Okay. Let's not pretend I'm free of bias, shall we?
I just received an email from an anonymous source using the option that Livejournal affords that says "you can send me email if you want to" (and I will be turning that option off now; if you want to reach me, you can use the website contact form and go through my PA, like everyone else). The author didn't sign their name (hence the "anonymous"), and went out of their way to say that the email address used will be invalid in two weeks. I am not reproducing the entirety of the email here, but as points have been raised that I feel are relevant to certain ongoing discussions, I will be reproducing parts of it. I will note that I have printed fan mail, both in parts and its entirety, on this blog before, and that this is not a change of policy.
In order to fairly address certain points raised by my anonymous correspondent, I will need to provide relationship spoilers for some of my works. This includes all currently published books in my three primary series; the "Velveteen vs." short stories, which are available here; and Sparrow Hill Road, which is not currently available, but is a part of the InCryptid universe. To avoid these spoilers, please do not click the cut-tag or read the comments.
I am deeply sorry that the world and all its variations of love and loving frighten you so very much that you just can't feel safe without poking back in anger at the author who displays some of them on the page to be met, dreamed about, vicariously experienced, and so loved in return. I am sorry that it terrifies you so much that to even engage the subject feels threatening, a risk. As one of the deviants in question, I know very well how such a cage of fear is painful and limiting to the overall joy of life. I hope you find a happiness in your life that will leave you so content that you would not dream of causing another such pain in return.
With Love, The kinky bi girl
Kudos, Seanan, to responding with strength and dignity. Thank you for bring more of the real into the light. :)
That fellow knows squat about statistics, too. If you accept 1/10 of everyone is not hetero,& cis, then it's perfectly reasonable that in some random collection of people, there's a measurable chance that ALL of them are "deviant". In fact, it is certain that some groups would be all "non-deviant" and others will have disproportionate representation. Get out your D10 and check it. Add to that a tendency for people to congregate with others who at least accept them, and I have no complaint about your choice of characters' sexuality.
I suspect the person who wrote that anonymous email of being filled to the brim with bad feelings about their own reality, and trying to displace responsibility for this onto you (complete with "and you cannot answer me back, neener neener, I get the last word!" behavior appropriate to a five-year-old child).
I am a mostly-heterosexual ciswoman. I read science fiction and fantasy because I enjoy that which is different from myself. I read your work because you are a compellingly entertaining storyteller, telling the kind of story in the kind of setting that particularly piques my imagination, featuring the kind of people -- whether human-people or alien-people -- to whom I can relate, but who also model some trait or behavior that I can admire. You tell stories about hope. You tell stories about dignity. You tell stories about internally-sourced motivation and responsibility. (Also, your action-packed adventures kick ass without being smarmy or two-dimensional, which makes it all the more fun!)
Your stories, along with other authors whose works include all kinds of people, got me through a year of chemotherapy. That ain't much in the grand scale of things, but it's one more improvement to the universe piled onto your karmic credit, however small said improvement may be.
Anybody who does not like stories about all kinds of people would do better if they quit wasting their energy and time on speculative fiction, and go away someplace where they can spend themselves in a more useful fashion!
(I will now imagine the trolls of your Toby Daye setting as they form an indignant PETA-style protest: "Internet 'Trolls' are Wannabe Hacks!" and "Go home, morans!")
(I'm a boring "default" person in most ways. "Straight, but not narrow") The 10% figure comes from Kinsey in 1948, and his research dates back several years before then. This was the era of "Dewey defeats Truman", and there was a lot to learn about statistical sampling. A lot of people of that era would be shocked and terrified to be asked questions about such a forbidden subject, and many of the people he interviewed were self-selecting in that they were adventurous enough to come to his lectures. A modern estimate seems to be around 3.8%. http://www.npr.org/2011/06/08/137057974/-institute-of-medicine-finds-lgbt-health-research-gaps-in-us Some QUILTBAG (I haven't seen this acronym before, but I like it because it can actually be pronounced!) persons object to losing the 10% figure. But any group should have the same rights, be they 10% or 4% or .01%. Keep up the good work, Seanan.
