Through social media, writers and readers are able to share their thoughts on aspects of worldbuilding. When stories incorporate different cultures that authors do not have any experience with, what does that entail? How can one write about something they are have not personally experienced? It’s my stop for Tony Johnson’s The Story of Evil tour, organized by Storytellers on Tour, and I am excited to bring you some insight into this big question. I hope this guest post from Tony is of value to your as an author and writer for your future works. If you are a reader, get a glimpse into the sheer amount of thought that goes into cultural appropriation in worldbuilding, especially when diverse cultures are involved.
Cultural Appropriation in Worldbuilding
Guest post by Tony Johnson
Most fantasy authors seek to make the fictional worlds their characters inhabit as unique as our own. The more a world is diverse, the more expansive it can be. This is the type of worldbuilding that engages the reader and makes them yearn to experience what the author has crafted. Elements like history, climate, religion, technology, geography, social classes, and culture create a realistic world worth exploring. Even if it’s just a brief sentence of exposition, or a character pointing out a small detail, these features establish the idea that there is more to the setting beyond its surface level.
Of the many elements of worldbuilding, adapting cultures is perhaps the most difficult area that authors need to be handled tactfully due to its potentially offensive nature. Although most fantasy takes place in a medieval European setting, many authors have begun branching out and creating worlds inspired by locations they’ve neither lived in nor have much experience in. While using the avenue of fantasy to highlight cultures that have received less attention in the genre is admirable, the inclusion of these locales needs to be handled correctly to avoid crossing the line into appropriation.
Appropriation – the action of taking something for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission.
Dictionary.com
Appropriation often leads to depictions of cultures that are based off of stereotypes and/or misrepresentations. These depictions can be hurtful and even racist. There is no place for an author’s racist ideology in fantasy fiction, just as there is no place for sexism, homophobia, or bigotry. Neither is their room for appropriation, although appropriation is more common because of ignorance on the subject.
My point in writing this post is to bring awareness to this issue and provide a few tips on how authors can strengthen their worldbuilding and avoid appropriation. I would like to specifically note that I don’t consider myself an expert on this matter, and could likely improve in my own writing, but I believe if we continually educate ourselves and try to advance our understanding of foreign cultures, we’ll be adding to the quality of fantasy books rather than tarnishing them.
Here are five tips for avoiding appropriation when adapting a culture during worldbuilding:
1. Don’t make jokes about a culture if you’re not from that culture – Many people from certain cultures tie their identity to the food, clothing, religion, or other aspects of their culture. To make fun of any of these for comedic humor is wrong. As a citizen of the United States, hearing the president refer to the Coronavirus as “Kung Flu” last month was embarrassing. Those who laugh at that type of racist humor are part of the problem that creates division rather than unity.
2. Don’t base your character on the stereotypes of people from a specific culture – No character should be reduced to being a caricature. Aunt Jemima maple syrup bottles are in the process of being changed after years of uproar over the icon being a caricature. Just because something has been around for a while, doesn’t mean it can’t be questioned. Evaluate the characters you’ve envisioned in your head for years to make sure they are offensive to any group of people.
3. Don’t create a race of monsters based on a specific culture – Even if you successfully avoid appropriation in this context, readers may feel dehumanized that characters (protagonists or antagonists) with similarities to their culture are depicted as something other than Human.
4. Don’t mix cultures – To combine the elements of multiple cultures into one may give the idea that the culture you’re trying to highlight is not worthy of standing on its own merit.
5. Don’t feature only one character from the culture you’re trying to portray – If only one character from a culture is in your story, that character will act as the representation of that culture. Their flaws could be viewed as cultural flaws.
As a bonus tip, I suggest not overly worrying about being so politically correct that you sanitize your world to the point that you kill the creativity of it. Is it better to highlight other cultures and fail or include only a one-culture world which is possibly less exciting and diverse? This is a question you as an author need to determine when worldbuilding. In a best-case scenario, you’ll be able to create a diverse world which highlights many different cultures and isn’t offensive to any people group. I hope the tips above can be of some help in your writing endeavors.
In closing, I want to bring up a final point I firmly believe in, and that is that we as a fantasy community should be supporting authors of under-represented races in our genre, especially those who are actively writing about cultures other than European. I want to use this space to highlight a few of them:
- Evan Winter – an up-and-coming author who recently released his debut novel, Rage of Dragons. The Fires of Vengeance will release on November 10, 2020.
- R.F. Kuang – The Poppy War was named one of the best books of 2018 by many news outlets.
- N.K. Jemisin – better hope she’s not in your category if you’re nominated for a Hugo award!
- M.L. Wang – winner of Mark Lawerence’s SFPBO5 with The Sword of Kaigen. I can only hope my book, The Story of Evil: A Hero’s Downfall, has similar success in SPFBO6.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I love the fantasy community and want what’s best for it. Many fellow authors and readers have supported my writing, and I hope I can do the same for them through posts like this. Thank you to Kriti from Armed with A Book for allowing me to share my thoughts. If you’d like to read my book series, The Story of Evil, the first two ebooks are free on Amazon from July 19th-23rd.
About The Story of Evil
During an entertaining jousting tournament, a mysterious villain attacks the capital with his army. Because of this disastrous event, Stephen Brightflame, a nineteen-year-old who aspires to become a knight, embarks on a quest to save the kingdom from further destruction. He joins up with a convicted felon, an arrogant warrior, and a Halfling woman, but quickly learns their pasts are just as dark and disturbing as his own. Experience the first book in an epic fantasy trilogy that’s been called, “fascinating and captivating” featuring “well-rounded, enjoyable characters, intense action scenes, and riveting twists” (The US Review of Books and Self-Publishing Review).
In 2020, The Story of Evil series was re-edited and condensed from a five-part series into a trilogy. The volumes Heroes of the Siege and Escape from Celestial have been combined to form the first book of this trilogy, A Hero’s Downfall.
About Tony Johnson
Tony Johnson is the author of the epic fantasy series, The Story of Evil. He is an avid reader who enjoys fantasy, classic novels, Shakespeare, and Christian literature. He is also a fan of movies, television, videogames, and Tennessee Titans football. He graduated with a Bachelors in English Literature from SUNY Brockport with a certification to teach 7th-12th grade English and Special Education. Tony lives in Batavia, NY and is currently finishing up his Masters Degree and working on the final book in the Story of Evil trilogy.
Find him on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.
That’s all for my stop on this wonderful tour! I hope you found this post on cultural appropriation in worldbuilding super helpful and informative. Be sure to check out the other blogs and hear what the bloggers are saying about this book. Click on the graphic below to navigate to Storytellers on Tours full schedule! I look forward to sharing my thoughts on the book later.
Also, if you liked this post, you might find M A Guglielmo’s post On Writing Diverse Characters informative as well.
Blog tour schedule image by Storytellers on tour. Banner image from Unsplash.
Great pointers and thanks for having the guest post. Will be sharing with my readers.