#enjoyment of a book in spite of a problematic author

[ladylilithprime]

.....I have a lot of books that I've read, but I would hesitate to recommend them even where the authors have not to my knowledge done anything to warrant expulsion from the Good Writer Club on grounds that have nothing to do with writing. Especially on tumblr. Especially when at least two writers I devoured the works of have controversies in their personal lives that have caused many people to shun their works out of a sense of betrayal or just an overdeveloped desire for a social justice crusade. (Not getting into that up here, I've got a whole rant about the need for nuance and critical thinking and that's not the point at present.)

That said.

I did read the Harry Potter books until the fifth one when Rowling apparently fired her editor and started turning her books into more useful bludgeoning weapons. The movies were easier for me to sit through, though the adaptions changed things.

I tried to read Twilight and only got about a page and a half into the first book before I had to put it down from boredom. Again, the movie was easier for me to sit through (lack of first person narrative helped here) and I still haven't seen the others in the series.

I have never even picked up a book by Sarah J Maas, so I can't say anything about the quality of the writing from the perspective of me as a reader.

I haven't heard of any of the others, though I'm at least aware of Robert Jordan, much the way I'm aware of James Patterson.

The books I did read and devour?

The Brainship series and the Pern Chronicles by Anne McCaffrey (requiescat in pacem).

The Xanth series by Piers Anthony.

The Elvenbane and Elvenblood by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey.

Pretty much anything by Mercedes Lackey.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C Wrede.

The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane.

The first three quartets in the Tortall universe by Tamora Pierce, though my appetite slowed after "Squire". (Not specifically a detractor to the later books, just where my own personal interest began to falter.)

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (yes I'm now aware of the issues surrounding her personally, but I wasn't when I read the book).

Pretty much everything by Terry Pratchett...

...which led me to his Good Omens co-author and various books he wrote. (Again with the timing of awareness, not getting into it here, see comments above.)

The Animorphs series by KA Applegate. (Tried to get into the Everworld series, didn't enjoy it as much.)

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey (slow-going because I do have to be in a specific headspace to read that much BDSM porn, even when it's well-written and plot-relevant).

My partner loves the books by Lois McMaster Bujold and has read excerpts to me many times, which are quite entertaining.

I read Redwall by Brian Jacques and a couple others in the series, but found them more entertaining when I thought they were just talking animals.

So.

I'm currently sitting in a room surrounded by books because my family are all avid readers on a wide variety of genres. A lot of the books I'm staring at are not ones I would choose to read, and I've never been pressured to read them. My mum (just turned 80) has read many of them, usually right along with me. My dad (now 78) has read many of the same books as well as the rest she hasn't, and he's disagreed with many of them and written journals filled with notes and arguments on many of them. He was once given a book by an acquaintance who told him she thought he should read it because she knew he was a logical thinker (he did read it and told me later that the book was not at all logical; not having read it, I can't say either way).

Point is... go find a library and look through the stacks. Read the blurbs on the inside covers, maybe read a page or two. If you like it, keep reading. Look up the author on your phone if you have to in order to see what else they wrote.

And if you don't like the book, then just don't keep reading. Put it down, move on to another one. Don't go looking for controversy or dirt to justify not liking the book or the author. Don't do it to justify liking them, either. You do not need to justify your personal preferences. You can be aware of the politics the author has, even heartily disagree with their perspective and biases, and still enjoy reading a book. It's perfectly okay not to internalize what you read every time.

Otherwise, I wouldn't still reread The Chronicles of Narnia.

J. K. Rowling gave us facist Wizards.

Stephanie Meyer gave us Mormon Vampires.

And Sarah J. Maas gave us zionist Faeries.

The Holy Trinity of Mediocre White Women ruining fantasy for everyone!

[colorisbyshe]

Talking about fandom entitlement, what do you think about the concept of qu**rcoding?

Coding characters as gay and “queerbaiting” (or I just call it gaybaiting because we need to be frank, it is same gender attraction that is being baited, not transness) are two different things.

Coding, accidental subtext, and baiting are all three very different things.

I like two and... sometimes can appreciate the third semi-ironically.

Coding is what happens when a creator is being censored in some form (explicitly or implicitly) and is trying to provide vague representation and they’re great for trying. I am less into coding when I have reason to believe there is no external force keeping them in coding because that veers on bait territory.

90% of things accused of “queerbaiting” or gaybaiting are... accidental subtext. I happen to think a lot of the best “bait” fall into this category. It is enjoyable. Of course, gay content by gay people often (not always) beats this by a fucking mile but of the “Straight people made this” content, this is the best.

Often, it sours when the straight creator catches on to what they did and the following they have created and makes it bait.

This is where we breach the tough precipice of “Everyone Sucks Here” as they say on Am I the Asshole. The authors suck for baiting if they don’t intend on paying off (even if it can be fun in the moment, see: Sk8 the anime appeals to me as bait) and the fans suck if they then go rabid and turn to harassment to get what they want.

Of course, the basis of bait is coding, just with a bit of a greedier spin of dragging people in for no pay off. But how can we know the intentions? Is it bait because the creators literally cannot create this content and can only heavily pander? Where is the line? What is the reason they can’t do it? Is it just a fear of a loss of profit? Cause then that’s shitty. “I will make your content until it loses me money” is shit.

