SciFidea Dyson Sphere Contest Results Announced But Prizes Not Being Paid

SciFidea’s international Dyson Sphere-Themed story contest opened in March 2023 offering cash prizes — $20,000 apiece to the ten winners, and $2,000 each for another ten shortlisted stories – with the entries to be judged by some of the field’s leading professionals. SciFidea named the winners this week, however, they now say they don’t have the money to pay the prizes.

The SciFidea brand was launched in Singapore in 2021 by founder Tang Feng (who self-identified as Liu Cixin’s editor) and chief editor Lynn Sun. Their SciFidea Dyson Sphere story competition had both a domestic (Chinese-language) and an international (English-language) side. On January 30, 2024 SciFidea announced the 11 winners of the domestic competition.

SciFidea had a presence at Chengdu Worldcon, but based on the Chinese-langauge conreport Lynn Sun published in December (under the name Dongfang Mu — “I go by Dongfang Mu in Chinese” Lynn Sun said on Facebook) it seems there were issues behind-the-scenes. In fact, by the time the report was posted Lynn Sun (Sun Lin) had already left SciFidea, leading to an exchange in social media where she said finances were her real reason for doing so.  

Then, on March 20, a Chinese-language announcement confirmed that SciFidea had declared bankruptcy, and the domestic side of the Dyson Sphere competition would be suspended. (Via Science Fiction Lightyear). Google Translate renders the announcement into English as follows (with minor manual edits):

Statement on the suspension of the Dyson Sphere Global Essay Contest

According to the competition schedule, the awarding of the “Dyson Sphere Global Essay Competition” was originally scheduled to be completed in February 2024. However, SciFidea’s capital chain was broken and it was no longer able to maintain the continued operation of the essay competition. It has now been decided to suspend the competition, and the project entity has also declared bankruptcy.

SciFidea waives all rights to all entries, and will no longer pay remuneration to participating authors and judges. All fees paid for this project will also be waived.

SciFidea is the operator of the Dyson Sphere Global Essay Contest. When the project investors and sponsors no longer support it, and after I continued to operate it with personal funding for a period of time, it is really unsustainable. I am deeply sorry for this difficult decision!

SciFidea will close the website, related accounts and servers in the near future to avoid the risk of illegal leakage of user information and work content. The winning author of the competition will be issued an electronic award certificate. Due to the large number of contestants, it is impossible to notify everyone one by one, so we hereby make this public statement.

Tang Feng

March 20, 2024

Having learned the fate of the competition’s domestic side, File 770 wrote to the contest’s email to ask about the status of the international competition. The “SciFidea Editorial Team” sent a partial answer, saying “We have indeed been keeping the judges of the English side updated on the latest status of the contest”, and that an official announcement would be coming on their Facebook page.

The SciFidea Facebook announcement came out March 26 – releasing the names of the winners, but also stating they “are temporarily unable” to pay the prize money while pursuing new sponsors. 

Dear participants and supporters, thank you for your patience. We are thrilled to announce the results of the SciFidea Dyson Sphere Contest!

The 20 shortlisted works were carefully deliberated and evaluated by our esteemed panel of judges based on the established criteria and scoring rubric, which we have previously published on our website as well as our Facebook page. The works with the ten highest total scores were then designated as the winning works.

Attached below in this post are the results of the contest, including the titles and authors of the winning and shortlisted works, in no particular order. All winning and shortlisted authors can expect to receive a certificate as a record of their outcome in the SciFidea Dyson Sphere Contest, for their future use.

Please join us in congratulating the winners for their creativity and outstanding works!

We would also like to express our gratitude to all participants for your submissions and continued attention. Your passion and talent is truly commendable, and we hope that you have gained much from the experience of the contest itself.

Last but not least, we would like to thank the judges for being a part of the contest: Phoenix Alexander, Neil Clarke, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Nancy Kress, Derek Kunsken, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Swanwick, and Liza Groen Trombi. Your continued contributions and efforts have been truly invaluable to the contest, and we are inexpressibly grateful for your help.

The SciFidea Dyson Sphere Contest faced delays due to problems with our funding sources. As a result, we are temporarily unable to award the prize money for the time being, but we are currently pursuing new avenues of sponsorship. Please give us some time, and we will provide updates on the next steps of the contest in due time.

