Mixed race character in a historical
Mar. 11th, 2008 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdWe were bitten by the heterosexual Historical bunny.
So "Yellowstone River Blues" is in the works.
Basically, imagine a middle-aged Erroll Flynn falling for a slightly-less middle-aged Thandie Newton.
The problem is, Paz appeared as profoundly mixed in my head.
Her father is the son of a runaway slave and his Apache wife.
Her mother is the result of a wealthy Texas landholder's liaison with his Mexican cook.
Her parents were burned out and murdered by ranchers/US military who were trying to open the land to white settlers.
Is this too complicated? Is it too Mary-Sue or fanfictiony?
Also, what period appropriate term would she use for her grandfather?
I'm thinking Negro was the polite term in that era.
Would you, as a reader, hurl a book across the room if a sympathetic character referred to her ancestry in such terms?
(unsympathetic characters will have less polite terms)
And if anyone can point me to a website featuring prices in the 1890s, it'd be much appreciated.
So "Yellowstone River Blues" is in the works.
Basically, imagine a middle-aged Erroll Flynn falling for a slightly-less middle-aged Thandie Newton.
The problem is, Paz appeared as profoundly mixed in my head.
Her father is the son of a runaway slave and his Apache wife.
Her mother is the result of a wealthy Texas landholder's liaison with his Mexican cook.
Her parents were burned out and murdered by ranchers/US military who were trying to open the land to white settlers.
Is this too complicated? Is it too Mary-Sue or fanfictiony?
Also, what period appropriate term would she use for her grandfather?
I'm thinking Negro was the polite term in that era.
Would you, as a reader, hurl a book across the room if a sympathetic character referred to her ancestry in such terms?
(unsympathetic characters will have less polite terms)
And if anyone can point me to a website featuring prices in the 1890s, it'd be much appreciated.
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Re:
Date: 2008-03-15 12:25 am (UTC)This is at the noodling/research planning phase.
We've weighed all the options. And i think we're writing the Robin Hood piece instead.
Re:
Date: 2008-03-15 12:54 am (UTC)Actually, that helps some, yes.
I'm truly sorry if I seem harsh. But I'm not at a place to be writing right now and so I really look to the writers I know who're working steadily to be, DECENT and AWARE and using their opportunity to have a voice heard.
Re:
Date: 2008-03-15 01:31 am (UTC)I can take a hint. Or, you know, a direct clue-by-four. 8)
When EVERYONE I know--friends, respected writers--is saying "This is a bad idea," it's time to step back from it and say "Bad idea."