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Quote of the Day
Apr. 3rd, 2009 08:50 am"I'm trying to articulate my feelings as best I can without completely losing it. What we do is not an artistic expression. And you don't have artistic license to take little pieces here and there and do what you want with it. That's something you people don't understand, probably never will understand."
There was a debate in LJland a year or two back about cultural appropriation, I think in the context of writing. If I'm writing a fantasy novel and I want to have a culture that looks more like medieval Japan than medieval Europe, is it okay if I do that if I'm not Japanese? Do my motives and the quality of my research affect the answer? What's a depiction and what's a caricature? What's exploiting the exotic and what's an attempt to use a different point of view? What about living versus dead cultures?
Legally, I think it would be a mistake to say that people "own" the traditions of their cultures. But ethically, if you're going to borrow bits and pieces of people's heritage, you'd better be prepared to hear about it, whether it's a Hopi woman telling you off or an Irishman ranting about St. Patrick's Day.
- A Hopi woman, lecturing some Burning Man partiers
There was a debate in LJland a year or two back about cultural appropriation, I think in the context of writing. If I'm writing a fantasy novel and I want to have a culture that looks more like medieval Japan than medieval Europe, is it okay if I do that if I'm not Japanese? Do my motives and the quality of my research affect the answer? What's a depiction and what's a caricature? What's exploiting the exotic and what's an attempt to use a different point of view? What about living versus dead cultures?
Legally, I think it would be a mistake to say that people "own" the traditions of their cultures. But ethically, if you're going to borrow bits and pieces of people's heritage, you'd better be prepared to hear about it, whether it's a Hopi woman telling you off or an Irishman ranting about St. Patrick's Day.
