First of all, I'd say see the movie. Honestly, there's no rationale in hating something without knowing what it is. I know how exhausting it can be to keep up with seemingly one after another of things like this, but the fact that the blogger in the link and I are Nigerians and had such differences of opinions might suggest that you see for yourself.
I don't hate it, though, because that would require me to care more than I do. I had no intention of seeing it even before the reviews because it doesn't sound like my kind of movie. I've got a limited ability to sit through anything on the big screen, and this summer, my movie spaces are taken up by Star Trek, Harry Potter, and maybe Ponyo--which pretty much sums up my taste in movies (explosions, romance, pretty visuals, and some humor).
en I say Westerners, I mean Westerners, not white liberals, but people who live in the western world and have had a different experience and world view from people who live on the African continent.
I understand that you do. However, the person I was quoting from the comments did not seem to be making that distinction, and that bothered me. I think that non-white Westerners are going to have a different perspective than both white Westerners and Africans on the film, and if you're going to discuss the criticism of it in the blogosphere, then I think it's important to note that distinction.
Everyone brings their own baggage to any art, and for a lot of black LJ'ers in particular, we're coming in with eight months worth of abject failure on the part of the professional SF community to deal with race. Reacting to that isn't "political correctness", and I don't think it's fair to dismiss criticism of the racial issues in the movie that way.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2009-08-24 05:52 am (UTC)I don't hate it, though, because that would require me to care more than I do. I had no intention of seeing it even before the reviews because it doesn't sound like my kind of movie. I've got a limited ability to sit through anything on the big screen, and this summer, my movie spaces are taken up by Star Trek, Harry Potter, and maybe Ponyo--which pretty much sums up my taste in movies (explosions, romance, pretty visuals, and some humor).
en I say Westerners, I mean Westerners, not white liberals, but people who live in the western world and have had a different experience and world view from people who live on the African continent.
I understand that you do. However, the person I was quoting from the comments did not seem to be making that distinction, and that bothered me. I think that non-white Westerners are going to have a different perspective than both white Westerners and Africans on the film, and if you're going to discuss the criticism of it in the blogosphere, then I think it's important to note that distinction.
Everyone brings their own baggage to any art, and for a lot of black LJ'ers in particular, we're coming in with eight months worth of abject failure on the part of the professional SF community to deal with race. Reacting to that isn't "political correctness", and I don't think it's fair to dismiss criticism of the racial issues in the movie that way.