Evaluated

I've never read any of Brandon Sanderson's novels. But, from the handful of people I've met who have read his work, they're pretty good. Which may explain why, when the author launched a Kickstarter campaign to release four new books a little over a week ago, it took off. As I write this, the campaign has raised more than $26,000,000. It's goal was to reach just $1,000,000.

As is the case with such things, there is always someone who begrudges another their good fortune. Consider the following passage from a Slate article about the response to the campaign:

Since Sanderson’s Kickstarter made headlines, there’s been, unsurprisingly, some grousing on social media about whether such an already commercially successful author needs that kind of money. “Today is a really good day to support your favorite author who hasn’t made $18M in the last few days,” tweeted the fantasy novelist Natania Barron. Others have been frustrated that it’s a straight white Mormon man benefitting from this largesse: “There is so much excellent diverse SFF out there,” tweeted the critic Alex Brown, “and y’all are intent on giving that man millions of dollars.”

How Angry Should Other Writers Be About Brandon Sanderson’s $22 Million Kickstarter?

(I'll come back to that title later.)

Complaining about other people being successful is never a good look. But complaining about how people choose to spend their own money is a particularly poor look. And it's part of a problem that has dogged the Black community in the United States.

It's not very far off base to say that for a number of Black people in the United States, the valuation given to them by the broader culture is unsatisfactory. And, for the most part, there's nothing wrong with that understanding. But it's a primarily personal judgment, just as value is. That a person feels undervalued can be an absolutely true statement. But that a person is not being given the value that they deserve is a completely different matter, because as with any number of other human ideas, personal value is not objective.

In this sense, complaining about the degree to which people value the work of others is to say that their preferences are incorrect. And that's a really hard sell, especially when dealing with something like Science Fiction and Fantasy, given how personal preference can be. It's one thing to berate a group of people over having pledged millions of dollars for a Kickstarter campaign, but that group of people is made up of individuals who each like Mr. Sanderson's work for their own reasons. Those reasons may not be particularly well thought out, but such is the way of things. "This makes me feel good," is as valid a reason as any other.

Being angry about Mr. Sanderson's success is about as useful as being angry at a storm for the inconsistency of it its effects. Even if it could be definitively shown to be due to the pernicious effects of racism in the United States, that alone won't change the game into one that's less winner (or first mover) takes all. And won't make valuations into an inherently mathematical calculation that only works on the factors that cultural critics think it should.