Specifically, this list….
I just note the following:
- It’s the BASFA (Bay Area Science Fiction Association) recommend list. I’m a BASFA member, though I rarely attend meetings. (I’m chronically ill, folks.)
- Yes, I missed the specific recommend meetings because a) flu, b) flu, c) travel, d) travel.
- I did, however, make an awards consideration post. Granted, earlier in the year.
- The BASFA list includes people who’ve never lived in the Bay Area.
- I wrote extensively about what’s inarguably the largest story in Bay Area fan politics (and the largest in fan politics) in the last 50 years, including new material that no one else had ever published.
- And nobody, zero people, thought that was worthy of note?
My writing on the topic also led to the Breendoggle wiki getting put online.
I think it was important work, and I was honestly unable to do other substantive work for a month straight, it was that emotionally draining and exhausting. I did that because it would be churlish of me to print and run, and I felt more responsibility to the people who were having a very real hard time with the subject matter.
So I just wanted to say: I expected more. I don’t mean an award nomination, that’s not what I’m angry about.
I expected that people’s lives mattered.
I expected that the story of someone finally coming to terms with being abused by her mother—a famous science fiction writer—would be noteworthy.
And, lest someone see my stories and think I’m a pro writer, not a fan writer, the hosting overage costs from the MZB posts alone exceeded my writing income (under my own name) last year.
So Here’s My Fanwriter Hugo Recommend List
- Chris Starfire did the other original research on the topic, snagging a great interview with Mark Greyland.
- Mike Glyer at File 770, the only traditional fanwriter who spent a lot of time engaging with his own community on the subject
- Natalie Luhrs did some great writing over on Pretty Terrible, including this link post.
- Jim C. Hines wrote about MZB and many other subjects of interest.
- Me. Because reasons.
Who in Fanwriting Didn’t Write About Marion Zimmer Bradley
I also want to emphasize that in the following people’s fan writing posts or publications, none of them happened to include Marion Zimmer Bradley:
- Ric Bretschneider (that I could find)
- Chris Garcia
- Cheryl Morgan
- Chuck Serface mentions her only in the context of her writing.
- Steve Silver
Dave Langford had a brief mention.
But, while we’re on the subject of people who did/didn’t write about MZB: Vox Day covered it. I’m not linking to it, but he and I are on the same page in one respect, as I commented on one of his blogs:
The entire reason I posted about Marion Zimmer Bradley at all is that she did unconscionable things and enabled unconscionable things and Tor.com was whitewashing that. Full stop. […]
In summary: we may not agree about many things, but I do not support what MZB did to harm children or what MZB knowingly allowed Breen to do to harm children.
One of the things conservatives feel about the left is that we don’t have the moral backbone to call out our leaders. I’m not that person.
Nor do I think that everyone necessarily needs to blog about this, just that it’s notable that the BASFA platform happens to be so closely aligned with those ignoring the biggest story. Which: a quarter million hits and covered in The Guardian. That’s not minor.
Lest You Think It’s Unimportant
I was contacted by a mother who was trying to wrest her child out of a similarly difficult situation, and in a situation related to Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Happening. Right. Now.
I can’t help but feel this is why the rapists keep winning.
We don’t value people who talk about it. We don’t value people who help get stories out.
This isn’t about me. It’s about sweeping everything under the rug.
Look, I get it: I don’t like being Difficult Subject Deirdre. I value comedy more than drama. But some shit just needs to be said.
I lot of people prefer not to have their little boats rocked, believing the ugliness won’t touch them as long as they don’t acknowledge it exists, or as long as they continue to believe it only happens to other people (who probably deserve it, too).
I am sorry your tribe (so to speak) let you down on this, but there’s always the hope that your work here has touched lives for the better. I, for one, appreciate you talking about the difficult things, because they matter to more people than you can know.
aztechlady wrote:
Actually, it emerged as a result of Deirdre’s (and daughter Moira Greyland’s, and son Mark Greyland’s) writings that Bradley was the proverbial ‘missing stair‘ of San Francisco Bay Area fandom — for many decades. I trust you know the metaphor? The hazard that discreet word of mouth warns about, but nobody ever discusses openly. And, moreover: It emerged that the ugliness did touch many. For decades.
