Racist, woman-hating fantasy author Theodore Beale (aka Vox Day) is upset that people are calling him racist. I mean, it’s not like he called all black people “savages,” he objects; he merely called one black woman — speculative fiction author NK Jemisin — a “half-savage” in a portion of a blog post that, he complains, has been taken out of context. Indeed, he sniffs,
the fact that the same ungrammatical excerpt chopped out of the middle of a sentence keeps being trotted out again and again should alert the dialectical mind to the probability that there simply isn’t very much, if any, there there.
Ah, context! A lot of shitheads who say terrible things complain, when others point out these terrible things, that their words have been taken out of context. So I thought I’d do Vox a little favor here and provide the context to his infamous quote so we can all see how much there is there.
You may notice that the context here does not actually make Vox look any less racist.
I’ve taken the liberty of bolding the especially egregious bits, though to be honest there isn’t much here that isn’t egregious:
Jemisin has it wrong; it is not that I, and others, do not view her as human, (although genetic science presently suggests that we are not equally homo sapiens sapiens), it is that we simply do not view her as being fully civilized for the obvious historical reason that she is not.
She is lying about the laws in Texas and Florida too. The laws are not there to let whites ” just shoot people like me, without consequence, as long as they feel threatened by my presence”, those self-defense laws have been put in place to let whites defend their lives and their property from people, like her, who are half-savages engaged in attacking them.
Jemisin’s disregard for the truth is no different than the average Chicago gangbanger’s disregard for the traditional Western code of civilized conduct. She could, if she wished, claim that privileged white males are responsible for the decline of Detroit, for the declining sales of science fiction, even for the economic and cultural decline of the United States, but that would not make it true. It would not even make it credible. Anyone who is paying sufficient attention will understand who is genuinely responsible for these problems.
Unlike the white males she excoriates, there is no evidence to be found anywhere on the planet that a society of NK Jemisins is capable of building an advanced civilization, or even successfully maintaining one without significant external support from those white males. If one considers that it took my English and German ancestors more than one thousand years to become fully civilized after their first contact with advanced Greco-Roman civilization, it should be patently obvious that it is illogical to imagine, let alone insist, that Africans have somehow managed to do the same in less than half the time at a greater geographic distance. These things take time.
Being an educated, but ignorant half-savage, with little more understanding of what it took to build a new literature by “a bunch of beardy old middle-class middle-American guys” than an illiterate Igbotu tribesman has of how to build a jet engine, Jemisin clearly does not understand that her dishonest call for “reconciliation” and even more diversity within SF/F is tantamount to a call for its decline into irrelevance.
In case you want a bit more context, elsewhere in the same post he 1) mocked a man for taking his wife’s name, 2) suggested that one of his female critics was totally not as hot as his wife, the mysterious “Spacebunny,” and 3) reminded anyone who had forgotten that he had “three Billboard-charting club hits,” a fact that evidently makes him irresistible to women.
You see, Vox was briefly a member of a largely forgotten techno group called Psykosonik more than two decades ago. Well, “largely forgotten” by everyone but Vox, that is.
CONTEXT!
@Rabukurafuto
I looked up “Throne of Bones” on Goodreads and one of the recommended “readers also enjoyed” books was “A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality”. Hmmm.
No surprise there. Beale’s fans tend to have the same believes as he does, although I’ve seen a few people on Christian fantasy sites who appeared to not know about Beale’s misogyny and racism.
On Amazon negative reviews for the book are attacked by Beale’s fans, one of accusing the reviewer of being a liberal who only gave the book a negative review because Beale is conservative. It looks like Beale even wrote a post claiming that negatives reviews are from people who didn’t read the book and only attack it for ideological reasons.
@Rabukurafuto
I did look up that Throne Bone whatever it’s called and every site had it in hardback for $50 or more. He really doesn’t want certain demographics to read his shit, does he? But if you live near a small town with a large Republican and/or Christian community with a thrift store or used book store, I’m sure you’ll find whatever book of his you want.
BTW, looked up some of his books on Wikipedia, found this:
“Since 2005, Beale has been engaged in an online feud with science fiction writer John Scalzi. In February 2013, Scalzi attracted media attention with a pledge to pay $5 to various charities and nonprofit advocacy organizations every time Beale mentioned him; after others echoed this pledge, over $50,000 was pledged in under a week.”
And that’s hilarious.
Oh, Amazon has the Kindle edition for $5. You can download a Kindle app, if you’re that dedicated to it.
Indeed it is. Beale has quite an obsession with Scalzi. I really ought to see what Scalzi has written. I liked the posts he put to his own blog.
I don’t live in a place like that, but I can try next time I’m in Missouri.
If anyone wants to see Beale’s post on how negative reviews of his book are obviously hit pieces by people who didn’t read it, it’s here.
I’ve seen that post… but unfortunately, the way Disqus’ multi-layer crappy Javascript makes my browser slow to a complete and utter crawl rather limits the amount of time I read the comments at Slactivist these days.
That’s the ‘Solving my Racist Sexist Homophobic Dipshit Problem’ post mentioned on the previous page. Vox Day takes himself extremely seriously… Scalzi enjoys self-deprecation as an art form, and as a result is far more creative with insults than Day could ever be.
There’s another post in which he posts a woman’s address because she wrote a negative review of his book. I think Blogger told him to remove that information.
What a fragile ego Vox has. I’d pity him if he weren’t such a massive fucking shithole.
Oh, gross. I really hope he had to remove the information.
I hoped to avoid having to buy it, but if I do perhaps I will donate an equal amount to We Hunted the Mammoth.
