OH KAREN TRAVISS, NO.
I realise that not many people reading this know an awful lot about the Star Wars expanded universe, though you've probably all gathered by now that I'm a huge SWEU freak. For the uninitiated, this is me complaining about the unbelievably aggressive and unprofessional attitiude of SW author Karen Traviss, in both her fiction and her interaction with the fanbase.
I've had this issue for a while now, to the point that earlier this year I decided that I was no longer going to buy anything with her name on it because I'm just...fed up with her being rewarded for this behaviour.
It's also a tricky issue because there were, before I became active in online SWEU fandom (I was an independent fan of the novels since the age of fourteen but only started actively participating online a few years ago), and right after Traviss debuted her first novel, riots in fandom because of her and there were an awful lot of genuinely stupid, creepy and just plain scary fans who hated her for a variety of ridiculous reasons probably including both sexism and an inability to tell fiction from reality.
Unfortunately, this means that every criticism of the woman is met - by her supporters, and by her - with an assumption that you are some insane troll.
Basically she busted onto the scene with, pretty much everyone agrees, a really good book that was supposed to be a tie-in to the Republic Commando XBoX game. It was a character based action novel that deftly handled the issues of free will and human rights the clones were entitled to, discussed the moral responsibilities of an organisation such as the Jedi essentially agreeing to use a slave army, and filled out a lot of background on the Mandalorians - a fan-favourite warrior society since Boba Fett was first seen in Empire.
The book did so well, she got some short stories for Hyperspace magazine, and the book was commissioned as a four book series - the last of which is due to be released imminently. She was picked up as one of the three authors for the very high profile Jacen-Solo-Goes-Evil series that spanned the last two years. She writes incredibly quickly, turns in her work before her deadlines and has a fan following. She also wrote the Clone Wars animated movie tie-in novel and, I believe, is writing a few sequels, time-permitting.
And because a minority of batshit insane fans said some really over the line things, the woman now has a persecution complex the size of my apartment building, near as I can tell.
I mean, this is the woman who had her lawyer send a fan forum a letter about libel despite claiming publically that she was leaving for time-related issues. And no, this fan forum was not even the one where she was getting badly hammered.
So I started in active online fandom at a time when people were very careful what they said about her (hell, they still are). And I started wanting to give her a chance; wanting her to really be that persecuted woman who was battered by the hardcore weirdos because she was taking a chance and writing something new and interesting and challenging.
After two years of increasing disappointment with her, I've given up the fantasy. I just think she's nuts. YES, NUTS.
And I'll say that, because apparently she has no qualms about calling EU fans - and by implication me - nuts and questioning our mental faculties publically, and, seemingly, at the drop of a freaking hat.
I mean, I don't care who started it, it's insulting to just about everyone when you decide to use the word, "talifan."
It's neither clever nor appreciated when you insult your readership - the people who FINANCE YOUR LIFE - by wondering what mental disorder they have - OCD or Asperger's?
It's horrifically insulting when you explicitly compare the psychology of obsessive fans to that of suicide bombers providing appropriate links to websites about the psychology of terrorists.
And it's pretty much a surefire way to piss of everyone in fandom when you start down that whole "why are you so obsessed? You need a real life that benefits society instead of typing angry responses on the internet," road.
It's also irritating when I go to find evidentiary links to your LJ, Ms Traviss, to discover that at some point in the last month, you've deleted it. Though I may be able to find a website with screengrabs if anyone wants. Alas, karentraviss is no more.
The worst bit, though, is that she's an unprofessional author.
I don't want to admit that, or believe it. She's written one or two books I think are okay. One I even quite enjoyed, even if I disagreed with one of her major plot decisions.
But the reason she keeps getting accused of "hating Jedi" is because her stories, which she touts as complex, morally grey examinations of what happens when the "good guys" do horrific things, aren't that at all. Because I would like that.
No, her stories are just as two-dimensional as any tale of The Heroic Jedi Who Can Do No Wrong, just in inversion. The Heroic Mandalorian/Clone/Cloned Mandalorian Can Do No Wrong, and the Jedi are just exploitative foils.
