I have a commentary! EEEE!

leesa_perrie did a DVD-style commentary for my SGA/Knight Rider AU "Knights Errant"; commentary, with link to original story, can be read here.

What's really kind of cool here (well, besides "EEEEE! Commentary! On my story!") is that there's a lot about these external "DVD commentary"-type things that I'd never really gotten before seeing one of my own and reading through it in detail. The thing is, I'd never been that interested in doing DVD commentaries of my own fic (an occasional short "making of the fic" post is about the closest I want to come to it) and never read more than bits and pieces of others' commentaries. This is not because I don't like them -- actually, I find the whole idea very interesting, and more power to people for doing them -- but I just don't really seem to fan in that way, most of the time. (Every time I make a blanket statement like that, I keep finding exceptions. So now I put the disclaimer in there rather than looking like an idiot later on. *g*)

But the DVD commentaries by readers are different! They're like a review! And I love reviews! Heaven knows why, but I read them obsessively -- reviews of fic (mine, other people's), fic recs, reviews of movies and TV. And this is like the longest, most detailed review ever.

I never wanted to do one before! But now I do, and I'm browsing down the list of authors to see if there's anyone whose story I want to annotate. This is COOL. I really don't think I ever got why people do this before, but now I do -- or (editing my post to be more accurate here) I've found a toehold for me on a fannish practice that I'd never really participated in before. Of course I can't presume to speak for other people's motivations, but it's more meaningful to me, personally, now.

I have a commentary! EEEE!

leesa_perrie did a DVD-style commentary for my SGA/Knight Rider AU "Knights Errant"; commentary, with link to original story, can be read here.

What's really kind of cool here (well, besides "EEEEE! Commentary! On my story!") is that there's a lot about these external "DVD commentary"-type things that I'd never really gotten before seeing one of my own and reading through it in detail. The thing is, I'd never been that interested in doing DVD commentaries of my own fic (an occasional short "making of the fic" post is about the closest I want to come to it) and never read more than bits and pieces of others' commentaries. This is not because I don't like them -- actually, I find the whole idea very interesting, and more power to people for doing them -- but I just don't really seem to fan in that way, most of the time. (Every time I make a blanket statement like that, I keep finding exceptions. So now I put the disclaimer in there rather than looking like an idiot later on. *g*)

But the DVD commentaries by readers are different! They're like a review! And I love reviews! Heaven knows why, but I read them obsessively -- reviews of fic (mine, other people's), fic recs, reviews of movies and TV. And this is like the longest, most detailed review ever.

I never wanted to do one before! But now I do, and I'm browsing down the list of authors to see if there's anyone whose story I want to annotate. This is COOL. I really don't think I ever got why people do this before, but now I do -- or (editing my post to be more accurate here) I've found a toehold for me on a fannish practice that I'd never really participated in before. Of course I can't presume to speak for other people's motivations, but it's more meaningful to me, personally, now.

IBARW and whitewashing on genre book covers

This week is International Blog Against Racism Week. Information and ongoing link roundup at ibarw.

My plan to write fic again this year, uh, fell through. In a major way. And beyond that, I can't think of much to say other than navel-gazing about my own whiteness and unrecognized privilege, and while there may be a time and a place for that, I don't feel that this is either.

But reading through the links from ibarw, I stumbled across one topic that I realized I actually do have something to say about. It's something that's fairly close to my heart as both a writer and a sci-fi/fantasy reader -- the way that dark-skinned characters are whitewashed on fantasy and science fiction book covers. There is a great post by smillaraaq on whitewashing on Joan Vinge's "Cat" books, that got me thinking about the whole issue of PoC characters in genre fiction being depicted as white -- whether as a marketing ploy or simply as a cultural default.

( Long post and images under cut )

Thoughts on this? I've thought about it a little bit before, in a vague and unformed sort of way, but this is the first time I've tried to organize it into a coherent post. I would welcome any more examples that others have. I know that there is quite a lot of this sort of thing going on, and I know I've seen more examples, but I'm having trouble thinking of them -- and, also, I'm quite sure there are plenty of times that I never even noticed, just like I never noticed, until having it pointed out, that Vinge's Cat is not as white as he appears on the cover of the book. (I'm also sure that it's been written about before, probably much better than I've managed to do, and if anyone has a link to other posts or articles on this, that would be very welcome as well.)

IBARW and whitewashing on genre book covers

This week is International Blog Against Racism Week. Information and ongoing link roundup at ibarw.

My plan to write fic again this year, uh, fell through. In a major way. And beyond that, I can't think of much to say other than navel-gazing about my own whiteness and unrecognized privilege, and while there may be a time and a place for that, I don't feel that this is either.

But reading through the links from ibarw, I stumbled across one topic that I realized I actually do have something to say about. It's something that's fairly close to my heart as both a writer and a sci-fi/fantasy reader -- the way that dark-skinned characters are whitewashed on fantasy and science fiction book covers. There is a great post by smillaraaq on whitewashing on Joan Vinge's "Cat" books, that got me thinking about the whole issue of PoC characters in genre fiction being depicted as white -- whether as a marketing ploy or simply as a cultural default.

( Long post and images under cut )

Thoughts on this? I've thought about it a little bit before, in a vague and unformed sort of way, but this is the first time I've tried to organize it into a coherent post. I would welcome any more examples that others have. I know that there is quite a lot of this sort of thing going on, and I know I've seen more examples, but I'm having trouble thinking of them -- and, also, I'm quite sure there are plenty of times that I never even noticed, just like I never noticed, until having it pointed out, that Vinge's Cat is not as white as he appears on the cover of the book. (I'm also sure that it's been written about before, probably much better than I've managed to do, and if anyone has a link to other posts or articles on this, that would be very welcome as well.)