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franzen
2011-03-28 04:15 am UTC (link)

You know, I will never "get" Neil Gaiman. To me, he seems to be another case of Joss Wheedon Feminism.

That being said, I'm not trying to be a bitch; I know how it feels to watch a creator you love fail to be what you'd hope. But as far as Gaiman goes -- as with Joss Wheedon -- how many times am I supposed to take it on good faith that he's really a good dude and there's more to be revealed that will show that it's not meant like that? From his recent actions, he screams "appropriating douche" to me.

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	ealusaid 2011-03-28 11:18 am UTC (link)
	He has written work that, IMO, does a not-bad job of handling other cultures (Anansi Boys, Sandman). Which is, he's a talented guy, so sometimes he can make the appropriation work, so people put up with him. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cyan_aura 2011-03-28 10:22 pm UTC (link)
	also props for Gaiman for refusing to let "Anansi Boys" be made as a movie because every. single. offer. he has gotten has boiled down to someone telling him "oh and btw the kids can't be black because the movie won't sell if they are, so..." Yeah. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cyan_aura 2011-03-28 10:52 pm UTC (link)
	actually let me back that up a bit, because he's written a screenplay for it, he wants the movie made -- he just will not let it be Hunger Games/Last Airbender/Akira/Earthsea-d by Hollywood. Yeah I'm not happy with some of the stuff he's done but I can appreciate this one good thing about him. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	franzen 2011-03-28 11:12 pm UTC (link)
	Good for him. That's excellent. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	full_metal_ox 2011-03-30 10:52 pm UTC (link)
	Particularly given the unhappy precedent of Barry Hughart's attempt to bring Bridge of Birds to the screen--although fans were at least spared an adaptation carried out with the sort of attitudes that brought us The Lost Failbender (Paramount was the studio in question.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cyan_aura 2011-03-31 08:30 am UTC (link)
	oh hell to the yes, I'd forgotten about that one. (and how appropos your id, too! ^_^) (Reply to this)(Parent)

franzen
2011-03-28 11:28 pm UTC (link)

I think this comment (and my tl;dr response) does a better job of making my point. It's not that I think Gaiman is always bad, it's just that I'm no longer inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I always wanted to write a SJ blog post on what to do and how it feels when you realize that, hey, your totally awesome liberal parents? Not quite as progressive as you wanted them to be. And maybe they still say some really fucked up, ablist, racist, sexist shit. And you love them, but there comes a time when they can't be heroes any longer. Pretending that -ist behavior can be explained away or justified is not okay, no matter who it's coming from. They're your parents, but to the world, they're being -ist jackasses.

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sorchar
2011-03-29 12:12 am UTC (link)

I hear you there. My mother (who has grown increasingly right-wing over the years, which is one reason I'm glad we live on opposite sides of the country) shocked the hell out of me when I was about fourteen by telling me, apropos of nothing, that I wasn't allowed to date black guys. This is the woman who claimed to have demonstrated in college for civil rights (I always did have my suspicions) and when I called her on it, claimed she wasn't racist because she had black friends. Oh, and this was in the 80s, when people really should have known better.

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judyhazeleyes
2011-03-29 08:31 pm UTC (link)

That reminds me of my great-aunt and great-uncle (I have no genetic aunts or uncles, so they kinda fill that role for us) - I always knew they were homophobic, based on how badly they dealt with their gay son's death from AIDS, but I had no idea they were racist until one day I was talking about a cute Japanese boy in my class and my aunt said, in genuine horror: "Don't you go bringing him home!"

To my uncle's credit, he turned around and barked at her, "SHE CAN BRING HOME WHOEVER SHE WANTS." But it was still an awakening. I don't see them much these days - at some point, I just became unable to smile through the ignorance and knew I'd lose my mind if they blurted out something unacceptable in front of me.

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