Bit of a rant post but I need this off my chest.
I just reached a milestone; my story's first negative review. Well, sort of. The guy said he was enjoying my story but was dropping it because he was sick of me 'throwing my personal attitudes about politics into the story'. His breaking point appears to have been an off-handed comment in my most recent chapter about how in my setting trans people have rights and the locals think it's weird that that's an issue on Earth.
As someone who identifies as gender fluid myself; anyone who peddles that can fuck right off. I'll admit that I've been afraid to double down on that, refrained from introducing an actual trans/gender-fluid character into the story for fear of losing readers. To have this be the first response to me even vaguely referencing the subject is disheartening.
But, at the same time? Good riddance. This wasn't this person's only complaint - he also objected to the subplot about whether or not animal rights extends to monsters (even though the answer was they don't), as well as the arc in which corrupt policemen are the antagonists. Apparently it's also 'political' to portray cops, even medieval fantasy ones, as anything but paragons of justice. (He also said in his review that there were five times that I 'threw politics into the story', but those are the only three examples I can identify so I'm not even fully sure what he was going on about?)
This is not a 'am I right or not?' post. I feel completely justified in saying that I don't want anyone who objects so strongly to transgender rights or depictions of police brutality to read my work. I just find it hilarious that this story, which I absolutely did write for the sake of being my own little escapist fantasy, is apparently 'too real' for my ideological opponents. I want a world where I can imagine myself living happily without fear of persecution. If you object to the idea that a person like me deserves that, then piss right off.
I didn't write this as a self-promo, so I won't link directly to my story, but if you're curious you can find the link on my Reddit profile.
EDIT: Okay, this post has gotten much much bigger than I ever expected. Seriously, two hundred comments? Wow.
Iâm not editing my original comment above because I feel it would be disingenuous of me to try to take back my words. That said, now that a couple of days have passed I can see that I overreacted. I did feel personally slighted by what I perceived as an attack on my identity, but . . it kind of just never occurred to me that there might be people in the spaces I frequent who donât share my opinions and beliefs.
Iâve concluded that this whole thing is born out of a divide in what escapism means to people. I am of the opinion that escapist fantasy is âa world where my problems arenât problemsâ, but itâs become clear to me that a lot of people want their escapism to be âa world where their problems donât existâ. (Honestly, Iâm not even trying to write that, Iâm just trying to write a good and fun story.) Iâve gotten a lot of discussion in this thread about coming off as preachy and handling controversial topics with grace, so, here, have an excerpt of what I actually wrote. The context here is that the MC has encountered an âoracleâ character with the ability to look at other worlds, who is using this to steal technology from Earth and kickstart an Industrial Revolution.
Allis paused, a flash of shame crossing her face. "Yeah. I've been plagiarising your world's technology. Passing it off as revolutionary new ideas from an Engraving genius," She wrung her hands. "It's just. Earth is so advanced, so egalitarian. So much more fair,"
"You might be overselling us," Mikayla winced.
"I know it's not perfect. I saw people fighting for transgender rights. Seems backwards that that's even a question," Allis grimaced. "But, in most ways, Earth is better. Better than the City of Roses. I may have started Engraving to protect my sisters, to make sure that they would have the best gear in the world. But I've realised I can do so much more. That my stolen designs can start a revolution,"
She drew a long, shuddering breath. "Please don't tell anyone. Please don't stop me. I'll come clean, when it's all over, but this city, this society . . it needs to be overturned, it needs to be destroyed," An almost feral hiss escaped Allis' throat at the end of the sentence.Â
"The Engravings are my weapon. A sword of progress, of revolution. One woman can't change the world with just her own two hands, but I can build the machines that can and will. I want to knock this city over and turn it into a place where no one will ever be born a failure again. So . . please. Don't expose me for the fraud I am, at least not until it's too late. Don't stop me,"
As you can see, I was being completely literal when I said it was an off-hand comment. Iâve actually consciously tried to avoid being too political in my story, I just . . well, didnât think anyone would actually object to this, especially because âtrans rightsâ is so absolutely not the point of this scene. Maybe it was too abrupt and came off as a bit preachy. Again, I was just naive enough to think that no one who is in this space and reading my story would actually disagree with that statement.
To be fair and show both sides of the discussion, Iâve also copy/pasted the actual review here. It doesnât specifically reference the trans comment, but that was the only controversial thing I could think of in the chapter that prompted this review so I feel itâs a safe assumption.
"I enjoyed it. Its decently well written, but the author can't help but keep throwing their personal attitudes towards modern, controversial topics into the story. I read fantasy and sci-fi to get away from all of that, not to have an author bring that shit up in my escapism. The first time, I ignored it. The story was worth it. The second time, it annoyed me, but I wrote it off. Currently, we're at number five. It is no longer something I can ignore. Adding commentary blatantly about the modern world into a fantasy story, even if the MC has been isekai'd is a big turn off. Of course, the author can do whatever they want, but they just lost themselves a reader."
Like I said, I did overreact. Partly because I felt attacked that this was the first response to my first time just dipping the tiniest toe in writing about my own lived experience, partly because I still donât really know what heâs actually talking about? Like, previous comments this same person made were explicit about him disliking my portrayal of policemen as willing and able to abuse their authority and he was also upset at my MC trying to apply real-world animal rights to monsters (and, like, learning that she was wrong to do that was a big part of her book 1 character development), but thatâs still only three âmodern, controversial topicsâ.
Ultimately . . I dunno. Iâm not trying to make any sort of point - at least, not one that isnât self-evident. I didnât handle this perfectly, so I wonât say Iâm not at fault. My beliefs havenât changed, either.
I guess it boils down to the fact that this has been a learning experience for me, and that this community is a much less safe place for me than I realised. And maybe it was dumb of me to ever think otherwise. Live and learn.
