#orientalism

Anonymous asked:

I have a question around linguistics within dialogue: my story is set in the early crusades with a character list that include European Christians, Middle Eastern Muslims, and Middle Eastern Christians. As - particularly during this time period - characters coming from different backgrounds would have different linguistical styles, I’m trying to avoid my Middle Eastern characters using expressions that are clearly of English origin, note which characters are speaking which language where necessary, and include transliterated Arabic words/phrases when appropriate. (Your ‘how to convey arabic language in a specific dialect is being spoken without lengthy descriptions of how words/specific letters are pronounced?’ answer was really helpful here, thank you!) However as a non-Arabic, English speaker I’m also wary of ‘over-peppering’ these Arabic idioms to the extent that the Europeans’ dialogue comes across as ‘standard’ and the Middle Eastern characters’ as ‘exotic’ (I’m conscious that overly formal and ornate language has been a pretty orientalist trope in the past, which I’m trying to avoid). Would you have any recommended rules of thumb on how to keep a good balance, or anything to be wary of/outright avoid here? Thank you so much for any advice you can share!

Love this. I’d try the placeholder method (just made this up.) Honestly, the best thing to do is just write the story first using whatever English expressions come naturally — even if you know they’re super modern or wouldn’t make sense in the time period and setting (like “a dime a dozen” or “barking up the wrong tree”). Don’t stress about making everything historically or culturally perfect right away. That’ll stall the writing process. These non-suitable phrases become ‘placeholders’ to switch out later. 

So keep track of those lines (you can highlight them or jot the the page/line # down somewhere), and then later on, if you know someone who speaks Arabic or is familiar with the culture, ask them to help swap in more fitting phrases, and do a sensitivity read overall. They might not translate word-for-word, but they can help you find alternatives that still match the vibe or emotion of certain idioms. They can also find spots for Arabic idioms that you wouldn’t have expected. 

I found this list from Reddit user AgileCzar about gulf dialect idioms from a decade ago:

خيرها في غيرها - "a better (one) in another (one)". Kind of like better luck next time, but without sarcasm

انا في وادي وانت في وادي - "I am in a valley and you are in a valley" - describes a situation where you and the other person are on different pages, not seeing eye to eye etc...

يوم عسل ويوم بصل - "A day of honey, a day of onions" - a response when someone asks how you're doing. Basically saying some days are good and some are bad.

شو لونك (shoo lunak) - "What's your color" - used in Kuwait as a greeting (like what's up)

I would never have thought to do any of these, but they’re really fun! Scouring the internet for options and figuring out where these go is a total second-pass sort of edit. You don’t want to put pressure on yourself to get it all right on the first draft. It's a lot easier to fix language stuff when you already have the story down.

I do this in scripts a lot when I know something needs to be in Spanish or Arabic, but I’m not clear on the exact wording because finishing the story is more important at that moment.

Good Luck and Happy Writing!

-Melanie 🌻

(only for the tutorial and first two missions. PLAY THE GAME!!)

I know for a fact the one-star Steam grifters heard the opening music and were more offended than they already were 🤣 DON'T LET THE RACIST LOSERS WIN! Leave good reviews!!

The music!! It's just getting me, it is. I love it.

It's certainly got a lot of atmosphere!

It looks smoother on PC than on TV (we ported it to the tv for comforts sake), but not bad. Very stylized. I wasn't pressed.

Voice acting is a joy, loving the accents, loving that Black Africans and places IN Africa are central to the plot. Senegal, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, and more.

Big sister coming through for little brother as the intro, classic.

The tutorial is really simple. Good for beginners, assuming you've ever played a game before.

Nomali- the Lady MC- is "All Africa Free Running Champion"- you are in good parkour hands 👍🏾

You can take easier or harder routes through the platforms, but you will get through it. You can try multiple ways, if you want! Just gotta plan it! It'll even show you some of the Whole platform.

It's a very pretty game! Very vibrant. People have been taught to imagine places in Africa as dirt huts, poverty, and misery (and we know why) and not a place full of life and culture. I like how this counteracts that mentality. And Afrofuturism!!!

We meet Feng (Chinese), Etienne (French), Annie (Afrikaner) showing that other people do interact and are still present! It's just not about you. I've been wondering if Ndedi is Afro-Chinese, but I'm sure I'll find out with time.

I love that their elder and leader is "Koko" Grace, which in Maa (Maasai) means Grandmother.

LOVING all the hair styles!!

I love that it tells you about the places that we are taking the items back for. For example, the first item is to take the Silver Buffalo back for the kingdom of Dahomey (dow-oh-mee), and it tells you where it is (modern day Benin), and different details about its colonization (French) and its value. AS WELL as where you're going to retrieve it (i.e. who currently has it).

It's not even just the African artifacts! The game will tell you about artifacts globally that were commandeered by Western museums. There has been an Indian artifact, and there was a Brazilian and Haitian one in the demo. So EVERYBODY gets a little representation, artifact wise!

YOU CAN STEAL MORE THAN OME ARTIFACT AT ONCE! Depending on your skill level. And it'll tell you about the person, their country, and a history fact. This is an educational game! It's really my favorite part, that you get to learn about the items we're taking back. I can absolutely tell why the "we hate Woke™ colored people" crowd would try to review-bomb this game.

I wouldn't call it an "easy" game. It's still a puzzle game! Take your time!

if a queer person says something is queer phobic than it probably is

if a disabled person says something is ableist than it probably is

if a jewish person says something is antisemitic than it probably is

if a muslim person says something is islamophobic than it probably is

listen to minorities instead of deciding for yourself what's bigoted

same thing with authors like khaled hosseini. their works show one perspective, a perspective now removed in a sea of different experiences, one that conveniently paints western imperialist agendas in a positive light and even more conveniently becomes the only narrative ever published for western audiences