It also raises a lot of questions in my mind, which I would love to talk to you about at some point in person.
(Very short version: I am writing this story where I have this, well actually you know the premise of the story. I am stalled trying to write Scheherazade, who is part of this fictional culture but spends a lot of time as a central figure in fiction from the Islamic Golden Age at a point just *after* where she is written into this story. I want to write her to have echoes of middle eastern culture, but she should not scan as someone *from* that culture, because she is really from the same culture as the main characters. She is, however, from a different region, and her mannerisms should reflect this--sort of like being from San Francisco instead of being from Atlanta. On top of all of these considerations, of course, the last thing I want to do is write her in a form that does not respect her canon or the culture from which she originated in real life--all of this being made even more complicated by the fact that I am a Jewish modern writer trying to parse Islamic culture, which has its own tensions, AND the fact that many portrayals of her are actually famous translations by English speakers at the turn of the century, at a time when cultural competence was not really foremost on anybody's mind! And oh dear, that was not a short version at all; I am sorry! But yeah.)
no subject
It also raises a lot of questions in my mind, which I would love to talk to you about at some point in person.
(Very short version: I am writing this story where I have this, well actually you know the premise of the story. I am stalled trying to write Scheherazade, who is part of this fictional culture but spends a lot of time as a central figure in fiction from the Islamic Golden Age at a point just *after* where she is written into this story. I want to write her to have echoes of middle eastern culture, but she should not scan as someone *from* that culture, because she is really from the same culture as the main characters. She is, however, from a different region, and her mannerisms should reflect this--sort of like being from San Francisco instead of being from Atlanta. On top of all of these considerations, of course, the last thing I want to do is write her in a form that does not respect her canon or the culture from which she originated in real life--all of this being made even more complicated by the fact that I am a Jewish modern writer trying to parse Islamic culture, which has its own tensions, AND the fact that many portrayals of her are actually famous translations by English speakers at the turn of the century, at a time when cultural competence was not really foremost on anybody's mind! And oh dear, that was not a short version at all; I am sorry! But yeah.)