[ SECRET POST #6155 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6155 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 40 secrets from Secret Submission Post #880.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Nah, I get that.

I'm also not interested in Race Politics IN SPAAACE or whatever else. It's not that I don't care, it's just that it's an issue I don't have any real connection to and I don't need to see it rehashed over again in various AU settings. I have zero interest in COLONIALISM IS BAD... WITH DRAGONS! either, or anything else like that.

And ... it's true, a lot of the time when POC (not just black people) are put front and centre of any fantasy/sci fi book (and that's mostly what I read) the main focus of the plot will be how oppressed they are by whitey, or what they're doing to escape it and I just. Don't care enough about fantasy POC and their fantasy struggles or the author's weird revenge fantasies to bother reading it. It's not interesting to me.

This isn't saying that great books with POC leads don't exist, because they do (Rivers of London, We Hunt The Flame etc) but it can be done utterly shittily too (The Poppy War and the rest of that series) but it's really hit and miss and I'm just bored of it at this point.

It just comes across to me as the same as the 'this is a book about a miserable gay-/transperson being rejected by their family' misery porn and I'm not here for it.

[(Anonymous)]

I used to read a lot of Andre Norton as a kid, and she was one of the first SFF writers (maybe the first) to write female protagonists and nonwhite protagonists, but the stories weren't about that. They were about the adventures that the protagonist had and the relationships they developed. But there was always a focus on the adventures. I really loved that.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, the main issue for me is when things like racism etc. are a BIG TOPIC in the story, there often isn't enough space for an actually interesting plot.

[(Anonymous)]

"Misery porn" really is the right phrase for it. I don't want to constantly see marginalized people suffering, and it's off-putting that suffering seems to be considered the defining feature of POC and queer existence in some circles.

You know what I think justice looks like? The ability to go out and experience the world and the universe, and to feel JOY! I want stories about that, because first of all, the lives of marginalized people AREN'T ones of constant strife, and second, that's the kind of future we should be shooting for. I don't want my entire identity to be about "being oppressed," dammit.

[(Anonymous)]

So basically, "but if it's a real world issue that affects me, a white person, like CAPITALISM BUT IN SPACE" it's fine???

[(Anonymous)]

Why do you want a bunch of white people dictating that the only thing that matters about a POC's life is the suffering they must be constantly experiencing?

'Cause you know that's how it is, right? 80% of the publishing industry is white, and if you waltz in there with a story about Black adventurers doing adventuresome things, they're more than likely to say, "but why aren't they all traumatized by racism? If you don't add that, we'll have to pass." Does that sound progressive to you, or does it sound like white people get off on seeing POC suffer? I'm at the point of thinking it's the latter.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not just that. It's that they want NO stories about racism and shit like that REGARDLESS of the race or whatever of the protag. So it reads very as, "I don't care about reading about these issues so long as they don't affect me. But Capitalism In Space? Sign me up, buddy!"

[(Anonymous)]

You did the thing. AYRT said they like pancakes and you assumed they hate waffles.

[(Anonymous)]

No, I took them at their word. They don't want racial politics because it doesn't affect them.

Literally.

"It's not that I don't care, it's just that it's an issue I don't have any real connection to and I don't need to see it rehashed over again in various AU settings"

As if the Greedy Corporation In Space (capitalism) isn't one of the most common sci-fi tropes, or the Greedy Noble In Fantasylandia (capitalism) isn't the most common fantasy counterpart. But I don't see them whining about it existing. I used the options I did for a very particular reason, you not catching on why I did is on you.

[(Anonymous)]

You "took them at their word" for one thing and then inserted something else they didn't say.

[(Anonymous)]

Not really. You can believe that, but I'm more rolling my eyes at how, once again, the Default (white) Experience is seen as just fine, but anything else is "messagey" and "preachy."

[(Anonymous)]

And I'm rolling my eyes that the default POC story can only have racism related drama to be interesting in so many novels.

[(Anonymous)]

THIS.