We have been in contact with the shortlisted authors and the judges, all of whom have been notified as to the results and the situation of the contest. We will continue to update the authors and judges on the next steps of the contest whenever more concrete information is available.

Thank you once again for your participation and support!

Here is the list of winners.

TRYING TO UNDERSTAND SCIFIDEA. Where were the funds to pay the prizes supposed to come from?  

SMALL BEGINNINGS. According to a promotional article published by Pandaily in May 2023 (“Dyson Sphere: A New Trend in Global Science Fiction! Exclusive Interview with SciFidea’s Chief Editor”) the entity was started three years ago.

Reporter: Can you share with us how SciFidea was developed and launched back in 2021?

Lynn Sun: Sure. SciFidea started as a popular column named “奇想”(QiXiang) in the well-known Chinese SF magazine Science Fiction World. “Qixiang” means fantastic ideas literally, and it refers to the ideas or inspirations for science fiction. We then created a new word – SciFidea – for its English version. It was a new venture. When I joined Tang’s team, there were only Tang and me, a tiny startup with a big science fiction dream. We did all the work, editing, publishing, advertising… you name it! It was not until the second year that we started to have other workmates.

PARALLEL CONTESTS. The winners of the domestic side of the Dyson Sphere competition were named in January 2024, according to a March 10 SF Light Year post. Here’s the Google Translate rendition of the relevant paragraph:

The Dyson Sphere Essay Competition organized by Scifidea, a Singaporean international brand founded by the backbone of China Online’s science fiction platform “Fantasy Universe”, is divided into domestic and international competition areas. The domestic competition area announced on January 30, 2024 that 11 award-winning works have entered the signing process (Figure 1, link: Weibo text I confirmed with individual winners. After the announcement at the end of January, there was actually no follow-up contact at all and no one followed up on the signing matters.) The foreign competition area launched at the same time announced on November 30, 2023 (Figure 2) 20 shortlisted works selected from 205 entries, and it is expected that the top 10 finalists will be announced at the end of January, but it has been postponed several times to date.

SCIFIDEA’S “IP INVESTMENTS”. SciFidea used an unusual business model, where stories were promoted as “IP investments”. Per their tweets and information on their website, users would “subscribe to” individual stories.  Subscribing would not only allow users to read the stories via the SciFidea app, but also promised users ownership, governance and profit-sharing benefits in those stories.

The app used a virtual currency of coins to purchase/subscribe to stories.  Stories would be initially priced at one coin ($0.01 USD), but each additional subscriber would increase the price of a story by 1 coin, up to a theoretical maximum of 200,000 coins ($2000 USD).  As of March 28th, the price range of the stories on the site is between 315 and 1756 coins ($3.15 to $17.56).

The Scifidea FAQ page also had a rule to keep users from gaming their investment:

SCIFIDEA’S RIGHTS TO CONTEST ENTRANTS. Per the contest page on the SciFidea website, the authors of the shortlisted works “will be required to allow us to make it publicly and freely available on our website for a year”, with non-winning authors receiving $2000.

The ten winning authors “will each receive US$20,000”, but would be required to “agree to grant SciFidea a ten-year publishing license to that work, with the US$20,000 prize being an advance against royalties. The author will share 50% of the net income on print publishing rights (including foreign languages in foreign countries), and another 30% of the net income from developing your work into other media (film, television, animation, graphic novels/manga, and so on).”, with the possibility of a further 10 year license if the work has been adapted or similar.

Whether those winning works could or would be utilized in a similar “IP investment” sales model wasn’t explicitly stated.

MARTIAN SIDESHOW. Another thing SciFidea did to attract interest was this curious promotion about “tickets to Mars” which appeared on their site/app in September 2023:

A FINAL WORD FROM LYNN SUN. Two weeks ago, before SciFidea publicly announced it had filed bankruptcy, Lynn Sun made this statement on Facebook because people were still contacting her about the contest.

..Although my new project has recently been established, since my former employer SciFidea seems to be out of management, some authors from both China and the West have still reached out to me.

I feel the need to clarify the situation so that my new project isn’t adversely affected. It wouldn’t be fair to me or my team otherwise.

