Discussion Main / SuddenlyEthnicity

The natter would have been better off as a reason for pulling this one to the discussion page: apparently not an example. Please Repair Dont Respond.

• In Moby Dick, Ishmael is shocked to discover that his bedmate, Queequeg, is a native from the South Seas. However, they quickly become best friends and treat each other as equals (a pretty revolutionary idea during the time the book was written). He's also a cannibal, though we never get to see this aspect of his personality.
  • Ishmael isn't shocked that Queequeg is a Pacific Islander - and, really, wouldn't be, since those who worked on sailing ships were used to dealing with foreigners of all types. What shocks him is that Queequeg is (implied to be) cannibalistic and is also a pagan. (The book starts out in Nantucket, a town in which all the whalers attend the same church.)

Pulled this, for the reason given:

• On the television version of Red Dwarf Lister and Cat are played by black actors. The novel the series is based on never specifies an ethnicity for either character (it does say that Cat's a cat, but it doesn't say what color cat) but it wasn't entirely uncommon to assume that, being British, Lister, at least, was white.
  • The TV show wasn't based on the novel, the novel was written when the TV show was two or three seasons in. So there's no "reveal" here.