Recognition, Codes & Box Office Draw

In a review for the book,Queen of the Orcs by Morgan Howell , first in a series and disappointingly the only book in the series I found palatable, I wrote this:

These reviews leave me thinking that people are recognizing patterns in their reading and thinking that the ability to recognize a pattern is actual analysis and not merely the first step in comprehension. Like some blogger I read said about the recent batch of spoof movies; they have no substance and don't actually parody anything, the audience is just laughing because they recognize the pop-culture reference; a Pavlovian reaction?

The concept of recognition has been nibbling at me again since I saw the latest The Last Airbender trailer. That sentence right there, by the way, is warning enough to scroll past if you're tired of hearing people be disappointed at rampant appropriation and whitewashing.

The Last Airbender trailers, and the movie itself, has a lot for fans of the tv series to recognize.

* Siblings in the snow = Sokka and Katara.
* A tattoo extending over a boy's forehead = Aang
* The manipulation of fire, air, water and earth = bending
* Particular names
* Particular phrases
* Particular places
* Appa

It is exciting to recognize something, to know what something is supposed to be, even when it's in a new form, a new medium; even when it is a new interpretation. A lot of my own enjoyment of Batman Begins, for example, was in recognizing batarangs and other devices, as well as recognizing characters. There's an insider's kind of glee to see the new interpretation but know what the original looked and sounded like. There's a bit of that involved in fanfiction as well, reading it and writing it both; though in writing it the fun is in coming up with a new interpretation whether you're writing an AU or a 'missed scene' or a set of continuing adventures.

That Recognition Glee is what's counted on when Hollywood takes inspiration from somewhere else and brings a book, tv series, comic/graphic novel to life. That's part of why they bother to do it in the first place; because those who liked/loved it once, will WANT to see a new spin on things. Assuming the movie isn't meant to round off a series that never properly ended, that is. Still, taking from somewhere else and bringing it to the silver screen is a unique relationship, with hesitances, false starts, supposedly good natured intentions...

The Batman franchise is not the only franchise I've done this not quite a love affair dance with. There is also Star Trek; largely the movies of The Next Generation cast. Some I loathed, some I loved and in both there were things I adored beyond reason. To me, Nemesis has nothing to recommend it, and yet seeing that Riker and Troi do indeed marry was such a big thing. It is as if I've separated that scene from the rest of the movie, suspended it in amber in my head because as a fan of both characters it was so important and so wanted and so wonderful to see realized.

Recognition (Glee) can go hand in hand with analysis, but that is not at all an automatic pairing. And in all honesty it doesn't have to be.

It isn't granted that a franchise's adult fans will bring more critical depth to a viewing than the younger fans. And when the franchise has primarily younger fans to start with, when that's the core...

A:TLA has adult fans , that's a fact. I am one of them. But there is also this, there are very different skills involved in creating a two hour movie that either entertains adults, or entertains children while hopefully not completely boring the pants off adults and the skills of getting children involved and intrigued in a storyline for season after season, show after show. In the latter doing the job well seems to be all that's necessary to also draw in adults.

I mention this because Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko created and midwifed the birth of something amazing with multiple layers. Avatar: The Last Airbender, the animated series has been nominated for and won awards because of that brilliance, dedication, care and respect (for their inspiration sources and their audiences).

The Live Action Movie, only has to build on that; it was already several rungs up to possible success before anything started. M. Night Shylaman only has to infer to those layers, throw a few reference points around and invoke a large enough upswell of Recognition Glee to skate by. The rest can be held aloft by CGI and effects.

I didn't like Star Trek: Nemesis. But the wedding in the beginning carried me through the movie. I didn't walk out. (Nevermind I like to think my sitting there was partly stunned disbelief)

How far will a little Recognition Glee take this film? How many butts will stay in the seats? How many seats will be filled due to the urge to have that experience; that excitement at seeing something beloved come to life in a new way? Can M. Night Shylaman temper the lack of a round, silver haired Iroh with a few bits of jasmine tea dialogue? Can he skate past a Dragon Ball Evolution to an Eragon (just under breaking even) because of Appa?

I want to believe that the lack of Asian culture will be noticed. I want to further believe that viewers of the series who go to see the movie will find themselves admitting something is missing. I'm just not sure I quite dare hope they'll recognize what that something is, and realize the loss of it detracts from the Avatar:TLA experience; and that protesters involved with Racebending.Com ARE NOT just bunch of haters.

And here is why.