And then... are fans bad for wanting it if it was deliberately implied that it’s possible? If LGBT fans lash out for being used to bring in profits until it’s too risky... at what point do they go too far?

It really, really gets context specific. Fans going rabid on accidental subtext (like.. Sasuke and Naruto) is bad if they’re like... threatening people but fans.... expressing hurt at what could have been is fine.

So long as they aren’t creating conspiracy theories or hurting people.

And the lines get blurry here. What one person may see is deliberate coding may seem like obvious bait which may all... just be by accident.

For me, personally, it’s a “I know it when I see it” things and it’s also a “I will enjoy it unless I don’t enjoy it...t hen it’s bad” type thing.

I was prepared to watch and love YOI as a bait anime until it actually became gay and then was no longer bait. I enjoy accidental homoerotic tension in lots of ships. I have enjoyed bait knowing the creators were intentionally creating it AND saying no homo to my face, spiting them all the way for it.

I’ll criticize people for baiting or for problematic coding but... unless it’s some evil shit (like baiting pedophilic content, which is done... more often than it should be) I won’t harass peopel over it.

It’s a weird space of fandom behaviour.

And one I will be a BIT more sympathetic to because mainstream LGBT content *by actual LGBT people* is harder to find. And, because a lot of LGBT content by LGBT creators comes from less regulated spaces (ie self publishing), a lot of it can be sketchy in other ways or harder to find gems in.

So, of course, I would endeavor everyone to just... look for actual gay content by actual LGBT people... but I get how sometimes it’s easier to just go “I wish this was gay!” instead of scrolling through “Read this EXTREMELY random assortment of gay books I found that includes cishet ace leads as gay rep, is half YA/half adult fiction and no I won’t tell you which is which, contains every genre known to man, half of which read like fanfiction with the names changed, and also I will not put descriptions for any of them besides vague fanfic terms like “Sports AU Lesbians in SPACE!””

Which is shit people need to stop doing like please just give me a two sentence description of the book and tell me if it’s for and about adults please god

[evenmyzefronposter]

Its honestly so painful when the creator of something you love so deeply, rejects your very identity. It hurts. I don't blame anyone for wanting to leave the fandom at all. I keep hearing people say "if you hate j.Karen Rowling just leave the fandom" (okay, they probably don't call her that but i do 🙃) and if people want to, I get it completely. But I don't want to. Harry Potter is something that is a part of me now. It is a part of me as much as having been bullied as a child is, as much as reading to escape the real world is, as much as being queer is. It helped to shape me and I don't want someone else's hate and fear to take away something that I love. That happens enough in the real world and I don't want it in fandom. I reject that.

I've spent hours in thrift shops looking for merch (because I never buy new things if I can help it. This works out even better for me now.) I've devoted so much time to writing fic in this world and appreciating other fan creators and their works. I've got a huge tattoo on my arm showing my love of Harry Potter, a love I shared with the tattoo artist who created it. Without this fandom, I would never have met most of my closest friends. This is a big part of my life. It's something that's brought me a lot of joy and a lot of goodness, in spite of its problematic aspects.

If there's one thing I've learned from taking literature classes, its that you can be critical of a work and of its author and still enjoy it. Making that criticism, analyzing the text and the author's life and motives, can be part of the enjoyment. With literary analysis, you're free to take the pieces that have meaning to you and toss out the rest. You're free to connect dots within the story to create your own full picture. And if those dots include criticism of the author, that's OK. And if they don't include the author at all, that's fine, too. That's where I'm at right now.

Another thing that I think about with literature is that it doesn't hold much meaning for me personally unless I can put myself in it, unless I can move in and live there for a while.

Lord of the Rings is basically a story about people walking around the countryside until you feel like you're one of those people, wishing you could just stay with Tom Bombadil and ignore the rest of the world, wishing the ents would maybe be just a little bit hasty. The Stand is any dystopia until you're stuck in a tunnel heading out of NYC, hoping to get to Colorado. Or Vegas, depending on your inclinations. Hell, Ramona Quimby is any random kid until you're sitting in the lunch room with her as she smashes a raw egg on her head.

Harry Potter is just another story about magic and a child hero until you're stepping onto Diagon Alley with Hagrid, until you're brewing a potion in the dungeons and praying that Snape doesn't hate it too much, until you're kicking off on the Quidditch pitch and hoping your House wins. That kind of enjoyment doesn't come from the author at all. Their words have something to do with it, for sure, but it has more to do with our own imagination; it happens inside our heads.

And if there's one thing I learned from Harry Potter, it's that even if something is happening in your head, why on earth should that mean it isn't real?

I guess my point is that I enjoy Harry Potter by analyzing it, by being critical of the text and the author. (And I am critical of her. I hope that she gets some help for the irrational fear that she's propagating, but I don't think she will. She's not there yet, at the very least.) And perhaps more importantly, I enjoy Harry Potter by being a part of it, in a myriad of ways. By being there with Harry throughout the story, by writing about Snape, by looking at the incredible art that people create of the characters I love so much, by discussing it all with other fans. And that kind of enjoyment has nothing to do with she-who-must-not-be-named at all. It belongs to me and to the people I share fandom interactions with. That kind of enjoyment is ours alone.

