medievalpoc:terracannon876:medievalpoc:thegreatgadfly:medievalpoc:thegreatgadfly:medievalpoc:[more o

medievalpoc:terracannon876:medievalpoc:thegreatgadfly:medievalpoc:thegreatgadfly:medievalpoc:[more on Xiang Fei]*coughcough* paging rejectedprincesses *coughcough**sigh*It’s a legend, you ignorant fucks. No one knows whether there is any historical basis whatsoever. And it’s not nearly as glorious a legend as you’d think from looking at that one picture.Oh, she was a real person. If you read the link (and the links at the link like so-(Mungello p 68, 69), you’ll notice I get into the documentation and how her story has been used and told from diverse perspectives. Just because there are legends about Napoleon Bonaparte or Genghis Khan, doesn’t make them nothing but legends.I think your response says a lot about the point I’m trying to make here, though. Are we ready as a culture for Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter…but not Xiang Fei?And if you actually read the link I provided, you would see that all the data about her is circumstantial. People have denied the historicity of Jesus on the same grounds. Meanwhile there is archaeological evidence for Genghis Khan and tons of material evidence for the existence of Napoleon Bonaparte. Your analogy doesn’t hold water.Moreover, I think your response says a lot about the point I was trying to make. You’re intellectually dishonest and will leap at anything that you think substantiates your bullshit worldview, no matter how trivial or unverifiable it is.And so it appears we are at an impasse-I insist that what we do and do not know about history and the people in it, what is valued, what is “legend” OR “fact” is dictated by a white supremacist and colonial worldview, and you insist that I’m somehow misrepresenting legends as facts and am being “intellectually dishonest”, regardless of what impact this makes on people who desperately need to see this woman in a style they immediately recognize, but with a face that looks like theirs.What is “trivial” and what is desperately, essentially important depends entirely on who you are, and how this image affects you.But hey what the hell do I know I’m from the soft sciencesWhat’s this about “White Farmboy becomes King”?  (Honest question.  It just seemed a weird tagline to have, unless you were referencing something.)I think whether it’s legend or fact is a moot point.  There is no conclusive evidence - history is in the past.  Either you come up with a breakthrough or you are making stuff up if you say there is definitive evidence on deciding whether something that has remained up in the air for hundreds of years is real.Ultimately, then, the view on whether it’s legend or fact ends up turning into, how do the people view it and how is it internalized for them?  I understand that scientific / concrete evidence is important, but history is subjective - subjective to the writers and to the interpreters.  It is incredibly hard to discern what is the actual “truth” and not (which is why some people say “truth” doesn’t exist - only people’s views on it), so I believe it doesn’t matter to the people whether it’s real or not, but how the story matters to them.  (The problem only comes when someone (usually from another culture) comes up and says “I have a problem with this.”)…Sorry, soap box time over.  *hands mic back to medievalpoc*My point is that too many people use the concept of “historical accuracy” to exclude people of color from their fantasy works. Like George R.R. Martin, for example:[GRRM:Re: Sad about Asians…Well, Westeros is the fantasy analogue of the British Isles in its world, so it is a long long way from the Asia analogue. There weren’t a lot of Asians in Yorkish England either.That is not to suggest that such places don’t exist, however. You will want to get THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE when it comes out in October. In the “Other Places” section you will find a lot of material about Yi Ti, the island of Leng, and the plains of the Jogos Nhai, which you may find of interest]When even the creators of these works use this all-white idea of “historical accuracy” as a tool to EXCUSE the fact that they chose to exclude an entire race of people from their works, how are we, as fans of color, supposed to react?Your Fantasy Novel is Not Historically Accurate. It is a fantasy.The question is, whose fantasy is it? -- source link

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