Recognition Glee is pretty powerful. I'm currently watching a break down of what's been wrong with the TNG franchise films; it's a quite sarcastic set of reviews by RedLetterMedia. It was actually a shock to have it pointed out that perhaps the reason I hadn't enjoyed so many is because they'd become action films instead of adventure/exploration and were hardly tightly scripted. Even after just watching scenes pointed out, my memories, for example, of Insurrection are of my joy at seeing favourite characters being happy or involved in aspects of their careers they like, or exploring particular aspects of their personalities.

I cannot imagine Avatar:TLA having any less strong a pull of Recognition Glee. And when I add white privilege to that...Will those A:TLA fans be able to see how whitewashing diminishes?

When you put Recognition Glee beside a white privilege that sees everyone as white to start with; white with a prominent nose & curly hair, white with a tan & different hair, white with different eyes...; it becomes, a lot harder I think for people to catch a clue. How things look; how they look as someone always imagined them, or how they look even cooler; how the story matches parts they already know; how there are places and things they can remember and smile about and nod to; that's powerful. Recognition is one of the first skills human beings learn; it's how we learn to speak, how we learn the dog in the book means something in relation to the dog walking by on the leash.

It's possible their response to the Live Action Movie will reveal them to have fallen for a completely different show than the one the rest of us saw. The characters might have the same names, but the universe might be very different. If they see generic martial arts fantasy that's just using certain names, and some Asian and Inuit props will they stay in those seats, happily, as the box office inches up? Will it be A:TLA to them?

And if they don't see A:TLA in the movie what will they see?

Right now, what seems crushingly more likely to me, is that the movie will sink at the box office for poor production values, dismal dialogue and general malaise of BLANDESS and take the matter of the whitewashing beneath the waves of fail with it. The trailer shows fake rocks after all. FAKE ROCKS! Fake rocks are for theatre productions and a completely different type of suspension of disbelief. Fake rocks also look ridiculous juxtaposed against the backdrop a few scenes earlier of Greenland's icy majesty.

Fake rocks and cgi fire making the movie somehow not Avatar:TLA is not at all like realizing Kataara isn't Kataara, because she's been modified for a 'general audience' and that modification erased who she is. Take the Inuit out of Kataara and you don't have Kataara anymore. Take the China out of the Fire Nation, and you don't have the Fire Nation. It's like erasing memories - remove someone's memory of an experience and you remove how it shaped them, which means you change them. Erase a memory and you erase a piece of them. Ethnicity and culture are one lengthy string of memories that build upon memories that build upon memories; internalized, life experience, recognition glee.

Whatever term they have for it, Hollywood knows all about Recognition Glee & Recognition Rejection. And they've been pointing at Recognition Rejection for years when it comes to heroes and leads of colour - except the place they point to keeps changing. First it was 'The South Won't Show This & We Will Lose Money' and now it's 'Middle America Likes To See Itself And It Is White Or We Will Lose Money'.

"Well we don't want to upset people, and well, the coloureds should just be glad we're risking putting them on screen in the first place. Look, we know what we're doing. We're putting coloureds in roles we know regular people can expect them in - roles that fit them, fit their place in society. That'll get people used to seeing them up on the screen. A Chinese person as the hero? With Chinese culture everywhere?! We'd never make movies again! You can't bring change that quickly,! People just won't accept it! Hold your horses! Patience is the key here. Patience and calm."

Now it's the 21st century and we still have the Mammy/Sassy Confident, The Inscrutable Servant or Villain, The Hot Spicy Cha Cha and all those other stereotypes that 'fit their place in society'; those stereotypes that bring their own Recognition Glee - for white viewers and Recognition Rejection, for PoC sick and tired of narrowed and negative associations.

Hollywood might be a place with individual struggling artists. But the people in power aren't poor struggling producers/movie studio moguls/directors/investors. No. What they are, is soaking in greed and cowardice and have been for so long as an industry they barely know anything different. They're the ones who created the concepts of the 'general audience', and 'relatability' as a sugar coat for racism and white superiority. They're the ones who have the movie industry set up so that equal time equals segregation (black movies, kung fu imports, foreign stuff, foreign brown stuff).

And then, every time Recognition Glee does happen with an audience for a lead/hero of colour, they're the ones calling the phenomena a one off and an exception.

The next time someone dares to spit out the ridiculous 'But Hollywood wouldn't do that - they want to make money! And everyone's money is green!' I shall be violent. We've got history proving that PoC money isn't as green as the money from States that once threatened to ban Hollywood altogether.