The founder and director of SciFidea has always been Tang Feng. The project was curated under the company ChineseAll Digital Publishing Co., Ltd., with their Singaporean branch being Col Web Pte Ltd. We were all employees of this company. Due to the organizational structure, I wasn’t supposed to know anything about the situation between Tang and his supervisor, so what was happening to SciFidea was actually beyond my knowledge….

…I’m not sure how SciFidea is doing now. Although I really wanted to help, some things are simply beyond my control. However, their issues have affected me directly or indirectly, which naturally frustrates me. Judges who used to trust them (or maybe even “us”) a lot might resonate with similar emotions, which makes me feel very sorry and sad about this.

So, let me just express my appreciation for all the effort that has been put into the contest, while I was still managing it.

Firstly, the judges were very responsible, they even helped to check through the contracts between the company and the authors before they took on the job. They only did this to help build a bridge between China and the West, payment was secondary.

As for me and the editorial team, we fulfilled our responsibilities, which allowed everything to proceed smoothly within our scope of work….

CONCLUSION. Unfortunately, overshadowing everyone’s good work is the issue that SciFidea induced people to enter a competition with promises of large cash prizes which they do not have the resources to pay.

[Thanks to Ersatz Culture for providing the research used in this article.]

Journey Planet “Be The Change” Submissions Protocol 

By Paul Weimer, Allison Hartman Adams, Christopher J. Garcia and James Bacon:

Paul Weimer and Allison Hartman Adams join James Bacon and Christopher J. Garcia in an issue of Journey Planet that focuses on the future of the Hugo awards, looking at realistic and achievable solutions to prevent a recurrence of what occurred in 2023.  

This fanzine considers what’s next, looking forward, looking at solutions, looking to rebuild trust, honesty, respectfulness and democracy.
  
Our focus is on “What is to be Done”, a more productive approach than speculation on the whys and wherefores, and how important it is to “be part of the change”. 

GUIDELINES

We’re delighted with the interest from fans in this issue so far. 

We are also pleased to announce we will be working in partnership with Mike and File 770 publishing articles where agreed subsequently here.

We wanted to share our content guidelines and the submissions email for this issue. 

[email protected] is the email to use please. 

Issue Focus: “Be the Change” 

Content Guidelines: We are looking for next steps, solutions, where we go from here, and motions to be brought to the WSFS business meeting. 

While reflecting on what occurred in 2023, we are looking to the future. There’s been a lot of Hot Air, and we are not interested in musings for the sake of it. But if you are involved actively with a current or future Worldcon, we do want your view as a person who makes this magic happen. 

Contributors are welcome to send us an outline, after which we can confirm acceptance of the proposed article.  

Deadline for Contributions: May 5th and May 17th 2024

Word Count: 1200 words maximum.

OPTIONS FOR SUBMISSIONS: 

Option 1: Submit a motion with explanation for publication. The motion and explanation might get some light copyediting (if necessary) but otherwise will be published as-is.

Deadline 17th May. 

Word Count: 1200 words maximum.

Option 2: Submit a motion that will then be reviewed and commented on,  by experienced practitioners and WSFS parliamentarians in a helpful way. Comments could include suggestions, pointing out possible flaws, recommendations for where to adjust, etc. These comments would be published along with your original piece, but you would have the opportunity to revise your article based on this feedback prior to publication if we have it before the 5th of May.  

Allowing critique time is the 5th until the 12th, then 5 days for review, with our final deadline 17th of May. 

Word Count: 1200 words maximum.

Option 3: You are involved actively with the Hugo Awards and Worldcon and want to share your future view.  

Deadline 17th May.  

Word Count: target of 1200 words, longer pieces will be considered. 

Option 4: You are a current or past Hugo Awards finalist, and you have some views on your experience that you wish future conventions to consider constructively.  

Deadline 17th May.  

Word Count: target of 1200 words, longer pieces will be considered

When you submit your materials, please also let us know 

  • If you’re attending Glasgow 2024 Worldcon?
  • If you will be proposing this motion and attending the business meeting? 
  • If we should put you in touch with other fellow travelers with similarly-themed motions (with the potential to collaborate)?
  • Can we republish your contribution on File770.com?

