Someone published an article online and a lot of people are mad about it. I have thoughts and feelings about it, so I shall shout them to the internet, because why not. This is probably a subject most people find boring. Even I find it a little bit too stale to talk about. But is interesting because encompasses two of the things I somewhat care about: the publishing world and pop culture.

Brandon Sanderson is a behemoth of the fantasy genre. He is very consistent with his work and has created this whole – if I may – extended universe that ties all his pieces together in a huge jigsaw cornucopia that geeks love.

This is what happened. On March 23rd, Jason Kehe posted an article on Wired. And a lot of people on the internet have read it, and not only that, BUT have responded, in form of blog posts (yes, we still exist) and video essay answers. The niche section of the population that is very (but like very) invested in Brandon Sanderson has risen in arms for this guy. And Brandon even responded, in a Reddit post no less and I find all of this funny in a silly vanilla way. Perhaps because I am considering another layer. One that roots a little bit deeper.

The article is achieving its purpose, to be clickable and to be shared and talked about. Sanderson’s defenders go wild into why the journalist is so mean and out of place, and I highly recommend going down that youtube rabbit hole just to get a glimpse of the fiery passion with that he is being defended. Nothing wrong with that; Sanderson is broadly loved by the community (Im feeling second-hand embarrassment as Im typing this), because what is the community? When something goes viral on book tube, or booktok or whatever funny wordplay book + social media platform comes to mind, does it mean really that that thing is actually ‘happening‘?

Just because few people are the noisiest, does not mean that they are the opinion of the hive mind or even right.

And this is where I start to split hairs and full-on speculate without shame. The article is sort of mean and bitchy. And yes, subjective pictures are drawn, and yes, Sanderon’s surroundings are described in a negative light. But I don’t think is mean-spirited (call me naive, whatever), but playful and cunty. Sanderson is described as weird and uncool. Yes, the author is hyperbolic and goes into deep essayistic poetry that might be unnecessary, but I have seen enough videos of Sanderson to agree. Brandon is just a big geek, a little bit awkward, living in his own world, and, again, there is nothing wrong with that.

The thing is, why are his fans so mad about all this?

My theory is that it hits too close to home to let it go. As a general rule of thumb, in life, people will have opinions no matter what. We can ignore them, or not, and whatever happens, everyone’s life will go on and that’s it. Some people say that this is not journalism. I beg to differ, due to the fact that is equally attractive to praise something that I love and despise something that I hate. Hating together has made more friends than toxic positivity and political correctness and thanks to this article, all these social media people are coming together in the name of hate, and I am so proud to see it.

But why do they feel so passionate about defending Brandon? He cared enough to respond briefly, but I think, that on the grand scale of things, he does not give a rat’s ass and he is laughing on his way to the bank. Social media in any field has become this network of echo chambers that are somehow a parallel universe. Let me rephrase that; they are small hubs of echo chambers, inside the real world, but somehow not totally connected. They live listening to the information they share in their bubble and just a whisper of what’s coming from the outside.

Like, Brandon Sanderson’s fantasy influencer fans are a small percentage of fantasy readers overall, that is a small part of the publishing industry, that is a small part of the world in general. How out of touch can you be as a fan to go and record and edit and publish a video essay defending Sanderson when he probably doesn’t even care. I’m sure that Jason Kehe is laughing while checking the statistics of his article with a sauvignon blanc in his hand while watching Drag Race Belgique. Is never that serious.

I will give my two cents. This has gone under these YouTubers’ skin because they see themselves in Brandon. On a different scale, for sure. But they all check the boxes of fantasy writer that curates their customer base from views on social media. Sanderson has reinvented the author–reader relationship. He gives updates about his projects regularly and he is consistent releasing his books. He is a mastermind in planning books, sagas and easter eggs across sagas, and he is very fervent about it. He has created his own system that work for him and is the beacon for a lot of authors that seek to follow in his footsteps. So when he gets any kind of bad energy, they all feel attacked.

And this is a lesson for all of us; critics will come, who cares, laugh and move on. In the words of Behan,

‘There is no such thing as bad publicity’

A lot of these people might feel slightly hurt because they depend on alternative ways of creating and maintaining clout to make sales. A very interesting thing happening lately in every industry is that several influencers will sell a product without launching it the conventional way, without jumping through the many hoops that any established industry demands. Now, any well-established industry will act as a filter too, and in the time of digital capitalistic democracy, anyone can self-publish a book without major editing. Wattpad is a thing, and I can upload any manuscript to Amazon with an AI-generated cover and call it a day.

These kind of products may not meet the quality of the products that get released conventionally, and this has created this sort of war of insecure people that feel attacked for nothing just because someone has knocked on the door of their echo chamber and reminded them that there is a world out there.

Brandon Sanderson is a great worldbuilder. I particularly don’t enjoy his writing; it feels reductive in a way. But hey, we love Hemingway for that same thing too so who knows if we will be praising thim or not in thirty years. For now, I find it, for the lack of a better word, a bit simplistic. And I know that his worlds are amazing and all that, but I am not willing to walk through a desert of mechanically created characters in a basic word salad just to enjoy the occasional fulfilling meta-reference.

Bottom line,

Who cares.

Support the authors you love and long live the freedom of speech. And if anyone feels too strongly about a little article somewhere, they hall get better emotional tools.