Girls, Cont.

Last night I wrote about stifling the desire to alter HBO's Girls to reflect some notion of diversity that may or may not exist; TNC writes on the same subject:

With that said, I think storytellers--first and foremost--must pledge their loyalty to the narrative as it comes to them. I don't believe in creating characters out a of desire to please your audience or even to promote an ostensible social good. I think good writing is essentially a selfish act--story-tellers are charged with crafting the narrative the want to see. I'm not very interested in Lena Dunham reflecting the aspirations of people she may or may not know. I'm interested in her specific and individual vision; in that story she is aching to tell. If that vision is all-white, then so be it. I don't think a story-teller can be guilted into making great characters. 

It's not Lena Dunham's job to solve racism by creating characters reflecting cultural diversity, it's her job to make a show that has characters we can give two shits about. Which, so far, has not happened.

Moi:

personally, I find the small number of opportunities available to women of color BEHIND the camera more offensive than the idea that it hasn't occurred to anyone to cram a black character onto a show just for it's own sake.  

TNC:

This is about systemic change, not individual attacks.

 

It is not so wrong to craft an exclusively white world--certainly a significant portion of America lives in one. What is wrong is for power-brokers to pretend that no other worlds exists. Across the country there are black writers and black directors toiling to bring those worlds to the screen. If HBO does not see fit to have a relationship with those writers, then those of us concerned should assess our relationship with HBO.

I'm way too obsessed with how much I hate this show. Which means, of course, within 6 weeks I'll think it's the greatest show ever and I'll look like an idiot.