The science fiction in Spanish is at war. Since the Celsius, the festival of the fantastic that is held every summer in Avilés, announced to Orson Scott Card as headliner of this year's edition, many have been the authors, national and international, who have shown their discomfort about it. But the thing is reaching up to the unthinkable extreme of a group of, up to now, followers of the festival, have been proposed to organize this summer an act of protest that would be “burning of books” of its more controversial headlining up to date. “What sense does something like that in a festival that is called Celsius 232 in honor of the work of Ray Bradbury that precisely attacks the censure which consists in the burning of books?”, wondered yesterday, Cristina Macía, one of its directors, that “understands” the position of those who are declining their invitation to the festival not to share space with the author of The Game of Ender, but he insists that “not inviting you so he thinks, but by his books”.

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Orson Scott Card was a myth, of the height of literature by Isaac Asimov, William Gibson, or the own and is the closest, even in ideology, since both are mormon, Brandon Sanderson, until it started to charge against the gay marriage for more than a decade. Then, those who had read his books, the most famous of them all, The Game of Ender –awards Hugo and Nebula in 1986, initiated a review of its work found clues everywhere. After all, the protagonist of the famous saga is a transcript of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the mormon church. But the work, full of nuances, never judged or been judged, homophobic. However, his writings and statements, yes. For example, has such a Card, that gay marriage was going to be “the end of democracy in the united States” and that homosexuality “is a mental illness”. And not only what has been said, it has been ranked alongside groups that have fought actively against gay rights considering that “should not be treated as equal citizens with the rest.”

Javier Ruescas, author of fiction and juvenile key piece, since its inception, the festival, is one of the three authors that have declined by the time the invitation this year –the other two are Iria G. Parente and Selene M. Pascual–, in which, he says, has been a decision “very thoughtful”. “We could have decided to go to not cede our space, as done by other authors, national and international, but after thinking about it a lot separately and talk about it between us, Iria, Selene and I decided to decline the invitation. We believe that to give voice to a man as he is to give a first step towards something very dangerous: whitening of a clear homophobia, and the fact that we go, like has been shown on other occasions, he would give him advertising and content to an edition of the festival which legitimizes the presence of anyone who goes against our rights,” says the writer, who, as such, he says, do not buy the argument of the organization of that “one thing are books and the other, the author” because, he says, “I think that all we leave part of who we are in our art.”

we Believe that to give voice to a man as he is to give a first step towards something very dangerous: whitening of a clear homophobia

Javier Ruescas

The profile Card (Richland, 68 years), each time more radical, forced the producer of the movie adaptation of The Game of Ender to dispense with their figure during the promotion of the film in 2013, “which would make you more evil than good.” By then, made a statement to the american magazine Wired in that was still charging towards homosexuals. “We ask that we be tolerant of them, but they do not tolerate that we think what we think”, he said to the journalist. “What level hurts everything that is happening in the Celsius?”, tuiteaba yesterday Ruescas for his more than 80,000 followers. “The level of which, apart from love the festival, I was a great admirer of Orson Scott Card, until I did queue to get to know you”, she said and showed a picture with him. “Years later I learned that I hated people like me and struggling to take away my rights”, he concluded. Two authors international, china, Marie Lu, and the american V. E. Schwab, invited this year to the festival, to be held in mid-July, also discussed in Twitter about the possibility of not attending in protest.

“Many readers have asked me to decline the invitation as an act of protest, but if I yield my space to the intolerance, bigotry wins,” wrote Schwab, bisexual, and author of magic more dark (Minotaur), which alerts the festival on “the posture terrible” that he seems to take the invite Card. “I think it's a generational problem", pointed Sofía Rhei, another regular on the Celsius. "It is the crystallization of the change of the times. What we are seeing is a tipping point. While those under 30 are clear that they refuse to share space with someone as well, the elderly as well as I, we, and we begin to question ourselves,” he added. From the organization, it is denied that the Celsius will cease to be “in a safe place as it always has been” for the collective LGBTI and insists that “nothing will change”. “It's been nine years organizing a festival with a few very clear objectives, not only in terms of the parity, which we have achieved, and seeking to censure us in this way to ourselves would be to give back, something that we don't think to do that, because our approach has responded and responds to the exclusively literary”, stated Macia.

Date Of Update: 10 January 2020, 00:00