(Content warning) So it turns out that David Eddings was a convicted and jailed child abuser

[Stego]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

someone noted that Sykes had stopped Cole from harassing someone at a convention

 

Fuck. Myke seemed like a good guy. 

 

Adam, has anyone made a spreadsheet of authors who suck and why they suck? Color-coded for levels of evidence and stuff? I bet that would get your website a lot of hits.

[Ormond]

58 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Not religious, but if I was, the age difference and power imbalance between God and Mary would be seriously icking me out.

Especially if you believe LDS (Mormon} theology where God has an actual physical body that he used to impregnate Mary with.

[Werthead]

Arkady Martine, CD Covington and Devin Singer have offered support for Elizabeth Bear's version of events, for what that is worth.

Quote

If allegations surface against an author whose work is good, why on earth would you as a reader want him to be “cancelled”? All it does is rob you of enjoying his work in future. Guess it’s the age old debate of separating an artist or sportstar or actor or CEO’s personal acts or opinions from his professional work.

If an artist is a massive arsehole in real life, you may wish to not spend money to enable the arsehole to continue enabling their position of power and influence they used to become an arsehole. If you want to pirate or borrow their books instead, that's a different matter.

It's an extreme example, but Orson Scott Card dontes to anti-gay marriage groups and uses his platform and profile to campaign against marriage equality and gay rights. If you buy an OSC book, you are directly enabling that behaviour to continue.

Quote

You ain’t gonna get me to stop reading Arthur C Clarke no matter what he did. Time to stop this cancel culture madness.

Clarke is dead, as are Asimov and Eddings and Lovecraft, so that's a different ethical matter.

14 minutes ago, Stego said:

Fuck. Myke seemed like a good guy.

Adam, has anyone made a spreadsheet of authors who suck and why they suck? Color-coded for levels of evidence and stuff? I bet that would get your website a lot of hits.

That would be very briefly popular before it was hit with multiple lawsuits and takedown requests, I suspect.

Genre Grapevine is currently maintaining a full list of the all the current allegations, although he's not touched the Lynch/Bear thing yet.

[Inkdaub]

Pic won't load...disregard.

[polishgenius]

Bizarrely, Bear getting involved (and a post from Ann Agguirre after the list she posted) has resulted in a re-litigation of the Benjanun Sriduangaew (who's become a bit of a reformed, though still prickly, character on twitter in recent years) thing, because people are remembering some questionable allusons against her (that she can't possibly have been a Thai woman coz she writes Enlish too well) that allegedly started with Bear.

 

[Ran]

From someone who believes they were alluded to by Rowland, and who provides their reasons for why they broke off a connection to them. It doesn't make Rowland look great.

[Gaston de Foix]

I have a feeling nobody involved is going to come out looking great.  That said I remember saying to a friend who was in an abusive marriage the real hell of life is that everybody has their reasons, and she called me out on it, rightly so.  The truth does matter and given that this affair has already been made public and, because of the permanency of the internet will in a sense never die, I hope it does come out. 

[JGP]

Power dynamics, unresolved feelings [no closure] etc, that whole sitch is a mess. 

 

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

Bizarrely, Bear getting involved (and a post from Ann Agguirre after the list she posted) has resulted in a re-litigation of the Benjanun Sriduangaew (who's become a bit of a reformed, though still prickly, character on twitter in recent years) thing, because people are remembering some questionable allusons against her (that she can't possibly have been a Thai woman coz she writes Enlish too well) that allegedly started with Bear.

 

I didn't know about the whole RaceFail thing either. Still not quite sure what it is.

I'm not sure if I think less of Bear or not [I'd rather not, her Eternal Sky is in my top 5] but jesus christ lady, you can't move passively through life and be that upset with how things spun out.   

---

Sriduangaew is still an asshole though. 

[Werthead]

Tangentially related, but Alcon Entertainment have hired a third-person investigator to go through the accusations against Cas Anvar before they decide what action to take next (I suspect there's zero way out of that situation apart from firing him though, and this is just due diligence and arse-covering before they invoke the termination clause in the contract).

