Latest / Mixed Perspectives Podcast / Are Fantasy Writers Afraid to Write Different Cultures? | Ep 6

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Are Fantasy Writers Afraid to Write Different Cultures? | Ep 6 · Mixed Perspectives Podcast

• speaker-0: I don't feel like you have to see yourself to be able to empathize. Like if you only empathize with people who look like you, that's a problem. If I only empathize with mixed people, one, I'd only talk to my family. speaker-1: So I think when you can write in a different perspective, as a writer it forces you to look at things differently. Yes, that's the one I'm thinking about with speaker-0: Pretty silly hat. speaker-1: the war between China and Japan just set in a fantasy world, but she pulled I mean she it's haunting. Like speaker-0: It's intense. Welcome back, everybody. This is Mixed Perspective Podcast. I am one of your hosts, Aaron, and this is my name is speaker-1: Emmanuel. Nice to meet ya. speaker-0: Nice to meet you. We are glad you are here. Thanks for taking your time to listen andor watch. And I hope you just are having fun. If you like our podcast, give us a like and subscribe and tell us what you may or may not want us to keep talking about. You know, give us some ideas. We're all ears. So this one we are going to talk a little bit about Writing the other, reading the other, what that means is someone some ethnicity, some race, some culture that's not yours. And just about fantasy in general, if it's you know, if we if it's too Western, too non Western, you know, just all that kind of fun stuff. So join in, have fun, be respectful in the comments, and we'll just just have a good time. So Emmanuel, I you're actually one of the ones that kinda brought this subject up and I was wondering, you know, what what do you think about when it comes to fantasy? One, what is a stereotype that people think of fantasy and slightly that leans into this idea that, is everything, medieval or something, so take it away. speaker-1: Good intro. I was thinking if people write in write in the comments about what they want us to talk about or not talk about, as long as you don't want us to not talk about nerd stuff, I guess I know. speaker-0: Lead me where I want to be led. speaker-1: Talk more about shepherding and less about this nerd stuff. Yeah. yeah. So Aaron and I were chatting. We're talking about what do we want to talk about? Because that's one of the things we have when you have a podcast, you realize, shoot, we have to figure out things to talk about. Yeah. Yep. and so, dear listenerslash viewer, part of the reason that we are the Mixed Perspectives podcast because Aaron and I are both mixed. our dad is black and our mother is white. super white. Very, very white. So white, she is Clear almost, but it's fine. speaker-0: I have written on paper that's darker. Okay. speaker-1: She's also a wonderful person. She is She's speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: very, very white. where was it going with that? So because of that, it just it's at least for me, I was born in nineteen eighty four. And so I was the only mixed kid I knew until sixth grade, I think. I think the first famous mixed person I knew about, I think was Halle Berry when she did I think she was in Flintstones? My mom lives she makes she has a yeah, she has a white mom with what I remember my b mind was being blown. And the reason we're bringing this up is because seeing yourself in media like matters. Like, you know, you don't really matter until you see somebody who looks like you in something. Like, I mean, I know that's you do matter, yes, you're important to your but but from like am I valued in this culture? That's that's kind of how it's up. And so one of the things that I've noticed growing up with fantasy, sci-fi, et cetera, is the medium is very you know, it's very I'm not reflected in most characters. Erin's not reflected in most characters. there has been a movement, I would say probably the past 10, 15 years, that there's a lot more, which has been exciting. Yeah. but is one of the things that I thought would be interesting to talk about with Aaron. Like I how do we So when I'm writing characters I try to as often as I can make my r my characters mixed in some kind of way. every speaker-0: I actually do too, by accident. speaker-1: time I can I will I will make them mix. They may not be black and white mixed, they may be something else, but 'cause I can write from that perspective and, other people can't. speaker-0: And and side just side note, it is a perspective that we have that like a lot of people a lot of people don't even think about. like whether it's balancing between two cultures and stuff. And this is like not even like, you know, saving the world kind of thing in fantasy. It's like just how do you do two cultures? you know, 'cause I mean like race is a misnomer, we're all the human race, but there's different ethnicities and there's different cultures. And so being part of that is a perspective that a lot of people don't have. Whether you're black, white, Asian, like I can say black, white, and Asian, and you know what you are. I can say mixed. That's a mixed bag, literally. Ha. So it's like that perspective does give you a little bit of a of a unique just perspective in general. So anyways, go on. speaker-1: Yeah, so we were like, well it's what if we talked about just what that looks like, not just as a reader, but as writers, as creators, and how