Some TLA linkblogging, and an open letter
Jul. 2nd, 2010 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetWell. I guess my previous post was perhaps slightly less last-ish than I thought? Or rather, that was my last attempt to keep people from going out to the movie; it was far from my last word on the subject. So, sorry if you're tired of hearing about it, but I'm not tired of talking about it.
Three responses to read, even if you skip everything else ever:
Roger Ebert's review (and possibly also FacePainting)
io9: M. Night Shyamalan Finally Made A Comedy
Dante Basco: The Last Airbender: To Boycott or Not?
Oh, and here's M. Night's response* to Parties Unnamed, AKA anyone who has a beef with the racial aspect of TLA's casting, AKA Racebending.com and supporters.
...Yeah, okay, I am definitely doing this.
Dear M. Night,
No. You don't get to claim that "I’m casting this entire movie in this color blind way where everyone is represented," when you also say, in the same interview, that "[W]hen Dev was cast as Zuko, I said, OK, I have to cast an Uncle Iroh that looks like his uncle."
That isn't how colorblindness works. That's how color-sightedness works. I may not be literally colorblind myself, but my brother and maternal grandfather are, and I've got a fifty percent chance of being a carrier myself (I think that's how statistics work here?). Possibly worse, I'm the one who told my parents that my brother thought the sky was purple. I think I've learned a teensy bit about the condition by now. Enough to be able to tell people when they're using the term incorrectly, at least.
And trying to cast a unit of people as all the same color? Not colorblind; color-sighted. It's not that you can't tell the difference between racial white, yellow, red, brown, black; you clearly can. It's that you're either ignorant about the larger social implications (which I could forgive at the outset, but after all our efforts it's just willful) or you just. Don't. Care.
Oh, and by the way? I think you've conveniently forgotten about how you'd originally cast Jesse McCartney as Zuko. Which makes both the Water Tribe and the Fire Nation white - and that's if you ignore the fact that Noah Ringer isn't actually Asian, but just "[feels] mixed race with an Asian quality to him." Try chewing on that for a while.
Unamused and tired of your fucking bullshit,
Me
* For those who don't want to read unadulterated M. Night, M. Night vs. The Internet: The Airbender Mash-up is basically anti-casters vs M. Night point-by-point. It's pretty wicked, IMO.
Three responses to read, even if you skip everything else ever:
Roger Ebert's review (and possibly also FacePainting)
io9: M. Night Shyamalan Finally Made A Comedy
Dante Basco: The Last Airbender: To Boycott or Not?
Oh, and here's M. Night's response* to Parties Unnamed, AKA anyone who has a beef with the racial aspect of TLA's casting, AKA Racebending.com and supporters.
...Yeah, okay, I am definitely doing this.
Dear M. Night,
No. You don't get to claim that "I’m casting this entire movie in this color blind way where everyone is represented," when you also say, in the same interview, that "[W]hen Dev was cast as Zuko, I said, OK, I have to cast an Uncle Iroh that looks like his uncle."
That isn't how colorblindness works. That's how color-sightedness works. I may not be literally colorblind myself, but my brother and maternal grandfather are, and I've got a fifty percent chance of being a carrier myself (I think that's how statistics work here?). Possibly worse, I'm the one who told my parents that my brother thought the sky was purple. I think I've learned a teensy bit about the condition by now. Enough to be able to tell people when they're using the term incorrectly, at least.
And trying to cast a unit of people as all the same color? Not colorblind; color-sighted. It's not that you can't tell the difference between racial white, yellow, red, brown, black; you clearly can. It's that you're either ignorant about the larger social implications (which I could forgive at the outset, but after all our efforts it's just willful) or you just. Don't. Care.
Oh, and by the way? I think you've conveniently forgotten about how you'd originally cast Jesse McCartney as Zuko. Which makes both the Water Tribe and the Fire Nation white - and that's if you ignore the fact that Noah Ringer isn't actually Asian, but just "[feels] mixed race with an Asian quality to him." Try chewing on that for a while.
Unamused and tired of your fucking bullshit,
Me
* For those who don't want to read unadulterated M. Night, M. Night vs. The Internet: The Airbender Mash-up is basically anti-casters vs M. Night point-by-point. It's pretty wicked, IMO.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 03:48 am (UTC)Okay, first off, I didn't go see the movie. Not that I go see a lot of movies, but even if I got the opportunity to go see this, I wouldn't.
From all reviews, it's not just a well-made movie with the exception of the race issues, it's actively a ~bad~ movie. Like, a really, really bad movie. And M(Minoj? Really? That's what the whole fuss is about? I mean, people can't say my name right and it's a dang common name, so I guess.. but.. geez, it's not like his name's thirteen syllables long with more consonants than the alphabet) Night's (very defensive) interview thing about the casting is just insane. First, as people keep pointing out, Sokka and Katara were cast first, not last. Also, if, as he claims, the Water Tribe 'turned out' caucasian... then why is the entire rest of the tribe Inuit???? *FACEPALM* And it's not because they're Northern Water Tribe descended, because the Northern Water Tribe is also Inuit.
*sigh* That interview did not raise my opinion of M. Night.
And if he didn't notice that the entire freaking cartoon(it is ~not~ anime, it's that rarest of all things, a wonderful, deeply thought out, well plotted cartoon, right up there with Gargoyles.) is based in Asian and Inuit cultures, then he hasn't been watching the show.
And for the love of the gods I do not want white and/or black actors/extras in the movie, because it's jarring and innacurate.
...I'll just be over here re-reading all the best Avatar fic I can get my hands on. XD;;
no subject
Date: 2010-07-04 08:01 am (UTC)First, as people keep pointing out, Sokka and Katara were cast first, not last.
I think I missed people pointing this part out somehow, but can I just say YES? Also, re: the rest of the tribe being Inuit: Even if it were because they're descended [more directly?] from the NWT, unless both Gran-Gran and their mother conceived by someone equally NWT/white, they should be three-quarters SWT/Inuit. Even if it was just Gran-Gran, which I could maybe picture if pressed, they'd still be half.
And yeah, basically yes to everything else you said as well. RAGE, M. NIGHT. RAGE. (In fact, in this case, I think the "mad" in this icon should be interpreted as "angry".)