I have a bone to pick about Firefly
POSTED BY: Lunatique
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 6, 2005 02:56
VIEWED: 8805
PAGE 3 of 3
oh I didn't take it that Europe had virtually disappeared,
only that the European (Romance & Germanic)languages disappeared (500 years is a long time)
AND I didn't assume that the USA was the big winner,
I thought it was the whole British/Australian/US
combo bringing English into the universal language level
(it already is pretty ubiquitous online)
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My impression with the lack of Asian people in the cast was mentioned above. Note people of afluence have an Asian sounding last name (Tam vs. Reynolds-obviously European). I believed the Asians were more in the core planets, which they avoided. Again, the show didn't last that long to bring in that many recurring characters.
I also don't believe is was a conscious thing, just the way it turned out. We wouldn't want him casting someone just because they were Asian so they could fit someones pigeon hole, just because it was appropriate for this particular character to be played by an Asian actor that fit the part. In his interviews it was mentioned how many people they had to screen to find this great cast. He not only has to find great actors, but those who work fantastic together. I think we all can agree that he succeeded in that.
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Quote:
Originally posted by po1s:
Man, you made me do research!
OK, we're both wrong. According to "Joss Whedon: the Genius Behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (the relevant passage is excerpted on Amazon) he was born JOE Whedon.
--po1s
As in "Joseph" . . . I always figured he wanted a unigue shortining of his name, and thought "Jos" with a short 'o' sounded better than "Jos" with a long 'o'. Spelling it as he does makes his preferred pronounciation clear.
I mock you with my monkey pants
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Quote:
Originally posted by embers:
oh I didn't take it that Europe had virtually disappeared,
only that the European (Romance & Germanic)languages disappeared (500 years is a long time)
AND I didn't assume that the USA was the big winner,
I thought it was the whole British/Australian/US
combo bringing English into the universal language level
(it already is pretty ubiquitous online)
Actually, I don't think Firefly even postulates this. Just because we hear everyone speaking only English doesn't mean other languages haven't survived. I'd think it pretty strange, actually, if they'd /all/ died out. I imagine there are some collections of people who speak other languages (although probably in /addition/ to English and Chinese).
After all, we have Niska with a very distinct accent. Of the type you have when you generally learned a language other than English first.
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Some of the Fanfics take this on. For instance, Channain's Heartbroken has a lot of Cajun and French.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Lunatique:
I'm 100% percent fluent in Mandarin, and my wife is in Cantonese. Joss sounds nothing like "luck" in both dialects--unless he used some other dialect--which is extremely unlikely because he barely understands the difference and significance between Cantonese and Mandarin based on his past interviews.
I did a little research on this topic for an essay about a certain sci fi series.
Joss (originally an idol of a Chinese god) is an English pidgin word used in China. It seems to have been brought to Chinese seaports from Java around the 18th century, where Dutch (joosje/joos) and English (joss) picked it up from Javanese (dejos/deyos)--which perhaps came from Portuguese deus ("god") or the obsolete form deos (Oxford English Dictionary; The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology).
A joss house is a shrine for the joss, and joss sticks (incense) and joss paper are what you burn at worship. From these meanings, "good/bad joss" came to mean "good/bad luck" in early 20th century English slang (OED).
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As for Asians in the 'verse in general, I'm in the "we didn't see enough of the story to judge" camp. But the fact that not one of a mere nine people is Asian doesn't seem significant.
Ying
Firefly Funsite http://fireflyfunsite.home.att.net
Firefly Chinese Pinyinary http://fireflychinese.home.att.net
Browncoats.com http://www.browncoats.com
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Someone asked him that question in San Francisco. I can't remember his exact response, but the main idea is that he auditioned many people, but didn't want to limit himself to one race. He basically wanted to hire the best he could find, regardless the race. I hope this helps!
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Check out the newly released "finding Serenity" compilation, edited by Jane Espenson. There's a great critical essay on this very topic.
P.S. When I asked Joss about this at WonderCon SF, he was somewhat evasive, and just said that while they did read/audition some asian actors, they didn't make it a point to ear-mark any particular roles for asians.
Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.
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Quote:
Originally posted by ffying2:
I did a little research on this topic for an essay about a certain sci fi series.
Joss (originally an idol of a Chinese god) is an English pidgin word used in China. It seems to have been brought to Chinese seaports from Java around the 18th century, where Dutch (joosje/joos) and English (joss) picked it up from Javanese (dejos/deyos)--which perhaps came from Portuguese deus ("god") or the obsolete form deos (Oxford English Dictionary; The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology).
So let me get this straight... Joss really is God?
Shiniest gorramn show in the 'verse!
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