Mindy Newell: It’s Personal, Not Business.
From Wikipedia: Critics have generally received Ender’s Game well. The novel won the Nebular Award for best novel in 1985, and the Hugo for best novel in 1986, considered the two most prestigious awards in science fiction. Ender’s Game was also nominated for a Locus Award in 1986. In 1999, it placed #59 on the reader’s list of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels. It was also honored with a spot on the American Library Association’s “100 Best Books for Teens.” In 2008, the novel, along with (it’s sequel) Ender’s Shadow won the Margaret A. Edwards Award, which honors an author and specific works by that author for lifetime contribution to young adult literature. Ender’s Game was ranked at #2 in Damien Broderick’s book Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010.
Not too shabby.
The announcement by DC that Orson Scott Card (author of Ender’s Game and its sequel) will be writing a Superman story to be included in an upcoming anthology has burst into a firestorm of controversy on the net and in newspapers such as The Hollywood Reporter (“Ender’s Game’s Orson Scott Card’s Anti-Gay Views Pose Risk for Film,” February 20, 2013), not only because of Mr. Card’s publicly-stated negative opinions on homosexuality and same-sex marriage, but because Mr. Card sits on the Board of Directors for the non-profit National Organization for Marriage (NOM). Established in 2007 to work against the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States, NOM contributed $1.8 million to the passage of “Prop 8” in California, which prohibited same-sex marriage in California. (The amendment was in force until United States District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker overturned it in August 2010, ruling that it violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the United States Constitution. His decision has been appealed, and the ruling has been stayed.) NOM also opposes civil union legislation and gay adoption.
Last week Michael Davis’s Brokeback Bastard here on ComicMix asserted not only DC’s right to hire Mr. Card despite the widespread outrage, but Michael’s opinion that efforts to get DC to renege their offer to Mr. Card, i.e., fire the bigot!, will fail, because, DC sees this, a la The Godfather, as “business, not personal.” Why? Because, to quote Michael, “This is a win – win for DC. They get a pretty good writer and massive publicity so why fire the guy? When the book comes out they will get another round of colossal exposure so like I said, why fire the guy?”
He’s right about that. Any publicity, so the pundits say, is good publicity. (I get the sentiment, but it’s not really true. Just ask Elliot Spitzer about his hooker friend, or Paul Ryan about his marathon time.)
This is what I wrote in response to Michael’s column:
Well, I understand the business side of it. Orson Scott Card is a prolific and popular science fiction writer whose Ender’s Game won the Nebula and the Hugo, and whom DC is betting will bring in lots of $$$$$. And I understand the “high moral ground” that Michael and Dan and John (Dan and John are respondents who took issue with Michael’s viewpoint) are arguing above: judge the guy on his writing, not on his personal views. However, Card’s views are not personal in that he is a member of the Marriage Is Only Between A Man And Woman Board, (I was too lazy at the time to look up the name of the organization) or whatever the hell it’s called. He has publicly stated that gay men and women should be ostracized and worse.
Superman is an icon. Superman stands for justice for all. Superman stands for the American dream. Superman stands for the pursuit of happiness. Superman stands for Truth. Card does not stand for justice for all. Card does not stand for the American dream. Card does not stand for the pursuit of happiness. Card does not stand for Truth.
Hatred and bigotry is rampant again in this country. Just look at what’s happening in Congress. The total blockage of Obama’s proposals, the continuation of the birthers and their lies, the about-to-be sequestration of our economy is all about the hatred of our first black President. Operative Word Is Black. Hiring Card to write an American icon is disgusting because Card is against everything the American dream stands for. That’s my opinion, plain and simple.
Though, as I said, I understand the business behind DC’s decision, I’m also so fucking tired of the “anything for a buck” crap that’s so damn rampant these days. It’s not just in business. It manifests itself everywhere. For instance:
I worked for many years at my local hospital. Across-the-board layoffs were scheduled. Instead of protesting the lay-offs, my union said that any employee who had lost his or her job could “bump” a junior employee. In other words, take the junior employee’s job and leave him or her out in the cold. I found this despicable. The union’s job, im-not-so-ho, was to protect all employees, not just do a “run-around” to solve the problem.
I could never take another person’s job. “It’s not right,” I said. Most of my co-workers mouthed the words, but when push-came-to-shove, most of those who were on the lay-off list did “bump” the one below them. And what was worse, being a small, community hospital, the “bumpers” knew the “bumpees.”
Et tu, Brutus?
Yeah, I know. “Oh, grow up, Mindy.” “Who are you, Pollyanna?” “People gotta do what they gotta do.”
It really sucks that I-N-T-E-G-R-I-T-Y doesn’t seem to mean anything anymore.
But like I said, I get it.
Leave the gun. Take the cannolis.
Go to the mattresses.
It’s business, not personal.
BUT GOD DAMN IT…
IT’S SUPERMAN!
TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten
TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis
Simply put, NOM is a HATE group. It HATES gays, and is there purely to make sure that gays don’t achieve similar rights to heterosexual couples. It’s a question of Human Rights.
This is a crass example, but how would Michael Davis feel if Orson Scott Card were a member of the Westboro Baptist Church or a Grand Wizard of the KKK?
I’ve been a big fan of Card’s for decades. I own and have read a majority of his works. But there are several books written by him on my shelf that I haven’t gotten around to reading yet. And the revelation that he’s on the Board of NOM doesn’t make me eager to pick them up! The thought of it just leaves a flavor like dirty pennies in my mouth, a bad taste, metallic and cold.
