A nice book overall that i think is a bit sullied by that "intentionally left blank" part at the end. I like the little playing with format ALA house of leaves but i cannot disagree with the message more. I even agree with the message after that and in this very page, but to call the likes of Gygax and Arnessen racists and fascists is preposterous, insulting and frankly misguided.
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hi there! i don’t think it’s possible to read the text critically, as a product of its cultural context, and not arrive at the conclusion that the authors were influenced by a socially ingrained prejudice against indigenous people (especially considering the western genre’s influence on sword-and-sorcery pulp literature). luckily for us, gygax explains this himself in a forum post from 2005, comparing the position of lawful-good characters who are obliged to slay evil characters (where evil, above all else, is a racial categorization) to the position of american soldiers killing not only native american warriors but women and children (“nits make lice”). again, i think all this is quite clear from the text itself, but this interpretation agrees entirely with gygax’s own. take it up with him!
Gygax was definitely a racist and a generally terrible person. In addition to the post already linked, he also said some absolutely terrible stuff about women. Arneson is much less clear to me as he didn't seem to engage as much online back while he was still alive, but given the crowd he kept and where he was I wouldn't be surprised.
'Definitely' and 'terrible person'. I'm sure this person knows this from experience and knew Gygax. They couldn't possibly be basing this on their own priors, confirmation bias, or limited data from like-minded folks.
Gygax's own words, viewed in a convenient way can be shown to mean many things. People pick the exact same (essentially) few lines to nail him on stuff. He certainly was a believer in good and evil. Heck, he was a Jehovah's Witness. He had essentialist ideas. Sometimes monsters are just that ... the zombie isn't nice, the orc is part monster ... whatever... I am opposed to essentialism but am adult enough to recognize this is not just a basic fantasy trope, but a basic (flawed) human impulse throughout all of human history and is still alive in (most?) many areas of the world today. Is it nice? Of course not. It's often used in attacks from both sides of a debate. Lumping together people of color when convenient or beneficial, and calling it racist when not. The primary thing done by posting about it is to explain who you are likely to vote for in an election what organizations you probably sympathize with or rail against, what charities you probably donate to, or what audiences you don't want to deny yourself the money of (obv. not in this case as this is a free product).
Was he gross towards women? Again, I'm sure a random internet person knows based on personal time spent with him not just hearsay. Maybe he was, heck he probably was based upon current mores and perhaps those of the time. If so - it's irrelevant to pretty much anything. When the radio station plays Thriller - it doesn't make them complicit in child sexual abuse to not mention that Jackson was a likely abuser. I don't expect all albums, art, books, products, and films by anyone to begin including muck-raking about how the person had unseemly feelings, thoughts, or actions (even if unfalsifiable). Owning a Ford doesn't imply I support anti-semitism. Seriously, microscopically few people care about these modern comments on the lives/works of dead people.
Ridiculously long story short, who cares what random people say? It's a them 'problem'. Cut the offending pages out of the book if you don't like them and then ritualistically burn them while listening to Beat It sitting in your Ford motorcar and enjoying culturally appropriated food.
Random person out