Comments on: Thinking of Things at the Start of Something New (28/6/11) http://www.stephendeas.com/thinking-of-things-at-the-start-of-something-new-28611/ The Dragons Are Coming Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:01:46 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Stephen http://www.stephendeas.com/thinking-of-things-at-the-start-of-something-new-28611/comment-page-1/#comment-28224 Stephen Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:47:01 +0000 http://www.stephendeas.com/?p=1921#comment-28224 White man saves the primitive natives from the tyranny of another white man? Urgh. Suspect you're right about how to make the reversed role work. White man saves the primitive natives from the tyranny of another white man? Urgh. Suspect you’re right about how to make the reversed role work.

]]> By: Anne Lyle http://www.stephendeas.com/thinking-of-things-at-the-start-of-something-new-28611/comment-page-1/#comment-28163 Anne Lyle Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:46:07 +0000 http://www.stephendeas.com/?p=1921#comment-28163 I think the problem with the scenario is that in movies at least, it's been done so many times from the X = white, N = PoC/alien perspective (Dances With Wolves, Avatar, etc). It's assumed that the Western audience need a white protagonist with whom to empathise, which limits you to allegorising/commenting on real-world colonialism. It would be interesting to see this with the roles reversed, but a simple X = black, N = white switch might be too obvious. I think it would be less contentious to do it with X = alien/non-human, but then you face the problem of a protagonist who is hard to empathise with - you might have to have a human PoV as your "Watson" to the protagonist's "Holmes", so to speak. Come to think of it, that's sort of what I'm doing in my forthcoming trilogy, although I'd never framed it like that before...Thanks for the insight, Steve! I think the problem with the scenario is that in movies at least, it’s been done so many times from the X = white, N = PoC/alien perspective (Dances With Wolves, Avatar, etc). It’s assumed that the Western audience need a white protagonist with whom to empathise, which limits you to allegorising/commenting on real-world colonialism.

It would be interesting to see this with the roles reversed, but a simple X = black, N = white switch might be too obvious. I think it would be less contentious to do it with X = alien/non-human, but then you face the problem of a protagonist who is hard to empathise with – you might have to have a human PoV as your “Watson” to the protagonist’s “Holmes”, so to speak.

Come to think of it, that’s sort of what I’m doing in my forthcoming trilogy, although I’d never framed it like that before…Thanks for the insight, Steve!

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