we can I don't know, maybe inspire or encourage other people who might be reading this or or listening to this, sorry. if they want to write, how to write multiple cultures. speaker-0: And not to be afraid of it. speaker-1: Yeah, not to be afraid of it. Like it is fun. And I think I think there is something about the genre specifically that lets you mess around and play around with that in a unique way. I remember so my first foray into fantasy was The Lord of the Rings Hobbit, because dad was always watching it. Dad's a black guy. He would read this book, which I and I remember the cover of it. It I think it was the cover probably from the seventies version print of the Lord of the Rings. I don't know if you remember these, but it had all the characters. it was for the Lord of the Rings. Like he would read he would basically he wouldn't read the Hobbit much. He mostly read the speaker-0: Yeah. I have that I have that copy. you didn't have that copy? I'm missing the first twenty pages. It's all it's all gone. They're they're over here, actually. That's cool. Here. Give one second. So this I believe was dad's, if you can see it. This is the Yeah. Yep. speaker-1: That's the one I'm thinking about with the speaker-0: So speaker-1: You used to read that all the time. speaker-0: Yes. So this is actually the copy that Dad's and this two two hours is like when the movie came out. But I've had this forever. It's like my only I guess inheritance. It's pretty much all it all inheritance I got from Dad is a lot of random Star Wars books and stuff that I actually haven't got around to. So it works. great. Anyways, go go on. You see him reading that so so there readers. If you have if you're listening and you're not reading or sorry, if you're listening and you're not watching, it's an old one of Aragon and he has like the winged helmet. There's Gandalf in the background. This was the version of nineteen fifty six is when this one was printed. speaker-1: That's the when that print was? Mm-hmm. Wow. speaker-0: Wow, that's amazing fifty six. So if you wanna Google that, I'll put it right here. But if you are listening and not watching, that is what we're referring to. So speaker-1: Yeah, it's not Vigo Mortensen version of Aragon. No polished white guy. but I remember sidebar aside, one of the reasons he loved the books is the diff there's literally different races that have to work together. you know, there's humans and then there's elves and dwarves, and then of course there's orcs with their own fighting. But there's something I think there's something to get to the core of that idea, there's something that you can do with sci fi and fantasy where you can Tell a story that unifies and to shows the different elements of humanity and kind of you can take these fantastical versions of this idea like hey, these people don't agree on things or they one hates the other, like how do they work together? How do they, you know, overcome evil, et cetera, et cetera. So that book specifically isn't about ethnicities, but it is about race differences and them working together. I think that's cool. One of the things that I think the Lord of the Rings did really well, it obviously is it helped inspire a whole genre of fantasy. I think one of the things that it probably I don't think Tolkien maybe intended to do is it seemed it it bred a lot of copycats. Copycats. speaker-0: A ton of copyright. speaker-1: Yeah, the core of what Tolkien I think was trying to do isn't actually what was copied. It was like the exterior s aesthetic. So which is a pri pre Europe based prehistory. So everything became for a long time this became, well, fantasy means this has to be in Europe. But yeah. speaker-0: And for you the people who don't know, Tolkien originally wrote one of the reasons why he wrote Lord of Rings the way he did is because a lot of other like the Greek, for instance, or you know, in Africa, they have their own mythology and Europe doesn't. And so he thought, I want to write something that's like the the prehistory of Europe. And so that's why it's very medieval, all white people kind of thing. But then he adds like, you know, obviously elves and works and stuff. but that's the reason why he did it. He wanted the mythology of Europe. So when people nowadays go back and criticize Tolkien of it's not this and that. It's like that's his his purpose was mythology of Europe. It's like going and getting mad at the Greeks for not having Chinese dragons. It's like that's that wasn't the point. so that's that's just a side note of context. So sorry, go on. speaker-1: No, that's good. Yeah, that's important. I think what happened though is is fantasy and part of it was just the you know, it was probably I the original Lord of the Rings was published in the what thirties or fifties or something. speaker-0: Thirties or late forty. speaker-1: And so obviously in America, if you know your American history, Civil Rights Act didn't happen until late sixties. and so there was just a lot of just most things were white. I mean it was just you know, but as a reader, as somebody who's not white It's like you just want to eventually see something that reflects you in the way that you see the world and experience the world. And then I think there's this there seems to be this thing, and Aaron and I were we've been chatting about this before, like it's almost like sometimes writers who are white, which it's fine if you're white. this is not like an anti-white thing, but