Halian

conlangs, conworlds, etc.

29/Florida. Protofren. Aroaego leftist. Interests include conlangs, worldbuilding, and tabletop games (especially TCGs and riichi mahjong). Reposts NSFW stuff sometimes. https://en.pronouns.page/@halian


jesncin
@jesncin

(concept art by Scott Watanabe)

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Contemplative

With all the promo stuff about Disney's upcoming animated film Wish, I can't help but think about Raya and the Last Dragon again. I spent a year intensively researching things about that movie and the discourse surrounding it for a series of videos on Xiran Jay Zhao's channel, and oh boy did that reveal a lot about the current way we talk about cultural representation in casual media criticism.


AtFruitBat
@AtFruitBat

... in last month's Game Devs of Color Expo. The setting of their game, "Hill Agency: Purity Decay", is in the future, in one of the last cities remaining in North America that has been reapproriated by Indigenous people. They said they had some criticisms about the city setting: people wanted to know why they were using present day-style buildings, rather than a longhouse. Because a longhouse would fit the idea that some people have, that the aesthetics are primarily what codes it as Indigenous. But as the devs pointed out, Indigenous people would be reusing all the perfectly sound buildings that were still standing there!

"What's the point of tearing down anything if these are perfectly good, beautiful houses? [...]."

As quoted in this writeup.

And, this fits the idea of a flattened view of cultural representation:

"[Incidentally] when an Indigenous person does not make something, you'll know because there's an excess of Indigenous signifiers."

Esquivel noted the fictional Akomish Longhouse from Insomniac Games' 2014 title Infamous Second Son. The closest proximity to that is the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center in Seattle. However, they noted the location in-game looks more similar to a Las Vegas attraction instead of the non-descript modern-day building that belongs to the Duwamish. Bryne explained this is similar to making a racist Wild West show.

As Indigenous creators, Byrne said there is a dichotomy for the creative work they would like to do and what is more palatable to potential supporters for their game projects.

They explain, "You don't have a market that expects [non-stereotypical work], and we've had this conversation come up with funders; there is a push on Indigenous creatives to go that direction [of stereotypical work].

Signifiers or aesthetics alone tend to be what outsiders conflate with culture. But usually people inside the culture can tell when something is superficially applied, when it approaches stereotyping. Or when it's there to sell something to people that is about you, but not made for you. All the signifiers might be there, but what are they grounded in? What do they actually mean?

The point above:

is this temple actually a place of worship or is it just a set piece for a goddang Indiana jones booby trap action fight sequence

is spot on, and it also mirrors this point in a piece by Daniel José Older that I often go back to, on writing the Other and the Self:

Ritual ≠ spectacle.

I recently edited Long Hidden, an anthology of speculative fiction from the margins of history. My co-editor Rose Fox and I received a number of submissions that had no speculative element at all but featured non-Christian ceremonies. Other people's cultures/beliefs are not fantasy. It's one thing if a demigod or spirit is out walking around, interacting with the world, and even that walks a complex line, but to have people simply celebrating their beliefs be a "fantastical" element is racist cultural imperialism.

Further things other people's cultures are not: a circus act, a freak show, a music video prop, a kitschy household accoutrement, a Halloween costume, a stand-in for having your own sense of self.

[...]

In her breathtaking essay "Is Paris Burning?" bell hooks writes: "Ritual is that ceremonial act that carries with it meaning … beyond what appears, while spectacle functions primarily as entertaining dramatic display. … those elements of a given ritual that are empowering and subversive may not be readily visible to an outsider looking in. Hence it is easy for white observers to depict black rituals as spectacle." Later, hooks discusses how the documentary Paris Is Burning reinforces this dehumanizing depiction of spectacle over ritual when one of the people depicted in the film is murdered: "Having served the purpose of spectacle, the film abandons him/her … There are no scenes of grief. To put it crassly, her dying is upstaged by spectacle. Death is not entertaining."

It will feel pretty obvious to people inside a culture when their culture is reduced to set dressing, or used mainly as sensationalist fodder for people outside the culture. It will feel a certain way when the main knowledge that is being presented of your culture is as if it's been flattened out into aesthetics alone.

When there's a scarcity of representation overall, then there is this ambivalent feeling of, like, yeah, I know this is stereotyping, but maybe it's the closest I can get to seeing something like myself or my life, in mainstream media. But I could wish for a better world, where that kind of media is easier to leave behind because there are also other resonant pieces of media made by own voices, or by thoughtful people who don't just want to say something facile about you, but who want to speak to you, to your sense of the world too.


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