(1) BIGGER ON THE INSIDE. Linden A. Lewis advises writers “How to Create a Novel from a Short Story” at the Odyssey Writing Workshop blog.
Step 2: Expand the world based on feedback
Short stories are short because there aren’t a lot of characters to interact with or places to go or things to do; otherwise, they’d be too long. Since long was my goal, I let myself daydream about the world around the spaceship. Who were these warriors? Who were they at war with? What was their culture, and how did it conflict with their enemy’s? Why did this priestess’ religion forbid speech?
I came up with anything—and many things that didn’t make it into even the first draft—to fill out the world. I didn’t limit myself at all. I added more characters and gave existing characters more goals based on more detailed backgrounds. I wrote what I now call the Worldbuilding Bible, a 30-page document of information on science, locations, and the histories of the two societies in humanity’s far future. And when I finally started writing the novel, I had a ton of characters on the board who would be sure to create conflict.
(2) ABOUT THE OTHERWISE AWARD. Keffy R.M. Kehrli explores his complex reaction to the decision to rename the Tiptree Award. Thread starts here.
(3) BOUNDARIES IN COSPLAY. Trae Dorn’s Nerd & Tie post “Dear Congoers of the World: Why Do I Have to Tell You Not to Do Blackface?” mainly focuses on the title issue, but ends with this corollary:
…And look — yes, you can cosplay characters of other races. Most anime characters are asian, and no one’s asking white cosplayers to stop playing those characters. Heck, a white cosplayer can cosplay a black character. The important thing is you just don’t alter your skin color. That’s all you have to do. And if you don’t think you can accurately cosplay a character without doing so, maybe don’t cosplay that character. Or, y’know, just be okay without being perfectly “accurate.” Cosplay exists within a real world context, and maybe you should make sure you think about that context before suiting up.
Is that what I should be getting out of the wider discussion, that if I chose to dress as Black Panther without tinting my skin, everyone should be find with that? I wonder what Filers think.
(4) WE CONTROL THE HORIZONTAL. It’s 1964 and at the end of the first month of the new fall TV season four Outer Limits episodes have aired. Natalie Devitt tells Galactic Journey readers why she’s a little worried about the show: “[October 14, 1964] Back in Session? (The Outer Limits, Season 2, Episodes 1-4)”.
The second season of The Outer Limits is now underway! As someone who is pretty devoted to her favorite shows, I anticipated the return of the science fiction anthology show with excitement. But something seems different. Could it be the result of the departure of producer Joseph Stefano, who contributed his creative vision and a number of scripts? Maybe changes in the show’s budget, time slot or its music? Read on, and tell me if you share my concern.
(5) WORKING. At Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey uses Voyager to illustrate legal and ethical issues: “Copyright in Pop Culture: Star Trek: Voyager”.
…Last week I shared an article about Copyright and Artificial Intelligence looking at the complications that artificial intelligence is bringing to copyright and the challenges we may face when machines, not people, are creating the bulk of our works.
However, as a serious Star Trek fan, I realized that the conversation wouldn’t be complete without an examination of episode 20 of season 7 of Star Trek: Voyager, entitled Author, Author. The episode involves an artificial intelligence writing a creative work and then having to fight to retain control over it as his infringers believe he doesn’t qualify copyright protection.
It’s a rare mix of science fiction, legal wrangling and debates over humanity that could only come from the latter episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. However, as we slide into more and more autonomous artificial intelligence, it may not be long before we have our own story like this one to ponder.
(6) BLOOM OBIT. Critic Harold Bloom died October 14. The New York Times obituary is here — “Harold Bloom, Critic Who Championed Western Canon, Dies at 89”. I mention him primarily because his eye-opening description of how many ways you can trace artists’ influence on one another – the similarities between their works being merely one possibility – had a big impact on Diana Glyer’s first Inklings book.
(7) TODAY IN HISTORY.
- October 14, 1926 — A. A. Milne’s classic, Winnie-the-Pooh, was published in the UK.
- October 14, 1977 — Starship Invasions premiered. Released as Project Genocide in the UK, it starred Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee. It scored 39% on Rotten Tomatoes.