there seems to be a sometimes a fear of writing a character that's night what not white. So then what happens is you're you're character of color, if you will, this becomes like a side character. And then so now you have all all the character you have characters of color, but they're always side characters. They're always side characters. Or they're comedic relief. Yeah. So speaker-0: Have you ever have I had always noticed when especially nineties cartoons, there's always the main group, the white people, and then there's always a black dude and then the Asian and they always the black dude and Asian are together. And they're not together with anyone else, because they won't be offended if the two colors are mixed. Have you noticed that? Hey Arnold, hey Arnold, the there's all these other ones. I've noticed it, in the nine nineties specifically. It was like they were inclusion, but it's like it was like soft inclusion and stuff. And and that is to say, okay, dear dear listeners I don't feel like you have to see yourself to be able to empathize. Like if you only empathize with people who look like you, that's a problem. whatever, you know, if I only empathize with mixed people, one I'd only talk to my family. And then like but like you should be able to empathize with anyone. But it is something cool to see yourself. One, you can see yourself like, this could be me, if it's you know, they are an actor or something, or famous or, you know, a movie star. But it's one of those things where like I remember what, three years ago, I I Took a picture and called you or texted you. I'm like, dude, someone actually has it was an animated, I think, Christmas program. And the the mixed actually look like mixed people. Like usually usually they look black. speaker-1: Or speaker-0: Black. Like you know, they like it they'd hire like a black actor kid to be mixed. It's like, that's not what we look like, bro. And so like this one's like So I took a picture, you remember that? And I sent it to you. I'm like, dude And this was like this is twenty twenty three, twenty four, so it's one of those like it's still it's still new for us. This is the rush kind of thing. And it's speaker-1: Being mixed is very complicated. It's a c we could have a whole fun and it's complicated and I don't get offended when people don't know what I am. I play with it. I think it's fun. I think I I try to have them guess what I am, which is my favorite. I've gotten everything from Brazilian. I was Japanese once, because I had crazy hair. 'cause they thought I was like an anime character. And that was a Chinese girl thought I was Japanese had anime hair, which I think I just speaker-0: I don't even know where to touch that. speaker-1: Yeah, I I I've been Irish, I've been Jewish, I've been Italian, I've been Puerto Rican speaker-0: I find usually white people don't know who you are, or Latinos usually think you're Latino. Like a l speaker-1: Yeah, I've gotten that speaker-0: when Josiah Josiah, our brother, he played soccer, he still plays, and he played with a lot of Mexicans and he's dark he looks darker, he's a little darker than us, and his hair is black, like dark dark. And people think it was Mexican. So they talk Spanish to him all the time and it's like, I ain't Mexican bro. He actually he went to the doctor and one of the doctors, like it was a nurse, and literally said like Are you part Mexican? She's like he's like, No. He's like, Mm, someone's lying. she literally wouldn't believe him. I'm like, No, bro. they come and mix sets, you know. So, but that is to say, like, we nowadays there are so many more mixed people, which is awesome of all all next like my my kids, I always call pandas because they're black, white, and Asian. I married a Filipina. so which is really fun. speaker-1: that's fantastic. I've I've I haven't heard that one. speaker-0: And you saw you met another mix before I did. I didn't know another mixed guy until I went to high school. I was a freshman. And there was a really that later twins. Mm. There were twins that were mixed. and so like but now now we're all all over the place, which is awesome. speaker-1: Yeah, when I go to the Cleveland Zoo, for some reason they're everywhere and it makes me so happy. There's just mixed kids everywhere. I don't know why, but I love it so much. It makes it brings me so much joy. So go speaker-0: Going back to books. Sorry. Sorry, Taylor's and there was I hope you don't hate us. speaker-1: Publishers are gonna publish what people buy. that's just and so people are gonna publishers are gonna say, okay, what's everyone buying and reading? We're just gonna make more of that. Mm-hmm. And so there has been, I've noticed, again, in the past ten, fifteen years, more of there seems to be more authors who are being published that are writing from different perspectives. there was I was trying to find it before this podcast. There's a book I read in middle school. It was a it was set in Kenya. And it was about these three brothers. and it was it was its play on the Anasi brothers idea, like the spider dad, and he's got the kids and but it wasn't Neil Gaiman's version, but I remember reading that in middle school and be this is the f I don't think I've ever read a book set in Africa, but it was a fantasy. It was like this it was very fantastical. It was the first book I'd ever read that was a fantasy and about black kids in Africa. It was just really cool. But then it was like I'd never where do I find