I write stories. My favourites:
Vox
Singapore
Baby Stay Young
Joanna Banana
Executives of Neon Death (Coming Soon to Bewildering Stories)
Monday, May 28, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Any Empire by Nate Powell
At TCAF this year I purchased the second graphic novel by Nate Powell. Swallow Me Whole, which I bought the year before, was an examination of schizophrenia and the perceptions of reality. Any Empire deals with the intersection of violence and power. The protaginist is Lee Powell, an army brat who escapes from the pain of constantly moving into the fantasies of his action figures. He falls in with Sarah, a compassionate girl who seeks to emulate both Nancy Drew and her own social worker mother. Turtles have been turning up half dead, the result of the gang run by Donnie Purdy, who, like Lee, is an army brat who adores his special forces father, or rather his idea of him.
All three of the kids have their own fantasies: Lee as the heroic ninja with his kick ass girlfriend fighting evil; Sarah as the crusader against injustice fighting mind games from the shadows; and Purdy as the biggest badass imaginable. Purdy holds onto his gang by virtue of being as antagonistic as possible, cherishing a laser tag gun and refusing to relinquish it because of the feelings of control he gets. He constantly has to assert his dominance over the turtle-killing twins in his gang.
The drawing style is minimalistic and the plot dips between the characters and not necessarilly in chronological order with nothing to distinguish the borders between past and present. Any Empire can thus be a disorientating read, and while Swallow Me Whole had some of the same problems, since the book dealt with schizophrenia (I had to read the ending of Swallow Me Whole four times before I understood it, a result of the art style working against itself) it was more forgivable.
One point that Powell makes is that, for all the sentimental patriotism that surrounds the military, some recruits will not be motivated by a desire to preserve their country and their citizens but for the power they recieve by having social and legal sanction over human life. This becomes true at the ending where Purdy's unit participates in "excercises" against "Domestic Destablized Zones." You could argue of the benevolent nature of the American military, but it stands to reason that an institution comprised of those wanting the biggest stick they can find to smack people smaller than them around.
Overall Any Empire is a quality graphic novel but I cannot say that it grabbed me the way Swallow Me Whole did. The latter's plot was more straightforward and did not swerve wildly through perspectives and time periods like Any Empire. Still, I recommend both easily.
All three of the kids have their own fantasies: Lee as the heroic ninja with his kick ass girlfriend fighting evil; Sarah as the crusader against injustice fighting mind games from the shadows; and Purdy as the biggest badass imaginable. Purdy holds onto his gang by virtue of being as antagonistic as possible, cherishing a laser tag gun and refusing to relinquish it because of the feelings of control he gets. He constantly has to assert his dominance over the turtle-killing twins in his gang.
The drawing style is minimalistic and the plot dips between the characters and not necessarilly in chronological order with nothing to distinguish the borders between past and present. Any Empire can thus be a disorientating read, and while Swallow Me Whole had some of the same problems, since the book dealt with schizophrenia (I had to read the ending of Swallow Me Whole four times before I understood it, a result of the art style working against itself) it was more forgivable.
One point that Powell makes is that, for all the sentimental patriotism that surrounds the military, some recruits will not be motivated by a desire to preserve their country and their citizens but for the power they recieve by having social and legal sanction over human life. This becomes true at the ending where Purdy's unit participates in "excercises" against "Domestic Destablized Zones." You could argue of the benevolent nature of the American military, but it stands to reason that an institution comprised of those wanting the biggest stick they can find to smack people smaller than them around.
Overall Any Empire is a quality graphic novel but I cannot say that it grabbed me the way Swallow Me Whole did. The latter's plot was more straightforward and did not swerve wildly through perspectives and time periods like Any Empire. Still, I recommend both easily.
Make this boy shout, make this boy scream
Like a million fellow Canadians I am in my twenties and unemployed. I've managed to have, in the past year, several small jobs that didn't pay more than minimum wage, last more than four months or hire me for more than twenty hours a week. At this point in time the job market is swimming in university and high school students who will fight like demons for the few positions open.
Come September I am hoping to have a job. Any job: I've long since abandoned hope of finding a job that I can live off of, especially given the nature of the Toronto real estate market. It has been two years almost since I lost my last regular job, the one that allowed me to live if not luxuriously at least comfortably---and that was at Canadian Tire.
