rthstewart | A brief reflection on the ugly

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A brief reflection on the ugly

Regular visitors here know that I've wailed and gnashed my teeth at the ugly in aspects of the Narnia fandom for awhile. I've been fortunate to find lovely people who have far, far outweighed the nasty that I have received. Still, it is and has been discouraging to see longtime readers disappear when I failed to condemn same sex relationships when I finally did address them and to know that I am boycotted in some circles as immoral and un-Christian (which my offspring find hilarious). More disturbing to me is to see how, since my entry into the fandom in 2009, aspects of the Narnia fandom have been trending further and further in the direction of bigotry, misogyny, and homophobia and that those voices are loud and popular.

Thanks to reader Heliopause (who is writing a story I'm enjoying very much), she directed me to the recently updated profile of one very popular author on fanfiction.net who hasn't written for about a year. This author, Capegio, updated her profile on July 22, 2012 and stated that she is gay, that she was gay when she wrote her Narnia stories, that she still loves the Chronicles, but will no longer stay passively polite to those in the fandom who sweetly condemn homosexuality. I won't link to her profile directly here though you can find Capegio's moving and beautiful statement easily be looking at the authors who are on my favorites list.

Really, in this day and age, I keep thinking this sort of thing shouldn't even be necessary. Yet it is and Capegio's statement makes me sad and angry and deeply moves me.

Edit-

I’m going to close down commenting at this point. We’re all adults here from different backgrounds who all feel enormous empathy with those, most especially young people, who courageously struggle to find themselves as we have and continue to do. On this we may agree. In my deeply imperfect way, I wanted to draw attention to something that upset me and from here, well, that’s up to you.

One final thought as I’ve reflected on this is the number exchanges I’ve had with Narnia writers who express real discomfort when they and their work are touted and extolled as “moral” and not “like that other bad stuff.” We’ve lost creative voices who could not withstand that internal tension between who they know themselves to be, and who their readers assume them to be.

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I'm sorry to hear that about the fandom in general. I'm used to more accepting and open fandoms. Knowing this will probably keep me from going too deeply into Narnia fandom. Given the stuff I write in other fandoms, I'd definitely get some negative reactions.

Really, in this day and age, I keep thinking this sort of thing shouldn't even be necessary. Yet it is and Capegio's statement makes me sad and angry and deeply moves me.

That sums it up right there, for me.

She is just wonderful. As a writer and as a person. And I am angry.

Hi,
with the amount of work I have now I couldn't read your recent chapters, so I'm not sure to what you are refering, but I'm really surprised by what you wrote. My impression's been that fanfiction - in different fandoms - is for many a platform for describing perversive acts in a very detailed way (e.g. incest, child abuse). I can't believe readers could be agitated by homosexual references. Are you really serious?
Krystyna

This is so very awful. It makes me sad and angry as well, although Capegio's statement deeply moves me, too. Part of the reason I tend to keep my Narnia activity (little as it is right now) over here on LJ is that I find the Narnia community here much more open, accepting, and truly thoughtful, rather than coming from a place of hateful faith, bigotry, and homophobia. Those who are determined to see Lewis's work in one dimension, read it as a strict Biblical allegory and endorsement of their particular kind of faith, seem to have taken over the boards at FF.net, and it's a shame.

What is equally awful is that Capegio's work is wonderful, and simply as writing deserves to be praised. She is a highly skilled writer and should be recognized as such. She is also incredibly brave for speaking out on an issue that is so personal and important for her. I understand her perspective completely.

To Krystyna, who commented above - what is contained in fanfiction is really specific to any given fandom. By no means does every fandom explore perverse kinds of behavior, though a minority of writers in a lot of them do. A majority of writers in the fandoms that I follow - Narnia, Glee, West Wing, to name a few - actively use their fiction to explore social and political injustices, and make their work a plea for tolerance, acceptance, and compassion. Rth, of course, is one of the writers in Narnia fandom who does this best.

It should be said here that in fandoms like Glee, West Wing, etc., a majority of fans and writers are already coming in with a highly liberal perspective, and have no problems with homosexuality to begin with. In the Narnia fandom, there is a profound split between those who interpret Lewis's work in a highly traditional, fundamentalist Christian way, and those who choose to see Lewis's work as a highly educated, articulate vision of religious ecumenicalism and tolerance. The more traditional view sees Narnia as a Biblical allegory and a reinforcement of the traditional teachings of the Christian church, making homosexuality sinful.

Does this make sense? I didn't want to fall into lecture mode, but the split is there an highly noticeable for those of us who are in the Narnia fandom long enough. Those on the other side of the divide from Rth, myself, and Capegio (as well as others) are very vocal and often viciously critical of anything that falls under their definition of "immoral."

Note, that I do not make judgments about popularity of certain subjects, about morality of different fanfics, nor about different authors' commitment to spreading tolerance or any other value. I'm just stating that I'm really surprised that anybody would make negative emotional comments about stories containing certain type of relatinship when there are so many stories (including Narnian fandom) which describe behaviours which from anybody's point of view much more deserve condemnation. Even people who are strong enemies of homosexualism should have a sense of proportion and understand different scales. That's why I'm wondering. Why anti-homosexual crucade, when any other are non-existent (or at least I've never hear about them)? If you want to fight against immorality, why not something else? Could it be just the matter of popularity of the subject? Aggitated discussions about certain subjects don't always make people to think more about them, but they usually make people to have stronger opinions on those matters.
Krystyna

Why won't you link to her profile, I wonder?

