The finalists for the 1941 Retro Hugo Awards were announced on Tuesday, April 26.
There were 481 valid nominating ballots (475 electronic and 6 paper) received and counted from the members of Sasquan, MidAmeriCon II, and Worldcon 75.
BEST NOVEL (352 ballots)
Kallocain by Karin Boye (Bonnier)
Gray Lensman by E.E. “Doc” Smith (Astounding Science-Fiction, Jan 1940)
Slan by A.E. Van Vogt (Astounding Science-Fiction, Dec 1940)
The Ill-Made Knight by T.H. White (Collins)
The Reign of Wizardry by Jack Williamson (Unknown, Mar 1940)
BEST NOVELLA (318 ballots)
“The Mathematics of Magic” by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt (Unknown, Aug 1940)
“The Roaring Trumpet” by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt (Unknown, May 1940)
“Coventry” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, July 1940)
“If This Goes On…” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, Feb 1940)
“Magic, Inc.” by Robert A. Heinlein (Unknown, Sept 1940)
BEST NOVELETTE (310 ballots)
“Farewell to the Master” by Harry Bates (Astounding Science-Fiction, Oct 1940)
“Blowups Happen” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, Sept 1940)
“The Roads Must Roll” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1940)
“It!” by Theodore Sturgeon (Unknown, Aug 1940)
“Darker Than You Think” by Jack Williamson (Unknown, Dec 1940)
BEST SHORT STORY (324 ballots)
“Strange Playfellow” (a.k.a. “Robbie”) by Isaac Asimov (Super Science Stories, Sept 1940)
“Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” by Jorge Luis Borges (Sur, 1940)
“Martian Quest” by Leigh Brackett (Astounding Science-Fiction, Feb 1940)
“The Stellar Legion” by Leigh Brackett (Planet Stories, Winter 1940)
“Requiem” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science-Fiction, Jan 1940)
BEST GRAPHIC STORY (92 ballots)
Batman #1 (Detective Comics, Spring 1940)
Captain Marvel: “Introducing Captain Marvel” by Bill Parker and C. C. Beck (Whiz Comics #2, Feb 1940)
Flash Gordon: “The Ice Kingdom of Mongo” by Alex Raymond and Don Moore (King Features Syndicate, Apr 1940)
The Spectre: “The Spectre”/”The Spectre Strikes! ” by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily (More Fun Comics #52/53, Feb/Mar 1940)
The Origin of the Spirit by Will Eisner (Register and Tribune Syndicate, June 1940)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (LONG FORM) (250 ballots)
Dr. Cyclops written by Tom Kilpatrick, directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack (Paramount Pictures)
Fantasia written by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, directed by Samuel Armstrong et al. (Walt Disney Productions, RKO Radio Pictures)
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe written by George H. Plympton, Basil Dickey, and Barry Shipman, directed by Ford Beebe and Ray Taylor (Universal Pictures)
One Million B.C. written by Mickell Novack, George Baker, and Joseph Frickert, directed by Hal Roach and Hal Roach, Jr. (United Artists)
The Thief of Bagdad written by Lajos Bíró and Miles Malleson, directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, and Tim Whelan (London Films, United Artists)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (SHORT FORM) (123 ballots)
Merrie Melodies: “A Wild Hare” written by Rich Hogan, directed by Tex Avery (Warner Bros.)
The Adventures of Superman: “The Baby from Krypton” written by George Ludlam, produced by Frank Chase (WOR)
The Invisible Man Returns written by Joe May, Kurt Siodmak, and Lester Cole, directed by Joe May (Universal Pictures)
Pinocchio written by Ted Sears et al., directed by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske (Walt Disney Productions, RKO Radio Pictures)
Looney Tunes: “You Ought to Be in Pictures” written by Jack Miller, directed by Friz Freleng (Warner Bros.)
BEST EDITOR – SHORT FORM (183 ballots)
John W. Campbell
Dorothy McIlwraith
Raymond A. Palmer
Frederik Pohl
Mort Weisinger
BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST (117 ballots)
Hannes Bok
Margaret Brundage
Edd Cartier
Virgil Finlay
Frank R. Paul
Hubert Rogers
Note: Category has 6 nominees due to a tie for 5th place.
BEST FANZINE (63 ballots)
Futuria Fantasia by Ray Bradbury
Le Zombie by Arthur Wilson “Bob” Tucker
Novacious by Forrest J Ackerman and Morojo
Spaceways by Harry Warner, Jr.
Voice of the Imagi-Nation by Forrest J Ackerman and Morojo
You might think handing out awards for the best science fiction writing of the year would not be, ahem, rocket science. But you’d be wrong.
George R.R. Martin commented:
“When I saw [the 2015] ballot I felt I had to say something and refute the Puppies’ claims that there was discrimination against conservative fiction,” Martin says. “There have been plenty of conservative writers in SF. I think SF has always had both liberal and conservative writers, but there probably have been more liberals.
“This is a genre about the future, it’s about looking at different ways of living, of governing, of sexuality, all those things. It’s always been forward thinking. As the great writer Theodore Sturgeon said, SF is about asking the next question.”
This year, following the controversy of 2015, the Sad Puppies have published recommendations, rather than a “slate” for supporters to submit. “This works much better; anyone can publish lists of recommendations for books they want to win,” Martin says. He pauses. “The Rabid Puppies, on the other hand, that’s another matter. Their intention is to burn down the Hugos, to destroy everything. That’s pretty toxic.”
Vox Day (Theodore Beale) responded:
In 2015, Beale published a slate of 67 nominations and asked his followers to nominate them. Fifty-eight made it in, including two of his own works. But why? “For over 20 years, the mainstream science-fiction publishers have been trying to pass off romance in space and leftwing diversity lectures as science fiction,” Beale tells me. “The Puppies are a popular reaction to mediocrities and absurdities being presented as the very best that the field has to offer.”
Are people buying memberships to a convention they have no intention of attending, purely to vote on the Puppies’s slates? “I believe so,” says Beale. “The unprecedented numbers make it clear that people on both sides were buying supporting memberships in order to vote for and against the Puppy recommendations.” Doesn’t that make a mockery of the whole Hugo system and ethos, though? “No more than it has always been,” Beale says. “I think they [the Puppies campaigns] have successfully exposed the extent of the ideological bias in science fiction and fantasy publishing, and in the media. The media coverage last year was so insane and so over the top that it significantly boosted support for the Rabid Puppies.”
Alastair Reynolds offered his analysis:
“This is an attempt by various elements of the American right to regain the centre ground of SF from some perceived shift to the liberal left,” he says. “It’s predicated on a falsehood … as any analysis of recent Hugo nominations and winners will show: there is no demonstrable bias from within the field against writers of faith, or those who have right-leaning politics. And yet, the Puppies keep recounting the same doctrinal narrative, with a seemingly endless appetite for name-calling.”