I cannot travel. I would like to have a Masters degree, and probably a doctorate, but cannot pursue that until I get the courses to elevate my GPA. I cannot look at an ATM without fighting the urge to vomit. And I'm among the lucky ones: I have no outstanding debt to pay off. A piddly credit card bill, but I never let that exceed two hundred dollars.
I'm tired of being considered entitled or lazy. I'm sorry that a decade ago I didn't think of going into the trades, for you see I lacked the precognition to foresee the rise of the Alberta oil industry and the collapse of the white collar industries. At the rate we're going the Harper regime is going to decide to throw EI away and legalize slavery, and Albertan slavers will go door to door kidnapping the idle.
So why don't you move from Toronto to Alberta?
Easy for you to say. Sure, leave behind my friends, my favourite places and activities, and move to a part of the country where I know next to no one and start from scratch? Not easy. I won't adapt to the more conservative political nature of Alberta, and, frankly, I've had enough of conservative dolts from living in Toronto.
There are a million young people like me. One million. Population of Edmonton numbers.
So why isn't the government doing anything about it? Especially given that the youth unemployment rate isn't changing one bit...oh, right, Harper canned Katimavik, closed youth job centres---fiscal reality. To me, nobody in Ottawa, Queen's Park or City Hall has any idea how deep the problem is unless it is forced upon them, as in Quebec.
That will come to the rest of Canada. Mark my words.
When the hell will things get better?
Come September I am hoping to have a job. Any job: I've long since abandoned hope of finding a job that I can live off of, especially given the nature of the Toronto real estate market. It has been two years almost since I lost my last regular job, the one that allowed me to live if not luxuriously at least comfortably---and that was at Canadian Tire.
I cannot travel. I would like to have a Masters degree, and probably a doctorate, but cannot pursue that until I get the courses to elevate my GPA. I cannot look at an ATM without fighting the urge to vomit. And I'm among the lucky ones: I have no outstanding debt to pay off. A piddly credit card bill, but I never let that exceed two hundred dollars.
I'm tired of being considered entitled or lazy. I'm sorry that a decade ago I didn't think of going into the trades, for you see I lacked the precognition to foresee the rise of the Alberta oil industry and the collapse of the white collar industries. At the rate we're going the Harper regime is going to decide to throw EI away and legalize slavery, and Albertan slavers will go door to door kidnapping the idle.
So why don't you move from Toronto to Alberta?
Easy for you to say. Sure, leave behind my friends, my favourite places and activities, and move to a part of the country where I know next to no one and start from scratch? Not easy. I won't adapt to the more conservative political nature of Alberta, and, frankly, I've had enough of conservative dolts from living in Toronto.
There are a million young people like me. One million. Population of Edmonton numbers.
So why isn't the government doing anything about it? Especially given that the youth unemployment rate isn't changing one bit...oh, right, Harper canned Katimavik, closed youth job centres---fiscal reality. To me, nobody in Ottawa, Queen's Park or City Hall has any idea how deep the problem is unless it is forced upon them, as in Quebec.
That will come to the rest of Canada. Mark my words.
When the hell will things get better?
Monday, May 21, 2012
Scazli, Privilge, et al part the second
So the debate on white privilige Scalzi started marches on and, God willing, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not on the debate being over as much as people losing interest in the debate. After kindly getting several thousand hits from him and braving the comments section on Whatever and Kotaku I think we'll all be glad that this will soon blow over---though an argument ended is not the same as an argument won.
The majority of objections to the SWM thesis have validity until the first third of the Twentieth Century.
Being Irish may as well have been the same thing as being black. Class divisions may as well have been as insurmountable as the Berlin wall. If you were Jewish...yeah, that was a barrell of fun in and of itself. It bears repeating that "White" is not a perfect point of origin but exists (thankfully!) because enough discriminations within being "White" have subsided to the point where being white outweighs being English, German, whatever.
At this point in time enough discrimination has subsided to the point where we can tell where the margins were and we've realized discrimination is bad, but not the point where we understand that discrimination still is a fact of life for many, many people. Less amongst women, white women especially; less amongst black people but still lingering; a heck of a lot more towards people of different sexual orientation. We acknowledge discrimination is bad and have removed the painful edges but now have to contend with the chunky debris.