more stories like that? So I think there's just something cool about supporting writing that's coming from different perspectives. Children of Blood and Bone, I remember when that first came out. That was a pretty big deal. It's like, this is African fantasy. It's it's its own thing and it has its own feel and it's it's cool. There's a lot of coming out of China and Japan, north in s in that part of Asia, which I think is pretty cool. that's written it's deeply inspired by the cultures, but written For American audiences, which I think is is been exciting. What's do you have anything that you've read recently that you're like, yes, this excites me? speaker-0: Yeah. So yeah, I don't really mind again, like, you know, Western fantasy or whatever. I it is whatever. What I do like what I enjoy the most is like I guess high fantasy, which means like your own own races are made up, you know, like yeah, whether you have different ra like for instance, my book, I have like a race called Zardox and another one like Rohelshin. And these are like they blue hair, you know, think anime, you know, like their very own thing. and so like that's high fantasy. Low fantasy is like set kind of in a world or really parallel world. And they're having the races that you recognize and stuff. And some of the ones that I read that were fan I think the first African fantasy that I read was Rage of Dragons. which I don't know if you've read that yet. I haven't read that. speaker-1: It's called Rage of Dragons. speaker-0: believe it's called Rage of Dragons. Let me double check that real fast. Yep, I'm right. So the Rage of Dragons as an elevator pitch is it's a revenge story. there's different classes in this society where there's like the dragons who they can summon dragons. and then there's like warriors and then there's like lessers. And it follows a guy named Le he's a lesser and then he gets into this higher society and and literally like if you are a higher up, which it's been a while so I don't remember the the second term, they can augment their bodies, like become stronger and faster and stuff. And so and he's a lesser and he teaches himself how to be like a freaking boss. So it's a revenge story of other things. And it's it was good. And but that was my first fantasy that as African. Because usually if it was like an African involved, it was like the kill a mockingbird, or like, you know, Lord of Thunder Hear a Cry. You know, it's one of those like African American stories that, you know, like slavery or, you know, those kind things. So that was fun. another one that I I loved was well there's there is Jade War. Jade City, Jade War, and Jade Legacy, I believe, all of the trilogy. Those is Godfather, if it was took place in China nineteen twenty, nineteen thirties, China. Super cool. It's it's a fantasy content warning when it comes to language, violence, and all the above. It was it'd be rated R, let's just put it that way. but it's it's a good one. and that one's good. There's the Sword of Kaigen, which a lot of people love. I am very about it, 'cause it follows it just it just there follows two main characters. And the character that is like the main one, I think it should have been flipped. And what happens to the kid, like there's a kid and the woman and the woman, like her whole past and stuff, I didn't care about more than the kid. And I feel like it should have been flipped. But that's just me. So th those ones are like those are some Asian ones. There's Poppy Wars. There's that might be all the ones I can think of at the top my head. But I actually like I I prefer writing in high fantasy where it comes to like I make up my own races. That's one thing that fantasy is great at is that like You don't necessarily you can talk about society, you can talk about a lot of social problems, but without saying he moved in next to a Mexican and between a Chinese man and they didn't like each other, or you could be like, He moved in next to a blue haired guy and next to a red haired guy and they didn't like each other because of these cultures are different. you can say the same story, but without offending people and or just being able to be free. Cause I that's one thing where I feel like what we said earlier in the podcast is some people are afraid to write the other. Because whether they have heard horror stories and stuff. And it is one of those things you have to be careful of. for instance, if you I do not believe that you have to be of the race or culture or religion to write about that. I that's just silly. but there are gatekeepers that sometimes they believe that. you th or they get mad like who are you to talk about blah blah blah. So I think you do have to do respect if you're doing in world, real world stuff. if I wrote a story about, let's say Kenya And I didn't do research about their culture and I just only off the top of my head of things, then that could be very offensive. And I could see that. And that would be right to be offended. But if I did enough research, maybe talk to a few Kenyans to get their culture or at a friend or something and then write it and I'd probably still get stuff wrong. But then if you ideally give it to someone, like Brandon Sanderson, for instance, he does a lot of mental illnesses in his books, like a not I don't know if mental illness is the right word, but whether suppression, bipolar and stuff, so he would He would talk to people of that or of that whatever the problem there is and