8FOLD/ACRA: Nonfiction # 5, "Justice for Julie Ann"

[Andrew Perron]

On 5/5/2015 8:13 PM, Tom Russell wrote:

<snip>
> The tense and tricky situation in China has made direct
> military reprisal unlikely, and the Pulse Collective are separated
> from our wrath by a gulf of countless galaxies. Which means that that
> impotent frustration, that anger, and that rage perhaps has nowhere to
> go except against those who brought the Pulse to our doorstep in the
> first place.

Makes sense.

> The world hates Julie Ann Justice more than the man
> who is actually responsible for the Pulse War. In fact, the backlash
> against her is significantly more pronounced and virulent, particular
> in four-colour fandom.

Ahhhhhh, I see.

>     "It" is the pronoun of choice for #realjustice, a "movement"
> dedicated to "exposing the alien traitor Julie Ann Justice, and the
> media that has colluded to push its agenda".

Oh *ouch*. Yeah, this was the right time for this satire. x.x

>     "It's been pretending to be human for almost twenty years. Its
> allies in the media have made the world accept it like it was human.
> It has risen to positions of great influence and power so as to
> undermine our institutions from within. This should have been obvious
> to anyone with half a brain once it destroyed the Seven Wonders, just
> in time for its masters to invade the Earth." Or, according to one
> member of #realjustice, "It's the Pulse's slut."

It's fascinating, because I've never seen these two distinct streams of 
fuckery combined.

>     But Julie Ann Justice has "gotten stuff done" from the very start.
> Whereas most four-colours spend their salad days fighting muggers and
> glider-pirates, her first adventure pitted her against the
> havoc-wreaking duplicate moon, and last I checked, there was still
> just one moon left in the sky, and my house wasn't underwater (the
> mortgage on my house, that's another story).

That is an amazing story. <3

> the week after that, she prevented the anti-explosion
> of an anti-particle accelerator accidentally created in a renegade
> thought experiment,

THAT'S EVEN BETTER.

> This was posted after she rejoined an Earth that had been
> pulled apart by pseudocylindrical interrupted composite map
> projection.

You're tossing a lot of good ridiculousness in here - intentional contrast? Or 
just part of Julie Ann's milieu?

>     Not only were both nominees women, but one was black (Fennec Fox),
> and the other Lebanese (Shamal). "It's political correctness, just
> enforcing a quota, a made-up version of diversity where it doesn't
> belong. And you know what happens when they step down? It's going to
> be another woman, another negress or Arab, because you know there will
> be a shit-storm if they try to nominate a normal person. So those
> slots are lost forever."

See, "negress" feels, not too far, but off-base - it doesn't feel like the 
kind of horrifying slur a real person would use in 2007.

>     And yet. Her Wonders solved the Forever Paradox. Her Wonders saw us
> through the Day of Terror and stood with Red Hart against the
> Never-Lord in the orbit of the Impossible Star. Her Wonders spoke the
> names of the Last Warden, routed the legions of Kah'nai, rescued the
> year 2012 from Forgotten Time, negotiated (and enforced) Earth's
> neutrality when conflict at last broke out between the Dawn Compact
> and the Winter King, reversed the collapse of the sub-atomic
> multiverse, and thwarted the Devil Prince Satanor.

YEAH

> At times its "unofficial auxiliaries" numbered more
> than the official roster-- something heretical to fandom but necessary
> for the modern age.

Also, the repeated use of "fandom" feels off? Like, I'd probably say "pundits" 
or "the media" or - I dunno, it seems an odd way to talk about the equivalent 
of a politically-active celebrity.

>     In June 1944, just a few months shy of its sixth year of existence,
> the unofficially tolerated vigilante group became the first, and only,
> group of costumed adventurers to be put on government payroll.

Ahhhhhhhh, fascinating.

>     First, there is the elephant in the room: the Pulse War and the
> Last Story have turned mainstream public sentiment pretty squarely
> against Julie Ann Justice (despite the fact that neither are her
> doing). No one wants to come across as an apologist for that. This is,
> I think, a justification for cowardice. It is both easy and
> unnecessary to defend someone who everyone already loves. Society
> requires that a victim be perfect, especially if she is a woman. It's
> part of a larger sickness of which #realjustice is only the most
> extreme and virulent example.
>     Second, there are some who refuse to speak for Julie Ann Justice
> because she was not born a human female, though she has acted and
> identified as a woman for her entire adult life. Said one "feminist",
> "This is really about women, and so we should we speaking for,
> standing up for, real women." Because, I guess, some people "deserve"
> to be marginalized; some groups, it's okay to discriminate against.
> This ugly prejudice is one these "allies" share with #realjustice.

Hmmmmm, yes, very good. <3 Overall, a good topical satire.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, forgot to post this last night