She Wrote a Dystopian Novel...

[MsAmerica]

She Wrote a Dystopian Novel.
What Happened Next Was Pretty Dystopian.
By Pamela Paul

Imagine a world in which all the men disappear from the planet in a single moment: Planes they were piloting are left unmanned (literally), their female passengers abandoned in midair; men in bed with their girlfriends mysteriously vanish; boys in the playground dematerialize before their mothers’ eyes. The girls and women left behind are given no apparent reason for the sudden absence of half the world’s population.

Now imagine another world — one in which an author proudly announces her forthcoming novel only to be attacked online for its fantastical premise. Months before the book comes out, it is described on Goodreads as a “transphobic, racist, ableist, misogynist nightmare of a book.” On Twitter, people who have yet to read the novel declare that it’s their responsibility to “deplatform” it. When one of the author’s friends, herself a writer, defends the book, she is similarly attacked, and a prominent literary organization withdraws her nomination for a prize for her own book.

Only one of these nightmare scenarios is real.

The first describes the premise of a novel that comes out this week: “The Men” by Sandra Newman. The second is what actually happened when the premise of Newman’s book was revealed.

www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/opinion/sandra-newman-men.html

newstocheck.com/unitedstates/opinion-she-wrote-a-dystopian-novel-what-happened-next-was-pretty-dystopian/

"Newman, who describes herself as nonbinary"

If you live by the sword, etc.

There's no such thing as bad publicity.

Why would it be transphobic to have the men disappear?

This actually sounds like a book I would read. Off to Amazon...

@WhoWants2Know because only men disappear so transmen have to stay with the rest of the women.

I personally don't think it's transphobic but I guess that's the reason some do.

Ooo, I love a dystopia story.

I mean someone in Australia has said that the Hungry Caterpiller needs to be re written and made more diverse as it’s damaging children.

that was my clue to start ignoring most people. I’m off to check out the book.

I read two good books recently. One where only men died of a strange infection and not many survived. And another one where men were not allowed out after six pm ( or some such time) and they were tagged all the time.

I will read what I want to read and ignore all the idiots.

@WhoWants2Know everything is transphobic these days. It’s getting to the point where u can’t open ur mouth anymore.

I read what I want to read buy the authors I want to read from. There was a thread on here a while talking about men only reading men authors and not womens.

I read a book because it is the subject matter I like to read about. I’m not spending my hard earned cash on a book just because the person is transgender or includes them in the book. To be quite frank if it doesn’t have zombies , serial killers or ghosts in it. I’m not interested. I’m sure I’m going to be told I’m transphobic because of those comments. Which is insane. One of the books I listened to the other day had a trans person in it. But it wasn’t the reason I read it.

Are you saying that her describing herself in a quirky way justifies vicious attacks on her work?

That's what my mother used to say, pre-internet, but nowadays when a casual ll-judged remark can end up with one losing one's job, I'm not sure that applies any more.

I suppose it depends on your goal. It's certainly bad if it affects the writer's safety, mental wellbeing and freedom to live a normal life. I can't imagine many of us would find it easy to cope with being subject to this kind of villification.

But I hope this campaign backfires and actually increases sales of the book. I think most people are fed up with the 'no debate' stance, and people thinking they have the right to try and suppress books they disagree with. I will definitely look out for this one - I think we need more novels exploring this issue.

This is 99p on Kindle today.

Thanks. It's still on for 99p (and the same on Kobo).

I've just downloaded it. Thanks!

That was my reaction, too!

Well, not the Amazon part. I won't buy from Amazon. But I'm very curious to read it.

I’m on a book Facebook page. Someone a few days ago called a book transphobic.

Within minutes tons of people had decided not to read it and were appalled.

I have read this book. It is no way transphobic. But this person cancelled out this author and their reputation in a few mins.

I was so angry. But I couldn’t explain why it wasn’t without ruining the book for everyone.

Everyone sees this stuff everywhere nowadays. And it is beginning to spiral out of control. I’m so cross.

Did you at least speak up, even if you couldn't explain the details?

But… but… if not women and transmen remain, won’t they just have sex and repopulate the earth once more?

🤔

Well, a feminist writing a novel where all the men disappear is a bit like a member of the BNP writing a novel where all the black people disappear, but I still think neither should be banned in the absence of any directly hateful content.

@MsAmerica I did. And a few others did as well. Trouble is. You can’t explain why it isn’t transphobic without giving away the whole plot of the book. I wonder how we got to this place where everyone only sees problems and hate everywhere.
I just see a book as a book. If we start cancelling people out Because of a theme of a book that some people think is awful we will loose a lot of good writers. It’s a story.

I agree. As a critical person myself, I think it's perfectly fine to object to something - but that's not to say it shouldn't exist.