[ SECRET POST #5358 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5358 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 31 secrets from Secret Submission Post #767.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

06. https://i.imgur.com/xF1jXLw.png

[(Anonymous)]

enjoy whatever you like and instead put your energy into supporting some local endeavor, that will probably be more useful than worrying about this

consumption as activism is a scam

[(Anonymous)]

consumption as activism is a scam

Back in the days of apartheid I and everyone else I knew refused to buy South African goods. I'm pretty sure it had an effect.

[(Anonymous)]

SA HTML fail, sorry.

[(Anonymous)]

That's an organised boycott, not the personal consumption = personal virtue equation. Like, I don't read Orson Scott Card because he thinks lesbians should be correctively raped. But without an organised campaign, my personal decision means pretty much nothing.

[(Anonymous)]

Except that op's talking about published fiction, not fanfiction. Buying books and/or borrowing them from the library does make a difference.

[(Anonymous)]

not more of a difference than actually organising bro, with a bonus that you don't have to force yourself to read books for wokeness reasons

[(Anonymous)]

It can be both! We get set into our likes at times, and those likes can be influenced by racism/internalized racism.

If it's something you're worried about, I'd say seek out those settings you like, but written by a more diverse authorship! A lot of authors are exploring different settings because it can be more novel and help them connect to their culture, but there are probably authors who grew up reading and enjoying settings you've mentioned who want to write their own versions!

(and if you find any you like, please drop by and put some recs. Sometimes it's just easier to read/be a fan with "comfort" achetypes/tropes rather than something new!)

[(Anonymous)]

I've tried a few of the big Afrofuturism books and wasn't very taken with them. I think a lot of it is the setting and some tropes are different than the usual Western fare and requires a closer reading. Nobody has to explain to me elves, dwarves, or standard European medieval settings. Like, when I read The Fifth Season, a lot of the background knowledge was very different than the standard fantasy tropes so it just took a lot more mental load to plow through it. Being familiar with the tropes can also hide a lot of poor world-building because I have read hundreds of similar fantasy books that have done the world-building for them.

I had the same reaction to the Russian fantasy novel I recently read. It was a bit of a pain to figure out who was talking and their relations to one another because they preserved the naming nomenclature and it's just not one I was familiar with. I also had to look up some background stuff to make some of the historical references make sense. That's a lot of extra work if you want a quick, fun read.

Conversely, I actually really like Japanese or Chinese settings because I've consumed a lot of East Asian content and have a basic grasp of their settings and tropes already. Which is why I guessing you also like Chinese magic settings. We're just familiar with it so it's just easier to read which can make all the difference in enjoyment level.

The good part is; the more you read and become familiar with the setting, the easier it'll be to read, the more you'll enjoy it. If you're just looking for fun books (which is totally valid; sometimes you just want to escape in a fun novel) but still want to try them out, may I suggest reading some short stories.

[(Anonymous)]

Have you ever read The Good Earth? I loved it!

[(Anonymous)]

I'd be interested in African-set fantasy! It would be nice to see a fantasy without the mainstays of castles, wizards, knights and whatever else.

So long as it's interesting, has good worldbuilding, an interesting magic system and doesn't just go the boring route to demonise white people for easy villain revenge fantasy points, anyway.

That was baaad (and weirdly forced) in one fantasy East Asia set book I read (which had other problems, among them crap writing, shit protagonist, horrible cast, derivative story ... all things that actually GOT WORSE in the sequel), enough that I'm over the concept.

[(Anonymous)]

Same, anon. For a while, I actively sought out genres I like from other cultural backgrounds to broaden my horizon, and most of the time I didn't connect to the stories at all. SO I hardly do that anymore, especially since I have to buy (my country's public libraries are mostly books written in my country's language and books translated into my country's language, and small non-Western genre books don't stand a chance).

My one exception to the rule: David Mogo Godhunter. I _loved_ that one! Still a lot I didn't understand, but the story worked for me. The first thing I did when I was done was check if there was a sequel (nope, standalone) because I wanted more.

[(Anonymous)]

One anon above said it well: it depends on the cultures you're more familiar with. I grew up reading European, Russian and Chinese fairy tales, so I'm more used to those types of classical fantasy stories, for example. I still find even certain European settings and these Chinese magical novels that are all the rage boring and uninteresting nowadays though. And yeah, I was never interested in African stuff beyond Egypt either.