"learnd", son. it's pronounced ... learnnnnnnnd.

[bossymarmalade]

Two Things Annoying Maggie Today:

.Faking It: Pretending You're A US Citizen When You're An Ocean Away. This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever read, and I've read mountains of stupid things. Seriously? There's a single correct answer to "have a nice day" in the US? There's parking "metres"? There's a need for a highly erroneous and enormously condescending and poorly spelled workshop on this that exhorts you to do heavy *research on American history* and travel to the States in order to write better SPN fic? REALLY?!?!

Here's a radical idea: write a good story. I guarantee you nobody will give a fuck if Dean fails to properly indicate the name of a freeway exit or the boys SOMEHOW SOMEWAY eat a crazy "international" dish.

.Keanu Reeves to play Rama in new movie. Oh, but don't worry -- Gary Oldman will be Ravana! And some beauty with "international appeal" will be found for Sita, probably white as well! And Aamir Khan the only Indian actor mentioned will be unrecognizable under all the monkey-makeup as Hanuman!

STOP STEALING AND FUCKING OVER MY CULTURE'S SACRED MYTHOLOGY, YOU PHENOMENAL ASSHOLES

And now Two Things Making Maggie Delighted:

.A Fun Old-fashioned Family Xmas, a Futurama giftart done all for me over at yuletart!!! It's amazing, all of the foodie details and how gorgeously each of the characters is drawn, different from the Groening style but so very, very THEM. eeeeeeee!

If you like a big wide cross-section of fandommy art, I really recommend watching the yuletart comm. And for some extra ironing in this post, here is my handy-dandy guide to Commenting on Art When You're Not an Artist.

. The "Say it With Flowers" International Postcard Project, wherein we inundate Angel Coulby and Katie McGrath with postcards telling them how much we love seeing them on Merlin. I generally don't do this kind of thing, but being a brown girl who loves the Arthurian myth, I like the idea a lot "" and want to let the Beeb know in particular how much seeing Gwen means to me.

Comments

[tallycola.livejournal.com]

Those first two links are horrifying!!!!

The Futurama art makes up for it marginally!

[bossymarmalade]

AREN'T THEY JUST?!?!

Thank goodness for Futurama!

[dharmavati]

Oh god, a Hollywood Ramayana movie with Keanu Reeves. There is not enough D: in this world. A quick Google gave me this other article with different casting choices but still the same level of fail. D: D: D:

[bossymarmalade]

I ... can't even decide now which iteration is WORSE.

"Ravana will be renamed Robert Ravon, while Laxman will be called Lucky."

That made me want to crawl under my desk for the rest of the day, I won't lie.

[heathershaped]

I was all about to rant about those two links you posted but then I finished reading the post and now all I can do is say THANK YOU FOR PIMPING THE POSTCARD THINGY.

I generally don't do this kind of thing, but being a brown girl who loves the Arthurian myth, I like the idea a lot "" and want to let the Beeb know in particular how much seeing Gwen means to me.

THIS THIS THIS. For all the problems Merlin has (and it has Problems), I have still not been able to come down from my glee that Gwen - GUINEVERE - looks like me and is going to be queen of the frickin' Brits, and one of the most sympathetic portrayals of the character I've come across to boot. This past episode was like the fairytale I always wanted when I was a kid and I get tickled when I think of the little girls watching. It's just ... a special thing for me.

Anyway, yes, postcards. ♥

[duraflame]

In some ways, Supernatural is one of the most "American" shows out there, because unlike the majority of other shows, it is not restricted to a specific town, or city building, or even room (for instance, like a sitcom).

Hmm, I'd say so too! Probably with a different inflection than they would though. 8)

omg Futurama holiday dinner eeeee.

[devilc]

I guarantee that in an SPN story when an American character says/writes/texts any of the following, it stops me dead in my tracks:

in hospital
serviette
spanner (and not wrench)
bonnet (and not hood)
boot (and not trunk)
gaol
earth wire (and not ground wire)
saloon (as opposed to "sedan" when describing a 4 door kind of car)
candy floss
cotton wool
mind the gap

Granted, if it's a good story, I'll keep on reading, but I can't help but think, "Have you not paid attention to how the characters speak?! When have you ever heard an American character say these things?"

