Sunday, August 4, 2024

Unpleasant Topics

 

The Accusers

Things continue to develop in the case against author Neil Gaiman with at least two more women coming forward to accuse him of uncomfortable, weird sexual behavior taking place in an unbalanced power dynamic; in other words, of taking advantage of his fame and popularity to foist himself on females sometimes decades younger than himself. Gaiman, who has famously touted the ‘believe all women’ doctrine, has not denied that the encounters ever happened, but has stated that they were completely consensual. So consensual and justifiable, in fact, that several of the accusers were paid off and made to sign non-disclosure agreements to save trouble and keep them quiet. Agreements, it must be pointed out, that his accusers are now not honoring.

The former secular saint has been so notorious along the writer’s workshop circuit that many have quietly instituted the so-called ‘Neil Gaiman clause’ in many writer’s and lecturer’s agreements, stating that speakers will not take advantage of their position as teacher and mentor to sleep with their students, no matter their maturity or willingness. Detractors have been scouring Gaiman’s works for problematic ‘kinky’ passages in a further effort to tar him as a sexual deviant (without taking into account that, well, this is fiction), while rabid fans wring their hands and moan, “Say it isn’t so!”, going so far as to threaten those who would dare stain their idol.

Obliquely related, in that it links literary matters to politics and morality, is talking torso Rachel Maddow’s assertion that Tolkien’s works are favorites of ‘the far right’ and that Republican vice-presidential hopeful J. D. Vance’s fondness for them (“He named one of his companies Narya, which is just ‘Aryan’ with the ‘N’ moved to the front!”) proves his racist, fascist bona fides (or does Vance’s approval prove that Tolkien is racist/fascist? Either way, it’s bad, folks!) I hate dragging fandom, even fandom for the artists themselves, into politics, and by extension, morality. I was asked lately by someone who is very close and dear to me whom I thought Tolkien would support, Trump or Biden (this was back when Biden was still ‘the best Biden ever’ and sharp as a tack). I eventually replied that there was no way of knowing that now, and that anyway fandom was not a method of deciding these matters (he liked to compare Yoda and Gandalf to Biden and Trump to the Emperor and Saruman, and so on). Also, I am not so sure that the Catholic Tolkien would come down so clearly on the liberal fetus-killing side of things as he may hope. Tolkien could be very pragmatic when it came to deciding between two bad choices (politically).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NETjQXvhwAU Why Tolkien Supported Franco


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