Failed Writer's Journey: Stories are Universal

I cannot believe I am going to talk about The Odyssey. I hated that poem when I was in high school and haven’t picked it up since. I will likely go see the movie, as family members want to, but the conversation around this is such a depressing reminder of how we have allowed racism to become acceptable in public. The whole thing is tiresome, but sadly important. So.

Stories are universal. Well, maybe not mine, as no one has bought any of mine, but in general, stories are universal. You can tell Macbeth in a billion different ways. Same with Rashomon. The fact that the first was popularized by an English writer and the second by a Japanese filmmaker does not restrict them to forever belonging to those respective cultures. There is no Magnificent Seven without the Seven Samurai, but those are not the same story because of their different artistic and cultural contexts. Even historical pieces fall under this umbrella.

Generally, if you are going to do a straight story about, say, the Easter Rebellion, and you show up with a bunch of Chinese actors, people are going to understandably raise an eyebrow or two in your general direction. But if you are using that casting choice to make an artistic point, then even that can be a valid decision. Hamilton famously used a mixed-race cast with several of the historically white figures being played by non-white actors. That, combined with the use of hip-hop, made a point about how close and how far the country has come to living up to the ideals those people professed. “Oh, but what about whitewashing?” I can hear people wailing. That’s not the same argument.

Yes, yes, I know. It appears superficially the same. But the context is different. Taking a role written for a non-white actor and giving that role to a white actor in a system that to this day has denied non-white actors roles that were more general and/or not specifically written for non-whites is not an act of colorblindness. Nor is it an artistic choice (well, at least it’s not an artistic choice you should respect). It is perpetuating a wrong. It is, in other words, a dick move.

And, yes, if another film culture that traditionally treats actors outside its nationality poorly took a character meant for, say, an Englishman or an African-American and used a member of its nationality instead, that would at least raise questions. I don’t know where that happens — if my ignorance about non-Hollywood film culture was water, we would all drown — but I am sure it does. People are, sometimes unfortunately, people. But Hollywood obviously draws the most attention because of both its past and its outsized cultural influence.

All those words to just say this: if you object to Lupita Nyong’o being cast as Helen of Troy, you are just a gutter racist. Full stop. Stories are universal and the only reason to object to a myth being told with people who do not look like you is that you do not like people who do not look like you. And that is simple, boring, old-as-time, uninteresting, easy, gutter racism. You are not transgressive, or daring, or dangerous, or anything else you might think you are. You are just a racist — and that is the oldest, weakest, least interesting form of asshole there can possibly be.

Weekly Word Count

Not a ton, mostly planning and decisions this week. I am putting the play about cloned kids and school shootings away for now. I set out to write it because I liked the idea, but I also used it as an excuse to try some constraints. A limited cast (four characters) with limited settings (only two locations) as an attempt to make something theatrical. The experiment failed, as all my writing does (the consensus is that the limited cast and locations are just too limiting for this story), but the failure was educational.

Beyond that, I did plot out a Rockford Files meets Discworld story. Is that incredibly dumb and obvious? Yes. Is it incredibly arrogant to think I, of all people, could pull off a Terry Pratchett homage? Even more yes. But the story is fun, at least to me, and what is the point of writing if you are not going to enjoy what you write? It’s obviously not set in Discworld, and I am obviously not as funny as Pratchett, but I still like the idea and ideas I like tend to nag me until I put them on paper, in all their failed glory. In addition, I am likely to turn the Encyclopedia Brick graphic novel (which still needs a title that does not make people want to kill me) into an actual novel and am waiting on notes about the Sarah Smith novel.

I do tend to do multiple projects at once. My brain just kind of works that way (I am also doing some security research — I wasn’t kidding about how interesting the field is to me now in the age of AI script kiddies). I feel more comfortable when I can move to another project if I feel stuck on the main one. And since it doesn’t keep me from finishing work, I don’t so far see it as an issue.

No, I have never been tested for ADHD. Why do you ask?

Have a great weekend, everyone.