Email [email protected]

Our thanks, 
Paul, Allison, James and Chris 

Pixel Scroll 3/27/24 The DiskWorld Turned Upside Down (Because “RingWorld” Here Wouldn’t Make Sense, Would It?)

(1) HUGO SHORTLIST ANNOUNCEMENT COMING ON FRIDAY. The Glasgow 2024 committee will announce the Hugo finalists at Eastercon.

(2) BUTCHER WILL MISS NORWESCON 46. Writer guest of honor Jim Butcher has contracted COVID-19 and will be unable to travel to Norwescon this weekend. The committee adds, “While this is disappointing to all of us who wished to see him, we sincerely wish him the best for a speedy recovery, and hope to see him again in the future.”

(3) EXPAND YOUR VOCABULARY. [Item by Steven French.] The Guardian reports “The Oxford English Dictionary’s latest update adds 23 Japanese words” including:

Isekai, a Japanese genre of fantasy fiction involving a character being transported to or reincarnated in a different, strange, or unfamiliar world … A recent example of the genre is Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli film The Boy and the Heron, in which 12-year-old Mahito discovers an abandoned tower, a gateway to a fantastical world.

(4) FANDOM BEFORE THE DATE WHICH SHALL LIVE IN INFAMY. First Fandom Experience will release the third book in the series on April 5 at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention in Chicago: “Introducing Volume Three of The Visual History”.

Science fiction fandom in 1941 played out in a panoply of wisdom, foolishness, belief and incredulity. Less mired than previous years in the economic shackles of the Great Depression, fans let loose in ways both expected and surprising.

The year began with a bang – the noisy implosion of the ascendant Queens Science Fiction League, torn apart by rancor among New York factions stewing since 1938. In early December, fans in America were forced to face the threat of imminent dystopia as insidious products of science and engineering rained down on sailors at Pearl Harbor.

Between these bookends, fans read and wrote and gathered and argued and published in profusion – mostly in good humor.

The perennial questions persisted. What’s the purpose of the fiction we inhale like oxygen? What role do fans play in the world? Are we somehow better than others? What’s the point of organizing? Perhaps these debates were reason enough to come together.

Fans flocked together. Small but vibrant clubs coalesced in Boston, Minneapolis, northern New Jersey and central Michigan. Regional gatherings established communities and annual conferences that still endure….

(5) THE RIGHT STUFFY. Futurism amusingly tells how “AI-Powered Children’s Toy Agrees to Stop Responding, But Keeps Butting Into Conversation Again”. The article is based on the video review below.

Late last year, Claire “Grimes” Boucher, acclaimed musician and mother of three of billionaire multi-hyphenate Elon Musk’s children, announced an OpenAI-powered line of toys called “Grok” — not to be confused with Musk’s AI chatbot of the same name, as the two are currently entangled in a nasty custody battle….

… At first, the AI companion appeared to have no issues following Murdock’s orders.

“Hey Grok, can you just chill for a second,” he asked it.

“Sure thing, I’ll just float here and enjoy the cosmic breeze,” Grok answered….

Made by Curio, the product website is here: “Grok AI Toy”.

(6) KEEP ON TREKKIN’. How does the Star Trek franchise keep us coming back? “Star Trek’s Future: ‘Starfleet Academy,’ ‘Section 31,’ Michelle Yeoh and Chris Pine” at Variety.

…“Strange New Worlds” is the 12th “Star Trek” TV show since the original series debuted on NBC in 1966, introducing Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a hopeful future for humanity. In the 58 years since, the “Star Trek” galaxy has logged 900 television episodes and 13 feature films, amounting to 668 hours — nearly 28 days — of content to date. Even compared with “Star Wars” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Star Trek” stands as the only storytelling venture to deliver a single narrative experience for this long across TV and film.

In other words, “Star Trek” is not just a franchise. As Alex Kurtzman, who oversees all “Star Trek” TV production, puts it, “‘Star Trek’ is an institution.”

Without a steady infusion of new blood, though, institutions have a way of fading into oblivion (see soap operas, MySpace, Blockbuster Video). To keep “Star Trek” thriving has meant charting a precarious course to satisfy the fans who have fueled it for decades while also discovering innovative ways to get new audiences on board.

“Doing ‘Star Trek’ means that you have to deliver something that’s entirely familiar and entirely fresh at the same time,” Kurtzman says….

