(no subject)

[ann_leckie]

Originally published at Ann Leckie. You can comment here or there.

Yeah, I was supposed to be writing all day, and instead I was fiddling around with my website. I’ve got a pretty new WordPress theme, though!

Anyway. I’ve been kind of quiet for a while–not sure why, I guess there’s just been plenty to do. I did write a blog post and then let it sit on my hard drive instead of posting it–it seemed too disjointed for public consumption.

There are a few things in that post, though, that I think bear saying publicly.

Item the first–and context, as James Nicol says, is for the weak: The idea that anyone can be colorblind, utterly free of prejudice, is bollocks. And the more you tell yourself that you don’t see color and that’s the way to defeat racism, the more you open yourself to speaking and acting in a racist manner–and the less you are able to prevent it. Trying to “solve” racism by declaring that everyone should be colorblind is like trying to “solve” the holes in your roof by declaring that everyone should be rain-blind. The more you try to not see the rain pouring through the roof, the less you can do to actually get you and your things dried off and begin to patch the freaking roof.

And when the people around you point out that rain is pouring through the roof, smugly announcing that if they would only stop focusing on the rain everything would be puppies and ice cream is not actually a good way to get dried off. “Holy crap, it’s soaking here, let me get a towel and we’ll call a roofer” might help. “You’re perpetuating the rain by acknowledging its existence” will, sorry to say, not. Help, I mean.

Item the second: GigaNotoSaurus will launch in November. I’ve already bought several awesome stories. By all means, submit yours, if you’ve got ‘em!

But. Please, if your story’s ending involves the main character discovering s/he is actually dead and needs to move on? Please think hard before you send it. To anyone, not just me.

In the “just me” category, if you’re sending something to GigaNotoSaurus, those of you who don’t already ought to know that my tolerance for sweet is very low. If you’re doing sweet, it has to be either really freaking amazing, or it has to be cut with something darker and more bitter–and cut carefully. I’m not a horror reader, I don’t require shocking or disturbing. I’ve got nothing against happy endings. It’s just that too much sugar makes me kind of sick to my stomach. Saccharine will make me actually break out in hives. Obvious morals–especially ones that can be reduced down to the sort of twenty-five-words-or-less motivational poster Despair Inc was founded to mock will also not find much traction with me.

I know several people whose taste and intelligence I respect who differ from me in their tolerance for sweet. These same people sometimes really really love stories I am completely unimpressed by, or are themselves unimpressed by stories I regard highly. It’s just how things are.

Oh, and I’d love to see more science fiction than I’m getting.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

For me, ethnicity is only a very small part of what makes up a person. It is *not* the first thing that I notice, and I don't speak visual well enough to reliably parse ethnicities other than in very rough categories. My Peruvial colleague is small and lithe, soft-spoken, and has the habit of touching your shoulder in greeting - but if you asked me to describe his skin tone or features, I could not do it - and I resent being told I need to make an effort *to* notice. Similarily, some times ago I scrolled down my flist and read - without identifyer - 'I took my Mum out for Mother's day', glanced at the picture and took note of a grey-haired distinguished woman with elegant poise and wondered, in passing, whose Mum she might be. When I came to read that post properly, I realised that I have only one black friend in [location], so the image ought to have told me that - but her blackness had not registered; other things had.

This does not mean I am free of prejudice or that I want everybody to forego their culture and individual identiry. When you pretend that there is no problem, you become part of it, but I feel that emphasizing differences (and the same goes for gender inequalities) prolongs them. I don't, for instance, want stories to be grouped by the skin colour of the protagonist or writer:

[birdhousefrog.livejournal.com]

Fairies are not necessarily twee or sweet. Just sayin'.

Oz

[ann-leckie.livejournal.com]

LOL I was thinking of you, actually, when I decided not to mention fairies! :)

[birdhousefrog.livejournal.com]

I thought you'd get the joke! The buzz about the magazine is good.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It's really really good to know the editor's personal preferences. I forget: do you have a website for GigaNotoSaurus, or is it just through your blogging? If you do have a website, it would be great to have notes about your preferences in the submissions guidelines--that way if people miss a post like this, they can find the notes on the website. But this may be a more word-of-mouth endeavor than that; if so, fair enough.

know several people whose taste and intelligence I respect who differ from me in their tolerance for sweet. These same people sometimes really really love stories I am completely unimpressed by, or are themselves unimpressed by stories I regard highly. It’s just how things are. --This, about personal taste, is so good to be reminded of. It consoles me to read this :-)

[ann-leckie.livejournal.com]

I do have a website for it--GigaNotoSaurus (http://giganotosaurus.org). (I just showed that link to my kids, who did not realize I had my very own magazine and now they are Impressed.)

I've pondered putting stuff like this in the guidelines, but I kind of feel like someone out there has some sort of beautifully constructed spun-sugar treat that I will adore, and I'd hate to have them look at the guidelines and go "Oh, she won't want that!" I also know too many good writers who look at guidelines and only see things that will disqualify their subs. "No ghost stories" turns into "Well, in my story the main character thinks about someone who has died--better send it somewhere else!" Which I don't want either.

A similar discussion came up at Podcastle recently--last week there were no fewer than four Little Red Riding Hood adaptations. Something in the water? Dunno. But they were followed by two Cinderellas. And the editors said "Do you want us to put something in the guidelines about fairytale adaptations?" But in the end we figured that it was better not to mention it.

I dunno. I'll keep thinking about it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Nice website!

And actually yeah; good point about expressing likes and dislikes on your submissions page. jcheney was talking about what things we didn't like in fiction, and I started to write about something I didn't like, and then thought, "but you know, I'd read and like a good story with this element in it; it's not that I'm categorically always going to dislike something with this with it in it.

And I definitely get what you're saying about not wanting to discourage people. Me, I usually try to persuade myself that my story isn't really that thing the editors say they don't like, and I send it, and then if it gets rejected, I say, "Well, they did say they weren't too keen on X, so..." But I think more people are the other way, and then, yeah, you might miss out on seeing something interesting and good if you express limiting opinions.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Hello! asakiyume pointed me to you and GigaNotoSaurus, so I thought I would say hello.

That's a very good point (a lot of them, actually), and I do read editor preferences as warnings not to send something unless I am very *very* certain of it. Sometimes I'm more certain than I have a right to be, but.

One thing, though, that is a personal cause of trepidation is how much horror-related content someone will enjoy. Because I can't shake the scary out of anything I do. Not entirely, and I am pretty sure that I give the impression that when I am not writing something overtly horrifying, I'm still kind of just surfacing, before I dive back into the awful. But that is just me.

And then there is the matter of what kind of scary people will like, which is even trickier...

[ann-leckie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's why I decided not to make my guidelines too specific. To a certain extent, you have to just send stuff out to anyplace that might be vaguely appropriate for it and not worry too much about second-guessing the editor's taste. On the other hand, sometimes knowing someone likes particular things can be helpful. It's hard to strike a balance, isn't it.

And hello!

[paulliver.livejournal.com]

Scott Edelson told a class I was taking that we should "write to market." I told him that someone had to write the first cyberpunk story, and then someone had to publish it, but before that, there was no "market." He conceded by point with a nod but didn't take back what he said. Anyway, I'm glad to hear you try to keep your guidelines open wide; it's the only way literature evolves.