A Criticism of Fantasy Unencumbered by Fact
So, I was reading this post by addienfaemne, entitled "On Sexism in the Speculative Fiction Canon" (http://addienfaemne.livejournal.com/790108.html?thread=5317724), which largely consisted of a long quote from a person called Bidisha in the Guardian, "When Harry Met Sexism" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/22/harrypotter.women), which was mostly an attempt to defend J. K. Rowling -- unfortunately, by attacking other fantasy fiction. And, among other things, it contained this whopper of inept criticism, which addienfaemne quoted in her post:
Readers who rave about the scope of Lord of the Rings, in which a club of white men flee (a) a big burning vagina and (b) some black guys in hoods ...
to which I pointed out the obvious, namely
... the quote you excerpted shows Bidisha's lack of familiarity with the source materials. To take her obvious mistakes regarding Tolkien, the Fellowship of the Ring is not a "club of white men" (only two of the Nine Walkers are technically "Men" at all, and only one of them what we would think of as remotely a modern Caucasian), the Nazgul aren't "black guys in hoods" (they are wraiths who are wearing black cloaks), and the Eye of Sauron is rather clearly not meant to stand for "a big burning vagina." That much contemptuous ignorance, shown toward one of the founders of the modern fantasy genre, makes me deeply question just how widely and deeply Bidisha has read the corpus she is attempting to criticize.
which all happens to be true. What I did not realize was that addienfaemne was quoting Bidisha approvingly (why would someone quoting a critic "approvingly" include a hilariously-ignorant statement like that?) and so she replied to my point with
"I don't like you. Please go away. I'm not sure why you still read my journal."
Now, I'm a bit curious about why my point aroused such hostility. Did addienfaemne assume I was disagreeing with her about Harry Potter? Or about the larger issue? Was what I said in any way shape or form offensive? Or am I simply not supposed to point out the obvious if it would make someone on the Left look bad?
I ask everyone's opinion regarding that exchange.
Readers who rave about the scope of Lord of the Rings, in which a club of white men flee (a) a big burning vagina and (b) some black guys in hoods ...
to which I pointed out the obvious, namely
... the quote you excerpted shows Bidisha's lack of familiarity with the source materials. To take her obvious mistakes regarding Tolkien, the Fellowship of the Ring is not a "club of white men" (only two of the Nine Walkers are technically "Men" at all, and only one of them what we would think of as remotely a modern Caucasian), the Nazgul aren't "black guys in hoods" (they are wraiths who are wearing black cloaks), and the Eye of Sauron is rather clearly not meant to stand for "a big burning vagina." That much contemptuous ignorance, shown toward one of the founders of the modern fantasy genre, makes me deeply question just how widely and deeply Bidisha has read the corpus she is attempting to criticize.
which all happens to be true. What I did not realize was that addienfaemne was quoting Bidisha approvingly (why would someone quoting a critic "approvingly" include a hilariously-ignorant statement like that?) and so she replied to my point with
"I don't like you. Please go away. I'm not sure why you still read my journal."
Now, I'm a bit curious about why my point aroused such hostility. Did addienfaemne assume I was disagreeing with her about Harry Potter? Or about the larger issue? Was what I said in any way shape or form offensive? Or am I simply not supposed to point out the obvious if it would make someone on the Left look bad?
I ask everyone's opinion regarding that exchange.