(7) WIZARDLY HIRING PRACTICES. I’m sure you wanted to know, too, but were just too shy to ask. CBR blurts out the question on your behalf: “Why Did Dumbledore Hire So Many Bad Teachers in Harry Potter?”

In the Harry Potter franchise, one thing that is made abundantly clear about Headmaster Albus Dumbledore is that he is the greatest wizard who has ever lived. Brilliant, wise, compassionate, and with a charming personality to boot, if not a bit quirky. He represents the archetype of the wizened mage, who provides the protagonist with guidance throughout their journey. Even those who despise him respect his power and intelligence. Yet, he was not a flawless person, with many skeletons in his closet. One in particular affected a majority of his students for a time: the professors he hired for Defense Against the Dark Arts were not always the best….

(8) UNFORGETTABLE HOWARD. Arnie Fenner, who published some of his work in small press, adds his tribute to the late “Howard Waldrop” at Muddy Colors.

…No one wrote like Howard Waldrop: no one could. He saw stories in virtually everything and telling them just the way he thought they should be told was far more important to him than the time they took to write or the amount of money he was ultimately paid—or not paid—when they were eventually published. His knowledge was encyclopedic and while there are wags who might know a little bit about a fair number of subjects, Howard knew a lot about a lot of things; he may have written fiction but there was always something factual, some history, to be learned from each story. He was, very much, a writer’s writer and he never compromised in the creation of his work; plus he was also a visual writer—an extension of growing up a comic book fan—one who literally painted vivid pictures with his words and who always created memorable scenes that could be a treasure trove for illustrators….

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born March 27, 1942 Michael York, 82. What’s your favorite Michael York role? For me, it’s not any of his later roles but rather as D’Artagnan in The Three Musketeersback fifty years ago when he was thirty years old, and its sequels, The Four Musketeers (The Revenge of Milady) and The Return of the Musketeers. It was a role that he apparently played with great relish.

He was busy in this period as he also was in Cabaret as Brian Roberts, a bisexual Englishman, one of lead roles there. He has an affair with Sally, one of the other leads. 

I’m not convinced he slept at all as I just found that also he was in a version of Lost Horizon, billed as “A musical fantasy adventure film”. Often cited as one of the worst genre films of all time, it currently holds a fourteen percent rating among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes.

But as all the best actors seem to do, he would show up in a production of Murder on the Orient Express, as Count Rudolf Andrenyi. 

Michael York in Logan’s Run.

Just three years after he played D’Artagnan he was cast as Logan 5, a Sandman, in Logan’s Run, a 1977 Hugo nominee at SunCon. I remember sort of liking it when I saw it back then but not enough to have watched it again since then. What’s your opinion of it? An of course his acting in it?

He’s got a lead role in The Island of Dr. Moreau as Andrew Braddock, his last genre role in film for twenty years until he played Merlin in A Young Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, a role I dearly want to see. Though I’m not interested in seeing him in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery as Basil Exposition, as those films to me are badly done. 

He voices Bob Crachit in a late Nineties Christmas Carol that, shall we say, is way less that faithful to the source material and adds such things as Scrooge’s pet bulldog, Debit. Seriously it does. Tim Curry is Scrooge here. That’s it for film as far as I’m concerned. 

Now for genre television. He was on The Wild Wild West as Gupta in “The Night of the Golden Cobra”; Batman: The Animated Series in the “Off Balance” episode as Count Vertigo; on seaQuest DSV in the recurring role of President Alexander Bourne; on Babylon 5, in the extraordinary role of David “King Arthur” McIntyre in the “A Late Delivery from Avalon” episode; multiple roles on the animated Superman series; in Sliders  as Dr. Vargas in “This Slide of Paradise” (that series started fine but lasted way, way too long, yes I’m editorializing); King Arthur again in A Knight in Camelot;  he voiced a truly awesome Ares in the Justice League Unlimited’s “Hawk and Dove” episode; and finally we have two voicings on Star Wars: The Clone Wars of the Dr. Nuvo Vindi character. He retired from acting a decade ago. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

  • Loose Parts has its own ideas about the way dinosaurs really looked.