@Rabukurafuto
Maybe a pledge drive? Start a blog, have people donate to a charity or two of your choice for a review of each chapter reviewed?
That would actually be a really good blog idea, reading horrible books for charity. I bet it already exists.
Say, that is a good idea. It would certainly be worth the $5, My main concern though is having the wit to really make such a blog enjoyable; I don’t trust myself to come up with the funniest material, not enough to compare to some of the other blogs dedicated to mocking terrible books.
@Rabukurafuto
I actually am kinda sorta funny? I mean, no one has never not laughed awkwardly at snark or jokes I’ve told and written.)
Maybe there can be a sort of multiple people reading the same books for charity to weigh in their views? (With some bit of profit?)
If people want to find some good used books on the cheap, I recommend thriftbooks.com.
You can get a first-time buyer discount, and I got some really nice hardcover books (I now own the entire Tantalize series in hardcover!), for about twenty bucks, which is what one of those books costs new. Their books are about five bucks a pop, and they’re all in near mint condition too.
If anyone would like a fantasy book recommendation, I’d offer Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I just finished up the second book (which came out early last year), and the end made me roll my eyes a bit, but it’s a fun read.
The author takes vintage odd photos and writes a story around them. They’re scattered through the books where they’re needed. The story revolves around a boy named Jacob and his grandfather’s connection to a peculiar house where he stayed in WWII after he fled Poland to escape the Nazis.
It’s a bit clichéd at times, and does have a few tropes that I’m not too keen on, and the second book did make me roll my eyes a bit, but it’s a pretty good book and I still think it’s worth a read.
Speak of the devil: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has a TV Tropes page, so y’all can see if you’re okay with the tropes or not.
Divines bless TV Tropes.
I’ve been teaching for years, and I’m really good at the ‘no such thing as a stupid question/statement’ thing with my students–but the only time I ever actually lost it on a student was when one said that ‘Africa had no indigenous cultures’.
I was a Loncon member last year and thus got copies of most of the Hugo nominees, including “Opera Vita Aeterna” by Vox Day for best novelette. I didn’t read more than a couple of pages of it; if anyone wants an electronic copy email me at carolyn.observer @ talktalk.net.
Has the comment on Vox Day by a Moderator of the Guardian discussion board been posted on here already ?
Vox Day isn’t racist
He’s SUPER RACIST
IIRC VD has stalked and made libelous accusations against one negative reviewer of Thone of Bones.
(for such a raging homophobic asshat he sure did pick an exquisitely homoerotic title for that book. Now I’m mad he’s taken it.)
The objections to the Puppies slates is not about the ideology, although that is a big thing that’s rubbing many people the wrong way. What everyone’s objecting to is the politicization of the Hugo awards. Several people have already said that they would have the same response to a slate and a campaign that got nothing but their personal favorites on the final ballot. The process for the Hugo awards are supposed to be about what people have read and honestly found to be the best things that they like, and because the field is so wide and so diverse with so many options available, everybody has their esoteric favorites and the votes in the nominating process are scattershot. This slate business has given a small group (I’ve seen estimates of 200 – 500) the opportunity to upset this process with an organized campaign to not only dominate the ballot with their own works, it pushed a lot of works that non-puppies loved off of the ballot. A better explanation and illustration for this can be seen here, in which the Puppies are compared to two political parties with mostly-compatible ideologies: http://djangowexler.com/2015/04/05/the-hugo-awards-game-theory-and-a-modest-proposal/
If this slate is allowed to continue without an affirmative response – to say that this is not okay – what’s going to happen is that there will be competing slates, because that’s the only way that an author or artist can hope to get their work on the ballot. And then it’s not the nominators and the voters who decide what is on the ballot – and therefore ostensibly the best that science fiction and fantasy has to offer – it’s the organizers of the slates. And theoretically, the people voting these slates don’t even have to read the works on the slates before voting on them. I, as a prospective nominator and voter for the Hugos, will have the choice to either nominate the slate or not bother voting, because nominating the works that *I* liked and that *I* thought were the best and most worthy would be a waste of my time.
“Educated, but ignorant.”
Vox Day is the new Time Cube.
@Rabukurafuto – I *do* live in a Republican/Christian Conservative area, and there’s an enormous used book store in the nearest city. I’d be glad to see if they have any Vox Day originals for cheap and then send one your way.
Day says that one of his brothers had a DNA test done, which if true, takes his contention out of the realm of myth. And I have no Native Amrican blood – second generation European on both sides. I do have both African and Asian, but both go back to the Middle Ages. Sicily and Eastern Europe (Huns, Mongols and their crew).
He also claims to have a certificate from the Bureau of Indian Affairs certifying his Native ancestry. I did not know they did that (if they do). I’ll have to ask one of my colleagues who worked with local tribes next time I see her (she’s retired).
Oh, gross. I really hope he had to remove the information.
He did. Either that, or it’s really cleverly hidden on his blog. So cleverly, in fact, that nobody can actually find it.
My experiences with Vox have taught me that Blogger’s idea of what is and isn’t a privacy violation is really strange.
That is, if Vox and his brother have the same mother.
Ugh. I have Native American ancestry, but seeing so many asshats claim it to use as a free pass caused me to stop mentioning it. My mother’s side traces through Oklahoma. Where my great grandfather was “full-blood” but was originally replaced by another father on the birth certificate out of fear.
The thing is though. I don’t claim to be a part of Native American culture. I certainly wouldn’t want to co-opt a struggle I did not have.