Posts Tagged ‘reflections’

The Overuse of a Heinous Act: Sexual Assault in Television Shows

Posted: February 22, 2015 in Reflections, Writing
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(Note: the following post contains some spoilers from various television series. Be a little wary before reading on.)

I watch a lot of TV. Sometimes I think too much. Actually, there’s a strong case to say I watch too much TV But what can I say? A lot of great stuff on TV these days. Serial killers, seven different types of apocalypse, a dozen different types of crime shows, screwball comedy and dramas that twist and turn with every episode. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Isn’t there another way to explain why Annalise is the way she is?

As much as I love TV though, sometimes I think Hollywood might be going in the wrong direction or not thinking things through before they create something. Here’s one thing that’s got my goat recently: in the latest episode of How To Get Away With Murder (SPOILERS!), it was revealed that main character Annaliese Keating, as well as several of her relatives, were raped when they were young, which is why Annaliese has such trust issues and puts up a tough, angry front.

While I do agree that sexual assault could cause this to happen, I have to wonder if it was necessary to use sexual assault as the reason why Annaliese is the way she is. In fact, it makes me wonder why sexual assault is being used as a form of character development in so many different shows. Not just HTGAWM, but Scandal, Reign, Game of Thrones, heck even Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and several more than I could name here.

Now, I may not be the best person to speak about this. Sexual assault or attempted sexual assault has been part of my stories more than once. Heck, I wrote a novel about a young rape victim trying to fight her demons, set within the backdrop of a conspiracy in Washington (now that’s an original idea for a thriller, isn’t it). I plan to rewrite it later this year if possible. But I have to say, how much rape is being used as a form of character development or backstory is rather too much.

Rape is a horrible thing, and it does change the people to whom it happens. But there are other ways to change someone, to make their personalities make sense or to bring them to the next stage of their journey. The loss of the lover, seeing someone die, a war starting, an apocalypse, time travel, a new job, a betrayal, torture, kidnap, etc. Heck, that last one (SPOILERS!) was used in the last three or so episodes of Scandal, and Olivia told Fitz afterwards that there were some things worse than rape. Why is rape being used so much, to the point that it seems to cheapen the tragedy when it happens in real life? Makes it seem like it’s not a big deal, because it happens so often and heck, most of the characters on TV to whom it happens may not be 100% better afterwards but their characters grow and change in interesting ways?

It also says something that it’s used almost entirely with women than with men. Sexual assault of men does happen, but due to a number of reasons is not often reported by the victims themselves or by the mainstream press. And yet when portrayed on TV, almost always it happens to women or children. Men on TV are rare victims, which I can’t help but wonder might be because people don’t want to see that or something along those lines.

So I’m going to finish this post with a request to the heads of the television industry, to the writers and actors and producers and everyone else involved in the TV making process. The next time you wish to use rape in your show, ask if it’s absolutely necessary, if there’s a good reason for it, or if it’s just there to boost ratings and explain why a character is the way s/he is. Because I don’t believe the latter should be used that often. Perhaps something else might do the same sort of thing for your characters and show than what you plan to use. And I think many people would agree with me, maybe even articulate it better than me.

It’s something to think about.

Things in Horror That I Actually Hate

Posted: February 20, 2015 in Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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I’ve written about this before several times in some way or another, but every now and then I feel the need to shout out to the Internet, “HEY CREATORS OF HORROR, this is one of your students, one who is coming up in your world. Please, for the love of Edgar Allen Poe, STOP DOING THESE THINGS BECAUSE THEY ARE GODDAMN STUPID AND REALLY DETRACT FROM THE STORIES YOU’RE TRYING TO TELL!” I especially feel this need when I think of the Friday the 13th remake, which is a piece of pornographic, drug-overloaded, cliche-ridden piece of crap from the bum of Michael Bay (figures!).

So with that exclamation and obligatory slam on my least favorite horror remake, I think it’s time to list what needs to be scaled back on or just get kicked out of the horror genre all-together.

Too much gore. Ooh, this is a turnoff to me. Excessive gore isn’t scary, it’s disgusting. If you’re going to use gore, it should be used sparingly. It should add to the terror by being sort of like an accentuation, an additive that adds flavor to the movie or novel’s total fear factor. If you’re relying entirely on gore for your scares, then you’re probably doing something wrong. Look at some of the best slashers out there! Yes, they have gore, but they don’t just rely on it. There’s suspense, surprise, terror, a guy coming out of a dark corner when you least expect him and just scaring the crap out of you before he chases the victim and then pushes them through a window and killing them on broken glass. Now that’s scary.