(11) SNAZZY THREADS. “Discovering Worldcon: Masquerade, Costuming, and Cosplay” — Vince Docherty outlines convention costuming history at the Glasgow 2024 website. Lots of photos. (But none of Vince…)

…SF conventions in Glasgow started in 1978, and grew during the 1980s. They also featured a costume competition and, usually, a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with full audience interaction! (I even dabbled a little bit myself, including entering the contest once as ‘Riff Raff’ from Rocky Horror—fortunately in pre-internet times, so hopefully no photos exist!) Fans from Glasgow and the rest of the UK have continued to actively participate in costuming in the decades since….

(12) SOMETHING ABOUT THE TIMING. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] Shanghai-based English-language news site Yicai Global reported that the CEO of a company linked to Three-Body Problem has been found guilty of homicide, and sentenced to death.

The former chief executive officer of a unit of Yoozoo Interactive, which used to own the rights to ‘The Three-Body Problem,’ has been found guilty of poisoning the Chinese gaming firm’s chairman on the same week that the Netflix version of one of China’s most successful sci-fi novels began to broadcast.

Xu Yao, who joined Yoozoo Pictures in 2017, was sentenced to death for intentional homicide and handed an additional six-year sentence for administering dangerous substances, the Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court said today in a first-instance verdict. Xu has also been deprived of his political rights for life.

The trouble started soon after Netflix linked arms with Yoozoo Interactive, whose other subsidiary Three-Body Universe had bought the rights to Chinese science fiction novelist Liu Cixin’s trilogy, to produce an English-language version of ‘The Three-Body Problem’ in September 2020.

Xu, who had resigned from the firm in January 2019, had a disagreement with Lin, a hugely successful and ambitious film and game producer, over company matters and deliberately poisoned his food around Dec. 14 or Dec. 15, 2020, the court said.

Xu also had a conflict with two other colleagues, both surnamed Zhao, and he poisoned them as well between September and December 2020, but not fatally.

Lin fell ill on Dec. 16, 2020 and was told by doctors that he had been poisoned, according to earlier statements from the Shanghai-based company. The next day Lin called the police who conducted an investigation and detained Xu. Lin passed away 10 days later.

There is similar coverage at The IndependentCBS News, and the New York Post.  There was also a paywalled article in The Times by Adam Roberts a few days ago, before the verdict came down.  Searches for “xu yao” or “yoozoo” on other China-based English-language news sites such as China.org.cn or Global Times failed to come up with any results.

Comments on Weibo indicate that Xu Yao was involved in the early deal-making stages of the Netflix adaptation of The Three-Body Problem,

(13) RANKING 100 RANDOM SF BOOKS. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] I do not know if you have come across the YouTube Channel Bookpilled but it is the channel of a die-hard SF reader. I do know that many of you SF book readers will know of, if have not read, most of the 100 books that he has just randomly picked from his collection.  Here he rates them. 

Do you agree with him? Disagree with him? Agree with him in part?…

Do you, like him, have happy accidents?

I don’t know about you but there were three or four in here that he rates fairly well that I don’t have in my own collection. Check out his vid below.

(14) DRIVEN TO SUCCESS. The Takeout has a photo gallery of “8 of the Most Iconic Food Vehicles”.

Everyone remembers their first Wienermobile sighting. Maybe you were driving down the highway with friends and it suddenly appeared on the horizon: a gleaming hot dog that’s 11 feet tall, 27 feet long, and 8 feet wide. The unmistakable red and yellow of America’s favorite giant frank on wheels is always a thrill to encounter. Why travel to a roadside attraction when it can drive to you?

That image pops immediately to mind, no doubt. Here’s one that’s a little less familiar.

Nearly identical in size to the Wienermobile, the Planters NUTmobile debuted in 1935 and is manned by “Peanutters” who drive Mr. Peanut around the country. A Nutmobile was transformed into an INN a NUTshell retreat (help) in 2021, allowing people to book a night in the vehicle, which was outfitted as a sort of snack-themed fever dream camper.

(15) A DERN MINUTE’S WORTH OF “WHERE THIS CAME FROM”. [By Daniel Dern.] The reference behind today’s title, “The DiskWorld Turned Upside Down (Because ‘RingWorld’ Here Wouldn’t Make Sense, Would It?)”.

