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Reviews tagging 'Violence'
The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
2 reviews
foreverinastory's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.0
This was freaking phenomenal. I will definitely be rereading this in the future. Thomas talks about so much in the intro that I'm itching to annotate a physical copy and I almost never do that. I'd also be really interested to see this book expanded and updated.
The Dark Fantastic brings Critical Race Theory to YA Fantasy. This book uses the various lenses of CRT to look at how fictional BIPOC are treated in both the books and movies. It also analyzes colorism and misogynoir. I found this so incredibly fascinating and really enjoyed Thomas's takes on Merlin, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Vampire Diaries and Harry Potter.
I will say that the chapter about HP felt like the least explored one. Thomas discusses Hermione and Angela Johnson, but I feel like it missed out on pointing out several of the other flaws in Rowling's world like the naming of Cho Chang and how she made Jewish people into goblins. I also would love for someone to finally point out how excessively transphobic JKR. She showed her whole face in 2020 but the signs were there before then.
The Twilight and THG chapters were super interesting to me because I've read all the books and watched most of the movies (sorry Mockingjay). I loved how Thomas points out that Katniss is treated differently in the books because she is darker than her sister. There were just so many amazing analyses in this book. The Merlin and TVD was new to me since I haven't seen either of the shows and only read two or three of TVD books.
Overall, this was fantastic. I really enjoyed listening to this and I definitely will again.
CWs: Racism, misogyny, misogynoir, HP discussion/references. Minor: death, violence.
The Dark Fantastic brings Critical Race Theory to YA Fantasy. This book uses the various lenses of CRT to look at how fictional BIPOC are treated in both the books and movies. It also analyzes colorism and misogynoir. I found this so incredibly fascinating and really enjoyed Thomas's takes on Merlin, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Vampire Diaries and Harry Potter.
I will say that the chapter about HP felt like the least explored one. Thomas discusses Hermione and Angela Johnson, but I feel like it missed out on pointing out several of the other flaws in Rowling's world like the naming of Cho Chang and how she made Jewish people into goblins. I also would love for someone to finally point out how excessively transphobic JKR. She showed her whole face in 2020 but the signs were there before then.
The Twilight and THG chapters were super interesting to me because I've read all the books and watched most of the movies (sorry Mockingjay). I loved how Thomas points out that Katniss is treated differently in the books because she is darker than her sister. There were just so many amazing analyses in this book. The Merlin and TVD was new to me since I haven't seen either of the shows and only read two or three of TVD books.
Overall, this was fantastic. I really enjoyed listening to this and I definitely will again.
CWs: Racism, misogyny, misogynoir, HP discussion/references. Minor: death, violence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Misogyny
Minor: Death and Violence
n_asyikin_'s review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
An informative book that introduced frameworks for critical analyses of media contents. Even for an Asian reader like myself, I felt that Thomas provided a voice for my experience, especially relating to the pervasiveness & preference of the White Western's views in media. The consequences can be seen even in the South East Asian society where I came from. There are the integration of Western's frameworks & prejudices into our norms, disseminated through the spread & popularity of Western media, i.e., cultural & mental colonization. As such, we failed to account for the source of such views & norms, hence, perpetuating injustices originated from the powerful White Global Northerners (i.e., our former & current colonizers). Unfortunately, the lack of foresight led to failure in identifying how it effects & shapes the racialized, gendered, & abled inequality within our own community.
Thomas provided a great foundation for readers like me who've sensed but was unable to put into words, what has been missing from our experience with primarily Western media consumption. Importantly, she argued for the need to be aware of the undertones that exist in such media, the sociohistorical significance of its structure & its contribution in shaping real-life.
The Dark Fantastic has been an eye-opener.
Thomas provided a great foundation for readers like me who've sensed but was unable to put into words, what has been missing from our experience with primarily Western media consumption. Importantly, she argued for the need to be aware of the undertones that exist in such media, the sociohistorical significance of its structure & its contribution in shaping real-life.
The Dark Fantastic has been an eye-opener.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Misogyny
Minor: Violence and Death
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