YABookgate

[LetterlandMafia]

I always wondered after Potter and Hunger Games what the next big trend in YA would be and I never could have imagined something as fucking lame as wokeness.

Is it a trend if the only consumers of it are the authors themselves and a handful of cat lady bloggers?

 

[dirtydeanna96]

Why is she wearing a shirt that says "BENES", is that supposed to sound like BENIS

It is a seinfeld logo, with the character elaine benes's name instead of seinfeld
I hate sitcoms. I hate you for making me type this.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Is it a trend if the only consumers of it are the authors themselves and a handful of cat lady bloggers?

You are correct, the truth is that the next trend in YA was... nothing, SJWs simply ruined it and now nobody but themselves cares.

I don't see Hollywood lining up to turn this wokeshit into big budget blockbusters like they did with Potter and Hunger Games and all the Hunger Games wannabees.

It is a seinfeld logo, with the character elaine benes's name instead of seinfeld
I hate sitcoms. I hate you for making me type this.

I recognized the Seinfeld logo, but didn't know the last name of the Elaine character.

 

[SnarkySperg]

You have to endure a lot of lunacy when you follow "writer Twitter."

Can confirm. Like I said recently, some lady was going on about the Bechdel Test and asking if people were making sure to pass it for their books. I actually see a lot of nice people on there, but when I see a YA author I bristle a bit because I don't know what nonsense they're potentially going to say.

2. Unless they’re constantly Googling their name, they aren’t going to know all the lists they’re put on.

They could probably turn on a Google Alert that will let them know when they're mentioned.

In all fairness, I kind of agree that it's unfair for a white person who happened to marry a non-white person to end up on a list of minority writers. However, I may not know immediately. I don't think it's fair to say they're complicit if it's not IMMEDIATELY corrected.

 

[Tootsie Bear]

That comic book she's doing looks like ... hmmm .... something.

DC DEBUTS FIRST LOOK AT 'NUBIA: REAL ONE'

Is that art as bad as I think it is, or am I so biased against this immediately I'm judging it unfairly?

No. I don't even read comics and the artwork is the worst I've seen publish yet.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

In all fairness, I kind of agree that it's unfair for a white person who happened to marry a non-white person to end up on a list of minority writers. However, I may not know immediately. I don't think it's fair to say they're complicit if it's not IMMEDIATELY corrected.

It's how Brianna Wu ended up on a list of minority woman politicians since most of Wu's voters and support base thought they were voting for a nice Asian lady and not a hulking 6'4 troon.

 

[PurpleEater]

I found this lulzy:

Also, the current sperging is over a book called Eleanor & Park which is now apparently being adapted into a movie. It looks boring as fuck and standard YA, but it's still pretty funny seeing the chimp-outs:

Do any of these people ever let themselves just enjoy shit? Or, you know, just ignore things they don't like? It's a sad life to lead, constantly fixating on books and movies that "offend" you instead of opting for something you enjoy.

 

[Piga Dgrifm]

I found this lulzy:

View attachment 1430257

Well, at least she managed to escape the horrors of reading a classic novel that commits the unforgivable sin of not having the exact politics of 2020.

Do any of these people ever let themselves just enjoy shit? Or, you know, just ignore things they don't like? It's a sad life to lead, constantly fixating on books and movies that "offend" you instead of opting for something you enjoy.

At this point, I think the issue is that there really is nothing that people with this kind of mindset truly "enjoy", or at least not in the way you and I would "enjoy" something. The average person is entertained by a book or movie that tells an engaging story, or is funny, or makes you ask questions. The books and movies the wokesters prop up are always more like essays lecturing about how oppressed their pet minority of the week is, and how evil everyone who does not belong to said minority group is by virtue of being born. But, really I can't imagine they're really "enjoying" reading something with little plot, no characterization, and that only has the goal of making you feel angry at people for their immutable traits. They only engage with media in order to have their views parroted back at them, not to be challenged, not to laugh, not to see a story unfold. It's why #WOKE comedy usually gets only applause, not laughter, the goal with these forms of entertainment is not to actually enjoy the thing, the goal is to pat yourself on the back for how much better you are than someone else.

