I know the choice to change Stratt from Dutch to German in the film was largely a result of casting Sandra HĆ¼ller (who was perfect in the role, so like, I get it) but honestly the more I roll it around in my head the more the politics of it compel me.
Thinking about Stratt--who has such a unique blend of optimism and cynicism, willing to place Earth's hopes in an interstellar mission but approaching making it happen in such a ruthlessly pragmatic way--growing up as a kid in East Germany and living through die Wende and the collapse of the Eastern Bloc is just really politically fascinating. Partly because Stratt herself is so politically fascinating, but there's also something else there, something that speaks to growing up watching protests and upheaval on one side of the Iron Curtain, only to end up working for the extremely international European Space Agency as an adult (and then transition into leading the even more international Petrova Taskforce). In that context, movie!Stratt has seen both human conflict and human cooperation in spades, and I could see it hugely informing her perspective on the Hail Mary mission.
In any case. I'm still chewing on the implications of all this, but like I said, it does really compel me.
#still baffled by how such a politically interesting character was made by someone not interested in politics...
It's because Weir is interested in politics, he just doesn't realize it because his framework for what counts as "political" is really bad and narrow.
Weir's books (or at least The Martian and Project Hail Mary, I can't speak for Artemis which I haven't read) are incredibly interested in themes of international cooperation. Which is, of course, the definition of political. In The Martian, a number of countries' space agencies work together to help get Mark Watney home; in Project Hail Mary the eponymous project is the work of the entire international community and the mission is meant to be an multinational one, even if only Ryland Grace actually survives. That's incredibly political and not on accident. International cooperation -- which is one of the things that contributes to Stratt being such a fascinating character -- is clearly a theme Weir cares about and returns to frequently in his writing.
However, Andy Weir (being a cishet white American man) thinks politics are for other people. I can almost guarantee you that a large part of his personal definition of the political revolves around identity politics, which he thinks he's exempt from as a "normal" person who exists outside of those othering categories (heavy on the sarcasm, of course). Politics are things like racial equality and pronouns, something that, in his mind, exist independently from the scientific cooperation he's fascinated by and keeps returning to in his work. Which is deeply incorrect, but a view that a lot of people nonetheless hold.
I point all this out because it's a great example of when authors do manage to put interesting themes into their work that some people dismiss as an accident, but it's really a bit more complicated than that. It's not necessarily an accident that Weird finds international cooperation fascinating and even important. I think it's even pretty safe to say it's something that he put into his work on purpose. He just doesn't recognize it as political. Which is bizarre, and indicative of a very privileged worldview, but it doesn't necessarily make Eva Stratt a total fluke. It just means you gotta really Death of the Author this one in order to point out what she represents.
