I have to say, this conversation is starting to irritate me. Somehow I can’t imagine anyone is going to be personally offended if I write about a firefly causing disease in a city.
I never said those authors weren’t criticized for their writing - all authors are criticized for everything they write. Writing is a form of art. It's self-expression. There's people who will love Tolkien's writing and people who hate it, just like there are people who love the work of Vincent van Gogh and there's people who hate it. I don’t know about you, but if I dislike a book or a writer, I choose not to read their work. They have every right to write however they choose, but I don’t have to read it if I dislike it for any reason. As I mentioned earlier, nobody sees my writing, so I’m my biggest critic. Should my writing magically publish itself someday, I’m sure it would be criticized. If not for containing elements of mythology, I’m sure it would be criticized for something else. Criticisms only mean that you can’t please everybody. Self-expression never pleases everyone.
johnklepac wrote:My favorite part of the article is that the author acknowledges the rifts between her own culture and African-based ones and handles them as she expects her readers to. I'm really sick of this "all non-white groups can appropriate from one another and it's fine, but Miley Cyrus twerking is incredibly disrespectful" view that's fashionable nowadays.linguoboy wrote:http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10087
I thought Johnklepac’s comment hit the nail on the head. Would we even be having this conversation if I had asked about Norse, Celtic, or Greek mythology?