though. Orcs in BW may be bad because their culture tells them to, but it’s also true that there’s only one orc culture represented in the base books (and there’s only one elf or dwarf or human culture represented for that matter). Saying “orcs aren’t born evil”, or “dwarves aren’t born greedy” but then making it impossible for them to not gain those traits is a bit disingenuous.

        On the other hand, as far as I can tell the whole point of fantasy races are to let players explore an extreme point of view. Want to be a total bastard? Play an orc. What to be a stoic, practical person with a miserly streak? Play a dwarf. Want to pine away at the fleeting nature of the mortal world? Play an elf. Your race is a shorthand marker for “I want to fool around with this issue”. Some races (like the drow in D&D) exist mainly to say “I want to fool around with the issue of bucking stereotypes”.

        These shorthand markers do map back to real world racial issues in a problematic way, but I also think that it’s fair to say “my character is going to be really extreme along this axis” — just consider if a rubber mask is required.

        later
        Tom

      • BW In Play

        Tom,
        BW lifepaths define baseline culture (and its outcasts). It’s not the job of the lifepaths to present a progressive or alternate view. They’re conformity. What you’re looking for is what happens in play. And are there rules for exiting your racial constraints? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! The trait vote is designed to facilitate precisely this type of transformation.
        -L

      • BW In Play

        Tom,
        BW lifepaths define baseline culture (and its outcasts). It’s not the job of the lifepaths to present a progressive or alternate view. They’re conformity. What you’re looking for is what happens in play. And are there rules for exiting your racial constraints? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! The trait vote is designed to facilitate precisely this type of transformation.
        -L

      • Will do. Are there rules for exiting your racial/cultural lifepath tracks and going into another race/culture? I can’t recall any, but I don’t have the book in front of me either.

        It’s still kind of iffy though. Orcs in BW may be bad because their culture tells them to, but it’s also true that there’s only one orc culture represented in the base books (and there’s only one elf or dwarf or human culture represented for that matter). Saying “orcs aren’t born evil”, or “dwarves aren’t born greedy” but then making it impossible for them to not gain those traits is a bit disingenuous.

        On the other hand, as far as I can tell the whole point of fantasy races are to let players explore an extreme point of view. Want to be a total bastard? Play an orc. What to be a stoic, practical person with a miserly streak? Play a dwarf. Want to pine away at the fleeting nature of the mortal world? Play an elf. Your race is a shorthand marker for “I want to fool around with this issue”. Some races (like the drow in D&D) exist mainly to say “I want to fool around with the issue of bucking stereotypes”.

        These shorthand markers do map back to real world racial issues in a problematic way, but I also think that it’s fair to say “my character is going to be really extreme along this axis” — just consider if a rubber mask is required.

        later
        Tom

      • > Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really
        > well, being that it isn’t that the orc are
        > born evil but that their culture has them
        > in a Hatred rut.

        This raises the question: has anyone played an orc in a BW game outside of orc culture? Because my reading of it suggests that orcs have hatred as an innate thing — the way that elves have grief as an innate thing. I’m not so sure BW gets a pass on this one.

        If I’m an orc who’s been raised by elves, do I have hatred? grief? Something else?

        later
        Tom

    • Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really well, being that it isn’t that the orc are born evil but that their culture has them in a Hatred rut. Neat stuff.

      The reader is John Lee and he’s doing a fantastic job with a staggering cast of characters.

      Reply

  6. I think the gamers who get wound-up and angry and defensive about stuff like this represent the worst of the hobby. It’s just…incredibly immature, if not outright stupid, to NOT look at the notion of “evil races” as fundamentally racist.

    How’s the audiobook thing going? Who’s the reader?

    Reply

  7. I think the gamers who get wound-up and angry and defensive about stuff like this represent the worst of the hobby. It’s just…incredibly immature, if not outright stupid, to NOT look at the notion of “evil races” as fundamentally racist.

    How’s the audiobook thing going? Who’s the reader?

