I've been on this subject a lot with different people in texts and emails, for reasons of this just finished original#2.
You know, I've read or browsed through a lot of books based in Russia (or fictional world based on Russia), and if they weren't written by an actual Russian, they don't know their head from their ass. That goes for Valente, too, who did amazing research and still got it all wrong. I'm sure you've seen lots and lots of books try to be British and end up utterly stupid. Even though my culture gets fucked up, I like that it's not a sacred cow. I want people to be curious about Russia and write about Russia, and if they fuck it up, we can point and laugh, just like we point and laugh at any book that screws up something royally. Movies NEVER get medicine correctly. It's like a precious unicorn when they do. But medics don't have moral outrage parties on tumblr about how the civilians/muggles (both excellent terms for non-medical people) exploit our lives' work and use it as a setting for cheap melodrama while butchering everything that goes into being a medic AND actually making our daily jobs harder by creating these false ideas. I never ever want to see some, IDK, medical justice warrior generating butthurt and outrage on social media by pointing out what clown had gotten nursing or doctoring ass-backwards on TV. And those clowns DO make our jobs and lives harder. Prime example is resuscitation. Every asshole to ever make a show/movie about a miraculous impossible rescue needs to get punched in the face in the ER by an angry family member (occasionally high, occasionally armed) and then sued.
There's some argument floating around there about colonized cultures and historically oppressed whatevers. I think this kind of double standard is a very slippery slope and I refuse to get on it.
People get shit wrong all the time - medicine and Russia, same as gayness and Thailand. But lack of historically recent oppression by a western power doesn't entitle you to respect, so we just point and laugh. I'd rather point and laugh. I don't want my culture to be taboo and untouchable for anyone except the enlightened. Get curious about it. Write it and get it wrong. Then we can talk about it and learn. But if we're too afraid to even speak about a subject lest we cause butthurt, then how will we ever learn anything, or learn to see points of view and opinions different from our own? Even within the same culture, there are vastly different perspectives on the same topic. "Only I know the truth about A because I'm a member of A, and you STFU" is incredibly ignorant. It's not about teaching others about your culture but rather about basking in your special and unique snowflake status. There is no correct way, even within the same culture. I want the conversation. I want to see other people's perspective on their culture as well as my own. And I'm not gonna get it if I put a barbed wire fence around the entire subject and attack every "other" who dares to approach it.
no subject
You know, I've read or browsed through a lot of books based in Russia (or fictional world based on Russia), and if they weren't written by an actual Russian, they don't know their head from their ass. That goes for Valente, too, who did amazing research and still got it all wrong. I'm sure you've seen lots and lots of books try to be British and end up utterly stupid. Even though my culture gets fucked up, I like that it's not a sacred cow. I want people to be curious about Russia and write about Russia, and if they fuck it up, we can point and laugh, just like we point and laugh at any book that screws up something royally. Movies NEVER get medicine correctly. It's like a precious unicorn when they do. But medics don't have moral outrage parties on tumblr about how the civilians/muggles (both excellent terms for non-medical people) exploit our lives' work and use it as a setting for cheap melodrama while butchering everything that goes into being a medic AND actually making our daily jobs harder by creating these false ideas. I never ever want to see some, IDK, medical justice warrior generating butthurt and outrage on social media by pointing out what clown had gotten nursing or doctoring ass-backwards on TV. And those clowns DO make our jobs and lives harder. Prime example is resuscitation. Every asshole to ever make a show/movie about a miraculous impossible rescue needs to get punched in the face in the ER by an angry family member (occasionally high, occasionally armed) and then sued.
There's some argument floating around there about colonized cultures and historically oppressed whatevers. I think this kind of double standard is a very slippery slope and I refuse to get on it.
People get shit wrong all the time - medicine and Russia, same as gayness and Thailand. But lack of historically recent oppression by a western power doesn't entitle you to respect, so we just point and laugh. I'd rather point and laugh. I don't want my culture to be taboo and untouchable for anyone except the enlightened. Get curious about it. Write it and get it wrong. Then we can talk about it and learn. But if we're too afraid to even speak about a subject lest we cause butthurt, then how will we ever learn anything, or learn to see points of view and opinions different from our own? Even within the same culture, there are vastly different perspectives on the same topic. "Only I know the truth about A because I'm a member of A, and you STFU" is incredibly ignorant. It's not about teaching others about your culture but rather about basking in your special and unique snowflake status. There is no correct way, even within the same culture. I want the conversation. I want to see other people's perspective on their culture as well as my own. And I'm not gonna get it if I put a barbed wire fence around the entire subject and attack every "other" who dares to approach it.