what ought to go without saying but doesn't

[naominovik]

I don't do well with heated online discussions myself, and so I want to say up front that I don't want this post to be taken as pressure on anyone else to participate. I am only ever for people engaging online how they choose and however works for them at any given moment.

That said, I do want to say in the context of what feels like an unending

Comments

[pyrephox]

It's always a shame to see people who I normally respect acting like defensive children. I don't think it takes a lot of study to realize that many geek fandoms are not anywhere as inclusive as they could be, nor (for that matter) to realize that internet mores are not RL mores, and the pseudonym is a long-term and respected convention online.

[shryke]

This sort of thing is the reason why I feel Race is dumb and should be eliminated as a concept.

[rosefox]

deepad tackles this idea very eloquently.

[pyrephox]

That has always struck me as another way to avoid engaging the very real difficulty that people of color have to face in day to day life. It shuts down the conversation in an unhelpful way, because race is /never/ going to be eliminated as a concept. It's like someone saying, "Y'know, I lost my job today, and I'm kinda worried about paying the bills this month" and getting a response like, "That's why property is dumb and should be eliminated as a concept". Yeah, I guess that'd be /nice/, but it's not a realistic help for the guy who's very concerned about that piece of property that keeps the rain off of his head!

[lovefromgirl]

I actually got that response once, or near enough, regarding health insurance. Yes, because I can go off my meds and be fiiiine.

I can only imagine the anger of someone who doesn't have (or want) a means to eliminate a piece of her identity. Writing that out, the concept is outright barbaric: how dare we ask another person to stifle something inherently hirself for our comfort?

[arantzain]

Thank you. When I saw the subject I grabbed a breath and held it; when I saw what you said, it all came rushing out.

I took a class with an Africanist over the summer, in which he talked often about Western portrayals of pre-colonial African societies and societies that existed simultaneously with colonization, and it seemed to me at the time that you had done a good job writing an Africa that was not "inherently backward" in the way of many mainstream and media voice suggest. But I suspect others will have more learned criticisms on that point.

[arantzain]

Want to add, can't edit: re: "inherently backward" --think that came out wrong.

I think the thing I admired the most was the sense of living tradition, of a close-knit functional community, where the relationship between dragons and people reinforced history --and that the history was joint, human and dragon. I left my class with the impression that many media sources (including some of those I most trust) would be flabbergasted to know that there are cities in Africa, and that there have always been, or the complexity of the languages and diversity of cultures represented there. I got a sense of that from your novel, and valued that perspective even if I'm not qualified to evaluate the historicity of it.

[flourish]

Thank you very much for posting this.

[anonymous]

OK, I was planning on commenting on here anyway in response to the last post, but I guess it could kind of fit in.

A friend and I at work have similar taste in books: usually running to the vampire/werewolf part of fantasy. So we've been steadily recommending books to each other for months.

And since she was bored at work today, I asked her if she liked dragons and historicals, and she gave a resounding yes, so I directed her the free online edition of His Majesty's Dragon (which she loved, and she loved that there were already five books out, so there is going to be more book shopping in her future.) So, good idea with the posting!

How does this relate? She's a black chick from Jamaica, and I'm a white chick from NJ, both living in FL.

And to the person who was afraid of "offending" because they didn't know how african americans lived. Uh, go find a blog by one? maybe two? how about three? For some reason I'm sure they are out there actually writing about their real lives.

Heather