As for eating an international dish? I would so love to read the story of Sam & Dean in a Thai or Indian restaurant. Because you know they have, at some point -- because that's what siblings do -- challenged each other to eat something 5 star hot.

[cimorene]

I've back-buttoned out of otherwise acceptable stories for fewer not-a-clue-about-American-terms errors than I found in that essay just by skimming.

[cathybites]

I don't know if it'd make a difference, but the people who did that roundtable aren't US citizens and neither of them are native English speakers.

[leksa.livejournal.com]

I know I spluttered a lot at the post, and to me (as another ESL-type European), at least, no, that didn't make a difference. (Or it does, of course, but not that kind of difference.) But then, the thing that bothers me about it is not that there are factual errors or the like (if it were just that, whatevers, nice try etc.), but the assumptions & attitudes - right from the subject line on - which are just as, if not more, WTFBBQ when coming from a non-American.

[glass_icarus]

..... omg, MUST RESIST clicking the first two today; I can't handle yet another rage blackout when I'm trying to write things. DDDD: (KEANU REEVES and GARY OLDMAN WTF?!!? *facedesk*)

on the plus side though, YAY FOR GIRLSLOVE &hearts &hearts *\o/*

[marina]

OMG those first two links are horrible. I don't know what it is - I don't even watch SPN anymore - but when such an extensive (and ultimately kind of useless) list of Americanisms gets published with that tone of STOP GETTING THIS WRONG IT DRIVES PEOPLE CRAZY it rubs me the wrong way. American culture is something English speaking foreigners in fandom have about 324% more knowledge about than American writers writing in fandoms not set in America. I mean seriously, it doesn't take as much research to get American culture mostly right from a source like SPN compared to how much research most Americans I knew had to do to write decent Harry Potter.

Also WHAT KEANU REEVES WHY /o\

But the other two links are lovely.

[gloss]

Your Yuletart gift is BEAUTIFUL! Amy & Kif! NIBBLER! ALL OF THEM YAYES.

(Thank you for the first two links, too. Fucking world needs to stop pissing me off.)

[crossedwires]

W/E, SPN. You're filmed in Vancouver. That makes you Canadian, especially when you leave the BC flags flying in the background. ♥

[bossymarmalade]

ahahahah! I've been watching these movies lately that are set in Albany, and Lori and I cracked the hell up when one of them blatantly featured Haida Gwaii artwork on a building. More Vancouvery you cannot get!!

[phosfate]

Days like Columbus Day, Black Friday, Veterans Day, Independence Day, President's Day or Martin Luther King, Jr. Day might not be celebrated in your country.

GODDAMMIT! I forgot to send out my Black Friday cards.

[bossymarmalade]

NONE OF YOUR FRIENDS LIKE YOU ANYMORE.

[applegnat]

If that film ever gets made, it will be a trainwreck. With some luck it will help to make Rajan Zed purple in the face, though.

[bossymarmalade]

That would be a small comfort, although of course ways to make him apoplectic without causing the rest of us to writhe in agony are best. *g*

[marej]

Personally, I want to see a Bollywood romcom about conception/birth of babyjesus. but do i ever get my wishes? nope. i would put good money on it having better storytelling *and* acting.

[bossymarmalade]

This is the BEST IDEA EVER!! ahhahahahahahahaha!!!

[frausorge]

Re: Keanu Reeves - FIST OF RAGE. urghh.

[bossymarmalade]

SERIOUSLY RIGHT

Why does he keep getting cast as not only godlike figures but LITERAL GODS? What is WRONG with people?!?!

[torachan]

I do get annoyed when people can't be bothered to get cultural details correct and it will totally make me like a fic less, but that post is so not helpful at all.