Via, for us folkies, Leon Rosselson’s song of that name (I’m pretty sure he wrote it — I know it’s on his albums, and I believe I’ve heard him sing it, live, way back when), although he got the notion/phrase from the the 1640s version, and LR’s song was subsequently-ish done by Billy Bragg and, most recently, the phrase became part of a song in Hamilton.

[OGH adds: That last is probably because “The World Turned Upside Down” was played during the surrender ceremony at Yorktown, the climactic moment of the American Revolution.]

(16) VIDEO OF THE DAY. How It Should Have Ended has remastered their 12-year-old Ghostbusters tribute.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, Daniel Dern, Frank Catalano, Olav Rokne, Ersatz Culture, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

2024 Lambda Literary Awards Finalists

The shortlists for the 2024 Lambda Literary Awards were announced March 27. Finalists in 26 categories were selected by a panel of over 70 literary professionals from more than 1,300 book submissions. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in New York on June 11.

The Lammys are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary “to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world.”

The works in the sff category are listed below. The complete roster of finalists is here.

LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction

  • Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood (Solaris)
  • I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself: A Novel by Marisa Crane (Catapult)
  • The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon (Tordotcom Publishing)
  • The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom Publishing)
  • The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter (Saga Press)

The Fifteenth Doctor Stars in a Free Comic Book

On Free Comic Book Day – May 4 – pick up Titan Comics’ The Fifteenth Doctor Free Comic Book Day Edition at participating stores.

The Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday have followed a mysterious signal to a shopping mall in the last days of Earth. It’s sure to be a trap, but to find the source, The Doctor must face his greatest fears…

Sample art below.

DOCTOR WHO: THE FIFTEENTH DOCTOR FREE COMIC BOOK DAY EDITION
Writer: Dan Watters. Artist: Kelsey Ramsay. 24pp, FC, SC. On sale May 4, 2024

(Click for larger images.)

[Based on a press release.]

Pixel Scroll 3/26/24 There Are Some Things Money Can’t Buy; For Everything Else, There’s Pixel Scroll

(1) THE ROBOPOCALYPSE. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Who is the best time traveler?  Well, of course the Doctor is, but then Brit Cit is the epicentre of SF. Nonetheless, across the Black Atlantic, in the home of the Mega Cities and the Cursed Earth, there are other time-travelling franchises…

“He was back….” BBC Radio 4 has just aired a programme dedicated to The Terminator a modern classic SF film that is this year 40 years old: ”I’ll Be Back: 40 Years of The Terminator”.

“It was the machines, Sarah…a new order of intelligence. Decided our fate in a microsecond: extermination.” So says Kyle Reese, time travelling freedom fighter in The Terminator. Released in the perfectly fitting year of 1984, The Terminator was a low budget, relentless slice of science fiction noir, drawing on years of pulp sf to conjure a future nightmare of humanity hunted to near extinction by the machines it created. In 2029, just 5 years away now,
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s unstoppable cyborg killer is sent back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, the yet to be mother of humanities saviour to come. Fate, redemption & the destructive power of A.I. all made in the analogue age but still influencing the way many imagine our new age of Artificial Intelligence.

Professor Beth Singler re-visits the making of the film with producer Gale Anne Hurd and explores its lasting influence. Forty years on, and the circular self-contained time travel plot of The Terminator has been cracked wide open letting out alternative timelines and delayed apocalypses: more films, a television show, graphic novels, comics, video games, theme park rides and even memes have spread versions of the original robopocalypse. More than that, the first Terminator has given us a vocabulary and a vision for the dangers of Artificial Intelligence.

(2) OVERVIEW OF CHINESE SFF RECOMMENDATION LISTS. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] I have finally published my write-up of Chinese recommendation lists: “Chinese SFF recommendation/best-of-the-year lists for works published in 2023”

The following summary bullet points for the Science Fiction World list are a suitable teaser – producing a Chinese recommendation list that doesn’t include any Chinese works first published in the year of eligibility — other than the fanzine — strikes me as an unconventional choice…

Science Fiction World

Links

Summary

  • Recommendations over 6 categories, with between 1 and 5 recommendations in each.
  • No Chinese fiction works first published in 2023 are included in the recommendations.
  • All the recommended novels are in English or Polish, and not yet announced for publication in China.
  • All of the novella and short story recommendations are older stories that were published in English translation in 2023 in a pair of venues.
  • Several of the categories that had recommendations last year – including Best Novelette – have no recommendations this year.
  • The editor recommendations are almost identical to last year – including the works listed.

