[Holocaust Fic!Fail] Sometimes... is it even worth it?

[eumelia]

Things always hit you harder when they are closer to home.
Always.

I had a race fail a few days ago, in which I basically preached to a woman of Japanese descent why the casting of Avatar: The Last Air Bender was racist.
I was called on it.
And I apologised and I was told it wasn't a problem.

Still, the shame continues to linger, because my privilege fogged the way I viewed this person and the way I discussed the issue with this person.

However, you live and learn right.

Well, no.

If history teaches us anything is that we would rather forget, or even not know and you basically need a very strong lobbying group in order for things to be remembered.

The past month or so has seen so much fail in fandom, the Race!Fail, the Trans!Fail, The Abelism, I'm quite sure there were more fail I'd forgotten and seriously, even though I commented only briefly I was outraged and saddened by all of these incidences. People can (and have) asked me why do I put so much energy into issues that don't have much to do with me (yeah, I know), I mean... why get so worked up on something that doesn't directly affect me.

Well, for one, despite the fact that I'm not in the disenfranchised group of non-white people, trans people and disabled people, these issues affect me mainly because the fact that those groups are disenfranchised I can safely go about my day not thinking about it.

But you know why I really take the time to give a damn and cracks my heart wide open? Beyond it being the right thing to do and being in an ethically sound position.

I want to be safe.

I want my body and mind to flourish, and the body I currently inhabit may have a lot of privileges associated with it, but its history is also bloody, by virtue of it being cis female, queer and Jewish.

My Jewish body is very weird thing. On the one hand it is Israeli Jewish, meaning it is the default body of superiority where I live, on the other, it comes from generations of bloodshed, exile, pogroms and genocide.

The history of this genocide, like most genocides oddly enough, is well documented. The violence was recorded, photographed, duplicated and triplicates by well meaning bureaucrats who kept the train tracks clear.

The genocide of my people even has a special name, The Holocaust¹, and like all historical events which linger in the collective memory of a people, a nation, a community, we tend to treat it with a deference of some kind. Even as I make Holocaust jokes, and sing "Springtime For Hitler" and make cracks about Germany blitzing its way though the Mundial and yeah, I'm waiting for Germany to serve up Spain's ass in the upcoming Semi-Final...

Still.

The Holocaust is an event that continues to shape my life and inform me of who I am, as a Jewish person in Israel and Palestine, as a queer person and as a feminist woman.

It does not, however, as a historical event, exist to be a backdrop to an AU Fanfic about American Soldiers and their love affair. What? The Battle of the Bulge was too tame?!

Yes, someone wrote a story, which has since been locked, but luckly there exists a Screencap (H/T to allchildren). I have not read it. I do not intend to.
I did read the Author's notes though; the warnings read thus:
Beating, abuse, non main character death, scientific experimentation, starvation, physical and emotional damage
Oh and the added disclaimer (after "nasty comments" began to appear) the gist of which is that this piece of work is NOT meant to be historically accurate. Accompanied to this Author's Note is a picture of the gates of Auschwitz, you all know the one, the one that was stolen and returned and reads Arbeit Macht Frei - "Work Makes One Free".
The... writer... of this AU fic stated that they added the picture, not for itself, but for the slogan, the meaning of the words upon the gate.

I've said it before. I'll say it again. I will probably say it for the rest of my life.

Context matters. Context, much like money, makes the world go around. That slogan cannot be removed from the gates it is attached to. Those words do not mean what you think they mean. The work they are talking about is not craft and the liberation they symbolise is not freedom.

A story, does not need to prettify history in order to make palatable for the readers. On the contrary, history should be shown in its grittiest form, it should be shown to be true and it should be portrayed with verisimilitude.

So, when you use a historical backdrop, in which you, dear author, feel the need to excuse yourself that by writing this you are no different from anyone who writes about rape, incest and domestic abuse, then you do not understand what fetishisation means.
You do not understand what treating subjects (people and events) with respect means.
You do not understand what this writing about history means.