Too much sin factor. Smoking, drinking, getting high, having sex, swearing like a sailor. A lot of horror films, particularly in the slasher sub-genre, are big on punishing people for their sins. I get it. It’s fun to root for a villain and seeing people getting punished for throwing their lives away.But when it’s so excessive that you wonder if you bought a ticket for a horror movie or if you’re watching one of those teen movies where everyone’s stoned and trying to get laid and there’s a ton of unnecessary swearing involved. Seriously, if you need to spice up things by filming a ton of footage involving sex or drugs or whatever, you might need to get your script looked at by a third party.

The stereotypical man’s man and the believing girlfriend. I hate these sort of characters because they’re so predictable. The former is a normal guy who doesn’t believe in anything supernatural except what’s taught in church, and maybe not even then. The latter’s either a housewife or in a menial job stereotypical for women, and she’s the first to come to the conclusion that something’s weird that happens (unless she has kids, who will recognize the weird before even she will). She tries to convince her husband with his father-knows-best attitude that something’s weird, but he won’t believe it. And even when faced with indisputable proof of the supernatural, he’ll still be somewhat skeptical, and would rather use his tool box or his fists rather than search for a supernatural solution or refer to a specialist. In the end he has to believe his one-dimensional wife or end up dead. It’s been done so often, it’s gotten rather annoying.  Please, switch it up a bit, because it’s so stale we’ll have to throw it out if it doesn’t find a way to become fresh again.

Cheesy effects. I don’t care what your budget is, I’ve seen some amazing things done with effects bought on a budget of only a couple million, or even just ten-thousand dollars. About a month and a half ago I saw this late-night horror film that started out promising. Sadly it didn’t work out that way, and part of it was that the special effects were terrible, and the filmmakers seemed to revel in that by displaying their cheesiness at every second. If they’d tried to at least make it difficult to see what the wolves looked like, it would’ve improved the story so much more (and the film could’ve used the improvement, with that shoddy script). The moral is, even if you can’t use expensive special effects, there are ways to do amazing things with it. You never know what you’ll get.

 

Horror is well known for its tropes and cliches, and often fans of the genre will defend those tropes, saying they actually allow for more flexibility and creativity. However, occasionally these tropes are more problematic than they’re worth and, like the ones above, need to go.

What things in the horror genre would you like to boot entirely? What would you like to see more of?

My Weird Idea Anxiety

Posted: February 16, 2015 in ideas, Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this before, but I feel that it could use a reiteration. If you don’t know, I have a number of ideas for novels, short stories, and articles. During the semesters I usually have a hundred more ideas, which I put down on one of three lists, depending on what sort of idea it is. This can sometimes feel like a double-edged sword, because I have only so much time between school, homework, and my job, among other things, to write. So these ideas just pile up, up, up. And I worry that I won’t be able to write them any time soon. On the other hand, if I go too long without having an idea, I start worrying that I’m losing my creative edge and start looking for new ideas left, right and center.

Lately though I’ve been less anxious, which is odd because I usually have more ideas at this point in the semester than I’ve had lately (maybe it’s the cold?). I’m actually not complaining or feeling too anxious either. I think that might have something to do with how busy I’ve been and how my mind’s been on other things. School, the job search, work, etc. It keeps you busy, so I have less time to worry about how many or few ideas I’m having.

I might also be a bit more mellow than I have been. And I’m actually trying to have more ideas about modifying ideas or stories I already have. I’m thinking of ways to rewrite my novel Laura Horn (which I hope to get around to later this year), There’s that short story I’ve been working on for about eight or nine months. I’m still looking for ways to modify that one till I’m satisfied with it. And I had this one idea for a novel about witches last year, I want to modify the plot to make the story flow better. Just need to figure it out. Perhaps so much of my imaginative powers is being sent in that direction it explains why I haven’t had other ideas.

Well, whatever it means, I doubt I’m losing my creativity. I had an idea for a short story today, and it’s not too shabby. And even if I was, I have about 200 ideas for novels and other long works, and over 400 ideas for short stories. And don’t get me started on articles or blog posts! Plenty of creativity left.

Well, that’s all for now. I plan to do some editing tonight, so wish me luck on that front, my Followers of Fear.

