Interrogating the text from the wrong perspective.

[rogueslayer452]

++ Christmas came early as I'm now in possession of the first volumes of all three of MXTX's novels! We preordered them and they arrived the other day. They are absolutely gorgeous, the artwork on the front and back covers and the artwork inside, the way it's designed is just so beautiful. The fact that I'm now holding official physical copies of these stories makes me so unbelievably happy! I can't wait to dive right into reading them!

++ And unfortunately because there is a teaser trailer for the upcoming third Fantastic Beasts film, JKR is right back at it with her transphobic bullshit once again, and thus the discourse surrounding her and the HP series has risen, and quite frankly I'm just so tired of it all. More specifically, I'm tired of the discussion that has devolved into just shaming and guilt-tripping people. That is not only counterproductive to the situation, it's just mean-spirited as a whole, and unsurprisingly it's done by people who have never cared for HP to begin with or have just outright hated the franchise, and since the creator has exposed themselves to being an awful person headlining a hate movement they use that as an excuse to hate on fans who still love the series despite its awful creator. I've seen some really horrible and insensitive takes circulating lately, and the way a lot of these arguments are framed are so obviously performative with the faux activism angle, and I feel like the conversation has been derailed at this point because of that. This is a very delicate situation that deserves to be handled with nuance and discussed in a serious manner, but we cannot do that if people are just going to be so flippantly dismissive and insensitive with black and white ways of thinking. That is not a helpful approach, at all.

++ Speaking of polarizing public figures, Anne Rice has passed away.

Admittedly, aside from knowing the mainstream popularity of Interview with the Vampire and unashamedly adoring the Queen of the Damned movie, I never really got into her work. The only things that I know Anne Rice from are, unfortunately, the damage that she caused the overall fandom community from her anti-fanfiction stance. Her work was obviously deeply influential especially when it comes to vampire fiction in pop culture, there is no denying her importance in that, at the same time though she does have a dark history with fandom that is hard to ignore especially since it has affected so many people in very negative ways. We can, and should, acknowledge both when talking about her legacy as an author.

Comments

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

I have felt a little weird, a little left out because everyone else is mourning her as a national treasure as though she single-handedly invented vampire fiction and I'm over here thinking about...how yes, Twilight and others would not exist without her but...she was severely anti-FF from the very beginning, I remember when FF.net only had like three rules and one was you cannot use her stuff. I also can't feel like I've lost my favorite author as so many have said because I got tired of her books. I loved the historical aspects, but sometimes, it felt she was trying to outdo herself with titillations, absurdness, and gore. It's part of what drove me to stay mainly in YA and graphic novels. Thank you for the more honest post about it.

[icecoldrain.livejournal.com]

OMG SAME. I preordered two and then pre-ordered the one I haven't read yet as a digital book right before the release. The artwork is STUNNING OMG. I'm so excited about everything.

I haven't even been paying attention to JKR, but I'm not surprised she's back at her BS. I remember when she first got busted for her transphobia and then claimed that she accidentally liked the transphobic posts, I knew she was lying because some of her non-HP books are pretty telling. Not on transphobia, at least from what I recall, but there's some pretty blatant racism in addition to more fatphobia (which was always present in the HP books). I had already been very disenchanted by the time she came out publicly with her transphobia and it's quite sad to see her out there really pushing her transphobic views, especially for any trans person who once looked up to her only to now see someone they idolized hates their very being.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Yay for getting books! I got two in the mail this morning as well (not MXTX's, but gay books anyway).

[haebin.livejournal.com]

When I was younger I loved the "Interview with the Vampire" book/movie and the second book about Lestat.
But I had absolutely no idea she was against Fanfiction-Writers. :/ I only know that about about George R. R. Martin.

[honeymink]

I don't pay attention to JKR but I am excited about the FB3 trailer yet I feel like it's not okay to even say that in my own journal.

Same what the first person said about Anne Rice – I never cared for vampire fiction but I remember when first getting into fanfiction that there were always rules and FF.net cemented them -- nothing by Anne Rice or you'll be sued. This and arguing with your reader over reviews (don't know if she did that but there are a lot of authors out there who do) on goodreads or twitter always rubs me the wrong way. Perhaps because I've published in peer reviewed scientific journals and that review process is never fun but you always have to be patient and gracious.

[tabaqui]

I'm with you; I'm so *tired* of the bullshite surrounding the HP/JKR nonsense. I still like the series, some of my favorite fanfic is in that 'verse, I'll still give the movies and books a look-see from time to time.

That JKR is a transphobic jackass sucks hardcore, but frankly - fuck her. I'll take what I like from her stuff and ignore the rest, including her, and if anybody wants to give me shite about it, well - fuck them, too.

I didn't realize for a while just how ridiculous Anne Rice got about fanfic, but my reaction to it was the same as to the JKR ugliness - fuck her. I'll read or write what i want! (Though that was a fandom i was never really into; the books got so fucking annoying after a while, I just didn't care anymore).

[blakmagjick]

I didn't even know about Rice's any fan-fic stance until after she died.