This isn't me trying not to see the Jedi in a bad light, this is me wanting those stories to be told well.
I don't lie when I say that Traviss' Clone and Mando characters are the worst examples of Mary Sues I have ever seen in professionally published literature.
For my feelings on the way Traviss' bias shows up in the text, I'd direct you to this thread - I have the same username, and it's about a third to halfway down the page.
So it boils down to: I think she's a bad writer in a lot of ways.
And it has nothing at all to do with my inability to see the Jedi as anything other than do-no-wrong heroes.
But Traviss (and her supporters) respond to any and all criticism of her style and her themes with accusations of either being overly obsessive for caring so much, or being unable to tell the difference between fiction and reality well enough to handle the fact that 'your beloved heroes' might make mistakes.
It's a fucking juvenile response to a more complex piece of criticism, and ironically it's her repeated attitude toward this criticism that has made me go from "I think she's a bad writer," to "this woman is insulting me and I'm offended and angry and I think she's nuts."
For the record, I hate that I feel this way. I wish I could just shrug it off and move on. I mean...most days I do. To be honest, it's probably because I've been so busy and so quasi-away from SW fandom for so long that when someone linked me to her website's FAQ today, I was so...shocked at her attitude. I'd genuinely forgotten she was that obnoxious.
I suppose it comes down to the fact I have very little tolerance for being insulted by people who make their living off of me. (Or did. I no longer buy her work).
So anyway - here's what just...pushed me over the edge.
http://www.karentraviss.com/html/jedi.htm
She essentially seems to suggest that if you question her portrayal of Jedi, you're JUST LIKE THE NAZIS.
No really, she actually fucking says that. It's like...the universe's gift to Godwin's Law or something.
I'm sure you think you're a nice decent person who's kind to animals, recycles faithfully, and fills in tax returns honestly. Maybe you believe in God, too. But to me, you're someone who harbours a vile and degrading belief in the concept of Untermensch - the idea that some humans aren't human at all, and we can do as we like with them, for whatever arbitrary value we put on the words "real human." You're looking for ways to sift your kind of human from the humans who don't matter, and who can be consigned to the fate of animals. In fact, if you use the phrase "real humans" at all, my case is proven.
That belief in a league table of humans - and the casual acceptance of it by nice people who were kind to animals and filled in their tax forms on time - led to the enslavement and murder of millions.
It's slave-owner-think: it's Nazi-think. And yes, I bloody well hate it.
It's not about Jedi - who don't even exist. It's about you.
That's how it ends. Srsly. I couldn't make this shit up.
To be fair, the "you" in this section refers only to people who want the Jedi to be goodies who do no wrong all the time. But to also be fair she 1) says shit like, -
And "you" here means - if the cap fits, honey, then wear it.
and 2) says shit like, -
So if you get pretty het up about anyone suggesting the Jedi might have made a few immoral decisions - or anything else, come to that - chances are it relates to something you actually believe in for real. It wouldn't upset you otherwise. Would it?
and -
Because it's clear to me that you believe deep down in real life that some human lives are worth less than others, and so it's okay to end them. Whether you realise that or not.
So it's not like she's giving her readers any choice in their own nazi-like beliefs here. SHE KNOWS YOU. WHETHER YOU REALISE IT OR NOT, YOU THINK LIKE A NAZI!11!1!eleventy!!
And, in case you thought she'd mellowed recently:
Not being able to process the difference between reality and fiction, or grasp the limits and nature of perception in real life, is downright dangerous. It's more than an intellectual failing. It's a cognitive failure on a par with a baby not understanding that a hidden ball still exists even if Mum puts it in a box. Exccept babies learn and grow up.
From one of her responses to this post about two months ago. Again, this is in reference to fans, this time fans who aren't happy with the way the Clone Wars cartoon changed a bunch of the story from the PT movies. Oh, and in the rest of that comment she again goes on to explicitly compare fans who aren't happy with causally changing the continuity of SW midstory to religious "crazies".
For the first time in my life, I'm actually considering writing like, a protest letter to LucasFilm or something.
