Social Commentary in the SA

[MitchBade he/him]

This is somewhat of a rushed post, I'm feeling a bit too lazy to provide the proper quotations, but I won't be spoiling anything by what I'm about to talk about soooo whatever.  This had never really occurred to me before, but when reading scenes involving Lopen and other Herdazians, especially in WoR, it feels as if Brandon based them off the stereotype of Hispanic peoples, both born in or emigrated to the United States.  I actually just shot him an email about this but since I will potentially have to wait months for a response I felt the need to ask his readership, especially since ya'll are willing to talk the rust out of any topic haha. I believe it is in WoR that Lopen, in a conversation with Kaladin, says something along the lines of "nobody notices Herdazians."  This is where a quotation would be useful, but the way in which Lopen said it struck me as being more significant than at first it appears, as if he was crying out for his comrades to notice his and his people's plight.  This teeny tiny little bit of info from Lopen I feel really speaks to a huge issue in America.  People certainly see and know of minorities and immigrants, and we all have an opinion on the subject, but most people don't actually see or understand the underlying issues pertaining to the treatment of these peoples, just as nobody on Roshar seems to understand much about the Herdazians, or for that matter the Aimians.  I feel like this is a poor job at expressing what I'm trying to say, but oh well.  So, is there something here, or am I just crazy? Is Brandon trying to go three rounds with one of the most controversial discussions of our time? Or is there already a post about this? Thank you to anybody who takes the time to read and respond!  Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to lurking...

[Moogle]

Herdazians are indeed based off of hispanics:

Q:  Will we get more of Lift?
A:  You will get a lot more with Lift.  She was written into the outline from the very begining as one of the people who gets a book of her own.

A:  With Lift part of the inspiration was-- Boy, what was the inspiration for Lift? When I was building the Stormlight Archive I said "I want the Knights Radiant to run the gamut of different character styles, ages, and types of story."  And when you say "knight"-- When I say knight you imagine one thing, what you don't imagine is a thirteen-year-old hispanic girl, right? And I said "I want to have the people who are in the Knights Radiant to not be the standard what you think of."  They are the entire world's cultures having different people.  And so I said "What are somebody who does not fit that mold?" That you would say is not a knight.  Lift was partially developed out of me wanting to build a character who was awesome but was so different from what everyone would think of. ‘Cause you say knight and they think of white dude in armor and I wanted something very different from that.  And that's where she came from.  It also came partially from my wife reading a lot of fantasy and complaining and she's like "You know the asians show up in fantasy, asian culture inspires a lot.  European culture of course does.  You see a lot of these things but where are the hispanics?"
[...]
Yeah there's one.  So she challenged me to put a hispanic culture in my books because I had never done it before and so Lift is an outgrowth of that, so are the Herdazians.  They are meant to be sort of in the same way that the Alethi are inspired by Korean culture, mashed up with this sort of concept of medieval knights.  Shallan is based a little off of Western American/Europe culture.  The Herdazians are launching off some of the original hispanic concepts.  So the thing is, you want every culture to be new and original but you are working from somewhere.  And the problem is we all work from the same stories for so long that is part of the reason why fantasy is starting to feel so stale.
(source)

 

As to the social commentary, I really have nothing I can add on that front. Sorry.

[MitchBade he/him]

Wow thanks for the speedy response!!! I didn't realize Lift was also based off of hispanic people, but I figured my assumption about the Herdazians was correct.  I suppose more pointedly I'm wondering if he used the sort of prejudiced stereotypes in a positive way to purposefully try and make a point, or if he accidentally added this controversial, semi-racist aspect unknowingly.  An author, especially a white man, walks a fine line when they base characters and people in a book off of cultures and peoples from the real world.

[Curiosity he/him]

I'm pretty sure that he wants to be respectful of Hispanic cultures. I know that when writing Jasnah, he researched how she would think by going to atheist forums (not the absolute hate-on-religion forums, but quieter, more philosophical ones) and reading them (and possibly interacting with the users; the wording wasn't clear). I can recall other issues which he approached with care (Kaladin's depression, abused women like Vin, etc.) and had people who have dealt with those things tell him that he hit the nail right on the head. He seems to genuinely desire to relate true people, regardless of how the culture at large sees them.

 

So, in conclusion, I wouldn't be surprised if we get a lot more time getting to know Lopen/Herdazian culture in a way that shows their humanity, even if it looks like he's simply writing stereotypes for now. 

[Patrick Star]

And Renarin is spot-on for a quirky, autistic person as well.