Cultural Input Thread

I'm starting this thread for those writers who're looking for cultural input in their stories.

How it works: You post the title and genre of your story, a brief one-sentence summary and the things you're concerned about.

Cuba Libre- Alternate History

Summary: The diary of a teenaged literal Che clone.

Concerns: Depiction of Afro-Cuban culture, particularly Santeria, and various Cuban festivals.

edited 26th Aug '12 3:00:34 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

Anyone interested? I can't be the only one...

edited 26th Aug '12 5:05:23 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

I'm always interested in this sort of thing, but I can't really help you. :/

I think the problem with this thread is that someone musthave the sort of experience the previous poster needs as well as their own request. This discourages people who have useful advice to offer but don't have their own request and encourages people who're willing to just say any old thing and post their request.

TV Tropes's No. 1 bread themed lesbian. she/her, fae/faer

Also, at least speaking personally I don't believe I've ever knowingly encountered an Afro-Cuban troper, much less one who frequents Writer's Block.

@nrjxll: They don't have to be Afro-Cuban, just Cuban or a Santero.

edited 26th Aug '12 2:50:46 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

The point is that it's entirely possible no one has responded to your many questions on this topic because no one who frequents this forum is suitable to respond.

@njrxll: Yeah. I find it a bit strange that even though we have Latino tropers, there are apparently no Cuban-Americans on this forum. There might be, but no-one's come right out and said it.

edited 26th Aug '12 3:02:26 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

And no one else can post anything here until someone has a question their cultural background is suitable to answer.

There's really no reason to make this a chained-posts thread. The OP has been edited to reflect that. If you can answer, please do. If you've got questions of your own, ask them.

edited 26th Aug '12 6:34:40 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Thanks, Madrugada.

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

In which case..

Summary: I'm participating in a GURPS*

RP in sometime, set in about 1850. The main differences between that world and ours is the existence of magic and alchemy. I'm going to be playing a character from China.

Concerns: Correctly portraying the culture and traditions of China during that time period. I'm mostly looking for things like tradtions and cultural mores of then. I've discovered a good bit about the politics of the time, but I'm looking for small things. Like how snuff was apparently very popular then, and very beautiful snuff bottles were made.

Links to good sources for articles and stuff are very welcome. I tend to worry about making sure I do these sorts of things correctly without offending people.

@Matues: Found this book: http://www.amazon.com/China-1850-A-Short-History/dp/0804709580

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

It's perfect!

Thank you!

edited 28th Aug '12 6:44:25 PM by Matues

@Matues: You're welcome. Love your new avatar btw. Where did the old one come from?

edited 28th Aug '12 7:56:46 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

This one?

edited 28th Aug '12 8:27:49 PM by Matues

Yeah. Where is it from?

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

A Yaoi Manga.

Does anyone have more questions? Or can anyone answer mine?

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

Unfortunately, for some reason my computer refuses to read Google's eBook Preview feature. However, I can point you to a list of search results for "Cuban culture" with available previews that should point you in the right direction. It'll take some pages out, but you should still be able to get a wealth of information.

Also, if there's a public library within convenient access, I'd highly recommend checking there. Even if they don't have the books you're looking for there, they're probably part of an interlibrary loan program. Plus, some have subscriptions to academic resources like JSTOR, which can be a goldmine of information if you know how to use them (if a bit more oriented towards a technically-minded audience).

Specialist: Thanks.

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien