O_O

Holy fuckin'.....

I've had Oathbreakers in my dresser drawer for, god.... 17 years? It was one of the most moving, enlightening, powerful books I have ever read. It still is, and I even have the music from that particular book. I haven't read her in many years, not since The Black Swan, but I always enjoyed her when I read her, and was proud that she did not shy away from exactly what she's shying away from now.

I am horribly saddened and dissappointed.

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She readily thinks that her audience can deal with a trans* villain, but thinks that a trans* protagonist would be beyond them. Personally, I think that's insulting to her readership.

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I think her readership has evolved a little farther than she may have. And probably a lot farther than her editors have.

Edited at 2011-02-10 05:55 am (UTC)

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On one hand, I agree with you. Her writing has taken on a "fill the shelves" kind of mentality.

But on the other, I have to wonder if Misty is even capable of dealing with a transgender protagonist or is socially aware enough to deal with the He/She titling and differences. I've seen some of the most intelligent open minded, LBGT embracing people stumble at times when trying to explain how the whole shebang works. And don't forget the editors....damned editors can hack and slash a book to pieces to fit what they consider *publishable*.

It's sometimes confusing for us....raised for years with clear labels of he and she to have to switch tracks midstream and flip our educated minds upside down and sideways.

I'm not defending her lack of tact or sudden onset of HURR DURR as you linked to, just offering an opinion of a 30 something who occasionally makes similar mistakes.

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Really, trans people aren't that confusing. Even us 30-somethings are normally capable of calling a woman "she".

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Ugh. If you don't know about something, DON'T WRITE ABOUT IT. If you're not prepared to do the research and get to grip with the issues at hand, then you shouldn't expect to get rave reviews. Jeez.

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I think the general sentiments expressed in bossymarmalades's "Sees Fire" from Racefail '09 are fitting here.

You see, I couldn't just decide not to have a conversation about race anymore, because it follows me home. My race issues ARE my home. Other people can pick them up when they want to look at something shiny, something exotic tasty foreign bright colourful strange exciting; they toss them around, try them on. Start to explain them to me and find different names for them, like classism and learning experience.

And then they get confused that those race issues, shiny, aren't also malleable submissive accepting pliant silent cowed controllable; they drop them, scowling, and complain that I should have warned them they might get pricked, especially as they were so well-meaning in their actions.

Well, I say, maybe you shouldn't touch things before you learn about them or know how to treat them with respect.

Lackey knows zip-all about trans-folks, but writes one as a villain in a way the SHOULD have known was offensive, had she done actual research, and then gets pissy when called on it? Can you say "entitled, sheltered, stuck up, privileged straight person?".

I find myself wishing that the LGBT community had been more critical of her back when she started up instead of swooning over anyone who wrote a queer protagonist (and then quickly shoved us back into secondary roles when she made more money writing for straights).

Feh. [edit - Oh, like asim, I'm here via shadesong.

Edited at 2011-02-10 01:48 pm (UTC)

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This. In fact, Lackey co-authored a book with Piers Anthony (If I Pay Thee Not In Gold) 15 years ago in which a major character shifted sexual physiology every time ze had sex! It's a sad freaking world where Piers Anthony is apparently the more gender progressive member of a duo.

I was SO EXCITED when this book came out, because I loved Diana Tregarde as a 12-year-old and so wanted to read more Tregarde stories--and then I got to the end of that novella, and I was so disgusted that I didn't even finish the book. And yeah, it definitely kills my interest in reading anything else of hers, when she used to be my brain candy of choice.

(Here via shadesong as well.)

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Dammit, I was just about to buy the gryphon books in a fit of nostalgia, but now?

Groooooss. =/

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I'm not familiar with Lackey's work but I find her attitude odd. I attended a panel conference (CON*Cept) a few years back and asked the authors present if they ever felt "pressured" to curb their writing to hit a wider audience. The answer I got was yes, sometimes, but that always backfires. One of the authors (and I forget his name) said that once he started writing a novel to just please himself. "I decided, 'to hell with it' and write a book that only I and I alone would care to read. 'Lo and behold it became one of my best sellers."