There's a lot of modern research, and where that number falls depends partially on whether bisexuals, asexuals, and other forms of human sexuality are counted.
I'm sure it's my bias as another bisexual, but it's comforting to know that when I read your books I'm likely to see people like me (along with a lot of people unlike me in every possible way!). I love your books, and I love your characters. I love the fact that there are people of all different kinds.
I'm glad you're gonna keep writing what you love, because lots of us still love what you write. Thank you!
Thank you for being you. And thank you for writing what you love. Before I found your books I was oh-so frustrated that I couldn't find the kind of stories I loved to read in a world that reflected my life. And then a friend introduced me to your work. And then I discovered that you are a Disney addict and that you filk. And I fell in love.
And now you're a Big Thing in this kinky lesbian Disney-addicted filking family of horror fans.
They go on to say that the only relationship in the Newsflesh trilogy that involved two fully heterosexual people was George and Shaun, and that all the others were somehow "deviant."
Someone has a selective memory. I haven't read the trilogy for over a year and I can immediately think of one straight couple, and then there are the ones you name. IIRC, Buffy was mentioned to have heterosexual relationships and she was digging a guy when she died (or does the fact she was bi somehow negate the hetero aspect of those relationships). There's also the fact that there's the rest of the population in the world and I figure it's safe to assume that they're pairing off in the same way that people here in the Real World do, so I take for granted that there are straight people in the Feed 'verse (and every other 'verse you write). How many people have expressed disgust over George and Shawn? How many people who are fine with them ending up together are disgusted by QUILTBAG relationships? It doesn't surprise me that someone's accused you of being QUILTBAG biased. Compared to other authors and books on the market, you and your novels are by virtue of the fact that you have more than The Token Gay/Lesbian.
Since most people in the world are straight, I assume unless told otherwise that the characters in your novels are straight. If I find out later, like with January O'Leary, that they aren't, I'm like, "Oh. Well, not the first time I've thought someone was straight and they weren't, and it won't be the last. So, where were we?" I think it's ridiculous anyone would get pissy about it. In the case of January being a lesbian not coming up in ALH, it makes total sense to me why it didn't: there was never any reason for it to. Would anyone be crying "FOUL!" if Li Qin Zhou were Jan's husband instead of her wife?
No wonder you were so angry. *sighs* I'm sorry you have to put up with such utter arses. They clearly are walking around Life with cis/straight/white/(probably male) glasses on ignoring everyone who doesn't fit into that view.
Keep writing QUILTBAG characters. As a QUILTBAG human, THANK YOU for doing so. And lots of love.
I'm bemused - I've only read the October Day series, but the predominant relationship by far has been a straight one. The biggest, most major characters are straight, the most pertinent relationships are straight, overwhelmingly the most "screen time" is given to straight love. A few background GBLT characters round the edges is enough to give people conniption fits? Gods forbid they ever read a book where a GBLT person is protagonist!
This makes me want to make sure the majority of my characters in stories ever are not white-straight-cis men. In fact, I think that's going to be the plan.
Sadly, troll and f*ckwits are everywhere, and they are *all* convinced that authors want their opinions. Which are all too often bigoted and unpleasant. I sent you an email about a new spider yesterday, btw: I hope that was okay (whenever I see science re spiders, I think of you). Kari
Please pardon this test. I wrote a comment yesterday, and it was marked as spam. Was it because I included a link? (I was trying to document what I said)
I absolutely punched the air when Maggie mentioned her relationship with Buffy, in a really normal and undramatic way. I love that your QUILTBAG characters are people. (I have long held the maxim that we will have reached true equality when I can write a Dr Who style villain who is unambiguously queer, and unambiguously a villain, and these things are unrelated, and feel comfortable with this). And having had books like the October Daye books would have really meant something when I was a teenager, and having to resort to reading a lot of homoeroticism in military sci fi/novels about monks to feel okay about myself and identity.
Can you use retroactive genetic engineering to let me join your alien plant race? 'Cause then I could photosynthesize instead of spending time and money on food, and I would love to shift my activities accordingly.
