hehe how very true. Especially the part about the violet eyes. I have to say that I cringe when I encounter red-headed sorceresses. It's such a cliche. And it isn't that I don't feel included... I am half-Irish after all... just that it's as bad or worse as the cliche about love and the French.
Dana On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 16:45:50 -0400, Angel Stewart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Tonights Sci-Fi production of Earthsea, based on the Ursula Le Guin novel "A > Wizard of Earthsea", is apparently so far from the > source material that the source herself has been forced to announce the > distance. > > "Having looked over the script, I realised they had no understanding of what > the two books are about, and no interest in finding > out. All they intended was to use the name Earthsea, and some of the scenes > from the books, in a generic MacMagic movie with a > meaningless plot based on sex and violence. (And "faith" -- according to Mr > Halmi. Faith in what? Who knows? Who cares?)" > ----- > The books are about two young people finding what their power, their freedom, > and their responsibility is. I don't know what the > film is about. It's full of scenes from the story, but in this different > plot, they make no sense. Its hero goes through lots of > Ged's experiences, but learns nothing from them. How could he? He isn't Ged. > Ged isn't a petulant white kid. > > It's like casting Eminem as Jim in Huckleberry Finn. > ---- > "But I had just seen Mr Halmi's miniseries Dreamkeeper with its stunning > Native American cast, so I said to them in a phone > conversation, hey, maybe Mr Halmi will cast some of those great actors in > Earthsea! -- Oh, no, I was told -- Mr Halmi had found > those people impossible to work with. > > "Well," I said, "you do realise that almost everybody in Earthsea is 'those > people,' or anyhow not white?" > > I don't remember what their answer to that was -- it may have used that > wonderful weasel word "colorblind" -- but it wasn't > reassuring, because I do remember saying to my husband, oh, gee, I bet > they're going to have a honky Ged." > ----- > "To this they replied that the TV audience is much larger, and entirely > different, and changes to a book's story and characters were > of no importance to them. " > ----- > " This color scheme was conscious and deliberate from the start. I didn't see > why everybody in sf had to be a honky named Bob or Joe > or Bill. I didn't see why everybody in heroic fantasy had to be white (and > all the leading women had "violet eyes"). I didn't even > believe it. Whites are a minority on Earth now -- why wouldn't they still be > either a minority, or just swallowed up in the larger > colored gene pool, in the future? " > ----- > " But I had endless trouble with cover art. Not on the great cover of the > first edition -- a strong, red-brown profile of Ged -- or > with Margaret Chodos Irvine's four fine paintings -- but all too often. The > first British "Wizard" was this pallid, droopy, > lily-like guy -- I screamed at sight of him. > > Gradually I got a little more clout, a little more say-so about covers. And > very, very, very gradually the cover departments of > major publishers may be beginning to lose their blind, panic terror of > putting a colored face on a book. "Hurts sales, hurts sales" > is the mantra. Yeah, so? On my books, Ged with a white face is a lie, a > betrayal -- a betrayal of the book, and of the potential > reader. A brown face might hurt sales in the short run, but my books are > long-distance runners, and for the long haul, only the > truth will serve." > ----- > " I have heard, not often, but very memorably, from colored readers who told > me that the Earthsea books were the only books in the > genre that they felt included in -- and how much this meant to them, > particularly as adolescents, who'd found nothing to read in > fantasy and sf except the adventures of white people in a white world. Those > letters have been a tremendous reward and true joy to > me. " > ----- > > More very intersting reading here : http://www.gametab.com/news/186279/ > > -Gel > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Special thanks to the CF Community Suite Silver Sponsor - CFDynamics http://www.cfdynamics.com Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:140685 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