    Reply

  8. I think the gamers who get wound-up and angry and defensive about stuff like this represent the worst of the hobby. It’s just…incredibly immature, if not outright stupid, to NOT look at the notion of “evil races” as fundamentally racist.

    How’s the audiobook thing going? Who’s the reader?

    Reply

  9. Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really well, being that it isn’t that the orc are born evil but that their culture has them in a Hatred rut. Neat stuff.

    The reader is John Lee and he’s doing a fantastic job with a staggering cast of characters.

    Reply

  10. Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really well, being that it isn’t that the orc are born evil but that their culture has them in a Hatred rut. Neat stuff.

    The reader is John Lee and he’s doing a fantastic job with a staggering cast of characters.

    Reply

  11. Thanks for the link!

    It’s always interesting to me the sorts of thinking that does and doesn’t go into those conversations…

    As an artist, it’s pretty easy to recognize creating anything through media has the potential to MOVE people, both good and bad (see: Birth of a Nation).

    As a craftsperson, it’s a given that you’re studying anything from pacing, presentation, characterization, dialogue, etc. and how that reads to an audience as a tool of communication- success being communicating what you want, failure being the opposite, and implicit through the whole process about what message you ACTUALLY want to be sending.

    As a businessperson, and markets, and appeal, who are you speaking to, and who are you not speaking to? Sadly, in these discussions, these are the folks have a half an iota of acknowlegement in this- they’re the ones who give us the token representations of women and people of color in stories (see: Cars), and also sadly enough, never get beyond that usually.

    It’s kind of a point where you realize a lot of these folks have normalized bias like it was gravity: “Of course New York in Friends has no people of color.”, “Of course, Coraline needs a boy to help rescue her.”, “Of course Africa is full of horrible savage people, er, zombies”…

    Have you seen Neil Gaiman’s discussions of why Anansi Boys isn’t being made into a movie?

    Reply

  12. Thanks for the link!

    It’s always interesting to me the sorts of thinking that does and doesn’t go into those conversations…

    As an artist, it’s pretty easy to recognize creating anything through media has the potential to MOVE people, both good and bad (see: Birth of a Nation).

    As a craftsperson, it’s a given that you’re studying anything from pacing, presentation, characterization, dialogue, etc. and how that reads to an audience as a tool of communication- success being communicating what you want, failure being the opposite, and implicit through the whole process about what message you ACTUALLY want to be sending.

    As a businessperson, and markets, and appeal, who are you speaking to, and who are you not speaking to? Sadly, in these discussions, these are the folks have a half an iota of acknowlegement in this- they’re the ones who give us the token representations of women and people of color in stories (see: Cars), and also sadly enough, never get beyond that usually.

    It’s kind of a point where you realize a lot of these folks have normalized bias like it was gravity: “Of course New York in Friends has no people of color.”, “Of course, Coraline needs a boy to help rescue her.”, “Of course Africa is full of horrible savage people, er, zombies”…

    Have you seen Neil Gaiman’s discussions of why Anansi Boys isn’t being made into a movie?

    Reply

  13. Thanks for the link!

    It’s always interesting to me the sorts of thinking that does and doesn’t go into those conversations…

    As an artist, it’s pretty easy to recognize creating anything through media has the potential to MOVE people, both good and bad (see: Birth of a Nation).

    As a craftsperson, it’s a given that you’re studying anything from pacing, presentation, characterization, dialogue, etc. and how that reads to an audience as a tool of communication- success being communicating what you want, failure being the opposite, and implicit through the whole process about what message you ACTUALLY want to be sending.

    As a businessperson, and markets, and appeal, who are you speaking to, and who are you not speaking to? Sadly, in these discussions, these are the folks have a half an iota of acknowlegement in this- they’re the ones who give us the token representations of women and people of color in stories (see: Cars), and also sadly enough, never get beyond that usually.