As for Anon...I am losing the energy to deal compassionately with people behaving like asses, so I'm going to try to not comment much. Since "set the funnel webs on them" is not an option outside Shadow Unit.
You write good books, with diverse, sympathetic and believable characters that I am led to care about. You keep doing what you're doing, wherever the Muses lead you, I'll keep reading.
'. If reading my "deviant" books makes you unhappy, it's okay to stop.'
Yeah, this. I simply can't understand why people who don't like something don't just stop consuming it, rather than wallow in it and proclaim loudly how awful it feels to wallow.
And I must read Sparrow Hill Road soon, just because of auto erotica. I'm giggling at the thought.
Sigh. What a jerk this person is. However, i did enjoy an evil laugh, when I realized that this person thought that Shaun and Georgia were the normal relationship in the NewsFlesh trilogy!
grumpy
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June 24 2013, 03:46:15 UTC 4 years ago
I am deeply sorry that the world and all its variations of love and loving frighten you so very much that you just can't feel safe without poking back in anger at the author who displays some of them on the page to be met, dreamed about, vicariously experienced, and so loved in return. I am sorry that it terrifies you so much that to even engage the subject feels threatening, a risk. As one of the deviants in question, I know very well how such a cage of fear is painful and limiting to the overall joy of life.
I hope you find a happiness in your life that will leave you so content that you would not dream of causing another such pain in return.
With Love,
The kinky bi girl
Kudos, Seanan, to responding with strength and dignity. Thank you for bring more of the real into the light. :)
June 24 2013, 07:06:30 UTC 4 years ago
4 years ago
June 24 2013, 04:09:48 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:19:52 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 04:10:07 UTC 4 years ago
I am a mostly-heterosexual ciswoman. I read science fiction and fantasy because I enjoy that which is different from myself. I read your work because you are a compellingly entertaining storyteller, telling the kind of story in the kind of setting that particularly piques my imagination, featuring the kind of people -- whether human-people or alien-people -- to whom I can relate, but who also model some trait or behavior that I can admire. You tell stories about hope. You tell stories about dignity. You tell stories about internally-sourced motivation and responsibility. (Also, your action-packed adventures kick ass without being smarmy or two-dimensional, which makes it all the more fun!)
Your stories, along with other authors whose works include all kinds of people, got me through a year of chemotherapy. That ain't much in the grand scale of things, but it's one more improvement to the universe piled onto your karmic credit, however small said improvement may be.
Anybody who does not like stories about all kinds of people would do better if they quit wasting their energy and time on speculative fiction, and go away someplace where they can spend themselves in a more useful fashion!
(I will now imagine the trolls of your Toby Daye setting as they form an indignant PETA-style protest: "Internet 'Trolls' are Wannabe Hacks!" and "Go home, morans!")
June 24 2013, 15:23:49 UTC 4 years ago
Good.
June 24 2013, 04:26:13 UTC 4 years ago
The 10% figure comes from Kinsey in 1948, and his research dates back several years before then. This was the era of "Dewey defeats Truman", and there was a lot to learn about statistical sampling. A lot of people of that era would be shocked and terrified to be asked questions about such a forbidden subject, and many of the people he interviewed were self-selecting in that they were adventurous enough to come to his lectures. A modern estimate seems to be around 3.8%.
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/08/137057974/
Some QUILTBAG (I haven't seen this acronym before, but I like it because it can actually be pronounced!) persons object to losing the 10% figure. But any group should have the same rights, be they 10% or 4% or .01%. Keep up the good work, Seanan.
June 24 2013, 15:24:28 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 04:31:07 UTC 4 years ago
I'm glad you're gonna keep writing what you love, because lots of us still love what you write. Thank you!
June 24 2013, 15:24:42 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 04:53:12 UTC 4 years ago
Before I found your books I was oh-so frustrated that I couldn't find the kind of stories I loved to read in a world that reflected my life. And then a friend introduced me to your work. And then I discovered that you are a Disney addict and that you filk. And I fell in love.