"Privilige" is not a fight of polar extremes but rather a mass of Venn diagram circles overlapping with each other to different extremes: white and black, man or woman. A hundred years ago there would have been slim, if any, overlap. Now there is more. There needs to be more.
The first part of the fight against privilige is the journey to understand that there have been many other experiences in parrallel to your own. The second part of the fight against privilige is the journey to understand that these experiences may be different than your own.
(+25 Paragon)
The majority of objections to the SWM thesis have validity until the first third of the Twentieth Century.
Being Irish may as well have been the same thing as being black. Class divisions may as well have been as insurmountable as the Berlin wall. If you were Jewish...yeah, that was a barrell of fun in and of itself. It bears repeating that "White" is not a perfect point of origin but exists (thankfully!) because enough discriminations within being "White" have subsided to the point where being white outweighs being English, German, whatever.
At this point in time enough discrimination has subsided to the point where we can tell where the margins were and we've realized discrimination is bad, but not the point where we understand that discrimination still is a fact of life for many, many people. Less amongst women, white women especially; less amongst black people but still lingering; a heck of a lot more towards people of different sexual orientation. We acknowledge discrimination is bad and have removed the painful edges but now have to contend with the chunky debris.
"Privilige" is not a fight of polar extremes but rather a mass of Venn diagram circles overlapping with each other to different extremes: white and black, man or woman. A hundred years ago there would have been slim, if any, overlap. Now there is more. There needs to be more.
The first part of the fight against privilige is the journey to understand that there have been many other experiences in parrallel to your own. The second part of the fight against privilige is the journey to understand that these experiences may be different than your own.
(+25 Paragon)
Holidays
When I was last at the Chiarscuro reading series I purchased a copy of Enter, Night by Michael Rowe, who, in his autographed dedication, wished that every day would be Halloween for me. I think that are many merits to this holiday that elevate beyond those of Christmas, another favourite holiday.
September is not a very pleasant month because autumn is coming but it has not yet arrived so summer lingers unpleasantly. The best Septembers are when the hot, sticky summer weather subsides quickly after Labour Day; the weather should be shirtsleeves and comfortable throughout the month but it is imperative that the heat departs immediately.
The leaves can start to change colour around Canadian Thanksgiving, a more agreeable time for autumn to come. The weather gets cooler (preferably not colder) and the days get shorter. Early evenings are not my favourite thing, though darker mornings are: once the clocks go back it becomes delicious to while away the hours in bed while in spring and summer I must leap out of bed and be active.
I love the macabre nature of Halloween. By the time Halloween comes around naked trees tear the sky like witches' fingers. I hate snow though Christmas is incomplete with out. Halloween's dominion is the unpleasant time after the last traces of summer have gone but before Christmas' comforting white blanket. Wet, dark and cold when you being to feel afraid of the world.
Christmas is a bloated holiday stretched artifically from the time Halloween ends to just a hair before the year ends. By then the weather gets worse: leafless, cold, occasionally snowy. Christmas magic is saccharine; Halloween magic is mischevious and malevolent. Christmas magic is innocent and naive; Halloween delves into the darker parts of the soul.
I think the Simpsons' Halloween specials are superior to their Christmas episodes.
During Christmas you are forced to endure crowds, congestion and opulent foods that weigh on your stomach. Halloween is a shorter holiday: the candy goes faster, the sugar rush ends quicker.
Halloween is the superior holiday though as a side order Christmas is a pretty good. But no more than that.
September is not a very pleasant month because autumn is coming but it has not yet arrived so summer lingers unpleasantly. The best Septembers are when the hot, sticky summer weather subsides quickly after Labour Day; the weather should be shirtsleeves and comfortable throughout the month but it is imperative that the heat departs immediately.
The leaves can start to change colour around Canadian Thanksgiving, a more agreeable time for autumn to come. The weather gets cooler (preferably not colder) and the days get shorter. Early evenings are not my favourite thing, though darker mornings are: once the clocks go back it becomes delicious to while away the hours in bed while in spring and summer I must leap out of bed and be active.
I love the macabre nature of Halloween. By the time Halloween comes around naked trees tear the sky like witches' fingers. I hate snow though Christmas is incomplete with out. Halloween's dominion is the unpleasant time after the last traces of summer have gone but before Christmas' comforting white blanket. Wet, dark and cold when you being to feel afraid of the world.