Reynolds asked for Slow Bullets to be removed from both the Puppies’ lists, to no avail. “I do not want their endorsement; I do not want even the suggestion of their endorsement, and for that reason I requested that my story be removed from both lists,” he says.
And Reynolds shared his guess about the immediate future:
E Pluribus Hugo needs to be approved at this year’s Worldcon to get passed. If it does, a change to the World Science Fiction Society constitution can go ahead – and this time next year the Hugos nominations process could look very different. But overhauling the nomination system wouldn’t close out the Puppies – I’m told it’s about not allowing any one party to shut everyone else out. Even if it makes for a fairer, less easy-to-game system, has the reputation of the Hugo awards already been broken?
“Well, badly, I suspect,” says Alastair Reynolds. “Last year was a catastrophe and this year may not be much better.”
(1) NORTH CAROLINA FAN EVENT AWAITS DEVELOPMENTS. Walker Stalker Con has announced that they are postponing their 2016 Charlotte, NC event until December to give the North Carolina state house a chance to repeal NC HB 2 (or the courts to throw it out).
Steven H Silver adds, “Just last night, I was wondering if conventions and conferences (not just in NC) would start to try to include a clause which allows the event to pull out of the venue without penalty if the state government passes discriminatory laws.”
As the time neared for fans to be let into the skating rink, the crowd swelled to a ridiculous size and effectively blocked off any sort of access to the food court or the surrounding shops itself. And when VIPs and fan zone winners asked where they could queue up for entry into the rink, no one had any answers for them.
So about 20 minutes before we were let in, I was queueing in the corner of the rink (marked “Access point for inner sanctum” in the picture at the top of this post), right smack in the middle of a big crowd. That one access point was where everything went in and out, so at one point I had trays of hot food for VIP guests brushing past my left, while random people kept pushing me from behind or squeezing in front of me to get to the escalators. I was quite literally trapped on all sides.
To make things worse, when members of the media started going in with bulky equipment, I got pushed around a lot because there was literally no more space to move or to let people through. And people were STILL trying to push their way through the crowd to try and get closer to the rink. That bottleneck was a serious fire hazard, and at one point I seriously thought that I’d never get out of this bloody event unharmed….
One fan flew all the way in from Brunei for the chance to meet Cap, Falcon and Winter Soldier.
So after all that hoohah about the $688 and $1288 packages for the Civil War blue carpet, there’s only one question left to ask: Was it all really worth it?
In the run up to the event, many fans had contacted Geek Crusade for more information about the blue carpet. But we soon realised that one of them had actually purchased a $688 package, before the packages on offer mysteriously disappeared from the event page. (Reed Exhibitions later told The Straits Times that the packages had sold out)
In the long-ago days before email and about when ARPANET was becoming the Internet, there was a young woman who was a fan but not in fandom. She barely knew of the existence of fandom, and if any of the people around her were SF fans, they didn’t talk about it because it was somehow lowbrow. But she had read all the Bradbury, Bradley, Heinlein, and Le Guin in her school libraries. She loved books, and reading, and SF, and fantasy, and somewhere along the way had become aware that in far away places there were people who thought SF was pretty cool and authors won awards for this stuff, prestigious awards, a thing called the Hugo Awards. But these were the pre-internet days and news about this was not widely circulated unless you knew where to look.
The young woman went off to college. One day she stopped by the office of one of her professors and was standing in the doorway talking with him. On his desk was a beautiful silver rocket on a wooden base. “That’s a really lovely sculpture,” she said. “Thank you,” he replied, “That is my Hugo.”
That was the day that I learned that the Hugo Awards were not some unobtainable honor given only to mythical, unapproachable authors by mysterious deities. That shiny rocket had been bestowed on James Gunn for “Best Related Work”, his biography of Isaac Asimov. The book had been chosen by the biography’s actual readers, by science fiction fans, as deserving of the award. To me, that made it even more of an honor….
(5) THE PINOCCHIO GAMBIT. If you’re one of the people who told a friend you nominated them for the Hugo, and they went and blabbed it all over the internet, what are you going to do when they find out they’re not on the final ballot tomorrow? Don’t fret. Order your friend a set of these Rocket-shaped salt and pepper mills and tell them they already won!
(6) WHO BENEFITS? John Scalzi spotlights the way Kindle Unlimited compensates authors in “Scammers and Fixed Pots” at Whatever.
…(Nor is adjusting one’s work to take advantage of the market a problem; publishers have always done this. Is the money is cheap paperbacks? They will make cheap paperbacks. Is the money in hardcovers? They’ll make hardcovers. What, novellas are the next big thing? They’ll all make novellas! Likewise, if Amazon is saying to self-pubbed authors (and, by extension, scammers) “[X] is the way we decide to pay you,” then it’s rational to do [X].)
The problem with the Kindle Unlimited scammers isn’t really the compensatory triggers of KU or the fact that everyone, legit author or otherwise, is looking for the way to squeeze as much money as possible from it. The problem is: who bears the immediate economic brunt of the scammers taking advantage of whatever scheme Amazon decides upon? Well, it’s not Amazon, that’s for sure, since its financial exposure is only what it wants to pay out on a monthly basis; scammers in the system or no, Amazon only pays what Amazon wants to pay. The readers also get off lightly; their economic exposure is only they flat fee they pay to access KU.
So that leaves the actual authors, whose share of a fixed amount of money is being diluted by bad actors who see how the system can be gamed and are cheerfully gaming it as fast as they can….
…It is possible, however, that money will no longer exist by the time cryonics pays off, and that people will not have to work for a living. A society that has achieved the medical breakthroughs necessary to cure disease and end aging, Kowalski and others believe, may also be one bereft of poverty and material want. In such a scenario, clothing, food and homes, fabricated with 3D printers or some other advanced means, would be abundant and freely available. “It doesn’t make sense that they’d take the time to revive people into some dystopian, backward future,” Kowalski says. “You can’t have the technology to wake people up and not have the technology to do a bunch of other great things, like provide abundance to the population.”
Still, even if cryogenically revived persons come back to a more equitable and advanced future, the mental flip-flops required to adjust to that new world would be substantial. Dislocated in time, alienated from society and coming to grips with the certainty that everyone and everything they had ever known is irretrievably lost, they would likely suffer symptoms of intense trauma. And that’s not to mention the fact that some may have to deal with a whole new body because only their head was preserved.
(8) EX MACHINA. Abigail Nussbaum delves into the issues raised (and some missed) by the movie “Ex Machina”. BEWARE SPOILERS. Scores high on bringing to my attention new ways of thinking about things. (Will they be new to you? I guess there’s only one way to find out.)
While I agree with [Laurie] Penny about the anxiety that underpins these stories [about fembots], I think that I would take a step further, and suggest that they–and Ex Machina in particular–are getting at the more fundamental question of what being a woman actually is. As much as it raises feminist issues, Ex Machina makes much more sense to me when read through a trans lens, as the story of Ava’s becoming–unwillingly, and only as a means of survival and escape–a woman.