- October 14, 2011 — The Thing, the prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing went into general release in the US. It was a financial and critical flop with rating at Rotten Tomatoes of 35%.
- October 14, 2008 — Journey To The Center Of The Earth premiered on home video. It starred Greg Evigan of TekWar fame and Dedee Pfeiffer. It rated 29% at Rotten Tomatoes.
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
- Born October 14, 1927 — Roger Moore. Bond in seven films 1973 to 1985, a long run indeed. And he played Simon Templar in The Saint from for most of the Sixties. Let’s not forget that he was in the Curse of the Pink Panther as Chief Insp. Jacques Clouseau! (Died 2017.)
- Born October 14, 1946 — Katy Manning, 73. She was Jo Grant, companion to the Third Doctor. She also appeared with the Eleventh Doctor on the Sarah Jane Adventures in a two-part story entitled “Death of the Doctor”. She appears as herself in the The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.
- Born October 14, 1949 — Crispin Burnham, 70. And then there are those who just disappear. There’s nothing to show him active after 1998 when the final part of his People of The Monolith was publishedin Cthulhu Cultus #13 . Prior to that, he edited Dark Messenger Reader / Eldritch Tales from 1975 to 1995, and wrote a handful of what I’ll assume is Cthulhuan fiction. No surprisingly, he’s not to be on iBooks or Kindle.
- Born October 14, 1953 — Richard Christian Matheson, 66. Son of the Richard Matheson that you’re thinking of. A very prolific horror writer, mostly of short stories, he’s also no slouch at script writing as he’s written for Amazing Stories, Masters of Horror, The Powers of Matthew Star, Splatter, Tales from the Crypt, Knight Rider (the original series) and The Incredible Hulk. Wiki claims he wrote for Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber but IMDB shows no series or show. Kindles and iBooks have a goodly number of story collections available.
- Born October 14, 1953 — Greg Evigan, 66. TekWar, one of Shatner’s better ideas, starred him as Jake Cardigan. I really liked it. Yes, Shatner was in it.
- Born October 14, 1956 — Arleen Sorkin, 63. To my ears, still the best Harley Quinn as she voiced her on the Batman: The Animated Series.
- Born October 14, 1956 — Martin Millar, 63. Among his accomplishments was the novelization of the Tank Girl film. Apparently it’s even weirder than the film was! He won the World Fantasy Award for best novel with his book Thraxas, and the entire Thraxas series which are released under the name Martin Scott are a lot of not-too-serious pulpish fun.
- Born October 14, 1963 — Lori Petty, 55. Rebecca Buck – “Tank Girl” in that film. She was also Dr. Lean Carli in Cryptic, and Dr. Sykes in Dead Awake. She had one-offs in The Hunger, Twilight Zone, Star Trek: Voyager, Brimstone, Freddy’s Nightmares and Alien Nation, and voiced Livewire in the DCU animated shows.
- Born October 14, 1968 — Robert C. Cooper, 51. He was an executive producer of all the Stargate series. He also co-created both Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe with Brad Wright. Cooper has written and produced many episodes of Stargate series as well as directed a number of episodes. I’m really impressed!
(9) COMICS SECTION.
- Frank and Ernest find an important use for books.
(10) PRESENT AT THE CREATION. In coming up wth “Marvel: The 10 Most Important Stan Lee Creations Ever”, CBR.com had a lot to choose from.
8. THE INCREDIBLE HULK
In 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created a superhero based more on the classic Universal Horror monster ideals. While someone like The Thing looks like a monster, he still maintained his intelligence and was a true hero. However, Hulk was like a mixture of Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolf-Man.
As a matter of fact, early versions of The Hulk had him only changing at night like the Wolf-Man. Hulk was a monster that the world feared but someone who was a hero at the end of the day — despite the collateral damage he caused. He was so popular that it was Hulk that gave Marvel one of their earliest live-action TV shows.
(11) HONK IF YOU LOVE GAMING. Adri Joy performs the desirable writer’s magic trick of transmuting time wasted playing video games into an accumulation of valuable research in “WE RANK ‘EM: Villagers from Untitled Goose Game (House House)” at Nerds of a Feather.
