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seriousficJensen Ackles to star in reality TV show. You know Supernatural fandom? You know the expression 'pouring gas on a fire'? This is driving an oil tanker into a fire. After this, all it'll take is Mischa Collins coming out as a Teabagger and the riots will spill out onto the streets...
But just in case you need three horsemen of the wankcalypse, Jason Momoa has been cast as Conan. Which is actually surprisingly great casting. When you think about guys who can pull off 'got to be king by killing everyone else with a sword', Jason Momoa's pretty close to the top of the list. But still, it's a mixed-race man playing the most famous character of an infamously racist/homophobic/"'holy shit that's a lot of issues' said Rolling Stone" writer. Named Robert E. Howard, if you're not following. To put more of a point on it, Conan's a barbarian with pantherish speed, who disdains civilization, and spends a lot of time dub-conning 'pale-armed' maidens. And he's being played by a POC. Powder. Keg. I can't wait for someone to actually read one of the Conan stories. It's gonna be epic.
But just in case you need three horsemen of the wankcalypse, Jason Momoa has been cast as Conan. Which is actually surprisingly great casting. When you think about guys who can pull off 'got to be king by killing everyone else with a sword', Jason Momoa's pretty close to the top of the list. But still, it's a mixed-race man playing the most famous character of an infamously racist/homophobic/"'holy shit that's a lot of issues' said Rolling Stone" writer. Named Robert E. Howard, if you're not following. To put more of a point on it, Conan's a barbarian with pantherish speed, who disdains civilization, and spends a lot of time dub-conning 'pale-armed' maidens. And he's being played by a POC. Powder. Keg. I can't wait for someone to actually read one of the Conan stories. It's gonna be epic.
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Date: 2010-01-23 07:47 pm (UTC)"Infamous" is overdoing it. Howard was no more or less racist or homophobic than the average 1930s Texan, or 1930s American/Westerner full stop. Homosexuality was considered a psychological disorder akin to paedophilia by the scientific establishment right up to the 1960s. Racial issues were barely any better.
To a modern audience, sure, Howard was racist. If he wrote some of the things he said in 2002 instead of 1932, of course it would be outrageous. But it's important to think of context when it comes to people who lived 70 years ago. By applying modern concerns to the past, even Abraham Lincoln would be considered a vile racist.
As for the mixed-race element, the principal problem in casting Momoa as Conan is a matter of suspension of disbelief. Conan was born in Cimmeria, a dark land, perpetually shrouded in mist, with no sunlight save the dreary light that filters through the clouds. Jason Momoa doesn't conjure images of a bleak north so much as a sultry south. Unless they turn Cimmeria into a hot, sunny land with orange groves and sandy beaches, it's just too incongruous.