(9) SF’S VANISHING COMPETENCE. Charlie Jane Anders’ io9 post, “The Moment When Science Fiction Split off From Competence Porn” is recommended by Gregory N. Hullender as an “Interesting article about how mainstream shows and movies have ultra competent technical folks but SF shows have incompetent people. Anders suspects it’s because lots of people are overwhelmed by new technology these days and they like post-apocalypse stories because they let us return to a simpler world.”
…[The], the original Star Trek mostly shows the Enterprise crew being pretty competent, but now we’re only allowed to have science explorer heroes if the focus is on the captain being unqualified for his rank.
But meanwhile, “competence porn” is our most popular entertainment, in the movies as well as television. Medical shows (like House) and forensic/detective shows (like CSI or Bones) celebrate the hero who has godlike powers of reconstructing the past and figuring out exactly what’s happened. There are detectives who can tell whether you’re lying at a glance, or who can reconstruct a complicated crime scene by looking at a few twigs, Sherlock-style.
And as we wrote a while back, every police procedural and spy show (or movie) has to have the stock “nerd” character, the slightly loopy guy or gal who can hack into any computer or zoom-and-enhance any video. There is an army of incredibly brilliant, nigh-omnipotent nerds on television….
David Brin has his own take on why this happens: authors are lazy.
“How SF split off from ‘competence porn’.” The latter genre – like The Martian – thrills fans with a can-do spirit that used to be core to science fiction, both on-page and on-screen. In io9, Charlie Jane Anders writes: “This shift coincides with the decline in space opera on television, and the rise of apocalypses and “disaster porn,” which are at least partly a wish-fulfillment fantasy about life becoming simpler and less confusing again. We have ‘competence porn’ in the present day, but when we imagine the near future, we reach for ‘disaster porn.’” I revere Charlie Jane for (among other things) clearly citing the current, largely dismal mood in SF as dull, unimaginative and unhelpful, contributing to decayed confidence in real life problem solving.
Where I part company is over why. This is not a matter of near-future vs far. Competence and hope – set amid thrilling danger and good writing – can be found in SF set amid all kinds of futures — near, middle and far — as evoked by Stargate and Firefly, by the works of Banks and Vinge. (And some of the rest of us try, as well.) No, the plague of zombies and apocalypses and illogically red-eyed dystopias has one central cause — laziness.
A day following the April 13 news that President Obama will receive early screeners of the highly anticipated Game of Thrones season six episodes, a journalist requested through the Freedom of Information Act that he “share his advance screeners” with the public.
Though HBO announced in early March that no members of the press will receive advance screeners, unlike in past seasons, a journalist is still trying. On Friday, Vanessa Golembewski revealed in a Refinery 29 article titled “Only Obama Gets Game of Thrones Screeners, So I Filed an FOIA Request for Them” that an FOIA request was filed on Thursday in an attempt to obtain the episodes….
Upon learning that Obama would come to know the fate of three of the show’s stars before the rest of the waiting global audience, Golembewski reasoned in the application: “If the president — and by extension, our government — is in possession of a file, surely that file is subject to my request to see it as a U.S. citizen.” In the “description” section of her web application, Golembewski penned, “I would like President Obama to share his advance screeners for Game of Thrones with the public” and filed “$0” as the amount of fees she would be willing to pay for the information.
(11) AND ONE MORE THING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT. By all means, get emotional over the change in the Cracker Jacks packaging, and weep that those cheap little prizes have been replaced with QR codes to access a game app. Gizmodo leads the Greek chorus —
Truth be told, the prizes inside Cracker Jacks haven’t been that cool for some time. There used to be decoder rings and toy figurines. In the most recent “box” of Cracker Jack that I ate, I got a temporary tattoo. But they were prizes! They were real. They did not require a smartphone to appreciate them.
A world with prize-less Cracker Jack is not a world I want to live in, but I think I’m more upset about the loss of the box. The Uncanny Valley-ization of Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo in the logo is awful enough, but taking the box away is an affront to baseball fans everywhere.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Bruce Arthurs, Will R., Mark-kitteh, Steven H Silver, Gregory N. Hullender, and David Doering for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]
By James H. Burns: Recently, The Phantom, the great comic strip character created by Lee Falk in 1936, celebrated his 80th anniversary.
The Phantom, of course, is “The Ghost Who Walks,” the legendary protector of the wild jungle domain of Bangalla, who hands his mantle onto a son or other descendant, and operates from a cave-base deep within the country’s interior…
The Phantom began his quest for justice against PIRATES, hundreds of years ago, and to the denizens of his world, he seems eternal.
Almost always overlooked, is that he was also the world’s first super hero, before Superman and Batman, (and appearing less than five years after the Shadow, in the pulp magazines), or at least the comic world’s initial masked and costumed adventurer!
The Phantom was part of that great newspaper comics pantheon of heroes that included Flash Gordon, Terry (and the Pirates), Mandrake the Magician (also created by Falk, about an expert illusionist who investigates mysteries and intrigues–one of the many forerunners of Marvel’s Dr. Strange!) and the comic strip adventures of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan.
In the 1930s, when these series debuted, it was before the advent of television, of course, and the vast number of Americans–and others around the world–turned to their daily papers for a serialized jolt of action and adventure , and of course, also comedy, with a wide array of humor series.
Lee Falk
Falk, like almost all of the creators of the major comic book heroes, was Jewish. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, born in 1911, Falk was only in his early twenties when he created Mandrake (whose debut preceded the Phantom’s premiere, by less than two years)! (Many artists, over the decades, collaborated with Falk on the comic strips for which, reportedly, he also drew the first installments.) Ultimately, Falk became a devoted world traveller, as well as a theatrical director and producer. (The Phantom and Mandrake had over one hundred million readers across the planet, and were adapted into almost all forms of other media. (The Phantom retains a particularly devoted following, in Australia.) Falk’s last years were spent in Manhattan, and Cape Cod, before he passed, in 1999.
I was lucky enough to actually grow up with the vast majority of classic comic strip characters, thanks to a newspaper that has long been forgotten: The New York Knickerbocker.
Debuting sometime around 1967, the paper (aka, for a while, apparently, The New York Daily Column and The New York Knickerbocker) was a Sunday edition, initially featuring a variety of syndicated feature stories and columns, and also a great selection of comics, highlighting the legendary continuities from decades past, that were still, at the time, being produced:
Suddenly, every week, I was able to follow Flash and Dale Arden, Major Hoople (of Our Boarding House), Joe Palooka (and Mickey Finn), Alley Oop, Captain Easy, Snuffy Smith (and Barney Google), Popeye, There Ought To Be A Law, and in a sensational center spread, Russ Manning’s glorious work on Burroughs’ Tarzan! (There were also the Sunday page hijinx of such other old friends as Archie, Yogi Bear, and The Flintstones!)
