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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   30928 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 7, 2022

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What's up with fiction?

I haven't read any since high school English class, but my fiancée does. She often buys the trendy stuff that has won some awards and is (I assume) prominently displayed at Indigo. Hanya Yanagihara and and Sally Rooney are two recent examples.

After asking her about her current book over the last couple years, I have come to realize that all of them are mostly based around the following things:

  1. Sexual abuse, especially molestation

  2. Homosexuality or transsexuality

  3. Main character is black or similar, everyone is racist towards them except the good guy(s)

  4. Main character is disabled somehow

While these plot points are basically mandatory to win a book award now, a lot of "classic literature" is just old books that happened to contain these themes. For example, Truman Capote would not be a big deal had he not been a homo who wrote about homo stuff.

None of this is that interesting, but it is weird how well the title of "literature" and book awards launder what is essentially gratuitous descriptions of homosexual molestation into something tasteful and classy. Is this widely known? I get the sense that this is something most right-wing men just have no idea about.

This has been happening for a while...

It's difficult to find an unbiased account but look up the sad puppies hugo awards controversy.

And before bad faith accusations come in; there is nothing wrong with those themes. But anyone who abuses art to push activism doesn't help the cause, they just destroy the art form.

And before bad faith accusations come in; there is nothing wrong with those themes. But anyone who abuses art to push activism doesn't help the cause, they just destroy the art form.

What counts as an "abuse of art"? It sounds like you're trying to say "If the message slots in neatly into a side of a salient culture war, then it's abusive".

When I think of examples, my go-to isn't an award-winner. It's niche genre fiction. But the "abuse of art" is just so outlandish it's hilarious. In book 3 of a terrible series, take three characters. A living weapon from a past age of a foreign continent. A dragon who has never met a person aside from her father before last week. And a failed hero from another dimension. The author takes incredible, awkward pains to make sure you, reader, cannot possibly miss that all three of them coincidentally have the same views on gender, sexuality and consent as an uninspired 2018 Tumblr post.

This is still a step-up from the author's effort to Tackle Neurodivergence and inelegant Less Wrong fanfic.

I feel like I should be able to guess this from my time on /r/rational, but there are too many stories which sort of fit. Yudkowsky didn’t actually write this one, did he?

But the "abuse of art" is just so outlandish it's hilarious

Are you saying that no one abuses art to push activism? Because that's actually what I said...

No, he's talking about a specific book he found outlandish. It's a little confusing because he didn't name the book.

Edit: how did minimise a comment I hadn't read before? Sorry about that. Anyway @iconochasm can you tell us what book it was?

Ah, I'm still figuring out how to read this site. lol

Thanks

@netstack, too. Either Diamantine or Soulbrand by Andrew Rowe, it's the same plot spread over two books. I feel a little bad naming names because the guy posts on /fantasy and /rational.

Ah shit man, I should have picked up on your reluctance, sorry for making things awkward.

No, I'm saying this one example is so awkward and ham-fisted that it verges on self-parody.

I don't understand... OP didn't mention a book. And why reply to my comment, talking about something else?

I think I'm just reading this wrong. lol

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