Christmas is a bloated holiday stretched artifically from the time Halloween ends to just a hair before the year ends. By then the weather gets worse: leafless, cold, occasionally snowy. Christmas magic is saccharine; Halloween magic is mischevious and malevolent. Christmas magic is innocent and naive; Halloween delves into the darker parts of the soul.
I think the Simpsons' Halloween specials are superior to their Christmas episodes.
During Christmas you are forced to endure crowds, congestion and opulent foods that weigh on your stomach. Halloween is a shorter holiday: the candy goes faster, the sugar rush ends quicker.
Halloween is the superior holiday though as a side order Christmas is a pretty good. But no more than that.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
The Hugo Awards 2012
So the Hugo Awards nominees have been out for a few months and the Nebula Awards have recently been held. I haven't read Among Others or Dance With Dragons, so consider my thoughts preliminary.
Embassytown by China Mieville
This was the sort of book only China Mieville could have written because only someone so spoiled on critical and popular acclamation could have written something so lifeless and aloof and get away with it. Its like Mieville said, "Hey! I'm going to hold a party and I'm a gonna invite Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker and we're going to have a great big hoe down about language! We're hold it at the coolest club on the planet! Be there or be square!"
So everyone gathered around the club and Mieville and Pinker and Chomsky arrived with bitches on their arms, and then went inside and the bouncer with a glare slammed the velvet rope down, and we're all on the outside nodding and saying, "Yep. Sounds like a heck of a party."
This book does not possess any characters or a particularly strong narrative. I'm less than impressed with the inability of the science fiction critical community from calling him out on it.
Deadline by Mira Grant
This book did not need to be nominated.
Really, there's nothing wrong with the book per se. I believe it was nominated on the strength of its predecessor Feed which was good though not exactly without its flaws: if you couldn't figure out where the book was going a quarter of the way in there's no hope for you. There were no real dealbreakers in either Feed or Deadline though nothing to elevate them to Olympian heights either.
Functionally, Deadline is not a terrible novel but it is not Hugo Award caliber.
Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck)
Hell. Frickin'. Yeah.
This my lovelies is exactly what I want to see in a science fiction novel. True hard SF space opera. Action, adventure, and thoughtful. Can't get any better than that.
I am not a big Daniel Abraham fan; I think he can create interesting worlds to play around in but he can't quite get a story going. I was frustrated to the point of madness with the first volume of the Dragon and the Coin series that came bundled with my eBook copy. I think the collaboration with Franck works because Franck pushes Abraham to develop characters
Summation
Going into the Hugo Awards I believe it will be a fight between Leviathan Wakes and Dance With Dragons. I think George R.R. Martin is going to recieve a Hugo for the Song of Ice and Fire series at some point, and with the success of the HBO series. However, Among Others' Nebula win does complicate my estimations somewhat: about forty percent of Nebula Winners win Hugos, so its chances have been elevated.
There were some omissions I think do not reflect well on the science fiction community: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline did not make the ballot and I find that next to incomprehensible; similarly, Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (on my to read list) also did not make it despite good reviews.
I don't hate this ballot. But I do think the science fiction community needs a stronger sense of prioirites.
Embassytown by China Mieville
This was the sort of book only China Mieville could have written because only someone so spoiled on critical and popular acclamation could have written something so lifeless and aloof and get away with it. Its like Mieville said, "Hey! I'm going to hold a party and I'm a gonna invite Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker and we're going to have a great big hoe down about language! We're hold it at the coolest club on the planet! Be there or be square!"
So everyone gathered around the club and Mieville and Pinker and Chomsky arrived with bitches on their arms, and then went inside and the bouncer with a glare slammed the velvet rope down, and we're all on the outside nodding and saying, "Yep. Sounds like a heck of a party."
This book does not possess any characters or a particularly strong narrative. I'm less than impressed with the inability of the science fiction critical community from calling him out on it.
Deadline by Mira Grant
This book did not need to be nominated.
Really, there's nothing wrong with the book per se. I believe it was nominated on the strength of its predecessor Feed which was good though not exactly without its flaws: if you couldn't figure out where the book was going a quarter of the way in there's no hope for you. There were no real dealbreakers in either Feed or Deadline though nothing to elevate them to Olympian heights either.
Functionally, Deadline is not a terrible novel but it is not Hugo Award caliber.
Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey (aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck)
Hell. Frickin'. Yeah.
