When not to engage with art

Followup post on yesterday’s reporting on the latest bloviating from Orson Scott Card, prompted in no small part by this post of Chuck Wendig’s in which he explains why he’s personally boycotting Ender’s Game.

I wanted to expand a bit upon a notion I’ve seen debated a lot in the SF/F realm the last few years: i.e., whether you can engage with art created by someone whose politics you don’t agree with, and in Card’s case, whose politics you find actively repellent. More than once, I’ve seen people assert that you should not conflate the art with the artist, and that if you refuse to read things by people who are assholes, you risk missing out on good stories. I’ve also seen it argued that if you refuse to read things by people who disagree with you, you’re not keeping a suitably open mind.

But here’s the thing.

The vast majority of the time, when I see people making this argument, they’re people who’re arguing from a position of privilege–people who are, in fact, not in the direct line of fire of the repellent politics in question. It’s very easy to say “but Orson Scott Card is an awesome writer and Ender’s Game is a classic, how can you possibly skip it?!” when you’re a straight white Christian.

If you’re queer, on the other hand, you’re one of the people he wants to make illegal–a goal he’s been actively working towards, given that he’s a board member of an organization who has that as a stated goal. He’s cheerleaded efforts in Uganda to issue the death sentence to homosexuals. He is actively working, with his money, time, and reputation, to push people like me and my wife into the dirt.

So it’s a safe bet that some portion of the money he makes from his art is in fact going to go towards the goal of making people like me illegal, if not dead.

So, no. I’m never going to read a word of his. If a project has his name on it, I’m not touching it. I don’t give a rat’s ass, rat’s feet, or any other part of the rat how good a writer he is. I don’t care about whatever significance may lie in the stories he creates. I don’t care who else is involved in the Ender’s Game movie. I’m pretty damn sure they’ll all survive without getting any of my money.

Me, I’d just as soon give my financial support to people who don’t want to see me illegal or dead. And with over 1,100 things on my To Read list by people who aren’t flaming bigoted assholes, I’m pretty damned sure I won’t miss Card’s work one single bit.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

When not to engage with art

Followup post on yesterday’s reporting on the latest bloviating from Orson Scott Card, prompted in no small part by this post of Chuck Wendig’s in which he explains why he’s personally boycotting Ender’s Game.

I wanted to expand a bit upon a notion I’ve seen debated a lot in the SF/F realm the last few years: i.e., whether you can engage with art created by someone whose politics you don’t agree with, and in Card’s case, whose politics you find actively repellent. More than once, I’ve seen people assert that you should not conflate the art with the artist, and that if you refuse to read things by people who are assholes, you risk missing out on good stories. I’ve also seen it argued that if you refuse to read things by people who disagree with you, you’re not keeping a suitably open mind.

But here’s the thing.

The vast majority of the time, when I see people making this argument, they’re people who’re arguing from a position of privilege–people who are, in fact, not in the direct line of fire of the repellent politics in question. It’s very easy to say “but Orson Scott Card is an awesome writer and Ender’s Game is a classic, how can you possibly skip it?!” when you’re a straight white Christian.

If you’re queer, on the other hand, you’re one of the people he wants to make illegal–a goal he’s been actively working towards, given that he’s a board member of an organization who has that as a stated goal. He’s cheerleaded efforts in Uganda to issue the death sentence to homosexuals. He is actively working, with his money, time, and reputation, to push people like me and my wife into the dirt.

So it’s a safe bet that some portion of the money he makes from his art is in fact going to go towards the goal of making people like me illegal, if not dead.

So, no. I’m never going to read a word of his. If a project has his name on it, I’m not touching it. I don’t give a rat’s ass, rat’s feet, or any other part of the rat how good a writer he is. I don’t care about whatever significance may lie in the stories he creates. I don’t care who else is involved in the Ender’s Game movie. I’m pretty damn sure they’ll all survive without getting any of my money.

Me, I’d just as soon give my financial support to people who don’t want to see me illegal or dead. And with over 1,100 things on my To Read list by people who aren’t flaming bigoted assholes, I’m pretty damned sure I won’t miss Card’s work one single bit.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

A periodic reminder on one of my FAQs: my various names

Dara and I went to my monthly Quebecois session tonight, and we had a lovely time at that, but while we were there I got asked again what’s up with my having multiple names in active use online. So since this is kind of confusing, here’s a quick post explaining what’s up with that and what you should call me!

Angela Korra’ti is my actual name. It’s the name you’ll see me using at work, and it’s the name you’ll see on any book I self-publish. So far, that’s Faerie Blood and the forthcoming Bone Walker.