Why Vaccines are a Shot of Common Sense

Posted: February 11, 2015 in Living and Life, Reflections, Social Activism
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Vaccines are back in the media again after an outbreak of measles got its start in Disneyland and spread to several other states, including Illinois, Georgia, and New York. Several health experts have pointed to parents opting out of vaccinating their children as the root cause of the current outbreak. This shocks me, because in previous generations vaccines were seen as common sense, and they should still be seen as common sense.

Vaccines work by taking a harmful microbe that has either died or been rendered harmless and sending it into the body so that our immune systems can find it, destroy it, and then recognize it when the real thing comes along. When a majority of the population has been vaccinated, preventing the virus from spreading and infecting others, it’s known as herd immunity. There are occasional side effects to getting a vaccine, but the chances of having serious side effects is like filling six football stadiums with people and maybe one person out of all those winning a lottery.

However, for whatever reasons–a false study about links between vaccines and autism, bloggers and message boards recounting horror stories, etc.–many parents, often educated and liberal-leaning, are opting out of vaccinating their children. The result is this current outbreak of measles, because the people spreading and contracting the virus aren’t getting vaccinated against it. And it is even easier to cause this sort of outbreak than most people realize, because herd immunity is actually pretty fragile. When immunization rates in a given population are below 95%, herd immunity is compromised. Yes, you read that figure right. Herd immunity requires 95% immunization rate in order to be effective. And because more Americans are opting out of immunizations than ever before, herd immunity is suffering.

Now, I know that a lot of people are worried about possibly harming their children with possible side effects. It probably doesn’t help that most vaccines are inserted with needles! But time and time again, scientists across the world have confirmed that vaccines are the best route to keeping your child safe and the children of others as well. The study that supposedly linked vaccines with autism has been proven false, the levels of mercury and other metals in vaccines, if present, are negligible, And like I said, serious side effects are rare, and are usually in combination with other factors, such as preexisting medical conditions.

Now I’m probably going to get a few people telling me about this or that story they’ve seen or heard. Let me tell you something: in science testimonies and anecdotes are not accepted as scientific proof of anything. Doctors rely on observable data, not on a possible single datum point told secondhand. This is why doctors and scientists will tell you not to always trust stories told on blogs or public forums, as the story may be altered or information may be missing.

Though if you want to rely only on anecdotes, I have two: last semester I got my flu shot and I’m pretty sure it’s a factor in why I haven’t caught a cold this whole winter, something that hasn’t happened in years! Also, when I was six or seven, I got my second chickenpox shot, as most kids did. I still came down with the chickenpox. But my doctor said that if I hadn’t gotten the vaccine, I might have had to be hospitalized. So vaccines saved me a trip to the hospital, which would’ve probably terrified my young self.

And there’s a reason why this anti-vaccine movement is only occurring in developed nations. It’s because developing nations, where the medicine is more scarce, parents will walk miles and miles to get their kids vaccinations. They know they work, and they’re willing to risk highly unlikely side effects because they want their kids to be healthy.

Look, I’m not a parent. If I was though, I’d get them vaccinated because I don’t want to risk them coming down with something awful, which is much more likely to happen than any possible side effects. And I bet many parents who are suspicious of vaccines would as well if a new disease popped up that was extremely contagious and just as deadly and a vaccine became available. Because when it comes down to it, every parent will go to whatever lengths to protect their child.

What’s your opinions of vaccines? Why?

Do you think there should be consequences for not vaccinating your child? If so, what?

Oh, and if you’re wondering where I got my facts, you can check out this NOVA special from PBS. These guys do their research.

A Little Today, A Lot Tomorrow

Posted: February 8, 2015 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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I’ve been busy this past weekend, attending my cousin’s bar mitzvah in Detroit and when not doing bar mitzvah things, I was busy with homework or being in the car (hard to get Wi-Fi while in the car). Otherwise I would have posted something Friday or Saturday. Well, better late than never, right?

And on the subject of writing posts, I want to talk about something that’s a subject of controversy for writers: a daily word count. I’ve heard plenty of writers give their opinions on the topic, from being proponents of 500 to 1000 words a day, to others who say that the daily word count is some draconian form of masochism for writers. Me, being “ambitious”, as my English major advisor called me (or was it “overachiever”?), have tried to at least get 500 words typed out each day, whether it be short story, novel, or blog post. 500 words seems to be the amount of words most proponents seem to advocate, whatever the reason that be.

