How to Write a Good Fanfic

5.2 - Importance of Setting

For my essays in How to Write a Good Fanfic, I've been trying to start off each essay with an introduction which introduces the topic in a manner which hooks the audience. However, in this case, my hook is the fact I honestly never thought I'd be writing an essay regarding the setting. The reason comes down to the fact, in most cases, the setting is defined for readers. I might talk about developing scenes for situational AUs or delve into researching real places briefly in another essay, but I never though setting would be a topic which got its own section.

Why?

I honestly thought people got the setting.

However, this last year Harry Potter and the Cursed Child came out in theaters. I didn't think much about it. I mean, yeah, I was planning on reading the script, and I knew that a woman of African descent was cast as Hermione Granger. I didn't think very much about the casting choice due to the fact the medium was theater and not film. About two months after the announcement, I wondered how people reacted to the casting choice.

What I found bothered me.

As I expected, some people didn't like a black woman playing a white character. Despite the fact, I've always seen Hermione as white, I didn't have problems with a black actress playing said character. As I already said, the theater is not film, and one's options are more open in regards to the theater. For example, one of the comments I read while doing my digging brought up the fact someone remembered an Asian boy playing Hitler in one of their school productions. Theater is, unlike film, performed live, and the cast is also expected to change constantly.

Since the theater is by its nature transient, directors make decisions on casting choices based on the elements they wish to emphasize. In this case, the director wanted the fact Hermione was a strong woman to stand out, and they felt casting a black woman into said role helped emphasize the fact. Could Hermione still have represented strong women if she was white? Yes, but it would not have sent the message home on the importance of this trait in the same way a black woman would.

Add to this, though, the next time the stage production is produced, Hermione might be white, or Asian. The other thing the casting choice does is make it clear that anybody may play Hermione's character, and that restriction need not be applied. While this may not seem important, eventually this play will be available for smaller theater companies, and schools to implement by paying the needed licensing fee. Those who will audition will vary.

One bone of contention is the claim that there was no other suitable actress for the job, making people question whether there was really no white actresses who could pull off Hermione Granger. I think one of the ironies here is this is the exact claim Hollywood makes in regards to not casting an Asian in a role which is Asian, that there were no suitable actors. In some cases, such as in regards to native actors, this is actually true – there is a limited number. Others, this is not the case. However, I'm also wondering how many Hermione wannabes showed up as well.

This was what bothered me about those who were against the casting choice, but there were also things that bothered me about those who were for the casting choice.

Hermione is never stated to be white in canon.

Even Rowling has put forth this claim, but this isn't true. In book six, Hermione gets a black eye from one of the twin's inventions and is described as looking like a half-panda, meaning the bruise could show up against her pale skin. This doesn't mean though she is ethnically Caucasian, though. Yes, I'm putting forth here the idea that being white is not necessarily inherently a Caucasian trait, and yet this is the stereotype. Then again, people tend to also forget that a good chunk of Hispanic people are also Caucasian ethnically, but are no longer defined as "white", and yet there was a period they were. In the same regard, Jewish people were once defined as not being "white", but now are shoved into the category of being "white" because of the color of their skin.