The good, the lovely, and the ugly
So, the Narnia Fic Exchange will be winding up soon. I've really enjoyed so many of the stories. Anon commenting is available, so do check them out.
In the Bujold community, Hedda62 just posted Further Up and Further In, a Betan Survey/Narnia cross over to fill the prompt: You know all those Betan survey ships that go into wormholes and don’t come out? They go to Narnia. It's so much fun. I really enjoyed it.
In recognition of some real ugliness and other things, lady_songsmith has started a new Comm, Marvelous Things Beyond Reckoning to promote the stories that celebrate "the diversity of vision in Narnia and the richness of the world." Huzzah. PM her with questions and suggestions.
The ugliness, more on that briefly, below, underscores how much I miss the Narnia Fanfiction Revolution community which had at its core a celebration of diversity and creativity. It was that rare thing in the Narnia fandom, a community that did not tolerate intolerance. Maybe, given that the films are over and the fandom is contracting again, there is no need for it and so its demise will pass unremarked. Still, I miss it. I know the technical skill to transfer the old site to the new server is beyond me and I really don't know anything about forum management. If anyone has any thoughts on this -- is there a need for it, if so where, who, and how -- I welcome your thoughts.
I've been trying to write but have been badly distracted. First, I managed to fall into a rabbit cage on to cement and now have bruises and cuts on both legs, knees, feet and one arm. I have been Battered by bunnies. School also started and so that is always a stressful time of year. huzzah for a long weekend.
Second, I had a unsigned, anonymous review to I love not man the less but nature more. Over the last day, I've been tinkering with a response. There's a little more here, under the cut. Please be warned -- this anon review and my discussion that follows contain horribly homophobic language bracketed by smileys. If being labeled horrible things due to sexual orientation is triggering, stop now.
Guest posted a review on I love not man the less but nature more. In that review, she [yes, I'll assume she] states:
:This was very well written, and I enjoyed the ideas behind some of the challenges. They were very symbolic and meaningful. I especially appreciated the rebirth. You are a good writer. :)
Thank you. Guest then states:
I have to say one thing, though. I wish that you had not crossed the bounds of what is right and wrong in our world so drastically, and made it seem as though in Narnia it would be good and pure, and would have Aslan's approval. Since He is a picture of Christ, and since God is a holy, unchanging God, if God says that nakedness and homosexuality are an abomination in our world, it follows that this would also remain the case in any other world He chose to create.
Just my thoughts on what you could do to stay true to Lewis' Narnia. :) I do not think that he would have agreed with you that perversion becomes acceptable if it is in another world. Surely there are other ways they could bond with their people.
Apart from the despicable assault surrounded by passive smileys and the gross presumption that the loving God I worship agrees with Guest’s hate, I explicitly state in my profile and in the story that there is a same sex pairing. And, let’s be realistic, shall we? I’ve been actively posting in the fandom since early 2009 and in that time, I have written over 800,000 words of Narnia fan fiction and I'm no slash writer. In the 22,000 words of I love not man the less, there are about 500 words at the very end where I fade to black on a multi-het-slash pairing. There's nothing else like that in the rest of my work. I love not man the less has been up for a year.
In other words, and as I’ve now amended my profile to state, Guest had a point she was going to make, she went looking for it in one of the few places she would find it in my enormous body of work, she ignored repeated disclosures and disclaimers, she did this even though she believes homosexuality is, to quote her hateful review, an “abomination” and a “perversion,” and she used my story as a platform to spread her homophobic bilge and viciously assault my other readers and would-be readers in the name of the God of Love.
In the end, that last point was the important difference between this anonymous review and the many hatemongers who have preceded it. Others have criticized me for destroying Narnia and perverting Lewis' intent. Guest went after my LGBT readers and would-be readers. I’m not interested in fighting anyone else’s battles, but Guest decided to use my story as her soapbox. Only I can defend it and the freedom readers and would-be readers should have to click on my story and not be subjected to vicious hate.
So, for the first time, I deleted a review. Fortunately, you can delete anonymous reviews on fanfiction.net. You can’t delete signed ones. If I receive homophobic hate speech in a signed review, I’ll report it for abuse and a TOS violation.
When I wrote Digory opening that badly spelled note from Mary in April 2009, I never intended to be the poster child and lightning rod for all that Guest and others condemn as wrong in the Narnia fandom.