Well, the other day I was working on a short story that I’ve been working on and off for about eight months. That night I barely got three or four hundred words written and I was feeling pretty ashamed about that. This story’s been wrestling with me for ages, and I’ve been trying to get a version of it written that I feel would be up to the standards I (and possibly the magazines I could submit it too) like of my short stories.

The next night though I had a different idea of where to go with this story, and I wrote about fifteen hundred words. Obviously, I felt elated by that. But I also had a bit of an epiphany that evening. The night before I’d been unsatisfied with the direction the story was going and obviously it stalled. The next night I had a different direction for the story that I thought might work better and I got out over a thousand words.

I won’t be worrying about word counts while writing any time soon.

It made me realize that some days, if I’m enjoying how the story goes or if I’m really in the flow, I’ll write a huge amount. And other days, if I’m tired, if I’m not really liking the direction of the story, or if it’s just not my day, I might not get a hundred words out. It’s not any fault of mine, it’s just the way sometimes these things go. Writers have bad days too and on those days we just have to deal with it, and maybe try again tomorrow.

These past couple of days, outside of homework, I haven’t gotten anywhere near five-hundred words written. Am I upset? More about not having the chance to write than anything else. The word count isn’t important to me anymore. Or it isn’t as important as it used to be. I’ll definitely try to get more written out than I have previously over these next couple of nights. Since I’ll be editing Rose starting Tuesday, I might just get a lot out depending on how much I want to change from one draft to the other. We’ll see.

But I’m not that concerned. As I said, some days you’re going to get plenty done and some days you’ll only get a few words out. It’s important at the very least that you try. And believe me, I’ll be trying.

How do you feel about daily word counts? For or against? Why?

Are you planning on asking me how many words this post is?

If you are, you shouldn’t! Because if you ask, I won’t tell you! I’m evil that way.

And by the way, thanks once again to everyone who contributed to Buckeyethon this past year. Even though I could not attend the dance this year because of my cousin’s bar mitzvah, I heard about the great achievements of my fellow students and I this year. 1.2 million dollars towards cancer research! Thank you so very much for your spiritual and financial support in this. You helped make the difference with me.

Well, that’s all for now. It’s getting late, and I’m going to head to bed. I’ve had a lot of late night recently, so I need some sleep if I’m going to be able to deal with school and work and the writing tomorrow. Have a great night, my Followers of Fear.

Rewrite, Rewrite, Rewrite

Posted: February 1, 2015 in Reflections, Writing
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I’ve mentioned this a couple of times, but I’ve rewritten a number of stories, especially short stories, over the course of my writing career. It’s annoying to a certain degree, to have to start from scratch while writing the same story over and over again. It’s easier to just edit a single story, but when things need to be changed to such a degree that rewriting the story is either simpler or the same as editing the story.

I’ve rewritten What Happened Saturday Night more than once (especially the last third of it), still have to rewrite Evil Began in a Bar (as soon as I figure out how to go about it) and I’m in the process of doing a major revision of Miranda’s Tempest that was inspired by one of my History of Witchcraft classes. Plus I plan to rewrite Laura Horn as soon as I have a moment. And you remember when I had to writ a new outline of Rose because the story was getting way too crazy for my advisor Manny (finally asked if I could name him here on my blog) and he told me to rethink where it was going? That was basically an outline rewrite. And it was after I had to rewrite the first four chapters because they were too light and campy for a horror novel.

Oy vey! That’s a lot of rewrites!

Still, as much as I hate having to do it, I know that a rewrite is ultimately beneficial. It makes the story much, much better. The difference between the first draft of What Happened Saturday Night, “Frauwolf” and the second draft was immense. And the third and fourth drafts showed even greater improvement. The Murderer’s Legacy improved a great deal once it became Miranda’s Tempest, though it still had its flaws. And now I’m doing another version of Miranda’s Tempest, though I’ve renamed it Strong’s Trial due to the new content and theme. It resembles Harry Potter a bit, though I think it’ll end up much removed from that. The rewrites of Rose have vastly improved it and I’m sure when I get to rewriting Laura Horn it’ll be much, much better.

And a lot of great works have been rewritten before publication. The Book Thief was apparently written 200 times before being published, and that’s a famous work. And I hear every script that gets turned into a movie in Hollywood goes through several rewrites before finally going into production. So perhaps my constant rewriting of my stories might make for a famous story someday. We’ll see someday.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to spend some time relaxing this evening before going to bed. I’ve done a lot of (re)writing today, so I’m going to take a break and try to relax. I’m setting up an account on my roommate’s PS4 and I’m going to play my first survival-horror game, Outlast. I’ve heard good things about it. Should be very exciting (and if I don’t like it, I’ll rewrite it!). Wish me luck!

