Fandom – Page 18 – Wis[s]e Words

Does a Bee care?

Published on October 16, 20141 Comment

Requires Hate is an abrasive blogger from Thailand who made her name pointing out and critiqueing the racism, sexism and orientalism found in science fiction and fantasy, often going after supposedly liberal writers. In the best of circumstances being accused of these things can lead to a defensive response and Requires Hate could be rather aggressive in her criticism. Case in point: her review of Tricia Sullivan’s Double Vision:

It’s a white woman who, through a fictional black woman as her mouthpiece, is describing Japanese men as “little robotic bulls” (the idea of East Asians being robotic itself echoing offensive stereotypes) and “like little Nazis”: not necessarily the comparison that’d first leap to mind when you are describing people who move like robots or even like soldiers at a drill. Later on, after hearing about the sexual assault (perhaps in an attempt to make light of things and make the survivor feel better), Cookie’s friend Gloria idly asks whether it’s true what they say about Asian men’s penis sizes.

And this was for a writer she actually liked at the time. With writers she didn’t, she could be far more biting, if not downright nasty, as with her posts on Cindy Pon’s novels. Furthermore, under her Livejournal persona, Winterfox, she was also accused of bullying and harassment. In short, she made a lot of enemies before she disappeared late last year as it seemed she’d lost the will to blog.

Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a science fiction writer from Thailand who started getting published in 2012, got a fair few excellent short stories published, enough to get her nominated the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer this year. Like any other new writer, she’s active online, on twitter and her blog, which is light and happy and nice and more than a bit twee. You can understand why the moment she got any attention, rumours started that she and Requires Hate were the same person. These rumours apparantly started to intensify around the Worlcon, though the first time I became aware of them was early September, when it was mentioned in the comments at James Nicoll’s blog. Glad I didn’t comment back then so I look smart now, as I was sure it was just stupid to think two people could be the same just because they were from the same neck of the woods and active in sf/fantasy.

Because it turned out to be true this time, as Nick Mamatas officially revealed that yes, Sriduankaew had been blogging as Requires Hate/Winterfox:

Anyway, Benjanun Sriduangkaew used to blog under the name Requires Only That You Hate. I like Bees’s writing, I liked the RotyH blog, and I’ve known (without exact confirmation, but Bees had a contracted story in PHANTASM JAPAN) for quite a while. I suppose I am most interested in the reactions of the people who were yelling that to even suggest that Bees and RH were the same person was racist, which should be hilarious.

All of which would only be mildly interesting if not for the enemies RH/Winterfox had made as a blogger. Because allegedly some of those had been waging a whisper campaign against her, revealing her true identity to her editors and other influential people to try and derail her career. Mostly it’s been done behind the scenes, but at least one author publically called on her readers to write to Sriduankaew’s editors. This sort of doxxing, revealing of real life identities, is one of the worst crimes you think of in many online communities, if only because it’s so often used against people with good reason to be anonymous or pseudonymous. I may have the privilege not to have to worry about keeping my online and offline lives separate, many people don’t.

On the other hand, as has been argued forcefully in James Nicoll’s thread on the news, what’s so wrong in making people aware that sweet butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth Sriduankaew is actually a notorious online bully and abuser? Somebody who’s been careful to not reveal her past, who in fact has been busy memoryholing it?

Which is the biggest problem in getting to the truth of this. So much of what happened has now devolved into he said/she said territory, what with the deletion of posts and comments as well as the general entropy of the internet. None of the people claiming to know the truth are impartial and what’s abuse to one party are just forcefully expressed opinions to the other. What’s more, there are good people on both sides; this isn’t a GamersGate situation or a Vox Day inspired witch hunt. Some of these people genuinely believe that RH was fighting the good fight against racism and orientalism, perhaps a bit abrasive in how she went out it, while others believe that she just used this as a shield to attack women of colour she disliked. The point is, it’s almost impossible for an outsider to find out the truth and at this point it really doesn’t like much like there are any high minded motives behind this fight anymore.

No, this is a good old fashioned fannish feud, where the original cause for the feud are not so much forgotten as irrelevant at this point. People have been hurt and upset on both sides and have caused hurt and upset themselves. Neither side is innocent.

For me personally, I’m going to try and stay out of this fight because I’m far from sure it would solve anything to come down on one side or the other. I like Sriduankaew’s writing, but I also think it would credit herif she was to break her silence and make it official that yes, she was Requires Hate, to be honest about her history. It would credit her enemies to stop trying to ruin her career, or, at the very least be open about believing she’s a toxic influence on science fiction. Don’t keep it festering in the shadows.