Between the Knickerbocker and The Long Island Press Sunday paper (ultimately to be supplanted by Newsday’s Sunday edition, in the early 1970s), and The Sunday Daily News, virtually the whole world of comics was available to me —
Or a pretty sizable sample!
Dick Tracy and Dondi, along with Winnie Winkle and Moon Mullins were in The News, while Mandrake and The Phantom were in The Long Island Press (along with, somewhere, Brenda Starr)! Relatively new to the scene were other strips I looked forward to each week: Tiger, Eek and Meek, Andy Capp, Fred Basset…
(The News‘ comics section was actually a Monday morning gift from my wonderful next door neighbors of the time, Alice and Sam Picker!)
Mine might have been the last generation able to experience new installments of all these great works, while also experiencing the explosion of creativity happening in the world of comic books!
It soon became a cherished part of my week to wait for my Dad to come home with the papers, and sit down to the Sunday funnies… (The earliest issues, in fact, must have helped teach me to read!) In later years, this terrific repast would occur sometime after coming home from Sunday School.
It also pleased me to know that I was taking a part in what was a great American tradition!
At some point in the early 1970s, The Knickerbocker went under. But within weeks, it was replaced by a new Sunday comics supplement, sold entirely on its own, entitled The New York Comics. Sadly that too only lasted a short while longer.
But The Phantom remained a constant in the different editions, and was a favorite of mine, as he fought crime and other menaces, often accompanied by his wolf, Devil, and his sturdy mount, Hero! Once in a while, Falk would tell a tale of one of the earlier Phantoms, and you’d suddenly be transported to yet another fantastic time.
In the later 1970s, I also became enamored by the wonderful Phantom comic books from Charlton, illustrated by the supremely talented Don Newton.
So, it was with great glee that I discovered that Falk was going to be a guest at one of Fred Greenberg’s Great Eastern Conventions’ first two-day affairs, (after years of running one day events), at Manhattan’s Penta Hotel (aka the Hotel Pennsylvania,and the Statler Hilton, just across from Penn Station).
Lee Falk in 1986.
And a little bit of history may have been made that day, or at least an element of the Phantom’s chronicle discovered, that should be more widely noted.
First up, was the beginning of a mystery, one which perplexed even Falk.
I was sitting with my friend, Douglas Aleksey, the late, long time comics fan who, during the question-and-answer session, asked Falk about a film clip he had once seen, in a montage-tribute to Marcello Mastroianni, where the legendary actor was dressed AS Mandrake!
Falk was stunned, and was as curious about the appearance as Doug was!
The answer to this conundrum came over a decade later, when I was watching 1987’s Intervista, Federico Fellini’s kind of fake documentary, about his making of another feature film!
Suddenly, as Fellini’s in his office having a production meeting, Mastroianni comes floating up to the window, dressed as Mandrake (and standing on a rising platform)!
In a film within a film (within a film!), Mastroianni is making a commercial on the studio lot, starring as Falk’s legendary prestidigitator!
Falk certainly knew Fellini. According to some sources, in 1971, producer Dino De Laurentiis flew Falk to Italy to meet with the director, hoping to foster a Mandrake movie. Fellini was a long time comics fan (who once, famously, visited the offices of Marvel Comics, in Manhattan). At various times, Fellini had apparently stated his desire to make a Flash Gordon film, based on Alex Raymond’s and Don Moore’s comic strip, or other comics related films.
But what Falk may not have known–and which I only discovered when researching photos for this article — is that Mastroianni also played Mandrake in 1972, with the famed film star Claudia Cardinale as his beloved (and later wife), Narda–
Directed by Fellini!
According to one source, Fellini was invited to help edit a special issue of French Vogue, when he decided to devise a fumetti, a photo comic, long popular in parts of Europe, starring his associates.
That’s Cardinale in the white dress, and here, how she might have appeared in an actual Mandrake feature film!
There was one more surprise at the question-and-answer session in New York.
Falk had already mentioned that the Phantom’s home, Bangalla, could be seen, to some extent, as a mythical place, a combination of many jungles from around the globe.
I raised my hand, and as gently as I could put it, said to Falk something along the lines that as great a character as the Phantom is, as many wonderful stories as Falk had written, with all the great efforts he had taken to show people of color with respect and dignity… Through no fault of his own, some could argue that in the modern age anyway, the Phantom could be perceived as the embodiment of what could be called the colonial and prejudiced notion that the people of the jungle needed a “Great White Saviour….”
Falk smiled warmly. He made reference to the tribute hall in the Phantom’s cave, honoring past Phantoms through the ages, and their families.
“You know, we probably haven’t seen all of the Phantom’s ancestors.”
Quite logically, and subtly, Falk was suggesting that the modern Phantom we’ve all grown up with, could well be multi-cultural.
ADDENDUM:
There was a surprising number of PHANTOM merchandising spinoffs in the 1960s, especially during the latter part of the decade’s super hero years. Perhaps the neatest element of the board game seen below was that it came with a facsimile of the Phantom’s skull ring!
MidAmeriCon II’s Patty Wells and Melissa Morman are looking for help furnishing the exhibit hall at this year’s Worldcon in Kansas City. Here’s their pitch:
One of the advantages of being favored with five acres of exhibit hall is that we have the room to make our dreams come true. One of our dreams is to put a river through it — so we have also gone and put a park alongside that for good measure. And what is a park, or a river, without park benches to sit on and admire the view or converse with a friend?
At the Worldcon in London a couple of years ago, the convention scattered benches throughout the Fan Village and other parts of the Exhibit Hall, and asked fan groups to sponsor a bench with a plaque commemorating their group, their bid, or a member of their group on it. This idea was well-received by the fannish community and much fun. M2 is continuing this tradition (it’s been done once, so it’s now a tradition, right?).
We are therefore offering you and your group the opportunity to get your message out, publicize your group, or memorialize a lost friend. The benches we are ordering for the fan fair are a lovely metal bench in a design sure to add to your local con should you take the option of taking the bench home after the con.
There are multiple ways you can participate:
OPTION 1 — Sponsor a Plaque ($150)
Send us your group’s name and/or message and we will have it engraved on a plaque that will then be attached to one of the park benches (see above). If, like many of us, you are traveling to KC from distant lands, the plaques will be removable for you to take home as a memento for the group or person you honored. We will have the plaque made with your message. The plaques will take two lines of text, with roughly 20-25 characters per line.
OPTION 2 — Sponsor a Bench! ($200)
This gets your group’s message on a plaque AND you can take the bench with you when the convention is over as a comfortable addition to your next fannish event. And if you are taking the bench home, arriving during Exhibit Hall set up and decorating your bench in some fannish fashion to make it more memorable is encouraged.
