[ SECRET POST #1572 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1572 ⌋


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


01.



__________________________________________________

02.


__________________________________________________

03.


__________________________________________________

04.


__________________________________________________

05.


__________________________________________________

06.


__________________________________________________

07.


__________________________________________________

08.


__________________________________________________

09.


__________________________________________________

10.


__________________________________________________

11.


__________________________________________________

12.


__________________________________________________

13.


__________________________________________________

14.


__________________________________________________

15.


__________________________________________________

16.


__________________________________________________

17.


__________________________________________________

18.


__________________________________________________

19.


__________________________________________________

20.


__________________________________________________

21.


__________________________________________________

22.


__________________________________________________

23.


__________________________________________________

24.


__________________________________________________

25.


__________________________________________________

26.


__________________________________________________

27.


__________________________________________________

28.


__________________________________________________

29.


__________________________________________________

30.


__________________________________________________

31.


__________________________________________________

32.


__________________________________________________

33.


__________________________________________________

34.


__________________________________________________

35.


__________________________________________________

36.


__________________________________________________

37.


__________________________________________________

38.


__________________________________________________

39.


__________________________________________________

40.











Notes:

I've heard people say that they're not getting LJ notifications for new posts - there's an RSS feed right over here that you can use! Just a heads up for those unaware.

Secrets Left to Post: 12 pages, 276 secrets from Secret Submission Post #225.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1 2 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeats ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

So she should put in couples, just so fangirls can squee?

Yeah.
No thanks.

[(Anonymous)]

Same. That's not what this series is about and it'd feel out of place. Besides, Temeraire and Laurence already have a slashable relationship. I don't need the sex to ship something.

[(Anonymous)]

She shouldn't put them in for the squee (which I agree is ridiculous and rather offensive), but I agree with the OP of the secret that it's a bit odd that there are no gay characters at all in the series. She tweaked her wordlbuiding so that women could play a bigger, more active part, and I see absolutely no reason the same logic couldn't be extended to gay characters. And as for 'feeling out of place', so far there hasn't even been the acknowledgement that homosexuality as much as exists. Patrick O'Brian did a lot better than that decades ago.

[(Anonymous)]

And Stephen is very much coded as bisexual (even if the villainous gay lovers was uncool, O'Brian).

[(Anonymous)]

(even if the villainous gay lovers was uncool, O'Brian)

That part really put me off. The early books were so slashy, and, considering the time period the series is set in, as well as the author's age, relatively gay friendly, that I really wasn't prepared for that.

[(Anonymous)]

I know. It was not a deal-breaker for me because he had had other friendly portrayals of LGBT folks (including Stephen, imo), but it was still uncool.

[(Anonymous)]

Then let me rephrase: Acknowledging that homosexual relationships I would have no problem with and would find that more interesting in the world building. That wouldn't feel out of place.
Making them fodder for fangirls and the soul focus just for the slashing would be out of place. I felt that is what the op trying to say "This needs more slashy fun times."

[(Anonymous)]

I disagree; I think OP was saying that astolat is a hypocrite when it comes to lgbtqi themes with regards to her profic.

OP here

[(Anonymous)]

And you'd be right.

For what it's worth, I'm ESL and it seems that I worded the secret badly.

My point was, even if she'd include gay characters, people would still buy her books. Considering that she's written so much slash, I find it weird and yes, even hypocritical that she doesn't include any of that in her books. Like, it's okay for her to include gay characters in her free fanfics, but when it comes to stories people actually pay for, she won't do it because she's afraid that people won't buy her books anymore.

IMO, it's very cowardly and really makes it look like m/m is just ~hot & sexy~ to her and that supporting LGBTQ rights (supporting = including them, admitting that they exist) under her actual author name is something she doesn't dare to do.

Re: OP here

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

glad i understood you correctly :) and yeah, it's really problematic when someone who's in such a position of power as novik/astolat (i mean, she's huge panfandom bnf; she runs otw and its associated projects) drops the ball like this. she can and should do better.

Re: OP here

[(Anonymous)]

Ah. My bad, op. :) Yes, this I can get behind and I agree with you. Though apparently she may eventually address it, reading the comments. So my hopes are up.

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's very, very interesting that Novik's fic is nearly entirely m/m, yet there's barely a hint of it in the Temeraire books, when (as I understand it) they themselves were originally conceived of as fic (and would thus have been m/m).

My guess is that she's avoiding it in order to have more mainstream appeal.

While I agree that it would be more honest for her to have some m/m in her original fiction, I can't really blame her for that particular decision.

[diorama23.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of fantasy authors who have gay characters and it hasn't hurt their sales at all.

[elica.livejournal.com]

But they're not aimed at children.

[diorama23.livejournal.com]

I didn't Novik's book was aimed at children. I haven't read them, historical fantasy AUs are not my thing, but a friend of mine loves them and he's very much an adult so I thought they were aimed at adults.

But I did enjoy Alison Goodman's series which is aimed at young adults which has a gay character and a transgender character.

[(Anonymous)]

Wait, what?

I've never thought that Novik's books are aimed at children. If anything, they're aimed at both adults and young adults.

And you seem to say that Novik doesn't include gay characters because her books are aimed at younger people. One: what, we should protect children from the gay? Let me count the ways that's wrong and we'd be here all day. Two, plenty of YA fantasy authors manage to write LGBT characters in their successful books. Novik could easily do the same.