Having sunk a significant amount of time into the goose uprising – learning the ways of the village, its routines, and what happens to all the items I’ve been throwing down the well – I have decided, rather than undertaking a review, to resurrect a hallowed Nerds of a Feather institution: the We Rank ‘Em post. I now bring my extensive goose game expertise to bear on the objective ranking of the villagers of goose game, from my omniscient perspective as the objective arbiter of their destinies. This ranking has been cross checked using the most advanced scientific principles available to game character analysts today, and was also compiled while I was hungry and therefore very motivated to put down the most straightforward, no-nonsense reasoning I could so as to get on with the more important business of reheating leftover noodles and maybe making a mug cake. With these factors in mind, I present to you: the definitive ranking of untitled goose game villagers….
(12) POLITICAL CARTOON. When Vietnamese officials saw this scene, they got very animated: “Vietnam pulls Abominable film over South China Sea map”.
Vietnam has banned the new DreamWorks film Abominable from cinemas because of a scene involving a map illustrating China’s claims in the South China Sea.
Abominable, about a Chinese girl who discovers a yeti on her roof, is a joint China-DreamWorks production.
The map shows China’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line”, which carves out a huge area in the sea that Vietnam lays claim to.
China and Vietnam have been locked in a recent standoff in the region.
The latest dispute started in July when China conducted an energy survey in waters controlled by Vietnam.
(13) SPYING LESSONS. Well isn’t that a surprise. “China’s Study the Great Nation app ‘enables spying via back door'”.
The Chinese Communist Party has gained the ability to spy on more than 100 million citizens via a heavily promoted official app, a report suggests.
Analysis of the Study the Great Nation app found hidden elements that could help monitor use and copy data, said phone security experts Cure 53.
The app gives the government “super-user” access, the security firm said.
The Chinese government denied the app had the monitoring functions listed by the cyber investigators.
Released in February, Study the Great Nation has become the most downloaded free program in China, thanks to persuasive demands by Chinese authorities that citizens download and install it.
The app pushes out official news and images and encourages people to earn points by reading articles, commenting on them and playing quizzes about China and its leader, Xi Jinping.
Use of the app is mandatory among party officials and civil servants and it is tied to wages in some workplaces.
(14) FLYING STEEPLEJACK. “Robotic inspectors developed to fix wind farms”.
Fully autonomous robots that are able to inspect damaged wind farms have been developed by Scots scientists.
Unlike most drones, they don’t require a human operator and could end the need for technicians to abseil down turbines to carry out repairs.
The multi-million pound project is showing how the bots can walk, dive, fly and even think for themselves.
…Aerial drones are already used offshore to inspect hard-to-reach structures.
But this one goes further: it can manoeuvre to attach itself to vertical surfaces and has a robotic arm.
A drone like this could fly to a wind turbine, not just to inspect it but to deploy a sensor or even carry out a repair.
(15) PAPERING THE VAPERS. Pirated Thoughts reports on a battle of the behemoths: “Disney Looks to Extinguish E Cig Named ‘Jedi’”.
The Force is strong in this trademark opposition. Disney is fighting a multi-million dollar tobacco company’s attempt to register the trademark JEDI in association with its line of e-cigarettes.
The word “Jedi” has no other meaning that being associated with the Star Wars franchise as it was coined by George Lucas and the mark first appeared in the 1977 film, Star Wars: A New Hope. Since this time, Lucasfilm has used the mark continuously in its movies, television shows, video games, and on merchandise. Lucasfilm even owns 22 registered ore pending trademarks for the JEDI mark. There can be no doubt but that when you hear the JEDI mark you automatically associate it with the Star Wars franchise.
Godfrey Phillips India Limited is an India-based tobacco company with reported annual revenue of $640 million. That’s a lot of cancer bucks….
(16) ASSISTED SPEECH. Well, it’s the Sun, so the dramatic headline obscures the more likely factual claims of the story: “Terminally-ill scientist with motor neurone disease ‘transforms into world’s first full cyborg’”.
- A laryngectomy has separated Peter’s oesophagus and trachea. The operation prevents the risk of him swallowing and choking on saliva, but removes his voicebox.
