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H-hello new followers! :D;; I’m afraid this Twitter‘s true form is 90% cats/crafting/houseplants and only 10% righteous fury, but while I have you here... I’m Nibs, I’m queer and brown, Black Lives Matter, trans rights are human rights, and fuck colonialism.
I write horror and dark fantasy, and all my published work is currently free to read on the internet. There are links here: https://www.nibeditasen.com/fiction
I also have a Patreon where I post, among other things, recipes for Bengali food! https://www.patreon.com/hernibs
I also have a Patreon where I post, among other things, recipes for Bengali food! https://www.patreon.com/hernibs
I’m not built for cynicism. At the end of the day, I’m a weird loud hopeful big-eyed potato who truly believes speculative fiction is singular in its power to magic other worlds into being, interrogate our present, shape our future. It’s a literature of questions & joy & probing.
I was on a panel where it was asked how the horror of yesteryear differs from modern horror. I said it used to be about fear of the Other coming in to disrupt the status quo. These days, it’s marginalized people writing about how the status quo IS the horror we exist in everyday.
Same applies to all of SFF. We’re in a new golden age, particularly of short fiction, and the best and sharpest work is being done by the people whom the old white boys’ club once shut out. We’re finding our voices and our teeth and tearing shit up.
SFF will look to the future or perish. If you’d rather cling to the dregs of manufactured nostalgia for ”good old days” that were only good for YOU at the cost of other people’s pain and exclusion... well, we’re leaving you behind. World’s changing. Keep up or fuck off.
Honestly, I think the Old Guard played themselves at the Hugos. I think they unwittingly exposed exactly how tarnished, boring, dull and irrelevant they’ve become, juxtaposed against the keen, fiery words of a compassionate, diverse slate of finalists for added contrast.
I know where SFF is going, and it’s not somewhere with room for GRRM and his ilk.
I know this because the Astounding award kicked GRRM’s dead white fascist hero’s name to the kerb and then gave us a ballot without a single white man on it.
I know this because the Astounding award kicked GRRM’s dead white fascist hero’s name to the kerb and then gave us a ballot without a single white man on it.
I know this because I watched the incredible @kuangrf win that award and then talk about making the genre less hostile to new voices https://twitter.com/kuangrf/status/1289404961143439361
I know it because @bogiperson is kind and brilliant and insightful, and used eir speech to lift up eir colleagues https://twitter.com/bogiperson/status/1289985796372598784
I know it because @jeannette_ng brought that motherfucking fire two years in a row, spoke truth to power and told us to look to the future rather than to the relics of a dusty white past https://twitter.com/jeannette_ng/status/1289452644831055872
I know it because @tithenai and @maxgladstone are clearly clairvoyant, since they knew we badly needed to be reminded that “you can’t write back to the past. You can only write to the future.” https://twitter.com/megintransition/status/1289502178608963585
I know it because @ArkadyMartine won for a glorious book that lays the seedy heart of empire and colonialism bare, and then chose to use her time in the spotlight to talk about holding doors open for other people https://twitter.com/arkadymartine/status/1289649189295538176
I know it because @fiyahlitmag is doing and publishing goddamn amazing work, and making plans for a con that will celebrate our genre in all its REAL richness and diversity https://twitter.com/fiyahlitmag/status/1288608557546582017
And so many more. @nkjemisin, @navahw, @UncannyMagazine... THIS is the field of SFF today. These are the colleagues I respect and admire. I’m just sorry the Old Guard would rather cling to sad delusions of long-gone narrow-minded power than join us in the future.
So yeah, I’m fucking furious at the Hugos shitshow, at yet another reminder of how the unbearable whiteness of fandom devalues marginalized writers. But I’m also more convinced than ever that these dinosaurs are done for, and that hope transmutes the fury into action.
ALSO, ALSO!! A brilliant soul saw our need and came to our rescue with AN EDIT OF THE HUGO AWARDS THAT CUTS OUT THE OLD WHITE GUYS RAMBLING
this vid is a better sff text in its own right than the goddamned actual ceremony was lol
this vid is a better sff text in its own right than the goddamned actual ceremony was lol
If you’re looking for more brilliant, heartfelt winners’ speeches, the luminous @navahw is here to deliver https://twitter.com/navahw/status/1289748165411975169?s=21 https://twitter.com/navahw/status/1289748165411975169
