The diversity of the characters

Use this forum to discuss the February 2019 Book of the month, "The Warramunga's War" by Greg Kater.
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Anna Maria 86
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Re: The diversity of the characters

Post by Anna Maria 86 »

Ever_Reading wrote: 27 Feb 2019, 10:28
Morgan Jones wrote: 25 Feb 2019, 06:49 I love diversity in books where travelling is a constant theme. It's just unnatural to find people speaking English all throughout the world with perfect accents.
Right? It often feels like we just took Americans and simply transported them to a different part of the world. Capturing the nuances of different destinations and people often makes a book relatable and enjoyable to read!
Don't you feel it happens in the movies as well? And too often! Apart from that, if it's historical fiction, how acurate are you being about people speaking different languages? I mean, English hasn't always been the international language for communication. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, learning foreign languages has become popular only after WW II, has it not?
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Post by Anna Maria 86 »

Ever_Reading wrote: 10 Feb 2019, 13:14
Chikari wrote: 08 Feb 2019, 01:46 The diversity in The Warramunga's War definitely enhanced the read for me! I love learning about different cultures and the way other people live and I find that both fiction and non-fiction having diversity in characters is a great way to educate others. Of course, the author has to be careful not to fall into typical stereotypes for people either.
Oh yeah, falling into stereotypes can easily happen if the author is not careful. But, I think Kater did a decent job.
I'm glad you liked the diversity of the characters.
I think it's difficult to mainatain stereotypes when you travel. Unless of course, that those stereotypes are true. I have travelled quite a bit in my life, and often found stereotypes to be false, but at times to be as true as ever, or at best a little exaggerated. Besides, it often takes much more that just travel to really know people and culture. I have lived in Mexico for 4 years now, and I'm still often surprised by things. One week on the beach in Cancun would not teach me the things I know today.
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Antonio Barrella wrote: 15 Feb 2019, 14:20 Diversity makes this novel to find a wider attraction. It makes life beautiful. I had no trouble implying the meaning of the words written in the native languages.
Yes, exactly, I couldn't agree more! Many times you could easily figure things out by the context, without having to check the meaning or simply skipping it because you didn't understand.
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abbiejoice wrote: 26 Feb 2019, 01:36 I enjoyed the diversity of the characters in the story. It's fun being able to learn differences in culture as one reads a book.
You're right! Diversities will add knowledge on the place we never enter yet. It helps because through it we can remember town people's lifestyle when entering their place or when we meet them.
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Post by ma_mon28 »

Anna Maria 86 wrote: 28 Feb 2019, 12:18
Antonio Barrella wrote: 15 Feb 2019, 14:20 Diversity makes this novel to find a wider attraction. It makes life beautiful. I had no trouble implying the meaning of the words written in the native languages.
Yes, exactly, I couldn't agree more! Many times you could easily figure things out by the context, without having to check the meaning or simply skipping it because you didn't understand.

I agree for both of you. I really don't know what is "mon cheri'', but the way the conversation goes on I understand. As I understand "mon cheri" is a sweet tag name since cherry is very sweet. As I searched it, I teased my partner on that. I keep on saying, " you are my mon cheri."
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Post by ma_mon28 »

Shilpa Paul wrote: 27 Feb 2019, 23:43 Kater brought in the diversity of different cultures very efficiently. The dialect used in between did not distract me from enjoying the book. In fact it helped to imbibe the essence of each culture in the story
👍👍👍👍

