I saw this segment on Times (UK) Radio where an older going-way-back feminist campaigner was telling a somewhat younger feminist and boisterous pal-of-Joanne-Rowling that she, the older lady, had fought every iteration of conservative bigotry going back to when they actually arrested and beat up and tortured gay people for being gay and the language of the anti-trans people sounds exactly the same as it did back then because the language of the in-group trying the beat the out-group into line is ALWAYS the same. The younger feminist snapped back that, well, you see, that's how WE (Joanne and her, I guess) are different, we're NOT the conservative Ancien Regime shitheads, we are proud liberals, so that tells you our particular notion of whom to unperson is just and correct, and, man . . . I don't know how to fucking tell you this in a nice way because there really isn't a nice way but when you agree with Tories and Republicans and actual fucking neo-Nazis full-throatedly and out loud, specifically in support of a newly minted public Holocaust-denier, to insist your pet bigotry is the ONE bigotry in the entirety of a history of Proper Society stomping on the faces of marginalized people that is THE smart and well-meant bigotry, you've turned in your Decent Human Being Card. You are as right-wing as the shit you do and, TERFS, you are right-wing as every last fuck because - and I cannot yell this loudly enough - you agree with literally the shittiest people in the fucking world. And I know that won't move you to fuck off, as you should, or at least try to be a better person, but, in any rational timeline, it fucking well would.
@[email protected] I think it was twain who pointed out that you should not only judge a man by his friends, but by his enemies. I like her enemies.
“‘HARRY POTTER’ SERIES ‘NOT SECRETLY BEING INFUSED’ WITH J.K. ROWLING’S ANTI-TRANS RHETORIC”
Oh, they’re just going to do it openly then?
Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea predates Harry Potter by 25 years but tells the story of a young copper skinned goat herder gifted with magic, going off to wizard school.
In my opinion it's a jewel of a book, and the trilogy (later a quartet), are the finest fantasy storytelling available.
As someone once said "Rowling can type. Le Guin can write".
@pete @geolaw @GrimmReality After A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu, There's also The Other Wind.
I first read the trilogy 37 years ago, at the age of 10, re-read it so many times before finishing high-school, I could probably write a pretty comprehensive summary from memory. Because of that my first impression of H.P. was that it was unoriginal, so I never read the books, only watched the films.
Also Earthsea is far from being Le Guin's only work of note. There's also works like The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, and Gifts, among so many others, that the number of literary awards she's won are around double those awarded to the closest of the great science fiction authors of her era, Asimov.
@NaomiElizabeth @geolaw @GrimmReality
Yes! I discovered Le Guin in the school library. I'm not a great reader, struggled with English and essay based subjects at school, but I loved Le Guin. I think I probably was a bit young for The Dispossessed. But I remember reading it standing by the book stands. It was eye opening to say the least.
@geolaw @GrimmReality Light-novel versions of Ascendance of a Bookworm and The Apothecary Diaries. Both have excellent English translations, have 33 (!!!) and 13 (ongoing) volumes respectively, and both absolutely shit upon H.P. from a very great height.
(Don't judge Ascendance by the anime, I consider the Light Novels superior to the entirety's of Tolkien's Middle Earth saga, Frank Herbert's Dune series, and Asimov's Foundation series).
@GrimmReality so she's recreating Hannibal from the A-Team? Implying that by un- personing transwomen she has helped women's spaces remain safe? And that putting a bunch of underqualified, conservative judges that already are working at taking women's right to their bodies was her plan all along?
I guess I should verify because it's just so bad I don't want it to be real.
@GrimmReality @courtcan @blogdiva @farah Hey do you think we should link this thread and email it to his agent?
I mean you only live once, right?!