Yes, she is toxic. And yes, she has hurt me. She's hurt people that I love and people that I don't know who have my love and support, nonetheless. But I don't need her. I reject her. That's not me being a snowflake or whatever you want to call me. That's just me holding on to something that is important to me. Her books, the wizarding world, would be nothing but paper and ink without the fans loving it and making it real, sharing it with our friends and building it in our imaginations. So this is me, this is us, taking our love and our imagination, taking our analyses, taking the pieces that have meaning to us, and tossing out the rest. This is us moving in and living there, free from hate, in the world we've become invested in.

And to the people who say "find another book to read"... I have. I've found a lot of them. But I like this one and I want to keep it. I divorced Anne Rice a long time ago for her treatment of fans, but I still love Lestat and Louis and Armand and Stella and Julian... This isn't new to me. It looks like ima do it again.

[beautifulpaxielreads]

End of the Decade Favourite Book Tag

Thank you to @storytime-reviews for tagging me in this.

1. High fantasy books that are obsession-worthy.

The Daevabad Trilogy by S A Chakraborty. The level of detail in the worldbuilding in this Muslim-inspired fantasy is just extraordinary. Bring on book 3!

2. Urban fantasy books filled with people you want as friends.

I loved Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody. Great characters and great plotting. Like Six of Crows but not. I need to reread this one!

Also the Six of Crows duology because how can I not mention it. Also I was kind of obsessed with Nina and Matthias for a while.

3. Portal fantasy you fall in love with multiple times.

I mention Harry Potter later on, but it still deserves a spot here. Every time I pick up one of these books they surprise me with how good they are.

4. Novella that just makes you sigh cause it’s so lovely.

The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky by Mackenzi Lee. Short but very sweet and funny.

5. Historically inaccurate but laugh out loud.

I think it's actually pretty historically accurate, but I'm gonna have to go with The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. It was my favourite read of 2018.

Also special mention to A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper. The island this book was set on may have been fictional, but this book was wholly entertaining and I always like rereading the funnier bits.

6. Satire that makes you reconsider your whole world view.

I don't know if it counts as satire, but reading Scythe by Neal Shusterman really made me think about our world in a really profound way. I kind of want to reread it.

Also not a satire but Room by Emma Donoghue. It's told in such an original way.

Oh, and if you really want satire, how about The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde? I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had understood all the references to classical literature but I still found it interesting.

7. Happy, happy, happy, and sad, sad, sad.

Lovely War by Julie Berry. So thought-provoking and beautifully written.

Also I'm going to be unoriginal and say The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Who hasn't been devastated by that ending?

8. No, I’m not too old for kids’ books, what are you talking about???

My two faves in this area are written for middle grade to teens, but I can't go past Sally Gardner's The Red Necklace and Eva Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea.

Also The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. Can't not include that one.

9. I’m also not too old for picture books either and never will be.

Angelina Ballerina by Katherine Holabird is a childhood favourite. Also anything illustrated by Juan Wijngaard and Kinuko Y. Craft, their work is just gorgeous.

10. Whoah, never expected that ending and to have that much fun!!!

I'd have to go for the Shadowfell trilogy by Juliet Marillier. The final book in the series, The Caller, was truly perfect and I was not expecting that at all.

Also The Twin's Daughter by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. That ending really threw me.

And how about the ending of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton? I was confused about so many things in this book, but that ending was wasn't one of them. Such a fabulous twist - and one that actually made sense!

11. Like I’m scared, but I’m happy about it.

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge was wonderfully written, but incredibly unnerving. I had to swear off reading other books by her for a while because they were quite disturbing and dark. Even now I can't quite bring myself to pick up one of her books.

12. Classically favourite.

I remember really enjoying Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. And I read it in the 2000s so it isn't really eligible for this list, but Mary Shelley's Frankenstein made quite an impression on me - it wasn't what I was expecting at all.

Honorable mention to Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen which I started reading but never finished for some reason. 2020 will be the year I do this because what I did read was delightful.

13. Party in your ears.

William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls by Ian Doescher. Mean Girls (duh) as Shakespeare might have written it. I originally bought this as a paperback but then I realised I would probably get more enjoyment out of it as an audiobooks, given it was written in script format. Boy, was I right!

Also I've referred to this series in the next question already, but I can't not mention the latter two books in The Illuminae Files, Gemina and Obsidio, done in audiobook format. The full cast and sound effects combined to create true awesomeness. I still have to listen to the first book, Illuminae.

14. Boom!!! Pow!!! Wham!!!

The Illuminae Files trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. So innovative and cleverly designed - and very, very well written.

15. Oh wow, this is me!!

It's got to be Harry Potter, doesn't it?! It's been such an integral part of my life - I was in the fandom for a good ten years. I queued up outside the bookshop on release days to get the last three books. I saw all the movies. It gave me my original OTP, Ron and Hermione. I would not be who I am today without those books and I still can't quite let go of this fandom in spite of its problematic aspects. These books made me.