As for why they constantly feel the need to shit on things that entertain others; I really do think that, after spending enough time in a #WOKE echo chamber where you have to constantly change how you speak, how you think and what you look at for fear of being #cancelled and dogpiled, you become a really miserable person. It's an ideology that tells you over and over, nonstop, that you are bad for traits you cannot change, and that nothing you do will ever make you less-bad because you were born bad, and so bad you will stay. I've seen it likened to religion before, and I get it, they've taken the concept of original sin and made it worse because at least sin could be forgiven, there is no forgiveness to be found here. It just sucks the joy out of everything, and when you're constantly miserable, surround yourself by people who tell you you deserve that misery because you are bad, and then you see people laughing at jokes, or having fun with a book or movie, it makes you angry. Because you've been trained to sniff out anything that could possibly be seen as offensive, and even if the people you are getting offended on behalf of tell you it doesn't matter or that you are looking at it the wrong way, it's still your job to get upset about it. Maybe they think that, by tearing things down that they've found a way to twist into being problematic(TM), they can begin to atone for the original sin of being born bad. They can show they aren't like the other white/cis/straight people, and they care about the struggle and they will help, by... yelling at people on Twitter for liking a book which was written by someone with the wrong skin color. IDK, this is Autistic, but it's the best motive I can think of for this insane behavior.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

Well, at least she managed to escape the horrors of reading a classic novel that commits the unforgivable sin of not having the exact politics of 2020.



At this point, I think the issue is that there really is nothing that people with this kind of mindset truly "enjoy", or at least not in the way you and I would "enjoy" something. The average person is entertained by a book or movie that tells an engaging story, or is funny, or makes you ask questions. The books and movies the wokesters prop up are always more like essays lecturing about how oppressed their pet minority of the week is, and how evil everyone who does not belong to said minority group is by virtue of being born. But, really I can't imagine they're really "enjoying" reading something with little plot, no characterization, and that only has the goal of making you feel angry at people for their immutable traits. They only engage with media in order to have their views parroted back at them, not to be challenged, not to laugh, not to see a story unfold. It's why #WOKE comedy usually gets only applause, not laughter, the goal with these forms of entertainment is not to actually enjoy the thing, the goal is to pat yourself on the back for how much better you are than someone else.

As for why they constantly feel the need to shit on things that entertain others; I really do think that, after spending enough time in a #WOKE echo chamber where you have to constantly change how you speak, how you think and what you look at for fear of being #cancelled and dogpiled, you become a really miserable person. It's an ideology that tells you over and over, nonstop, that you are bad for traits you cannot change, and that nothing you do will ever make you less-bad because you were born bad, and so bad you will stay. I've seen it likened to religion before, and I get it, they've taken the concept of original sin and made it worse because at least sin could be forgiven, there is no forgiveness to be found here. It just sucks the joy out of everything, and when you're constantly miserable, surround yourself by people who tell you you deserve that misery because you are bad, and then you see people laughing at jokes, or having fun with a book or movie, it makes you angry. Because you've been trained to sniff out anything that could possibly be seen as offensive, and even if the people you are getting offended on behalf of tell you it doesn't matter or that you are looking at it the wrong way, it's still your job to get upset about it. Maybe they think that, by tearing things down that they've found a way to twist into being problematic(TM), they can begin to atone for the original sin of being born bad. They can show they aren't like the other white/cis/straight people, and they care about the struggle and they will help, by... yelling at people on Twitter for liking a book which was written by someone with the wrong skin color. IDK, this is Autistic, but it's the best motive I can think of for this insane behavior.

