So, the entire article and you ONLY addressed the Jim Butcherbits. . . ?

Are YOU Jim Butcher?

Even if you are, why do you ONLY address the Jim Butcher-bits? What about subterfuge? Why not respond to other points in the entire article and the other truths — MY TRUTHS and the truths of many other BIPOC? What about the EXPERIENCES that inform the entire article and my expressed opinion? You respond as if my stated opinions evolved or appeared in a vacuum devoid of all context and history and lived experience. Perhaps that’s the easiest or only thing you have the wherewithal to “address,” such as you have.

But know that you can’t get away with ignoring the things for which you have no reasonable rebuttal or response. Not liking and/or not understanding a truth doesn’t make it less true or untrue. Just because you don’t experience it or see it doesn’t make it untrue. When speaking to folks directly affected by the issue on which you dare to opine, you can’t simply imply the good, if misguided intent of a trespasser — if, in fact, that is what you’re doing in your response — as if intent, only, matters when it comes to results. To effects. Intent doesn’t often change results . . . and it barely changes sentencing guidelines related to “results.” Racism and bigotry don’t have to be intended for them to be the whole result of speech or actions.

Surely, you know this at this late date. Please, let me be belaboring the obvious at you, regarding the results of implicit biases.

Well. Whatever the case, if you want to be a Jim Butcher-stan and implicit bias/anti-Black apologist/sympathizer/whatever, that’s your choice and you should always Be Best in all you do. But Being Best also means you don’t put obvious strawman arguments in the mouths of people who’ll damned-well catch you at it.

In other words, I don’t debate points and claims I didn’t make. If I want to debate a point, I assure I will make in unequivocally.

At no point have I made a positive claim that Butcher is a “monster.” If someone else has, I invite you to take it up with them.

At no point have I made a positive claim about Hyde Park. If someone else has, I invite you to take it up with them.

At no point have I made a positive claim that Butcher had not had women and POC characters as multifaceted, capable and intelligent. If someone else has, I invite you to take it up with them.

At no point have I made a positive claim either regarding Butcher being “the most enlightened man on the planet” or not being that. If someone else has, I invite you to take it up with them.

Does he buyu into some prejudiced notions? Yes, just like a lot of other white people.

There’s something we agree on. Belaboring the obvious is trite, but common ground never hurts. And I’m pleasantly surprised by the level of your apparent self-awareness — sincerely, no shade. That’s a far less common trait among white people, regarding race issues (and non-LGBTQIA+ folks about those related issues, and non-disable about disabled issues, etc.) than most white people think, even now. Any awareness, even at this point is refreshing and gives me hope. Not much, but a little.

And for the record there ARE plenty of feminists and POC who like his work yet are happy to criticize him.

I believe that. He leaves a lot to criticize, even aside from biases. I’ve critiqued his writing, little as I’ve read, stating flat-out what I’d thought of it even before I’d heard about his biases. I didn’t even make it into the first Dresden Files novel, his writing was so uninteresting and lackluster. That aside, stating that “feminists and poc” don’t like him is yet another claim I’ve never made.

I’m going to presume we’re both adults here: Liking something or someone is not a reason to turn one’s brain off regarding amateur literary critique or ethical standards. And neither is disliking something or someone. Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a racist, anti-Semitic hypochondriac with mommy-issues Freud could have built a second and third career on. But he was one HELLUVA writer and imagination. A genius. Prodigious intellect and/or talent doesn’t preclude holding terrible beliefs and wrong ideas. The same can be said for geniuses and artists of all stripes.

But not, in my opinion, of Jim Butcher. I don’t find him to be prodigious or talented at his art. Is he less of a racist than Lovecraft? He could hardly be MORE of one. Is he remotely in the same grade of talent?

No. Emphatically, no. Not remotely close in terms of concept, prose, or overall flair. He can’t even craft a decent opening hook, IMO. And when it comes to what I spend my time reading, MY OPINION is the one that matters most. Overwhelmingly. I’m the one who has to live with what I’ve read and allowed to rent space in my psyche.

If I’m going to load down my conscience and ethical scale for something, it’s for damn-sure not going to Jim Butcher’s writing.

“The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.”

See, I’ll put up with some Old White Guy Biases and Racism pecking away at my Black-ass psyche from Stephen King, for a line like that and novels’-worth of mostly consistent writing that’s a gut-grab. I’ll hold my nose and forge past some things that do, indeed, rankle. I’m not obligated to be forgiving of author character flaws and biases which often shine through their writing, simply because of sheer talent. But I’m sometimes willing to oblige the author and the writing at my own discretion because of it. As you surely do with authors, and at your own discretion.

No one but you should decided what evils pay rent in your psyche.I find it helps to be cognizant and deliberate . . . discriminating, as it were, when it comes to that. Vigilant.

What I’ve seen of Jim Butcher’s . . . talent isn’t enough to balance even some misplaced, phonetically massacred AAVE. When weighed against his talent his biases are unacceptable to my psyche not matter how “small” those microaggressions might be. Your mileage may and likely does vary.

Subjective truths and experiences are subjective AF. Who knew, c’est la vie.

At any rate, those are several positive claims made by me on which to hang your rhetorical hat and go to town, if you wish. Feel free to quote and respond to truths that I’ve actually said and claims that I’ve actually made. Otherwise, there’ll be no further response from me.

Yeah, I know, don’t threaten YOU with a good time, BA-DOOM-BOOM.

But if you wish to address issues with claims/truths someone else has made and how those things made you feel, I once again invite you to take it up with them directly. I can’t satisfy requirements for debates in which I have never engaged and don’t wish to. In the meantime, be well and good luck.