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buggeryThe SciFi channel is officially on my shit list.
Last night and tonight, I've been watching Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. It's fantastic, as good as the four seasons of the series ever got (not going to be spoilery now, may write up a review later) and visibly benefitting from a considerably larger special-effects budget than they've previously had to play with.
But. The so-called "miniseries" is only four hours long. At least 40 minutes shorter than that, actually, what with the commercials. Actual run time, we're talking more like three, three-and-a-half hours.
In other words, it's a longish film.
On the bright side, I didn't have to figure out whether to use a 6- or 8-hour tape, or some combination thereof.
On the other hand, three or four hours is no replacement for the full fifth season of episodes that SciFi was under contract to buy from Farscape's production company, and screwed them (and us) out of.
Don't even get me started on the dren SciFi paid for with the money they stole from Farscape.
And then there's Earthsea.
Adapting a novel, or a series of novels, to screens large or small is always a challenge. It's impossible to keep everything in, and, particularly in the fantasy and science fiction genres, there can be numerous story elements which are either impossible or prohibitively expensive to depict. Some elements of a story will inevitably need to be truncated, or portrayed/narrated/explained in a way different from the original text.
None of these factors have any bearing on why I'm so ripshit over the way Sci-Fi is adapting Ursula K. le Guin's Earthsea books. (Yes, apparently they're condensing at least two of the books into the one four-hour microseries, but I'm not going to declare that's a mistake without seeing the thing first.)
Here's the problem.
Ursula le Guin made a point of populating her world of Earthsea with mostly non-white peoples: a wide variety of brown skin shades, a wide variety of cultures. There were a few characters we'd call white, but only a few. This wasn't just an affirmative-action gesture; it underlies, and is crucial to, many elements of the story.
SciFi cast everybody white. Everybody, with the two exceptions of Danny Glover as the Token Mystical Other (a blatant perversion of his character's status in the source material) and Kristin Kreuk as... a white girl played by a half-white, half-Asian girl who has demonstrated over and over again her inability to be a tenth as good at acting as she is at looking pretty.
I have actually seen people argue that SciFi "had" to cast the way they did, because audiences wouldn't be interested and advertisers wouldn't invest in a science fiction series with a handful of white characters outnumbered by black, brown and tan characters. Yeah. Suuure. Because the Matrix series was such a box office bust and never had more than a fringe following.
I'll just be over in the corner, growling.
Last night and tonight, I've been watching Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. It's fantastic, as good as the four seasons of the series ever got (not going to be spoilery now, may write up a review later) and visibly benefitting from a considerably larger special-effects budget than they've previously had to play with.
But. The so-called "miniseries" is only four hours long. At least 40 minutes shorter than that, actually, what with the commercials. Actual run time, we're talking more like three, three-and-a-half hours.
In other words, it's a longish film.
On the bright side, I didn't have to figure out whether to use a 6- or 8-hour tape, or some combination thereof.
On the other hand, three or four hours is no replacement for the full fifth season of episodes that SciFi was under contract to buy from Farscape's production company, and screwed them (and us) out of.
Don't even get me started on the dren SciFi paid for with the money they stole from Farscape.
And then there's Earthsea.
Adapting a novel, or a series of novels, to screens large or small is always a challenge. It's impossible to keep everything in, and, particularly in the fantasy and science fiction genres, there can be numerous story elements which are either impossible or prohibitively expensive to depict. Some elements of a story will inevitably need to be truncated, or portrayed/narrated/explained in a way different from the original text.
None of these factors have any bearing on why I'm so ripshit over the way Sci-Fi is adapting Ursula K. le Guin's Earthsea books. (Yes, apparently they're condensing at least two of the books into the one four-hour microseries, but I'm not going to declare that's a mistake without seeing the thing first.)
Here's the problem.
Ursula le Guin made a point of populating her world of Earthsea with mostly non-white peoples: a wide variety of brown skin shades, a wide variety of cultures. There were a few characters we'd call white, but only a few. This wasn't just an affirmative-action gesture; it underlies, and is crucial to, many elements of the story.
