Joss Wheden answers question about the lack of Asians in Firefly

[james_davis_nicoll]

Recently someone asked Whedon about the whole "no Asians in a setting supposedly heavily influenced by China" thing:

The questioner's account of the encounter

The questioner knew they'd have to be careful about the phrasing of any follow up question lest irate Firefly fans tear him limb from limb, like an Orpheus confronted by stars-and-bars waving Maenads, which sadly precluded a follow-up question from being asked at all.

In Whedon's defense, when you're making a thinly veiled tribute to the degenerates of the failed slaver rebellion in the form of a hack Bat Durston TV show and movie, it's hard to remember to polish the patina of one's supposed liberalism with a more inclusive casting policy.

Comments

[nelc.livejournal.com]

I sometimes get the very faintest impression that you don't like Whedon.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

From the link: ...it went on to influence many shows that followed with its unique mix of drama, grounded science, and the patented Whedon snark.

"Grounded science?" Where? Grounded in what?

I'm also drawing a blank on current shows that couldn't possibly have existed without Firefly as a precedent. I thought Firefly was mildly entertaining as long as you didn't think too hard, but I really don't get the adoration.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

In Whedon's defense, when you're making a thinly veiled tribute to the degenerates of the failed slaver rebellion in the form of a hack Bat Durston TV show and movie, it's hard to remember to polish the patina of one's supposed liberalism with a more inclusive casting policy.

Owwwwww, harsh. But not inaccurate. ;)

I have no idea why Whedon thought that a setting based on the aftermath of the American Civil War, with the ersatz Confederates as the good guys, was in any way a good idea. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Firefly quite a lot, but the moral underpinning of it all was crap.

And hypocritical to boot - Whedon has his characters bleat "it's wrong to tell anyone else what to think!" and "people have the right to be wrong!", but that doesn't stop Mal from constantly siding against people who think things he doesn't like and who are wrong in ways that apparently aren't okay with him. It would have been a very strange and stupid show, to be sure, if the heroes had actually had to stick to that insane hyper-tolerance, but the fact that Whedon had to make his heroes act contrary to their supposed ideals in order to be, well, heroes should have told him something about those ideals.

Now, if the moral had been, "you can't 'civilise' people by invading their lands, killing their armies and replacing their governments... especially not if that leaves you so overextended that you all your resources from that point on have to be spent on just holding on to your outposts and you never actually get along to any of that 'civilising'"... well, then I'd have agreed that that was a perfectly good moral which both suited what we saw in the show and had some historical support. But no, no, the Alliance isn't bad because they invaded and killed tons of people, they're bad because they're liberal nancy-boy elitists who think they're better than the rugged, manly Independents just because they have all that fancy book-learnin'.

[michael a. davis (from livejournal.com)]

ObWI: Through an outstanding audition, mass poisoning, compromising pictures of Whedon, etc, Ron Glass is cast as the lead rather than as the ex-/F/r/e/e/d/m//a/n/'/s spy

[illian.livejournal.com]

Huh, and here I was assuming that the reason the Chinese weren't seen was because the crew were all scraping along the edges and bottom of society and the Chinese were the upper crust (not including the occasional New Money types who I was figuring were clinging like remoras around the people with actual power who we never saw).

[felila.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Whedon's worldbuilding is terrible. But ... WITTY BANTER. I watch Firefly and Buffy for the witty banter.

I'm on a re-reading Dorothy Sayers mystery novels jag and I like them for the same reason: witty banter. Or, as Harriet Vane says to Peter, "If anyone were to marry you, it would be for the pleasure of listening to you talk piffle."

Or something like that.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

Re: The Racebending post, I didn't realize Dr. Wendy Lin in Cabin in the Woods was supposed to be Asian. I heard "Lynn" and didn't think a thing about it. Ugh, I'm an idiot.

[erikagillian.livejournal.com]

Is it just me who saw Mal as Jesse James? And not in a good way?