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smokingbootWhat a fool I am.
I did it again. I went on to FB again, just to wish mates a happy solstice, write nice things to chums who are feeling low, just the usual.
Unfortunately, I simply never really get what the usual has become.
Without doubt, I just saw the most stupid meme in the history of my life on the internet. For my own self respect, I won't copy the effing thing here, only to paraphrase that if you don't want to read JK Rowling, if you want books that have fewer white people, no slave-elves, no banking goblins (that needs respelling I'm certain) read Ursula Le Guin.
I want to explode. Or make someone else explode. Ursula Le Guin is one of the greatest fantasy writers of all time, read because her stories are strong, her vision is extraordinary, her characters are real, her writing is superb. Her writing would have been all of these things even if we did not find her character admirable. She is not great because she is the antithesis of JK Rowling (itself a deeper question) she is great irrespective of any such comparison of morality. If it one day transpires that she had some pretty unsavoury faults, it does not change the fact that her work is superlative.
Oh, I am sick of people endlessly maydaying the good ship Virtue. The box-ticking is ridiculous, the desire to censor insane, all to be part of the tribe. Well, maybe the tribe is puritanical, censorious, and above all completely inauthentic. If you cannot respond honestly to Art without knowing whether it comes from an ideologically sound source, you are not responding to it from your own self, you are responding from the place of your social construct, the mask you make to fit in and be accepted. The only genuine thought or feeling behind this is fear of rejection.There's no real creation in that. In fact, there's nothing real in it at all.
Anyone out there, by all means read Ursula Le Guin, she's brilliant. Read her because of that. It's enough.
Note to self: FB for birthdays, then get off or go mad.
I did it again. I went on to FB again, just to wish mates a happy solstice, write nice things to chums who are feeling low, just the usual.
Unfortunately, I simply never really get what the usual has become.
Without doubt, I just saw the most stupid meme in the history of my life on the internet. For my own self respect, I won't copy the effing thing here, only to paraphrase that if you don't want to read JK Rowling, if you want books that have fewer white people, no slave-elves, no banking goblins (that needs respelling I'm certain) read Ursula Le Guin.
I want to explode. Or make someone else explode. Ursula Le Guin is one of the greatest fantasy writers of all time, read because her stories are strong, her vision is extraordinary, her characters are real, her writing is superb. Her writing would have been all of these things even if we did not find her character admirable. She is not great because she is the antithesis of JK Rowling (itself a deeper question) she is great irrespective of any such comparison of morality. If it one day transpires that she had some pretty unsavoury faults, it does not change the fact that her work is superlative.
Oh, I am sick of people endlessly maydaying the good ship Virtue. The box-ticking is ridiculous, the desire to censor insane, all to be part of the tribe. Well, maybe the tribe is puritanical, censorious, and above all completely inauthentic. If you cannot respond honestly to Art without knowing whether it comes from an ideologically sound source, you are not responding to it from your own self, you are responding from the place of your social construct, the mask you make to fit in and be accepted. The only genuine thought or feeling behind this is fear of rejection.There's no real creation in that. In fact, there's nothing real in it at all.
Anyone out there, by all means read Ursula Le Guin, she's brilliant. Read her because of that. It's enough.
Note to self: FB for birthdays, then get off or go mad.
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no subject
Date: 2020-06-21 11:43 am (UTC)See the three dots on the right of that annoying person's post? Open up that menu, and you'll see one of the options is "Snooze [Your Annoying Poster's Name Goes Here"] for 30 days".
Voila! A much better FB experience.
I've never been a big fan of the Harry Potter books, which I find indifferently written. But I cannot believe how the mob is going after Rowling. I read the tweet and subsequent essay that set the torch and pitchfork bearers howling. It was quite innocuous.
The whole thing kinda cements my feeling that if I ever do finish the Work in Progress and someone actually wants to publish it, I'm gonna publish it under a pseudonym.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-21 08:34 pm (UTC)Rowling's not my cup of tea, but she never was... She's pretty derivative and it's all very comfortable. But she created the right work for her audience at the right time, and that's no small success.
For many decrying her now,her writing was supreme when she was a poster child for progressive politics, she was a single mother, she defended gays and womens rights, she knew about poverty, she sneered at tories and brexiters, she was the person who made it, perfection on a pedestal plus they loved her world. But one slip is all it takes.
As to the tweet itself, good friends of mine have called it sarcastic and horrible, condescending etc, and out of respect for their judgement and feelings, I am still trying to understand. This isn't helped by the uncomfortable realisation that I seldom if ever hear them decry horrible sarcasm in defence of views they consider sacrosanct.
One said to me, 'You're post menopausal, don't you see how this offends you? She's saying you're not a woman because you don't bleed anymore!'
I read the tweet, and no, that isn't what she is saying, but even if it had been, my identity has never been so fragile that some vague comment from someone I don't even know could impinge upon it.
You're right about the pseudonym!