16. I can’t stop thinking about this book.

A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood was absolutely the definition of magical. As soon as I finished it I wanted to go back to the beginning and read it again.

17. A book you got from Tumblr that made it to your fave.

I wouldn't say I got this from Tumblr directly, but it's Tumblr that enhanced my appreciation and love for it - and introduced me to an incredible fandom. It's The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, of course. Can't wait for the prequel coming out in May!

18. A book you had high expectations for and then the author OVER delivered.

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor. Like I really enjoyed Strange the Dreamer but the second book was on another level. All the plot threads were wrapped up in a really satisfying way and Laini Taylor is an insanely beautiful writer.

I had such fun making this list, it brought back so many memories of all the books I've read over the years.

Unfortunately I also wrote it in Tumblr mobile, so it took FOREVER to do, so I really can't be bothered to tag people. If you see this post on your dash and haven't done this challenge yet (and want to), consider yourself tagged.

Hope you have a great day, and if you've made it all the way to the end of this post, congratulations on your achievement! 🤣😁

[battlestar-royco]

Considering my place in the anti community

So, I know that might be an alarming title, but rest assured I don’t see myself deactivating or ceasing discussion of SJ/M’s books any time soon. But a lot of things have led me to the decision to explicitly veer my blog in another direction. I’ve said more than once before that I made this blog around May of 2018 as a joke between me, myself, and I, as a way to vent my disappointments with the T0G and AC0TAR series into this dumb blue void. I kid you not, I literally did not expect anyone to interact with me at all, and aside from mutuals on my main, I’d never been sent an ask in all the (then) six years I had a Tumblr. I didn’t expect to meet and befriend such a passionate, salty, visionary, thoughtful community. A little over a year later, I’m interacting with too many people to keep up with, I find myself being tagged and reblogged by reputable bloggers with way bigger followings from all over Tumblr’s diversity-forward fandom communities, and I even have run-ins with anon hate and stan ridiculousness every so often. The anti community as I know it has been a welcoming home that has taught me so much. That being said, there are a few reasons I want to slightly switch gears. So here goes. This is a long one, so thanks for sticking it out, if you make it to the end.

What will remain and what will change?

More will stay the same than will change. I will still absolutely be answering asks about YA books and SJ/M, and I will be posting about the issues within them and how I think they could have gone better. I will also still be tagging such things as anti. I really enjoy discussing the nitty gritty of characters, worldbuilding, and how all that coincides with the handling of diversity and feminism in the books. This type of discussion is, I think, how I gained most of my following, so I don’t want to turn my back on you. Also, in the near future, I mainly just want my blog to be a place where diverse representation across all identity vectors and forms of media, especially fantasy books, is a focus. I want people to feel they can talk earnestly about their issues with xyz representation and/or discuss diversity struggles they come across with their own writing.

I feel like the anti community stagnates periodically and we devolve into cold wars with stans, picking apart miniscule details of the books, scouring SJ/M’s social media, repeating ourselves, or other similar activities. Going forward I want to reduce the conversations that are founded in pettiness or insulting other Tumblr users or SJ/M for things that honestly have nothing to do with the books, the YA/publishing community, or problematic behavior. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things worth discussing re: problematic author/stan behavior, but it’s easy to lose sight of the reason for antis to exist in the first place. On to reasoning:

1. The connotation.

This is something many of you know about me as well, but it bears repeating: I never hated SJ/M’s books. My blog is a result of my passion and enjoyment of the earlier books twisted into disappointment. I wouldn’t have bothered making a blog about these books if I hated them from start to finish. I wouldn’t have made an “anti” account if I’d felt that my opinions would be accepted among stans. I felt there was a lack in both the anti and stan community for my experience, so I’m here to give voice to that. Although I started out talking about the negatives, I don’t think my blog has ever fit most people’s idea of “anti” on this site. There are a lot of truly toxic anti communities all over Tumblr who exist just to shit on creators and fans or to be negative out of spite, and I really have never identified with that desire, nor have I tried to exhibit that behavior. But thanks to worst of the worst on this site, anyone who calls themselves anti is automatically associated with that. I also think as a whole, every SJ/M anti is doing completely different stuff with their own blogs. We’ve got book cover criticism, opinions and advice about publishing, T0G rewrite projects, shitposts, etc. I myself started expanding months ago into providing writing advice on diversity and generally writing meta. It’s not a group of angry people yelling slurs at each other like I’ve seen other anti communities do, so I don’t think it’s the right label for me.

2. Stans.

This goes a bit with the connotation point. I feel like, especially because of how I’ve branded myself and because of antis who preceded the current batch, stans really have no idea what I’m about. I have always been clear that I do not wish to attack them or their enjoyment of/engagement with the books. And yet I’m constantly being vagued about, having my words twisted, or having my arguments and blogging style very purposely, transparently ignored/misinterpreted/ridiculed in said vague-blog posts. All this despite stans’ frequent claim that they ~never~ go into anti tags or check out our blogs, and despite their other frequent claim they don’t believe in the anti/stan divide and that we’re more alike than not. I agree that this divide is dumb, but it’s kind of hard to distance myself from it while constantly being thrown under the bus by SJ/M BNFs. I don’t mind anyone viewing or interacting with my posts, because transparency and all, but it’s tiresome to constantly defend myself because I’m being misrepresented by accounts that are 4, 5, 6 times bigger than mine who either don’t know how I run my blog or purposely mischaracterize me. I can’t control other people’s behavior and I don’t want to, but this is a change I’m making for my own mental health and to promote better behavior among both communities, and I hope others follow suit.