We've got HISTORY showing what acceptabilities were codeified, and thus became tropes and visual cliches and thus became how movie makers see the world when they visualize. And as much as other things have changed and aspects of the code have been challenged and dropped; Hollywood's still running scared, cowardly and tight fisting the dollar when it comes to race.

Monster's Ball and Precious are both of the 'fit their place in society' type movies. Academy Nominations and wins don't mean a thing other than they're very good 'fit their place in society' type movies with good 'fit their place in society' type roles.

Meanwhile something like Avatar: The Last Airbender comes along and Hollywood totally misses that its popularity is about Recognition Glee, because it has conditioned itself to ignore non-white Recognition Glee. That's how Hollywood, Paramount, various executives, investors and even M.Night Shylaman missed that Avatar: The Last Airbender's popularity had as much to do with Hanbok's and Jian's; Guru's, Chakras & Yogis; and MesoAmerican Sun Dials; as story, characters and plot.

I'm convinced they don't recognize and realize that PoC word of mouth spread. And that the extra eyeballs for their overflowing demographics and other measuring came from PoC excitement.

"Mommy! Mommy! There's this boy on tv! And he's the hero! And he looks like me!"

I'm sure they can't see the reason so many PoC absolutely adore Avatar: The Last Airbender, is because of how it felt for them, for us, to recognize things on screen. White American audiences (and many white creators) aren't familiar with people besides them, experiencing Recognition Glee. That's how they missed how much it meant for PoC fans to recognize their lives; history, culture and heritage; on screen.

Which is why as obvious as it seems to me that a production crew who removed the cultures of the universe, couldn't then create that universe well via props, script etc... I am scared those fans will sit down in those seats and be convinced they're watching exactly what they've always seen. And worse, be convinced the only reason their Recognition Glee didn't kick in, is because someone didn't CGI Appa fluffy enough.

You've seen the trailer. What do you think?

[Usual Comment Rules Apply]
ETA: To add emphasis.

Not! Percy Jackson

Percy & The Olympians; The Lightening Thief

I am feeling some serious Recognition Rejection here. And it all seems so pointless. As if Hollywood is so married to particular formats it will Dr. Frankenstein any good story; any story already told and already liked (enough that a movie seems profitable), must be cut and resewn to fit their idea of what works.

Whether this has to do with a movie's advocates and producers (those who supply the money) I do not know. I just note that the LOTR Movie Trilogy does not seem to suffer this.

But even things that are not LOTR deserve respect in their adaptations. I'm not inclined at all to watch the destruction, from the very beginning of this AU universe (from book to movie) of the Percy Jackson myths.

Possible Spoilers for The Movie (And book).

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Percy Jackson is already a loving son of a strong, independent single mother. But he's the quiet introverted type, the inner strength type. Annabelle is bookish and reserved, a grand thinker. Grover is a dreamer, loyal friend and a touch of the idealist.

The movie shows us a cocky quipping Percy Jackson, one with apparently no survival skills for dealing with an abusive adult male asshole even though he'd been living with one for a while now. How does he not end up instigating said asshole's rage all the time, thus endangering himself and his mother? There's no point to having that cockiness except that it fits the accepted Recognition Glee of cocky white American teenage male hero.

The movie then proceeds to disappear Percy's mother. Considering the sequels she can't be killed off at this point. But rather than have her as the rock of his foundation, who's safe back at home, and waiting on him to complete his quest while she sorts out their future living arrangements - she's now a damsel in distress.

Patchworking in beside her in this macabre 'this is what a hero's journey movie is about' is Movie!Annabelle, who's apparently been merged with Clarisse (daughter of Ares). The moment I realized that she was the girl Percy meets by seeing her sword fighting with others (and what other girl would have Athena's grey eyes?), was the moment I knew that there'd been no attempt to show Annabelle as the complicated individual she is. Instead we get cardboard kick-ass. You know, bad ass in leather, yet has her hair loose with it getting into her eyes.

Gone is the bookish, quiet, intellectual who's not afraid to show steel when the situation merits it. Gone is the tactician. Annabelle says she's the daughter of a tactician but then proceeds to behave like Clarisse, taunting Percy in a sword fight and celebrating before the proceedings are fully over.

And speaking of those proceedings - the mystery of who Percy's father is and how that plays into not only his acceptance and his relationship with others at Camp Halfblood, but into the politics and struggles of the 12 Olympians is gone. The beautiful revelation scene is replaced with a brawny macho 'use the force' moment - that's plainly empty and pathetic. And he's not even in the water!