I read your post and the comments, and sometimes it makes me feel like I'm not even in this fandom, heh.

I've often wondered the same thing myself, actually. Why is it that homosexuality is often attacked so vocally, when discussion of things that are much more horrific on any scale - child abuse, incest, sexual assault - are written about in fic? I'm not sure I have a good answer for that. I will say that those in the Narnia fandom who get upset about homosexuality often get equally upset about any mention of any of the above kinds of behavior. They are, usually, at least that consistent. If any of these things are talked about in fic, they will leave terrible reviews or refuse to read the story altogether, or both.

I'd be happy for anyone else to weigh in on this, as there are many people here on LJ who have been in this fandom much longer than I. I'm not sure if the level of outcry against homosexuality is so high purely because it is an easy target, so to speak, or because those who speak against it really place it in the same category as all of the aforementioned behaviors. Thoughts?

I edited the post several times before I posted, as I couldn't decide whether to just refer to it and not name her or link it, or something in between. In the end, I opted for an imperfect in between as she had posted it and I would leave it to others to find it if they wished.

I'm really disturbed and upset by it.

I've read Capegio's work, and it fits perfectly into the Narniaverse. She's very good. It's so silly to condemn writing because of traits of the author. This whole mess reminds me of how interviewers kept needling Ian McKellen over his being gay and asked him if this affected his work. As I recall, he brushed it off with something along the lines of, "Rubbish - I'm an actor."

Good for him! *cheers* That sounds like exactly the sort of thing he would do. :)

Thanks onece again, both for your own writing abd for bringing a
the work and statement of Capegio to our attention. I'm heading right over there to read it.
I keep hoping that goodwill and compassion will win out over unreasoning hatered, but sometimes it seems to take an awfully long time.

ClaireI

I think this is an area where there are very real things at stake from the concrete to the metaphysical -- health care insurance to religious belief/sources of moral authority. And that it really is a cat fight about who sets standards, where the line is drawn, and how to handle having difficult, sensitive conversations. Add in inexperience and immaturity into the debate and you get lots of fights that destroy people and relationships.

Like it or not Islam, Christianity, and Judiaism all strongly condemn the practice. Two out of the three consider this a capital offense. Christianity is perhaps the least strict since it merely names it on a list of people who won't inherent the kingdom of heaven in the New Testament, along with a whole bunch of other stuff ranging from theft to various forms of sexual (mis)conduct.

Given the depth of the moral arguments and the very real implications for the GLBT community, why would you expect this to be a mild mannered civil debate?

Doctor dolly

I may be misunderstanding the thrust of the last comment, but I am wondering if "civil discourse" is really appropriate or desirable when the lives of young people are placed at risk by homophobia and bigotry. Although it is true that traditional interpretations of the three monotheistic faiths condemn same-sex relationships, it is worth noting that liberal traditions within each of the three faiths have found the moral vocabulary to embrace gay believers as members of their faith communities--and to censure discrimination in the strongest terms.

Clio1792

It is very sad how intolerant and bigoted a lot of this fandom is - that confirms my practice to read mostly favourites of my favourite autors or first look at the kind of reviews stories get, to get a quick overview in which direction it is going. Pietism and bigotry is not what I want to read in a story.
Coming from a country with a gay secretary of state and quite a lot of "out" politicians where people (at least in rural parts of the country) certainly are no less homophobic than elsewhere at least the religious aspect of homophobia has always seemed less distinctive here in Germany than in a lot of other countries - but I don't live in the "back of Bavaria" so I certainly haven't seen the worst...
I had a few bad weeks, so I will postpone mailing/reviewing until after our holiday, time is very short at the moment and I should go back to work.

Doerthe

Growl. Growl, growl, growl!!! This is so, so.... Oh, I don't even have words. The older I get, the less I think the issue of sexual orientation matters. And yes, I identify as Christian. I wish "we" could get over this (and yes, world peace, hunger, etc is tomorrow's job). I live in hope.

I've written something and erased it four times now. I don't have solid answers; wouldn't that be easy...

I imagine reasons swim around between scapegoating, in-group / out-group dynamics, apocalyptic thinking, fear, sheer bloody stupidity, brainwashing, a culture of superstition and bigotry.

I really don't know. The only thing that prevents me from really supposing that the attitude has something to do with the flag are the attitudes and approaches of fundamentalists all over the world, whether Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, whatever. They're all rabidly homophobic.

Edited 2012-07-31 11:26 (UTC)

Thank you for your post, Rth, and for bringing Capegio to our attention. Her stories are lovely, and I think I'll be a little more vocal with my support for her writing. One way of pushing back against the wave of bigotry and stupidity...

Hi, Doctor Dolly

Given that the issue is occurring within a religious context, and a religious context which particularly claims Love as a prime virtue (if not THE prime virtue), I would expect that the value of loving would be more widely framed. That may be a bit naive of me, but still, I do expect it.

Cheers

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A brief reflection on the ugly

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The times still need changing...

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