Orson Scott Card and Slash.
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| Title: | Orson Scott Card and Slash. |
| Creator: | Aja |
| Date(s): | July 19, 2004 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Orson Scott Card and Slash. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Orson Scott Card and Slash. is a 2004 essay by Aja.
It is part of a 2002-04 series of essays. See About Writing.
The author recommends this tactic to battle what she believed were Card's homophobic beliefs:
This url takes you to the amazon page for the most popular edition of Ender's Game. Go there. Now, if you wish to participate, pick and choose from any of the following novels, and type in the ASIN numbers in the spot where you can choose "recommend this novel INSTEAD OF this book".
Introduction
In the past 24 hours I've had 3 different discussions about Orson Scott Card with three different people. Why? Because on the basis of your recommendations on my quest for sci-fi novels, I picked up Ender's Game at my favorite local used bookstore, along with a bunch of other novels you recommended.
I find it extremely surprising--I'm not blaming anyone, just surprised considering the nature of my friends list--that no one mentioned during the sci fi discussion that Orson Scott Card is a homophobe. I know there was a to-do about this on LJ a while back and I barely paid attention because to me he was just another sci-fi writer, and I don't read sci-fi. But I am trying to start, and I chose to start with Ender's Game, because, let's face it, everybody loves Ender's Game.
Excerpts
I was not a third of the way through reading Card's introduction to the book when it was quite clear to me that Card is a pretentious, arrogant asshole. Seriously. Half the introduction is him talking about how precocious he was as a child and in high school and how good he was at everything he did, and it's quite, quite clear that he honestly believes that 'gifted' children are in fact superior to the rest of us. I am so far enjoying the book very much, which is a first for me for sci-fi novels--but his elitist attitudes quite frequently break through the story to remind me that this book is being written by someone who sees the world very strongly in terms of 'us' versus 'them.'
That was all very clear to me well before someone said to me last night, 'Card is a homophobe,' and pointed me toward the evidence. Yikes. It really doesn't get much more homophobic than that, though Card obviously thinks he is being pedantic, and the arrogance I detected in his introduction shows through at every line.
I was actually just sitting here pondering this very subject, and what I was willing to do about it, while reading further on into the book. I really am liking the book, and having been ignorant of the author's biases when I started reading, I feel like stopping now would accomplish nothing. But how to make the reading of it productive???
No matter what, when I am finished with the book, I am slashing it. Doesn't matter who the characters are, but someone is getting slashed. I pondered mailing my fan fiction directly to Card himself--and if anybody actually knows how I can do that I'll happily do it. At no time is slash fanfiction more subversive and more powerful than when the original writer is a homophobe.