3. Things I’ve handled poorly and how I want to do better.

Anyone with an ask blog for a minute inevitably acquires their share of public fuck-ups. I can think of a few instances in which I would have handled a situation differently. For example, a few months ago the community as a whole was asked to expand our conversation to more than just presenting SJ/M and Bardugo as foils, and I wish I’d been less defensive there. That day made me think a lot about the way I carry myself on this blog and how limited the conversation can sometimes be. I really do appreciate any and all criticism for the community, and looking back, I feel like my reaction to that didn’t go along with the way I usually try to handle criticism. I think it would be good to try and, like OP said, infuse more book promotion into my blog in general, to try to support and read more books by marginalized authors in the future so we can discuss them more thoroughly here.

In closing/TL;DR:

This isn’t inspired by any particular event or person, but rather a lot of things that have happened in the past several months on Tumblr, in the world and the media, and in my personal life. It’s not a change that was inspired out of negativity, but more out of trying to generate a more positive framework for my Tumblr activity and seeing how I can effect change through this blog. I’m still here for rants, masterposts calling out problematic books and characters, pretty much all the book talk I was doing before. This is just a really long-winded announcement that I want to expand my blog to a general spot for discussing diversity in media. Thank you so much for sticking it out if you made it all the way down here. Here’s to improving ourselves.

[bereft-of-frogs]

Do you have any horror book recommendations for someone who's never read horror before and would like to start getting into it? Like I know the obvious ones of like Steven King and H. P. Lovecraft, but I’d like some suggestions that aren’t white men and you seem like you have a huge amount of advice to give to us newbs.

Eeeeeeccckkkkkkkk oh no people take me seriously, I’m just a mere gremlin hiding under a bridge, the imposter syndrome, it burns-

Okay, dramatics aside, I’m obviously no expert, but I guess I have some recommendations. I will start by saying that I’m still actively working to read more (in general) by not-white-men, and I’m by no means perfect. (I’m reading more women, but I find my reading lists are still pretty white.) But I’m working on it!

To start with the White Male Classics (TM):

Stephen King at the top of his game is a great place to start. And a lot of his top books are pretty short - Carrie, Pet Sematery, Misery are my top three and they’re not long. Firestarter is pretty short, and The Mist is also great and novella length, so you don’t have to jump into his ‘bricks’ (to borrow a term from the Les Misérables fandom) like IT or Insomnia. In my personal opinion, The Shining book is also much better than the movie.

Fuck HP Lovecraft. Fuck him. Sorry for swearing so much on the answer to your ask, but I’ve just been having a month long argument with [Male Friend] about him. I refuse to read Lovecraft. I don’t care how ‘important’ he is, how influential, I don’t give a shit. Fuck him. I have a collection I’ve started three times, cannot get through it. Find his prose unnecessarily dense and boring, and the amount of times his ‘the universe is cold and unfeeling’ has been co-opted and weaponized against me by asshole Bros, I’m just done. He was also horrifyingly racist. This argument with [Friend] concluded with me sitting down on a sidewalk at midnight after [Friend] made a remark that revealed he hadn’t been listening to anything I said about Lovecraft **for days** and it might sound petty but that was the moment I was like ‘fuck Lovecraft’.

If you enjoy reading Lovecraft or enjoy what’s grown out of Lovecraftian horror, that’s great, but for newbies just know that if you don’t want to read Lovecraft, I support you.

[On my TBR list instead is Victor LaValle’s The Ballad of Black Tom. Haven’t gotten to it yet, but it’s on the list!]

For ‘Classics’ I infinitely prefer Edgar Allen Poe. Since he is a poet, his short stories are actually enjoyable as pieces of writing, and he was much more influential to me growing up. I actually got to take an online elective in high school on his work and how he influenced horror, mystery, and science fiction. So, for your 19th century Problematic Favs, I personally say go for Poe. (Yes yes, Lovecraft was writing in the early 20th century, let’s say for your ‘pre-WWII Problematic Favs’.) Get yourself a nice little collection, and get ready for Halloween season.

Richard Matheson is another White Dude Who Is Worth It, I am Legend was really good, and he’s been quite widely adapted and is a huge influence on horror film, but usually the Horror Bros (TM) haven’t actually read the books themselves, so you sound impressive when you say shit like, ‘well in Matheson’s original text...’

NOT WHITE DUDES:

Mary Shelley - #Classic, I once nearly challenged someone to a duel because he said about Frankenstein, “it was written by a teenage girl and it shows.” Frankenstein was one of the few summer reading books I actually enjoyed in high school, also if you’re into apocalyptic literature, there’s The Last Man.

Another #Classic that’s getting a revival right now due to adaptations is, of course, Shirley Jackson.

On the topic of apocalyptic literature, I’m not 100% sure Octavia Butler counts as horror, but she appears on some lists (usually it seems for Fledgling) and her work often scares me so much I usually have to take a break after reading it.

