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

[Andrew Perron]

On 5/7/2015 7:37 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
> On Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 6:57:40 PM UTC-4, Andrew Perron wrote:
>> On 5/5/2015 8:13 PM, Tom Russell wrote:

<snip>
>>> 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?
>
>Little bit of both. Imagine Julie Ann Justice and her Seven Wonders as
> being like Morrison's JLA, and you won't be too far off.

Eeeeeeexcellent. <3

>>>      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.
>
> Doctor Night (the speaker) is really, really old, and really, really white.

"Really, really old" would make it make sense, I think.

> That said, there was enough in the story that was ugly that I didn't want
> to use a slur that was too strong. (Just as I tried to find a racial slur
> for Dingham to use in "The Last Story" that wouldn't derail the story.)

Understood, definitely. It just needs to feel appropriate in context, so it 
doesn't call a weird amount of attention to itself.

>> 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.
>
>Yes and no, in that Eightfold has a distinct superhero fandom, a geek
 > subculture, and that the vitriol is coming from that fandom, and not from
 > the mainstream media/culture-- though the /tendencies/ are still there,
 > just less pronounced and less obviously reprehensible. Just as, in our
 > world, the toxic parts of video game and comics fandom are the louder and
 > nastier reflections of tendencies inherent in mainstream culture.
>
>Really, it's a story that's very much and transparently about fandom,
 > today-- about gamergate, about Val D'Orazio, about the Batman film critic
 > death threats, etc., etc., sadly etc.

Yeah, but... I guess my thing is, you've put it in such a public scope that it 
loses the insular focus that fuels such things. It doesn't really *feel* like 
a story that takes place in a fandom-y scope, I guess? To me, anyway.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, shrug!