OPTION 3 — Sponsor a Bench AND a Park ($500)
Want more exposure for your group? Sponsor a pocket park along the river! Surround your bench with flora and maybe even some fauna; make it distinctive! M2 will name the park after your group and place an acknowledgement sign in the park which may also contain a custom message (“Come to your party on Friday night!”, “Vote for Trantor in ‘99”, or even “Ygnvie is a Louse!”). With this option, you may again take the bench home with you (along with its plaque!) as well as the acknowledgement sign.
If your sponsor dollars are received early, your sponsorship can be acknowledged in the convention’s pocket program.
Popular conrunning fan Ed Dravecky III died April 23 in Irving, TX while at Whofest, the convention he co-founded.
His brother wrote on Facebook:
When Eddy didn’t show up for an event, his longtime girlfriend Robyn went to his hotel room and found him unresponsive. He was rushed to the hospital where the medical staff worked on him for about 45 minutes but were unable to resuscitate him. The doctor said he died peacefully and painlessly.
Dravecky, a nationally-known conrunner, also co-founded FenCon in Dallas in 2004. He served as the event’s communications director and webmaster from the beginning.
He helped handle social media for LoneStarCon 3, the 2013 Worldcon in San Antonio, and was a past board member of its parent group, ALAMO, a Texas nonprofit corporation that has organized many major conventions.
Dravecky was a past president and held other offices in ORAC, the “Organized Rebel Adventurers Club” of Dallas/Ft. Worth.
His particular interests as a fan were MST3K and Doctor Who.
Dravecky attended Georgia Tech. Afterwards he spent a dozen years working as a radio disc jockey – “moving town to town, up and down the dial” like in the WKRP theme song. He said of his experience:
I broadcast under my own name as well as the airnames ‘Scott Montgomery’ (my idea) and ‘Skip Church’ (not my idea). Yes, “Skip” had the Sunday morning shift before the syndicated countdown show. Surprisingly, the station received no complaints.
He finally settled in Dallas, where he helped develop music scheduling and broadcast automation software with several leading companies.
Dravecky originally was from Huntsville, Alabama and his brother says he will be interred there. A service will be held at Huntsville’s Holy Spirit Catholic Church, and there will be a separate memorial service for his friends in Texas in a few weeks.
Quotes from behind the scenes at the 30th Arthur C. Clarke Award judging meeting:
“You would have to like science fiction to like this book, but if you like a certain kind of science fiction, you’ll love this.”
“I don’t think this book is science fiction, but that doesn’t mean it’s not science fiction.”
“So basically this book is a bit like Game of Thrones, only without Tyrion?”
“The other good thing about this book is it’s short.”
(2) CLARKE AWARD LIVESTREAM. As reported in yesterday’s Scroll, the Arthur C. Clarke Award announcement will be livestreamed via Periscope on April 27 — https://www.periscope.tv/clarkeaward. I asked the Award Director what time:
It’ll be between 6.30 & 8pm UK time, but hard to confirm more precisely until the day as it’s not our show, we’re just featuring in it.
I will be tweeting updates on the day.
(3) KEEP YOUR HANKIE HANDY. “The 13 Most Devastating Deaths in Science Fiction” at Outer Places. You want to know how much weepage is in store for you? Here’s a hint. The regeneration of the Tenth Doctor Who only ranks #11 on the list!
On the other hand, Will R. demands to know why Tasha Yar isn’t on it at all…
(4) MIKEROCOSMOS. Mike Resnick will be Guest of Honor at the Burroughs Bibliophiles’ Dum Dum 2016 in Chicago, from August 4-6. He told his Facebook readers:
To coincide with my being Guest of Honor at this year’s Dum-Dum (the annual Edgar Rice Burroughs convention), they are publishing a book that collects almost all of my writings from ERB fanzines (mostly from the 1960s), plus some of my more recent fiction (the story where Lucifer Jones meets Tarzan, the Hugo-nominated “A Princess of Earth”, etc. Here’s the current state of the cover; the stuff in the circle will of course be replaced. I didn’t choose the title, but I have to admit I -like- MIKEROCOSMOS
Well, now you get to do some research on your particular book. Go to your biggest market (probably Amazon), and start pulling up the first books in your also-boughts for one of your books. (Skip the other ones by you. That just proves that the readers like you, and buy more after one try.) Now, you’re going to break out for each of these some basic dissection.
1. Is your protagonist Male or female? How old are they?
2. Is there romance or romantic subplot in the book? What rough percentage of the book is dedicated to the romance?
2a. Are there explicit sex scenes? (female audience!)
3. On the action to introspection scale, what rough percentage of the book is action, and what percentage internal monologue and introspection?
3a. Is the protagonist whiny? (female audience!)
4. Is there a sidekick? Are they humorous? (kids and male audience!)
5. Is your antagonist nature itself, some faceless group entity / race / corporation, or a villain?
5b. If your antagonist is a villain, What is their age, sex, and occupation?
5c. Is it the cartoon standard of rich old white man or corporate man for evil corporation?
6. Is your scifi hard, cyberpunk, military, space opera, or steampunk? Is your fantasy urban fantasy?
6b. Does your urban fantasy have sexy monsters or ugly monsters that get killed?
Born April 24, 1914 — William Schloss a.k.a. WILLIAM CASTLE was born. Castle directed B-movie classics such as House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, 13 Ghosts, Strait-Jacket and more.
(8) PORTO’S. How I long for the good old days when I worked in a building across the street from Porto’s Bakery in Glendale, with a window view of the place! The Los Angeles Times recently profiled the business: “How long lines keep Porto’s Bakery affordable – and growing”.
“It gets more complicated from one generation to the next,” Ude said. “It’s not always like Porto’s, where the kids see how hard their parents work and choose to work just as hard.”
“It’s a hell of a brand with scrappy customer service,” he added. “Clearly they’re all on the same page.”
The rise of national chains like Panera Bread, Corner Bakery Cafe and Au Bon Pain doesn’t faze Betty Porto. Those brands serve a niche, she said, but they don’t come close to having the tradition that Porto’s commands with the families that have braved the lines for years.
“You come to Porto’s, I can make a cake for your child’s first birthday, her communion, her baptism and her quinceanera,” she said. “I can marry her off and then the next generation starts.”
Porto’s is where John King Tarpinian used to order the specially-decorated cakes for Ray Bradbury’s birthday celebrations at Mystery & Imagination Bookshop.
More than 200 Junior Doctors join actors from Secret Cinema’s 28 Days Later production to stage imaginative protest against Jeremy Hunt – hitting back at the negative impact that the new junior doctors contracts will have on patient safety and the NHS
…The protest was part of Secret Cinema’s ongoing drive to promote social causes. Secret Cinema is currently staging of Danny Boyle’s cult classic 28 Days Later, and recently laid on a free screening for hundreds of junior doctors and NHS staff.
The company is supporting the Justice for Health campaign, which this week forced the current Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to give an emergency statement to Parliament regarding the Government’s ongoing negotiations with Junior Doctors.
(10) AS SEEN ON THE INTERNET.