Daphne du Maurier is another #Classic - Rebecca is the #classic, but she also wrote “The Birds.”

For more modern horror writers, I’ve been working my way through these two lists (and am just going to blanket recommend them as lists, because as you start getting beyond the ‘basics’ you’ll find that some subgenres appeal more than others and these lists go into more detail about what each book offers - for example, I love how the bookriot author talks about their love of VSH - Very Significant Houses XD ):

https://lithub.com/23-great-women-horror-writers-to-freak-you-out-this-october/

https://bookriot.com/2019/06/18/horror-books-by-authors-of-color/

Sarah Lotz’s The Three was okay, it was a decent read but then I got real defensive of it after some guy’s goodreads review listed all the problems I had with it (it builds tension well, but doesn’t follow through, doesn’t quite make full use of an innovative structure and premise) - and then only recommended books by white men to read instead. So I got weirdly defensive of it. So, I would say just go for it to spite that one dude. #petty

Also noticed that Lithub also listed Elizabeth Kostova in their honorable mentions, I did like The Historian and my friend and I were laughing the other day about how it’s actually a decent portrayal of historians (particularly in the way the main character hordes books in his carrel and then spends a lot of time trying to get archive permissions and then has to just wing a conference paper #BigMood.).

This is the problem with horror, it’s such a nebulous genre that I’m always like ‘oh yeah I guess that person counts?’ Anyway, I hope this helps! It’s a rainy day here and I think I’m going to eschew my other responsibilities and read some horror instead!!

Last link: NPR’s list is massive, well organized, and diverse, so you should probably ignore everything I just said and read this list instead: https://www.npr.org/2018/08/16/632779706/click-if-you-dare-100-favorite-horror-stories

[rubyboys-archive]

‪honestly? i fucking adore the harry potter books. but it’s death of the author all the way. ‬

‪jk rowling has literally two black characters and one background Jewish character in a 7-book series set in a school with hundreds of characters. jk rowling retroactively pretends she wrote gay characters and, in the film adaptation (of which she has so much fucking control over), un-gays the character she randomly decided was gay in the first place. (why? because she wants to be queen of the allies, but doesn’t want to actually put any work in.) she chooses to include an actor in the fantastic beasts films who literally physically abused his wife, likes transmisogynistic tweets and retweets transphobic articles, riddles the goblins in her books with antisemitic tropes, riddles the centaurs in her books with native american stereotypes, exploits native american beliefs and is generally incredibly racist on pottermore, uses werewolves to play on the aids crisis, and queercodes her villains (“high, feminine voice”, anyone?). she writes in a made-up system of oppression which, yep, sure, fab, but deliberately leaves out any and all discussion of how already-existing oppressive shittiness fits into this. instead, she fills her writing with harmful tropes and stereotypes, and does the very bare minimum anyone could ever possibly do to think themselves an ally.

gotta say, she’s not the best. ‬

(to say the best of her, her books are at least kind of available to a more diverse, feminist reading if you’re really trying, but that’s like the best compliment i can come with.)

it’s chill to still love the books. the books are not HER, and tbh she’s a millionaire anyway, boycotting at this point will do fuck-all. you can love the books, adore the books, study the books, but recognise that the writer is deeply problematic and the things she does are not okay. separate art from artist, and remember that her word is not canon. the texts are canon, and that’s it. the texts suck in a lot of ways, and are great in a lot of ways. that’s how it is.

as readers, though, what we can do is interpret canon in a BETTER way, in a way that takes what she wrote and improves it—not for her sake, but out of spite of the fact that her writing is a piss-poor attempt at intersectionality, and we as readers refuse to accept it. because we think that the wonderful characters we fell in love with deserve better than her mediocre interpretation.

she may have written the weird and wonderful world of harry potter as very white, as very straight, as very cis, as very christian, but as readers, we have so much more power.

we can read the characters however we want. and we should. because jk rowling sucks, and the characters are, ultimately, ours, not hers. (death of the author, lads.)

the diverse characters you see in the books are much richer and far more enjoyable to read than the endless series of bland, cishet white people she wrote down.

if you can’t do it, if that’s too much emotional labour for you, then goddamn fair enough, you do you.

if you want to read a really good book series that explicitly has black characters, trans characters, gay and bi characters, and also loads of awesome magic and worldbuilding (basically, the fascinating world and amazing characters jk rowling set out to write, BUT ACTUALLY DONE RIGHT), read the broken earth trilogy by nk jemisin. or read anything by nk jemisin. those books will stick with you, and you won’t be let down.

happy reading, everybody.

[journalofsportsmedicine]

Juniper Publishers- Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports (JPFMTS)

Research Article

Corruption in Football of World in 21st Century

*Corresponding author: M Dousti, Department of Sports, Assistant Professor, University of Mazandara, Iran; Email: M_dostipasha@yahoo.com

How to cite this article: M Dousti, A Tahery, Abolfazl darvishi. Corruption in Football of World in 21st Century. J Phy Fit Treatment & Sports. 2018; 2(2): 555582 DOI: 10.19080/JPFMTS.2018.02.555582

Abstract

This article analyses the corruption in football of world in 21st century. In view of the many sporting events that take place every day throughout the world, the number of proven cases of corruption in sport can be put into perspective, even if the considerable percentage of unknown cases are taken into account. The purpose of this research was the study of corruption in football of world. For this purpose is used the documents, books, articles and websites has been associated with the corruption in football of world. The results show that Europe’s football is as advanced as it is more common corruption. The based on this results Football players and officials alike are made fully aware of their obligations under the anti-corruption rules, including their duty to report improper approaches, however trivial they may seem.