Angela Highland is my commercial pen name. Highland is my original surname, and since I was encouraged by my agent and by Carina’s chief editor to seriously consider using a name besides Korra’ti as a pen name, I decided to use “Highland” instead. When you see me using this name, it’s in the context of books I publish via Carina. Right now that’s Valor of the Healer. Moving forward it’ll also be the rest of the Rebels of Adalonia trilogy, as well as any other commercial sales I make.

(This’ll be a shorthand way of being able to tell what things I commercially publish vs. what things I self-pub, in other words.)

Anna (and by extension, Anna the Piper) is my nickname and how I got that nickname is a bit of a personal story, so suffice to say it’s derived from my middle name. “Anna the Piper” is a a specific extension of that nickname and was given to me in the context of music and being a piccolo player, and so this is why I use “annathepiper” or “Anna the Piper” pretty much everywhere as an online nickname.

Now, here’s the fun question: what should you call me?

I almost always use Angela when I’m being more formal, when I’m dealing with people who don’t know me well enough yet to get the Angela vs. Anna thing, or when I’m dealing with people I’m not likely to deal with on a regular basis. I’m “Angela” at my day job, for example. But you’ll notice I’m also “Angela” on the social networks. This is because I pretty much do need to be searchable under both my pen names so people can find information about me and my books.

However, I use “Anna” pretty much all the time outside of that. All my friends call me Anna, and I will almost always refer to myself as Anna when I’m posting about myself or signing email.

If in doubt, consider yourself pretty much welcome to call me Anna!

But honestly, it’s okay if you call me Angela, too. For that matter, my family members often call me Angie or Ang. (Pronounced “anj”, not to be confused with Aang, the Avatar.) So I’m well accustomed to those nicknames, too! It’s all me, and it’s all good. Pick whichever works for you and as long as it’s reasonably obvious you’re talking to me, I’m cool!

(Though any French speakers reading this, you might warn me first before you start calling me Anne or Annette or Angèle or Ange!)

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

A periodic reminder on one of my FAQs: my various names

Dara and I went to my monthly Quebecois session tonight, and we had a lovely time at that, but while we were there I got asked again what’s up with my having multiple names in active use online. So since this is kind of confusing, here’s a quick post explaining what’s up with that and what you should call me!

Angela Korra’ti is my actual name. It’s the name you’ll see me using at work, and it’s the name you’ll see on any book I self-publish. So far, that’s Faerie Blood and the forthcoming Bone Walker.

Angela Highland is my commercial pen name. Highland is my original surname, and since I was encouraged by my agent and by Carina’s chief editor to seriously consider using a name besides Korra’ti as a pen name, I decided to use “Highland” instead. When you see me using this name, it’s in the context of books I publish via Carina. Right now that’s Valor of the Healer. Moving forward it’ll also be the rest of the Rebels of Adalonia trilogy, as well as any other commercial sales I make.

(This’ll be a shorthand way of being able to tell what things I commercially publish vs. what things I self-pub, in other words.)

Anna (and by extension, Anna the Piper) is my nickname and how I got that nickname is a bit of a personal story, so suffice to say it’s derived from my middle name. “Anna the Piper” is a a specific extension of that nickname and was given to me in the context of music and being a piccolo player, and so this is why I use “annathepiper” or “Anna the Piper” pretty much everywhere as an online nickname.

Now, here’s the fun question: what should you call me?

I almost always use Angela when I’m being more formal, when I’m dealing with people who don’t know me well enough yet to get the Angela vs. Anna thing, or when I’m dealing with people I’m not likely to deal with on a regular basis. I’m “Angela” at my day job, for example. But you’ll notice I’m also “Angela” on the social networks. This is because I pretty much do need to be searchable under both my pen names so people can find information about me and my books.

However, I use “Anna” pretty much all the time outside of that. All my friends call me Anna, and I will almost always refer to myself as Anna when I’m posting about myself or signing email.

If in doubt, consider yourself pretty much welcome to call me Anna!

But honestly, it’s okay if you call me Angela, too. For that matter, my family members often call me Angie or Ang. (Pronounced “anj”, not to be confused with Aang, the Avatar.) So I’m well accustomed to those nicknames, too! It’s all me, and it’s all good. Pick whichever works for you and as long as it’s reasonably obvious you’re talking to me, I’m cool!

(Though any French speakers reading this, you might warn me first before you start calling me Anne or Annette or Angèle or Ange!)

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.