kuno-chan

[kuno-chan]

[kuno-chan]

[kuno-chan]

Three Questions About Your OC

How would you describe their personality / aesthetic?

Elijah Addison is a reserved, kind-hearted cowboy who drifts from town-to-town. Life has taught him to always keep a knife in his boot and he mostly keeps to himself despite longing for companionship and a sense of place. Highly observant and great at reading people, he slips into the detective role easily. A crumpled letter from his on and off again boyfriend // Wide-brimmed hat tilted low over watchful eyes // Sun-faded clothes save for a new blue duster (last one caught fire) // Gunsmoke, trail dust, and prairie grass // Certified Horse Girl™

What’s your favourite thing about them?

Everyone makes the mistake of underestimating Elijah who takes advantage of this because he knows far more than he lets on. I also love how accepting and understanding he is of others.

Fun facts about them / their creation?

Elijah began as a grizzled 40-something bounty hunter trapped in my head for years. All I had were vibes and no story. However when I started imagining Thomas's crime-solving friend in Hell's Half Acre, his personality and backstory reminded me of Elijah. I realized he could be the younger, less cynical version of him and HHA could set him on the course to becoming a bounty hunter. That's when his character really started to take shape and I saw Elijah for what he was: main character material.

I was tagged by @gioia-writes-and-others here, thank you!

Tagging: @orphanheirs, @wildgeraniumwrites, @mauvecatfic, @roselinbooks, and @winterandwords. No pressure as always. <3

[kuno-chan]

by far the funniest thing about reading fanfiction as a political professional is that I can always tell exactly who has and hasn't been to a fundraiser or gala based on how they write them

[kuno-chan]

Why are you using chatgpt to get through college. Why are you spending so much time and money on something just to be functionally illiterate and have zero new skills at the end of it all. Literally shooting yourself in the foot. If you want to waste thirty grand you can always just buy a sportscar.

[kuno-chan]

Chinese writing a China-inspired fantasy world

Okay, so this is a question from an aspiring Chinese-European writer, considering writing a fantasy-verse influenced (but not solely coded) by my own culture:

I’m a little confused about the level of historical adherence needed to do this. I see in your previous answers for similar questions on other cultures that you have recommended doing research on specific time periods, but considering the sheer scope of Chinese history and how many interesting elements spanning the ages that could be derived from it, I’m wondering if cherry-picking is condonable. I mean, even actual Chinese historical dramas tend to mix up timelines for the sake of entertainment.

Furthermore, do I have to abide by the exact same cultural values reflected in real life? I want to incorporate elements from other philosophies – not specifically culture-coded ones, but things like Plato’s Republic, for instance. I realize that Plato himself was Greek, but if I’m not making a direct reference to him specifically, just borrowing pieces from his philosophy, is that still cultural appropriation? Is it so implausible to believe that another person in a different culture would be able to come up with similar ideas, especially sociopolitical ones?

If you’ve ever played the Dragon Age franchise, I thought they did this very well with other cultures— while Orlais is clearly meant to be analogous to France (with a little of Venice thrown in), Ferelden was a mix of Viking and British influences, Tevinter a bit of Imperial Rome and the Byzantine Empire, etc. The concept behind the dominant religion in the game was “Christianity with a Jeanne d’Arc figure instead of Jesus”, and there is another that is basically Plato’s Republic in form of a theocracy. No direct RL cultural references or cherry-picking appropriation; just glimpses of parallels if you delve further into the individual cultures. Some cultures are even so well-blended that fans debate among themselves what might have served as the original source of inspiration.

With all due respect to all writers paying tribute to Chinese culture, I just don’t want to create a universe that is blatantly “fantasy China” or “historical China but with magic” at first glance; I want it to be its own standalone culture where you can see subtle Chinese influences. I would still avoid tokenism or outright cast erasure of my own race, of course, being too familiar with it myself in other media; and I would study minorities more in-depth as well. (I wouldn’t want to accidentally offend non-Han Chinese by writing characters or conflicts that might coincide with their negative stereotypes.)