I see File 770 has turned its jaundiced eye on me, thereby proving my point about the internet and stupidity
— Ian Sales ???????? ???????? (@ian_sales) April 24, 2016
(12) HELP OVERCOME AWARDS SADNESS. Ian Sales is already at work on his own solution — “The inaugural Sputnik Award”.
A few days ago, Lavie Tidhar tweeted a sarcastic comment, as he is wont to do, about libertarians having a science fiction award, the Prometheus, but there being no corresponding award for socialists. And while he likely didn’t mean it seriously, it did occur to me that perhaps there should be an antidote to science fiction’s notorious right-wingness (and by that I’m referring to the texts, not the authors). Where are the science fiction works which posit socialist, or communist, futures? Where are the sf books which celebrate left-wing political thought? And isn’t it about time we showed those right-wingers that: no, they don’t speak for all of us. In fact, they probably only speak for a minority.
Back in 2009, Mark Boulds and China Miéville published a book of essays on “Marxism and Science Fiction” titled Red Planets. And Miéville has proffered a reading list of left-wing genre works. But this should be something which is ongoing, which grows each year, which is in conversation with both itself and the wider genre (yes, including its more fascistic elements).
So, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I thought it might be a good idea to, well, take Lavie’s idea and punt it out into public for discussion. And I decided to call this imaginary socialist sf award the Sputnik Award because it was the most obvious name for it – celebrating both the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth (you can’t get MOAR SPACE than that), the Russian for “fellow traveller” (used as code for “communist”), and named for a thing rather than a person (who might later prove divisive or contentious).
However… awards need shortlists. From which they can choose a winner. Who will then receive a trophy or something. But, well, socialist science fiction… Such a thing exists, it must exist, but where is it? Can anyone suggest any science fiction novel, novella, short story or graphic novel, published in 2015, which is both science fiction and socialist? There’s Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora, although that posits a form of Athenian democracy (a political system much beloved in sf) rather than outright socialism; Carolyn Ives Gilman’s Dark Orbit certainly embodies the spirit of socialism, although the only political systems mentioned are anything but; and there’s Carter Scholz’s ‘The United States of Impunity’ which is only just sf and only just fiction and more of a critique of the current economic and politic climate in the US than anything else…
There must be examples out there. Any suggestions? Or is sf just too right-wing? Are we going to have to accept that science fiction exists only as a right wing genre? That even its left-wing writers end up writing right-wing stories? I hope not.
Because that would be really sad.
(13) DELANY. Colin Hinz asked fans to identify the eminence gris Samuel R. Delany mentions (but not by name) in his famous 1998 essay “Racism and Science Fiction”. Winning two awards at the 1968 Nebula Banquet did not begin to take away the sting of the words Delany listened to that night.
It’s an odd experience, I must tell you, to accept an award from a hall full of people in tuxedos and evening gowns and then, from the same podium at which you accepted it, hear a half-hour jeremiad from an eminence gris declaring that award to be worthless and the people who voted it to you duped fools. It’s not paranoia: By count I caught more than a dozen sets of eyes sweeping between me and the speaker going on about the triviality of work such as mine and the foolishness of the hundred-plus writers who had voted for it.
According to the Third Annual Nebula Awards Banquet program, the guest speakers at the 1968 event in New York (there was also one in Berkeley) were Frederik Pohl (then editor of Galaxy and If), Lawrence P. Ashmead (a Doubleday editor), and Gahan Wilson (artist and cartoonist).
If you think you’ve guessed who (I don’t know the answer), let me make it a little harder. During the previous two years, Pohl had published a novella and short story by Delany in his magazines. And Doubleday was already scheduled to bring out Nova in the summer of 1968.
(14) POV. Ann Leckie has quite a bit to say about point of view in “More Omniscient”. Here’s one brief example:
Let me be clear, there’s nothing wrong with 3rd person limited POV. But it’s not the only way to go.
Now, is it true that editors won’t buy it, or that readers won’t read it? I suspect there’s not as much published in omni, but is that because editors won’t buy it, or because writers don’t write in it, or when they do they handle it badly because they’re thinking of it as multi-limited 3rd with unrestrained headhopping?
And as for readers–you learn to read particular sorts of things by reading those sorts of things. If no one is writing omni, readers won’t be used to it. If you want readers to appreciate works in omniscient, well, you have to give them well-written examples of it to read. Editors are readers. It’s possible some younger editors may well have limited experience reading work in omniscient. I’m guessing about that, I don’t know for certain.
You can throw up your hands and say that the only thing to do is to write thing things editors are used to and likely to buy. You know, if you want. You do you, I’m not here to tell you how to manage your career. But I don’t think that’s the best course to take, I think if you give editors and other readers a really well-done example of something they’re not used to, they’ll be interested and intrigued. I don’t think we’re helpless in the face of What The Reader Expects.
(15) ONE OF THE BEST. Get Bruce Gillespie’s Science Fiction Commentary #91 as a free download from eFanzines.com.
In this issue Bruce Gillespie, Jennifer Bryce, and Elaine Cochrane write about their Favourites of 2014 and 2015, and Colin Steele covers The Field—reviews of many recent SF, fantasy, and horror books. Front cover by Steve Stiles, and back cover from Murray Moore. 70,000 words.
(16) THE FAN WHO RAN 26.2. Jim Mowatt ran the London Marathon today in 5.15.02 to raise money to Save the Rhino. You can still donate at Jim’s fundraising page. When I checked this afternoon, he had raised £2,317.40 of his £2,500 target.
Here are photos taken while he was on the course, and at the finish.
Mowatt at mile 25. Photo by Silas Potts.
Jim Mowatt basks in the glory of a completed marathon.
[Thanks to Petréa Mitchell, Will R., and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
The juried award for the best short story and best novel written in the German language is sponsored by the SFCD, Germany´s largest science-fiction club. Each winner will receive €1000. The awards ceremony will take place at MediKonOne in Oldenburg on August 13.
Best Short Story
»Tremolo« by Gabriele Behrend. In: NOVA 23.
»Operation Gnadenakt« by Frank Böhmert. In: phantastisch! 57.
»Der heilige Wasserabsperrhahn« by Uwe Hermann. In: »Das Amt für versäumte Ausgaben: Kurzgeschichten – Band 4«.
»Ein glücklicherer Ort« by Boris Koch. In: Exodus 33.
»Diese verdammten Alienzombieroboterviecher« by Frank Lauenroth. In: »Die Magnetische Stadt: 2014 Collection of Science Fiction Stories«.
»Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!« by Guido Seifert. In: NOVA 23.
»Der Zwillingsfaktor« by Christian Weis. In: Exodus 33.
Best Novel
»Meran« by Dirk van den Boom.
»Das Schiff« by Andreas Brandhorst.
»Feuer am Fuß: Die Maeva-Trilogie 3« by Dirk C. Fleck.