    It’s kind of a point where you realize a lot of these folks have normalized bias like it was gravity: “Of course New York in Friends has no people of color.”, “Of course, Coraline needs a boy to help rescue her.”, “Of course Africa is full of horrible savage people, er, zombies”…

    Have you seen Neil Gaiman’s discussions of why Anansi Boys isn’t being made into a movie?

    Reply

  14. Thanks for the link!

    It’s always interesting to me the sorts of thinking that does and doesn’t go into those conversations…

    As an artist, it’s pretty easy to recognize creating anything through media has the potential to MOVE people, both good and bad (see: Birth of a Nation).

    As a craftsperson, it’s a given that you’re studying anything from pacing, presentation, characterization, dialogue, etc. and how that reads to an audience as a tool of communication- success being communicating what you want, failure being the opposite, and implicit through the whole process about what message you ACTUALLY want to be sending.

    As a businessperson, and markets, and appeal, who are you speaking to, and who are you not speaking to? Sadly, in these discussions, these are the folks have a half an iota of acknowlegement in this- they’re the ones who give us the token representations of women and people of color in stories (see: Cars), and also sadly enough, never get beyond that usually.

    It’s kind of a point where you realize a lot of these folks have normalized bias like it was gravity: “Of course New York in Friends has no people of color.”, “Of course, Coraline needs a boy to help rescue her.”, “Of course Africa is full of horrible savage people, er, zombies”…

    Have you seen Neil Gaiman’s discussions of why Anansi Boys isn’t being made into a movie?

    Reply

  15. +1 BW Orcs. Love love love the fact that it’s about culture, and that mechanizing the causes lets the players address the why-and-how and decide for themselves whether to hew to the culture or break free.

    Reply

  16. +1 BW Orcs. Love love love the fact that it’s about culture, and that mechanizing the causes lets the players address the why-and-how and decide for themselves whether to hew to the culture or break free.

    Reply

  17. I agree with Mieville completely.

    You’ll note what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that these ideas are bad and can’t be used. He doesn’t say if you have an idea about a clan of female vampires who steal men’s strength you shouldn’t write it. He simply says that you should be aware of the consequences of what you write, which will result in some evening out later on. Maybe you need to include more context for your orcs or include some non-strength-stealing female characters among your vampires to balance things out. Incidentally, I think those choices also strengthen your story.

    I accidentally wrote a very anti-choice (<- is pro-choice) plot point into a novel I'm working on. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but it belongs in the story at that point, so there really isn't much to do, except try to even things out as the story goes on.

    Reply

    • Carrying our meaning

      I did note that he doesn’t say that and it made me pretty happy.

      A few weeks ago I was on the Canon Puncture podcast and we talked about a blog entry about escapism and how their game’s fiction doesn’t mean anything and I said that we carry our meaning with us. It was nice to read someone else very eloquently saying something similar.

      Reply

    • Carrying our meaning

      I did note that he doesn’t say that and it made me pretty happy.

      A few weeks ago I was on the Canon Puncture podcast and we talked about a blog entry about escapism and how their game’s fiction doesn’t mean anything and I said that we carry our meaning with us. It was nice to read someone else very eloquently saying something similar.

      Reply

    • “I accidentally wrote a very anti-choice (<- is pro-choice) plot point into a novel I'm working on. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but it belongs in the story at that point, so there really isn't much to do, except try to even things out as the story goes on."

      When I hit those moments its always one of the best and worst moments of writing. They always make me sit back and go “huh” and try to figure out if I did that, the genre did that, or what. The structural logic of it is fascinating.

      Often those points, which came up as side issues by accident, become the focus of later work. And often the later work is better.

      So, anyway, good luck!

      Reply

    • “I accidentally wrote a very anti-choice (<- is pro-choice) plot point into a novel I'm working on. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but it belongs in the story at that point, so there really isn't much to do, except try to even things out as the story goes on."

      When I hit those moments its always one of the best and worst moments of writing. They always make me sit back and go “huh” and try to figure out if I did that, the genre did that, or what. The structural logic of it is fascinating.

      Often those points, which came up as side issues by accident, become the focus of later work. And often the later work is better.