Self-Pub Authors: Short Stories That Are Too Short

Posted: January 29, 2015 in Journalism, Reflections, short story, Writing
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My latest article from Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors is Short Stories That Are Too Short. This post was inspired by things I learned in my creative writing class last semester, and details one of the lessons I learned there. If you’ve ever worried that the short stories you write are too long or too short, this article might be helpful for you.

And if you’re a writer, traditionally published or independently published, this website might be what you’re looking for. We have hundreds of articles that are devoted to helping authors of all stripes write, edit, publish, and market their books effectively and without too much cost. Check it out if you get the chance.

Well, I’ve got work to do. Goodnight, my Followers of Fear. Pleasant nightmares.

Interview with Rami Ungar

Posted: January 29, 2015 in Author Interciew, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
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I’m happy to let everyone know that I’ve recently been interviewed by Tricia Drammeh of Authors to Watch about the short stories I published in the Strange Portals anthology last month and which she appears in as well. If you get the chance, please check out the interview. And while I’m talking about it, I’d like to thank Tricia for featuring me. It really means a lot to me and I hope I can return the favor sometime.

Writers are Cruel Gods

Posted: January 28, 2015 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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Some writers like to compare themselves to gods of the worlds they create, prodding their characters this way and that as the write their stories. I’m one of those writers, as blasphemous as it sounds (even more blasphemous when you consider that my parents are rabbis). But in a strange way, it’s true. I come up with an outline for my stories, I start writing, my characters take over to some degree and make their own choices, but at the end of it all they get to where I wanted them to go.

Sounds like God, doesn’t it? My characters, my creations, have free will of a sort in my world, but in the end the story usually works the way I want it to go because this world is mine and I have ultimate say. Evil has a purpose in my world, and so does reward and punishment (in a way). There’s an ultimate plan or idea of where things will go because I will it to be so, but you have to see the whole picture in order to understand the plan.

And I’m going to stop right there before I get a ton of people angry at me.

But if I’m the god of my worlds and my characters, what does that make me? What kind of god am I? I specialize in horror. It’s a dark genre, where anyone can die at any second, where monsters exist, and if you’re lucky enough to live, you might wish you’d died. It’s the genre that revels in the darkest of humanity as well as the best, brings doubt as well as faith, and above all, scares. I’m the god of such worlds, I adore making them up in my mind and then bringing them to life on the page.

What does that say about me? What does that say about any writer that wants to put their characters through torment or hardship? What does it say about God, that His world which He (or She, I’m equal opportunity) authored is so full of darkness?

Well, this isn’t a philosophy or theology post. But it brings up some good questions in those areas. Imagine if the characters we write were real people and the pain we put them through was real to them. Would we want to keep writing anything where they felt pain? Writers often feel like these characters are family to them, like children. If these were our real children, would we want to keep doing these sort of things to them? Would we ever write a story with conflict in it?

And could we continue to worship God with this sort of definition of Him?

The thing is, we’re not God. And our characters are most likely not real. But if they were, we’d probably go about writing sad or tragic stories. Like God, we have a plan, and the characters who we killed off, if we have any amount of mercy in us, we’d give the dead an afterlife to live in, so that killing them off wouldn’t hurt us as much. Because you know what? We have stories to tell, and maybe they’re not happy all the time, but they’re ours and that’s what we write.

And I do feel my characters are real to some degree. But that doesn’t mean I won’t write. After all, their stories deserve to be told.

White-Washing Our Movies

Posted: January 18, 2015 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
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About a week and a half ago, Variety reported that the Ghost in the Shell live-action film, which had been in development hell for years, was underway and had Scarlett Johanssen in the lead after Margot Robbie turned it down. Not only did this impress upon me to actually read the manga, but it excited and angered GitS fans across the world. The former is understandable, but the latter is a bit more complex. Why? Well, the main character of GitS is named Major Motoko Kusanagi, and she’s Japanese. Johanssen, while a great actress, is white. Why didn’t Touchstone Pictures ask any Japanese actresses?

