I Write Like, Follow-Up
A few notes re: the I Write Like... meme that still seems to be popping up all over the place.
1. The meme is written at least in part to promote promotes a vanity press, per Making Light. I don't necessarily have any objections here; it's a clever ploy. If I had the skills to write a princess meme to promote my own stuff, I would. But I do like to be aware of what I'm promoting by participating in a meme.
ETA: It doesn't appear that the meme began as a way to promote this press. Rather, the author saw how it was spreading and sold ad space to the vanity press. See here for further details. (Via Charlie Stross.)
2. The race/gender implications, from zia-narratora and nojojojo. When it was pointed out to the meme's creator that the 40 famous writers in the results included 37 white men and 3 white women, his response included the line, "All people are equal to me, and equality means not looking at skin color or different types of chromosomes."
Oh, yay. Yet another round of "I'm colorblind, so you can't blame me if those women and colored folk don't know how to write." As a follow-up, it sounds like he did add a few more names to the list of possible responses ... all of whom were white.
ETA: C. E. Petit points out below that three of the forty authors are Jewish.
I'm sure someone's going to read this and say, "But it's just a silly Internet meme. Aren't you overreacting?" It's just a meme, sure. And just another whitewashed cover. Just another whitewashed film. Just another all-white, all-male anthology. These things add up pretty quickly.
In the meantime, I'm sticking with my initial response. I write like me, and I'm proud of that.
1. The meme is written at least in part to promote promotes a vanity press, per Making Light. I don't necessarily have any objections here; it's a clever ploy. If I had the skills to write a princess meme to promote my own stuff, I would. But I do like to be aware of what I'm promoting by participating in a meme.
ETA: It doesn't appear that the meme began as a way to promote this press. Rather, the author saw how it was spreading and sold ad space to the vanity press. See here for further details. (Via Charlie Stross.)
2. The race/gender implications, from zia-narratora and nojojojo. When it was pointed out to the meme's creator that the 40 famous writers in the results included 37 white men and 3 white women, his response included the line, "All people are equal to me, and equality means not looking at skin color or different types of chromosomes."
Oh, yay. Yet another round of "I'm colorblind, so you can't blame me if those women and colored folk don't know how to write." As a follow-up, it sounds like he did add a few more names to the list of possible responses ... all of whom were white.
ETA: C. E. Petit points out below that three of the forty authors are Jewish.
I'm sure someone's going to read this and say, "But it's just a silly Internet meme. Aren't you overreacting?" It's just a meme, sure. And just another whitewashed cover. Just another whitewashed film. Just another all-white, all-male anthology. These things add up pretty quickly.
In the meantime, I'm sticking with my initial response. I write like me, and I'm proud of that.