And then we come to Grover. My memories could be wrong, but I distinctly remember Grover as a faun, not a satyr. And the differences are clear if you have mental images for the two, with fauns as quiet forest musicians, and satyrs as girl crazy, boisterous pranksters. Even if I'm wrong, however, this is still not Grover. Where is the spiritual idealist? The seeker? Grover is being played by a black actor. So he's now a satyr and he's wild about Aphrodite's daughters (chasing the white women) instead of strange and/or unpopular due to his focus on finding Pan. Not to mention that he's now a white character's protector instead of him having used the opportunity to watch over Percy to have the chance to fulfill his own cultural/spiritual quest.

That's five characters that have been seriously changed in order to fit a pre-existing set of molds. It makes it unsurprising to learn that one review called it: "standard Hollywood product... unadventurous and uninteresting." After all part of fitting into the mold is the removal of any inner life a character might have.

On the other hand, there's plenty they've set up for Recognition Glee, which in my case makes the Recognition Rejection all the stronger ; the pen sword, the harpy/fury, Chiron, the importance of the Empire State Building, the asshole's stench, the minotaur, capture the flag.

That's where I stopped, however, when there apparently can't be more than one female character in the series, and when it was obvious they skipped the bonding of being raised by single mothers/the bonding of not knowing who one's father is, with macho sword play and cliches about combat.

I'm glad Rick Riordan got the money from selling his film rights - these days everyone needs as much cash flow as possible. But I won't be adding my dollars to the pot. This is yet another case of Hollywood changing the fundamentals of what made a property popular in the first place and replacing it with generic stand-ins to give the audience what they think the audience wants (with a dual dose of sexism and a side order of racism).

Additional Aside: Also by removing the concept of 'The Mist' they've fundamentally changed the plot as well.

Shorter: Akira - Hollywood Movie Version

THE DECISION: Recognition Glee for white people, Recognition Rejection for the rest of us, particularly Japanese and Japanese descended people.

Dear Michael & Brian, You Were Lied To

Dear Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, M.Night Shylaman has spoken, and it is pretty obvious he lied to you.

At i09, M. Night Shylaman answers questions about The Last Airbender Live Action Move (aka, that Racist Mess). And he shows not only that he's the South Asian equivalent of an Uncle Tom; he shows that he doesn't get the optimism and hope of Avatar - that it wasn't that it started young and skewed older, but that it has a foundation of joy and hope and friendship that carries all through; just as it has a foundation of being non-white fantasy.

Remember the interview that's now unfortunately on the official animated series DVD? About how he 'got' it all?


M. Night Shylaman lied.


He does not get what you,Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and Sifu Kisu and so many others tried to do do. He does not understand the concept of an all Asian, Non-White World. He doesn't understand the difference between Anime and Animation. He doesn't understand that Kung Fu styles come from various regions and have distinctive markers. He doesn't understand Sokka or Katara or Zuko or Toph and he definitely doesn't understand Aang.

M. Night Shylaman lied in order to get a franchise he thought would better his career. And in this Shadow Aparthied America, maybe his lies will bear him fruit; maybe he'll be successful.

Now that the director has spoken, those (fans and not) who don't want to think about racial issues, who don't like to think about racial issues, who don't have to think about racial issues; because they're white; are going to point to it and go SEE. SEE.

And never get that they're pointing to someone who has boldly stated he does not believe there can be talented Asian Descended Actors. Who has boldly stated that casting one actor meant the entire fictional nation had to resemble them and YET, he does NOT BELIEVE THERE CAN BE TALENTED ASIAN DESCENDED ACTORS. Those who believe 'the person who brings up race is the racist' are not going to see what's wrong with lines like these:

1. This nation has this ethnicity and when we go deep into that culture, we will see more there...Dev ended up being my choice for Zuko, and... I thought this takes us into a Mediterranean kind of Arab and Indian world, and I can go as far as that, that will be the breadth of the Fire Nation, that kind of look

2. Suki was Jessica [Andres] who is a mix of Filipino. And now the Earth Kingdom is all Asian so Toph will have to be Asian.

3. For me, Nicola [Peltz, who plays Katara] had a lot of Russian qualities, European and Russian qualities. So that was the direction we went there.

4. And there's a section of the Earth Kingdom that's African American.

5. So more so than the show, it will have a much more diverse ethnic backgrounds to it.

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Because it wasn't enough to keep the Water Tribes of the North & South Poles Inuit.