Pretty much this. The only pleasure they get is when one of their Tweets get traction, and the ones that tend to do so are the ones meant to incite outrage, which is why they are always sniffing out something to cancel. Maybe they’ll get lucky and be on the ground floor for the next feeding frenzy. I have a friend who posted about how Hamilton is actually a right wing show because even though it was written by and stars people of color, it’s just retelling White Man’s version of history. She used to like the show, and her argument started with a narcissistic screed of how she felt duped. And then she suggested that the author was either too seduced by the mainstream historical narrative or he was more concerned with trying to sell tickets to make a Broadway musical about slavery and the genocide of indigenous people. That strikes me as such a bad faith argument that it essentially doubles around on itself and becomes racist. For all the talk of letting people with color to use their voice, they are quick to let them know how they did it wrong. I don’t even like Hamilton, but this was such an insidiously bad take that I couldn’t help being frustrated by their hypocrisy. Hamilton is not woke enough for them. And, of course, this person was a white woman.

 

[Second Missing Primarch]

I have a friend who posted about how Hamilton is actually a right wing show because even though it was written by and stars people of color, it’s just retelling White Man’s version of history. She used to like the show, and her argument started with a narcissistic screed of how she felt duped. And then she suggested that the author was either too seduced by the mainstream historical narrative or he was more concerned with trying to sell tickets to make a Broadway musical about slavery and the genocide of indigenous people. That strikes me as such a bad faith argument that it essentially doubles around on itself and becomes racist. For all the talk of letting people with color to use their voice, they are quick to let them know how they did it wrong. I don’t even like Hamilton, but this was such an insidiously bad take that I couldn’t help being frustrated by their hypocrisy. Hamilton is not woke enough for them. And, of course, this person was a white woman.

There's a lot of that going around right now. I've read several hot-take reviews of this filmed version of Hamilton where the writers have done a lot of hand-wringing and blathering on about how this is actually just a musical made for wypipo to feel good about themselves and maybe it isn't actually as amazing and revolutionary as they all thought five years ago and what about the actual history where they all owned slaves and whatnot. Basically they've just been completely ragging on it because it's no longer the wokest thing going, and how dare Miranda not anticipate the seismic shift in American culture and public opinion that's occurred in the last few years and do something about it when he started working on the musical eleven years ago.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

A lot of their criticisms of Hamilton just exposes how little they know about actually creating anything. It’s obvious to anyone who has seen the show that it’s meant to be a stylized retelling of the life of Alexander Hamilton, that Hamilton’s life is the thrust of the piece. If Miranda referenced America’s history of slavery and the treatment of the indigenous, these same people would be squealing that he didn’t reference them enough. Had he tried to fit them into the heart of the show, it would be an ungainly, unfocused mess. Maybe some of these assholes just need to put up or shut up, which is an argument I usually abhor when it comes to arts criticism, but this cabal is going beyond criticism and trying to dictate what people can and cannot write about and how they should do it.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

I have a friend who posted about how Hamilton is actually a right wing show because even though it was written by and stars people of color, it’s just retelling White Man’s version of history. She used to like the show, and her argument started with a narcissistic screed of how she felt duped.

Calling Hamilton a fascist is doubtless going a bit far, but he certainly had no issue with the use of power by the central state to ensure compliance, at least when it came to paying taxes. In certain parts of western Pennsylvania Hamilton is still viewed as a cruel tyrant. He was the guy who organized, or at any rate caused to be organized, the militia that marched in to demand payment of a tax on whiskey. He might have just been a scapegoat since they couldn't exactly say this stuff about George Washington, back then a sort of secular saint, and still thought of that way in certain circles. But nobody can dispute "defunding the police" would be about as un-Hamilton a sentiment as you could imagine.

I am curious if the play and movie address this, as much as I'd otherwise rather eat a plate of warm dog turds than watch this combination of drivel and propaganda.

 

[Jar-Jar Fanboy]

Also, the current sperging is over a book called Eleanor & Park which is now apparently being adapted into a movie. It looks boring as fuck and standard YA, but it's still pretty funny seeing the chimp-outs:

View attachment 1430255

View attachment 1430256

View attachment 1430261

Do any of these people ever let themselves just enjoy shit? Or, you know, just ignore things they don't like? It's a sad life to lead, constantly fixating on books and movies that "offend" you instead of opting for something you enjoy.