- Though he’ll no longer be able to speak with his biological voice, he’s instead banked his voice on a computer, meaning his new voice will be able to speak emotively – and in other languages if he wants.
- Scientists have also designed a face avatar, which he can use to show expressions if he loses muscle control.
- An electric wheelchair enables him to be upright, sitting or laid down.
- He is fed through a tube and has a catheter and colostomy bag attached so he doesn’t need to eat or use the toilet.
(17) DOGWATCH. Snoopy in Space is coming November 1 to the Apple TV app with an Apple TV+ subscription.
Blast off with Snoopy as he fulfills his dream to become a NASA astronaut. Joined by Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang, Snoopy takes command of the International Space Station and explores the moon and beyond.
[Thanks to Daniel Dern, JJ, Cat Eldridge, Martin Morse Wooster, Mike Kennedy, John King Tarpinian, Chip Hitchcock, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kip W.]
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(8) I saw Greg Evigan in his early role in “A Year at the Top” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Year_at_the_Top) – a summer miniseries about a deal with the devil (though I hadn’t remembered that it was Evigan until I checked his credits a moment ago).
6) Harold Bloom was a big fan of John Crowley and Crowley’s fantasy novel Little, Big.
—first—
@3: a white Black Panther seems bizarre, not mention a possible source for even more outrage. ISTM that both Dorn and his cite are stretching the truth when they say all blackfaces were characters — I’d say most of them were caricatures, which is very different — but I’m not sure this can be reasoned through.
@8: Thraxas, and Millar altogether, seem to be another Marmite. I once asked about how the original won the WFA and was told something like “every now and then the judges wig out”; I read another Millar because Gaiman was ooh-ing over it and found it not much better — I was reminded of a British comedian’s condemnation of an old team as “stupid people doing stupid things slowly”. But the first sold well enough that the publisher did several sequels, so plenty of somebodies must have enjoyed it — the “King’s Camelopard” effect can’t account for many sales.
@10: putting Iron Man ahead of Spider-Man just seems wrong — almost as wrong as putting Dr. Strange ahead of the assortment of misfits-making-themselves-heroes that make up most of the list (and that ISTM was Marvel’s key innovation) — but I’m not nearly widely-enough read to be a good judge.
@Rob Thornton: that seems very strange.
More on Leonov: the BBC tells about his lighter side, and how he could have been the first man on the moon
Yes.
This is true, for values of “Jack made him up and plotted the story and Stan asked for costume design changes and dialogued it.”
But yes, the two of them created him.
Let me hold your beer a moment…
You just overstated his importance.
For that matter, CBR, two sentences back, you got it right, crediting the character’s creation to two men. And then bam, you give solo credit to “the man” who did it.
Bah.
The Gaiman-foreworded Martin Millar novel is The Good Fairies Of New York, which I also think is brilliant but indeed not everyone does. I’m not that taken with his Werewolf Girl books, but I’ve a friend who adores them. Chapter 2 of the non-genre Dreams Of Sex And Stagediving is one of my favourite pieces of writing. No logic to all of this that I can see.
I’d hesitate to say everyone but if you absolutely must go as Black Panther then yes, this is the more tasteful and respectful option. If accuracy to the character is a concern there are dozens of major superheroes us white folk can dress as without needing to black up.
Blackface is a particular historical practice of blackening one’s skin. Cosplay is a new practice of taking on a character’s costume. Those are different things.
I’m not particularly concerned about whether someone cosplaying Spiderman uses the Peter Parker suit or the Miles Morales suit, because the person makes the suit.
So imagine if you will T’Challa being injured and unable to function as Black Panther until he heals, during a Wakandan crisis which requires his heroic presence. Would it matter whether it was Steve Rogers or Sam Wilson who had to put on the suit and go be Black Panther?
And why hasn’t that been done? It’d be a great story!
(15) The e-cig company should change the name of their cigs to Death Sticks. It’s more accurate AND it has that Star Wars connection.
Apropos of nothing, a geeky leftish friend and his three liberal-to-left geeky friends put out their second podcast Sunday night. It’s recorded in my friend’s home, which is four blocks from where Atatiana Jefferson was murdered Saturday morning, while she played video games with her son, who saw her die. You might be interested.