ImagiCon revisited

Published on September 13, 2014Leave a comment

A couple of days ago I blogged about ImagiCon and their payment system. Now the chairwoman has responded:

We’re sorry to hear that you’d rather not make use of Paylogic. We’ve opted for this system, because, as a starting convention, it’s downright impossible (not to mention quite expensive) to create and maintain our own system for digital tickets. We chose Paylogic because it’s one of the most reliable systems and even though people have to register/log in to buy a ticket, we can assure you that you will NOT receive any unwanted mailings from Paylogic or from our convention. The data they ask is used by us so we have a statistical overview of the public that attends our convention. It serves no other purpose.

I could quibble with this explenation — other cons have managed to handle their own registration– but I like and appreciate that the con took the time to respond to my complaint. It’s a fair point and though I’m still likely to buy my own ticket at the door, even if it’s slightly more expensive (16 vs 20 euros), it has put most of my fears at rest. The only real point that remains is the obligatory reporting of gender in the form, with neither the possibility to opt out nor an option other than male or female. There should at least have been an option for unknown/undeclared/other.

Why not have a Eurovision Science Fiction Contest?

Published on September 10, 20141 Comment

Over at Europa SF, Dutch writer and critic Peter Kaptein explores the possibility of a pan-European organisation/movement for the fantastic in its broadest form:

We are not just writers

I do not believe in an European Writers Association. I don’t believe in a movement that focuses on only one aspect of our branch of art.

I do believe in an European Speculative Arts Association (or European Fantastika Creators or European Creators of Fantastika Association as it might be called).

Because we are more than just writers. We are also scholars, movie makers, animators, comic book artists, illustrators, sculptors, street artists, musicians, theatre makers and festival organizers.

We should not cut off the many possibilities for collaboration that can propel European SF, Fantasy and Horror to creative heights far beyond what the American and British market have reached until now.

What Kaptein is proposing is a way to structure and strengthen the ties between the various national science fiction/fantasy scenes throughout Europe without necessarily assimilating them into the Anglo-American juggernaut. What we have currently is that each country is influenced by what happens in English language science fiction, be it movies, novels, computer games or whatever, that a few writers and other creators get translated and assimilated, but that cross pollination between local European scenes is rare: both Belgian and Bulgarian writers are influenced by the American or British writers they read, but they don’t influence each other.

At the same time, while the Anglo-American science fiction world is becoming more open to outside influences, it’s still a process in which selected writers “break through” and become part of that world, but there isn’t yet a systemic interchange of ideas and influences, certainly not on any basis of equality. Projects like Clarkesworld’s Chinese science fiction translation project help a bit, but aren’t nearly enough to redress the balance.

So it makes sense to look for ways in which we can create a truly international, pan-European form of science fiction, where Polish writers are read in France and are inspired by the work of artists from Spain who in turn admire the radical works of Croatian film makers. How to go about this though? Do we need some sort of international organisation, something akin to an European SFWA but broader, as Kaptein is looking for?

Perhaps. There’s already the European Science Fiction Society, which organises Eurocons and the European science fiction awards, but that’s more rooted in fandom; it’s mission could be extended if the will is there. Perhaps we need a more European way of recognising worthwhile authors and other creators in foreign languages, perhaps we need a Eurovision Science Fiction Contest instead. Imagine having e.g. short stories from every country in Europe compete with each other, voted on by fans all over the continent. Wouldn’t it be great to discover Polish or Romanian authors that way?

Ironically, in whatever way we want to strengthen and create a truly pan-European science fiction scene, we will remain dependent on English in order for Dutch fans to be able to communicate with e.g. Greek ones (or indeed, considering both Kaptein and I are Dutch, each other). Like it or not, English is and will remain the lingua franca of the speculative fiction community. Not there’s anything wrong with that, as long as we non-native speakers also get a chance to have our say…

ImagiCon 2015 has Alastair Reynolds as guest of honour

Published on September 9, 20143 Comments

ImagiCon is a new, one day Dutch science fiction convention first held this year. For next year’s edition (march 21, 2015) they’ve announced Alastair Reynolds as guest of honour:

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a warm welcome to our first guest of honor for Imagicon 2015: The world-renowned British writer Alastair Reynolds! SF readers probably know him as the author of heavy books filled with exciting space opera like Revelation Space, House of Suns and Blue Remembered Earth, but also as the author of many short stories. Whovians may know of him from his Doctor Who book The Harvest of Time. On Imagicon you get can get to know everything about him, and of course you can ask for his autograph!

Of course under Dutch appelstroop rules –if an author is born in the Netherlands, has lived there for a significant time or has ever tasted appelstroop– Alastair Reynolds is Holland’s most renowned science fiction author, as he lived here from 1991 to 2008. He’s one of my favourite science fiction writers and although I’d already decided to go to ImagiCon next year, this only makes it easier.

