Scratch marks

I meant to put this on my gamedev blog initially, but there's too much to unpack, and it pertains to writing in general much more than games. Over on Medium there's an amazing piece titled The Uncanny Valley of Culture, and we really need to talk about it. Here's just one little sample:

What we have here, in international critical responses to unapologetically Australian media, amounts to a punishment for us daring to write familiar, messy, authentic narratives. The cultural cringe comes from inside, but the real sources of it are the external, oppressive, and prescriptive forces of American storytelling tradition. Isn’t it messed up that when an American critic points at Necrobarista’s dialogue and says, “nobody talks like that,” when in fact I’m almost directly quoting a grieving friend, my first reaction is to apologize or try and see if I can change it to fit their tastes?

As an English language writer from Romania, this strongly resonates with me. Having to explain every little detail for US readers who never seem to read between the lines. Having to justify such alien feelings as longing for home. Having to change language used by many other writers because one editor thinks it's weird. (Where'd you think I picked it up?! You don't own English!)

My own favorite example of this issue is Mamma Mia, a movie beloved by the general public (at least in Europe), but panned by critics who used much of the same incomprehending language. Over here, see, we're equipped to watch a British woman's idea of a Bollywood production and really get it. And European countries are more culturally varied than you'd expect on one small continent. Across the pond however... things are seriously messed up. How exactly would be too much to unpack here, and potentially upsetting to my American friends. But that bundle of issues has been exported for decades as a kind of New Global Culture, with terrible results. It's time we reclaim our respective identities.

I love English anyway, and not just because it grants me potential audience in the billions. Yes, a living language is going to be quirky. Try learning another.

I was reading through this otherwise excellent retrospective of Command and Conquer, when something incongruous caught my eye. Namely, the suggestion that Dune, with its stylized far-future setting, was somehow disconnected from the real-world politics of its time.

...

Bwahahahaha! Folks, are you for real?! Dune is quite explicitly about Arabs in a desert fighting off a high-tech empire coming to take their oil, pardon, Spice. In the guise of "liberating" them from another occupation, no less. Even the white savior plot is 40% Lawrence of Arabia. Come on.

That's hardly a singular case, either. The much-maligned Starship Troopers is an incredibly transparent depiction of the early Vietnam War, complete with paratroopers and tunnel combat. Star Trek moved the then-ongoing Cold War in space, submarines and all. (Though Klingons being the only side to use cloaked vessels and pack tactics is more reminiscent of WW2.) Going a little back, we have Beyond the Black River, by Robert E. Howard. A lesser-known adventure of Conan the Barbarian, it's ostensibly an allegory of American colonists fighting against the natives a century before, though the ending is an obvious reference to the rise of fascism in Europe at the time of its writing. Speaking of which, don't even get me started about Olaf Stapledon's The First and Last Men. Ironic how just a quarter century earlier, The Iron Heel by Jack London featured corporate overlords as the villains who install an oppressive regime lasting many decades. An idea not seen again until Neuromancer, this side of the Oil Crisis. And since we moved closer in time, let's mention Robocop, that's all about the privatization and militarization of law enforcement. Or the same Star Trek coming back to mark the end of the Cold War with The Undiscovered Country, thus bringing the original series full-circle.

Sci-fi was never not political. I could quote the entire oeuvre of H.G. Wells (yes, even The Time Machine; think Eloi vs. Morlocks). Or anything written by Norman Spinrad: it doesn't get more clear than Other Americas. Heck, I didn't even mention Asimov's Caves of Steel. Funny how something based on the author's memories of growing up during the Great Depression can echo so strongly for someone who caught the tail end of Communism. Or for that matter the present day, when automation is once more threatening to tear apart society. And remember The Lord of the Rings, where our hobbits return home victorious only to find the Shire turned into an industrial nightmare?

Gee, I wonder why that bit was left out in the movies.