Keywords: Corruption; Football; Gambling; Bribers

Introduction

Corruption in sport is nothing new. The first documented case of corruption in international sport is attributed to the athlete Eupolos of Thessalia who successfully bribed three of his competitors in the first combat tournament at the Olympic Games of 388 BC, among them the reigning Olympic champion Phormion of Halikarnassos [1]. Integrity in sport is crucial to its success and to the enjoyment of participants and spectators. Sport is a global activity providing entertainment and enjoyment to an international audience who watch with intense passion. There are isolated occasions where the players involved have been tempted to cheat to gain an advantage over fellow competitors [2]. One of the most widely publicized cases of judging bias occurred during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in the pair figure skating competition. The Canadian pair was said to have skated a flawless performance, and were expected to win gold before the scores for their program were revealed.

Most accusations of corruption in sport should not be taken too seriously. When athletes lose, they tend to look everywhere else for the blame rather than at themselves. Dishonest wheeling and dealings of their opponents, such as corruption and doping, may also be readily cited as an excuse. When fans see their team lose, the accusation of rigging always quickly arises [3].

corruption in sport is understood as behavior by athletes who refrain from achieving the levels of performance normally required in the sport in question to win the competition and instead intentionally permit others to win, or behavior by sporting officials who consciously perform their allocated tasks in a manner at variance with the objectives and moral values of the relevant club, association, competitive sports in general and/ or society at large.

Set against the background that corruption affects a broad spectrum of sports and that the corruption phenomenon is virulent in every country. Corruption is understood as the use of a position by its occupant in such a way as to fulfill the tasks required of the occupant by the employing institution in a manner consciously different to the objectives of that institution. Such activity results from a desire for advantages for the occupant of the position (or, if that occupant is acting as principal agent, for acquaintances, relatives, associated organizations or parties) from the person or institution benefiting from the actions [4].

In sport, corruption may take the form of behavior by athletes who refrain from achieving the levels of performance normally required in the sport in question to win the competition and instead intentionally permit others to win, or behavior by sporting officials who consciously perform their allocated tasks in a manner at variance with the objectives and moral values of the relevant club, association, competitive sports in general and/ or society at large.

Types of corruption in sport including: Competition results (“competition corruption”), whereby the provider and the recipient of the bribes can be: athletes only; sporting officials and other non-athletes, e.g., referees, only (sometimes without the knowledge of the athletes involved); athletes and officials.

As well as: non-competition-focused decisions by sporting bodies and sports officials (referred to henceforth as “management corruption”), and in particular regarding: host venues for important competitions; allocation of rights (for example for televised transmission); nomination for positions (including honorary positions); commissioning constructions works for sports arenas and other venues.

Although there are parallels both between the causes of corruption and other forms of illicit behavior in sports such as doping as well as between their potential solutions, it is nonetheless still useful to separate the phenomena. The concept of corruption is interpreted differently from nation to nation (and from continent to continent); various types and forms exist, which need to be analyzed in different ways [5,6].

In connection with the allocation of the rights for the TV marketing of the 2002 and 2006 football World Cup Championships, allegations have also surfaced concerning the payment of bribes to association officials. So far however these allegations have had no legal consequences.

The cases discussed here, in which corruption in sports is used to attain certain positions (honorary or otherwise), influence the allocation of television or other rights, or acquire construction contracts, represent “innovations”, which until recently were considered unthinkable. It seems possible that all the areas of activity relating to sport will in future be affected by corruption, in as much as this has not happened already. For this reason alone the categorization of corruption given above can have no claim to completeness.

As for the extent of corruption in sport, it must firstly be mentioned that the extent of corruption depends heavily on the definition adopted that, as we have shown above, is in itself a problematic question. Secondly, it must also be assumed that the known cases merely represent the tip of the iceberg.

In industrialized countries such as Germany, 5% at most of corruption cases are brought to light. The problem of corruption in sport is a particularly great one, going beyond the dimensions of corruption in other areas of human endeavor. In spite of all the problems associated with quantification in ascertaining the extent of non-sporting corruption [7,8].

In view of the many sporting events that take place every day throughout the world, the number of proven cases of corruption in sport can be put into perspective, even if the considerable percentage of unknown cases are taken into account. Even the extent of corruption at the IOC discovered in the late 1990s can be relative. Following intensive internal investigations, just fewer than 10% of the members of the IOC were either cautioned or punished (within the space of one year).

The reduction of the degree of discretionary leeway would also be an efficient anti-corruption measure for other sporting disciplines. In football for example, which has often been associated with corruption on the part of referees, a number of steps towards making referee decisions more objective are conceivable, including electronic registering of balls going out of play, 3D location systems and enabling instant correction of referee decisions via video review [9].

