WTF? Fic moment of the day

[transemacabre]

I was a-gog at this throwaway line in an Avengers fic found on A03:

"[Bruce had] spent last Christmas sweating in a Maori hut in New Zealand. His hosts had known it was Christmas but they didn't care, and honestly neither had Bruce. Bruce had more important things to do than spend money and wear sweaters, and in the end he'd been able to trace that tribe's dysentery outbreak to donated foodstuffs from overseas."

Like, wait, WHUT? Okay, this raises so many questions.

-- Maori tribe in huts? Really?
-- Why did this Maori tribe have dysentery from donated food from overseas? Why were they eating donated food from overseas in the first place? I mean, it's New Zealand. Not really a place that, even during national disasters, needs donated food (from aid workers?) sent to it.
-- Even if these hypothetical hut-dwelling Maoris got dysentery, why do they need Bruce Banner to care for them? Why not go to any of NZ's excellent, free hospitals and partake of that godless socialized healthcare?
-- It's 20-fucking-14, I'm pretty sure it's not a Thing for Maoris to be aware of the existence of Christmas.
-- I don't give a shit what anyone says, that is straight copy-pasted from Medecins Sans Frontieres website, with cholera replaced by dysentery and Haiti replaced with NZ.

Comments

[redcandle17.livejournal.com]

I suspect the writer had vaguely heard of the Maori and knew they were "tribal," and knowing nothing else about them or New Zealand, she/he decided to use them as generic dark-skinned people Bruce could be a White Savior to.

ETA: I read it, and the writer sounds very young, like a high school kid.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I wish adolescents would "write for the drawer" in old notebooks, as we did when I was that age, rather than embarrass themselves publicly online. I'm reminded of some dreadful stuff I saw in a historical-fiction fandom a few years ago: some teenager depicted 18C domestic life with running hot water, shampoo, and nail varnish and lipstick of the modern type in modern containers. In my head, I nicknamed it "Valley Girls in Paniers". I've also seen people comment, when picked up on historical/geographical/cultural gaffes, that they "can't be bothered" to do the research, "they're writing fanfic, not an essay for school": but to me, why bother writing for a fandom if you can't make the effort to find out a bit about the time/place/culture you're using?

[candyflosskillr.livejournal.com]

I'd laugh but it's lamentably true that outside of NZ, no one knows much about NZ. Even Australians struggle, but that said, I struggle with general knowledge of Australia and further afield. Which is why, as writers, we research our shit before posting and being laughed at for our inaccuracies and dumbfuckedness.

- Cut and paste theory seconded, in fact, all your theories listed are seconded.

Everyone in NZ knows when Christmas is, even if it's only for the retail sales. :P