Patricia Wrede/Lois McMaster Bujold
May. 13th, 2009 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annwfynIn other news, I'm feeling really quite depressed by current online race related issues. As you may or may not know Pat Wrede recently announced a new book. Set in an America without any Native Americans. And a lot of people were upset, and then Lois McMaster Bujold tried to defend Pat Wrede, by saying a bunch of dumb stuff including 'PoC SF fans didn't exist before the internet', which went down like a lead balloon.
Lots of people have written about this so far. They've all said far cleverer things than I ever will, and so I'm just left feeling depressed.
Why am I so depressed?
Because Pat Wrede and Lois McMaster Bujold are amongst my favourite writers. Pat Wrede has written some glorious silly books set in Regency England, but with magic. Lois McMaster Bujold wrote the Vorkosigan saga, which as well as being fabulous also had the first bisexual hero I ever found (and he was tough, and sexy, and not a bad stereotype). She had crossgender characters, and characters from different cultures who's cultures were still portrayed as valid and worth something. She wrote this big, mixed up diverse universe, or so it seemed to me, and I loved it.
And now...
Now I feel let down. God knows why. It's not fair to expect authors to live up to some kind of magical standard I've created in my head. Authors aren't perfect. They shouldn't be. But I really really loved the Vorkosigan books. I really loved what I knew of Lois McMaster Bujold's mind, and now I don't.
Bah.
Am I sure she and Patricia Wrede are in the wrong?
Yes. Yes, I am.
I think that wiping away the Native Americans from the history of America is something that has been done quite enough in the past. I've been to American museums, which have a single display of these pre-Colombian people, and then only silence. I've read the children's books which pretty much push a myth of an empty continent, of a world in which the pioneers are the heroes, moving into a landscape that is theirs by right of progress. It's a horrible racist myth, and it's one that books about brave Europeans battling mammoths and monsters on an empty America buys right into.
And I think it also sucks that no one is saying 'sorry'. I understand that Pat Wrede is Lois McMaster Bujold's friend. I understand she wants to stand up for her friend, and I understand that both of them are middle aged ladies, trying to deal with a situation that their upbringing and social conditioning leaves them woefully ill equipped to cope with, but that doesn't really make it OK. It doesn't make it OK because what it also is are two white, class privileged, well educated and powerful women with voices that a lot of people listen to closing ranks firmly against those people who's voices have been silenced for a very long time. What it also is is another author saying that the history of America - the history that matters - is a white person's history. And it's also two women in a position of power deciding that they don't have to listen.
So, it's not OK. And it's horrible and depressing that it's two of my favourite writers who are doing the Not OK stuff, but it's still Not OK. And that's something I need to wrap my head around.
*sighs*
There's probably more I could say, or a conclusion I could reach, but I am lacking one today. Just that I'm depressed, and mildly despondant as a result today.
Lots of people have written about this so far. They've all said far cleverer things than I ever will, and so I'm just left feeling depressed.
Why am I so depressed?
Because Pat Wrede and Lois McMaster Bujold are amongst my favourite writers. Pat Wrede has written some glorious silly books set in Regency England, but with magic. Lois McMaster Bujold wrote the Vorkosigan saga, which as well as being fabulous also had the first bisexual hero I ever found (and he was tough, and sexy, and not a bad stereotype). She had crossgender characters, and characters from different cultures who's cultures were still portrayed as valid and worth something. She wrote this big, mixed up diverse universe, or so it seemed to me, and I loved it.
And now...
Now I feel let down. God knows why. It's not fair to expect authors to live up to some kind of magical standard I've created in my head. Authors aren't perfect. They shouldn't be. But I really really loved the Vorkosigan books. I really loved what I knew of Lois McMaster Bujold's mind, and now I don't.
Bah.
Am I sure she and Patricia Wrede are in the wrong?
Yes. Yes, I am.
I think that wiping away the Native Americans from the history of America is something that has been done quite enough in the past. I've been to American museums, which have a single display of these pre-Colombian people, and then only silence. I've read the children's books which pretty much push a myth of an empty continent, of a world in which the pioneers are the heroes, moving into a landscape that is theirs by right of progress. It's a horrible racist myth, and it's one that books about brave Europeans battling mammoths and monsters on an empty America buys right into.
And I think it also sucks that no one is saying 'sorry'. I understand that Pat Wrede is Lois McMaster Bujold's friend. I understand she wants to stand up for her friend, and I understand that both of them are middle aged ladies, trying to deal with a situation that their upbringing and social conditioning leaves them woefully ill equipped to cope with, but that doesn't really make it OK. It doesn't make it OK because what it also is are two white, class privileged, well educated and powerful women with voices that a lot of people listen to closing ranks firmly against those people who's voices have been silenced for a very long time. What it also is is another author saying that the history of America - the history that matters - is a white person's history. And it's also two women in a position of power deciding that they don't have to listen.
So, it's not OK. And it's horrible and depressing that it's two of my favourite writers who are doing the Not OK stuff, but it's still Not OK. And that's something I need to wrap my head around.
*sighs*
There's probably more I could say, or a conclusion I could reach, but I am lacking one today. Just that I'm depressed, and mildly despondant as a result today.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 07:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-14 07:46 am (UTC)Bah. I'll get over it. It's just kinda depressing...