[amphibian]

Background info: There was/is a troll who occasionally engaged in criticism and got somewhat e-famous in the SF circles for both venom and the astounding ability to write attention-getting words. That troll was known as "acrackedmoon", "requiresonlythatyouhate", "requireshate", "winterfox" and a couple other pseudonyms.

The troll was outed by her one-time editor as being Benjanun Sriduangkaew, an up and coming writer in the SF field (nominated for awards and stuff). Benjanun has confirmed it and she's apologized - to the dissatisfaction of many.

I remember reading a few of the screeds the troll wrote a long time ago and thought that it was 95% bizarre and often slipped into far-over-the-line-of-decency hatred. My impression was that this literary gunk was being spewed against writers who were reduced to targets for the hate as an outlet for frustration/mental illness. Peter Watts, R. Scott Bakker, Saladin Ahmed, Kameron Hurley and a few others have had sour and damaging dust-ups with this troll. Benjanun's public presence as herself has been a pretty positive and radically different persona than the troll's viewpoint, so this is genuinely weird.

There is a decent round-up of it all here: http://azarias.dream...h.org/7186.html (However, the round-up mischaracterizes certain statements and ideas, so it's not 100% a reliable source).

I'm not usually for the outing of people, but this was a special case and the whole weirdness of it has been extraordinary to look at for the past seven or eight years (apparently the troll has been operating since 2004).

Anyone have thoughts on this?

[worry]

Personally I'm against trolling in all its forms, but I'm not familiar with this woman (IRL or in online persona), so this is new to me. If she did damage (as opposed to merely playing devil's advocate or exploring uncomfortable subjects w/ public figures) then an apology and a "I've grown since then" mea culpa probably aren't enough.

[amphibian]

She wrote some horrifyingly violent threats/"I hope this happens to you" to many people - especially other women authors. There was also some Twitter/e-mail/blog harassment going on for years with particular "targets".

The thing is that she was right about a tiny percentage of what she said in regards to the lack of diversity in SF as a whole field, the appropriation and cheapening of concepts or things that happen mostly to women or people of color and so on. She's also a very good writer in her "real persona", according to Charlie Stross and a few others who weren't particular targets of hers.

So it's complex and it's weird and it's tough to talk about.

[Gust Hubb]

what if she was a bad SF writer?

[polishgenius]

There's been a big thread on the aSoIaF forums about this in the last couple of days, I've been following the story there. One of the weirdest things about this - and that makes the apologies seem even more untrustworthy than they already were- is that her persona as the author is seemingly pretty much exactly one of the stereotypical perceptions of Asian women that she used to mock as RH; she also made out that she's brand new to the genre which, obviously, isn't in the slightest bit true.


She's also apparently been busily deleting the nastier parts of her history for years now.



Basically, although she seems to have her supporters, and certainly this controversy has brought her quite a lot of attention she wouldn't otherwise have had, in the long run I think this is going to cause her big, big problems in her career. She seems to have pissed off too many big names in personal, hurtful ways for me to think anyone in the business is going to want to take a real punt on her- there's going to be heavy opposition to her forever.

[worry]

Yah that sounds like her goal was cruelty and she burned a lot of bridges as a result, and now has to deal with the consequences. If she doesn't do so in good faith, it will be plainly obvious.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

This sounds like a good plot starter for a cerebral science fiction mystery. Maybe she was just doing long-term firsthand research for her magnum opus?

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 28 October 2014 - 12:56 AM

[Gnaw]

Stomping trolls is good for society.

Stomping trolls who really should know that there is no such thing as anonymity is just plain fun.

Having said that, I was very disappointed that this wasn't a thread about a review of Willful Child.

[Andorion]

She never posted here?

[amphibian]

Gust Hubb, on 27 October 2014 - 10:29 PM, said:

what if she was a bad SF writer?

Then I think we would not see people as willing to move on. Stross wasn't a target of hers, so he has an easier time being ok with supporting her nomination for a Campbell award. That's kind of true for all things - those who aren't victimized can move on easier.

Saladin Ahmed has a few words with her a while back and apparently made peace with her recently - enough to follow her on Twitter.

I do think there is a need for those who are heavily critical of things in the SF field or with specific authors. I don't think that this person fits that need - especially with the astounding abusive lengths she went to to "prove" her points.

One has to bring enough to the table to counterbalance what one takes off of it. She has a long way to go before there's a reparation of sorts, even if she is a talented writer.

[amphibian]

Andorion, on 28 October 2014 - 01:37 AM, said:

She never posted here?

Don't think so. Erikson didn't cross her radar in the way Abercrombie and Bakker did. Perhaps the sheer page count kept her away.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 28 October 2014 - 06:31 AM

[Dolmen 2.0]

Not that i'd know anything about this but as I read up I imagined this situation was describing an extreme split personality disorder.

Is it as cold and calculated as it looks or is she dealing with a mental something or other?

Its the kind of thing you read in psychology journals.

[HoosierDaddy]

I think the only thing of hers I ever read was the Bakker take down that straight up admitted she hadn't read the books.

If that's your best effort you aren't worth my time.

[Morgoth]

I dislike the word troll as it's used in these situations. I think it works to distance us from the actions described. I feel there's a level of amusement tied to the word troll, which would not be present had we come across the same behaviour outside of the internet.

Rather, I'd go for the more descriptive 'asshole'.

[acesn8s]

Read some of the blog...wow. There's some really good criticism, but it's hard to get over all the vitriol.

[Andorion]

Went through the blog. According to her, everything, literally everything is racist or misogynist, preferably both at the same time. The tone is shrill and vicious, quite poisonous infact.

[QuickTidal]

Andorion, on 28 October 2014 - 05:03 PM, said:

Went through the blog. According to her, everything, literally everything is racist or misogynist, preferably both at the same time. The tone is shrill and vicious, quite poisonous infact.

Yeah, what's there right now...isn't even a shadow of the bad stuff that's been scrubbed/deleted.

[acesn8s]

QuickTidal, on 28 October 2014 - 05:09 PM, said:

Andorion, on 28 October 2014 - 05:03 PM, said:

Went through the blog. According to her, everything, literally everything is racist or misogynist, preferably both at the same time. The tone is shrill and vicious, quite poisonous infact.

Yeah, what's there right now...isn't even a shadow of the bad stuff that's been scrubbed/deleted.

Wow....

I'll probably elect not to purchase her book.

[worry]

Andorion, on 28 October 2014 - 05:03 PM, said:

Went through the blog. According to her, everything, literally everything is racist or misogynist, preferably both at the same time. The tone is shrill and vicious, quite poisonous infact.

She's right, but she doesn't have to be so mean about it!

[blackzoid]

I dont agree with "outing" poeple on the internet.
2 wrongs dont make a right and her career will probably be impacted by this action. Should it be?

This post has been edited by blackzoid: 29 October 2014 - 08:38 PM