Cancelled

Yesterday on Twitter, Calvin Wong was tweeting about how the settings in the Z-Man Euro Classics Line perpetuates Orientalism. First of all, before I say anything else, he is absolutely right. It is not up for debate. I in no way disagree with him.

However, Orientalism is something I have always struggled with, ever since I first studied it back in my college art history classes. I understand that it portrays Eastern cultures in opposition to Western culture, with Western culture being the superior. So Eastern is passive, static, emotional and chaotic, while Western is active, mobile, rational and ordered. And, of course, this is all tied into colonialism. On the other hand 19th century Orientalism produced some very appealing art, poetry and literature. It has been rather difficult for me to come to terms with, especially when my professor was showing a slide of a really pretty painting that I very much liked, but telling me it was a "bad" thing.

So, when I read Calvin's tweet, my first gut reaction was that someone wanted to take all the pretty things away from me. Fortunately, I had read this article just a few days prior (because I read all the articles before you all do), and remembered this bit:

"It’s not nice when you or something you love is criticised. When you feel passionately about a game, publisher, or whatever you want to defend it from criticism. It can feel like a personal attack. You go on the defensive, get angry. Most importantly, you stop listening. You become afraid that the thing you love will be taken away. That it will get ‘cancelled’."

I felt exactly as Iain described. So my second thought was, stop, listen and think. Most importantly, listen and think from the perspective that what Calvin says is valid and true. So my third thought (and truthfully, I fumed and sulked for a bit before getting to this third thought) was reassuring myself that no one wants to take anything away from me, they want to give me something that's better.

My fourth thought took awhile to arrive, as I pondered the third. It wasn't until this morning as I walked through my house to get some coffee, looking at the art on my walls, that I finally realized, that it isn't Orientalism that I like and want, it is actual real Indian, African and Japanese art that I love. The reinterpretations of it by Americans and Europeans widely misses the mark and is awkward and ugly. Nothing about the settings or the art in the 5 Euro Classic games makes them more appealing to me than if they were set elsewhere. In fact, they would probably be more attractive if the publishers and designers used settings and styles from their own culture, with art done in the artist's own style from their own culture.

Furthermore, Calvin advocates for designers, developers and artists of the culture being represented to work on games. Which means that he is advocating for superior products for me. Instead of inferior, fake Indian art, maybe someday I get actual, beautiful real Indian art, in a game that represents the real India, from Indian designers working within an Indian game design paradigm. How cool is that.

It took me awhile. I still don't understand Orientalism on an intuitive or visceral level. It will probably continue to fly under my radar. But I am working on it. I got there by listening and suppressing my outrage and defensiveness over thinking something that I liked, and was important to me, was being "cancelled."

TL;DR - Stop. Listen. Think.

The box covers of Z-Man's classic euro line did not strike me as disrespectful either, which is a large part of why I struggled with what Calvin was saying. To even start to understand, I had to first listen, and then force myself to let go of my own views, and try to see it from his perspective. To do this, I had to begin by telling myself, "I'm wrong. He's right." And then proceed from there.

@Jackwraith

Very well articulated and so helpful. Thank you.