[bossymarmalade]

Not helpful AND condescending! Could there be a better combination?!?

[ljc]

I dunno--the fact that they're at least going to the effort of researching for fanfic makes me want to hug them.

I can't read books set in Chicago, for example, when the authors have clearly never set foot here. Welcome to why I flung the first Dresden novel across the room and have never picked it back up. But I think people wanting to improve their work and their craft should be encouraged, seriously. So correcting their mistakes would be useful, since they obviously do care about accuracy and are open to constructive feedback or else they wouldn't have posted in the first place.

There are enough edjits out there who don't give a fuck and act like you've spit on their grannies when you give them constructive crit, to find folks who are open adn welcomeing concrit? i think it's better, in the long run.

[bossymarmalade]

Oh, I agree that it's nice to find people who don't take it as a personal attack when you offer concrit. It's the patronizing way that this workshop thingie is written that aggravates me -- I have an instinctive dislike for people setting themselves up as teachers/experts and berating others when they are CLEARLY are wrong in multiple ways.

[trascendenza]

Keanu Reeves why :( :( :( :( :(

There aren't enough frowny faces in my repertoire for this, at all.

[(Anonymous)]

Keanu Reaves?!!?! I mean what. Bad enough Tom Cruise was a Samurai!!! Why does Hollywood insist on bastardising beautiful stories with their whitewashing?!??!! >:((((

[shabzilla]

*forgot to sign in*

[amber]

no way, are they seriously homogenizing the freaking Ramayana into Western culture? I would like to stab whoever decided to make this an ~exotic Hollywood project~ in the face.

[la_vie_noire]

What in the fucking hell are they even making a hollywood movie out of it? I mean. Dude. Stab it like is...

[glockgal]

In traveling through the Midwest and the small towns, and via literally using the backroads of the US, Supernatural is as American as it gets. Urban legends, myths and folklore have always been important aspects of the show. And even though most fanfiction writers research these things (US Americans or not), there are a lot of other things a writer can do wrong. Whether they mean to or not. Getting a small detail wrong is certainly not the end of the world, but ultimately, it might be the little things that throw your readers out of your fic or make it sound off.

By this reasoning, the creators of SPN are getting it wrong and jarring the viewers out of believing how OH-SO-AMUURIKAN the show is because IT IS FILMED IN BC. And with they 'driving around the backroads of the US', IT FUCKING LOOKS LIKE BC. ALL THE TIME. ALL. THE. TIME.

My rage is so strong for the Ramayan nightmare I can't evnefk ajwhfwlaihrfaksfhalksdgvhkdfjghaw;eijhqjfdlsdjnvklnvbksdngkdghakrfjhkfjh

Yayyyyyy SAY IT WITH FLOWERS I WILL BE PARTICIPATING TOO YES.

[tatterpunk]

IT FUCKING LOOKS LIKE BC. ALL THE TIME. ALL. THE. TIME.

This made me laugh so hard, because: truth.

[willow]

...

...

...

&uarr

[yeloson]

Keanu Reeves? Really?!!?

Nonononononononnoonnononononono.

Not ok.

And the only Indian lead gets to be Hanuman? Sure, revered deity, and yet, I only hear Hollywood, "..and we'll let him play the brown monkey god!!! It'll be a cultural extravaganza!" AGhaokplshgskl;h;klh

[misadventure_lad]

.Keanu Reeves to play Rama in new movie. Oh, but don't worry -- Gary Oldman will be Ravana! And some beauty with "international appeal" will be found for Sita, probably white as well! And Aamir Khan the only Indian actor mentioned will be unrecognizable under all the monkey-makeup as Hanuman!

Don't you know all PoC are interchangeable? Duh. And what kind of movie would it be if we didn't have some Great White Man in it to save it from being a shambling mess?

[tatterpunk]

I think the cherry on top of that first link is the essay it links to, wherein someone protests her brother, who regularly uses "gay" as a derogatory term, "is the least homophobic person you'll ever meet!" ReeeEEAAAlly?