MGibster
Legend
I have an academic background, and it's very easy to find a theory you like, whether it's a Marxist interpretation of history, the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, world systems theory, or the Annales school of history, and interpret things through that particular lens even when it's not necessarily appropriate. We were discussing a story in my Gender & Science Fiction course, and some of the class saw the story through the lens of various gender theories while I saw it as a story about miscegenation. Who was right? Me of course, but that's not important now.We had to read that book when I was a history student. People should read it for themselves and judge and read the critical responses to it. But the one thing I will say is it isn't an uncontested thesis and it is the kind of thing that often gets dropped in these conversations like a rhetorical hammer.
That never stopped us before! Okay, I kid. I kid. Obviously we should be considerate of the beliefs of others. I recall an episode of Xena where she rubbed shoulders with various Indian gods. There weren't riots in the streets or anything, but there were some Hindu groups in the United States who voiced their displeasure that the writers treated their gods as fictional characters.Perhaps someone who is familiar with Indian pop culture could speak to this but I do not know that Hindus are as happily sacrilegious as Westerners and East Asians. Like, I am not sure that it is nearly as accepted to exploit Hindu mythology the was you can exploit Christian, Shinto, and Buddhist mythology. And if you cannot work Hindu mythology into your Indian fantasy, well, what elements do you have to draw on?