The Washington Dispatch Since I've written on this topic in the past:

The Washington Dispatch: "Sean O’Keefe Departs"

Reaction?

"Ding, Dong, the witch is dead!

Which old witch?

The brain-dead witch!

Ding-dong, the stupid witch is dead!"

12:01:37 PM     Discuss: []


A Whitewashed Earthsea - How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books. By Ursula K. Le Guin

My color scheme was conscious and deliberate from the start. I didn't see why everybody in science fiction had to be a honky named Bob or Joe or Bill. I didn't see why everybody in heroic fantasy had to be white (and why all the leading women had 'violet eyes'). It didn't even make sense."(Via Slate.)

So, I've seen a few posts, making waves about Ursula saying this. Most of them (what a surprise) haven't actually read her comments. So, let me cover it really quickly for those of you unable to read for comment;

First off, they did not "wreck her books". This just a quick sanity check. They wrecked the movie of her books. Not the same thing. K, that's out of the way.

Her issue is that basically they "whitewashed" the culture. Please note she did not say that various people HAD to be a certain color, or that the character is changed by being white instead of black, brown, red, green, whatever. Her Big issue is that the culture is (like earth's) multi-ethnic, and they basically turned it into Northern Europe/Norway/Cast of 'Friends'. This is a pretty damned valid complaint.

So, please please shut the hell up about UKLG being some "affirmative action" loon, she's saying that they changed her damned culture. Would it have been so hard to say "Hmm, these characters need to be blonde, these actors need to be darkish skinned and pacific islander features, and these actors need to be as dark as possible, preferably african/sub saharan features, oh and these guys can be anything, 'cos they're mixed"?

Of course it wouldn't have been. All movies do crap like this. You'll notice they have no problem making sure those Waffen SS officers are melanin deficient.

Yeesh

Disclaimer: I've never read "Earthsea", didn't watch it, cos it looked stupid. (Honesly it looked like that crappy show "Roar" that lasted like half a season (13 episodes).

11:54:53 AM     Discuss: []