Greg is very good at that, thanks to him I learned some French language and some Aussie slang
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mmm17 wrote: 28 Feb 2019, 11:38 I did enjoy the diversity of characters in the book. Everything seems very well researched and credible. Kudos to the author! He portrays so many ethnicities and nationalities. I felt like I actually traveled to these places and spoke to the people there.
Fun fact: the author is a traveler and most of his books are being inspired from the places he went to. He has this other book that is based on China where he recently traveled. Not only he researched them well, but he also went there for more authenticity. :wink2: :techie-studyingbrown:
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Anna Maria 86 wrote: 28 Feb 2019, 12:15
I think it's difficult to mainatain stereotypes when you travel. Unless of course, that those stereotypes are true. I have travelled quite a bit in my life, and often found stereotypes to be false, but at times to be as true as ever, or at best a little exaggerated. Besides, it often takes much more that just travel to really know people and culture. I have lived in Mexico for 4 years now, and I'm still often surprised by things. One week on the beach in Cancun would not teach me the things I know today.
Agreed that stereotypes are not all true unless you've lived with the culture and people for years. Society is ever-changing, and so do people. :tiphat:
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Post by briellejee »

Anna Maria 86 wrote: 28 Feb 2019, 12:06
Don't you feel it happens in the movies as well? And too often! Apart from that, if it's historical fiction, how acurate are you being about people speaking different languages? I mean, English hasn't always been the international language for communication. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, learning foreign languages has become popular only after WWII, has it not?
I am not sure about the popularity of learning languages happening after WWII, but as far as I've read, learning languages has been a thing before WWII. However, the shoot up of such interest may have been after WWII. Who knows, after meeting a lot of nationalities, one tends to learn the languages in order to communicate well. :techie-studyingbrown:
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When the writer allowed the characters to use their native language, it kind of stood in the way of my general enjoyment of the book. I think the writer could have potrayed diversity in another way other than the way he did.
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I think it's great to have cultural diversity in a book where appropriate. And a few phrases in different languages are fine, as long as there aren't so many that they start to distract from the story.
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joshfee77 wrote: 02 Mar 2019, 17:53 I think it's great to have cultural diversity in a book where appropriate. And a few phrases in different languages are fine, as long as there aren't so many that they start to distract from the story.
Yeah, diversities in the book will be added to our knowledge, too. I really love it, learning few lines of other race worth reading.
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Bookreviewer19_ke wrote: 02 Mar 2019, 01:37 When the writer allowed the characters to use their native language, it kind of stood in the way of my general enjoyment of the book. I think the writer could have potrayed diversity in another way other than the way he did.
At first, warramunga's tongue slowed my reading to figured out what it means, though I understand it through the situation they were in.
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Ever_Reading wrote: 08 Feb 2019, 00:16
briellejee wrote: 07 Feb 2019, 01:16 I like the diversity this book has! I can say that it did enhance the book. The diversity makes you aware of the character's rich background, and the country where they're from - which makes it overall interesting. Also, it made the book well-researched for me. In the second book of this series, Kater's take on diversity also takes place. He included a Filipino child as one of his characters.

PS. The author is a friend of mine on Facebook, and I can say that he based his stories and characters on his travels. He travels A LOT by the way. I think I recall him posting about another book wherein you can see a history of China where he traveled recently.
I completely agree with you on this one. The diverse characters came across as genuine and realistic. I haven't read the other books in the series. You have definitely piqued my interest. I need to check them out!

Oh well isn't that cool? :D Pity I don't have Facebook. I'd also want to be his friend!
The wide variety of character backgrounds was interesting, it definitely added to the intrigue of the book, but I felt like the characters themselves were very poorly developed. In fact the only character I had any mental engagement with was Jacko - probably because most of the background information was on him.

It seems a lot like the author had more characters in the book than he could handle. The girls, for example, that were sent in undercover had so little impact on me that I can't even remember their names. It would have been nice if there was more substance to the diversity.
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Post by tochicat »

Bookreviewer19_ke wrote: 02 Mar 2019, 01:37 When the writer allowed the characters to use their native language, it kind of stood in the way of my general enjoyment of the book. I think the writer could have potrayed diversity in another way other than the way he did.

I absolutely agree with you on this. The author stressed too heavily on language as a sign of diversity. Especially French... It began to feel mechanical at some point in the book. It would have been much more authentic if it was a combination of language and subtle mannerism or even body language.
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