Stricter controls (that is heightened likelihood of discovery and prosecution) and increased penalties could serve to influence the decision calculations of the potentially corrupt in the direction of honest behavior.

The connection between system of control and degree of punishment on the one hand and corruption on the other is however more complex than may first appear. Success in combating corruption depends on the practical measures taken. Iran Football betting has become a business. Government is the custodian of football in our country and all its works from the competitions to get all the other administrative procedures, and the only thing is that people do is play football and watch it!

Despite the large number of studies on corruption in sport [10-25], study about corruption in sport in Iran especially in football has received little attention. In the current atmosphere of sport in Iran, especially football, to fight the corruption in the sport is admirable, and certainly people in sport and football would welcome this, because a significant portion of the layers of corruption in football in Iran has been accumulated. So, powerful and influential network of corruption that exists in football that does not solve short-term programs.

The findings of this research can help the football managers and policy makers to planning for controlling and prevention of corruption and also for building a football full of health.

Methodology

The purpose of this research was the study of corruption in football of Iran and world. Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when. Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often needed than large samples. The process of this research are includes the qualitative research with study of articles and documents.

Finding and Results

The results show that apart from the a few some obvious corruptions in football of Iran there are no others records for the corruption (Table 1). Because of the high incidence of corruption in Italian football, the table of corruption in football of Italy have presented separately. As show that in Table 2, the most popular corruption in the Italy's top professional football leagues occur at 2006. As show that in Table 3, Europe's football is as advanced as it is more common corruption. As can be seen in Table 4, there is corruption in the football world. Asian countries have the highest share.

Discussion and Conclusion

Corruption is a major problem for the sporting authorities to deal with the emerging discourse about corruption in football cannot be understood without drawing stronger connections to the media discourse on broader societal corruption.

Corruption has a major affect on those that keep professional sport functioning spectators, television and sponsors. For example in the 2006 Italian football scandal involved Italy's top professional football leagues, Serie A and Serie B. The scandal was uncovered in May 2006 by Italian police, implicating league champions Juventus, and other major teams including AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina when a number of telephone interceptions showed a thick network of relations between team managers and referee organizations. Juventus were the champions of Serie A at the time. The teams have been accused of rigging games by selecting favorable referees.

Corruption puts spectators off attending events, watching them on television and sponsors from giving them the money they need for competitions.

In view of the many of football competitions that take place every day throughout the world, the number of proven cases of corruption in football can be put into perspective, even if the considerable percentage of unknown cases are taken into account.

The categories of corruption on football are concerned, two tendencies. Firstly, at least within the cases of competition corruption that have come to light, competition judges and other officials are becoming involved in corruption more frequently whilst, in contrast to previous eras, athletes and trainers are less often directly involved. Secondly a tendency towards an increased number of cases of management corruption in football can also be observed.

In order to finance bribes of a sufficient amount for decision makers, the bribers must expect sufficiently high economic rents from the victory they have purchased. Only those types of sport are affected by corruption that is able to generate considerable sources of income of football. In order for economic rents of this kind to be established in the long term (and for corruption not to be a merely temporary phenomenon), limitations to competition need to be in place.

As far as the role of discretionary margins for corruption is concerned, simple, transparent and easily understandable decisions are at a low risk of corruption. On the other hand, decisions in which abuses of freedom of decision can quickly be discovered are also hardly at risk from corruption. Thus the creation of a high degree of transparency is of considerable importance in combating corruption. This can be achieved, for example, by the detailed documentation of decision-making processes, the monitoring of executive and administrative bodies by a number of staff members or by the creation of  internal auditing departments to monitor staff.

Increasing controls and introducing tougher penalties. In addition to the exclusion from sporting activities already practiced by most sports associations, the effectiveness of higher fines ought to be tested.

The Officials of football federation in Iran must be trying to various initiatives to help remedy the problems associated with corruption. Football Players must be educated and aware of the threats to the integrity of football, along with education and awareness of the rules and regulations against betting, gambling, and performance enhancing drugs. A crucial aspect of addressing the threats to integrity in football is an effective education and awareness program for all players, players' support staff, officials and other relevant persons. Players and all those connected with football must understand the nature of the threats and the penalties if caught, as well as the need to act responsibly in enhancing the integrity of football. A strong message must be delivered that each player, official, and coach has a role to play in maintaining and enhancing the integrity of football.

Football players and officials alike are made fully aware of their obligations under the anti-corruption rules, including their duty to report improper approaches, however trivial they may seem. This is vital not only to ensure that incidents of attempted match fixing are properly investigated and dealt with by the relevant authorities, but also to ensure that the public perception of the "integrity of football" is maintained so far as possible. With regard to the process of effective education, sporting governing bodies, anti-corruption units and players" and officials" associations all have a key role to play. Put simply, where there is a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the relevant rules, there can be little or no excuse for failing to comply.

In order to be able to provide a meaningful analysis of anticorruption measures in football, reference should first of all be made to the economic causes. These indicate that corruption arises when for both the potential briber and the potential recipient of the bribes this is seen, within a rational calculation, to be a dominant, net utility increasing strategy as set against other, legitimate behavioral alternatives.

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