You do not understand what context means and beyond that making you a disrespectful, blinkered and privileged fool, it also makes you, no matter your style, no matter how well written the characters are, a really really bad writer.

Personally. I blame Hollywood. And you know, bad education, entitlement and plain good ole' dehumnasation and antisemitism.

Also. No. Just. No.

This Nice Jewish Grrl needs to lie down now as she can't believe fandom sucks so hard right now.

ETA - 09/07/10: The story that is screen capped above is "1945" by slashxyouxup and is now unlocked. I'm not holding my breath though.

Footnotes
1) Even though we were not the only targeted people. The Roma people and other Gypsy groups were targeted and experimented in the same manner, homosexual men were castrated and murdered and many others. Still though, when you've got an entire country (Poland) set up to be an extermination station, while special Commando forces, Einsatzgruppen, are sweeping though Europe targeting Jewish Communities, you're going to feel that this is the Pogrom to end all Pogroms... in a way... it did...
Back.

Comments

[dancesontrains]

*hugs* I've been raging about this under access lock. So painful.

[eumelia]

I just read through the comments of your post.

Geez.

I dunno, is it too much to ask for a little sensitivity? Really?! Oh and to not fucking suck!

[finch]

I see that author missed the lesson from the wank when a Harry Potter RPG named itself after Kristallnacht...

[eumelia]

Yeah, I remember that. *shudders*.

Just, seriously? Seriously!?

[st_aurafina]

I just... How can anyone think this is a good idea? How could anyone be that clueless?

I am so glad that people are being called on this - that there's a growing expectation that you will put on your thinking cap, consider the harm you can do before you hit the post button.

I'm sorry you had to see that and I'm sorry that they posted in the first place.

[eumelia]

I do not know. Now, I admit that I am at times clueless, because wow, I've put both feet in my mouth and shoved my head up my ass at times.

But this deliberate and belligerent attitude I'm seeing... that's just... just... just... wow.

Big wow.

[briarwood]

Oh, boy. It's not even the fic, it's that disclaimer.

I wouldn't ever say the Holocaust shouldn't be used as a background for fiction; it's not like the Haiti thing - a current situation. It's too big; it's part of European history, not just Jewish history; as you pointed out, Roma and homosexuals were targeted (and those can sometimes be lost in the justified emphasis on the Jewish abuses deaths).

But one thing fiction must do is treat those events with respect. I think it's possible to use it as a backdrop (like in The Reader), but to imply it's fine to do so with no regard for historical accuracy...no. No, no and no. That's essentially handwaving the seriousness of what happened, erasing the people who died...no. Just no.

[eumelia]

My problem is never with the "what", but with the "how". I've read exemplary stories and fics with the Holocaust (and WW2 in general) in the background... this is simply pure entitlement and someone on my LJ commented - the fact that it is a backdrop is okay, the fact that it explores dark sides etc. is okay. The fact that it retains the dehumanisation and is there for nothing but the drama, the lives of others be damned... is wrong.

Not to mention the flouncing. Jesus, the flouncing.

[briarwood]

Not to mention the flouncing. Jesus, the flouncing.

I dunno. Seems to me that when someone commits a major fail, she can't win no matter what she does. Maybe "win" is the wrong word. And I'm not really talking about this specific story or writer, as I know nothing more about them than is in your post. But...

* If she deletes the offending story, some will accuse her of "flouncing". If she doesn't, some will attack the continuing fail because the story, with or without apology, can still be read.

* If she tries to take a step back and absorb the negative comments, she can't freeze or delete comments - even in her own journal - without others accusing her of censorship or "flouncing". But if she doesn't freeze comments, she's got no space to step back and calmly assess it.

* If she simply doesn't have the energy to deal with it - it's still her fault, her fail.

I know, the right thing to do is to acknowledge the mistake and to gracefully apologise. I hope to goddess that if I ever screw up this badly, that would be my response. But if that's going to be sincere, it won't happen immediately. A person's first response to an accusation of *-ism, justified or not, is likely to be defensive. I don't want to say that the commentary is a bad thing - it's really not - but the expectation of both an immediate response and a reasonable or gracious one is not very realistic.