SciFi cast everybody white. Everybody, with the two exceptions of Danny Glover as the Token Mystical Other (a blatant perversion of his character's status in the source material) and Kristin Kreuk as... a white girl played by a half-white, half-Asian girl who has demonstrated over and over again her inability to be a tenth as good at acting as she is at looking pretty.
I have actually seen people argue that SciFi "had" to cast the way they did, because audiences wouldn't be interested and advertisers wouldn't invest in a science fiction series with a handful of white characters outnumbered by black, brown and tan characters. Yeah. Suuure. Because the Matrix series was such a box office bust and never had more than a fringe following.
I'll just be over in the corner, growling.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-18 09:30 pm (UTC)And while I've never read Ursula Le Guin, your above comment kind of makes me glad. The racist casting sucks, and I'd hate to have to associate it with a favorite author of mine.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-18 10:56 pm (UTC)And you haven't answered my question. Who's that kissing?
no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 03:46 am (UTC)That's because I was asleep and you're responding to a comment by someone who is not me.
The two boys kissing in my Icon of Fandoms Past are Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer of Red Dwarf; the screenshot comes from the eposode "Blue." RD was another fantastic show, brilliant enough that it sometimes parodied other science-fiction series even before they aired, absolutely hilarious. It was a BBC production, and would probably never have made it on the air in the States, much less lasted eight seasons (or was it nine?) -- even now you can't find this deservedly popular series on American television, except when an occasional public television affiliate seizes on it as part of their "viewers will call in and pledge for British comedy programming" marketing strategy.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 08:09 pm (UTC)Red Dwarf is a show I'm really sorry I missed. It was on the telly here a few years ago, and by the time I realized it was probably worth checking out it was over. I hope it gets repeated.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-18 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 04:02 am (UTC)Honestly, I haven't read the books myself in many years, and so far I can't be arsed to either retrieve my copies from whichever box they're packed away in or try the library (where my reading them would mean someone else who wanted to couldn't, anyway). What I do remember, though, is that the books are short, and as they were meant to be able to appeal to a young adult audience as well as le Guin's more mature readership, they're quite fast reads.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-18 11:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 04:23 am (UTC)The reason for the general decline in programming quality at SciFi is, of course, that they don't so much have executives of their own as share wogs with USA Network, their parent company. No wonder we keep getting innovative entertainment like Scare Tactics...
no subject
Date: 2004-11-03 11:42 am (UTC)That says more about the people arguing that...
I hate sci-fic channel, actually.
A whole fucking lot.
And, well, in general, I don't find that the average sci-fi fan is worth my time in discussion of cultural issues.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-07 08:29 am (UTC)Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean the idiots at Sci-fi channel weren't thinking the same thing.
I used to love Sci-fi channel. That former love just keeps plunging deeper into the negative numbers, nowadays.
I don't find that the average sci-fi fan is worth my time in discussion of cultural issues.
Uh... do you mean 'average Sci-fi channel fan' or 'average science- and/or speculative-fiction fan'? Because science fiction, as a genre, forms a better basis and forum for discussion of cultural issues than almost any other flavour of fiction. Just look at the likes of FSFFU, or the sorts of stories that tend to win the Hugo and Nebula awards each year. And even in terms of television programming, science fiction shows have a long history of tackling social, cultural and moral issues.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-17 11:41 pm (UTC)Average science- and/or speculative-fiction fan, actually.
Seriously.
Average science- and/or speculative-fiction fan, actually.
Date: 2004-12-18 12:15 am (UTC)Re: Average science- and/or speculative-fiction fan, actually.
Date: 2004-12-18 02:50 pm (UTC)Re: Average science- and/or speculative-fiction fan, actually.
Date: 2004-12-19 05:44 am (UTC)I my experience, thoughts and attitudes like redhawk's are the norm. Wait, that does mean average sci-fi fan. Now if you mean books, do you mean books by sci-fi authors or fantasies?
part 1: the fans
Date: 2004-12-20 07:40 am (UTC)This conversation is starting to remind me of one I frequently have with Te, wherein she has difficulty imagining the frequency with which I have to deal with profoundly stupid and ignorant people ("Stonehenge... they built that in like the 1700s, right?" "Counterintuitive? Is that a word?" "Frogs and bugs are classified as animals? Really?" "But what's half of two?!" -- I sincerely wish I was making any of those up) and I have difficulty understanding how she manages to avoid such people. We live within 100 miles of one another in the metro NYC area, so it's not a matter of me being stranded in Hickland.
