Too Through…

Let’s go through the list shall we, now due to Sanders open and outright bigotry many no longer want to be associated with Helix magazine. Yoon Ha Lee requests that her story be taken down from the website. Sanders replies and does this but in the letter says how he never liked it in the first place, it didn’t make sense and he only bought it to increase writers of color in his magazine…and a lot more, basically he acts like an 8 year-old. (Yoon Ha Lee’s journal)

Then yesterday Sanders makes a public post claiming it was his idea to allow people to removes their stories from the archive, says anybody who wants to remove their story should email him and he’ll take it down.There’s also a lot of insinuation in the post about people being greedy and this all being some attack -because yeah Sanders is that big, everyone wants to attack him that’s what it’s all about. He says to act now because he’ll decide capriciously when this offer ends and if you don’t like it you can shut your pie-hole, classy and professional! (Yoon Ha Lee’s journal)

Tempest describes what was left on the pages of the stories that were removed and in a post today Sanders says that anyone who wants a story removed must pay $40 to the webmistress Melanie. Now keep in mind that just yesterday his letter said Melanie shouldn’t have to deal with this and he would take care of everything. My guess is that either a bunch of folks sent in requests and he’s trying to stem the tide by charging or his petulance is growing exponentially as he discovers most folks now know he’s a bigot.

Tobias Buckell weighs in and suggests sooe sort of drive for folks who want their story down but can’t afford the $40.To Sanders $40 may be nothing but to a lot of us it’s the difference between eating actual food this week or Ramen. Many in the comments urge folks not to pay anything because it would be like paying Sanders for his bigotry.

Kate Nepveu suggests since most folks say the contract with Helix is for non-exclusive internet rights that any authors who’re unhappy or don’t want to be associated with Helix any longer can post the stories on their blog or anywhere they want and redirect all their links there. Which personally I think is awesome.


 Other things in the SF/F world:

Kate Elliot starts a dialog on reviews and what readers would like to see in their reviews. While this may seem only tangentially about SF/F, it is a post by a well-known and fa I find the ideas in the post align with my thoughts a lot because I critique a lot of things here and I think for some people that reads as if I hate these things but no, I love them, that’s why I critique/review them because I want them to be better in regards to power/privilege/oppression. Anyway, go join the conversation let Kate know what you like/dislike about reviews.

Yoon Ha Lee links us to someone starting a new on-line magazine specializing in “literary adventure fantasy–character-driven stories in secondary worlds”, paying SFWA pro rate for stories, opening to submission on August 1st called Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I’m thinking of submitting one of my stories to them after some major edits.

3 responses to “Too Through…

  1. Interesting how Sander’s defense against “political correctness” is that he was accepting stories only to meet some kind of diversity quota in his head.

  2. bankuei, that is perhaps the most bizarre bit of Sanders’ attempts at self-justification – I, and many others, see this as being (at least in part) his indulgence in classic Sour Grapes behavior. But maybe he really ISN’T capable of seeing anything worthy in a story that isn’t written by/for/about Straight White Dudes. Maybe he really can’t enjoy something with a woman’s byline, or a name that’s not orthographically from NW Europe (or *gasp* BOTH!)

    Maybe he really *was* just pandering, “Harumph! Don’ t know what the kiddies see in this Yoon Ha Lee person, but if it sells, I’ll put it in, give the plebs what they want, faugh!” [/John Bull Podsnap voice]

    But if so, is that something an editor – ANY editor – would ever want to admit to? “No, I wasn’t picking stuff I thought was any good, I was just slapping up whatever I thought would get me more page hits” – seriously? I can see someone spitting out that “I never liked your story anyway, I was just trying to coddle you Affirmative Action types but you weren’t grateful so I’m not even going to try” BS in a moment of rage, one-on-one: it sounds like the kinds of things my parents used to say to each other fighting and then say “Of course I didn’t mean it that your article was bad/your dinner tasted terrible, I just said that b.c I was angry!” afterwards (like that made anything better) – but how can he not realize that he’s just blown up the Helix ship under himself?

    And IMO, from an editorial standpoint, “Congrats on your one-dimensional villains!” was bad enough…

  3. Yeah, exactly. Trying to use the very thing you condemn as your defense is crazy talk.

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