      So, anyway, good luck!

      Reply

  18. I agree with Mieville completely.

    You’ll note what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that these ideas are bad and can’t be used. He doesn’t say if you have an idea about a clan of female vampires who steal men’s strength you shouldn’t write it. He simply says that you should be aware of the consequences of what you write, which will result in some evening out later on. Maybe you need to include more context for your orcs or include some non-strength-stealing female characters among your vampires to balance things out. Incidentally, I think those choices also strengthen your story.

    I accidentally wrote a very anti-choice (<- is pro-choice) plot point into a novel I'm working on. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but it belongs in the story at that point, so there really isn't much to do, except try to even things out as the story goes on.

    Reply

  19. I agree with Mieville completely.

    You’ll note what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that these ideas are bad and can’t be used. He doesn’t say if you have an idea about a clan of female vampires who steal men’s strength you shouldn’t write it. He simply says that you should be aware of the consequences of what you write, which will result in some evening out later on. Maybe you need to include more context for your orcs or include some non-strength-stealing female characters among your vampires to balance things out. Incidentally, I think those choices also strengthen your story.

    I accidentally wrote a very anti-choice (<- is pro-choice) plot point into a novel I'm working on. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but it belongs in the story at that point, so there really isn't much to do, except try to even things out as the story goes on.

    Reply

  20. I agree with Mieville completely.

    You’ll note what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t say that these ideas are bad and can’t be used. He doesn’t say if you have an idea about a clan of female vampires who steal men’s strength you shouldn’t write it. He simply says that you should be aware of the consequences of what you write, which will result in some evening out later on. Maybe you need to include more context for your orcs or include some non-strength-stealing female characters among your vampires to balance things out. Incidentally, I think those choices also strengthen your story.

    I accidentally wrote a very anti-choice (<- is pro-choice) plot point into a novel I'm working on. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but it belongs in the story at that point, so there really isn't much to do, except try to even things out as the story goes on.

    Reply

  23. Carrying our meaning

    I did note that he doesn’t say that and it made me pretty happy.

    A few weeks ago I was on the Canon Puncture podcast and we talked about a blog entry about escapism and how their game’s fiction doesn’t mean anything and I said that we carry our meaning with us. It was nice to read someone else very eloquently saying something similar.

    Reply

  24. Carrying our meaning

    I did note that he doesn’t say that and it made me pretty happy.

    A few weeks ago I was on the Canon Puncture podcast and we talked about a blog entry about escapism and how their game’s fiction doesn’t mean anything and I said that we carry our meaning with us. It was nice to read someone else very eloquently saying something similar.

    Reply

  27. Re: Green N-words

    God, it was an interview about Houses of the Blooded on a podcast… he was never on Dragon’s Landing, so it must have been Master Plan or Theory from the Closet (or you guys, was it you guys?). I’ll go digging through back episodes after my doctor’s appointment and post then.

    Reply

  28. Re: Green N-words

    God, it was an interview about Houses of the Blooded on a podcast… he was never on Dragon’s Landing, so it must have been Master Plan or Theory from the Closet (or you guys, was it you guys?). I’ll go digging through back episodes after my doctor’s appointment and post then.

    Reply

  33. Anansi Boys

    I haven’t read about why. Why?

    The total lack of people of color is also really noticeable in Angel (“But there is that black guy!” “Right…what’s his name?” “…um…Gunn…”) and Supernatural to the point where after two discs or so, I just stopped watching.

    Reply

  34. Anansi Boys

    I haven’t read about why. Why?

    The total lack of people of color is also really noticeable in Angel (“But there is that black guy!” “Right…what’s his name?” “…um…Gunn…”) and Supernatural to the point where after two discs or so, I just stopped watching.

    Reply

  35. > Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really
    > well, being that it isn’t that the orc are
    > born evil but that their culture has them
    > in a Hatred rut.

    This raises the question: has anyone played an orc in a BW game outside of orc culture? Because my reading of it suggests that orcs have hatred as an innate thing — the way that elves have grief as an innate thing. I’m not so sure BW gets a pass on this one.