I've been involved in science fiction fandom to varying degrees for about 25 years, like I said. Whether the other fans in question were more into television series, novels, or equally fannish for both, my experience is that people with the kind of racist arrogance redhawk displays are not only uncommon but shunned by the community when they do turn up. I'm not suggesting by any means that your negative experiences didn't happen or weren't hurtful. What I am saying is that I know from personal experience that there are many science fiction fans with whom you could discuss matters of race and ethnicity (and gender and more) -- in the real world or as applied in fictional futures or other alternate settings -- without being marginalised or offended. I think both you and they would gain something by the conversations.
Hm. In rereading the above paragraph, I noticed again that I'd left out science-fiction *film* fans, and considered adding that designation in... and in trying to figure out why that felt wrong, I realised that fans of science-fiction films tend to fall into two very different groups: fans of science fiction (books and/or television series) who also appreciate some films enough to be fannish about them but avoid or are outright disgusted by most of what passes for science-fiction cinema; and fans of Hollywood science fiction (often primarily or exclusively of the Star Wars franchise which isn't properly science fiction at all but "space opera") who may occasionally watch science-fiction television series, rarely if ever read any science-fiction novels or short stories which aren't tie-ins to a franchise, and tend to hate more highbrow sci-fi films such as The Man Who Fell to Earth. I'm wondering now how many of the "fans" you've encountered fall into that latter category -- not all of them, obviously, redhawk has done some reading and managed to stay improbably wrong-minded -- but that's a whole other demographic than I was thinking of, and much closer to the larger demographic of people who aren't science fiction fans at all.
Re: part 1: the fans
Date: 2004-12-20 09:29 am (UTC)Te's much less willing to suffer foolishness than I am. Looks like she may be a lot less willing to suffer it than you do, too.
I sincerely wish I was making any of those up
It's okay. When you're done grieving for the world you can laugh at it and us in it.
I've been involved in science fiction fandom to varying degrees for about 25 years, like I said. Whether the other fans in question were more into television series, novels, or equally fannish for both, my experience is that people with the kind of racist arrogance redhawk displays are not only uncommon but shunned by the community when they do turn up.
It's nice to know that you've been lucky enough to play Peewee Reese. Or may have benefitted from folk stepping up to plate in the manner of Peewee Reese, but in my experience?
I talk about race and ethnicity with folk who've made a rather arbitrary cut. I talk to some folk in rl. And I'll discuss it with some folk online, but I'm not open. And I won't apologize for that. But look, here I am discussing it with you, and I haven't the foggiest if you're of color or not. :)
Definitely, I'm benefitting.
I realised that fans of science-fiction films tend to fall into two very different groups: fans of science fiction (books and/or television series) who also appreciate some films enough to be fannish about them but avoid or are outright disgusted by most of what passes for science-fiction cinema; and fans of Hollywood science fiction (often primarily or exclusively of the Star Wars franchise which isn't properly science fiction at all but "space opera") who may occasionally watch science-fiction television series, rarely if ever read any science-fiction novels or short stories which aren't tie-ins to a franchise, and tend to hate more highbrow sci-fi films such as The Man Who Fell to Earth.
This is an interesting distinction. I wish to read more on it, and I'd like to know what other folk think. Most of the fen I've been dealing with, though, are out of comicbook fanfic land. And maybe it's not so much racism and privilege but being a bunch of rude know it alls that are as good at giving offense to non-comic book X-Men fans as they are some people of color. Certainly, I don't speak for all fans of color. Like,
I think comic book fans that I've known tend to be widely read, well-informed, and, um, knowledgeable. As for the difference between sci-fi movie/tv fans and readers in the genre...hunh. I don't know. In fact, I'm wondering if thinking that holds a bias in favor of folk who have enjoyed a certain sort/level of education.
