(no subject)

[lenora_rose]

cristalia just articulated something about the latest imbroglio (Apparantly continuing in some places even now, but which I've been shunning for a while) Here>

I've been trying to articulate my response to certain aspects of the explosion of viciousness.

Several of my particular racial type (Clueless White person) after being exposed to the whole vicious circle, declared, "After seeing this nastiness, I'm more afraid to write PoC than I was. And I wanted to help, until now."

This reaction made *no* sense to me. Less than no sense. Because, while it started with a critique of a writer's book which left in a racist trope by carelessness, that part of the discussion didn't last long. The nastiness was almost none of it on that aspect, comparatively. Indeed, watching Bear's initial gracious response, and truepenny's initial, gracious response, I felt inclined to follow their example if I should get a similar critique.

I'm no more afraid to write what I write, or whom I write. (Glances ruefully at the stack of books on the Ojibwa or Cree beside her).

But I'm a lot more leery of trying to engage people in an internet imbroglio. Because picking out the wheat from the chaff - and when I left, there was still plenty of wheat in view - stopped being worth it in spite of the visible presence of worthwhile comment.

The other one is harder to say, because ... because I look at my reaction, and I think it's not from a position of privilege, but I could be wrong.

First, people were occasionally asked to back off for a while and take a break, and come at it fresh.

Virtually nobody actually took this advice, of course, when it was given. (Plenty of people backed off, but usually those with, or trying to keep, cool heads, not the people asked to do so because their behaviour was getting a bit out of hand.)

The excuses given were many, and some vile (If you ever see darkerblogistan show up on your blog, save yourself time trying to reason with him and ban ban ban. Racist sexist scum.) But one bothered me; various people of colour challenged this with "We live with ongoing racism every day. You think we can get away from it? Take a break from racism?"

And this bugged me. Because, on one hand, it's true. A person dealing with ongoing societal racism probably DOES see it every day they don't spend curled up alone in their room/apartment/house. In small things I can be blind to because, as a white woman, they don't happen to me.

But. this means they cannot consciously choose not to engage an increasingly nasty and inhospitable part of the internet? or even not read or post for ONE DAY?

I live in a sexist world. Our culture is full of instances of sexism, and I face them many days of my life. But I still feel that there are times I can step back and say, "This is not the time or place to fight." Or even, "I need to calm down or I can't contribute." And I can go pet my cat. Buy groceries. Read a book (Alas, as demonstrated, hardly a guarantee of escape from the ongoing experience of racism or sexism, but at least not part of the chunk of it pissing me off.) Clean house. Read a different online discussion. And go back when, as I described it before, my present anger isn't so overwhelming it clouds my attempts to express my ongoing grievance.


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So I was bad and bought myself two more books (And a CD, Blackmore's Night's Ghost of a Rose), both of which i have been wanting muchly to read. Diana Wynne Jones' House of Many Ways (Another story based in the same world, and with a related cast, to Howl's Moving Castle) and Jim C. Hines' the Stepsister Scheme.

Alas, i also decided I had to read three research books before I read the Jones, and three more before I get to Hines (The latter made easier because I loaned it to my mom first). And the first one is a mite dry.

Speaking of Books, I seem to have ended up in a YA kick:

Michael Marshall Smith - The Servants: Nominated for the World Fantasy Award, and in the Convention's book bag. Not bad, but... it was obvious in several ways, and unbelievable in others. It was very obvious that this would be a case where the "evil stepdad who took the place of my real dad" is not the sort of sinister person he's first portrayed as. The solution was a happy kid's book solution of exactly the kind taken apart in Diane Duane's A Wizard's Dilemma (Which, alas, might give away exactly what kind of YA story this is, a classic Problem Book of a particular kind, except with ghosts. I was never convinced it could be that easy; a strange comes in, shouts at people, and sets all to rights is a trope that is too problematic even when the people, or whatever the "ghosts" are, are pretty much the same kind. But most of all, I couldn't believe the major revelation partway through. More accurately, I couldn't believe this was something NOT KNOWN already. Because my immediate thought was, "What kind of mother doesn't explain this to her teenaged son long before this point?" If he were three, maybe even five, maybe I could see it being kind of shut away. But fourteen?

Ssdly, my favourite moment, the only one, was where our clumsy skateboarder finally manages to do what he's been trying all along. Because it rings more true than most of the rest. I also like bits of the prose in the "Footman" sequence, as it grows more and more abstract, more and more like a dance. But those I came away with still thinking, "too easy."

Final verdict, well written, but not worth it. Even though it's short and has some handsome prose.

Sherman Alexie - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Illustrations by Ellen Fornay)

This book is, in short, as good as everyone was telling me. Yup. Love. rachelmanija has a fabulous review which I'll point to and say "What she said.".

Sherwood Smith - Wren's Quest

Fun, touching, adventuresome; not much to say. The characters are lightly drawn but not static. I enjoyed it too much to have that little to say, but.