Here are some links from unfunny_fandom.

My thoughts on the basis of the matter can be divined from here and here.

Fortunately, I have no time for you, Elizabeth Moon, and life moves on. I only wish the Wiscon committee would actually say what the hell is going on. Or have a plan, because obviously whatever plan they have/had is/was not a good nor solid one.

But no more Wiscon wank for me. I shall simply be awesome. Or really busy fighting dragons.

For more information on 黒執事, see: Wikipedia’s Black Butler entry, Square Enix’s official page about the mana, Funimation’s official english page about the anime, and the unofficial fan wiki.

Short summary: After a long time of Sebastian, a demon, working as a butler for Ciel, a young child who wants revenge against the murderers of his family… the contract remains strangely unfulfilled due to events out of left field. Ciel becomes a demon, and Sebastian not only doesn’t get to devour Ciel’s soul (and Sebastian is very, very hungry indeed) but now he must remain Ciel’s butler for eternity, or at lest, gods know how long.

Sebastian is rather put out by this.

However, as there are rumors of yet another season 3, I think Sebastian will eventually regain his lacklusterness. Season 2 was all about Ciel’s lackluster; perhaps a similar character arc for Sebastian would be fitting. And thus Sebastian would, for once, not be the perfect, capable butler.

Eventually, the conflict between the newly arrogant Ciel, who seems not to realize that there’s a whole world of demons out there who’d gut him, and then even more bound Sebastian may smooth out (over many snarky bumps) to an understanding, to a holding position:

• Ciel no longer has human concerns, and can lay his desire for revenge to death if he hasn’t already. He has a new world to explore, and he does love a challenge.
• We never hear about how Sebastian become demon. There’s implications that he was bored and his life was slovenly, grabbing souls left and right; getting hold of contracts stepped up the game to dignity and strategy and, most likely, a more interesting, challenging life than he might have had otherwise.

These two will never not be rivals. But they need the other in their life to navigate the pools of chaos they’ll encounter on the other side, even if they’ll never exactly be friends—the relationship dynamic is not based on trust, but on need.

What will happen in the new world? Is there a manor house on the other side they can occupy and start over again? You need something to have a butler/master relationship to play against…

Shit will probably get real in about 24 hours.

In the past, I’ve read authors, both dead and alive, with whom I’ve had very small, or very large, or very personal, disagreements with. I continue to do so, because sometimes what they write is just too awesome to miss out on just because they’re a jerk.

However, I also support people who don’t want to read authors whom they can only now think of as jerkwads.

We like to think we know for sure what should and what shouldn’t “cross the line” for other people—but this is frankly stupid. Not everybody’s priorities, values, or limits are the same, even those who were raised in the same social strata. Thinking this is pretty much one of the bases for ignoring the fact that you have privilege in a certain area.

There is nothing wrong or cowardly about not wanting to read an author due to such priorities.

But hey, I’m self-centered, so here’s what drove this point home to me: there’s an author I can’t read anymore because this person decided that, because I wrote something that peeved them, they should use the opportunity to stomp on one of my PTSD triggers. Hard. If you want to get an idea of what happened, you should probably go visit the archives of last year’s August, and keep going until spring. ((No names named. I’m trying to be a reformed evil person.))

I would punch out the person who would even dare to suggest that I should be “strong” enough to read that author’s work.

So who am I to say that someone should or shouldn’t read authors that they dislike due to seeing said authors show their asses online? Who is anyone?

If someone paid me to read that author, I’d turn it down.

And I have indeed done that.

So my personal limit was obviously passed. Why judge others on theirs? I’m not them, and I don’t share their personal history. Very few people share mine, after all.

Of course, I am evil, so I shall revel in my continued evility of not reading said author’s works, even for money. And encouraging others who, if they feel that way about Moon’s works, to not feel ashamed about doing the same.

Though at the same time, if you do want to continue reading Moon’s works, that’s fine with me, too. There’s a lot I’m missing out, I know, due to not reading That One Author—but that’s one line I only cross by spending more sanity points than my character currently has.

It appears that sf_drama is hitting the high points of the post alluded to here. (I usually don’t connect to these things directly).

I’m disappointed that Elizabeth Moon and this guy now have more in common than just the genre they work in.