Because for a show to have Inuit, Japanese, Chinese (multiple dynasty), Tibetan, Korean, South Asian, Mezo-American analogues is NOT it being extremely ethnically diverse.

Because the only brown in the Earth Kingdom must somehow be African-Americans.

! ! !

M.Night Shylaman is South Asian. And it looks as if he's fallen headfirst into the mentality of the Model Minority. It looks to be that he's never critically examined racial theory, post colonial theory, US and Euro-Centrism.


"Because it's such a big country and land I thought you could have some diversity in there as they travel through the cities."

Because Kyoshi Island is the same as Bai Sing Se is the same as the area where Uncle Iroh was treated for poisoning, is the same as the area where Zuko briefly plays Shane.

Because in the Fire Nation, the Fire Lord's City is the same as Ember Island (which to me seemed extremely Balinese).

M.Night Shylaman may be South Asian, be he can't even see intra Asian diversity or recognize intra Asian ethnicity.

Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, you were lied to. You were lied to via the colour of Shylaman's skin, via his talk about his daughter, via his earnest desire to earn himself some money and notice in Hollywood. Your coat-tails were clung to, and now he's gone and changed everything; meaning, substance, style.

And maybe for changing so many OTHER fundamentals, fans of the show will have Recognition Rejection.

Maybe.

Thank You, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko; Thank You Sifu Kisu; Thank You to the Voice Actors, Researchers, Costume Advisers, Calligraphers.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is something wonderful.

And those of us who love it, will have to buy it, or copy it and hold on to it with all our might, because surrounded by a white world convinced of its own superiority it is now slowly being erased; nibbled into nothingness with every whitewashed toy and manga tie-in and ethnically not diverse score and music swell.

M.Night Shylaman lied. He is a liar.

And maybe it doesn't matter that he said what you wanted to hear, because working under Nickolodeon meant you didn't have much choice about what happened to your creation - because it wasn't strictly your creation under corporate rules. Which is saddening because I hear you're doing something new, but I don't know if I can put myself through this for a round two - with you two powerless to speak, powerless to defend something that so many cherish because you brought them into the world of fantasy.

Non-white creators can't break in, because the rules are set and those in power refuse to look when people and their works don't fit predetermined slots for White Recognition Glee. You, as white creators propped the door open, and now it's being slammed shut again. And isn't that balance in a white world that they're getting a South Asian to do the slamming.

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I am tired of this shit. I am tired of having to hold out hope the Hollywood machine will dare something new - will change a mode of operation that's been going on for a 100 years.

There has to be a way to create FUBU-WOOD; For Us, By US Cinema / Fantasy For Us, By Us Cinema. There has to be a way to have FUBU-Publishing. There has to be.

Being dependent on THEM, isn't going to bring freedom, choice and representation.

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
-- M.L.King Jr

Technology has become cheaper. We have the internet. We need to take this step forward. Negotiation isn't working. Asking, isn't working. What are we to do? Wait on Chance?

Chance gave us A: TLA Animated Series. And now it's being plucked away.

I keep saying THIS, this creation, this making our own, for us, by us for our consumption, reflecting our realities is The Conversation I Want To Have.

Enough being reactionary. Let us discus being pro-active. Cause if we aren't, it will only be a steady diet of disappointment after disappointment - of watching those who get granted power, kowtow in order to hold onto it. As power given, can be taken away.

Avatar: The Last Airbender has been taken away.

What are we going to do about it?

[Comments Open]

PoC Won't Be Getting Recognition Glee

And speaking about who is acceptable to be seen as black/non white/poc; who fits that role in society....

Alexandre Dumas, of Haitian descent - to be played by a white man, specifically Gérard Depardieu.

Yes, Dumas was multi-racial, but he was also the grandson of a former slave and he referred to himself as un nègre. But it is apparently entirely NOT racist to have him portrayed in high yellow blackface (darkened skin, curly wig).

The movie is already made. There's nothing to be done about the casting. There's just awareness rising left.

And this thought; in a decade or so, when a movie about President Obama is made - what excuse will they give to have the first black president of the US be played by a white man? His white grandparents?

Or will people think it's impossible for him not to be dark skinned because 'where is the birth certificate' will still be making the rounds?

ETA: Of course the Dumas movie is all about how his best works were written by a real frenchman, a white man. Of. effing. course. Erase his blackness and his genius both at once.

ETA2: Ah, apparently Dumas was known (and admitted) to having ghost writers. But I still dislike the combination of circumstances.