This my lovelies is exactly what I want to see in a science fiction novel. True hard SF space opera. Action, adventure, and thoughtful. Can't get any better than that.
I am not a big Daniel Abraham fan; I think he can create interesting worlds to play around in but he can't quite get a story going. I was frustrated to the point of madness with the first volume of the Dragon and the Coin series that came bundled with my eBook copy. I think the collaboration with Franck works because Franck pushes Abraham to develop characters
Summation
Going into the Hugo Awards I believe it will be a fight between Leviathan Wakes and Dance With Dragons. I think George R.R. Martin is going to recieve a Hugo for the Song of Ice and Fire series at some point, and with the success of the HBO series. However, Among Others' Nebula win does complicate my estimations somewhat: about forty percent of Nebula Winners win Hugos, so its chances have been elevated.
There were some omissions I think do not reflect well on the science fiction community: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline did not make the ballot and I find that next to incomprehensible; similarly, Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (on my to read list) also did not make it despite good reviews.
I don't hate this ballot. But I do think the science fiction community needs a stronger sense of prioirites.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Scalzi, Privilige, White People, and other nice things
Recently John Scalzi took on the issue of "Straight White Male Privilige."
I've been thinking about it and would like to address it. Specifically I'd like to address alot of the controversy involved. I think that alot of people, overwhelmingly white men but I will not rule out some women or other types of folk, may think that stings. They feel angry, betrayed at Scalzi for calling them out for doing exactly nothing.
You think that Scalzi, personally, went over and kicked you. You think everyone a smidgen left of centre is attacking you for no reason. Feminists, woolly headed professors, self important Hollywood celebrities, can't-let-it-go black people, unrepentently decadent gays, among others are dressing you down. You think that suddenly its now immoral to be, well, white/male/straight. You haven't burned any crosses; you haven't spat in a black man's face, etc. You wonder what went wrong.
Hell, I'm white. Very white. It wasn't an easy read for me either, and I could conceptually agree with where he was coming from.
I've thought over it myself. I would like to share my thoughts. Don't feel the compulsion to agree with me. One of the great philosophical strengths is the ability to entertain a thought without automatically agreeing with it---and I'm not asking you to. Just enterain the thought: listein to it, don't accept it as gospel truth just because you're being made to listein to it. Try to understand it.
I don't agree 100% with him.
So don't. Only person you will ever agree with a hundred percent is yourself. I don't agree with a hundred percent of what he said. His words are not mine, any more than my words are yours.
What do you mean, "Privilige?"
A fair point, so let's examine it. I think that its this term, precisely, that is the reason hackles are raised. "Privilige" entails that you get something and you, and I am assuming, you think that you do not owe anything because nothing is owed by or to you.
Kinda true. Kinda not.
Its a nuanced point and I'd like to get into the nuances.
I do have one objection I'd like to address.
My family came from [insert country/ethnicity/religion] [number] of years ago and we didn't ask for anything, we were spat on, prejudicied...
"White" is a spectrum, not a monolithic bloc. Jews, Catholics, Irish etc. have all had harder rows to hoe. This is not in dispute; I do not disagree with it. Its no more fair than what happened to black people, or native americans, or that great entity I like to call "The League of Everyone Else." Thing is, we need to draw a line somewhere or we're going to constantly fighting battles of balkanizing the human experience. "White" is not a perfect place to start but we need to start from somewhere.
Nobody gave me anything!
True. The second you emerged from the womb nobody handed you a diploma that you were damn lucky to be born white and could now do abcxyz. Nobody offically. You don't owe anybody anything and as such you are correct.
As a history major I find thought experiments useful to understanding how and why people acted the way they did in the past.
Mississippi, circa 1930
You are born to a family living in poor conditions in a Southern Town. Your grandparents---perhaps even your parents---remember what slavery was. What it was to be property, to be owned in a way thats inconcievable to you and probably the white population of the state. Nobody in your town is living high off the hog, white people are living in dire straits themselves.
You are a young, university educated woman. Allow me to flatter you and assume you graduated with high academic distinction from a major university. You want to start a career, particularly in...well, let's just say you want to start a career.
You moved west for greater freedom, intellectually if not politically. Your parents are not speaking to you since you admitted your sexual orientation: you grabbed the first Greyhound out of whatever Midwestern town you lived in for the coast. Now you're here, ensconded within the relative safety of the Castro, trying to find an apartment, a job.