The review of Joker starts at 17:40 and segues directly into the vigil for Atatiana Jefferson.
Graham Clark:
When I first read the book, I directly ordered five copies and gave away to friends. I do have a screen dump of the first page in my phone to force upon unsuspecting victims on Twitter.
I have tried a few of Millars other books and while I have enjoyed them, they have mostly been forgettable.
(11) Honk, honk honk honk. Honk honk honkhonk honk. Honk.
I remember enjoying Martin Millar’s non-genre Love and Peace with Melody Paradise. You may have to have spent some time with representatives of the crusty community in the 90s to fully appreciate it though.
I also enjoyed those of his Thraxas books that I’ve read – they’re fun and not particularly weighty.
A filer came commenting, on a scroll from afar. (‘Twas light years of time, since his mission did start.)
“If I chose to dress as Black Panther without tinting my skin, everyone should be fine with that?”
Should be, but won’t.
I guarantee that somebody will start claiming “Cultural Appropriation” and endeavor to rake you over the coals of internet outrage.
Generally speaking, if you’re waiting for “everyone” to be fine with something, you’ll be waiting an extremely long time. Whatever it is, however innocuous, there will be someone out there who will be angry, upset, or offended by it – which is why it’s a bad argument. “Well, if someone wouldn’t be fine with me cosplaying it in this other way then why is it so bad to cosplay it that way?” It’s a way to frame it as it not worth bothering trying at all, and that’s kind of a shitty way to address someone’s heartfelt upset.
Weigh the arguments on their merits. There is a long, unpleasant history of blackface. You can’t use it for a costume without evoking that history, front and centre. Do you want to evoke that history? Is that the goal of your costume? Is it worth upsetting and angering the many people who would recognise that? I daresay most people in most situations would not want that, so it’s best to just not do it.
ETA: Actually, I think I was being way too harsh here, and I apologise. To the best of my recollection, most discussions I’ve seen are fine with cosplaying cross-racially without skin tints, but I’ve certainly seen some say things like “why can’t you leave these few characters just for us?” And I’m not sure the wide range of white anime cosplayers is a strong counter-argument, because so many people don’t see them as Asian – even though most of them are.
I don’t think people who’d be upset by a white Black Panther would be invalid. I’m not sure I agree with them – I’ve seen disable fen complain about people “cripping up” to play disabled characters, too – but they’re perfectly entitled to their feelings about it.
PS. I’m horribly behind, so this might have already been reported, but the Organisation for Transformative Works has a fundraising drive running at the moment and the AO3 Hugo incentives have been added to their usual stuff – they’re super cute! I love them! I might actually have to get over my email fatigue and find out how the paying in instalments thing works! I want the pin, so badly.
The more I think about it re: cosplay the more I think that I’ve grabbed the wrong end of the stick and run off with it. Oh well. Hopefully there’s still something worth having somewhere in that comment, but I apologise for it! (And if there isn’t, feel free to delete..!)
8.d.) Greg Evigan is also known for four seasons of B.J. and the Bear, in which Evigan played a trucker partnered with a chimpanzee named Bear. In-universe, Bear was the grandfather of Caesar* from the reboot of Planet of the Apes.
*in my head-canon
@Meredith: There’s nothing wrong with starting from the point of view of being sensitive to other folks’ feelings and concerns, just like there’s nothing wrong with thinking it through and changing your mind. I sure wish more people did that, instead of sticking with whatever first impulse strikes them as right.
At the risk of straying out of my lane here: Maybe.
Black face is a hard no. It’s modern context inseparable from it’s historical context, and is appropriating someone else’s skin. But, whether individual cosplays are okay or not is going to depend on their context, and that conversation largely needs to be driven by People of Color.
@John Winkelman: Ah. If I had looked at his IMDB page more thoroughly, I would have noticed that – I watched “BJ and the Bear” as a kid. Head-canon accepted, by the way.