I read Eleanor and Park way back, like, maybe six+ years ago, and wasn't the racism sort of the point? If I recall correctly, Park is the only Viet Namese(?) kid in his tiny midwest American town in the 80's, which lead to him being an outcast. Was there racism? Sure, but it served a purpose, and wasn't portrayed positively, just as a fact of life based on the era. These people really can't handle anything challenging in work, and want everything to be clean and sanitized so they don't have to think too hard about anything

 

[PurpleEater]

I read Eleanor and Park way back, like, maybe six+ years ago, and wasn't the racism sort of the point? If I recall correctly, Park is the only Viet Namese(?) kid in his tiny midwest American town in the 80's, which lead to him being an outcast. Was there racism? Sure, but it served a purpose, and wasn't portrayed positively, just as a fact of life based on the era. These people really can't handle anything challenging in work, and want everything to be clean and sanitized so they don't have to think too hard about anything

I haven't read it but it makes sense to me. SJWs, especially those on Book Twitter, have a real issue with depiction because they automatically think it's endorsement, and have a lot of difficulty with context.

As for why they constantly feel the need to shit on things that entertain others; I really do think that, after spending enough time in a #WOKE echo chamber where you have to constantly change how you speak, how you think and what you look at for fear of being #cancelled and dogpiled, you become a really miserable person. It's an ideology that tells you over and over, nonstop, that you are bad for traits you cannot change, and that nothing you do will ever make you less-bad because you were born bad, and so bad you will stay.

I agree with everything here, based on my observations of such echo chambers. These are largely unhappy people with a lot of social and emotional regulation issues. Basically overgrown toddlers who are throwing tantrums and parroting each other out of anxiety. I'd almost feel bad for them if they weren't so obnoxious.

I think a lot of them are genuinely autistic too. One symptom of autism is black and white thinking patterns and the inability to observe a gray area. People with autism also tend to miss jokes and humor cues, so they might interpret something light-hearted as a direct attack. Obviously not ALL of them are autistic, but in these sub-art communities, it seems to be a thing with a large number of them.

Then you have the ones with the most to gain (minorities with big audiences who want clout/money/attention from shouting about oppression) as well as guilty white people who keep chiming in to hopefully avoid the same fate themselves someday.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

https://twitter.com/rainbowrowell/status/1279921656270643200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1279921656270643200%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com%2F118361067.html

Extremely racist book Eleanor & Park is getting a film adaptation.

Some choice lines from it:

She was pretty sure he was Asian. It was hard to tell. He had green eyes. And skin the color of sunshine through honey.

She was apparently never going to stop sounding like she just got here yesterday from Korea. Sometimes Park thought she kept the accent on purpose, because his dad liked it. But his mom tried so hard to fit in every other way… if she could sound like she grew up right around the corner, she would.

Eleanor imagined Park's dad, Tom Selleck, tucking his Dainty China person into his flak jacket and sneaking her out of Korea.

Park's eyes got wide. well, sort of wide. Sometimes she wondered if the shape of his eyes affected how he saw things. That was probably the most racist question of all time.

 

[Crunchy Leaf]

I found this lulzy:

View attachment 1430257

Also, the current sperging is over a book called Eleanor & Park which is now apparently being adapted into a movie. It looks boring as fuck and standard YA, but it's still pretty funny seeing the chimp-outs:

View attachment 1430255

View attachment 1430256

View attachment 1430261

Do any of these people ever let themselves just enjoy shit? Or, you know, just ignore things they don't like? It's a sad life to lead, constantly fixating on books and movies that "offend" you instead of opting for something you enjoy.

I would also leave a college literature class that tried to make me read To Kill a Mockingbird, because I read that in middle school. There are much better books written for adults about mid century American racial issues.