I at least want them to get her a better PR person. You know, someone to say, "Listen, sweetie, you may think you're 'edgy' but perhaps you ought to lay off a little on the insults and actually respond to the criticism instead of the perceived criticism?"
I just...I want to find her hilarious.
But at this point I'm just...angry.
I've had this issue for a while now, to the point that earlier this year I decided that I was no longer going to buy anything with her name on it because I'm just...fed up with her being rewarded for this behaviour.
It's also a tricky issue because there were, before I became active in online SWEU fandom (I was an independent fan of the novels since the age of fourteen but only started actively participating online a few years ago), and right after Traviss debuted her first novel, riots in fandom because of her and there were an awful lot of genuinely stupid, creepy and just plain scary fans who hated her for a variety of ridiculous reasons probably including both sexism and an inability to tell fiction from reality.
Unfortunately, this means that every criticism of the woman is met - by her supporters, and by her - with an assumption that you are some insane troll.
Basically she busted onto the scene with, pretty much everyone agrees, a really good book that was supposed to be a tie-in to the Republic Commando XBoX game. It was a character based action novel that deftly handled the issues of free will and human rights the clones were entitled to, discussed the moral responsibilities of an organisation such as the Jedi essentially agreeing to use a slave army, and filled out a lot of background on the Mandalorians - a fan-favourite warrior society since Boba Fett was first seen in Empire.
The book did so well, she got some short stories for Hyperspace magazine, and the book was commissioned as a four book series - the last of which is due to be released imminently. She was picked up as one of the three authors for the very high profile Jacen-Solo-Goes-Evil series that spanned the last two years. She writes incredibly quickly, turns in her work before her deadlines and has a fan following. She also wrote the Clone Wars animated movie tie-in novel and, I believe, is writing a few sequels, time-permitting.
And because a minority of batshit insane fans said some really over the line things, the woman now has a persecution complex the size of my apartment building, near as I can tell.
I mean, this is the woman who had her lawyer send a fan forum a letter about libel despite claiming publically that she was leaving for time-related issues. And no, this fan forum was not even the one where she was getting badly hammered.
So I started in active online fandom at a time when people were very careful what they said about her (hell, they still are). And I started wanting to give her a chance; wanting her to really be that persecuted woman who was battered by the hardcore weirdos because she was taking a chance and writing something new and interesting and challenging.
After two years of increasing disappointment with her, I've given up the fantasy. I just think she's nuts. YES, NUTS.
And I'll say that, because apparently she has no qualms about calling EU fans - and by implication me - nuts and questioning our mental faculties publically, and, seemingly, at the drop of a freaking hat.
I mean, I don't care who started it, it's insulting to just about everyone when you decide to use the word, "talifan."
It's neither clever nor appreciated when you insult your readership - the people who FINANCE YOUR LIFE - by wondering what mental disorder they have - OCD or Asperger's?
It's horrifically insulting when you explicitly compare the psychology of obsessive fans to that of suicide bombers providing appropriate links to websites about the psychology of terrorists.
And it's pretty much a surefire way to piss of everyone in fandom when you start down that whole "why are you so obsessed? You need a real life that benefits society instead of typing angry responses on the internet," road.
It's also irritating when I go to find evidentiary links to your LJ, Ms Traviss, to discover that at some point in the last month, you've deleted it. Though I may be able to find a website with screengrabs if anyone wants. Alas, karentraviss is no more.
The worst bit, though, is that she's an unprofessional author.
I don't want to admit that, or believe it. She's written one or two books I think are okay. One I even quite enjoyed, even if I disagreed with one of her major plot decisions.
But the reason she keeps getting accused of "hating Jedi" is because her stories, which she touts as complex, morally grey examinations of what happens when the "good guys" do horrific things, aren't that at all. Because I would like that.
No, her stories are just as two-dimensional as any tale of The Heroic Jedi Who Can Do No Wrong, just in inversion. The Heroic Mandalorian/Clone/Cloned Mandalorian Can Do No Wrong, and the Jedi are just exploitative foils.
This isn't me trying not to see the Jedi in a bad light, this is me wanting those stories to be told well.
I don't lie when I say that Traviss' Clone and Mando characters are the worst examples of Mary Sues I have ever seen in professionally published literature.
