As one of the geek girls on the more vitriolic side. I admit, I was pissed and I ranted and I'm not what you'd call "rational" when I do that. I'd assume she'd look at my comments and move along and that's fine.
She also linked to a few people who were much more eloquent than I was, including Matt Zoller Seitz who I linked to previously, and she did call them thoughtful rebuttals.
Joanna Robinson tweeted this link to me with the comment that it's a "wholly unapologetic apology" and she's right. It is. In fact, it's more of a "what was all the fuss about?" post.
So, Ms. Bellafante. Allow me to sum it up.
If you had explained your thoughts on fantasy and the fact that you don't know women who read it in the tone you used in this post, I don't think you would have gotten the response you did. You summed up fairly concisely why you didn't like Game of Thrones and stated it wasn't your thing.
That's fine and if your review had said that, or even if you'd told your editor that, then perhaps you might not have had to review it at all. You certainly would have avoided controversy.
However, your review was written with a condescending tone and opinion. My friends and I discussed your review the other night over drinks and realized not a one of us knew who Lorrie Moore was. But not a one of us would have written a review of one of her books and dismissed it as "chick lit" and, therefore, not worth reading by any of our friends.
The women I know who read fantasy novels and who were excited to watch Game of Thrones are intelligent, well spoken, incredibly literate women. They have degrees and doctorates and functional relationships. They have children and dreams and they support other women in their efforts to be extraordinary every day.
Your review made women who might enjoy fantasy sound like an anomaly in this world and, in all honesty, those of us who are of the geek persuasion already have a hard enough time proving we're not faking it to "get the boys to like us".
We didn't need one of our own taking a swipe at us.
You owe us an apology, Ms. Bellafante. A real one.
And then you need to let us pick you a book to read.
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