Deirdre is calling out (specifically) S.F. Bay Area science-fiction’s well-connected, well informed fan writers for failing to engage even minimally and safely — not even a mention without comment — on a huge story, after the truth had broken in public, and not just in private whisperings. Our local fan writers knew the story had come out, but didn’t even so much as link to it. By contrast, noted fan writer Mike Glyer, 450 miles away in Los Angeles, did, but the people right here where it happened, appear to have all ignored it.
In fairness, it should be pointed out all but one of the five fanwriters Deirdre cited were too young to have directly witnessed the incidents (or, at least, I hope they were). But the ugliness pretty much did touch everyone in Bay Area fandom, and a bit more of a response would have cast more credit on our community’s spokesbeings.
What’s really interesting is that they didn’t ignore it at conventions. I wound up with a lot of people, many of whom I didn’t know, coming up to me in Los Angeles, London, Dublin, and Salt Lake City based on my posts, and I was also approached by some fans from the Bay Area. Including some who were involved in the nomination process.
So, in person, it’s okay to say something to me, I guess.
To try to be kind in interpretation…. quantity bias? Incumbency bias (seems to be a big problem with fanwriter in particular)? Forgetfulness when rushing to fill in the ballot in a hurry?
Still surprised you wouldn’t have at least some.
Incumbency bias is certainly part of it. I decided not to over-interpret the reasons, though. It happened, whatever.
This wasn’t a hurry, though, this was meetings over several weeks.
And I admit, I was surprised as well.
I know it’s touched lives for the better, and thank you for your support.
It’s a story I’d rather not think about, and one where I still can’t believe it fell into my proverbial lap.
It’s a very difficult topic where the conversation is still going on fifty years later: what should a convention committee do when it knows there’s a child molester? What’s the adequate standard for proof? Etc.
Unbeknownst to (at least most of) them, Breen (Marion ZImmer Bradley’s brand-new husband) was already a convicted sex offender. These days, we have mandatory reporting requirements, but that was a different era.
Have you ever read the Yes means yes blog? These days only one of the original contributors blogs with any regularity, and he often mentions what he calls ‘social license to operate.’
In essence, that complicit silence, where people inside the community may warn newcomers to be careful about not being caught in a dark, lonely corner with X, but not willing to openly confront X about behaviour that is harmful and often criminal.
Yes. And I was never warned, btw.
Speaking for myself, I’m a little slow to criticise anyone for being ‘not willing to openly confront X about behaviour that is harmful and often criminal’ — at least, not without a lot more particulars (and with a healthy background respect for the Rashomon metaphor).
For seventeen years as an activist and Board member with a local skeptic organisation, I was forever warning skeptics to be incredibly careful about accusations of illegality (especially but not exclusively in any context where you appear to speak for others). The pointy edge of a lawsuit for ‘libel per se’ is nowhere you should want to risk being. (Most plaintiffs aren’t limited-purpose public figures. ;-> )
So, partly on grounds of legal self-defence, I’ve always urged extreme caution about accusing people of crimes, of committing fraud, and so on. You really don’t want to be a test case.
Certainly, as the yesmeansyesblog poster says, the determination of truth cannot be punted to the courts and police, and forming a strong suspicion of unprosecuted evildoing, and sharing it, is absolutely the right, and arguably the positive duty, of everyone. But in my experience it is also a thing to be greatly wary of, for both speaker and listener.
Remember Reddit’s major mobilisation to find the Boston Marathon bomber? They accused the wrong guy.
OTOH, Cosby? Done with the slimy bastard, here. No trial required for that, and the old rule that if you hear hoofbeats you should suspect horses not zebras applies.
But, even at that, I’m not going to go around in public accusing him of crimes. Just not a good idea.
I do understand the need for caution, but as it was seen in MZB’s and Breen’s case, the problem is when too much caution becomes inertia–and when newcomers are not protected even by whispering what is known or suspected, for fear of being sued
I nominated Natalie Luhrs, as I felt her post was the most comprehensive overview and therefore the most deserving of the Hugo. I don’t have any kind of platform so I didn’t make any recommendations, but now I wish I’d thought to suggest it to people who do have followers.
Here. Not elsewhere.