Release date: December 29, 2021
Subgenre: Non-fiction
About The Complete Debarkle: Saga of a Culture War:
The collected version of all three volumes of Debarkle: Saga of a
Culture War. In 2015 a major controversy broke out in the world of
science fiction's most prestigious literary award. Debarkle traces the
history of this controversy, examining the roots and consequences of the
events.
Excerpt:
2015 saw an extraordinary
cultural battle for control over a literary award. Framed by a group
that had jokingly called themselves
“The
Evil League of Evil” (Hoyt, Day, Wright, Correia, and Torgersen), as a
struggle against elites and the left, the campaign would generate months
of controversy and argument.
The story behind the events of
2015 stretches back in time and its root causes had lasting implications
both for the relatively narrow world of fandom and also into broader
society. Like the events of 2020, they encompassed
conspiracy theories, accusations of voting fraud, and passionate views
about the roles and rights of women and people of colour, as well as
questions about gender and sexuality.
At its heart it was a struggle
about stories — specifically who gets to decide whose stories get heard.
However, this very question of what-the-stuggle-was-about was itself
subject to multiple and contradictory stories.
Even the own accounts of the protagonists/antagonists of the conflict
shifted over time or contradicted themselves. Six years later, the
differences and similarities in stance between the members of the
so-called Evil League of Evil revolved around the same
framing of world events as they had used for the Hugo Awards: that
powerful
“elites”
were siding with left-wing ideologues to transform society using
underhand means. This framing played directly into the hands of the most
extreme
sections of the right.
The events of 2015 showed how the
extreme right could usurp a more conventionally populist campaign.
However, it also showed how politically and culturally diverse people
could come together and work against a reactionary
movement.
Whatever the motives and
rationalisations and claims of the Sad and Rabid Puppy campaigns were,
the essence of their struggle was a struggle over the control of
stories.
On one side was a campaign that
worked for (intentionally or not) a principle that said that the control
of stories should rest with middle-class, white, English speaking
traditionalist men along with those others who were
willing to ally themselves to that cause. The opposition to that was
simply everybody who rejected that as a foundational principle. Free at
Kobo | B&N | Apple | Scribd | Thalia | Vivlio | Angus & Robertson
About Camestros Felapton:
Camestros Felapton is an extended cosplay of a pair of syllogisms and their adventures in cyberspace. He is also the manager and amanuensis for Timothy the Talking Cat and a finalist for the 2018 Best Fanwriter Hugo Award.
No comments:
Post a Comment