6: Harold Bloom was also a long-term sexual harasser: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/12/16/students-organize-response-to-saloveys-e-mail-on-sexual-misconduct/
6) In the appendices of The Western Canon, Bloom lists a bunch of authors and works he believes will remain or become canon. In addition to Crowley, of genre interest: The Left Hand of Darkness, Riddley Walker, Cat’s Cradle, Frankenstein, Dracula, Gormenghast, Dorian Grey, Dr. Jekyll, “The Science Fiction Novels” of H.G. Wells, all of Lewis Carroll, most of Kafka, Poe, and Borges, and some of William Morris, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Capek, Lem, Disch, and Calvino.
8) Seeing BJ and the Bear as a kid led me to dream of an adulthood living in an 18-wheeler with a chimp. I only got as close as living with a cat in a building with zero wheels, but I guess there is still time to make it happen before self-driving trucks take over.
Well…Black Panther’s suit covers his face, feet, hands–literally every part of his body. So yes. You can and should dress as Black Panther without tinting your skin.
(3) Black Panther seems like an odd choice as an example in this argument as the costume covers the wearer completely with no skin showing.
Does the objection extend to green-face to play Gamora or Hulk or blue-face for Nebula?
(8) The Chronicles of Amber mini-series is listed as under development for Amazon; deal signed November 2017 but no indication of progress.
Stuart Hall answers with my question: The Chronicles of Amber mini-series is listed as under development for Amazon; deal signed November 2017 but no indication of progress.
Ahhh. Thank you. I’d certainly be interested in seeing it if it actually was done but really wonder how it’d translate into a video format. And I assume gat they’re talking about the first set of novels, not all of the novels.
Stuart Hall asks Does the objection extend to green-face to play Gamora or Hulk or blue-face for Nebula?
Snark. I doubt there’ll be anyone organising on behalf of either non-existent group. Gamora is green faced? Damn, my color recognition is getting worse!
becca says Well…Black Panther’s suit covers his face, feet, hands–literally every part of his body. So yes. You can and should dress as Black Panther without tinting your skin.
Likewise anyone can play Ironman wIthout looking the least bit like Tony. There’s lot of characters that be cosplayed so that the accepted race of the character is not a factor. Even some of the costumes that Batman has worn completely cover his face. And though you couldn’t play Dredd color blind, Judges come In all colours and genders.
@Stuart Hall, Black-face has a particular and very specific history in Western culture, none of it good. It carries an enormous amount of cultural baggage.
There is no oppressed green or blue minority, and green-face and blue-face was never used to mock an underclass.
It’s really pretty simple.
@Christopher Hensley: “that conversation largely needs to be driven by People of Color.”
Shouldn’t we be asking Jewish people instead, since it was two Jewish guys who invented Black Panther?
John A Arkansawyer on October 15, 2019 at 12:04 pm said:
“What about” is a losing question.
@P J Evans: Then let’s not try to win. I’m sick of people trying to win arguments.
This isn’t “Mother May I”. It’s also not about these characters being property. It is about the fact that our actions, can harm other members of the community and drive them away.
I think you definitely have to go with green face if you’re cosplaying Gamera.
Gamera is really vile
Gamera’s a pixel file
We’ve been filing Gamera…
@Christopher Hensley:
True. It’s about who has the power to impose their will on others. Which I’m okay with people doing, within reason. Past the point of reason, I’m not. Which is why I’m giving in to making what, in cooler moments, I would recognize to be arguments for the sake of arguments, when I should just say, “No, that’s unreasonable,” and leave it at that.
Which I will now do.
What Social Justice theory calls privilege, is really just a less threatening way of saying power. Wearing black face, or dressing up as a character who themselves is a stereotype, is a use of that power. A convention deciding that it isn’t allowed, and enforcing it through the means allowed them by law is also a use of power. But, guess what? Even if the convention does nothing, they still have the power and they still are exercising that power by allowing that behavior. How they use that power is the question. Do they allow people to hurt others, by abusing their own power, or do they protect those who have less power?
@Christopher Henley: All through Do The Right Thing, Ossie Davis’s character is the only one walking the street who doesn’t wig out at some point. All throughout the movie, he keeps telling people, “Do the right thing.”* And yet he never is able to say what the right thing is.
*I think he says it more than just to Mookie. I could be wrong.
