Through Seeking Avalon, I found a link to a really insightful and thought-provoking piece on the experience of an Indian speculative fiction reader:

I Didn't Dream of Dragons

This was written partially as a response to this:

Open Letter: To Elizabeth BearWhich in turn, was written as a response to this original post, written by the spec fic ( Read more... )

Jenn's rant on cultural appropriation, original context- reappropriate.com, with comments

Jenn's rant posted in Debunking White, with discussionThis is something I've been thinking about a lot lately - cultural appropriation. I am guilty of if to some extent, and so is practically everyone I know (again, to some extent). Some of this sounds really ( Read more... )

So apparently my letter's getting published tomorrow, in MX. Why they're bothering, I don't know. Maybe they hope that the snowball effect will continue, hence drawing more attention to the paper. Maybe they want to seem impartial, and PC. In a way I feel I didn't put enough conviction or outrage in my letter - otherwise it would have been straight ( Read more... )

This is my answer to the featured letter in MX today, titled "Who ya calling racist?". This letter is written by "white, Christian and Australian" Mark from St Leonards. The purpose of his letter, in short, is to call the (assumed) "Muslims" who make young "Australian females" uncomfortable, racist ( Read more... )