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All the characters in Silicon Valley are one dimensional caricatures, so on the one hand it seems unreasonable that two of the characters should have their ethn

All the characters in Silicon Valley are one dimensional caricatures, so on the one hand it seems unreasonable that two of the characters should have their ethnicity explored in a meaningful way. The show doesn’t treat anything in a deep or meaningful way. When the caricature is based on ethnicity, however, and ethnic stereotypes particularly, then surely there is an onus to treat racial sensitivities, or attempt to do so. The slurs dressed as wit continues to grate, in an otherwise enjoyable comedy.

forgottenpass 9y ago
All the characters in Silicon Valley are one dimensional caricatures All fiction is artifice. Conversations about how good/bad representation in fiction creates an underlying assumption that it's not crazy to expect prioritization of accuracy in modeling humanity. Fictional characters are cogs in a rube goldberg-ian machine designed to elicit an emotional response. Similarities to reality exist to make it so the set-up for the emotional punchline doesn't feel artificial. That is my primary problem with articles like these. The presumption that ethnicity is more often explored by media, rather than just new contextual framing and stereotypes programmed into the brains of the viewer. Creators trying to "get real" in their fiction are just using "real" as shorthand for "exploring emotional themes that are relevant to me and/or to the zeitgeist" and "reducing the uncanny valley feeling of characters that are inexorably two-dimensional." Also: In b4 I'm called autistic for thinking cookie cutter meta-conversation that follow one of a dozen "Look for X, feel Y about Z" criticism patterns only serves to obscure, not clarify, our understanding of works of fiction.