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Save the Pearls - A Novel (Mis?)using Persecution Flip

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Jordan Azor Ahai from Westeros Since: Jan, 2001
Azor Ahai
#1: Aug 20th 2012 at 4:44:45 PM

Read about the controversy about this novel/the endorsement by Weird Tales here and elsewhere.

It was kind of interesting to me, being familiar with the Persecution Flip trope identified on this site. This particular novel though seems to be an unusually bad/actually quite racist use of the trope (including but hardly limited to the fact that blacks, the dominant race in the story are Coals and whites, the persecuted race in the story are Pearls- note the title of the book).

Kind of embarrassed that Marvin Kaye was the one who decided to publish the first chapter of it and defended it- read some anthologies edited by him and he seemed like a cool guy. He and the other editor ended up changing their minds though.

edited 20th Aug '12 4:45:51 PM by Jordan

Hodor
Iaculus Pronounced YAK-you-luss from England Since: May, 2010
Pronounced YAK-you-luss
#2: Aug 21st 2012 at 2:16:22 AM

[up]Changing his mind is an overstatement - in that retraction, it was noted that Kaye still believes the book itself is non-racist (despite pretty much everyone else on the Internet going 'lol, no'), and pulled off the "but you have to read the whole book!" defence, which is really weird for an editor of a major magazine routinely faced with titanic slushpiles.

He's also backed Orson Scott's 'evil gay people' reinterpretation of Hamlet, so this isn't exactly his first questionable editorial decision.

What's precedent ever done for us?
DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#3: Aug 27th 2012 at 1:30:11 PM

When I first heard about this book I thought "well, who knows, it might work. It's not the most original idea ever, but it's not necessarily offensive." Then I read more about it.

It sounds offensive and, frankly, dumb. Just take the fact that Coals are supposed to be a high caste and Pearls are supposed to be a low one - so why is the despised group named after a precious material and vice versa?

Then we find out that "Coal" is apparently a racial insult in the setting. So the author has been going around calling the black characters an offensive term all along?

Also, the author has stated in an interview that "soon, white people will be a minority". That's funny, I thought we* already were. (To her credit, she did go on to say that she doesn't think the scenario in her book of white people being oppressed by other ethnicities is going to happen.)

I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say that the novel isn't intentionally racist, but it's just oozing Unfortunate Implications.

(*I say "we" because I'm white. I'm not implying that everyone in this thread is.)

edited 27th Aug '12 1:31:10 PM by DoktorvonEurotrash

Jordan Azor Ahai from Westeros Since: Jan, 2001
Azor Ahai
#4: Aug 27th 2012 at 1:46:08 PM

I lean toward seeing it as intentionally racist- it's definitely an instance of Hanlon's Razor or Poe's Law though- is it a terribly written anti-racist polemic or is it a racist polemic, which while badly written, at least is effective at expressing that viewpoint?

Assuming good faith, it is a very good illustration of why Persecution Flip is a hard trope to do well, with this being one of the less successful instances (based on this example, I kind of wonder if it might work better if such a work was from the "elite perspective", which might lessen the "the minority group is really worse aspect).

Hodor
DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#5: Aug 28th 2012 at 6:16:13 AM

@OP: by the way, the title is Save The Pearls. Weird Tales apparently got it wrong as well.

Jordan Azor Ahai from Westeros Since: Jan, 2001
Azor Ahai
#6: Aug 28th 2012 at 7:30:49 AM

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me. Is there a way I can fix that?

Hodor
Iaculus Pronounced YAK-you-luss from England Since: May, 2010
Pronounced YAK-you-luss
#7: Aug 28th 2012 at 7:36:02 AM

[up]Ask a moderator using the holler button (the yellow triangle above a post).

What's precedent ever done for us?
Morven Nemesis from Seattle, WA, USA Since: Jan, 2001
Nemesis
#8: Aug 28th 2012 at 2:19:39 PM

Taken care of.

A brighter future for a darker age.
Jordan Azor Ahai from Westeros Since: Jan, 2001
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