[ajnabi]

i don't know, i don't think an immediate apology is too unrealistic, or insincere. i mean. in any case, why are you telling eumelia, someone who is affected by this kind of fail, that an expectation of a reasonable, gracious apology is unrealistic? i mean, regardless of whether it's unrealistic or not (which, again, it really isn't-- if you fuck up, you need to realize it, and that fuckup.. heh... that is a HUUUUUUGE fuckup), why should SHE have to "curtail" her expectations, or whatever? i think what you're doing here is derailing, and a use of the tone argument.

is it so wrong to expect that people won't hurt you this badly? i know that i just don't have the spoons (and forks, and other various utensils) to deal with the defensiveness that immediately follows when i call someone out on their fail, or someone else does. i know that the defensiveness only hurts me more, and i just keep wishing in my head that they would just... stop... and actually CARE about me, and how much it hurts me, for a moment.

eumelia: i'm sorry if this comment is me attempting to "speak for" you, or something similar. (i am not sure? i will understand if you delete it, though).
this whole fanfic is just horrific; i heard about it yesterday i think, and... yeah... wow. i am so sorry.

[eumelia]

Nope, not speaking for me, you're speaking for you and I happen to agree with this comment. I really wasn't sure how to respond to the above comment... so thanks for saying something.

[torachan]

I recently made a post about a fic written for lgbtfest that I found offensive and hurtful. The author apologised in my post and on her own journal and asked for constructive criticism. It is really not unrealistic. Yes, defensiveness and asshattery happens more often than not, but it is not the only possible response and there is no reason why we should not expect better (of ourselves and of others).

[eumelia]

Would you mind sending me a link to the posts in question? (I understand not wanting to link them publicly, so pm?) I'm now interested in what you and the author had to say and which story it was.

[torachan]

Oh, I don't mind linking publically. It's all public on my journal. I was just too lazy to find the link when I commented before.

My post is here and the author responded in comments and also posted on her journal here. Her response wasn't perfect (I didn't need to be told she was "in tears" from the whole thing), but it is a better response than I've received in the past, that's for sure.

[torachan]

It's actually worse. The original wording of the warnings was for "non important character death". D:

[eumelia]

O.O

I really want to throw up now...

[torachan]

Yeah, as someone said in the comments to the post, that one line pretty much says it all about the author's attitude.

[amethystfirefly]

..... You've got to be shitting me.

I don't have the words right now...

[ironed_orchid]

Gah, that's pretty awful.

Although I do think Hollywood and others also have been known to use the holocaust as a background to a touching love story, or personal journey, or some shit. So I can see how a writer with not much historical background might glom onto that, and think it's okay.

[eumelia]

That's the thing. It is totally possible, my problem was never with the what, but with the how.

[ironed_orchid]

Yeah.

I was thinking of movies which for me were emotional wankfests with a holocaust background, but yeah.

[amethystfirefly]

Oh, fandom. Just when I think things can't get worse, they do.

-sighs-

-hugs tons-

[eumelia]

The punches do not stop rolling. That's for damn sure.

[iamsupernova]

You speak in this post much more eloquently on a subject that's been present in my mind for a long time. When I saw your post linked on Dotcoms Refresh on LJ, I thought it would be in response to the fic I found years ago that made my blood boil - it was a Waycest deathfic set in the Holocaust. It bothers me that an entirely different story appropriating the Holocaust spurred you to write this post, because it means it wasn't an isolated event. I don't know what hurt me more, the fic and the clumsy, ignorant handling of the topic, or the writer's and her friends' sense of entitlement in defending her with overdramatic, cruel words.

[eumelia]

Thanks for commenting first of all. I have no doubt that this is not an isolated event, if I thought it was so, I probably wouldn't have commented on anything beyond saying there's an idiot author out there. I'm not in this fandom, I don't care what fandom it's written in, I'm not even bothered that someone chose to write about the Holocaust. Just, seriously, the depiction and appropriation and unapologetic change of events in order to create a situation that got her characters suffering? Really?!