I don’t like the ‘own voices’ trend and neither do a lot of non-white authors, because they feel pigeonholed into only writing woke books revolving around race.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

this ONLY BIPOC CAN WRITE BIPOC shit offends me as a writer. As a hobby I write stories, I don't publish them, nobody ever reads them, and because I'm a massive weeaboo Japanese characters are realistically portrayed. If I ever published any of them, I'd have these harpies out for my head. It's possible to write Black characters without making them into Uncle fucking Remus.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

I'd have these harpies out for my head.

The irony here being the Japanese themselves wouldn't give a shit. Hell, they might even like your stories.

As an aside, I wonder if a novel like Stormdancer could be published nowadays. 2012 seems like a different century at this point, doesn't it? TBF Stormdancer was silly, the attempts at Japanese were apparently straight outta Google Translate, and, yes, even then there was REEEEING about cultural appropriation. But in that era apparently safely confined to places like, well, GoodReads.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Who is David Walliams and why is he being cancelled in the UK, exactly? Apparently young boys thinking fart and puke jokes are funny is the first step on the road to being transformed into Literally Hitler as best I can tell. Never read him, never will read him, but somebody's got a Twitter hate boner for him.

This seems to have kicked off the fun:

https://twitter.com/BootstrapCook/status/1279860113847783432

❄️ Jack Monrowflake on Twitter: "Small Boy completed his D*vid Walli*…

archived 7 Jul 2020 11:43:15 UTC

archive.is

Spoiler: Parler stuff, dunno if it matters much

Over on Twitter alternate Parler, Katie Hopkins started a thread, but most respondents seem to think he's just another SJW being eaten by his own. If there's a way to link and/or archive Parler, I have yet to figure it out. Her post shows it was trending, at any rate.

edit, forgot to check the news:
David Walliams accused of fatshaming and classism in children's books

http://archive.md/fSut7

Author David Walliams' children's books accused of 'horrific racism' and 'sneering fatshaming nonsense'

Author David Walliams' children's books accused of 'horrific racism' …

archived 7 Jul 2020 12:06:27 UTC

archive.is

Here's a few samples. There's more, but I'm lazy. No gonna bother posting the full text, either. Read the archive.

 

[whitepumpkin]

this ONLY BIPOC CAN WRITE BIPOC shit offends me as a writer. As a hobby I write stories, I don't publish them, nobody ever reads them, and because I'm a massive weeaboo Japanese characters are realistically portrayed. If I ever published any of them, I'd have these harpies out for my head. It's possible to write Black characters without making them into Uncle fucking Remus.

I think if this thread says anything for writer's, it's do whatever the hell you want and NEVER apologize for it. The moment you do, like that whimpering chick did a few pages back, you're ruined. They smelled the blood in the water and will tear you down until you're telling people not to defend you for simply writing. Which is lunacy.

And even if the publisher tells you they won't release your book without changes (add Diversity, LGBTWTF, Wymyn), tell them to go fuck themselves and self-publish. Why should you, the one with creative ideas, compromise so that publishers with no thoughts of their own can point out their inclusiveness and use you as a statistic? They clearly no longer care about quality of writing. All that matters now is Instagrammable Book covers or titles like "Break the Silver Dawn" on sparkly covers to get the shallow 30yr old girls to buy their garbage along with diversity checkboxes. So why should any writer care about their standards? They have none other than appealing to a (fat) mass of women who refuse to grow up and think telling them they're fucking mental is physical violence.

Game of Thrones didn't have mass appeal because of LGBT shit. It had an interesting story.
Lord of the Rings isn't considered a classic because a white man wrote it. It's story connected with people.
To Kill a Mockingbird isn't racist because a black man dies and there's a bad word. It's about the unfairness of life through a child's eyes.

These are all too complex these days for girls who only want to have their hands held (uwu sapphic) and never face strife. They will never understand anything above a grade 3 reading level and shallow ideals about how all girls need to support each other because THEY want to be praised and accepted by their peers, yet never make any changes to their personality. These are not people that should be catered too and anyone with a brain functioning above a toddler's age will connect with protagonists and a good story whether or not they share their skin colour or sex.