The award, named after early sf author Kurd Laßwitz (1848–1910), has been given since 1981 to exceptional German sf works and translations. For more information (in German) see the official site here.
Michael J. Sullivan: “Zeitfuge” [Hollow World] (Heyne)
Jeff VanderMeer: “Southern Reach”-Trilogie [Southern Reach Trilogy] (Kunstmann)
Jo Walton: “Der Tag der Lerche” [Ha’penny] (Golkonda)
Best Science-Fiction Translation:
Eva Bauche-Eppers for the translation of China Miéville: “Das Gleismeer”
Eva Bauche-Eppers & Elvira Bittner & Frank Böhmert & Sabrina Gmeiner & Laura Scheifinger & Andrea Stumpf & Margo Jane Warnken & Samuel N. D. Wohl for the translation of James Tiptree jr: “Liebe ist der Plan (Septime)
Bernhard Kempen for the translation of Ann Leckie: “Die Maschinen” (Heyne)
Nora Lachmann for the translation of Jo Walton: “Der Tag der Lerche” (Golkonda)
Best Cover Picture or Illustration:
Dirk Berger for the cover of: “phantastisch!” 59 (Atlantis)
Dirk Berger for the cover of: “Nova” 23 (Amrûn)
Mario Franke for the cover of: “Leipzig – Visionen gestern und heute” (Edition Solar-X)
Timo Kümmel for the cover of: “Exodus” 33
Michael Vogt for the cover of: “phantastisch!” 60 (Atlantis)
Best German Audio Play:
“Draußen unter freiem Himmel” by Michaela Falkner (WDR)
“Sale” by Georg Heinzen (WDR)
Special Award for Extraordinary Achievements (One time):
Birgit Fischer & Roger Murmann for the organization of WetzCon II
Hardy Kettlitz for his non-fiction book “Die Hugo Awards 1953-1984”
Thomas Braatz & Ralf Eiben & Manfred Orlowski & Freundeskreis Science Fiction Leipzig for being editors of “Leipzig – Visionen gestern und heute”
Hannes Riffel & Sascha Mamczak & the Golkonda-Team for continuing their science-fiction yearbook
Special Award for Extraordinary Achievements (Over years):
Arno Behrend & Gabriele Behrend & Torsten Frantz & Utz Benscheid & Irma Leu & Lars Adler & Michael Ehrt &
Astrid Ehrt for organizing the DortCon The Team around Klaus N. Frick & Klaus Bollhöfener & Katrin Weil for organizing the Galaktische Forum
Roger Murmann & Christian de Ahna & Birgit Fischer & Kurt Zelt for 30 years of Buchmessecon
Hannes Riffel & Karl Heinz Schlögl für fünf Jahre Golkonda Verlag
Jürgen Schütz for publishing the entire works of James Tiptree jr. in his publishing house Septime
(1) CLARKE AWARD SHORTLIST COMING APRIL 27. Call it your palate cleanser after the Hugo nominations come out on April 26.
Arthur C. Clarke Award Director Tom Hunter says:
That’s right, this Wednesday 113 books becomes a shortlist of 6, and if you fancy one last try at second-guessing our judges you can check out the complete submissions list here…
Hunter is also giving readers a chance to win copies of the six finalists:
Want to take your own best guess at this year’s shortlist? Email me at [email protected]before we announce on Wednesday and if you guess correctly, or closest, you could win all six books!
RULES: You must guess six books, no more no less, and provide a short reason behind your guess. Your reasoning is your own, it can be your personal favourite six, the six you think most likely, an utterly random guess or six authors who happen to have the letters ACC in their names. We don’t mind how you choose, we’re just curious to know why.
(2) RAF CLUB EXHIBITION ENDING. You have one more day to see Keith Burns’ exhibit at the Royal Air Force Club, in Piccadilly, London. It closes April 24.
James Bacon, whose review will be appearing at the Forbidden Planet website, says this is an opportunity not to be missed:
I was incredibly impressed, this was a fabulous selection of work, in such poignant and salubrious surroundings, I can only encourage fans of aviation art, and war comics to get in as promptly as possible to see this exhibition. The artwork is all priced and very keenly so, and both originals and some framed prints are available.
Keith Burns’ art can also be seen on his website (which includes multiple galleries of his comics work) and his Facebook page.
(3) JAMES H. BURNS ON TV. Frequent File 770 columnist James H. Burns says, “To my surprise, I was on the local CBS New York news this evening, commenting on the most tragic of events…”
In the weeks ahead, Beetle House — “with an atmosphere and menu inspired by the works of Tim Burton” — is opening at 308 E. Sixth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue. The bar will feature drinks such as:
Beetlejuice – Muddled blackberry and limes, Tequila, Blackberry schnapps, Angostura bitters, splash of cranberry. $14
Edward’s lemonadee – Old fashioned with Orange bitters $12
The headless horseman – Hendricks Gin, Lillet blanc, Cointreau, dash of absinthe, fresh lemon juice. Garnished with an orange peel. $16
Chocolate factory martini – Vanilla vodka, Dorda chocolate liqueur, cream, creme de cocoa. Garnished with a chocolate bar. $14
You can check out the rest of the drinks and food menu at the Beetle House website. (You may text them for a preview invite.)
(5) WHEEL OF TIME. Harriet McDougal made a “very mysterious” announcement this evening at JordanCon. She has instructed his fans to check Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time Google+ page or Dragonmount on Wednesday for information regarding the future of The Wheel of Time.
April 23, 1616 — William Shakespeare died. Mentioned here because he has ghosts in some of his plays, you know….
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS
Born April 23, 1923 – SF writer Avram Davidson. Tachyon Publications posted a summary of his career.
Born on April 23, 1923, Avram Davidson was a medic in the Marine Corps during World War II, fought with the Israeli Army in the 1948 war for independence, and began writing in the early 1950s as a Talmudic scholar. He eventually wrote nineteen published novels and more than two hundred short stories and essays including THE PHOENIX IN THE MIRROR, CLASH OF STAR-KINGS, THE ISLAND UNDER THE EARTH, ROGUE DRAGON, URSUS OF ULTIMA THULE, and THE BOSS IN THE WALL (with Grania Davis). He edited THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION from 1962 to 1964. His works garnered Davidson two Hugo, two World Fantasy, and an Edgar award. In 1986, he was given the prestigious World Fantasy Award For Life Achievement.
Born April 23, 1935 – Tom Doherty. The centerpiece of Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s tribute to the Tor publisher (first posted in 2013) is an anecdote from the first Kansas City Worldcon:
…Then in the early 1970s he jumped at the opportunity to become publisher of a mass-market paperback line called Tempo Books. In almost no time he was publisher, not only of Tempo, but also of the venerable SF imprint Ace Books, which had gone through multiple owners and a rough several years in the early 1970s.
