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honorh ([info]honorh) wrote in [info]unfunny_fandom,
@ 2012-03-08 21:50:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
NEWS FLASH: In the future, we may not all be white!
The cast for the movie of The Hunger Games has been known for a while, but a certain segment of the fandom is having a hard time coming to terms with something about it: Namely, that Rue and Thresh, both described in the book as dark-skinned, will be played by African-American actors. Worse, so will Cinna, whose ethnicity isn't mentioned, and therefore must be white.

Hunger Games Tweets has been keeping its eye on some of the worse elements. Warning: Some extremely vile, racist language. Did you know that sweet, innocent girls must always be pale and fair-haired? And gay men can't be black? I'm telling you, it's an education.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go vomit.

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[info]coffee_mug
2012-03-09 10:30 am UTC (link)
Christ almighty.

I'll admit I'm an unattentive reader so I totally missed her being black and instead imagined her as looking South-East Asian for whatever reason. But that's completely on me. Another random "just in my head, based on nothing" casting was that I thought Beetee was black even though Wikipedia tells me he's described as "pale-skinned".

Kind of shows people do make mistakes, especially when reading fast (and this book is so intense you'll want to read fast), but for fuck's sake, own up to them, you racist idiots. :|

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]sepiamagpie
2012-03-09 10:38 am UTC (link)
Yeah, I'm awful at picking out race in books m'self. Took me years to realize that when britbooks said 'dark', they just meant the hair was brown/black.

Also, picking on them! Just because they think only white girls can be sweet and innocent.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]xturtle
2012-03-14 07:53 pm UTC (link)
I remember the Hitchhiker's Guide casting kerfuffle about Mos Def. Ford has always been black in my brain, and had actually looked quite a bit like how he ended up in the movie. So when the wank started up, I was really confused and had to read the book again to realize that I had made it up in my brain. I was just sure he was described as a dark-skinned lanky dude with short dark hair and a friendly smile.

Only, not really. Apparently I had a mental link with the movie's casting agent, though.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]kannaophelia
2012-03-16 07:38 am UTC (link)
To be fair, a lot of the objections were based on the chance of a black guy "blending in" to a small English village in the 1970s. As far as I remember, when the movie ended up being set contemporary with the time it was made, the objections dried up along with the believability issue.

Personally, I think Mos Def was amazing as Ford - so much better (by which I obviously mean closer to my personal mental idea of book!Ford) than the BBC TV one.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]bienegold
2012-03-09 11:15 am UTC (link)
These discussions always kind of leave me completely confused, because I'm not at all a visual reader. I can't "see" characters at all unless they're really explicitly described or, better yet, if there's an illustration somewhere.

This isn't a "lol, I'm colorblind," thing, more a whole...not getting the whole idea of having such a strong image of a character that you get upset to that degree when a movie depiction doesn't match.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]sepiamagpie
2012-03-09 11:20 am UTC (link)
I can sort of understand it. The Discworld books never straight out said that Twoflower was a Japanese/Chinese expy visually but when they cast Sean Astin as him, I was pretty disappointed. And the old guy as Rincewind.

Note I said sort of. I had no stupid rhetoric to go with it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]fools_game
2012-03-09 11:52 am UTC (link)
It was never stated outright, certainly, but in Interesting Times his home country is definitely coded as 'Asian' in the same way XXXX was coded Australian and Genua was coded as New Orleans. Not necessarily accurately, but with symbols recognisable to the average British reader. The Discworld books rarely state parallels to our world outright, but to say they're not there is ridiculous.

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[info]sepiamagpie
2012-03-09 12:02 pm UTC (link)
Well, yeah.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]mirhanda
2012-03-09 08:25 pm UTC (link)
I never pegged Genua as N.O.! I always thought of it as Italy (because of Genoa.) I will have to cogitate on this for a while.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]honorh, 2012-03-09 08:31 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mirhanda, 2012-03-09 08:37 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]honorh, 2012-03-09 08:42 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]mirhanda, 2012-03-09 08:52 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]fools_game, 2012-03-10 12:51 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]mirhanda, 2012-03-10 07:53 pm UTC

[info]mirhanda
2012-03-09 08:26 pm UTC (link)
I...they...SEAN ASTIN??

