Victoria Foyt's novel coming under fire...

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zahra

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My personal feeling, Victoria Foyt is far too invested in this book as the author to every say, I fucked up. She is not going to back down, she is not going to pull the book, she is not going to admit her ignorance about racism.

At this point, it is in her self interest to continue with her current line of I am not a racist, the book is not racist, and the PoC who are claiming it is racist, are racist themselves...

No end in sight...

What I have wondered through this whole thing is why she did not write from the PoC perspective? Her beast man as she calls him, could have fought to save the Pearls because he realized they were instituting reverse discrimination and genocide and two wrongs do not make a right.

Might have been much more interesting and thought provoking...

I don't think writing her book from the perspective of a people whose lives, issues, experiences and point of view she does not understand would have improved the book. It might even have been more insulting.
 

Kitty Pryde

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I don't think the editor was in any way supporting the ideology of the story or the theme. I think that in light of some of our recent controversies--like Goodreads bullies--the editor might have been going to the defense of an author who presented herself as the victim of unwarranted abuse. That seems the most likely scenario to me. Weird Tales is such an institution in the community. And while I am encouraged by the publisher's response, which was very appropriate and heartfelt, I think we'll find that the editor's biggest fault was not utilizing his Google-fu to see what this author's specific controversy was.

It seemed like the editor was taking the same racist view of the author; that the book isn't racist, it's a clever commentary on racism. When basically everyone else disagrees. Racism-through-cluelessness is still racism and still unacceptable. As an elderly white man, the editor may be able to claim utter cluelessness, but it doesn't mean he wasn't being ragingly racist. He seemed to have a decent grip on the issues and yet not care.
 

fireluxlou

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Em, Victoria Foyt is a member of AW.

Is this a complex publicity stunt? Or 'just one of those things'?

We know she's a member since the thread began really :/ she's never commented in here though.
 

amergina

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All too true, sadly enough.

The publisher was pretty forthright in calling it racist. I suspect he will be keeping a much closer eye on Kaye in the future. (If he even keeps Kaye on board.)

Given that Kaye is part owner of the company that bought Weird Tales... I have some serious doubts that he'll be fired.
 

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Ah, shucks. :( I always adored its cover art, and it was one of the places I was interested in slinging my portfolio.

I guess things change.

That was before the current publisher and editor, that was when Mary Robinette Kowal was the Hugo-winning art director.
 

eqb

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...I think we'll find that the editor's biggest fault was not utilizing his Google-fu to see what this author's specific controversy was.

I think his biggest fault was not reading the book before he agreed to publish the excerpt and then defended the book both on the WT site and on Amazon. As much as I appreciate the publisher's apology, it doesn't address the problem of having an editor who uses such poor judgment.
 

fihr

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Interesting developments. I'm still glad I pulled my story, and I'm not certain I'll be submitting there anytime soon.

I've now pulled my story too, citing my discomfort. I think a lot of writers will withdraw their work after this.
 
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Amadan

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I don't think the editor was in any way supporting the ideology of the story or the theme. I think that in light of some of our recent controversies--like Goodreads bullies--the editor might have been going to the defense of an author who presented herself as the victim of unwarranted abuse. That seems the most likely scenario to me. Weird Tales is such an institution in the community. And while I am encouraged by the publisher's response, which was very appropriate and heartfelt, I think we'll find that the editor's biggest fault was not utilizing his Google-fu to see what this author's specific controversy was.

That would require us to believe that the editor didn't actually read the book before deciding to promote it. (Never mind not even doing a Google search on a piece of work you've decided to promote in your magazine.)

I think his biggest fault was not reading the book before he agreed to publish the excerpt and then defended the book both on the WT site and on Amazon.

Except according to the publisher's statement, he did read the book, he just didn't find it racist.

Which is, frankly, unbelievable.
 

Anna L.

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The publisher was pretty forthright in calling it racist.

If you read the comments, it seems the publisher has gone into serious 'lalala I can't hear your justified criticism' mode. This comment is pretty telling, too:

As far back as June Ann was trying to tell John and Marvin that publishing this was a terrible idea. So the lie that neither of them knew what the novel contained would require them to have NOT READ IT for several months. This is total b.s. And anyone who doesn’t see that just wants to smooth things over.
-Jeff Vandermeer
 

aruna

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I checked to see how far this story is spreading. The following site has quotes from magazine editors (apparantly!) who are willing to pick up withdrawn WT submissions. I don't know any of these mags, mind you, just thought I'd mention it...
http://inagist.com/all/237640857195511808/

for example:

Apex Magazine welcomes all of your withdrawn Weird Tales submissions.
 

Katrina S. Forest

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What boggles my mind even beyond the fact that the content of the story was going to be published is how it came to that point.

A self-published author sends a sad story about how reviewers are picking on the book. The editor decides to publish the material.

Really? Whatever happened to accepting or rejecting something on its own merit? On whether or not it fit the themes of the magazine (which the editor himself admits, it did not)? How did this not go through the slush pile like every other piece of fiction that actually followed the submission guidelines?

My mind isn't wrapping around the concept. If all the pro magazines subscribed to this method, then my best bet for acceptance would be to dig up my old high school stories (which are badly-written, though not terribly controversial), plop them up on CreateSpace and then write a letter to Asimov's bemoaning the fact that no one likes them.

Even if you genuinely feel that Ms. Foyt has been unfairly attacked for this book, that's not a reason to publish. A good story is.
 

eqb

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If you read the comments, it seems the publisher has gone into serious 'lalala I can't hear your justified criticism' mode. This comment is pretty telling, too:

Ah. When I posted before, there were only two or three comments, and none by the publisher or editor. I'm glad Jeff V has weighed in with the truth. (He would know.)

So WT has crashed and burned. They can't possibly survive this kind of debacle. The question is: will the author get a clue and pull her book?
 

Kitty Pryde

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After reading all the comments at WT and JV's post, it's really starting to sound like the publisher/editor really expected their entire diverse, strange, fantasy fan readership to agree with them about the genius of this racist novel. How much were they getting paid to ignore all the criticism and imagine to themselves that the magazine's reputation as awesome would protect them? Baffling.
 

fireluxlou

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Torgo

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Oh the comments. I do hate comments which are all 'FREE SPEECH free SPEECH why are you complaining?? they have right to say it!! FREE SPEECH! WEIRD MAG has gone down in my estimation'

Yea but it's a two way street, you can buy the book still no one has banned it.

Yes, there's a stubborn nonsensical conflation in popular culture between free speech and 'I'm entitled to be indignant if a peer calls my speech out for being horribly racist."
 

AndreaGS

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What? I don't even...

Wandered over here from the Politics thread. It's frightening to contemplate the number of people that have gone into creating this mess - from the author herself, to her beta readers, to the editors of Weird Tales, to the actress who agreed to don blackface for the promotional video.

I'll admit to being stuck in a shell and not getting out much, and I know I'm ignorant in a lot of ways. I'm still learning.

But this is so obviously, painfully racist (coals vs. pearls? Really?? And then the main character uses it as a slur, too, removing all doubt as to the intentions behind the naming conventions.). I think the right thing for the author to do would be to take down the book, and issue an apology. Ignorance can be forgiven; willfull ignorance is another story.

Does anyone know what her sales are like?
 

fireluxlou

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