No such thing as *just* fiction

Did I miss something? Has the month of March been declared International Show Your Privilege Month?

I ask because I just now saw this: "In Defense of Victorientalism". This guy just gave Norman Spinrad a run for his pantlessness.

If you want a really, really wonderful response to this, deepad has one (link takes you to dreamwidth) here, with her post One Bad Tune Deserves Another". Included is probably the best, most beautifully snarky, most petard hoisting poem ever in the history of mankind, "Pity the Orientalist".

And there's also this great post, "Countering Orientalism" which is so totally completely right. This right here, especially:

Due to the power invested in Westerners today, borne from the history of colonization, there is no way to safely recreate the Orient, without yet creating more assumptions of stereotypes, without imposition of these stereotypes on actual people.

( Analysis of the original article in defense of Victorientalism. The other two links are better than mine and should be read first. )