Remembered Fondly

:RE-UPLOADED OLD CONTENT:

I think most classically-minded writers agree that Beowulf ruled. One of the reasons such an overtly pagan saga was recorded conscientiously by an early Christian author was its eternal appeal as a real ripsnorter. The structure is strong and episodic, the narrative engages consistently, everything about it still works except the style.

But that antiquated crusty old style, my dear sweet people, is its greatest strength if you can lock into a receptive headspace. Poems born from the oral tradition exude atmosphere. The early section on Grendel The Murderer breaking into the hall at night and butchering people, stalking and waylaying his pursuers in the mist and the fen, is great stuff.

Cue the hard segue into our subject. The SFF fandom had its own Grendel raiding the halls between 2010 and 2014. Forgotten now, it was a delicious saga of its own, with the monster ‘felled’ not by the hero of the Danes, but hubris. I remember the Requires Only That You Hate blog, and so should you.

Historically, way too many casual observers have been engrossed in celebrity feuds. Most of them suck. Digging through the famous ones yields some gold, like Mark Twain versus the well-to-do Christian missionary-turned-warlord whose infamous name deserves to be buried in dirt. Or obviously Vidal versus Buckley. And now, Drake versus Kendrick. I can’t deny that shine. But most of them are sad little morsels with no blood and little gristle for the trailing jackals. The forgotten fandom feuds on the other hand, in all their pettiness, hew deep to the bone and expose raw white fatstreaks with the meat. Things get brutal in here, so come on in and get some. It’s fun to enjoy mean spats between big personalities that never result in any real consequences.

Before the pathetic nasty-ass mess of Gamergate (which did have consequences, unfortunately), a blogger named ‘acrackedmoon’ terrorized SFF writers with anonymous tracts of polemicism eviscerating them for thousand-strong Hail Maries of sin. Taking up a ludicrously uncompromising progressivist position, they lambasted most of the big names of the time as producing unredeemable garbage. The nastiest of nasty reviews, which never would have been noticed were it not for the inconvenient matter of ‘acrackedmoon’ being a hypercompelling writer. The diatribes were as gruesome as they were funny. A scandalized mob of fans and writers railed against them, but couldn’t overcome the chortling amusement of onlookers. acrackedmoon’s athleticism on the field of performative viciousness rated high marks. As the years went on, responses to new blog posts escalated from indignation to explosively overpacked bundles of hysteria fit for blasting out a rock quarry. Frisson bubbled from split earth itself like crude as both hated and beloved authors alike were cut to pieces. The style was casual and loud, but relied on devilishly rigorous argument which proved difficult to rebut. acrackedmoon was a tireless assassin of hacky bullshit, propelled by morals and an unbridled hostility thunderous in its assault. The wider SFF community retreated into an uneasy defensive position in which they labeled acrackedmoon as a troll, and tacitly agreed to not consider her more devastating points.

Then the inevitable came to pass. Their real name (possibly), Benjanun Sriduangkaew, was revealed by a friendly camp after people started to guess who she was based entirely on her ethnicity. Turns out she talked mad shit in the past about current colleagues, and was finally breaking through as an SFF author. Whoopsie-daisie. There came a great fluffing and kerfuffling of backfeathers, Benjanun apologized for the times she acted like a dick, and the fearsome blog got scrubbed. Murderous Grendel, eater of thanes and kings, was vanquished by an eggy smell wafting off the smallest and wettest of farts. While this was a loss for the world of online entertainment, it was a net gain in my case personally. I can’t even begin to pretend that Benjanun was on my radar at the time. The reveal of her identity as acrackedmoon prompted myself and others to track down her work.

She was great. Still is. Not only are her texts the output of an intriguing structuralist and satisfying in their prose, but Benjanun specializes in the short story and novella. She’s an ideal SFF writer, quietly working away with her head down, trying to get away from her past as an edgy internet harranguer and knocking it out of the park every time. Her voice stands at the top of a very particular tier in the SFF novella space– a lineup of bold short-format writers of great worth, more valuable than ever in these stressful times**.

https://beekian.wordpress.com/

For the random wandering souls reading this, please check out her work. I beg you. I need more of her writing like I need oxygen in my blood. There is no tidy conclusion here, I’m not posting this as a piece of decent writing, it’s barely even an editorial, it was all just a meandering drama-trap diversion to get you to click that link out of curiosity and buy some more of Benjanun’s books. I thrive in the indie SFF boom but starve for capable crafters, good God. Curse you if you don’t. Have a nice day, people.

-from the desk of Rhys, and barely cleaned up by Sammy.

**I’m trying to write books and sell art while paying my bills with sailor wages and supporting a pregnant spouse whose job ain’t paying her shit, and I don’t have the time for your trilogy-of-trilogies making up the first part of a literary cycle set in the one era of history on your whole-ass bespoke fictional planet, Ian.