    If I’m an orc who’s been raised by elves, do I have hatred? grief? Something else?

    later
    Tom

    Reply

  36. > Burning Wheel handles its evil orc really
    > well, being that it isn’t that the orc are
    > born evil but that their culture has them
    > in a Hatred rut.

    This raises the question: has anyone played an orc in a BW game outside of orc culture? Because my reading of it suggests that orcs have hatred as an innate thing — the way that elves have grief as an innate thing. I’m not so sure BW gets a pass on this one.

    If I’m an orc who’s been raised by elves, do I have hatred? grief? Something else?

    later
    Tom

    Reply

  43. Will do. Are there rules for exiting your racial/cultural lifepath tracks and going into another race/culture? I can’t recall any, but I don’t have the book in front of me either.

    It’s still kind of iffy though. Orcs in BW may be bad because their culture tells them to, but it’s also true that there’s only one orc culture represented in the base books (and there’s only one elf or dwarf or human culture represented for that matter). Saying “orcs aren’t born evil”, or “dwarves aren’t born greedy” but then making it impossible for them to not gain those traits is a bit disingenuous.

    On the other hand, as far as I can tell the whole point of fantasy races are to let players explore an extreme point of view. Want to be a total bastard? Play an orc. What to be a stoic, practical person with a miserly streak? Play a dwarf. Want to pine away at the fleeting nature of the mortal world? Play an elf. Your race is a shorthand marker for “I want to fool around with this issue”. Some races (like the drow in D&D) exist mainly to say “I want to fool around with the issue of bucking stereotypes”.

    These shorthand markers do map back to real world racial issues in a problematic way, but I also think that it’s fair to say “my character is going to be really extreme along this axis” — just consider if a rubber mask is required.

    later
    Tom

    Reply

  44. Will do. Are there rules for exiting your racial/cultural lifepath tracks and going into another race/culture? I can’t recall any, but I don’t have the book in front of me either.

    It’s still kind of iffy though. Orcs in BW may be bad because their culture tells them to, but it’s also true that there’s only one orc culture represented in the base books (and there’s only one elf or dwarf or human culture represented for that matter). Saying “orcs aren’t born evil”, or “dwarves aren’t born greedy” but then making it impossible for them to not gain those traits is a bit disingenuous.

    On the other hand, as far as I can tell the whole point of fantasy races are to let players explore an extreme point of view. Want to be a total bastard? Play an orc. What to be a stoic, practical person with a miserly streak? Play a dwarf. Want to pine away at the fleeting nature of the mortal world? Play an elf. Your race is a shorthand marker for “I want to fool around with this issue”. Some races (like the drow in D&D) exist mainly to say “I want to fool around with the issue of bucking stereotypes”.

    These shorthand markers do map back to real world racial issues in a problematic way, but I also think that it’s fair to say “my character is going to be really extreme along this axis” — just consider if a rubber mask is required.

    later
    Tom

    Reply

  47. As someone who finds it an over simplification to call a single character evil (and gets really annoyed when they are portrayed as nothing but evil), it’s even harder for me to portray a race as such.

    It was really cool in my Warcraft game that all the players understood the orc weren’t fighting them because they were savage or evil. They had been locked up for years, broke out and were trying to tear through the alliance army so they could break out the other orcs who were still in internment camps. This meant that sympathizing with the orcs was very prevalent in the game, even though the protagonists were at war with them.

    What drives me nuts however is when I try to present complicated peoples who are opposing the protagonists and they are dismissed as just “evil”. In the fiction, I suppose it is fine for the characters to see their enemies as evil, but I really hate it when the players take that outlook.

    Reply

  48. As someone who finds it an over simplification to call a single character evil (and gets really annoyed when they are portrayed as nothing but evil), it’s even harder for me to portray a race as such.

