Edit: Here's a post giving some context on what happened and why I'm ranting:
www.resetera.com
In addition, here's the full live-stream:
And I feel that NK Jemisin's Tweets are relevant in this topic:
And here's the original rant that I made (there should be more links down below that further expand on what happened):
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I read about what happened at the Hugo Awards with GRRM and I gotta say: while I still plan to actually see it for myself (I'm almost afraid to) I'm already kinda pissed. And it's not even GRRM himself, but the fact that the fiasco itself touched on something that I've been thinking about lately. That is: when I was living in the 2000s and I was reading whatever I could find, I was never all that impressed by what I read. Sure I worshiped Harry Potter as a kid, but even then, I always thought: man, wouldn't it be cool if there was an Arab-analogue or Ottoman-analogue setting in fiction? Or at least a smaller ratio of white people compared to non-white people? Or maybe non-European fantasy? And hey, I'm sure there is if you look hard enough. I even made an entire list for myself of Middle-East inspired fantasy, for example. And aside from me reading Roadside Picnic, I'm currently reading N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series.
Things are changing, obviously, but this obsession with the literary "greats" rubs me the wrong way. We often say "Oh, but look what they did for the genre." But what about how they held the genre back? And what about all the great literary works that we'll never know about that were never translated into English? I'm just saying, as a guy that used to read the Cthulhu mythos, I must say that I hope that H.P. Lovecraft never gets an award (and yes, I realize that he did, but that's what I'm driving at). His work, now that I'm older, frankly disgusts me. I know that some may think I'm going too far but people like Heinlein were never as good as people made them out to be. So I don't get the whole "good ole' days" vibe from older authors, generally white boomers (and if that's a bad word, I'll gladly change it, but I just have to let it out right now).
Look, I liked A Song of Ice and Fire when I was younger, when I didn't know that there were other works to really compare it to. Hell, my favorite book in the series was book 5 (not book 3, but book 5). But his recent supplementary material, such as Fire and Blood, is filled with trashy smut, as if this guy is still stuck in the 1990s (and doing a reread of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, it reads like it's still stuck in the 1990s). I mean, I'm sorry, I'm pretty "old-fashioned" in my tastes (at least when it comes to storytelling in a sense that's hard to explain) but my disagreements with how some books are written nowadays does not extend to me lionizing the "good ole' days." I couldn't stand Glen Cook's The Black Company compared to the books coming out nowadays. I think the authors of today are better than the authors of yesteryear.
Why am I ranting about the Hugo Awards when I haven't (yet) seen it? Because I've been thinking about this very same topic for years and quite frankly I'm just trying to articulate my thoughts as I type this down. Yes, yes, I know, first-world problems, I got no real right to complain compared to other people, but I've noticed that we're still stuck in the phase where fiction written by non-whites, women, and foreigners are just "ethnic fiction" or "LGBT fiction." I mean, how many authors were passed over that we'll never know about for Heinlein? And whose to say that Heinlein "propelled" the genre forward? What about all the mistakes that were emulated that originated with him? I know that "history being written by the victor" is a cliche, but in this case, it's entirely applicable.
Sorry, I know that some lurkers reading this will think that I'm just another "wokescold" on ResetEra or some shit, but I just need to get this out there, you know? Frankly, I can't stand a work like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I read it all the way through. And I regret it. Yes, I still read fiction and I plan to read Ann Leckie's recent work soon, but today's literary fiction still pays homage to all these "great writers" that only nerds like. Yes, yes, I know, that's probably unfair, and maybe hypocritical coming from me, but seeing my own brother act like the SJWs are the biggest problem out there (and a constant topic of conversation for him) grates on you. I honestly never felt comfortable talking about racism or sexism or homophobia or transphobia or so on and so forth because it was always "Look! Look over there! It's the wokescolds!" I have to use the smile-and-nod tactic (not literally, mind you, but I think you get the point) with some of my family members when it comes to this topic of conversation.
And yet, I see white men mostly make it in terms of recognition with a mostly white cast of prominent characters. I. Am. Fucking. Done. Having to notice these things, but not talk about it except in my extremely OCD mind or occasionally on the Internet is grating. Goddamn. Sorry, I know, first-world problems, I guess, but when I was compiling a list of Middle-Eastern or Arab authors of fantasy and scifi, I could barely find any (and I found dozens, don't get me wrong, but you could easily find more white authors gaining recognition than you do non-white authors). God, so sick of this racist bullshit.
Welp, I hope you guys enjoyed my rant. Or not. I dunno. I was busy all day with other things, but when I learned about what happened an hour ago, it just got me going, you know? Maybe I need better self-control, but fuck, sorry, for me, this has been going on for twenty fucking years (since I started reading) with me always wondering why I saw mostly the same setting with mostly the same skin color with mostly the same gender with mostly the same... You get the point.
Okay, I'm done. Gonna grab something to eat. Sorry you had to read this (or maybe you didn't, which is just as fine). And then I'll watch GRRM and the Hugo Awards since I might as well find out just how people got so (rightfully) worked up about it. I'm just worked up myself because, even though I haven't seen it, it's stuff that I've been thinking about for years now.
And yeah, the lurkers will say that it's just another day at ResetEra and so will maybe some people here, but there you go. Just had to air my grievance, or whatever you call it.
Ciao.
There's probably already a thread about this, but anyone starting to kinda hate George Martin after the Hugo Awards?
