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Apr 2022

I mean, I have native heritage, grew up with the culture and I even have a wendigo character in my own comic that's based on the pop-culture version with the elk skull and whatnot so I honestly don't see an issue with it but if you're really concerned then perhaps try a different monster called the Leshy from Slavic folklore? In some artistic depictions, it looks similar to the pop-culture wendigo and even makes an appearance in The Witcher games but instead it's called a Leshen. It's a really cool beast that I personally would like to see more in fiction.

I mean yeah I see what your saying, personally I do research on what its about even if I don't use it in it's entirety. Cultural appropriation, feel like a real blur to me but I never worry about it I feel it can dampen the creative process.

I'm not Native American so my opinion probably doesn't matter, but i'm not sure how to feel about this...

It shouldn't be bad thing if you don't mock culture, make sure to have all information you can ( read books from culture or ask someone who grew up with said culture if they are willing to teach you) but then again they aren't from your culture and unlike creatures like vampires they are a bit more closed i don't know is it good to use them.

Exactly!! Character can be mean, evil or complete asshole but you still should be respectful while writing said character.
J.K is weird for using name like that, it isn't hard to google names, i know she wrote books before internet was as "popular" as now, but i honestly doubt that she couldn't find name and surname of east asian person, she could of used names from either celebrity ( use surname of one and name of other or something like that), she could of used name from character from some book, there were ways of finding name that isn't bad as Cho-Chang, also i find it a bit weird that said character is in "smart" house, feels way to stereotypical for me.

Cho isn't even only problematic character, Lavander changed her race (in movies, i'm not sure about books but still, Rowling could of said something).

I can't even think about bank without getting mad, why did she need to make them like that.....
EVERY name is filled with stereotypes , well every name from minority .
I don't even want to talk about Fantastic Beasts problems

I hate that I am defending JKR but I think a lot of people don't really think about how the internet was in in the late 90s and what kind of content was on the internet. People were not really using Google until the 2000s and that kind of info might have not been available in the 90s.

What I do think is not so great was it could have been something that was corrected for the films, where they do have access to people and the internet was more developed in the mid 2000s.

But overall I can't stand JKR. She annoys the hell out of me.

Seems to me a great deal of what people write about in fantasy stories is borrowing from other cultures & nations & communities. It also seems to me to be unacceptable for authors to be unable to use one (or more) of those characters/symbols/etc. to tell a new tale.

That will depend on who you ask. There's too much variety of opinion on the question to obtain a consensus. I think it's okay because you're not trying to rewrite actual history or actual legend. You're just making up a story.

And FWIW, I've read stories that disturbed me & even disgusted me but the author has the right to tell their story whether I like it or don't.

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closed May 24, '22

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