UPDATE: a point of criticism. I actually went over to buy my ticket (only 16 euros! Reasonable!) but saw I had to register first for a horrible Paylogic system. Which wouldn’t be so bad, but it asks for all sorts of information, name, address, gender undsoweiter all to be able to use a system in all likelyhood I’ll only use for this con. Why not provide Paypal or Ideal, payment systems where the risks and safety is known off, rather than saddle your members up with an unneeded new system to keep track off?

Nine Worlds vs Worldcon — Let you and him fight!

Published on August 31, 20144 Comments

I don’t want to deny Gavia Baker-Whitelaw her experiences and LonCon3 wasn’t perfect, but this is just not true:

In order to truly enjoy Worldcon, you had to be one of three things: someone with a ton of old friends at the convention, a serious sci-fi/fantasy literature fan who wanted to get some books signed and sit in on academic panels, or a writer who wanted to network with other people in the industry. Being a Baby Boomer would also help a lot.

If you were a newcomer attending Worldcon by yourself, or if you were used to the kind of fandom that focuses on things like racebent fanart, slash fanfic, and intelligent pop-culture critique, then you weren’t going to have much fun. Which is pretty sad, because these two interest groups are not separate monoliths. Plenty of die-hard Supernatural and Avengers fans also read Tolkien and Neal Stephenson, and plenty of academic sci-fi/fantasy fans also like to dress up as anime characters. Unfortunately, while Nine Worlds seemed to understand this, Worldcon—or the people who regularly attend Worldcon—did not.

There were cosplayers, even Supernatural cosplayers (and I should know, because I registered one) and from what I could see they were neither disparaged nor harassed, there were plenty of programmes about what used to be called media science fiction as well as an entire stream of transformative fandom items that would’ve fitted just as well at Nine Worlds, there were plenty of people able and willing to talk about everything Gavia Baker-Whitelaw mentions. There were also plenty of people who went to both Nine Worlds and LonCon3 and had a great time at both.

Of course she does have a point about some people’s reaction to anything that isn’t old skool fandom, the attitude of certain longtime fans to newer fandoms, but how does it help to sneer at somebody for not knowning about slash fiction on the internet? Even these days not everybody has the ability or need to be online (he said, writing on his blog) and it doesn’t help your case about how unwelcoming Worldcon is by going all LOL old people.

And yes, LonCon3 wasn’t perfect, there were incidents of harassment that took place, there were the usual assholes, but Baker-Whitelaw seems to want to invent a fight nobody is actually having, where Nine World are the young, hip good guys and Worldcon is an aging relic, offensive and out of touch (calling it a “huge old dinosaur” in the second paragraph giving the game away) and any good points she tries to make are lost because she tries to gin up a controvesy where none exists.

What Baker-Whitelaw consistently does in her article is comparing official Nine Worlds policy with the behaviour of some fans at Worldcon without much acknowledgement that LonCon3 had similar policies as well as the resources to execute them in place. The LonCon3 committee, staff and volunteers in fact did a hell of a lot of work to try and make Worldcon as inclusive as possible, both with regards to diversity of fans and diversity of fandoms. You wouldn’t know it from her article, but LonCon3 also had a prominent code of conduct, just like Nine Worlds, also had a system of badges to indicate e.g. people who didn’t want their pictures taken and had a system of listeners in place for anybody who felt harassed or was made uncomfortable during the con.

From everything I’ve read, heard and witnessed or experienced myself the con took the responsibility to make the con open and inclusive for everybody very seriously indeed, did not tolerate harassment at all once it knew about it and made sure that people who were subject to harassment could go back as quickly as possible to having fun at the convention again. It also had a dedicated team of staff and volunteers to help those with disabilites, visible or otherwise, to have proper access to every part of the con, having e.g. prominent reserved seating and wheelchair spaces available in every room.

Looked at it this way, the differences between Nine Worlds and Worldcon shrink a lot and can be mostly explained by Nine Worlds being able to be somewhat more selective in the fans it wants to attract. Worldcon after all aims to represent the whole of fandom and can’t therefore be quite as aggressive in chasing a certain audience. As for the fans themselves, it’s true that Worldcon on the whole skews older and less diverse, but focusing too much on this loses sight of how much more inclusive it is becoming and how hard LonCon3 worked to make it so.

None of which means that LonCon3 got it perfect every time of course. There were problems with access for example, especially during the Hugos where the facilities for hearing impaired people were suboptimal, there was perhaps not enough attention paid to the fact that people could’ve multiple interacting disabilities (e.g. being hearing impaired and needing wheelchair access), there were incidents of harassment and other bad behaviour. But on the whole I thought the con made a good effort to tackle problems where they occured and they seemed to handle harassment as well as they could, taking complaints seriously and dealing with them quickly.

Therefore I wish Gavia Baker-Whitelaw had gone for a more balanced comparision between Nine Worlds and LonCon3, nothing the strengths and weaknesses of both, so we could’ve learned from it for next year, but I guess that doesn’t grab enough eyeballs for the Daily Dot…