And now you're a Big Thing in this kinky lesbian Disney-addicted filking family of horror fans.
June 24 2013, 15:24:56 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 05:48:02 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:25:03 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 05:55:53 UTC 4 years ago
Someone has a selective memory. I haven't read the trilogy for over a year and I can immediately think of one straight couple, and then there are the ones you name. IIRC, Buffy was mentioned to have heterosexual relationships and she was digging a guy when she died (or does the fact she was bi somehow negate the hetero aspect of those relationships). There's also the fact that there's the rest of the population in the world and I figure it's safe to assume that they're pairing off in the same way that people here in the Real World do, so I take for granted that there are straight people in the Feed 'verse (and every other 'verse you write). How many people have expressed disgust over George and Shawn? How many people who are fine with them ending up together are disgusted by QUILTBAG relationships? It doesn't surprise me that someone's accused you of being QUILTBAG biased. Compared to other authors and books on the market, you and your novels are by virtue of the fact that you have more than The Token Gay/Lesbian.
Since most people in the world are straight, I assume unless told otherwise that the characters in your novels are straight. If I find out later, like with January O'Leary, that they aren't, I'm like, "Oh. Well, not the first time I've thought someone was straight and they weren't, and it won't be the last. So, where were we?" I think it's ridiculous anyone would get pissy about it. In the case of January being a lesbian not coming up in ALH, it makes total sense to me why it didn't: there was never any reason for it to. Would anyone be crying "FOUL!" if Li Qin Zhou were Jan's husband instead of her wife?
June 24 2013, 15:25:39 UTC 4 years ago
My head hurts.
June 24 2013, 06:26:33 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:25:50 UTC 4 years ago
I won't.
June 24 2013, 07:39:24 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:26:02 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 08:27:02 UTC 4 years ago
Keep writing QUILTBAG characters. As a QUILTBAG human, THANK YOU for doing so. And lots of love.
June 24 2013, 15:28:05 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 09:59:12 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:28:13 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 11:26:10 UTC 4 years ago
As a white, cis straight guy, I want to say THANK YOU for writing what you do.
And also apologise for the dbag who wrote that cowardly email and I suspect shares those traits with me. :P
June 24 2013, 15:28:36 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 11:38:10 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:28:50 UTC 4 years ago
Deleted comment
June 24 2013, 15:29:03 UTC 4 years ago
4 years ago
June 24 2013, 12:46:10 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:29:11 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 13:07:42 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:29:20 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 14:17:25 UTC 4 years ago
I sent you an email about a new spider yesterday, btw: I hope that was okay (whenever I see science re spiders, I think of you).
Kari
June 24 2013, 15:29:34 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 14:28:09 UTC 4 years ago
Was it because I included a link? (I was trying to document what I said)
June 24 2013, 15:29:56 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:08:55 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:30:05 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:12:33 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 15:30:27 UTC 4 years ago
Thank you.
June 24 2013, 15:35:04 UTC 4 years ago Edited: June 24 2013, 15:37:26 UTC
As for Anon...I am losing the energy to deal compassionately with people behaving like asses, so I'm going to try to not comment much. Since "set the funnel webs on them" is not an option outside Shadow Unit.
June 24 2013, 15:54:00 UTC 4 years ago
Mmmmmmm, funnel webs.
June 24 2013, 15:48:36 UTC 4 years ago
You write good books, with diverse, sympathetic and believable characters that I am led to care about. You keep doing what you're doing, wherever the Muses lead you, I'll keep reading.
June 24 2013, 15:54:09 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 16:35:57 UTC 4 years ago
Yeah, this. I simply can't understand why people who don't like something don't just stop consuming it, rather than wallow in it and proclaim loudly how awful it feels to wallow.
And I must read Sparrow Hill Road soon, just because of auto erotica. I'm giggling at the thought.
June 25 2013, 15:29:47 UTC 4 years ago
June 24 2013, 17:00:12 UTC 4 years ago
June 25 2013, 15:29:57 UTC 4 years ago
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