Plenty of blacks/feminists/gays are bigoted. Black people throw "nigger" around like its punctuation! Women drool over hunky underwear models! Gays run around half naked!
I'm not denying that there are bigots in their camp. Their reasons are probably as shallow as the reasons given as to why women/gays/blacks, etc., shouldn't expect a fair deal from white people. Yeah, I think that some behaviour is unacceptable whether black or white, man or woman, and I think it is to the detriment of this argument that they are not being called on it. I wish that happened more frequently.
Look, being shat on does not mean (much less entitle) you should shit on people in turn. Do onto others, let he who is without sin and all that jazz.
I had a hard life as a white person [biographical details follow] and nobody helped me!
If thats the case, thats not fair. It is not. White, black, Martian, whatever. If you had to suffer, and I mean really suffer, if you were born into poor Southern or Appalachian towns or an urban ghetto or a company town that had fallen into hard times and disreapir; and had limited job prospects and a subpar education; and if you were sexually assualted or beaten up or threatened with the same; or called 'Kike' or bullied from the time you were six until you graduated high school because your name sounded funny; and if you had to join the military to extract you from that situation or had to put your nose to the grindstone and work like Hercules---that is not fair. I will not deny that. Nobody should endure that. If you pulled yourself out of that you are truly an exceptional person.
Black people have the United Negro College Fund, Women have the National Organization for Women, gays have GLAAD. Among other such foundations and instituions in addition to practises such as Affirmitive Action. You wanted a hand up when you needed it and didn't get it and thats not fair and I won't fight you on that.
Two things.
Its hard to put yourself in another person's shoes. I will not deny that. You can't argue with your entire life, if it has been great or terrible its not easy to envision anything else. I will not ask you to assume that it is easy. Don't think that it is. You need to get outside of yourself and view the big picture, tilt your head and say, "Huh." Do I think that is something that can be done overnight? Of course not! Scalzi's still doing it and so am I!
You will have the rest of your life to get it right.
If you have not performed any active act of bigotry and are confused as to why you are somehow being lumped in with the bigots I respect your confusion. This may be too much too fast and you want to fight it. Resist that instinct: you are not being called to the carpet vis a vis purely being alive. What is being asked of you, which I'll get to in a second, is not a tremendous sacrifice.
What about class? Rich people have an easier ride than poor people!
Speaking historically you have a point. I frankly think that Scalzi is being very blithe by dismissing this. However the devil is in the details.
Two hundred years ago, white people segregated themselves by class as dramatically as by race. A hundred years ago that was certainly true. Hell, the first third of the Twentieth century that was so. Not as much now. White people have a greater chance at social mobility (or, until the last five years ago they certainly did). The odds are in straight white men's favour. Maybe that will change for the worse way things are going.
Let me put it this way: I don't consider that a perfect argument, and I fervently pray that it never becomes one.
What do you want me to do about it?
That's the beautiful part: not much.
Nobody is expecting you to fall on your knees, rend your garments and atone for several centuries of straight white men being all evil. That is not very logical. It is not fair: you didn't create the system. Benefited from it certainly but you did not wake up one morning and say, "Gee Willikers! Let's fuck over the Darkies!" But you can do things about it. Best part is, it is as simple as switching on a light.
If I can boil this down to one "tl;dr" sentence, it is the following:
You can fuss as much as you want about the nuances, but accept the validity of the broad strokes.
Thats it.
I've been thinking about it and would like to address it. Specifically I'd like to address alot of the controversy involved. I think that alot of people, overwhelmingly white men but I will not rule out some women or other types of folk, may think that stings. They feel angry, betrayed at Scalzi for calling them out for doing exactly nothing.
You think that Scalzi, personally, went over and kicked you. You think everyone a smidgen left of centre is attacking you for no reason. Feminists, woolly headed professors, self important Hollywood celebrities, can't-let-it-go black people, unrepentently decadent gays, among others are dressing you down. You think that suddenly its now immoral to be, well, white/male/straight. You haven't burned any crosses; you haven't spat in a black man's face, etc. You wonder what went wrong.
Hell, I'm white. Very white. It wasn't an easy read for me either, and I could conceptually agree with where he was coming from.