Boy, howdy, this is a fascinating discussion. :)
THANKS!
But see, I come out of X-Men comicbook fandom, and let me tell you, that's full of people who think they've got race and ethnicity figured out. But the irony of a bunch of folk digging on a 'verse that basically took 'Malcolm vs. Martin' and ran with it, and still manage to be nigh on fucking clueless when it comes to offense, privilege, and mannerlessness?
Yeah.
So. Done. I'll read fic, write fic, read books, read stories, but I've found that the less I know about what an active sci-fan's thoughts on race, the more I'm able to enjoy their work/efforts.
part 2: the books
Date: 2004-12-20 07:53 am (UTC)For science fiction that meets the same criteria, I can produce a longer list just as readily: Jerusalem Fire by Rebecca ("R.M.") Meluch posits a future where racial mixing has led to an almost universally brown- or tan-skinned world population and a "white" man is a curiosity; Moving Mars by Greg Bear pulls off the double feat of a believable female protagonist written by a male author and a believable non-white protagonist written by a white author in addition to just being well-written; Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge features a multicultural cast whose ethnicities are more than simply masks over cardboard cut-out characters, and while Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep features few human characters in comparison to its cast of various and varied aliens one of the humans -- singled out specifically as a representative of the species -- is a mixed-race man with an Asian name; Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon) took on the issue of the African tradition of so-called female circumcision four years before The Color Purple was published; Spider Robinson's early novel Telempath features an African-American protagonist and explores the fallout of a spectacularly bad solution to societal ills; Four Ways To Forgiveness by (of course I had to come back to her) Ursula le Guin looks at the intersection and interactions of skin colour, culture, religion/spirituality, slavery, and imperialist social policies, but delves into yet more themes without bogging down in its own postulations; and The Telling, also by le Guin, is stellar even among the author's other masterpieces, looking at cultural identity through the double lens of an Indian- (subcontinent) descended Earth woman whose lesbian relationship with an ethnic Chinese woman led in part to her feeling disconnected from her own heritage, and a planet on which, not unlike Chinese-occupied Tibet, rulers of a modernising, urban-based empire have outlawed and tried to eradicate traditional spriritual beliefs and language which people in highlands far from the cities continue to preserve as much as they can. Again, I could go on, but that actually is an off-the-top-of-my-head listing.
And I know that, should you want to discuss most (some of them are obscure even within their genre) of these books with like-minded people, such people do exist within speculative fiction fandom, and easily outnumber cretins like redhawk.
Re: part 2: the books
Date: 2004-12-20 09:35 am (UTC)Don't see it much.
Thanks so much for the rcs. I may check them out later but I've got a stack of books I need to attack and digest.
I've read Four Ways To Forgiveness as well as all of Tiptree's ouevre but I've given Spider Robinson wide berth after an unfortunate encounter with a novel that I've since shoved forcibly out of my mind. I've not read Vernor Vinge's stuff either. Of course I've dealt with Delaney who is brilliant and relentless but gently so.
:)
Currently, I've been dealing with Nalo Hopkinson, Jewelle Gomez, Sandra Jackson Opoku. I loathe Tanarive Due's stuff, though. :)
And I know that, should you want to discuss most (some of them are obscure even within their genre) of these books with like-minded people, such people do exist within speculative fiction fandom, and easily outnumber cretins like redhawk.
Well, I'm willing to listen to thoughtful, polite people who are in the habit of deconstructing privilege in the context of speculative fiction. Though, it's interesting that you assumed that I hadn't known of many of the books you've mentioned. :)
Where do you go for conversation in this vein?
no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 10:18 am (UTC)She looked blankly at me and said, "Were they supposed to not be?"
The bad thing about watching TV from the desk or couch is that there isn't a wall or desk nearby to bang your head off of.
Or maybe that's a good thing, actually, as stupid as SciFi repeatedly and persistently manages to be.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 06:01 am (UTC)Well, you know, nobody wants to look at people who AREN'T white. And science fiction fans in particular are notoriously intolerant of people who look or behave differently from them, of course.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-20 08:14 pm (UTC)