    It was really cool in my Warcraft game that all the players understood the orc weren’t fighting them because they were savage or evil. They had been locked up for years, broke out and were trying to tear through the alliance army so they could break out the other orcs who were still in internment camps. This meant that sympathizing with the orcs was very prevalent in the game, even though the protagonists were at war with them.

    What drives me nuts however is when I try to present complicated peoples who are opposing the protagonists and they are dismissed as just “evil”. In the fiction, I suppose it is fine for the characters to see their enemies as evil, but I really hate it when the players take that outlook.

    Reply

  49. As someone who finds it an over simplification to call a single character evil (and gets really annoyed when they are portrayed as nothing but evil), it’s even harder for me to portray a race as such.

    It was really cool in my Warcraft game that all the players understood the orc weren’t fighting them because they were savage or evil. They had been locked up for years, broke out and were trying to tear through the alliance army so they could break out the other orcs who were still in internment camps. This meant that sympathizing with the orcs was very prevalent in the game, even though the protagonists were at war with them.

    What drives me nuts however is when I try to present complicated peoples who are opposing the protagonists and they are dismissed as just “evil”. In the fiction, I suppose it is fine for the characters to see their enemies as evil, but I really hate it when the players take that outlook.

    Reply

  50. As someone who finds it an over simplification to call a single character evil (and gets really annoyed when they are portrayed as nothing but evil), it’s even harder for me to portray a race as such.

    It was really cool in my Warcraft game that all the players understood the orc weren’t fighting them because they were savage or evil. They had been locked up for years, broke out and were trying to tear through the alliance army so they could break out the other orcs who were still in internment camps. This meant that sympathizing with the orcs was very prevalent in the game, even though the protagonists were at war with them.

    What drives me nuts however is when I try to present complicated peoples who are opposing the protagonists and they are dismissed as just “evil”. In the fiction, I suppose it is fine for the characters to see their enemies as evil, but I really hate it when the players take that outlook.

    Reply

  51. “I accidentally wrote a very anti-choice (<- is pro-choice) plot point into a novel I'm working on. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but it belongs in the story at that point, so there really isn't much to do, except try to even things out as the story goes on."

    When I hit those moments its always one of the best and worst moments of writing. They always make me sit back and go “huh” and try to figure out if I did that, the genre did that, or what. The structural logic of it is fascinating.

    Often those points, which came up as side issues by accident, become the focus of later work. And often the later work is better.

    So, anyway, good luck!

    Reply

  52. “I accidentally wrote a very anti-choice (<- is pro-choice) plot point into a novel I'm working on. I'm still uncomfortable with it, but it belongs in the story at that point, so there really isn't much to do, except try to even things out as the story goes on."

    When I hit those moments its always one of the best and worst moments of writing. They always make me sit back and go “huh” and try to figure out if I did that, the genre did that, or what. The structural logic of it is fascinating.

    Often those points, which came up as side issues by accident, become the focus of later work. And often the later work is better.

    So, anyway, good luck!

    Reply

  57. Re: Anansi Boys

    From all his previous talks on it not being a movie, that’s the big sticking point with Hollywood- they keep wanting him to raceswap the characters.

    After all, they screwed up Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee!

    Reply

  58. Re: Anansi Boys

    From all his previous talks on it not being a movie, that’s the big sticking point with Hollywood- they keep wanting him to raceswap the characters.

    After all, they screwed up Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee!

    Reply

  59. BW In Play

    Tom,
    BW lifepaths define baseline culture (and its outcasts). It’s not the job of the lifepaths to present a progressive or alternate view. They’re conformity. What you’re looking for is what happens in play. And are there rules for exiting your racial constraints? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! The trait vote is designed to facilitate precisely this type of transformation.
    -L

    Reply

  60. BW In Play

    Tom,
    BW lifepaths define baseline culture (and its outcasts). It’s not the job of the lifepaths to present a progressive or alternate view. They’re conformity. What you’re looking for is what happens in play. And are there rules for exiting your racial constraints? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! The trait vote is designed to facilitate precisely this type of transformation.
    -L

    Reply

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