I've thought over it myself. I would like to share my thoughts. Don't feel the compulsion to agree with me. One of the great philosophical strengths is the ability to entertain a thought without automatically agreeing with it---and I'm not asking you to. Just enterain the thought: listein to it, don't accept it as gospel truth just because you're being made to listein to it. Try to understand it.
I don't agree 100% with him.
So don't. Only person you will ever agree with a hundred percent is yourself. I don't agree with a hundred percent of what he said. His words are not mine, any more than my words are yours.
What do you mean, "Privilige?"
A fair point, so let's examine it. I think that its this term, precisely, that is the reason hackles are raised. "Privilige" entails that you get something and you, and I am assuming, you think that you do not owe anything because nothing is owed by or to you.
Kinda true. Kinda not.
Its a nuanced point and I'd like to get into the nuances.
I do have one objection I'd like to address.
My family came from [insert country/ethnicity/religion] [number] of years ago and we didn't ask for anything, we were spat on, prejudicied...
"White" is a spectrum, not a monolithic bloc. Jews, Catholics, Irish etc. have all had harder rows to hoe. This is not in dispute; I do not disagree with it. Its no more fair than what happened to black people, or native americans, or that great entity I like to call "The League of Everyone Else." Thing is, we need to draw a line somewhere or we're going to constantly fighting battles of balkanizing the human experience. "White" is not a perfect place to start but we need to start from somewhere.
Nobody gave me anything!
True. The second you emerged from the womb nobody handed you a diploma that you were damn lucky to be born white and could now do abcxyz. Nobody offically. You don't owe anybody anything and as such you are correct.
As a history major I find thought experiments useful to understanding how and why people acted the way they did in the past.
Mississippi, circa 1930
You are born to a family living in poor conditions in a Southern Town. Your grandparents---perhaps even your parents---remember what slavery was. What it was to be property, to be owned in a way thats inconcievable to you and probably the white population of the state. Nobody in your town is living high off the hog, white people are living in dire straits themselves.
- You can be extrajudiciously murdered with no guarantee that your assilants will be prosecuted (yes, white people were lynched but if you check the states you'll find the numbers pretty skewed against them)
- You cannot drink from white drinking fountains and this is probably the mildest indignity you'll have to suffer: walking down the street you're lible to be called obscenties, spat on, etc.
- You'll be dismissed as "uppity" for trying to address these indignites in even the most elementary fashion
- You can only sit within desginated sections of public busses, assuming the driver is merciful to let you aboard
- You are limited to specific areas of public and private buildings
- Your education suffered from poor conditions (little, if any, money contributed to your learning materials or the physical condition of the school itself) and your options for higher education are limited (try going to any university in the south as a black person---try, triple dog dare you)
- Your career options are limited to positions involving manual labour, and it always seems, no matter how high you climb or how many achievements you obtain, that a white person doing half, or even less, of the job you do is more valued than you---and if you don't think so, you won't have to wait very long to find out
You are a young, university educated woman. Allow me to flatter you and assume you graduated with high academic distinction from a major university. You want to start a career, particularly in...well, let's just say you want to start a career.
- The career ads are deliniated between "Men's Work" or "Women's Work"
- The chance of obtaining the same income as a man, for doing the same ammount of work, even if you go above and beyond the call of duty, is preciously slim
- If you leave to have a baby, you are no longer employed. No other male employee is obligated to abandon career prospects for a child
- If you are verbally or physically sexually harassed (yes, words matter)
- You cannot open a bank account or get a credit card without a male patron, husband or father
- Being physically abused---or God forbid raped---does not guarantee that your assilant, especially your partner, will be arrested or you'll otherwise be protected. Hell, people will think you're the one with the problem!
- Try and be taken seriously especially in the sciences
You moved west for greater freedom, intellectually if not politically. Your parents are not speaking to you since you admitted your sexual orientation: you grabbed the first Greyhound out of whatever Midwestern town you lived in for the coast. Now you're here, ensconded within the relative safety of the Castro, trying to find an apartment, a job.
- You can be and/or likely were physically or psychologically harassed: queer, dyke. All you did was walk down the hallway
- Good luck trying to see your partner in the hospital if he's sick, or trying to press charges against the unscrupulous people who abused you: they might think that you're the problem and deal with you accordingly
- You are considered abberational and deviant and you have never molested a child or participated in an orgy. Some people have, across all walks of life throughout history. But you are, for reasons beyond your control, an exception that proves the rule.
