• From: Vancouver B.C. canada
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Topic: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

Ive been watching game of thrones like most of you, and loving it, but i have to say I'm getting really tired of just euro-centirc fantasy.
So my questions are ,  one, does anyone have any recommendation for fantasy that is non European, Asian or African etc?
two while a lot of people will view this as a bs pc thing im wondering about how to find ideas and stories that in a sense that wouldn't piss off the people from the area/culture that is depicted. i found out that George miller was inspired by a aboriginal ghost ghost for the biases of road warrior/ mad max 2.
I've been thinking about this for a while in relation to a sort of African savannah with butabu style buildings but like GOT using Hadrian's Wall for the ice wall taking real events or place and exaggerating them.
This guys work on the revised African map and this presentation was the origin of thinking about this...
https://prezi.com/zqjrcx-uj7d_/alkebu-l … sentation/

thanks

Last edited by Deamon (2015-06-18 21:01:09)

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  • From: Red Deer, AB
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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

Its not really a fantasy story in this setting. But Tad Williams' Otherland series includes a lot of concepts and imagery inspired by some South African aborigines tribes. One of the lead characters is a man from a tribe of bushmen in South Africa that wants to preserve the stories and mythology of his people using the modern VI tech the rest of the story is based around.

From what I understand a lot of what Tad came up with and uses is inspired by a lot of real aborigines stories, although none of it is "actual" mythology.


Edit: Typing on phones is hard guyz.

Last edited by BigDamnArtist (2015-06-18 22:47:03)

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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

Ah, you excluded Asian. I'll point this out anyway - Jade Empire, a video game, was a great example of a fabricated, Eastern-style mythology, done by a Western team.

Prey comes to mind. It's not a fantasy - it's sci-fi - but it incorporates Cherokee spiritualism in a way that isn't overly offensive; I'm not well-versed in Native American culture to know whether it's actually good.

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  • From: Kent, England
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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

The chinese have a whole genre that is basically their equivalent of our fantasy - Wu Xia. Basically, swordplay stories set in a quasi-historical setting. As for specific recommendations, you have something like The Blade or Ashes of Time which is low fantasy (Conan-esque), and then Zu Warriors of the Magic Mountain, which is at the high fantasy end of the spectrum (flying swordsmen, magic, ghosts).

edit - I appeared not to have read that right, I thought you meant non-European, eg, Asian and African, rather than non-all three of these.

Last edited by redxavier (2015-06-18 23:11:54)

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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  • From: Red Deer, AB
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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

Oh, okay, if that's the case I rread that wrong as well. Although I'm trying to think what there is outside European, Asian or African. That kinda encompasses the whole ancient world that thesse kind of stories build on.

Although I mean I could tell you the stories of the mighty Moose wars, and the Beaver tribes I guess.

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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

How about Pacific islanders? I'm currently basing a culture off an amalgam of Norse and Maori culture.

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  • From: Red Deer, AB
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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

Writhyn wrote:

How about Pacific islanders? I'm currently basing a culture off an amalgam of Norse and Maori culture.

That's fair enough. I guess in that case you could throw in Atlantis (Disney) and The Road To Eldorado. Although I'm not sure how those fair on the "doesn't offend the natives" scale. And they're hardly GoT in scale or tone.

Although RE: Norse, I guess it kinda depends on how you draw your map of Europe.

Last edited by BigDamnArtist (2015-06-18 23:25:47)

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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

This might be of interest to you. Interview with Steven Erikson, who is a fantasy writer with an anthropology degree and 18 years of experience as an archaeologist. His work (Malazan Book of The Fallen) pays respect to all kinds of non-european cultures/civilizations (as well as some european ones) and how they relate to each other.

The series is a love/hate it (i loooooooved it) kind of thing, but the interview's really interesting, maybe some food for thought, or inspiration there.

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  • From: Vancouver B.C. canada
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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

wow thanks!
to clarify i meant just non European
African or Asian or Khmer is what i was talking about.

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  • From: Vancouver B.C. canada
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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

vikings are out too, but not from interest just looking for areas not covered as much. There is, while non fantasy great comics and tv shows on vikings at this moment. for this exercise consider Europe from Norway to Greece off the list.

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  • From: Vancouver B.C. canada
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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

also i almost included japan as that's been covered as well. but the khmer empire would be high on the list
herc im checking out this interview

This might be of interest to you. Interview with Steven Erikson, who is a fantasy writer with an anthropology degree and 18 years of experience as an archaeologist. His work (Malazan Book of The Fallen) pays respect to all kinds of non-european cultures/civilizations (as well as some european ones) and how they relate to each other.

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Re: non european fantasy? Cultural appropriation vs some thing different

I'd recommend the anime El-Hazard (the original seven part OAV, not the TV show). It's set in a sort of Arabian fantasy world. It's also one of the few cases where the dub is actually better than the original.

There's Nazca, set in the old Incan empire, but that's only fantasy if you factor in reincarnation.

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