stuff. And so he would get a good example of how this feels. And then he would give that to them to read and give feedback. So there's that way. But I'd think you should not be afraid to write the other. And, you know, that saying that like only write what you know. Well, like if I wrote what I know, I c I I I grew up mostly in Indiana. I I can't write about farmer, 'cause I'm not a farmer, but I not a city man. I'm you know, so it's like I'm gonna write a Midwestern mixed kid, I guess, who edits. You know, like that's boring. So like that's just silly. But I do think you need to you do your research if it's a specific in world thing. If it's not an in world thing and you make up your own thing. So for instance, I write one of my stories that I write, which is called The Secret Kingdoms, is very Asian inspired. One of my races is Japanese influence, but it's not a Japanese knockoff. So I use katanas and I use like w wakazashis and I have like some of the language, but I do not make it like a complete one over. The Sword of Kaigan does it's pretty much straight up Japanese. They use the Japanese names of the kimono and the every every single little thing, which I find annoying because I don't know what it is. they do have a library in the back where you can see it. But it's like just say it's like the shoes or something, instead of a Japanese word. Because it just one of those it's a it's a trip up. speaker-1: Is it a Japanese story translated to American? speaker-0: It's i it's it's written as far as I know, the the person is American. and she wrote it I believe it was she, if it's not right here. they wrote it where it's like everything is just the use of its proper name. So like the shirt is a proper name and the belt is a proper name and the rest of the rest of it's in English. speaker-1: So you have to know like what these things are. Yeah. speaker-0: Rough. There's a few of those that I've read another one, I can't think of the top of head what it is. But yeah, and it's just like it's fine and I respect that, but it's also a hindrance to the reader to an extent. Because like it's a hiccup where it's like if if the book the belt is really important and you use the Japanese name and you don't explain what it is, which is the main thing, then then you just might as well call it like a babago. Like, what is a babaco? I don't know what the heck that freaking means, you know? And so that I found annoying. So when it comes to when I was writing my book when I saying is it's Japanese inspired, but it's not Japanese. So I say it for two reasons. One, I I take from different Asian cultures, one of them might races has like Chinese specific weaponry. And one uses more Mongolian specific weaponry. And then I also do it because if I will get it wrong about certain things. So somebody's like, Well actually the Japanese use this I'm like, that's not this world, bro. You know, so so it's my world. And so That way you can also What the heck? I don't know if you saw that, but that speaker-1: Listener, because you're not watching, Bunt Aaron did two thumbs up or something and his video screen turned fireworks speaker-0: I don't know how to get that off. speaker-1: into the I think it's it's gonna be because your your Mac has some kind of setting or something. speaker-0: So what I was saying, it was one, a safe way if you want to write the other and you want to be like, I don't know, safe about it or something, is put it in a different world. Take parts of the culture, but don't make it like a character trope, don't make it where I don't know a certain race is they speak like the Latinos do, and everything about their culture is Latino in a very stereotypical way. But you can take parts of Brand Sanderson has a culture in the Stormware archives where their family is very Latino inspired with big families and stuff. So he takes that part, but then he adds another part. So it's like We all live in this world. We all know different things. And you do not have a you don't have a monopoly on a specific ethnicity. even of your culture, there are subcultures. Otherwise there would never be war. to say the people who have never been to Africa and say, Africa is all united because they're all dude, I've been to Africa and it's not true whatsoever. This this tribe hates this tribe but that tribe and like and same thing with England, they're all white but they hate redheads, you know, it's it's one of those like they'll find reasons to hate you. And so this to say you can't write about a different race, different ethnicity, different religion than you are, that's just silly. And don't be afraid to, but you do have the responsibility to do your own research, not not be offensive, like purposely offensive, and j and just do like that and just be respectful. If you want to be extra safe, send it to someone who is of that culture. for instance, I am not Buddhist, for instance, but I have been to a Buddhist nation and I have seen Buddhism. And so I could write on a surface level. a religion that's similar to Buddhism with very little research, but more of a blanket, very different gods and, monks and stuff. But if I wanted to do follow a Buddhist kid, going to a Buddhist school, doing all this, I would have to do deep research. If that makes sense. So that being said, don't be afraid to write the other and don't be afraid to not read something about yourself. And again, this these are we are Americans who are talking about for American society. We