h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In any event, Sigismund goes to a lot of trouble to help his neighbor.

For Immorternity, Ava and Caoilinn take care of passing the Bechdel test. (Not even on purpose for the sake of passing)
Talking across species, Humanity probably fails Milgram, but that is part of the crime. The main characters can be accused of not questioning the authority of the authorities that define their actions (But hey, they're just kids to start with, so give them some leeway).

Still, writers can be naturally inclined to write in an area they know, so when looking at the list of alternative tests mentioned at the second half of the Bechdel test wikipedia, it is going to be hard to satisfy all of them every time without resorting to obligatory African Americans, gender fluid relations and many more if they are not an integral part of the story or setting. (that is another criterion I saw in passing: Does it hurt the story if you take it out. If the answer is No, it can be perceived as superficial / constructed) Allowing everyone the freedom to write and publish about what they know best is probably the best way to pass the tests on average across the whole spectrum.

I think that's a valid point - and one on which many people agree. At least in the US, a lot of people get mad when they find out their novel about a geisha or a Mayan freedom fighter was once again written by a boring middle-aged white guy from New Jersey.

On the other hand, Robert Silverberg and other pulp writers used to write every kind of story under every conceivable pseudonym, so as the screenwriters of 'Medium' used to have all their characters say, far too often, I don't know what to tell you. I'm relatively sure Silverberg's romance readers preferred to think of their author as that lady-with-the-three-names rather than a male pulp hack.

Personally, I think serious fiction should reflect the experiences of the people in its time and place. 'For fun' stuff can do what it pleases. It doesn't usually please me, anyway.

And I will still privately apply the Milgram Test because I don't think it has anything to do with changing fashions. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a lifeboat with anybody who failed that test.

Lucky I am not from New Jersey...

Many people have said this. Especially those who have seen the highway system there.

There is not a lot I can do about the middle aged white male without creating an uproar. (the middle aged thing can be solved by waiting of course, but blackface and such is usually frowned upon. I have no plans to change my gender status for the sake of inclusion)

By which you mean you don't think you can write a convincing female character? There may be something to that - some male writers can't, just as some female writers can't seem to manage male characters without projecting.

Is it really so impossible for people to see each other's point of view?

I can see a case for only writing a story from the point of view of a character you can experience from the inside. But there will be other characters in the story - and they ought to be represented fairly, too.

Think about Dickens! A story like 'A Tale of Two Cities' doesn't even have one clear protagonist. And all the characters are vivid, even the bit-part players. Hm... One of the best scenes in that book involves two middleaged women having an argument in French and English (neither of them is bilingual) and then a fight to the death.

Tacsatduck drove Amy Pawloski and me to a get-together in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We took the New Jersey Turnpike. Here is a ink to Amy's photo of that:

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A900497

Books would become pretty boring if you can only write characters that fit your own direct experience. Looking back I think I usually get around it by describing actions and decisions rather than the underlying thought processes.

That's true in other forms of expression too. Imagine if you couldn't sing "Carmen" unless you were a prostitute. And singing Violetta would be hard if you had to have tuberculosis. When Gershwin wrote 'Porgy and Bess," some people assumed he must be part black. I think that method acting has done a lot of damage, and seeped into writing as well. Annie Proulx managed to write a story about two young gay shepherds. She was a seventy-year-old woman.

If you have an excellent imagination, and you do some research, you might do better than someone less talented who is exactly what your characters are. Unless you want to write something so bad that it's good. Farce is not held to a high standard of verisimilitude

I think those are both excellent points - although modern identity politics tends to assert otherwise.

If we do write in characters that are outside our immediate reference, though, we should be alert to feedback that tells us we haven't quite got it right.

In a bit of synchronicity, some other writers were discussing this issue on Twitter just now. Joan Galt had some good advice.

http://twitter.com/joan_galt/status/1671222815054233618

"write as an observer" is very good advice.