Why I unsubscribed from Holly Lisle's Site

[ljlee]

So for the past couple of months I was subscribed to fantasy author Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways site. I hadn't bought anything prior to unsubbing, but got periodical e-mails and downloaded a free lesson. I found her content often common-sense and semi-helpful if not groundbreaking. A lot of the time they were things I knew already, but

Comments

[loopy777]

Naturally, I can't help but think about this in terms of technology. Should the original design document for the internet, or the web browser, have been locked away in a cabinet because of things like online bullying or copyright infringement? I'd like to see Ms Lisle argue that a more connected, open world isn't an improvement because of some growing pains.

It's not about religion, or socio-economics. What it comes down to is that humanity has a dark side, and letting that stop us all from trying to make things better is... backwards at best. And I say this as someone who has no hopes or ambitions of changing anything close to the size of the world through any medium.

That was a nicely written rebuttal on your part.

[ljlee]

Precisely! The fundamental distrust of people is staggering. Not that humanity is always trustworthy--we're frankly jerks a lot of the time--but if people had sat on their hands because they believed any effort to make things better will just result in backlash, then we wouldn't have made any progress at all.

I mean, what if abolitionists hadn't written, petitioned, and in some cases taken violent action to spread the moral awareness that slavery was wrong? What if the Suffragettes hadn't marched, spoken, and yes, written for universal suffrange? What if the Civil Rights movement had never happened? If "I Have a Dream" isn't a piece of writing done to save the world, then nothing is. It's a mark of a poorly-thought-out that it falls apart all over the place once it's actually applied.

Another hilarious aspect of the essay is that the corollary is not only that some forms of writing are bad, widespread literacy is also dangerous because people could read and act on dangerous books. (Which, of course, doesn't even work on its face

[hymnia]

Well said.

[ljlee]

Thank you!

[anonymous]

Your spam filter's probably going to eat this but I can't log in right now; this is chordatesrock. I just have to take issue with your last point, that she at least practices what she preaches. I find the quiz doubly hilarious because one of her novels is essentially an extended parable claiming that the American political system is Capital-E Evil. Oh, and the rest of her advice is about the importance of theme and how terrible (Suckitudinous) it is to write books without messages.

Sigh.

[ljlee]

What! You mean in addition to being poorly-thought-out her advice is hypocritical as well? Evidently Lisle's own messages are fine, but everyone else's lead to centuries of atrocities. Does. Not. Compute.

[chordatesrock]

Yup. She has another article mocking fiction that takes no clear moral stance, so apparently other people are required to write things with clearly-defined statements about The Way Things Should Be, but aren't allowed to want the world to follow those statements, or something. I think the charitable interpretation is that people are allowed and encouraged to express opinions about what other people should think and do, but not to force anyone to do anything or encourage people to force others to do things, but by that interpretation, she should approve of Jesus.