[said with the suggestion that this is bad] “There’s a pan-Celticism sort of situation that has developed in fantasy, where everybody thinks that all of that can be thrown in together - that’s Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, Manx, Cornish, the lot - and it just becomes one big amalgamation and anybody can pick anything they want out of that pot,” said Prof Fimi.
That’s because it’s fine and they should do it freely anytime they want. This is such a god damn stupid article. Jesus Christ.
Trash.
You underestimate how weird pop culture’s random assemblies are.
You can’t just have characters from the Fenian Cycle meeting with characters from the Morte Dartur, that’s a mess.
The fictional equivalent of what Robert Graves was doing. It’s just bad scholarship.
Not beating the allegations of having no respect.
How many of the people ITT advocating for mangling cultural lore would flip out if you mangled their Star Nerd Franchise lore?
What a shit take.
Why ?
Fantasy is at least a part of traditional Welsh culture.
Overall I mostly agree with the article. It has to be made by culturally competent people.
Someone posted this recently - https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=wa_NWD_ytyE - and the butchering of Celtic myth and names is ridiculous.
Fantasy is a genre, that dates back to classical mythology. The idea of someone, of any country, gate keeping fantasy under the idea of cultural appropriation is absurd. “Culturally competent” what does that even mean? You can’t write a book without a history degree in Welsh culture? Foh
“Culturally competent” what does that even mean?
If you have to ask…
We’ve passed down our stories carefully for centuries.
We are just asking the Anglos to try and understand the mythos we’ve cherished and loved and curated as a nation for so long. Or, if you don’t understand it, leave it be.
The fact that they get up-in-arms about the thought that some culture exsts that they’re not automatically entitled to use for the commodified entertainment industry… that is honestly typical of the Anglo inability to respect anyone else.
I reject the claim that Anglos have limitless entitlement to any material they find.
The treats must flow
[off topic?]
‘Lord Of Light’ by Roger Zelazny. Science fantasy novel about a distant planet colonized by humans. In order to pacify the native fauna the crew of the starship artificially mutate themselves into god-like beings. They adopt the names of various Hindu gods, including Kali, Vishnu, and Shiva.
