  Action/Adventure
This week: Heroes and Stereotypes Edited by: Annette  
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| Hello writers and readers of action and adventure, I am Annette , your guest editor for this issue. |
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Heroes and Stereotypes
How open are you to break away from the stereo type of the male (usually white) hero?
Following a discussion about the ethnicity or skin color or the typical hero, I thought this would be a good topic to address in an action adventure newsletter since this genre calls for one or more heroes in the story.
In an article found online, the writer lamented that some people were more accepting of a white-skinned hero and a black or dark-skinned villain than the other way around. I wonder if that is really true or if it is that everybody "sees" the characters in books they read in their own eyes and when images or even actors are put into those roles, we think it's all wrong.
I felt betrayed by the choice in actors for Jason Bourne. I read all of the books in that series by Robert Ludlum two or three times. I had a very clear image in my mind of what he looked like. Robert Ludlum had done a great job at describing Jason Bourne to me in a way that I had his face, body type, and all other of the details of his looks engrained in my mind. It was jarring and weird to see this character portrayed by an actor who was the opposite (in my mind) of the book version. And the actor chosen was not even a different ethnicity.
As you put your hero into action or build your team, ask yourself how you want to use racial stereo types or if you want to break out of the mold and have your hero behave against "type." Whatever you do, stay consistent with that one hero. While there can be growth in the character, and there should be some, it's probably not a good idea to have a character that behaves in ways that are atypical for her/him.
I once wrote a story about doctors who worked with "Doctors Without Borders" and gave the group a multi-ethnic cast from France, North African, and Australia of both genders. One reviewer accused me of being "politically correct" by having such a cast. But why? I wondered. Can't there be doctors from North Africa and Australia working together through an international organization? Can't women and men work together in productive ways? It made perfect sense to me that the cast was made up from multiple nationalities and from both genders.
So, as you write, (I always seem to write that) consider your audience. Do you want to be limited to white males between 18-25 or do you want everybody do find a character that they can feel comfortable with? Then again - even if you want to appeal to a broad audience - there is no sense in trying too hard. If your characters are all from one nationality and all one gender, than that can be good too depending on the story you want to tell. Personally, I am a bit tired of indigenous people in trouble requiring a white man to come over and save them or the damsel in distress requiring the man to pick her up from the tallest tower after slaying the dragon. Then again, it's worked for many stories and there is no reason it couldn't work for yours.
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Comments I got for my last Action Adventure Newsletter "Culture Shock"
BIG BAD WOLF is Merry  wrote: Making your own world is never easy. But it is fun. "Planet Animalus"
Lots of fun. I agree.
Ben Garrick  wrote: If I were to be trying to be H. Rider Haggard, your instant comments would be spot-on and very helpful in advancing myself.
But doing a safari into deepest Africa has already been often-done back at the turn of the last century, so I choose to explore within the somewhat more modern jungle of the City of Detroit. I demand ultimate reality of myself, both for honesty's sake and because I find it to be very damaging to the idea of vicarious experience; the very thing that makes Action-Adventure so attractive.
The sample I offered, above, is my own 'take' on this approach.
I'd be happy to offer an 'essay-ish' sort of comment on this if it should be of use---perhaps as a 'guest-commentator' sort of thing? Command me!
'Ben' "Invalid Item"
Detroit can be very exotic. To those who've not been there the People Mover is a thing to behold.  Detroit was my first US American home in 1989. I have fond memories of it.
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Action/Adventure: December 18, 2013 Issue [#6039]
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