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I had a similar relationship to her writing; growing up where I did meant, for example, that I'd never come across a positive portrayal of queer people... anywhere, really, until I started reading her writing. Mostly we just didn't get talked about. And now "Well, dunno anything about the subject, really, but trans people who can't get the right care are such navel-gazers that it's all about OMG OMG OMG MY HEALTH ISSUES!, and that's just boring."

*headdesk*

Yeah, Mercedes, I totally know what you mean! One of my oldest friends is just like that, well, except that he's diabetic, not trans- anyway, if he doesn't have access to his insulin, he gets sick and passes out, the self-centered whinger. You'd think he'd be able to let go of that and not be so hung up on his issues, but noooo...

BRB, mopping up puddle of sarcasm.

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Pfff, who wants to read a book about a diabetic? She doesn't have time to write for special interest audiences!!

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Here from shadesong as well.

I always meant to get around to reading Lackey. Maybe I'll borrow her older books or pick them up used. I won't be giving her money though.

Also? If you're writing fantasy, there are all KINDS of ways to deal with a trans character's transitioning. Hell, I love fantasy because you can potentially magically create a complete transition to fully functional new biology.

And... even if you don't want to go down that path, before the availablity of corrective surgery and hormone treatments, does she think that transmen & women didn't exist? Became crazed killers? Seriously?

Dear ML,
I have a FTM trans brother. Do you know what he thinks about most days? Things like paying the mortgage and getting his son to school. Or mowing the lawn (or shoveling snow). Or watching TV with his fiancee. Yes, being trans has been part of his whole life. Being a father is a large part of his life. Being an artist and musician is a large part of his life.
No one thinks about one aspect of their life all the time. You should know better than that.
-Me

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Sadly, while I appreciate her value as a writer willing to (in the past) delve into another context... I've always felt that her stories were indulgent and grotesque treatments. I stopped reading for about three years back in the 90s because I was tired of Misty raping every single female protagonist she had (and of course, some of the males). I'm not saying that it isn't accurate to the amount of rape going on in The Real World, but I am saying there are ways to become A Strong Person that don't involve being raped first.

And frankly, I have enough of that thrown at me day to day as an activist. I don't need it in my fiction all the time.

Misty, in my not-so-humble opinion, has spent many years cashing in on what society sees as the misanthropic, the disaffected, and the isolated. Her books are written to appeal, blanket-like, to anyone who has ever felt like they didn't belong. Every single book I've read has some varying degree of "why he/she is SO SADLY DIFFERENT" that after a while I have to wonder one of two things:

A. Misty had issues.

B. Misty was effectively targeting a demographic.

If the former, I don't need to read someone else's therapy flash, and if the latter, I dislike being pandered to as if I can't see that every single book of hers is like a front to back description of how Different is Cool and Misfits Win.

Now, all that said, Mercedes Lackey's books have been like a candy I know is bad for my teeth but I have to eat anyway. I've picked her back up again and again and then put her away in cynical disgust for years. This might just make it easier to kick the habit. I'm not sure I every respected her as an author, but I am sure if I did, that's gone now.

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Oy. I share that disappointment.

I've suspected the woman was losing it--there was a tirade a few years back about how there would NEVER EVER NEVER I SAY SO DAMMIT be another Tregarde story (hm)--but this just takes the cake. This is worse than "Myste", who's such a blatant self-insert that she should be used as an example in What Not To Do writing classes.

I seem to recall that about the time the Vanyel books came out, books with a gay lead character would have been "special interest."

And "solvable problems"? If I remember right, something like 90% of her characters only get their problems solved through the intervention of deities, dead people, and/or talking horses, since the problems are *that* insurmountable. (How, exactly, is a serf or a viciously abused child supposed to "solve" their problem?) *eyeroll*

Well, this should save me some book money, at least.

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Here from shadesong, like so many.

You all may be interested to read about some earlier Mercedes Lackey transfail here.

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