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]iamnotyourmuse
2012-03-09 09:55 pm UTC (link)
He's very... enthusiastic. He never managed to completely sell me but I did enjoy his performance by the end.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]full_metal_ox
2012-03-10 12:01 am UTC (link)
The Discworld books never straight out said that Twoflower was a Japanese/Chinese expy visually but when they cast Sean Astin as him, I was pretty disappointed.

I suspect that the filmmakers may have been trying to avoid the Dorky Camera-Laden Asian Tourist stereotype, but that casting decision is going to bite them in the butt if they get around to adapting Interesting Times.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]sepiamagpie
2012-03-10 06:06 am UTC (link)
Given how long it's been, I'm not even sure the Rincewind actor will still be alive if they ever get around to doing that. He said in a gloomy Eeyore voice.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]derryderrydown, 2012-03-14 05:06 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]kannaophelia, 2012-03-16 07:42 am UTC

[info]hadisia
2012-03-15 11:05 am UTC (link)
I always see Vimes as Denzel Washington because Denzel is the quintessential "overworked cop" in my mind. Then I see official art and go "WHOA, WAIT, WHAT- oh right" (he's still my mental Vimes, though).

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]bienegold
2012-03-09 12:09 pm UTC (link)
I feel like I should probably head something off at the pass. I don't mean whitewashing here; I feel like that's a separate issue entirely. I mean more the people who are taken aback that a character's not white like in their mind, or the people who haven't heard of hair dye and just can't imagine that a blonde would play a brunette.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]aaron_agonistes
2012-03-09 09:45 pm UTC (link)
I have a similar problem. Even when characters are described clearly, or when there's a movie or a cover image to reference, I still have a hard time remembering what characters look like when I'm reading. Voices I can hear very distinctly, but faces I have trouble with.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]full_metal_ox
2012-03-10 01:18 am UTC (link)
These discussions always kind of leave me completely confused, because I'm not at all a visual reader. I can't "see" characters at all unless they're really explicitly described or, better yet, if there's an illustration somewhere.

This isn't a "lol, I'm colorblind," thing, more a whole...not getting the whole idea of having such a strong image of a character that you get upset to that degree when a movie depiction doesn't match.

By contrast, I'm quite prone to Fan Casting; I was delighted to learn that William Gibson had patterned Molly Millions in Neuromancer after Chrissie Hynde, because of how warm I'd gotten--Joan Jett having firmly installed herself as my own mental image.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]rosehiptea
2012-03-10 03:59 pm UTC (link)
Huh, I always thought of Molly Millions as mixed-race, and now I'm wondering where I got that.

(Except I also pictured her looking a lot like Chrissie Hynde, though I didn't put her name on that thought exactly, so that is cool.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]full_metal_ox
2012-03-10 08:54 pm UTC (link)
Huh, I always thought of Molly Millions as mixed-race, and now I'm wondering where I got that.

Possibly from the heavy Neo-Tokyo ambiance--if you were envisioning her as Eurasian--as well as her self-description as "an exotic".

(Alternatively, I could imagine Molly as Oshima Yukari--who would certainly have been equal to the action demands of the role; unfortunately, she's too old by now.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]rosehiptea, 2012-03-10 09:56 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]full_metal_ox, 2012-03-10 09:58 pm UTC

[info]miss_eponine
2012-03-09 02:36 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I think my brain must have skipped over that bit too. When the huge kerfuffle came up over it, I just went, "Oh, so she's black. That's cool," and went on with my life.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]serafina20
2012-03-10 01:09 am UTC (link)
I always pictured her as Latina because the description of the way she held herself reminded me of one of my former students. Which, to be honest, was really disturbing when I got to her death scene.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]ahiru
2012-03-11 02:59 am UTC (link)
I missed it too, but I'll fully admit that once I read the name "Rue" my mind went straight to the character from Princess Tutu and refused to move. Though I also somehow missed that Blaise Zabini was black until the fangirls started going into frothing rages over it, so I probably just skim character descriptions too fast.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]bienegold
2012-03-11 10:10 am UTC (link)
Was he actually ever described in the books?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]ekaterinv
2012-03-11 11:09 am UTC (link)
Yep. As both really hot and black.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]bienegold
2012-03-11 01:05 pm UTC (link)
Huh. I guess I missed that, too. Though I'm assuming if she was describing him that way, it was one of the later books after the movies had started coming out?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]sepiamagpie, 2012-03-11 01:30 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bienegold, 2012-03-11 02:32 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]bienegold, 2012-03-11 02:47 pm UTC

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