As it happens, the Ace that Tom inherited had some unresolved business problems and some unpaid debts. Tom tells the story of his first World Science Fiction Convention, in Kansas City in 1976. On entering the storied Muehlebach Hotel, he was confronted by a prominent SF author well-known for his, shall we say, forceful manner of speaking. “I’m with the Science Fiction Writers of America,” declared this writer, in a voice that shook potted plants thirty feet away. “And we are going to Audit. Your. Books.”
The background buzz of multiple conversations came to a sudden stop. “There he is!” Tom could hear a fan saying. “There’s that new publisher who’s trying to screw over Andre Norton!”
As Tom tells it, he spent about five seconds convinced that he was going to be lynched…and then walked over to the author in question, put his arm on his shoulder, and suggested they discuss the matter over a drink. In not very much time, Ace’s business problems were sorted out, and in the late 1970s it re-established itself as one of the leading imprints in the field….
Born April 23, 1939 — The Six Million Dollar Man, Lee Majors.
(9) THAT DARNED DEMOCRACY THING. Ian Sales assures us the Wrong Things have already been nominated for the Hugos, in “An honest vote is a wasted vote”. Well, I’m afraid you don’t need to be Cassandra to predict that in 2016. But he means as a general rule.
Assuming most voters have only read a small portion of the eligible works, and that portion is likely different for everyone, then lots of works will get only a handful of votes each (this is more the case with short fiction categories rather than novels, of course). Which does sort of render the whole award pointless.
Assume instead that people vote for works not simply because – perhaps not even because – it was the work they thought best of those published in the preceding year. Perhaps they vote for a work because:
people they trust have told them the work is award-worthy
they’ve liked other things written by the person, if not this particular work
they like the writer (or their blog, etc)
they think the writer deserves an award (for any number of reasons)
the writer is a friend
the writer has helped them in their own writing career
Perhaps I’m being unfair, perhaps people really do vote for the story or book they think the best of the year (seriously, wtf? Redshirts was a better novel than 2312?). But I think people vote tactically, either consciously or unconsciously. If they’re part of a writer’s informal support network or fandom, then they’ll likely vote for that writer. If they hear lots of buzz about a particular work, they might well vote for that if they’re short on their ballot.
Many of you are nice and passionate. Thanks for being fans — if not of mine or my work, then of Star Wars in general. It’s a universe under a big, big tent. That’s a good thing.
Sometimes, though, in fandom, passion becomes tainted — shot through with the sepsis of frustration. And further, sometimes fandom attracts people who are, mmm, maybe not the finest specimens of humanity, and when that happens, harassment occurs. As it has occurred amongst the Bring Back Legends movement.
You need to get your house in order.
What I mean is, harassment is not a good way to get what you want. It is, in fact, a very good way to be dismissed. It is a great way to be seen as bullies. And nobody wants to give you more Legends if the way you get it has been by protracted campaigns of harassment or even by rogue members of your campaigns and Facebook groups demonstrating very bad behavior. Some other fans who operate fansites have felt harassed and bullied (for instance: this post at Tosche Station). I’ve seen it in person. I’ve seen it online. I’ve seen what happens at the Star Wars Books public Facebook page (and whoever runs that page has the patience of the saint and is hopefully paid a merciful six figures). Threats to spoil The Force Awakenscame out of an Expanded Universe group. This is not unknown. It is real.
I know I’ve been on the end of harassment — not just for the content of Aftermath but sometimes because I am somehow held responsible for having ended the EU, or because I’m not Timothy Zahn or because I supposedly hate Legends, or, or, or. I get emails….
An independent bookstore in Chicago’s Wicker Park, Quimby’s is more for those with a taste for the avant garde. They specialize in underground comics, unusual publications and independent zines. If your teen is tired of the usual superhero in spandex tale and is looking for less mainstream reads, this bookstore is definitely a necessary stop while in the Windy City. (1854 W. North Ave, 773-342-0910)
(13) COLLECTIBLES. AbeBooks has posted its top 10 list of expensive sales from the first three months of 2016. A trio of genre figures are on the list.
2. The Works of HG Wells $20,792 Published in New York by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1924-27. Twenty eight volumes bound in brown half morocco. Number 524 of 1,050 copies signed by the author on the limitation leaf of volume I.
7. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien – $8,069 Christopher Lee’s personal copies of Tolkien’s famous books. Lee, who died in 2015, played Saruman in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy and was the only member of the production to have met Tolkien. The Fellowship of the Ring is a 4th impression from November 1955. The Return of the King is a first edition, first impression from 1955, and The Two Towers is a second impression from 1955. Lee had signed all three books. There was also a loosely inserted page of notes on hotel notepaper. They appear to be notes to himself (‘House of Eorl in wrong place?’ ‘Gimli – Jammy Sod/ Don’t give a Toss’ etc.) about the making of the Lord of the Rings film and mention Saruman, Gandalf, Gimli and Tolkien. Lee had a long and distinguished acting career before working on Jackson’s films. He starred as Dracula in the Hammer Horror films and was also a Bond villain in The Man with the Golden Gun. Sold by Any Amount of Books from London.
8 [tie]. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke – $7,500 A 1968 first edition, signed and inscribed by the author to Robert O’Brien, then president of MGM, the producer of the film of the book directed by Stanley Kubrick. “To Bob O’Brien, With many thanks and my appreciation of his support. Arthur C. Clarke. 28 May ’68.” O’Brien gave the go-ahead for the production of the film. The book was published after the release of the movie, which premiered on April 4, 1968. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, and won for best visual effects.
“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu is one of the most gorgeous, surprising and strange stories I’ve ever read. Some stories just seem to wing free of convention, to follow an unexpected trail to something excitingly new.
(15) AMERICAN GODS. Shelf Awareness reported that Starz has “rounded out the cast of American Gods,” the 10-episode series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel. Deadline reported that the new cast members include Cloris Leachman, Peter Stormare, Chris Obi and Mousa Kraish. They join Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, Sean Harris, Yetide Badaki, Bruce Langley, Crispin Glover and Jonathan Tucker. Shooting began this week in Toronto, and will continue in various locations across the U.S.
Bored of beaches, cruises, ancient cities and great works of art? Does the thought of another week in a high-end spa, on a private island or luxury yacht fill you with world-weary ennui?
Then a trip to space is for you. After a number of delays and setbacks, several companies are edging closer to offering voyages into space. All you need is money (lots and lots of money), a healthy approach to risk and a little patience.
But which space tourism provider to choose? In the absence of a cosmic version of Tripadvisor, we rated the various options, according to cost, ‘wow factor’ and more….
(17) THERE’S A CASE TO BE MADE. Catherynne Valente began to suspect when she heard the internet cough up a furball.
I choose to believe 90% of the content on Reddit is produced by malevolent cats.
(18) ON THE GROUNDS. It’s not too late to act in a coffee commercial with Boris Karloff!
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, JJ, Hampus Eckerman, Chip Hitchcock, Michael J. Walsh, Lauowolf, Erin DeSimone, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Steve Davidson.]
