political correctness in the writting community

[Tami Seven]

You can not please all readers all the time. You can only write to please yourself and hope that what you write resonates with many if not most of your readers. A well written story with an interesting plot and interesting characters is the most important thing to focus on. Trying to be PC to everyone is impossible and not worth the effort to worry about it.

[The Deposed King]

My only caveat to this might be if you previously wrote something the audience loved and then changed and they fell off.  Then just go back to what worked before!

I once read this author that did a great series with an alien adventure and exploration plot line.  Loved-loved-loved it.  The she changed, a new series came out the aliens were still in there but now it was all focused on illegal terra-forming destroying pristine worlds out in the galaxy and the need to save the planets by going green and my interest dropped like a rock.  Go back to that amazing series you wrote in the beginning please!  Alien culture and adventure and discovery!  Not 'just and only' mankind is bad, fight the big corporations etc.  Mic it up maybe 50/50?



The Deposed King

[Tami Seven]

I know there have been very good stories that are, at their heart, parables about things like protecting the environment and so on. But, maybe it's just that they are done lightly, instead of heavy-handedly.  I don't know many readers that enjoy reading books that seem to be preaching or sermonizing on a social topic.

[trboturtle]

I know there have been very good stories that are, at their heart, parables about things like protecting the environment and so on. But, maybe it's just that they are done lightly, instead of heavy-handedly.  I don't know many readers that enjoy reading books that seem to be preaching or sermonizing on a social topic.

That's what has been the blow-up with the Hugos the last couple of years. A group of fans believe the awards are more about PC work than actual merit, and has resulted in a bitter fight over who is nominated and wins. A real nasty situation......

Craig

[The Deposed King]

I know there have been very good stories that are, at their heart, parables about things like protecting the environment and so on. But, maybe it's just that they are done lightly, instead of heavy-handedly.  I don't know many readers that enjoy reading books that seem to be preaching or sermonizing on a social topic.

There are otherwise completely good and honest people on both sides of such issues as god, religion, human made global warming, politics etc. who don't want to hear that they're on the wrong headed destroyer of worlds side of the argument and thus need a college level lecture in the middle of their entertainment escapism novel.  Not so many on the flat earth, gravity doesn't exist if you believe strongly enough/have pixie dust, aging can be reversed by yoga, the moon is made out of green cheese and other genuine adult believers in such things as santa clause and his reindeer.

Yet I think it is when exactly you try to treat people in the first group like they are members of the second while happily ignore the second that the real trouble begins.

For the most part people come to us for entertainment. saving a world from ecological collapse, racing against time and begging borrowing or stealing ancient elder tech terra-formers can be fun, being told that humanity did it and our current path of living in real life leads to total annihilation isn't.  Having angels, magic and demons return to the earth is or can be really cool but writing that atheists are suddenly being dragged down to hell as a natural result of angelic activity is going to offend a lot of people.  And honestly where's the fun in it?



The Deposed King

[The Deposed King]

I'll just add that throwing in real life problems and situations is all well and good, do it by all means.

Poking fun at things can be good too done right.  I just try to make a point not to be out there willfully and beligerently sacrificing anyone's sacred cows.

[wardenferry419]

PC -ness has turned Hermione and Mary Jane black and made Iron Man and other male Marvel characters female.

[Darthmama]

Political Correctness is always a questionable topic.  I personally think that it depends on one's target audience.  If you're writing for adults then screw it and insult away, maybe they will learn something as they read your work.  It's possible if unlikely due to adults being rather set in their ways and frankly you can't please everyone.  For everyone out there parading your book because you did something like have an openly gay character or a black character there is another hissing that you have some political agenda and are forcing it down people's throats.  There's no real win in the situation.

For a younger audience though it's trickier.  Most people aren't out to teach sexism or racism but a younger audience picks up on the most random things.  Parents can also be the biggest idiots about what is put in front of their child.  Case in point the Harry Potter series and how people were saying it was teaching children witchcraft or the classic scare in the 80's with parents freaking out over D&D games.

[Mith]

PC -ness has turned Hermione and Mary Jane black and made Iron Man and other male Marvel characters female.

I will say that this has nothing to do with political correctness, and everything to do with the fact that you go with the actor/actress' performance skills in stage theater, not their looks.  Theater is full of non-typical castings like this.

As for the literature segment, I think that is more of "we have been milking this cash cow for so long we are running out of reboot ideas."

Although personally the change doesn't bother me in the slightest.  When there can be canon story lines of Batman taking place on "Everyone is a Pirate world" I think it's more that everything is prone to change rather than political correctness.

[wardenferry419]

For the longest time,  the majority of geekdom was white male creators marketing mainly white male characters to a mostly white male audience. Geekdom is broadening so companies are going the easy route of twisting established characters to fit the expanding demographics instead of creating and building up new characters. Long run possibility established audience loses identification and interest.

[The Deposed King]

By making starbuck, the ghost busters and various other icons either female or minorities you are either cnoeging an inconvenient truth or infatalizing entire segment of the population by saying that they couldn't possibly come up with something just as cool unique character on their own.  Either way its the height of bubkiss

[Quantus]

By making starbuck, the ghost busters and various other icons either female or minorities you are either cnoeging an inconvenient truth or infatalizing entire segment of the population by saying that they couldn't possibly come up with something just as cool unique character on their own.  Either way its the height of bubkiss

Or, you have a whole generation of creative communities actually cant come up with anything, that are stuck in the Remake/Reboot mentality and somehow missing the critical ingredient to the sort of originality that once flourished.  (Creative Talent, Courage to Innovate, Non-douchebag executives, etc)

[wardenferry419]

Take a black female like Storm and make her a white male and see the $#!tstorm that follows.

[The Deposed King]

LOL



The Deposed King

[Quantus]

Take a black female like Storm and make her a white male and see the $#!tstorm that follows.

You arent wrong (though lets be honest shitstorms happen for every change regardless of PC connotations.  Geeks hate Change .  But if you gave Storm a white male sidekick with the same general powerset, breaking the older tradition of your batgirls and supergirls of these worlds, you'd probably be fine.  You could even retire/kill her and ahve a new weather mutant take up the name and probably be ok as long as the new character was established.  Not sure I see that as any different than the new Riri Williams/Ironheart or Jane Foster as Thor that people seem to hate all of the sudden.  I dont mind mantles being passed, for me the key is not retconning the original character.

And none of those bothered me anything like the travesty that is the Superior Spiderman