OMG orc horde!

[jhameia]

Guy is AZN. Chinese, even.

Well, 1) it's still fucking steampunk fer chrissakes I love it but I know it; 2) bad description is still bad, no matter who wrote it; 3) being Asian doesn't mean you automatically combat the status quo. Although it is nice to see a non-white in charge of a non-white project.

I'm not too terribly surprised at the Orientalism displayed; it's not exactly uncommon here in Asia (Jeannette Ng likes to use the term "Oriental" to refer to herself) to use colonial ideas like that.

There's still plenty of time before the actual guidelines are released for him to think through the questions I asked.

As I said to qian, I'm torn about this.

If Asians don't submit, and more white people than Asians do, then it becomes a case of "white people are better at Aznness than Asians themselves". And you know this shit will happen. If a fail story gets in, they can point to their POC editor.

If we don't submit, and it flops, it's again a loss, because then it's proof of "Asian stories don't sell."

But if Asians submit, and for whatever reason it's not as wildly successful as it should be, it becomes another DRAGON AND THE STARS where the first time is nifty, but not enough for a second round and thus more opportunities for Asian writers. Asianness will get blamed left-right-center for everything.

I don't want to write this off if I can help it. I don't want to write it off if the editor is open to understanding the stakes that this project presents. I don't want to write it off not least because it combines one of my favourite things with one of my childhood/cultural things. And I don't want to write it off because I know a ton of people on my f-lists could write some really awesome shit for such an anthology.

This isn't to say I'm not going to fucking snark my ass off about this project, because seriously, that placeholder description is still dismal, and this, just, ugh.

I'mma give him 12 more hours to respond to my question.

Comments

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, that makes it complicated.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Yeah. *sigh*

[karcy.livejournal.com]

What I'd do is that I'd inform others about it, but also point out that you find characteristic X, Y and Z of this project disturbing. That way you wouldn't get the guilt of feeling like you're sinking a project, while still raising issues to make people aware of them.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much my MO for plugging most steampunk projects, but this time I think I'll see if I can go after the team putting it together, because that matters too.

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

ARgggghhh!

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it =(

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Oh, hmmm. It would be very cool if this turned out to be good, but I can see how it's a pickle.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Yeah. At least I raised my concerns early?

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think your questions were right on-target.

I'm still blinking over the idea of terra cotta warriors in a 19th-century setting.

[spacehawk.livejournal.com]

I was raising eyebrows at the "robot acupuncturists" and the "artificial limbs imbued with Chi."

But that could be a potential derail.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Aw, c'mon, those things could be cool, done right. Although when I saw "robot acupuncturists" I thought more of a far-future setting.