maninahat said:
No, that doesn't float with me. That is like claiming Rudyard Kipling wrote a great, Indian, literary classic called The Jungle Book.
Great point there actually, although with Kipling it's fiddly, as he was actually born in India. I'm not sure how applicable a colonial example like that is though, as the British culture is very much being superimposed upon the original culture in the areas he would have resided in rather than assimilating into the culture as Watchmen's creative team mostly did.
He wrote in English, not the national tongue of his place of birth, but that doesn't have too much import. I mean, Chinua Achebe is reputed as one of the most important African authors despite the fact all his major works are in English.
And you're partially misunderstanding me on the main crux of my argument. The authors aren't just influenced by American culture, they're thoroughly inundated in it in their day to day lives, writing using American characters (Watchmen's characters are from the DC canon) about American concerns both in the tradition of American superheroes and in subversion of it.
I'm not denying their nationality, just the exact national identity of the work they created. By the same token, I would define The Jungle Book as an Indian novel written by an English colonist.
Perhaps I shouldn't define a work's nationality by the amount of involvement the author/s have with the nation, but that's currently where I stand on the topic at the moment. Perhaps I'm just mistaking heavy influences for an fundamental cultural shift in the authors. But currently, I'm not quite convinced by my argument or yours (great, another sleepness night of futile pondering for me then!).
maninahat said:
Funny you should point that out: Hollywood movies are largely shot in the UK due to the cheap studios there. That does not automatically make Hollywood movies a British product however.
Another good point. Films were probably a bad example for me to use due to the sheer amount and variety of talent required, and the typically multinational nature of that group of people. If I were to carry on the discussion pertaining to movies, then I'd end up surmising that the nationality of the production would be where the money came from, which isn't something I'd enjoy admitting but I'm too tired currently to think of an alternative (I agree that the location where the majority of shooting takes place doesn't necessarily specify the film's nationality).
Wow, with such a simple topic premise as this thread, how did we get into this discussion?