see a lot of white cultures. But again, we're There's India that has a lot of other books, there's China that has a lot of books. We just don't get them. So, to say all fantasy is too white, we're like you're only looking on Amazon Audible that's specifically American. You know, if you go, you know, the Bollywood for instance, there's a billion Bollywood movies and say, all of Hollywood is this, where's like, well, there's a whole other culture kind of out there. So that makes sense. I don't know, rambled on too long. So for you, Emmanuel, do you find it like When you want to write a certain culture and stuff or a book of your own, creation, do you pick and choose from cultures reality or do you come up with something totally new? do you find it more fun or what do you think? speaker-1: It depends on the story. So I have a gr screenplay slash graphic novel. We're developing that or we well, we've written it, we're actually turning it into a graphic novel and and then it'll be turned into a movie. But the that was a very intentional one. The it's a mixed family, but it's a sci fi. So it's there's without giving the plot away too much, aliens show up, start following people around. The girl is mixed and but her mom is Puerto Rican, her dad's white. so that one took some research because I'm not Puerto Rican. So I wanted and there's it's set in like a rural Ohio. so part of it's part of it's like a cultural representation of like just you kind of ta taking in things that are happening culturally and like, okay, you know, I think one of the things I love about sci-fi specifically is You can extrapolate ideas in a unique way that you can only do really in science fiction. It's fantasy's okay with it, but sci fi's way better. Other stories though are pure I'm just making up races, like speaker-0: Just like speaker-1: I make up skin colors and I've got one I'm writing right now, which I'm pretty excited about. That may end up being more of an anime than a book. I'm talking to a A guy who makes anime. Did I tell you this, Aaron? I met this guy who has an anime studio. I'm super excited about speaker-0: that's awesome. speaker-1: I was researching it. We're being hired to do an anime for work. And so I was trying to find a studio because I don't know much about actually how the process of animation works. Yeah. I was research ran into this guy or found this guy in LinkedIn who has an anime he has an anime studio out in Vietnam. Anyway, we're he's like, Do you have any stories? We need stories for anime, Do I am stuck? speaker-0: Dude, yeah, I could give him a speaker-1: So you and I will talk. for real. But all that to say with that story, I have it's a human and a cyborg are and there's like basically this culture is like if you're a human, you can't be with a cyborg and that they have a daughter and the d they basically have to live in this like really remote because the culture won't accept them. So that f in that case it's like, yeah, it's I just made it up. Like there's there aren't no well, I mean, probably two weeks there'll be cyborgs. speaker-0: I was gonna say give it a give it a minute. speaker-1: Pace of pace of life. I have a story right now, which may also be a graphic novel. I find it fascin I mean, this is grim, but you and I would be slaves if we were born a hundred and fifty years ago. Like if you were mixed, you would be a slave. speaker-0: Well, if we're in the north, no, but we'd be illegal. speaker-1: Yeah, so yeah, so that's fair. We're we're above the Mason Dixon line. But I just find that fascinating. And I had this idea of a story where a mixed kid, like, basically f meets a time traveler and like there's like this whole antebellum like sci fi plot where he's trying it's I it almost like be a time travel like Back to the Future meets antebellum movie that came out a couple of years ago where this girl keeps getting thrown back to like pre Civil War days. I think she lives in Atlanta modern day and she's anyway, I think you could do some and that and maybe Django and Chained it'd be like this this I I think it'd be a lot of fun. That would be fun. It'd be really intense. But I c you know, I just think that's like okay, there's some stuff interesting stuff you could do there. The whole there's that whole old saying those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Like you know Yeah, just it's so easy, especially in our culture. And I think this is why writing outside of your culture is important. It's we're we all live in our own echo echo chambers. The algorithm tells us what you want to see or what tells you wanna hear, and that's all you're gonna get. Most likely the people you're around are just gonna tell you the same thing. So I think when you can write in a different perspective, as a writer it forces you to look at things differently. And I think as a reader, it forces you to get outside of your own perspective. So speaker-0: That that's being said too. It's one of those things too where it's like, just because you write a character that's, a racist a hole does not mean that the author is a racist a hole. So and that is that is a defense. Like some people literally think if you put a specific belief in of your book or your character believes a thing, that therefore you believe this. That is that's not true. Like that's literally the opposite of what the whole point of fantasy and stuff is. So it is a thing too, like, don't be afraid to write something different. But there is a slight