A proposal

[coffeeandink]

I'd like to propose a ban on thinkpieces about a genre by someone who hasn't tried at least five examples of said genre in the past year. This goes double if you're talking about a genre traditionally associated with a marginalized group; for example, romance and young adult novels, which have traditionally been associated with women, or rap music

Comments

[novin_ha]

I haven't been writing terribly long (not original fiction, that is). ECh is a new-ish identity for projects I'm working on together with my girlfriend :) I'm now torn between wanting to bother you as someone whose taste I really admire and feeling bad about drawing your attention to it at all, so I'm just going to say I'll tell you as soon as anything is on its way to being published (instead of going through endless revisions)...

About f/f romances - I am actually trying to find / read more now, having avoided them in the past because I was afraid if they weren't terribly good, I'd feel much worse than when an f/m romance fails me, and finding it difficult to get recommendations. I mean, I've read and loved quite a few novels featuring f/f romance (most recently - My Real Children and Hild, both having arguably bisexual protagonists), but I didn't, so far, love any f/f romances that would be closer to the genre than, say, Sarah Waters. I've only heard good things about Jacqueline Koyanagi's Ascension (which, afaik, is a sff romance about a woman of colour?), but I haven't read it yet.

I agree with you about everything in your discussion of the essay... I mean, Rebecca doesn't have a "happy" ending. It's a very formative novel for me (I could write a personal essay about that...) and so I care a lot! And when it comes to comments / twitter discussion, if I'm thinking about the same person you're thinking, I was seriously annoyed by the repeated insistence that no one was disputing the examples because they were so spot on. They weren't! Some people were! (And both Scandal and Grey's Anatomy, as invested as they are in their (anti-)heroes, go a long way towards exposing and critiquing the male / white / rich / straight privilege that allows Derek and Fitz to have their asshole / controlling behaviour excused. Not far enough, sure, but they do.)

I missed the Gamergate part. I'm kind of glad o_O I mean, how.

I kind of want meta about Poldark and this trope. But there isn't enough time in a day for me to write it!