Would this still be considered offensive, especially considering how I’m Chinese myself, only born outside my country? I have discussed this with my (China-born) family and friends, and nobody seems to find this an issue; but then again, none of them are particularly concerned with political correctness.

—-

Chinese Writer Writing Standalone Culture with Subtle Chinese Influences

Speaking for myself only, I don’t think it would necessarily be that offensive on its own. I’m thinking of Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty series, which isn’t fantasy!China but also has influences that I immediately recognized as Chinese. Having said that, though, the philosophies were also distinctly East Asian (to me at least). 

I also have to say, I’m cringing a bit at the use of “politically correct” and challenging tone of your question. It reads to me like you’re not particularly interested in being respectful, but want our approval anyway. 

–mod Jess 

For me historical accuracy isn’t so much about strict time periods but more about the building blocks of culture. China has had a fairly strong Buddhist/Confucian/Taoist core, plus a long history of earthquakes/monsoons, plus things like divine attribution to Emperors and war-as-unification followed by a heavy administrative/scholarly value.

The farther you get away from any of those key concepts (underlaying philosophy, environmental factors, and religious factors), the less a culture is going to look like itself. This can be for good or ill, depending on who’s got it. Swapping out philosophies for European ones is going to make it less like China, but if you have the other blocks then it’s going to still look mostly like China.

You don’t have to exactly clone one time period to make a fantasy!China. Picking from within itself, so long as the elements across those time periods are relatively similar (ie- the basic philosophies and how problems are approached feels roughly the same) is fine.

But when you start to mess too much with the basic elements, it starts to feel off because you have to ask yourself— could this thought process have come out of the culture I’m trying to base my society out of?

You can do your own research to see if the Chinese came up with something similar to the European influences you want to take. You can see if they adapted such philosophies for their own ends. You can also ask yourself what parts of other philosophies came as a direct result from something in that culture, and play the mind puzzle of how it would’ve come out of the culture you’re trying to pull from.

Because some mixes don’t work. If you tried to put in American individualism into China, that is very family/group oriented, it would feel wrong because group membership is such a basic part of Chinese culture and shapes a lot of who they are. But if you wanted to take something like democratic election, you can play around for what roles get elected, by whom, etc, in the same divine-emperor-rules-all framework of ancient China.

It’s about respecting the underlaying core of a culture. It doesn’t have to be exact, but so long as the core is what it is, the world is still going to feel Chinese.

~ Mod Lesya

[kuno-chan]

Hi, my novel has a Chinese coded fantasy culture and because of historical events in that world, they're generally anti-theistic and anti-dragon. I'm concerned especially about the dragon part being racist. WRT to religion, their problem is with gods specifically, so they still have ancestor worship and other religions. I know dragons are really positive and sacred in China, so I'm wondering if those are things I could still include or it'd be better to make them not Chinese coded? Thank you.

An Anti-Dragon Chinese Society

Obviously I’m just one Chinese person, but from a non-Chinese writing this, it feels like stripping us from some vital parts of our culture. A Chinese-coded culture that’s anti-dragon isn’t necessarily racist, but I’m thinking back to Aliette de Bodard’s post on researching other cultures and how this would be comparable to saying Western folks hunted down angels and ate them: 

To take just one example: the last few stories set in China I have read…the last one, set in what purported to be Ancient China, had a concerted state-supported effort aimed at imprisoning, mistreating and killing dragons (we’ve been over this before, but Chinese/Vietnamese dragons are NOT evil, they’re Heavenly beings. This is a bit like having a historical medieval Europe where kings authorise the chasing and killing of angels. Possible, but a. you’re not going to get very far because angels are way more powerful than humans b. you’re not going to stave off the wrath of God for very long)“

I realize it’s not so much Chinese, but a Chinese-coded culture, but to me, personally, dragons are such a big deal in Chinese culture that I’d immediately be put off.

–mod Jess

[kuno-chan]

[kuno-chan]

THE ENTIRE WEST IS BEING PUT UP FOR SALE AND I AM BEGGING YOU TO CALL YOUR SENATORS

Trump’s budget bill has many, many things in it, but buried amongst it is the MILLIONS OF ACRES OF PUBLIC LAND FOR SALE.

