wshaffer

Magical Realism: Threat or Menace?

There are great stories being written under the heading of Magical Realism lately. Is it a legitimate subgenre of fantasy, or something else entirely? Does Magical Realism actually exist as a distinct entity, or is it simply a way for academics to study a few select authors that they view as worthy, while keeping the rest of the fantasy genre outside the ivory tower?

Panelists: Delia Sherman (M), Catherynne M. Valente, Theodora Goss, Jeremy Lassen

( In the garden of forking panels... )

I remember remarking to someone at WisCon that despite there being some panels on some pretty controversial topics, WisCon was remarkably drama free. "Of course," I added, "the drama won't really start until people get home and start blogging about it."

I never anticipated this particular version of drama. The Angry Black Woman has a good summary. Alas, A Blog also has a good post. The short version: A woman with...issues...went to WisCon, and then posted a bunch of photos of people (with identities poorly concealed) over on Something Awful, with accompanying commentary mocking these people for daring to be fat, disabled, transgendered, or for not meeting her preconceived notions of what Native Americans should look like.

The original post on Something Awful was quickly deleted, but not before Something Awful Sycophant Squad (SASS), a message board for those deemed too offensive for Something Awful (pause for a moment to consider the implications of that), got ahold of the content of the post. These guys started posting other WisCon pictures gleaned from flickr, and heaping a bunch of misogynistic, homophobic, racist, and generally bigoted crap on the people depicted.

Against my better judgement, I went and looked at the SASS thread. Be warned, if you venture over there, that there are some disturbing and definitely not-safe-for-work images posted in the thread, in addition to all the verbal bile. I should note that these disturbing images do not include those of the WisCon attendees, who mostly look like a bunch of people having a really good time.

And although I'm really angry on behalf of all the friends and members of my community who had really hateful things said about them, I do think that this is the point: We went to WisCon and had a really good time. These people over at SASS have nothing better to do than spend hours mocking pictures of us having a good time. They might as well be wearing T-shirts reading, "This is what a sad loser looks like."

I also particularly like badgerbag's response here.