Edit: Here's a post giving some context on what happened and why I'm ranting: https://www.resetera.com/threads/theres-probably-already-a-thread-about-this-but-anyone-starting-to-kinda-hate-george-martin-after-the-hugo-awards.269310/#post-42704754 In addition, here's the full live-stream...
www.resetera.com
In addition, here's the full live-stream:
And I feel that NK Jemisin's Tweets are relevant in this topic:
And here's the original rant that I made (there should be more links down below that further expand on what happened):
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I read about what happened at the Hugo Awards with GRRM and I gotta say: while I still plan to actually see it for myself (I'm almost afraid to) I'm already kinda pissed. And it's not even GRRM himself, but the fact that the fiasco itself touched on something that I've been thinking about lately. That is: when I was living in the 2000s and I was reading whatever I could find, I was never all that impressed by what I read. Sure I worshiped Harry Potter as a kid, but even then, I always thought: man, wouldn't it be cool if there was an Arab-analogue or Ottoman-analogue setting in fiction? Or at least a smaller ratio of white people compared to non-white people? Or maybe non-European fantasy? And hey, I'm sure there is if you look hard enough. I even made an entire list for myself of Middle-East inspired fantasy, for example. And aside from me reading Roadside Picnic, I'm currently reading N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series.
Things are changing, obviously, but this obsession with the literary "greats" rubs me the wrong way. We often say "Oh, but look what they did for the genre." But what about how they held the genre back? And what about all the great literary works that we'll never know about that were never translated into English? I'm just saying, as a guy that used to read the Cthulhu mythos, I must say that I hope that H.P. Lovecraft never gets an award (and yes, I realize that he did, but that's what I'm driving at). His work, now that I'm older, frankly disgusts me. I know that some may think I'm going too far but people like Heinlein were never as good as people made them out to be. So I don't get the whole "good ole' days" vibe from older authors, generally white boomers (and if that's a bad word, I'll gladly change it, but I just have to let it out right now).
Look, I liked A Song of Ice and Fire when I was younger, when I didn't know that there were other works to really compare it to. Hell, my favorite book in the series was book 5 (not book 3, but book 5). But his recent supplementary material, such as Fire and Blood, is filled with trashy smut, as if this guy is still stuck in the 1990s (and doing a reread of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, it reads like it's still stuck in the 1990s). I mean, I'm sorry, I'm pretty "old-fashioned" in my tastes (at least when it comes to storytelling in a sense that's hard to explain) but my disagreements with how some books are written nowadays does not extend to me lionizing the "good ole' days." I couldn't stand Glen Cook's The Black Company compared to the books coming out nowadays. I think the authors of today are better than the authors of yesteryear.
Why am I ranting about the Hugo Awards when I haven't (yet) seen it? Because I've been thinking about this very same topic for years and quite frankly I'm just trying to articulate my thoughts as I type this down. Yes, yes, I know, first-world problems, I got no real right to complain compared to other people, but I've noticed that we're still stuck in the phase where fiction written by non-whites, women, and foreigners are just "ethnic fiction" or "LGBT fiction." I mean, how many authors were passed over that we'll never know about for Heinlein? And whose to say that Heinlein "propelled" the genre forward? What about all the mistakes that were emulated that originated with him? I know that "history being written by the victor" is a cliche, but in this case, it's entirely applicable.
Sorry, I know that some lurkers reading this will think that I'm just another "wokescold" on ResetEra or some shit, but I just need to get this out there, you know? Frankly, I can't stand a work like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I read it all the way through. And I regret it. Yes, I still read fiction and I plan to read Ann Leckie's recent work soon, but today's literary fiction still pays homage to all these "great writers" that only nerds like. Yes, yes, I know, that's probably unfair, and maybe hypocritical coming from me, but seeing my own brother act like the SJWs are the biggest problem out there (and a constant topic of conversation for him) grates on you. I honestly never felt comfortable talking about racism or sexism or homophobia or transphobia or so on and so forth because it was always "Look! Look over there! It's the wokescolds!" I have to use the smile-and-nod tactic (not literally, mind you, but I think you get the point) with some of my family members when it comes to this topic of conversation.
And yet, I see white men mostly make it in terms of recognition with a mostly white cast of prominent characters. I. Am. Fucking. Done. Having to notice these things, but not talk about it except in my extremely OCD mind or occasionally on the Internet is grating. Goddamn. Sorry, I know, first-world problems, I guess, but when I was compiling a list of Middle-Eastern or Arab authors of fantasy and scifi, I could barely find any (and I found dozens, don't get me wrong, but you could easily find more white authors gaining recognition than you do non-white authors). God, so sick of this racist bullshit.
Welp, I hope you guys enjoyed my rant. Or not. I dunno. I was busy all day with other things, but when I learned about what happened an hour ago, it just got me going, you know? Maybe I need better self-control, but fuck, sorry, for me, this has been going on for twenty fucking years (since I started reading) with me always wondering why I saw mostly the same setting with mostly the same skin color with mostly the same gender with mostly the same... You get the point.
Okay, I'm done. Gonna grab something to eat. Sorry you had to read this (or maybe you didn't, which is just as fine). And then I'll watch GRRM and the Hugo Awards since I might as well find out just how people got so (rightfully) worked up about it. I'm just worked up myself because, even though I haven't seen it, it's stuff that I've been thinking about for years now.
And yeah, the lurkers will say that it's just another day at ResetEra and so will maybe some people here, but there you go. Just had to air my grievance, or whatever you call it.
Ciao.
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