This is the entirety of the Arizona state forests, the entire Cascades mountain range. Swathes of pristine desert around the national parks in Utah. On the doorstep of Jackson Hole.

THIS BILL IS BIG, BUT IT CAN BE AMENDED AND ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT PASS AS IS please.

If you have ever enjoyed the wilderness, we stand to lose it all forever.

CALLING your senators - NOT JUST IN THE WEST. ALL SENATORS, is CRUCIAL.

Outdoor alliance has a great resource for reaching out.

I don’t have a huge following but please, everywhere I have ever loved, the forests I grew up playing in, the land I got married on, is all at risk and I am begging.

[kuno-chan]

More doodling of Kasaqua. I just wanted to draw the toe beans.

[kuno-chan]

"Is there anything Wukong could do that would break his hold over you."

Is such a raw ass line and totally tops the whole "oHOh, Where's you're little bOYFriend >:)" that villains love to use so much.

because this literally means that no matter the mistake, the size or the amount of fuckshittery Wukong gets into, some part of Macaque will always stand by his side, maybe not through it all, but eventually he will.

This is on par with "The Hero and the Warrior were like the Sun and Moon"

baby you two are like- star crossed lovers fr.

[kuno-chan]

weird cultural shift detected

Fam, be careful with your time online. I highly recommend sinking some time and energy into offline pursuits.

Try: knitting or crochet; gentle movement, stretching, walking if you can; playing a musical instrument, whether it's piano or penny whistle; and especially reading.

I do not mean performative BookTok reading that we do for likes because our neurotransmitters have been nerfed by modern life.

I mean actual reading that we do for ourselves alone.

If reading is hard, if attention or energy or memory are operating at a deficit, I get it. Nevertheless, please try. If you notice you're skipping across big chunks of text like a river stone, if you can't finish a paragraph, slow down, pronounce the words out loud. Stop sometimes and ask yourself what you just read. Explain the story or article or poem to your blorbo or your cat or a stuffed animal.

If your head feels scrambled up, no judgment. We may have incredibly intractable neurochemical reasons that this is hard. Just tell the blorbo, "That's hilarious, I don't remember any of what I just read. Let's read it again, together."

(Please don't ask A.I. to do this for you. Please. It's your right to read and think about it your own way. A.I. doesn't actually understand anything. Please don't assume it will guide you safely through this next weird phase of our human culture.)

If reading longform, offline, makes you feel bored or anxious, be gentle and patient with yourself. Start with stories you remember well, reliable sources of well-being. But please know you will need to put some backbone into it in the long run.

I think we are going to need to rebuild our ability to think, to process experience. This will be an unsupported activity. In fact, most of the really powerful cultural forces are making it very hard for us to notice, feel, perceive, or think clearly.

Not sure what, but something's happened quite recently that is making this situation much worse, some kind of tipping point.

Please read something every day.

Your friend, greenjudy

[kuno-chan]

It's okay to take a break from your WIP.

It's okay if it takes years to finish.

Some stories just aren't ready yet and they need more time.

Let it linger within you a little longer.

It will all come together when the time is right.

[kuno-chan]

[kuno-chan]

201936 - d495a4 - 9b6882 - f1bdc6 - fae1e3

[kuno-chan]

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[kuno-chan]

A place for intellectual discussion, debate, and research. Good faith reads only. Particular interest in world religions, mythology, history, and queer and Black feminist theory / readings of text(s).

Faves: Shakespeare in general but esp Macbeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet; some familiarity with Aristotle, Plato, Romantic and Postmodernist movements; Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Frankenstein (1818); gothic literature; video essayists or youtubers like Jacob Geller, CJ the X, and OSP; poets like Ocean Vuong, Ashe Vernon, Jeanette Winterson, Louise Glück, Richard Siken, & many others.

Active areas of interest for research: African history pre-1500s; King Lear; alchemy; moving away from Eurocentric philosophies.

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