Building Worlds: Orientalism

It was Saladin Ahmed's article on the issue of race on Game of Thrones that made me think I should add Edward Said's Orientalism to my collection of posts here. When a piece went up on the Tor website about racial diversity in Dungeons & Dragons, it pretty much solidified it for me. Neither of them have to do explicitly with the subject of Said's book, but they touch on part of his thesis: that literary representations of 'the Orient' are part of a discourse that's shared with academic disciplines devoted to its study as well as to the exercise of Western political power. To put it another way, fiction isn't exempt from the political or social attitudes of its day; it can serve to reinforce those attitudes, whether the author intends it or not.

Worldbuilding with Themes and Principles

Mike McArtor's most recent post on telling stories in games over at the Story Papers blog have brought back to mind a worldbuilding technique that I used for a game a few years ago. Before I go into it, I'll suggest that you hop over there and take a look around; both his and Ann's articles are well worth following.

Back? Okay.