(Untitled)

[lyricaldiscord]

When I was a young wee-thing, Patricia C. Wrede was one of my favorite authors. I still have my paperback copy of Dealing With Dragons that I got from the book fair at school, complete with the star stamp inside the front cover which means I paid for it myself, and not my parents

Comments

[septembergrrl]

Could you link to the Wrede thing for context, pls? I'm failing at, well, following everything, these days...

[lyricaldiscord]

Metafandom's mamothfail tag should have almost everything, but there's some good links here and here.

The short version is this: Patricia C. Wrede wrote a book called The Thirteenth Child in which, to quote the review on Tor, "This is an alternate version of our world which is full of magic, and where America (Columbia) was discovered empty of people but full of dangerous animals, many of them magical

[septembergrrl]

.... eeeesh.

It's like a combination plate of utter suckitude. I can't decide whether I'm more appalled by:
a)her belief that the only logical response to a (reasonable) distaste for stereotypes was eliminating cultures entirely, as opposed to researching or even just handwaving to create a culture that worked for the story she wanted to tell, or
b)The blithe dismissal of a world with no Natives as not "wildly divergent history."

Thank you for the recap. Like I said, I fail on the reading front these days.

[lyricaldiscord]

I think B pisses me off more. 'Cause gee, it ain't like those Native peoples had history or nothin' before the White Folks showed up!

Erm, I think my sarcasm got loose again. Dammit.