[karaddin]

16 hours ago, Sad Panda said:

Seeing accusations against Schwab that she recently sicced her twitter followers on a bad review of one of her books that called out some issues the review had with her representation of PoC. Dunno what to believe at this point.

Schwab has copped to this, said it was out of line and that she's regretted that interaction. Whether you accept that is a different question, but this is now an accepted and undisputed thing that happened.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Did the dedicated Rowland/Bear/Lynch thread disappear?

 

[Gaston de Foix]

4 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Did the dedicated Rowland/Bear/Lynch thread disappear?

 

I had the same q.  I understand it was unintentional and efforts at resurrection are being made

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Tangentially related, but Alcon Entertainment have hired a third-person investigator to go through the accusations against Cas Anvar before they decide what action to take next (I suspect there's zero way out of that situation apart from firing him though, and this is just due diligence and arse-covering before they invoke the termination clause in the contract).

When you broke out the news in The Expanse thread, I had thought that maybe I should focus more on reading books, only to see this thread deliver name after name. I am so depressed right now. Anyway, I agree that it's likely going to end as you said, but I'm glad that at least an investigation is being done.

[Gaston de Foix]

Can I ask a question to serious SFF fans? With all the apps and stuff why do these authors have to shit where they eat? 

Genuinely mystified as to this behavior which I have seen in other contexts.  A rainmaker partner at a former firm was forever chasing associates and I couldn't understand why he would risk his highly lucrative career. If you want to have an affair, have an affair.  It's skeezy and it's also none of my business.  But if you get yourself fired lots of other people will potentially lose their jobs too. 

[Stego]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

From someone who believes they were alluded to by Rowland, and who provides their reasons for why they broke off a connection to them. It doesn't make Rowland look great.

Bear is cited in Rowland's initial blog as actively recruiting people to discredit her. Which is yet another abuse of power dynamic. 

[Ran]

Just now, Stego said:

Bear is cited in Rowland's initial blog as actively recruiting people to discredit her. Which is yet another abuse of power dynamic. 

Is it? It sounds like Bear was doing this because she was apparently aware from people that Rowland was intending to post something like this, which sounds like Rowland was already recruiting folks for her side. 

I know you think Bear is a shit, but more than one person can be a shit in this situation.

[Gaston de Foix]

7 hours ago, Stego said:

I think we are going to find out that Elizabeth Bear has been abusing Scott Lynch for years. That is absolutely the dynamic of their relationship in real life in my experience. 

I don't forgive anything he did. But I don't think the story is over.

Stego would you be willing to share what makes you say this?

[Stego]

28 minutes ago, Ran said:

Is it? It sounds like Bear was doing this because she was apparently aware from people that Rowland was intending to post something like this, which sounds like Rowland was already recruiting folks for her side. 

I know you think Bear is a shit, but more than one person can be a shit in this situation.

Can't argue with that, Ran. I'm sure there is plenty of shit to go around. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

48 minutes ago, Gaston de Foix said:

Can I ask a question to serious SFF fans? With all the apps and stuff why do these authors have to shit where they eat? 

Genuinely mystified as to this behavior which I have seen in other contexts.  A rainmaker partner at a former firm was forever chasing associates and I couldn't understand why he would risk his highly lucrative career. If you want to have an affair, have an affair.  It's skeezy and it's also none of my business.  But if you get yourself fired lots of other people will potentially lose their jobs too. 

That is a very good question.  Never sleep with your clients.  Never.

[Galactus]

11 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

That is a very good question.  Never sleep with your clients.  Never.

 

My (admittedly entirely outside experience) is that it's kind of a structural problem with the "literature business" (especially SF/F) with the intersection between fan culture (where many authors are also fans) the importance of networking (where mentoring relationships and general contacts can be really important) and a generally kind of loosey-goosey difference between professional and private.