For my feelings on the way Traviss' bias shows up in the text, I'd direct you to this thread - I have the same username, and it's about a third to halfway down the page.
So it boils down to: I think she's a bad writer in a lot of ways.
And it has nothing at all to do with my inability to see the Jedi as anything other than do-no-wrong heroes.
But Traviss (and her supporters) respond to any and all criticism of her style and her themes with accusations of either being overly obsessive for caring so much, or being unable to tell the difference between fiction and reality well enough to handle the fact that 'your beloved heroes' might make mistakes.
It's a fucking juvenile response to a more complex piece of criticism, and ironically it's her repeated attitude toward this criticism that has made me go from "I think she's a bad writer," to "this woman is insulting me and I'm offended and angry and I think she's nuts."
For the record, I hate that I feel this way. I wish I could just shrug it off and move on. I mean...most days I do. To be honest, it's probably because I've been so busy and so quasi-away from SW fandom for so long that when someone linked me to her website's FAQ today, I was so...shocked at her attitude. I'd genuinely forgotten she was that obnoxious.
I suppose it comes down to the fact I have very little tolerance for being insulted by people who make their living off of me. (Or did. I no longer buy her work).
So anyway - here's what just...pushed me over the edge.
http://www.karentraviss.com/html/jedi.htm
She essentially seems to suggest that if you question her portrayal of Jedi, you're JUST LIKE THE NAZIS.
No really, she actually fucking says that. It's like...the universe's gift to Godwin's Law or something.
I'm sure you think you're a nice decent person who's kind to animals, recycles faithfully, and fills in tax returns honestly. Maybe you believe in God, too. But to me, you're someone who harbours a vile and degrading belief in the concept of Untermensch - the idea that some humans aren't human at all, and we can do as we like with them, for whatever arbitrary value we put on the words "real human." You're looking for ways to sift your kind of human from the humans who don't matter, and who can be consigned to the fate of animals. In fact, if you use the phrase "real humans" at all, my case is proven.
That belief in a league table of humans - and the casual acceptance of it by nice people who were kind to animals and filled in their tax forms on time - led to the enslavement and murder of millions.
It's slave-owner-think: it's Nazi-think. And yes, I bloody well hate it.
It's not about Jedi - who don't even exist. It's about you.
That's how it ends. Srsly. I couldn't make this shit up.
To be fair, the "you" in this section refers only to people who want the Jedi to be goodies who do no wrong all the time. But to also be fair she 1) says shit like, -
And "you" here means - if the cap fits, honey, then wear it.
and 2) says shit like, -
So if you get pretty het up about anyone suggesting the Jedi might have made a few immoral decisions - or anything else, come to that - chances are it relates to something you actually believe in for real. It wouldn't upset you otherwise. Would it?
and -
Because it's clear to me that you believe deep down in real life that some human lives are worth less than others, and so it's okay to end them. Whether you realise that or not.
So it's not like she's giving her readers any choice in their own nazi-like beliefs here. SHE KNOWS YOU. WHETHER YOU REALISE IT OR NOT, YOU THINK LIKE A NAZI!11!1!eleventy!!
And, in case you thought she'd mellowed recently:
Not being able to process the difference between reality and fiction, or grasp the limits and nature of perception in real life, is downright dangerous. It's more than an intellectual failing. It's a cognitive failure on a par with a baby not understanding that a hidden ball still exists even if Mum puts it in a box. Exccept babies learn and grow up.
From one of her responses to this post about two months ago. Again, this is in reference to fans, this time fans who aren't happy with the way the Clone Wars cartoon changed a bunch of the story from the PT movies. Oh, and in the rest of that comment she again goes on to explicitly compare fans who aren't happy with causally changing the continuity of SW midstory to religious "crazies".
For the first time in my life, I'm actually considering writing like, a protest letter to LucasFilm or something.
I at least want them to get her a better PR person. You know, someone to say, "Listen, sweetie, you may think you're 'edgy' but perhaps you ought to lay off a little on the insults and actually respond to the criticism instead of the perceived criticism?"
I just...I want to find her hilarious.
But at this point I'm just...angry.