In the Bujold community, Hedda62 just posted Further Up and Further In, a Betan Survey/Narnia cross over to fill the prompt: You know all those Betan survey ships that go into wormholes and don’t come out? They go to Narnia. It's so much fun. I really enjoyed it.
In recognition of some real ugliness and other things, lady_songsmith has started a new Comm, Marvelous Things Beyond Reckoning to promote the stories that celebrate "the diversity of vision in Narnia and the richness of the world." Huzzah. PM her with questions and suggestions.
The ugliness, more on that briefly, below, underscores how much I miss the Narnia Fanfiction Revolution community which had at its core a celebration of diversity and creativity. It was that rare thing in the Narnia fandom, a community that did not tolerate intolerance. Maybe, given that the films are over and the fandom is contracting again, there is no need for it and so its demise will pass unremarked. Still, I miss it. I know the technical skill to transfer the old site to the new server is beyond me and I really don't know anything about forum management. If anyone has any thoughts on this -- is there a need for it, if so where, who, and how -- I welcome your thoughts.
I've been trying to write but have been badly distracted. First, I managed to fall into a rabbit cage on to cement and now have bruises and cuts on both legs, knees, feet and one arm. I have been Battered by bunnies. School also started and so that is always a stressful time of year. huzzah for a long weekend.
Second, I had a unsigned, anonymous review to I love not man the less but nature more. Over the last day, I've been tinkering with a response. There's a little more here, under the cut. Please be warned -- this anon review and my discussion that follows contain horribly homophobic language bracketed by smileys. If being labeled horrible things due to sexual orientation is triggering, stop now.
Guest posted a review on I love not man the less but nature more. In that review, she [yes, I'll assume she] states:
:This was very well written, and I enjoyed the ideas behind some of the challenges. They were very symbolic and meaningful. I especially appreciated the rebirth. You are a good writer. :)
Thank you. Guest then states:
I have to say one thing, though. I wish that you had not crossed the bounds of what is right and wrong in our world so drastically, and made it seem as though in Narnia it would be good and pure, and would have Aslan's approval. Since He is a picture of Christ, and since God is a holy, unchanging God, if God says that nakedness and homosexuality are an abomination in our world, it follows that this would also remain the case in any other world He chose to create.
Just my thoughts on what you could do to stay true to Lewis' Narnia. :) I do not think that he would have agreed with you that perversion becomes acceptable if it is in another world. Surely there are other ways they could bond with their people.
Apart from the despicable assault surrounded by passive smileys and the gross presumption that the loving God I worship agrees with Guest’s hate, I explicitly state in my profile and in the story that there is a same sex pairing. And, let’s be realistic, shall we? I’ve been actively posting in the fandom since early 2009 and in that time, I have written over 800,000 words of Narnia fan fiction and I'm no slash writer. In the 22,000 words of I love not man the less, there are about 500 words at the very end where I fade to black on a multi-het-slash pairing. There's nothing else like that in the rest of my work. I love not man the less has been up for a year.
In other words, and as I’ve now amended my profile to state, Guest had a point she was going to make, she went looking for it in one of the few places she would find it in my enormous body of work, she ignored repeated disclosures and disclaimers, she did this even though she believes homosexuality is, to quote her hateful review, an “abomination” and a “perversion,” and she used my story as a platform to spread her homophobic bilge and viciously assault my other readers and would-be readers in the name of the God of Love.
In the end, that last point was the important difference between this anonymous review and the many hatemongers who have preceded it. Others have criticized me for destroying Narnia and perverting Lewis' intent. Guest went after my LGBT readers and would-be readers. I’m not interested in fighting anyone else’s battles, but Guest decided to use my story as her soapbox. Only I can defend it and the freedom readers and would-be readers should have to click on my story and not be subjected to vicious hate.
So, for the first time, I deleted a review. Fortunately, you can delete anonymous reviews on fanfiction.net. You can’t delete signed ones. If I receive homophobic hate speech in a signed review, I’ll report it for abuse and a TOS violation.
When I wrote Digory opening that badly spelled note from Mary in April 2009, I never intended to be the poster child and lightning rod for all that Guest and others condemn as wrong in the Narnia fandom.