namaah's curse

[manifesta]

Jacqueline Carey revealed her cover for Namaah's Curse! I'm not sure what to think about it...



I would hazard that this cover stems from the Ch'in, or the pseudo-Asian culture in Carey's new Kushiel trilogy. Much criticism has been leveled at her stereotypical portrayal of Asian cultures, and I wonder if this cover is just another extension of such ignorance.

Comments

[elvenflutist.livejournal.com]

I see cover art like this on a lot of "supermarket" novels, the ones with shirtless native men on their covers. I haven't actually read any of these books, but I've read the back covers, and often I see words like "savage" to describe the men, or "exotic beauty" to describe the women, which is enough to tell me that these books exhibit the same phenomenon. It disappoints me, because these are real cultures being oversimplified and exploited. Culture is complex, and you can't just boil it down to a few stereotypes, especially if you're just basing something on an "Asian" culture or a "Native American" culture. Which Asian culture? Which Native American culture? I don't really have a problem with using elements from certain cultures, but when the culture is oversimplified and stereotyped, that's where I have the problem. At least do your research.

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting you have never read the books and yet you hypocritically over simplify their contents.