and there was much rejoicing

[glass_icarus]

First Deadline has been made! *\o/* (Okay, am a bit nervous about PDF previewing failure but I did check the online form about 230947 times, so.) Time for a celebratory linkspam, haha.

» some overdue fanspam
+ Check out the Merlin lexicon, risingsunpub!
+ zahrawithaz wrote some Morgana meta!
+ I have spent shameful amounts of procrastination time devouring Guide Me Home, a gigantor Ursa/Hakoda fic. >.>
+ Also, Disclosure will never stop being hilarious. Mai/Zuko complementary failboats, ahahahahahah! &hearts
+ game on: Mai vs. Iroh in a pai sho showdown! Also Mai/Zuko cuteness, hahaha.
+ rs_small_gifts has begun posting, yay!

» foodspam (now I want a food carnival!)
+ deepad: Doodh se Dhuli
+ vi: gross, weird, inedible
+ Jha's Lunar Year's End! AWESOME. &hearts
+ troisroyaumes: Seven things

» +1: Via deadbro, Keeping Hobbits White since 1937 made me laugh and laugh, but also prodded me into some thoughts regarding racebending.

See, I never expected to have a place in Tolkien's world, or in any white European fantasy land (which isn't always quite the same as generic fantasy land). I'm not saying that chromatic people haven't been erased from these fantasies, just that many mythologies built up around worlds full of elves and dwarves and fairies and goblins and whatnot read to me as specifically white European, intentional or not. I grew up with them, but I grew up knowing that they didn't belong to me, that those worlds were ones in which I had no part.

Part of me wonders whether this is a failure of my imagination, or perhaps a side effect of growing up surrounded by white-dominated media; I've only just started asking "why not?", after all. Racebending something as coded-white as Arthurian legend would never have occurred to me without Angel Coulby as BBC Merlin's Guinevere! But in the end, I personally am less interested in carving out chromatic spaces in white European mythologies. I would rather re/claim the stories that aren't explicitly coded, the blank "universal" narratives (e.g. superheroes or space explorers or cops-and-robbers capers), than expand upon the ones that were never mine to begin with.

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

YAAAAAAY deadline made!!!

re: racebending elves

[suaine]

I have to admit: since somehow the dominant narrative of these stories is so thoroughly white, straight and male (and *English*), I am always, always surprised when I read further about the actual historical facts on which that "European" fantasy is loosely based. Europe, almost any part of actual Europe, is nothing close to that English gentleman fantasy, and was never like it even though those who held the power and told the stories (still do, really) would have us believe otherwise. I actually do believe that changing these stories is important, certainly a good thing. You would not believe how often I have made an :O face as I researched relevant bits and pieces for writing projects in Merlin and my original projects and realized how diverse Europe's past actually was. It's a little sad that all we think of now is Legolas in a blond wig and Strider in a tavern.

I think I actually blame the first post-Tolkien writer generation. Tolkien wrote a story he liked, tailored to his own sensibilities and worldview. The people who began to use his work as template - and there is a clear relationship between anything elf, dwarf or orc as we understand it today and Tolkien's body of work - are the ones I truly blame for taking up the whiteness with it. Because I honestly don't believe it's an integral, immutable part, even of faithful Tolkien hommage.

[amai_kaminari]

Thank you for recommending "Disclosure"! While I love A:TLA, I hardly ever read fan fiction for it. That one was awesome! I adore Zuko/Mai! <3 Thank you! :)

[yiduiqie]

i too want a food carnival!

[secondsilk]

I would rather re/claim the stories that aren't explicitly coded, the blank "universal" narratives (e.g. superheroes or space explorers or cops-and-robbers capers), than expand upon the ones that were never mine to begin with.

Yes, please.

Also, I'm appalled at how little I know about mythologies/cultural histories/narratives that aren't White British (being white and British myself). I've got to go out and find the other-than-white coded stories as well.

[jhameia]

Oh! Awkward virgin sex! SO CUTE! The bestest type to write and read!

Thanks for the plug <3<3<3

I remember at one point thinking that the LOTR elves were Asian. That's why they were smaller than the human characters. I figured them sailing to the East at the end was them sailing to that world's equivalent of China or Japan. I was disabused of the notion when I noticed how elves in D&D handbooks always looked pretty white.

[crossedwires]

Yay for making the deadline! And the linkspam! I totally want a food carnival too. <3

But in the end, I personally am less interested in carving out chromatic spaces in white European mythologies. I would rather re/claim the stories that aren't explicitly coded, the blank "universal" narratives (e.g. superheroes or space explorers or cops-and-robbers capers), than expand upon the ones that were never mine to begin with.

*nods* I can't quite shake my fascination with white-European fairytales and 'what if' scenarios, but yeah, ITA about 'universal' stories.

[nijibug]

I personally am less interested in carving out chromatic spaces in white European mythologies. I would rather re/claim the stories that aren't explicitly coded, the blank "universal" narratives (e.g. superheroes or space explorers or cops-and-robbers capers), than expand upon the ones that were never mine to begin with.

Hear, hear!

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for the link! And massive congratulations on meeting the deadline!

Your thoughts on Tolkien racebending are very interesting. There are so many different things that need to be challenged; I like the way you lay it out as a matter of priorities.

[vi]

Hehehehehehe, I ended up reading all of "Guide Me Home" today. >_> Thank you for the links to those three ATLA fics! I could NOT stop giggling at Iroh in "Disclosure", omg, his comments about flowers.

Also, thank you for linking. &hearts

EDIT: I missed the first line- congratulations on meeting that deadline! =D