Plenty of blacks/feminists/gays are bigoted. Black people throw "nigger" around like its punctuation! Women drool over hunky underwear models! Gays run around half naked!
I'm not denying that there are bigots in their camp. Their reasons are probably as shallow as the reasons given as to why women/gays/blacks, etc., shouldn't expect a fair deal from white people. Yeah, I think that some behaviour is unacceptable whether black or white, man or woman, and I think it is to the detriment of this argument that they are not being called on it. I wish that happened more frequently.
Look, being shat on does not mean (much less entitle) you should shit on people in turn. Do onto others, let he who is without sin and all that jazz.
I had a hard life as a white person [biographical details follow] and nobody helped me!
If thats the case, thats not fair. It is not. White, black, Martian, whatever. If you had to suffer, and I mean really suffer, if you were born into poor Southern or Appalachian towns or an urban ghetto or a company town that had fallen into hard times and disreapir; and had limited job prospects and a subpar education; and if you were sexually assualted or beaten up or threatened with the same; or called 'Kike' or bullied from the time you were six until you graduated high school because your name sounded funny; and if you had to join the military to extract you from that situation or had to put your nose to the grindstone and work like Hercules---that is not fair. I will not deny that. Nobody should endure that. If you pulled yourself out of that you are truly an exceptional person.
Black people have the United Negro College Fund, Women have the National Organization for Women, gays have GLAAD. Among other such foundations and instituions in addition to practises such as Affirmitive Action. You wanted a hand up when you needed it and didn't get it and thats not fair and I won't fight you on that.
Two things.
- This is not a game of who had it worse. Nobody will win that fight.
- The point is societies are not based around the exceptions but the collective experiences. On average. It may seem that your accomplishments are not appreciated. Pound for pound, straight white men did have it easier---that does not invalidate your experiences. Remember: on average straight white men have had it easier.
Its hard to put yourself in another person's shoes. I will not deny that. You can't argue with your entire life, if it has been great or terrible its not easy to envision anything else. I will not ask you to assume that it is easy. Don't think that it is. You need to get outside of yourself and view the big picture, tilt your head and say, "Huh." Do I think that is something that can be done overnight? Of course not! Scalzi's still doing it and so am I!
You will have the rest of your life to get it right.
If you have not performed any active act of bigotry and are confused as to why you are somehow being lumped in with the bigots I respect your confusion. This may be too much too fast and you want to fight it. Resist that instinct: you are not being called to the carpet vis a vis purely being alive. What is being asked of you, which I'll get to in a second, is not a tremendous sacrifice.
What about class? Rich people have an easier ride than poor people!
Speaking historically you have a point. I frankly think that Scalzi is being very blithe by dismissing this. However the devil is in the details.
Two hundred years ago, white people segregated themselves by class as dramatically as by race. A hundred years ago that was certainly true. Hell, the first third of the Twentieth century that was so. Not as much now. White people have a greater chance at social mobility (or, until the last five years ago they certainly did). The odds are in straight white men's favour. Maybe that will change for the worse way things are going.
Let me put it this way: I don't consider that a perfect argument, and I fervently pray that it never becomes one.
What do you want me to do about it?
That's the beautiful part: not much.
Nobody is expecting you to fall on your knees, rend your garments and atone for several centuries of straight white men being all evil. That is not very logical. It is not fair: you didn't create the system. Benefited from it certainly but you did not wake up one morning and say, "Gee Willikers! Let's fuck over the Darkies!" But you can do things about it. Best part is, it is as simple as switching on a light.
- Don't harm any woman not engaged in the enterprise of trying to kill you
- Don't assume "All them blacks" are lazy because they don't have jobs and they're poor because they want to be and because they enjoy getting fat welfare cheques. I've been on unemployment benefits myself, and let me say that will motivate you more than anything else on this planet to find a job
- Don't think gays want to abscond with your child into the night and molest him and that their fight to get married is somehow a great conspiracy against a fundamental institution.
- Don't assume any other non-Christian, or unfamiliar Christian denomination, is a Satanic cult of some kind.
- Don't think "political correctness" is some kind of curse.
If I can boil this down to one "tl;dr" sentence, it is the following:
You can fuss as much as you want about the nuances, but accept the validity of the broad strokes.
Thats it.
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