"While I’ll admit that I initially rolled my eyes at yet another Gruff White Male Protagonist™ in a grim world - especially one with such a Gruff White Male Protagonist™-ey name as Deacon St. John - I ended up getting far more invested than I’d initially expected."
This is what the writer said. It's right there. I have no earthly idea how people are trying to downplay the ignorance of this sentence. He made a baseless assumption based on the appearance of the character, period. The very fact that he admits to being wrong perfectly illustrates just how idiotic such assumptions are.
Even beyond that, where is common sense in the first place? How the bloody fuck is a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world supposed to look? Oh, no, he didn't shave this morning! He looks awfully gruff! Is he supposed to be wearing a tuxedo? Maybe a sturdy sweater vest?
We know what this is about. The character is a white male. Take the same character and change the race or gender and the writer wouldn't be complaining about "gruff" anything.
Forget that, though. It's kind of laughable that this kind of generalization is only acceptable because he's a white male but it's not what bothers me. As a reader, I come across something like this and all I can think is that I can't take this writer seriously. Before he even begins, he's going to assume that he knows all about the character? That's more than just ignorance, that's flat out stupidity. How about learning about the character BEFORE MAKING IDIOTIC ASSUMPTIONS? Why not try THAT? The same with all these, "oh, he looks like a boring character because there are other characters who look generally similar." I mean, the fuck? What a character looks like is often one of the least important aspects.
Yes, ultimately the writer was just trying to be witty while scoring a few brownie points with his direction of choice but the end result is that it makes him look less than intelligent. Not really a criteria that I seek out with reviewers.
Last edited by pokoko - on 06 March 2019