I'm really bothered that no one, in the fandom, seems to be challenging her position. Reading her comments and her friends unshakable entitlement here is just distressing.

[iamsupernova]

Sorry - I assumed you were in the fandom. But since you're not - I should point out that that community on LJ is by majority frequented by fans who are less than sensitive/aware about subjects that are hurtful when handled badly - like race, religion, gender, etc. The lack of respectful reaction in the comments isn't surprising to me.

There are people in the comments who found it unreasonable that other people, including actual transpeople, were offended by a transphobic fic about a trans character. They're not exactly Team Social Justice.

[eumelia]

Not a problem dude, the majority of media, SFF and bandom (among others) aren't really part of team Social Justice as you put it.

It's a thing.

Again, thank you for commenting. I appreciate it.

[rike_tikki_tavi]

Hi, you don't know me, but I found your post by catching up on my network and being german, I guess this fail hits me from a slightly different angle. I went and skimmed the fic in question because I couldn't bear to read it completely and just a world of no to that story. I can't even really talk about how aweful it made me feel because right now I want to curl up in a corner and rock myself back and forth and I can't imagine how much worse it must have been for you. I'm sorry.

That picture of the Auschwitz gates with those words and her little note, that she chose it because of the words. Why? As far as I can tell, the story doesn't even have anything to do with those words. Did she choose them because she agrees with the sentiment? Does she not get that those words in that place were a fucking cruel joke, that the Nazis played. That they were put there to taunt every poor soul, that had to walk through those gates, knowing full well that they would likely never leave again? How can somebody fail so bad?

And then, after not even one of those minor, unimportant characters has gotten even so much as a name or anything else that might show them as you know people, after the rescue troupes care only about their two officers and maybe burying the bodies and totally forget the other survivors, she has the fucking infamy to end the whole thing in German with "das ende". It's that extra gut punch just to keep you nice and reeling.

[attackfish]

When I was in high school, one of my (very gentile) history teachers tried jokingly to urge the class on with that quote. Understandably upset, I walked out of class and straight to the vice principal's office to inform him. When I got an apology out of said teacher, he said he was so sorry, he had no idea there were any Jews in the class. That quote, and the holocaust itself are still terror inducing, even for nice, assimilated little me in the 2000s, because they remind me that I still live in the diaspora, and I only get to live so long as the majority population tolerates my presence. My parents raised me to feel a certain amount of pride to be nearly everything Hitler and the Nazis hated and wanted dead, being a queer, disabled Jew (I'm blonde and white. That's about all he'd be cool with) but it's a sort of pride that has at it's bottom a sick, horrible well of fear, and anyone writing about the Holocaust (or any genocide) should respect that and not trample on that history.

Now, the concept of the Holocaust in fanfiction is more than usually on my mind at this time, because I have a half-finished short story set in the Avatar: the Last Airbender verse focusing on OC crypto survivors of the Air Nomad Genocide and the title comes from a Jewish proverb (I've been trying to find out whether it's specifically Yiddish or Ashkanazi, but Google-fu has failed me) so the implications are obvious, and I don't think the Holocaust should be forbidden, but that's not the way.

[dechant]

When I got an apology out of said teacher, he said he was so sorry, he had no idea there were any Jews in the class.

Non-apology for the lose!

[attackfish]

Oh my God, you have no idea how furious I was. Like it's okay when it's all gentiles around, *wink wink* don't tell the Jews?

[dechant]

ARGH. I'd have been calling for him to be sacked at that point -- then again, I get fighty over the Holocaust. (And I'm freaking German. Apparently guilt endures over the generations...)

[attackfish]

Guilt does seem to do that. I had this compulsion to point out the many ills of slavery as practiced by antebellum America and the whole concept of Manifest Destiny. In this same teacher's class. I think he wanted me dead by the end of the year.

[dechant]

That's... kinda sickening. I mean, I laughed at the funny about Paul the Octopus calling WWII for the Soviets, but crap, that's not turning the Holocaust into your personal kink meme. OMFG.

More than kinda sickening, really. God, I'm sorry anyone had to see that.