Sunday, February 3, 2019

Woke Scolds Strike Again

Last week, I waded into controversy that I rarely wade into.  I was sure that would be my most political/controversial post about society for a while, and that I'd soon go back to talking about what makes a good title or why emotion is the key to drawing in readers.  Unfortunately, current events have interceded, and I feel obliged to speak out yet again.

A new author named Amelie Wen Zhao was excitedly looking forward to the publication of her first YA novel when she ran headlong into the woke-scold crowd.  Her novel, Blood Heir, was a retelling of the story of Anastasia from a fantasy standpoint and based largely on her own upbringing in Beijing and other parts of her life(obviously exaggerated for the purposes of fiction...a blurb from the book read "In a world where the princess is the monster, oppression is blind to skin color, and good and evil exists in shades of gray").  Unfortunately, a group of self-appointed moral monitors read her work through distinctly American and looking-for-offense eyes and badgered her to pull her work.  Rumor has it that Zhao received at least a $500,000 advance, an amount that any author would dream of getting with a debut novel.

The book was deemed as sufficiently offensive because it talks about slavery(within the context of the book) and has the audacity to mention the skin color of a few of the characters.  OH THE HORROR!  The offense taken to the references in the book require a uniquely American view based on our history and would relegate everything to a one-perspective view of the world.  Zhao herself says the tale is about modern day indentured servitude and has nothing to do with the historical shame of any one nation.

Let me say upfront that if you are so angry at the world that you seek out offense in order to destroy the career of someone you've never met and who was trying to reach for her dreams, you need serious mental help.  No, don't chuckle and say, "Oh, that RD Meyer is quite a card."  I'm dead fucking serious.  Seek help.  Professional help.

This kind of pre-publication offense(we saw something similar with The Black Witch) is the equivalent of modern day book burning.  Thirty to fifty years ago, we were all worried that church-going fundamentalists would ban anything that offended their sensibilities and conduct public book burnings.  Today, the woke-scolds are the ones looking to prevent anything they deem insufficiently sensitive from getting out.  Some have tried to say that they were simply registering their opinion, and that Zhao could've published anyway, but that's a crock of shit.  Their aim is to harass writers into not publishing work they feel is offensive.  They have no interest in letting people read and decide for themselves - they want to be the moral arbiters of our society, and that we will be made to care in the way they see fit.  Yes, it is every bit as much book banning as the fundamentalists we were all brought up to fear as children.

This kind of shrieking and clutching of pearls is destroying books.  People are so afraid of the online mobs that they'll bow before anyone.  We have given these assholes power by refusing to fight back against their idiocy.  If we continue to let these modern day puritans continue to have sway, we will be left with nothing that challenges us, nothing that goes outside of a very tight boundary, and no one will care enough about a story to even write one.  Look, I get that some books are offensive, but you don't a) decide in advance what people should read, and b) stop bad ideas by banning them.  Instead, you ocunter them with your own good ideas.  You debate.  You discuss.  You don't shout down others because their writings aren't for you.  How about letting others decide for themselves if they want to read this stuff, as well as decide fro themselves whether or not it's actually offensive?

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