Rejected rejection letters, part 13.

[mrissa]

I really, really hate being falsely corrected.

This time it was a rejection letter that noted that "the herding nomads of the region generally referred to as Lappland refer to themselves as Saami, and for verisimilitude, we should do the same, rather than using the term 'Lapps.'" Fair enough.

Except that: 1) I used the term Saamemaa for formerly-known-as-Lappland, indicating that I know my shit, thanks, and 2) having a non-Saami refer to a Saami in a derogatory way as a Lapp -- especially in a pre-contemporary setting -- does not in the slightest lack verisimilitude. Yes, it's a derogatory term. It's used in a derogatory way in the story. It's used to indicate that a character has no respect for another character without even knowing him and is being incredibly rude. In fact, it would be anachronistic to have a generic non-Saami use the proper term unless they were unusually close to and/or respectful of Saami culture, up until not too long ago.

This doesn't mean they should have bought the story. It was not for them; fine. But I hate knee-jerk responses like this that don't take into account context or characterization. And One Does Not argue with a rejection letter, particularly if one intends to submit to that market again, so instead I sigh: SIGH. Come on, people. I know it feels good to be the biggest geek on the block for half a minute, but can you pay attention to the story?

Otherwise a good day. Wore my favorite orange skirt (love the skirt), got pizza with dd_b, watched "Bob Roberts" with timprov. Um. He's building up a collection of dark comedies, and this one made me skittery and brought up stuff from "Desert Storm." It made me laugh, but often in a not particularly happy way. Still recommended, though.

Comments

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

Oh, bugger them and the reindeer they rode in on. Sheesh.

I've always had a weird affinity for Saami stories. I look forward to reading yours.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I'm full of Saami stories. When people say, "Man, that M'ris is sure full of it," the "it" is apparently "Saami stories." Although it should be a "them," technically, but for some reason nobody ever says, "M'ris is full of them."

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I have never heard any Saami stories, though I am fascinated by Scandinavia generally, and read several nonfiction books on the Saami written for children this past year. (I was in the middle of a general indignation project about the lack of Scandinavia in reading material for children, either fiction or non.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

M'ris to the rescue!

Seriously, snowy mythologies have eaten my brains. I even bought myself two pairs of elisem earrings about it this week.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Yeah, right. That's what people mean.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

Definintely annoying. My aunt had a habit of doing stuff like that (well, she probably still has the habit, but I haven't seen her in 2 years).

On "Bob Roberts" - I saw that movie in a theatre and the last 10 minutes or so of handheld camera actually gave me motion sickness. I was sitting there with my eyes closed, just listening to the movie and trying not to barf. It must have looked Very Odd Indeed.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I've closed my eyes for weird camera motion enough that I wouldn't have thought anything of it. What I hate is slightly blurred panning -- makes me feel like my contacts are messed up.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I saw Bob Roberts late at night on cable. I'd never heard of it and I spent the whole movie wondering what the heck it was. Especially as it has Tim Robbins in it. I think it's a brilliant film that only gets more relevant as time goes by.

One of my favorite dark comedies is an post-WWII Ealing Studio film called "Kind Hearts and Coronets." It's about a guy who is 17 (or some such #) people removed from royalty, so he sets about to remove them all so he can become a duke. The best part about this film is that all his relatives are played by Alec Guinness.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We'd never heard of it, either, except that the Amazon recommendation function finally worked for something.

That "Kind Hearts and Coronets" thing sounds fabulous. Maybe this means I'm a sick person. Anyway, it's definitely on my list now.

[greatestofnates.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Happiness? I liked it, but it's not for everyone.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't. I can't even remember hearing anything about it.

[greatestofnates.livejournal.com]

It came out about 8 years ago. One of the main characters is a pedophile (they treat that seriously) and another is a phone stalker. It didn't get a lot of play in the suburbs.