Fact and Fiction
The Staggers, as in “staggering ever faster down an intellectual and moral slope”, has this piece by Stephen Baxter about the Damascus Gay Girl blog, now known to be a hoax perpetrated by an American called Tom MacMaster.
The piece is sub-headed with one of those annoying questions:-
The “Gay Girl in Damascus” blog was a product of an American man’s imagination. But does it matter?
YES IT ******** DOES!!!! There’s all the difference in the world between a real life Syrian activist being taken off by the security forces and some bloke wanking in Edinburgh as he knocks out lesbian porn scenes.
MacMaster’s blog may have been fictional, but he says it was rooted in fact. He wasn’t there in Syria, seeing and experiencing the things his blogging persona claimed to be seeing and experiencing. He didn’t have those feelings; he didn’t have those thoughts. It must have taken a brilliant imagination to get Amina’s story across. Does it matter that it was just that, a story, rather than a real first-hand account?
Well yes it ***** does again. Stephen Baxter answers his question that on the whole, it was bad because of the difficulty that this will cause to genuine anonymous bloggers in repressive regimes. But he has to go through this path of questioning to take you where a 10 year old child could point you to at once – the difference between fact and fiction, between stories and lies, especially lies which bring other people to grief.
The sadness is that MacMaster is, to my mind at least, a talented writer. I think part of the reason why Amina’s story garnered so much interest was the brilliance of the realistic detail, the humanity of the story, the tenderness and empathy with which Amina’s life was depicted. Look back through Amina’s blogposts and you can find poetry, political posts and perfectly paced stories about emotional issues like coming out. See it for what it is – fiction – and you can admire the literary creation of MacMaster. If only he had presented it that way in the first place. If only he had.
The blog’s gone off the air so I can’t provide links. But here’s some of the poetry:-
Beyond the sea I watch her roam
The distant place where is her home
Upon the surf itself she walks
And like a nightingale she talks
She is gentle clean and pure
She is one with the azure
Coming towards me with the Tide
Across the waters I watch her glideFor her, I know, I’d lay down my life
If that, someday, would make her my wife
For all my sickness, she is the cure
If only she could come ashore;
Too close to her and I would drown
Before ever I could touch her radiant crown
I cry because I understand
She’s the Sea and I the Land
MacMaster says that when he writes poetry in Arabic it is stilted, but he is less embarrassed by it in English. However, he is not a man who is easily embarrassed.
MacMaster’s blog started off as a place to publish his extracts from a supposedly autobiographical novel about a gay Syrian Muslim brought up in the USA. This work has evidently been influenced by Rubyfruit Jungle, a well known lesbian novel of the 1970s. The protagonist’s girlfriends are shadowy, the dialogue lacks snap and point, and there are scenes of tenderly smiling sentimentality but there’s enough exotic background, both Syrian and American, to make it quite readable. The protagonist, Amina, is a bit too marvellous – ever beautiful, ever courageous, ever sexy, ever seductive, ever sensitive, aware, right on, full of attitude. A novel with such a piece of perfection as its central character reads like a conceited piece of wish fulfilment – which is what this blog was.
In fiction, including some of the best (eg Jane Eyre), the author will take as a hero someone they themselves are in the eye of God – braver, more resourceful, their virtue acknowledged and rewarded. There is a close relation between fiction and day dreaming. A work of fiction can tell embarrassing tales about how the author imagines himself – in schlock fiction the guy who can do everything and who gets the girl.
So MacMaster created his magnificent woman Amina who then wrote what was supposedly non-fiction, about what was happening in Syria. Through her he could voice his opinions about the ignorance of the West about Islam and his thoughts on Syrian history, politics and sectarianism. She was his mouthpiece and mask that gave him the chance to talk quite dirty, calling Israelis “The Chosen” and so on.
He got carried away, and his fantasy interacted with the real world – a world where less glamorous and outstandingly brave people are dragged away by real security forces to have real and horrible things done to them. That is what stops this story from being hilarious farce.
modernity said,
June 15, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Not only was MacMaster a fantasist who endangered the lives of LBGTers in Syria, he was something of a bigot, not unsurprisingly he had a chip on his shoulder against Jews.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-scotland-13747761
So MacMaster felt that he could better put out his twisted views via a sockpuppet.
