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prusikI'm in the midst of this very weird exchange in the "Learn Writing With Uncle Jim" thread at Absolute Write right now. (Actually, that should be past tense. Regardless of the response, I'm done. I have nothing left to say.)
The details aren't important. The gist is that someone doesn't get that "SciFi" has negative connotations. My attempts to inform him/her aren't going well. This is a person who may not know what Boskone is, or anything about the "Trekkie"/"Trekker" distinction. That's fine. Not everyone has even the tenuous connections to fandom that I do. That s/he keeps referring to having read SF for pleasure since the age of eight is a bit annoying. How is reading SF supposed to inform you of the culture of fan interaction? S/he also pointed to the "SciFi Channel" as evidence. However, agents at the "How Not To Publish" panel at Boskone suggested one not use the term "SciFi" in a query letter. Why is that hard to understand?
I get the impression that the only reason there is an argument is because I made him/her feel bad. I don't think the argument is really about the negative connotations of "SciFi." (I think I was snarky at some point. D'oh... Totally inadvertent. Maybe I should apologize.)
Anyway, this reminds me of a Making Light argument that I was involved in. Someone was making the claim that there is absolutely nothing wrong with calling an Asian person an "Oriental," despite the fact that all the Asians on Making Light were telling her otherwise. (Granted, that would be, like, all three of us. Not exactly a groundswell.) She claimed that picking the current correct word for a given ethnicity was just a game of gotcha, and she was refusing to play. (I note with interest that, in the course of this conversation, she referenced the N-word, but never used it where it would have been logical.)
This is all a reinforcement of the idea that when it comes to determining how I wished to be referenced, what I think doesn't matter. As far as this person was concerned, the question of how I should be referenced wasn't about me at all. It was really all about her. [Incidentally, I don't remember this person's gender. I picked female arbitrarily. Feel free to substitute male pronouns.)
Of course, it's not limited to names. Every once in a while, someone lacerates me in public. S/he tells me to "to back where I came from" and, in general, blames me for all the ills of society. (After the first couple, I stopped listening. It's a shame, really. I could probably use the diatribe in some story.) It's not so uncommon that I'm surprised when it happens. It's uncommon enough that, in the time between lacerations, I gull myself into thinking that it's happened for the last time. However, it's not about me. It's about someone else making himself comfortable. He sees me as a generic instance of the Other. I don't really come into it.
The Absolute Write thing is only interesting in that it's a self-professed SF fan not caring about other SF fans. I don't think I've seen that before.
The details aren't important. The gist is that someone doesn't get that "SciFi" has negative connotations. My attempts to inform him/her aren't going well. This is a person who may not know what Boskone is, or anything about the "Trekkie"/"Trekker" distinction. That's fine. Not everyone has even the tenuous connections to fandom that I do. That s/he keeps referring to having read SF for pleasure since the age of eight is a bit annoying. How is reading SF supposed to inform you of the culture of fan interaction? S/he also pointed to the "SciFi Channel" as evidence. However, agents at the "How Not To Publish" panel at Boskone suggested one not use the term "SciFi" in a query letter. Why is that hard to understand?
I get the impression that the only reason there is an argument is because I made him/her feel bad. I don't think the argument is really about the negative connotations of "SciFi." (I think I was snarky at some point. D'oh... Totally inadvertent. Maybe I should apologize.)
Anyway, this reminds me of a Making Light argument that I was involved in. Someone was making the claim that there is absolutely nothing wrong with calling an Asian person an "Oriental," despite the fact that all the Asians on Making Light were telling her otherwise. (Granted, that would be, like, all three of us. Not exactly a groundswell.) She claimed that picking the current correct word for a given ethnicity was just a game of gotcha, and she was refusing to play. (I note with interest that, in the course of this conversation, she referenced the N-word, but never used it where it would have been logical.)
This is all a reinforcement of the idea that when it comes to determining how I wished to be referenced, what I think doesn't matter. As far as this person was concerned, the question of how I should be referenced wasn't about me at all. It was really all about her. [Incidentally, I don't remember this person's gender. I picked female arbitrarily. Feel free to substitute male pronouns.)
Of course, it's not limited to names. Every once in a while, someone lacerates me in public. S/he tells me to "to back where I came from" and, in general, blames me for all the ills of society. (After the first couple, I stopped listening. It's a shame, really. I could probably use the diatribe in some story.) It's not so uncommon that I'm surprised when it happens. It's uncommon enough that, in the time between lacerations, I gull myself into thinking that it's happened for the last time. However, it's not about me. It's about someone else making himself comfortable. He sees me as a generic instance of the Other. I don't really come into it.
The Absolute Write thing is only interesting in that it's a self-professed SF fan not caring about other SF fans. I don't think I've seen that before.
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no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 06:03 pm (UTC)What happened is that I pointed out that agents find using "SciFi" in a query letter unprofessional. This person didn't understand why. I told him/her. From there, s/he basically told me I was wrong about what I had witnessed.
The fact that most people who read SF are not in fandom, but that most agents who represent SF are is precisely why I wanted to make the point clear. It would be awful if a talented writer made a poor impression because he or she didn't know any better. With that in mind, at no point did I pull out my Fandom Membership Card. I limited myself to "these agents don't want to see it, so don't give it to them", and "if you don't understand why they don't want to see it, this is why..."
It's not about socially cutting anyone, least of all the person who is arguing with me. It's about what agents want to see in a query letter.
What it boiled down to with me though was someone saying, "I don't like being called X", followed by someone else saying, "Well, I don't find being called X offensive, so I will keep calling you X whether you like it or not."
It's not about mastering secret languages. It's not about being involved in cliques. It's about the amount of respect you have for other people.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-22 06:59 pm (UTC)Your delivery makes tons of sense. I should have just read the dang thread. :P Bad Dru.