This was so satisfying to read as someone who felt like pulling her hair out during the entire Dune 2 movie. I'm Algerian/Tunisian and was raised Muslim, so I couldn't stand the disrespect - the movie is a total rip-off of Muslim and North African culture while being a white man's fantasy. Thank you for this!!
Can't comment on Dune but Three-Body Problem has been adapted into TV in China, with the expected censorship / glossing-over of certain themes. The Netflix adaptation, whilst imperfect, is fairly competent in terms of bringing the material to an international audience with a much more gender-balanced cast and freedom to say a lot of things it wouldn't be able to if it were set predominantly in China. Just my two cents!
I agree a 1000% with this text. Did you watch the movie The Creator from Disney? It's not great, but still is VERY surprising that it cast the US military as the villain and makes us sympathize with villagers being attacked by it.
I always take adaptations as entirely new work, interpreted and filtered by contemporary culture and capital. And I always assume Hollywood produces work that is meant for the white gaze, which both Dune 2 and the Netflix adaptation of 3 body most definitely are.
In the original trilogy, we barely see any non-Chinese characters until the second book and it is quite frustrating to see 3 body the book lose its Chinese representation in favor of that gaze. But given that, and given that my sensibilities are forever imprinted, I think it was nonetheless an important series because of what it brings to the table of speculative fiction on the screen in terms of quality of the work and the adaptation - done deftly in my opinion.
That being said, I think holdovers from GOT are an unfortunate byproduct of the showrunners being who they are.
loved this so much, and so beyond satisfying to read! curious what you think about the casting choices for the northern and the southern fremen in dune 2: i noticed the southern fremen were the only tangentially brown people casted, and everyone who spoke had an accent that i read to be vaguely SWANA-esque. meanwhile, the northern fremen mostly had american accents, while paul’s family mostly had british accents. do you think this was intentional or meant to communicate something? (my gut says yes!)
I respect your position, but I imagine Villeneuve avoided the term Jihad for the simple reason that he is going to focus on the horror of the war Paul has unleashed in Dune 3 and he wanted to avoid having Paul's heel turn be seen as an indictment of Islam.
This was so satisfying to read as someone who felt like pulling her hair out during the entire Dune 2 movie. I'm Algerian/Tunisian and was raised Muslim, so I couldn't stand the disrespect - the movie is a total rip-off of Muslim and North African culture while being a white man's fantasy. Thank you for this!!
God I'm so glad I am not alone but I'm so sorry you had to go through it.... Thanks for reading!
Essential. Thank you.
Thank you for reading!
Can't comment on Dune but Three-Body Problem has been adapted into TV in China, with the expected censorship / glossing-over of certain themes. The Netflix adaptation, whilst imperfect, is fairly competent in terms of bringing the material to an international audience with a much more gender-balanced cast and freedom to say a lot of things it wouldn't be able to if it were set predominantly in China. Just my two cents!
I agree a 1000% with this text. Did you watch the movie The Creator from Disney? It's not great, but still is VERY surprising that it cast the US military as the villain and makes us sympathize with villagers being attacked by it.
I always take adaptations as entirely new work, interpreted and filtered by contemporary culture and capital. And I always assume Hollywood produces work that is meant for the white gaze, which both Dune 2 and the Netflix adaptation of 3 body most definitely are.
In the original trilogy, we barely see any non-Chinese characters until the second book and it is quite frustrating to see 3 body the book lose its Chinese representation in favor of that gaze. But given that, and given that my sensibilities are forever imprinted, I think it was nonetheless an important series because of what it brings to the table of speculative fiction on the screen in terms of quality of the work and the adaptation - done deftly in my opinion.
That being said, I think holdovers from GOT are an unfortunate byproduct of the showrunners being who they are.
I wish "international" didn't mean "white" or "western" to so many people. This is such a good essay.
loved this so much, and so beyond satisfying to read! curious what you think about the casting choices for the northern and the southern fremen in dune 2: i noticed the southern fremen were the only tangentially brown people casted, and everyone who spoke had an accent that i read to be vaguely SWANA-esque. meanwhile, the northern fremen mostly had american accents, while paul’s family mostly had british accents. do you think this was intentional or meant to communicate something? (my gut says yes!)
I respect your position, but I imagine Villeneuve avoided the term Jihad for the simple reason that he is going to focus on the horror of the war Paul has unleashed in Dune 3 and he wanted to avoid having Paul's heel turn be seen as an indictment of Islam.
Wow sick opp catch!! And I am a good opp catcher.