And this isn’t the only live-action adaptation based on a Japanese franchise where Hollywood has looked at only white actors. The Akira film, which once again is in development after many years in and out of development hell, has been notorious for its producers trying to get white actors in the roles of Japanese characters. Justin Timberlake, Robert Pattinson, and Andrew Garfield are the latest names to come up. George Takei has been vocal about this, warning producers they will upset fans and have a repeat of The Last Airbender (an adaptation of the American anime Avatar: The Last Airbender) if they don’t cast Asian actors. Remember the latter film had a mostly white cast, and, although the film was problematic on a number of levels, the fact that the very diverse characters were all played by white actors upset many fans.

And it’s not just films based on anime that has had this problem. Biblical films such as Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings have received a lot of criticism not just for the liberties taken with their stories, but the fact that while the characters being portrayed would have most likely have been from the Middle East and Africa, the principle actors were all white. And in Pan, an upcoming movie based on Peter Pan, Tiger Lily is played by Rooney Mara, who is white while her character is Native American. Surprisingly, the Peter Pan live musical on NBC last month actually had a Native American actress and tried not to be so stereotypical with their portrayal of Native Americans, which was one of the few good things about that disaster. The 2003 Peter Pan film also cast a Native American actress in the role of Tiger Lily, and that film rocked! Why can’t Pan do the same thing?

And here’s something interesting I’m not sure if other people have noticed: when the Harry Potter films were still being made, the first couple of films had two different actresses, both black, playing Lavender Brown. At that point she was a background character for the films, but once the sixth book came out she had a much bigger role. When we see her in the sixth movie, she’s played by Jessie Cave, who was white. I mean really. The HP universe has already shown that the main basis for discrimination is how pure your blood is. JK Rowling has already stated that gender isn’t a big deal in the Wizarding world, and I don’t think race would be a big deal either. What’s wrong with Ron dating a black girl, even if the relationship doesn’t work out in the end? Heck, Fred went to the Yule Ball with Angelina Johnson, who in the books was black, and after the series she married and had kids with George Weasley.

And why the heck wasn’t Selma in the Oscars this year? I mean, I don’t really care about the Oscars, but apparently this year has only white nominees, and of those most are male. I don’t know why. I saw Selma, and it was powerful and beautiful. Why can’t it get a nomination or two?

I’ve been vocal about how, almost 47 years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, this nation is still full of racial inequality, most illustrated this past year in the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and quite a few others, the trials that seem to have lead to nowhere, and the protests that have followed them. The many roles where white actors have played characters of non-white nationalities may seem like a small thing, but it’s actually pretty big. The media has a great power to influence millions and millions of people. What does it say when the people who go to movies don’t see themselves in the movies that they go to see? Even in roles where they should be seeing themselves?

I’m not sure what Hollywood’s reasoning for doing all this white-washing. Maybe they like to bank on star power or something. But I think that studio execs are making a big mistake by not including more diverse casts in their films.  TV execs are catching on much faster: TV shows like Sleepy Hollow,  Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder, which pride themselves on their diversity, are tearing up the prime time landscape, Black-ish and Jane the Virgin, which feature mostly black or Hispanic casts, are some of the year’s best new comedies, and SNL has made it a point to diversify their cast members.

And while I’m still working on getting that sort of reach with my books, I like to use diverse casts in my stories when I can, and I think that that’s some of the best parts of my books. In my thesis novel Rose, half the main cast, including antagonist Akira, are Japanese. In Laura Horn, many of the characters are black or Hispanic, and I plan to keep that in the rewrite. And in the Reborn City series, most of my characters aren’t white. In fact, Zahara Bakur, my protagonist, is an Arab Muslim. And if in an adaptation of any of my works, the white-washing I’ve described above was used in the casting process, I’d be very, very upset.

Because that’s not how the characters should be. We want to see characters who look like us. I’m lucky that I see a lot of white characters. Occasionally I see a Jewish character, though they’re either secular or ultra-Orthodox Jews. But what about others? There have only been two black superheroes in the movies these past couple of years, and they’ve been sidekicks to the white superhero. And what about Hispanic or Asian heroes? Where are the Native American characters?

I think Hollywood is making a great mistake in not diversifying their casts and insisting on the big actors. I’m not saying that white actors no longer have roles in movies. But I do think that there needs to be more roles for blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, and other groups and ethnicities in Hollywood movies. It’s not a moral thing. It’s because the world is becoming more diverse every day. The media we consume should reflect that. After all, the media reflects the world, doesn’t it? So reflect the world as it is, Hollywood. And that’s a beautifully diverse landscape of many different groups and peoples with a thousand different stories to tell.

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