Russ,
I’d feel the same way. Take the writer and his fucked up views to task anywhere and everywhere thus making the writer and his views target one. Warner caved like a little bitch and pulled Ice T’s album from stores after the outrage over the song ‘Cop Killer’ AFTER the release.
The massive outcry over that song was relentless and 20 years later still felt. Lastly, for anyone who has not read the article-please do as it may appear to some from what Wendy and Russ wrote that I was supporting the writer, let me be very clear I would not piss on him if he was on fire.
Michael, I’m sorry if my article gave the impression that you were supporting Card. Since I was talking about the business side of things, I chose to quote that part of your column.
Mindy,
I said SOME people may have taken it that way. I don’t think you implied it but for the sake of the not to bright I thought it best to be crystal clear. ;-)
For me it’s a business decision of a different sort. If I give money to Mr. Card (who has the right to be a loathsome bigot), then I am, de facto, giving money to the hate group he supports. I will not give money to support a cause that I oppose, therefore I will not give money to Mr. Card.
Thank you for the article, Mindy.
David Gerrold has made a couple of incredibly well-spoken comments about the issue on his facebook feed. The first boils down to the fact that while he hates what OSC says and believes, he doesn’t hate him as a person, and will not stand to see him lose work over his beliefs.
In his second one, he offered his services to DC as equal time. In honesty, the story he pitched has been done several times, but I think he could come up with a good one, tho.
Mindy, I like your column (as always) but DC and its patent companies are businesses which, despite what the Mittster said, are NOT people. Superman is something they SELL and the concept that Superman is an icon is something else that they’re selling. There are PEOPLE that I like at companies but I do not and will not trust a company per se.
If firing Card was good business for DC, they’d fire him. Not because it might be right but because it wouldn’t make them money or even lose them money. They perceive hiring him, and the controversy surrounding it, to be good publicity and hence good business. If Card was as much a racist as he is a homophobe, he would be gone because that would be bad for business. Being a homophobe (or for that matter, if he was a sexist) is not perceived as being as much of a problem. If it was, he’d be gone.
Card would still be a homophobe if he was writing Sugar and Spike. Doesn’t change anything that he’s writing Superman. IMO.
Myself, I won’t read him and I won’t buy what he’s writing.
As I said, tho — good column.
@ John: I totally get what you’re saying about the business side of it, John.
I do think it’s interesting that you point out that “if Card was as much a racist as he is a homophobe (or for that matter, if he was a sexist) he would be gone because that that would be bad for business. In my experience, people who are bigoted against one group tend to be bigoted against other groups. I can’t definitely say that Card has a “thing” about blacks, Jews, Mexicans, or other ethnicities, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
As to not hiring a known racist as opposed to hiring someone who doesn’t like gays (and I’m including lesbians in the word “gay”) because hiring a racist is bad for business, but DC perceives that hiring someone who actively works against the civil, i.e., HUMAN, rights of gays won’t be such a big deal, well, that logic just doesn’t work for me. There’s just something fundamentally wrong about it.
They are behind the eight ball on this one, John.
Card won’t write Sugar and Spike. DC is holding that one out for Alan Moore’s return. DARK SUGAR RETURNS!
“The total blockage of Obama’s proposals, the continuation of the birthers and their lies, the about-to-be sequestration of our economy is all about the hatred of our first black President. Operative Word Is Black.”
That’s ridiculous. The president got his tax increases to avoid the fiscal cliff a couple of months ago. Now he wants more without any serious spending cuts. I heard him on the news this morning saying that the choice is between cutting programs for the poor kids and cutting programs for the disabled kids. As if those were the only choices. I am so tired of any resistance to the president’s policies as proof of racism. It is not. I guess Dr. Ben Carson must be a racist is that were true.The sequestration was the president’s idea as some kind horrible event that he would never let happen. If it happens, (and I am not entirely sure that that would be bad thing), it is because of his inability to compromise.
Mindy, if we are going to have a set of rules and opinions that all writers must have or be denied the opportunity to ply their trade, where will this end?
I’ll go out on a limb here and state that there have been and perhaps still are creators who were, in their personal lives, truly dreadful people. At the very least they were bigots and not “It wouldn’t surprise me” bigots as you speculate Card is (and, btw, I would have deleted that bit of speculation–it’s too ugly to be thrown out there on the basis of what you admit is no grounding whatsoever) but actual “I hate blacks and think they are inferior” bigotry. They were not shunned and shamed and fired.
And if this is done to card you will have ceded any and all right to moral umbrage when it is done to someone else for reasons you disapprove of.
McCarthyism was evil NOT because the people who lost work after being accused of being communists were, in fact, NOT communists. It was evil because even if true that is not a good reason to deny people the right to earn a living.
These tactics are unworthy of the gay rights movement. They are the tactics of those who have no other options because they are arguing from a position of weakness. And that’s not the case. I’ll work hard for gay rights but I won’t turn into Roy Cohen to do it and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else to do so either. Among other factors, it will drive away potential allies who disdain such thuggish behavior.
Card’s views are odious, his tactics are completely within the boundaries of honest political action. It’s hard to imagine the NOM becoming sympathetic in my eyes but any attempt to blacklist members will do the impossible and make card and his ilk look like the good guys, fighting for what they believe against a mob too chickenshit to duke it out in the political arena. How on Earth is any of this helpful? If I feel this way I can only imagine how those who are on the fence see it. The folks who fight for gay rights just by disparaging those who are on the other side just make it tougher to change the hearts and minds of those we need to bring over to the right side and, frankly, I wish they’d find another cause to advocate. They’re a malignant millstone.