This is one of those entries where I meant to write about something else, but due to recent events, I felt the need to rearrange my plans. In the past, I’ve talked a lot about not only finding reassurance through storytelling in light of current events, but also on just how valuable storytelling can be too, to rise above such issues. With the release of An Absolute Mind on the horizon and after everything that has happened this week on both the political and media fronts, this seems like a wise opportunity to talk about this again.
If you’ve read the announcement I released last month about An Absolute Mind, you may have noticed how I said that I felt weird about having to mention the representations of female characters, AAPI characters, mixed race characters, and LGBT characters. The reason why I said that is that storytelling is such a universal outlet that it should be without question for stories about a wide variety of people to exist out there. Then again, if that were truly the case, then there wouldn’t be as much discussion about the representation of particular demographics in the media. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, it’s sometimes important to see positive representations of such characters, in light of ongoing issues, such as the two that I’m about to discuss that happened over this past week:
In case you haven’t heard by now, Fox News is in the spotlight of rage following a f***ed up segment they did where Jesse Watters went around New York’s Chinatown, asking people there almost every racist question you can think of towards Asian people. It’s so bad, that I’m not even going to provide the video of it, for it’s just God awful! While Watters has tweeted in response to the outrage, saying that it was all for comedic purposes, well, obviously he dug himself a much deeper hole.
The fact that this came out of Fox News does not surprise me. That news network has screwed up so many times in the past, I’m not even sure how they’re still existing. In fact, I’m not even sure how this was given the “okay” to air on national television. What I can say is that if a more intelligent person was overseeing everything, this segment not only would have never seen the light of day, but it would never have been executed either.
The other news from this week that I want to mention actually came about over the past few days. A video from 2005 of Donald Trump was leaked, where in a nutshell, he’s talking about how he can do whatever he wants to women as a famous person. An uproar has appropriately come about in response, and his comments have even left some Republicans stunned. While Trump has since responded to it, it wasn’t so much of an apology, as it was another way of discrediting himself by not admitting that he was wrong at all.
As you may have noticed, I’ve avoided talking about the election on both my blog and my social media in general, because I’m so tired of hearing about it. That and I don’t believe in feeding the wrong wolf. However, in this case, it felt necessary to address. First of all, it does not surprise me that this kind of garbage would come out of his mouth. He wants to build a wall at the Mexican border and ban all Muslims, so of course he would say sh** like this. Besides, it’s not even the first time he’s made sexist comments towards women. Second of all, the fact that people are even shocked over this is laughable, for this should have been crystal clear since day one of this dog and pony show. I didn’t think it would require this many statements from him for people to realize that he truly is ill fit to be our next president. Do you really want this fool in office if this is how he talks about women?
Asians being made fun of for a racist’s humor and Trump’s unsurprising sexist comments from 11 years ago just make me shake my head, at not only the people we have in this country, but also that these attitudes are even going on now. It’s through these instances where I realize the importance of the particular representations throughout my novel.
Much like A Moment’s Worth, a number of the characters in An Absolute Mind are Asian American; including the protagonist. To see Asian Americans portrayed properly in storytelling mediums is a continual work-in-progress, which is why I hope that these characters of mine can seen as good examples of such. Also much like my first novel, there are a vast number of female characters throughout the second novel as well; some in positions of power, some in pursuit of their passions, and in the case of the protagonist, embarking on a hero’s journey. I hope that through these characters, they can effectively counter every racist joke and sexist remark made out there, for to write a character as an effective human is, at the end of the day, a goal accomplished.
I hope this gets you more excited for what to expect from An Absolute Mind. Within time, more will be revealed as we draw closer to the release date.
Lola By The Bay 