Quick(ish) Preview: When your favorite artist does wrong (NK Jemisin, trans bullying, and Isabel Fall)
You can tell when I am annoyed with my "real" work by whether or not I post mid-week.
Writing is hard. Which... makes it ironic that I am previewing some future posts about what to do when your favorite writer steps in it. I gave a quick teaser about this in Sunday's Part IV of the Virtue and virtue-signaling in science fiction & fantasy series. Next up in that series: the Isabel Fall fiasco.
Yes, I tell everyone who will either listen or read that they should read everything N.K. Jemisin has written. She is a genius, and the preeminent science fiction author of the day. The passage of time is a harsh mistress (see what I did there?), but I have a high degree of confidence that The Broken Earth trilogy will take its place alongside the Foundation novels, the Dune series, and the other books that anyone with a passing familiarity with the genre will know. It will be canon. Jemisin is that good.
However, one of the issues I semi-frequently address is the challenge of dealing with art when the artist does wrong. Jemisin might chafe at the term, "social justice warrior," due to its pejorative usage, but if any modern author is an "SJW," it's Jemisin. And yet, for reasons I'll address this weekend, she and the rest of the SJWs of the sci-fi and fantasy community perversely harassed and bullied a trans woman in a traumatic way, and I'm not seeing a lot of self-reflection or responsibility-taking. It was ugly. And there aren't a lot of people saying, "what did we do, how did we let that happen, and how do we change to stop ourselves from doing it again?" The critics of the incident are people like me, who didn't join the pile-on in the first place.
Do I have your attention yet? SJWs bully trans woman, fail to take responsibility. Something is going on here.
Right now, I have to deal with my issues with Wade Schuman. Schuman is the leader of a group called Hazmat Modine. They are a great band. They just put out a new album. But, Schuman is a sexual predator. I have a principle, which I have stated before. The artist and the art are separate. However, I don't want to give Wade Schuman any money. He is a terrible person. There's the used cd market. Legal, and no money goes to Wade. So, there's that.
Jemisin is different, though. I think. It's not just that her detractors in the "sad puppies" would call her an SJW. Her books really do address issues of bigotry and justice. And she's smart about it. She believes in using art for political and social ends. She is an avowed socialist, which puts her to the left of me, but I think it is foolish to restrict one's self to artists who share your belief system. Jemisin is just brilliant.
But, if you make social justice the mission of your art, and then bully a trans woman...
You see why I'm struggling with this case in a different way than I am with Wade Schuman? Schuman is a terrible person, and I'm not comfortable with him getting my money, but his band's mission statement is not social justice. He's just an ultra-pretentious musician, and I'm a hipster. Jemisin? She thinks she's fighting for the dispossessed, and she jumped on the pile to bully a trans woman.
Anyway, there will be more about this. Jemisin is giving me an interesting case for my philosophy of art and artist. I'd prefer it if she just fully owned up to what she did. I think she knows how wrong she was.
More to come.
Writing is hard. Which... makes it ironic that I am previewing some future posts about what to do when your favorite writer steps in it. I gave a quick teaser about this in Sunday's Part IV of the Virtue and virtue-signaling in science fiction & fantasy series. Next up in that series: the Isabel Fall fiasco.
Yes, I tell everyone who will either listen or read that they should read everything N.K. Jemisin has written. She is a genius, and the preeminent science fiction author of the day. The passage of time is a harsh mistress (see what I did there?), but I have a high degree of confidence that The Broken Earth trilogy will take its place alongside the Foundation novels, the Dune series, and the other books that anyone with a passing familiarity with the genre will know. It will be canon. Jemisin is that good.
However, one of the issues I semi-frequently address is the challenge of dealing with art when the artist does wrong. Jemisin might chafe at the term, "social justice warrior," due to its pejorative usage, but if any modern author is an "SJW," it's Jemisin. And yet, for reasons I'll address this weekend, she and the rest of the SJWs of the sci-fi and fantasy community perversely harassed and bullied a trans woman in a traumatic way, and I'm not seeing a lot of self-reflection or responsibility-taking. It was ugly. And there aren't a lot of people saying, "what did we do, how did we let that happen, and how do we change to stop ourselves from doing it again?" The critics of the incident are people like me, who didn't join the pile-on in the first place.
Do I have your attention yet? SJWs bully trans woman, fail to take responsibility. Something is going on here.
Right now, I have to deal with my issues with Wade Schuman. Schuman is the leader of a group called Hazmat Modine. They are a great band. They just put out a new album. But, Schuman is a sexual predator. I have a principle, which I have stated before. The artist and the art are separate. However, I don't want to give Wade Schuman any money. He is a terrible person. There's the used cd market. Legal, and no money goes to Wade. So, there's that.
Jemisin is different, though. I think. It's not just that her detractors in the "sad puppies" would call her an SJW. Her books really do address issues of bigotry and justice. And she's smart about it. She believes in using art for political and social ends. She is an avowed socialist, which puts her to the left of me, but I think it is foolish to restrict one's self to artists who share your belief system. Jemisin is just brilliant.
But, if you make social justice the mission of your art, and then bully a trans woman...
You see why I'm struggling with this case in a different way than I am with Wade Schuman? Schuman is a terrible person, and I'm not comfortable with him getting my money, but his band's mission statement is not social justice. He's just an ultra-pretentious musician, and I'm a hipster. Jemisin? She thinks she's fighting for the dispossessed, and she jumped on the pile to bully a trans woman.
Anyway, there will be more about this. Jemisin is giving me an interesting case for my philosophy of art and artist. I'd prefer it if she just fully owned up to what she did. I think she knows how wrong she was.
More to come.
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