@Jake
The linked article makes reference to one alleged incident which took place in 2003 or before. Unless you are contending that he continued the behavior for some time past that, I don’t think the article supports “long-term”.
3) For me, the discussion isn’t purely “blackface” per se, but more into the grey areas of representation, awards and money. It is one thing to cosplay as an anime character you like. It is another thing when you dress up on the level where you might win prices, awards, gain sponsors, patrons and so on.
Then we enter the Hollywood discussion over who should be allowed to play what roles and if white people steal roles from PoC. And the answers will be different depending on how well represented PoC are with regards to where money and power comes in (in juries, as award winners, as having patrons, sponsors).
@Cat Eldridge: Gamera is not green-like-the-green-pixels-on-your-screen; I’d say more grass-green with a bit of something else (maybe grey?) mixed in. You shouldn’t take my word for this — my partner keeps telling me my read of which color dominates in a mix is off-base — but ISTM that her makeup in MCU movies doesn’t lend itself to simple terms, so however you’re reading the character (and allowing for dramatic light) may not be unreasonable.
There have been several occasions in the comics where T’Challa has been incapacitated or otherwise unavailable. His sister Shuri has taken on the role. I don’t know of any reason why anyone from the United States would be acceptable as a replacement for Wakandan royalty.
@David Goldfarb.
Priest’s 1998 run on the Black Panther (issues 50-56 &59-60) and follow up title The Crew might provide a reason in that the Panther identity is taken up by an American cop Casper Kole.
Also in the Ultimates the original Black Panther depicted did turn out to be Steve Rogers in disguise.
@ bill
I just saw an article (in passing) that claims that Bloom told students that Yale knew Bloom was a sexual harasser but would do nothing, owing to his high status. Afraid I can’t give a link. But sexual harassers rarely target only one person.
I am sure, however, that Bloom championed a canon largely confined to white males, with the aim of keeping others out of it, and wrote a lousy book about Shakespeare.
@J F W RIchards: I will admit I have a hard time with what I’ve read of the Ultimates. It’s kind of to Marvel what Discovery is to Star Trek.
@Christopher Hensley: First, I see I misspelled your name last time. My apologies!
Second, I wish people would say “power” instead of “privilege”. It’s clearer in meaning and easier to think with, and would lead to more honest discussions. I also realize that the phrase “wh-t- p-w-r has unfortunate associations (which is why I obfuscated it there, to avoid feeding the search engines) and might be a bridge too far for many folks.
If someone has a better phrasing, I’ll adopt it an advocate it, for what little (if any) good I can do by it.
@msb: “I am sure, however, that Bloom championed a canon largely confined to white males, with the aim of keeping others out of it”
The first half of that is true enough, depending on how you define “largely”, but how can you be sure of the italicized part? I can’t read his mind.
@Msb
The “evidence” I’ve see is one report from Naomi Woolf, given 20 years after the fact, which Bloom denies, and which Woolf herself has said does not rise to the level of sexual harassment. If that is the sum total of a career of over 60 years with thousands of students, then “long-term sexual harasser” is an unfair statement.
Yes he did. The Western Canon is, largely, written by white males. To assert otherwise is ignorance. You can’t blame Bloom for that.
However, from the Washington Post obit: “Bloom’s praises were not reserved for white men. . . . He also admired Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, George Eliot and Emily Dickinson and the hundreds of critical editions he edited include works on Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Amy Tan.”
HOnestly? If a white adult* chose to dress up as T’Challa I might side-eye a bit, but I would consider it not my place to mind. If they then chose to add blackface I would be absolutely, utterly sure they were being a disrespectful edgelordy jerk. This isn’t a new concept.
my rules for kids, relevant with the approach of Halloween, are pretty much “wear any costume they like from any character of any gender, as long as they don’t wear blackface/yellowface”.
@ bill
You say that as if the concept “the Western canon” had an objective truth value, as opposed to being a subjective creation of opinionated people with deeply entrenched biases.
And the Canon resulting from the subjective aggregate total of those biases, at least in the West, is comprised largely of the works of white males. Your Canon may be of a different mix, but we (and Bloom) aren’t talking about yours. We are talking about the most influential authors on Western Civilization.