: Re: How do I write for the majority, without alienating my minority? This is something of a companion question to How does one write from a minority culture? A question on cultural references I

@Kaufman555

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So I kind of see this from the "Other Minority" aspect in a similar vain. As a Catholic, I'm well aware of the fact that the most likely thing people associate with my faith outside of the scandals is the Sacrament of Confession, as it's a common device in many a works that allows the character to discuss his feelings out loud and receive wise advice from a sagely priest who is rarely depicted as a bad one. The device is so familiar to U.S. audiences, that in another thread on Stack Exchange, one person mentioned that they were sure that watching TV and basing it on that is a good way to screw up a proper portrayal. Except the sacrament is pretty well portrayed as is on tv... there are some prayers that are said at the end like the Act of Contrition which is often dropped from these scenes as from a writing perspective its' not important. That said, this same prayer is said in one of the most powerful sequences in the Disney Animated cannon.

If you've ever seen Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Latin Chanting following the "Heaven's Light" sequence and continuing into the "Hellfire" number... the two songs are actually meant to be taken as one. In fact, most of Frollos' lines are countered by each Latin chant, and it's especially obvious in the part with the guys in red hoods: Frollo justifies his sins as not his fault because of the gypsy girl is a witch and it was God's plan all along. The chanting he receives back from the monks (Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa) is the most famous line of the prayer and translates that the contrite person is acknowledging his sis are "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault". If you don't know the whole Act of Contrition, it's a prayer that is meant to be said in front of other people as you are acknowledging you have sinned to the community, hence why the priest is stating it while leading a crowd of faithful, but Frollo is confessing to no one with a physical presence in the room. If you're not Catholic, it's still the best villain song in any Disney movie as it's terrifying to watch as a kid, but as a kid who grew up in the faith, I was well aware of just how terribly Frollo was screwing up his faith and his soul (the red hooded monks always creeped me out as I didn't know who they were supposed to represent as a kid... they looked like demons from hell but given that Frollo was a Catholic saying God planned for him to sin, they could have been sent by God who is pissed that he's being blamed for this by the guy who actually should be blamed for it... and the guy is trying to invoke Jesus' literally Sainted Mother to help him commit further sin). People are so used to seeing a Catholic Confession portrayed correctly, they don't realize that Frollo is doing it wrong, or why... but they can certainly tell he's not in the moral right at this moment.

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