Tuesday, January 11, 2022

The Complete Debarkle: Saga of a Culture War by Camestros Felapton

 

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.

 

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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.

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