I have no doubt he’ll become a hero amongst “Anti-Zionists”!
sackcloth and ashes said,
June 15, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Reasons why MacMaster is an arsehole, and why he should be despised:
(1) This was not an act of fiction, but an act of imposture. MacMaster did not write a blog from the perspective of a Syrian lesbian, he posed as one in order to con people into thinking that he was a voice from Syria’s LGB community.
(2) In the process he stole the identity of a third-party (Jelena Lecic) by using her Facebook photo, without any consideration for the potential implications for Ms Lecic.
(3) In his posts he projected his attitudes onto his creation, as if they were the authentic views of an Arab lesbian, rather than those of a white male ‘anti-Zionist’. These posts included an attack on ‘gay imperialism’ and ‘pinkwashing’, and also (as mod notes) a series of virulently anti-Jewish posts. The arrogance involved in this process can best be compared to (say) a member of the Monday Club during the 1980s concocting a diary purporting to be that of a black South African.
(4) In the process of inventing a fake persona – and then blogging about ‘her’ supposed ordeal at the hands of the Syrian Mukhabarat – MacMaster has given apologists of Asad’s regime the opportunity to discredit genuine accounts of human rights abuses emerging from the uprising right now. He has undermined the cause of those struggling for freedom in Syria right now, as any real accounts from the current revolution can be dismissed by the usual suspects as ‘another Amina’. Much the same can be said for any LGB activists in the Arab world struggling for the rights that are taken for granted in the West.
In a sense, MacMaster’s actions epitomise those of the ‘anti-imperialist’/'anti-Zionist’ clique in the West. He thinks he has the right to act deceitfully. He creates a sock-puppet so that he can present his rancid views as the authentic ‘voice’ of a Syrian. And ultimately, he shows that he has no fundamental interest in the well-being of those he emotes over. This narcissistic clown does not shame his peers – he represents them, and their inadequacies, to the nth degree.
johng said,
June 16, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Rather then engage in further ventriloquism perhaps its an idea simply to post the responses of actually existing activists effected by this:
http://gaymiddleeast.com/news/news%20317.htm
Max Dunbar said,
June 16, 2011 at 5:11 pm
I always liked Steve’s critiques of UK yellow journalism, but his article on this is disgraceful.
Surely one of the basic principles of journalism is that you have to know that people are who they say they are.
sackcloth and ashes said,
June 16, 2011 at 7:01 pm
In accordance with the ‘stopped clock’ principle, John Game actually provides a useful link, although I wonder what his comment about ‘further ventriloquism’ is supposed to refer to.
johng said,
June 16, 2011 at 10:42 pm
given that there is little to distinguish you from macmasters.
sackcloth and ashes said,
June 17, 2011 at 11:53 am
Oh really, John? Perhaps you could remind me when I last created a fake online persona as a homosexual Arab?
And talking of fakes, you persist in posing as an academic, despite the fact that you’ve produced fuck-all research, and you’ve spent at least eight years wasting your time on a spurious PhD project.
Rosie said,
June 17, 2011 at 12:56 pm
I don’t know if the “you” in this is Shiraz or Sackcloth, but perhaps you could point out some instances of “ventriloquism”.
sackcloth and ashes said,
June 17, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Come, come, Rosie. You surely don’t expect someone like Mr Game to actually substantiate an accusation, or to prove a point with evidence?
maxdunbar said,
June 17, 2011 at 5:17 am
S + A – perhaps the ‘John Game’ character is a sophisticated parody of Western intellectualism written by a secularist Middle Eastern academic.
sackcloth and ashes said,
June 17, 2011 at 11:54 am
If it is, it’s remarkably close to exposing the utter inadequacies of the so-called ‘anti-imperialists’ and their pseudo-intellectualism.
Rosie said,
June 17, 2011 at 1:04 pm
One of MacMasters’ excuses for his phony blog is “getting the message out”. The stupid arse could have done that quite easily. As someone with good knowledge of Syria and the gay activist scene there, he could have offered guest posts to reasonable sized blogs. His anti-Assad and anti-Israel polemic would have been acceptable in, say, Liberal Conspiracy and possibly Lenin’s Tomb (though haven’t read LT for ages so don’t know what the party line is on Syria). All he would have to have done is tone down the virulent “the Chosen” rhetoric and he would have made himself a niche as a writer on Syria. Then he would have got respect and the comradeship of fellow bloggers. Because of his fantasy life he’s made himself a pariah.
Sue R said,
June 17, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Don’t forget that his wife works in an academic department partially funded by Syria.