Are there any culture’s materials you particularly avoid or seek out? (e.g. you avoid anything Japanese, be it anime, manga, video games, etc.; you love anything British, TV, books, etc.)If so, why?
I avoid Swedish stuff. Like I said, there was the one children's program (I remember it as cool SF about a dystopia where laughter and fantasy were basically outlawed, and rebels fighting to overthrow that oppressive rule), but since then? Um... I tend to find Swedish-language movies pretentious and boring, and what's produced for domestic TV feels like it's all so slice-of-life that I have no interest for it. I'm aware that this is more of a prejudice than a fact, but I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything avoiding Swedish TV/movies. See - I want something beyond the ordinary in my fiction! Mystery or magic or at least some action, and I cannot for the life of me think of any Swedish show that's offered me that.
The one exception is Swedish books - I do read Swedish books, and I love them, too. But the books I seek out are - not surprisingly! - the ones that contain the aforementioned extraordinary elements.
What I seek out: well, either you'll have see it as seeking out things in "my" culture when I fan on anything Western (since I am all kind of mixed, but at least solidly Western), or you'll have to go for the fact that I seek out US/UK stuff and mark that down as another culture. I don't even know myself - I think of it as "mine" in that I understand pretty much everything (including cultural/historical references), and it feels familiar... at the same time, there are nuances you have to have grown up with to fully grasp, I think.
For example, the US High School experience is one of those things that show up everywhere in fiction, but that is totally alien to me - our school systems are just that different... So as an abstract, I understand it - I know more or less how the system works, in theory, and I am familiar with many high school narratives. On the other hand, I can't compare any of the HS scenarios I see on TV with my own experience.
I also do differentiate between US and UK stuff, where I see the US as producing quantity, and the UK as producing quality. (There's another essay here, don't you know!)
Lastly - and this should already be obvious in my previous answers - I seek out Japanese texts. Because my love for anime literally goes back almost as far as I can remember (age 5 or 6). And now I've made Japan my home, and I'm doing my best to master the language, and, yes, fandom has been a huge reason while I've done all of that. (This is not something I advertise, though, especially not in real life.)
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Part 2 of the massive REPLY OF DOOM
Date: 2010-07-24 03:14 am (UTC)I avoid Swedish stuff. Like I said, there was the one children's program (I remember it as cool SF about a dystopia where laughter and fantasy were basically outlawed, and rebels fighting to overthrow that oppressive rule), but since then? Um... I tend to find Swedish-language movies pretentious and boring, and what's produced for domestic TV feels like it's all so slice-of-life that I have no interest for it. I'm aware that this is more of a prejudice than a fact, but I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything avoiding Swedish TV/movies. See - I want something beyond the ordinary in my fiction! Mystery or magic or at least some action, and I cannot for the life of me think of any Swedish show that's offered me that.
The one exception is Swedish books - I do read Swedish books, and I love them, too. But the books I seek out are - not surprisingly! - the ones that contain the aforementioned extraordinary elements.
What I seek out: well, either you'll have see it as seeking out things in "my" culture when I fan on anything Western (since I am all kind of mixed, but at least solidly Western), or you'll have to go for the fact that I seek out US/UK stuff and mark that down as another culture. I don't even know myself - I think of it as "mine" in that I understand pretty much everything (including cultural/historical references), and it feels familiar... at the same time, there are nuances you have to have grown up with to fully grasp, I think.
For example, the US High School experience is one of those things that show up everywhere in fiction, but that is totally alien to me - our school systems are just that different... So as an abstract, I understand it - I know more or less how the system works, in theory, and I am familiar with many high school narratives. On the other hand, I can't compare any of the HS scenarios I see on TV with my own experience.
I also do differentiate between US and UK stuff, where I see the US as producing quantity, and the UK as producing quality. (There's another essay here, don't you know!)
Lastly - and this should already be obvious in my previous answers - I seek out Japanese texts. Because my love for anime literally goes back almost as far as I can remember (age 5 or 6). And now I've made Japan my home, and I'm doing my best to master the language, and, yes, fandom has been a huge reason while I've done all of that. (This is not something I advertise, though, especially not in real life.)