Things I give odds on:

• 1:1 odds this shows up on unfunny_business.
• 3:1 odds this shows up on fandom_wank.
• 10:1 odds that Andrew Sullivan discovers this and the Daily Dish linkorama starts and embarrasses us all.
• 25:1 odds that Wiscon uninvites her. ((I don’t blame them if they don’t; it’s a big thing to uninvite a guest of honor. At the same time, it is Wiscon.))

I hate this, so very much. Unlike with this guy ((Screw you, Google blog search…. Never leave me. :’()), I take zero pleasure in any of this.

Oh well. We’re all human. And hell, I’m actually evil, so. ((More on that later, I guess, in the next entry in Dancing with Psychologists.))

I suppose, though, that even evil has standards.

Update: Okay, now I have lost all respect for her, utterly and entirely. Perhaps I should have started with that. See below ETAs.

ETA: BAH-LEETION has now occurred to all the comments on Moon’s post. Hmmm.

ETA2: So apparently Moon also edited her post at the end. What the hell, Elizabeth Moon?

ETA3: bloodparade has screencaps. And apparently Wiscon will become aware of this. Bahleetion: it does not make things better 24 hours into the wank.

This is now elevated from FUCKUP to TRAINWRECK.

The series’ introductory issue #0 (likely because not everyone will have read the Detective Comics issues that feature her, at least until they’re collected like Batwoman: Elegy, which I highly, highly recommend ((Batwoman in a tux. Batwoman in a tux. Rawwr. Plus the story is awesome, the characters are awesome, the villain is awesome, and the backstory is awesome, and really, this title is just made of awesome topped with awesomesauce.)) ) is coming out in November.

Now, where’s my Khepri account?… Hm.

Look. I don’t mind readers of my blog thinking I’m male, because it’s an easy mistake to make in a default-white-male society, especially as I neither discuss my gender in detail nor do I put up pictures of myself. (I don’t like it, but understand it.)

But if you’re asking me to review your work?

It’s called research, you fucking idiot.

Also, I have no idea why you view “Arachne” as masculine. Even if I were a male drag queen, I’d have chosen the name for the complete opposite reason.

Don’t even bother to mansplain to me how I should consider being addressed as male an honor. A male-identifying person gets pissed if you call him “Miss”, I can get pissed if you call me “Mister.”

Good gods.

Also, not the first time this happened.

*headdesk*

And no, I will not review your work.

I can still see the Star Trek influences in the first book, but I’m not sure whether that means I’m still insulting Bujold by saying that. :-( I never meant to insult her and am terribly sorry if I did so.

And these days I don’t think fanfiction is an indication of not being creative and incapable of being original—indeed, the rest of the original post was about how her creation ended up being different from Star Trek even in the first book.

But hey. I love her works as their own thing, and I don’t really care if they were ever fanfiction or not.

Part 1, the non-personal:

First, here: No Foreigners Allowed by Charles Tan. This is a tone argument. It’s an extended tone argument, but in the end, it’s a tone argument. Also, the examples cited make me cringe.

Second, here: An Open Letter to Charles Tan by Deepa D. I agree with her. Doesn’t mean that I hate Charles—just that I disagree with him.

Part 2, the personal:

Third, here: Oh No, Mammoth Books of X, No by me. Some people consider this to be a horribly angry post, and thus on the “bad tone” side, even though it’s one of disappointment and sadness. Apparently voicing disappointment, no matter how quietly, at all is a bad tone to some people. I’m not saying that Charles thinks that about this piece, but for some people, using the tone argument against this would be valid.

Fourth, here: A Funny Thing Happened to Me at the Grocery Store the Other Day by me. Yes, internalized racism exists, and thus, it wouldn’t be a good idea to use Charles’ race in support of or against any argument. ETA: No, I don’t think he has internalized racism.

Fifth: yes, I like Charles. I still think his argument needs some re-thinking.

Sixth: When I talked about the Mammoth Books, I did indeed get attacked directly by someone outside of the comments. I don’t want to talk about it, because it ended up triggering my PTSD, and I’m pretty sure revisiting it will do so again. Which I know looks “fake” to some people, but you know: triggers are fucking stupid that way.

I’ll be in my bunker with my tea and my Xanax.

Turning off comments on this post, because putting my hand in a blender is the last thing I want to do right now.