caveat of where people might think that you are this because you wrote this. And just ignore those people. Because that's just silly. You should not be afraid to like so for instance, I am a believer and if I write an atheist, I one need to be able to write him in a way that he doesn't seem a straw man. Like have all of the weak the weak arguments. Or the same verse, like I have read books where they talk about a believer and they're like they talk about God and then they say, like, you know. They just they just use it as a puppet where it's like, what this, this, this happens and then the non believers like, well, because blah, blah, blah. And then the guy's like, yeah. And it's like I could think of seven reasons why you're wrong and then that and in factual. So if you do do it, if you think of a different perspective than you are, again you need to have a research and you need to think of how they think. And it doesn't mean that that's a bad thing, it's a good thing. You should be able to reach your boundaries and then if you if you write, especially right 'cause you have to get that person's head of a different perspective, it does challenge you to What do you truly believe and why do you believe what you believe? And what do they believe? And so we're all on this journey called life. And, you know, even in among the same group, like we were talking about if you among the same group, there's always a schisms and arguments. Like, that's how it is. We'll never know the true, true, true, true, true, true until we die. That's that's life, you know? so don't be afraid to write something that is not like you. Do you know that some people might come at you, but if you do, Ignore it. Ignore the trolls. Because you need to write truth. And that truth is like for instance, I write books like we were saying, ironically, I usually write books that they're mixed races with random things. It's not usually black and white, because I usually don't write in our world. But I'm writing a book that the main character is an orc. And so that's that's easy enough. But then I was like, ooh. So I made it was one of those quick pitches like this war happened twenty years ago. They lost a war, the equivalent of the civil war where I like the Western where most of the Western they were like rebels that lost a war. And so they went to the West. And so I like the concept of what happens if you lose the war. And now the people who are in charge were your former your enemies and you had to live in this society that you don't really believe and you have your own thing. Then I added twist of like with this world, all the fantasy creatures, d dark elves and another elf that kind of just made up, and these dwarves and orcs, they all had to come together. And now They united to fight the bad guys. They lost. But now there's mixed races because they used to always hate each other. And then the common enemy. So now he has a son that's a half ice orc and half regular orc. And so there's still that mix where it's like that culture's different. I know, I just I just find it fun. So if you've never written like that, I challenge you to do that. speaker-1: You've never ridden Ice Orcs in the speaker-0: Go ahead. But just don't don't don't copy mine. speaker-1: So listener slash viewer, if we'd love to actually hear what you've been reading or listening to or even watching that is fantasy sci fi, but from different perspectives than you are. Obviously you're not an elf, so if you read something with an elf, I mean I don't know if that kind of counts, but it could. 'cause I think it's an interesting time right now in sci fi fantasy where people are doing stuff in a different way. Aaron mentioned a few books earlier. One of the ones that we didn't really bring up was the poppy seed war that I It's it's basically the war between China and Japan just set in fantasy world, but she pulled she it's haunting. it's intense. Just just it's really haunting. Not speaker-0: Have a fun time. speaker-1: no, but she actually pulled scenes from that war. So there's certain things that happen that literally happened, and it's you know, I'm not Asian, but it's one of those things like there's this shared human thing that happens when you read those types stories. so yeah, I would love to see what or hear what you're reading and r or even writing, and put in the s in the in the buttons below. speaker-0: He's new at this. speaker-1: So yeah, put in the comments below if you want to just put what you're reading, watching, listening to that is this different culture, and just in a way that's interesting, that you find interesting, maybe talk about why you think it's interesting. We can kind of maybe do a part two of this 'cause I think it's an interesting time right now in in the writing world where people are just writing things outside of the norm. I think that's exciting. Not everything now feels like a copy of Lord of the Rings. I think it's good. I think it's good for the genre. So What do you want me to do, Aaron? Subscribe and like. Like and subscribe. You know what to do. You know what to do, everybody. You hear this in every podcast. Just do the thing. speaker-0: Just do it though. Don't don't don't talk about it. speaker-1: Do it. Whether you're gonna smash it or just click it, just do it and we can all we can all carry on. speaker-0: Right. With that from us. We are we're mixed perspectives. We love to see you next time. And until then, peace out. speaker-1: Peace.