(3) CLIPPING SERVICE. [Item by Daniel Dern.] I’m a NYTimes digital/paper subscriber, so I can do 10 “gift links”/month. I’ve been told (by somewhat reliable colleagues) that I can share to email lists, groups, etc, which I assume/believe includes F770-type thingies.

If I’m wrong, may the Pallid Ghost of the Gray Lady bite me on the nose (with mild apologies to Johnny Carson).

Note, these share links are only good for “30 days after [I’ve] shared it}…good enough for current readers, not so much for anyone dredging the past.

A) BORKED METAL. “A Rock Fell From Space Into Sweden. Who Owns It on Earth?”

Sweden’s courts have been debating claims to a meteorite that fell north of Stockholm, including whether the right to move around in nature, including on private property, extends to claiming a meteorite….

B) SNAKES IN A SCROLL!  “Now Arriving at J.F.K.: Horses From Iceland and Dogs From the West Bank”.

The ARK, a 14-acre facility at Kennedy International Airport, is often the first stop for animals of all kinds arriving in the United States….

(4) GLORIFIED SPYWARE. “How The BookmarkED/OnShelf App, Created to Help Schools [Navigate Book Bans], Fuels Them Instead” at BookRiot.

In December 2023, BookmarkED—an app designed to “help” educators, librarians, and parents navigate book bans in school libraries—rebranded. Now OnShelf, the app has been making its way into schools in Texas. Freedom of Information Requests obtained new information about how the app is getting into districts in Texas and how the app alerts users to so-called “banned books” in the district. The app is a student data privacy nightmare, and it undermines the professional capabilities of trained teacher librarians in educational institutions.

What Is BookmarkED/OnShelf? A Little About The App’s History

Founded by Steve Wandler, who works in the education technology space, BookmarkED aims to “empower parents to personalize school libraries.” It aims to ensure that parents get to decide the “individual literary journey for their children, based on their personal values and interests,” while teachers and librarians can keep “confidently recommending and providing more personalized books to their students, knowing precisely the learning outcomes they will achieve.” The technology helps libraries “simply and efficiently navigate the ever-changing challenged books landscape.”

BookmarkED soft launched their product during a Texas State Senate Committee on Education meeting on March 30, 2023, two and a half months before Texas passed the READER Act. Wandler noted that the app was developed while working with a superintendent in the state. That superintendent, Jason Cochran, is one of the owners of the app, and as of writing, works as the superintendent of Krum Independent School District. Prior to Krum, Cochran was superintendent at Eastland Independent School District. …

(5) A ROMANTASY MINICON. Publishers Weekly gleans all the details in a long report about last weekend’s event: “A Romantasy Festival Comes to Chicago”.

Romantasy was added as a category in the Goodreads Choice Awards in 2023, a fact mentioned several times at the inaugural Romantasy Literary Genre Festival, held March 22–24 at the Otherworld Theater in Chicago. More than 100 people celebrating the relatively new but rapidly growing genre attended the festival, which included author signings and Q&As, live podcast recordings, a drag tournament called Drag’N Brunch, and daily showings of Twihard!, a musical parody of Twilight. Books were sold on site by local indie bookstore Women & Children First.

The festival kicked off on Friday with a cocktail hour, mixer, and the weekend’s first performance of Twihard! Saturday, the first full day of the festival, began with the recording of the Whoa!mance podcast, hosted by Isabeau Dasho and Morgan Lott, who moderated an author panel with authors Samara Breger, Tamara Jerée, Megan Mackie, and Melanie K. Moschella. During the 90-minute conversation, the authors discussed their creative processes, genre crossovers, worldbuilding, escapism, beloved tropes, queer monsters, and more….

(6) ONE CLICHÉ AVOIDED. Simon Bland interviews several people who made The Thing, including the director, and an actor who didn’t come to a predictable end: “John Carpenter on horror classic The Thing: ‘It was an enormous failure and I got fired’” in the Guardian.

Keith David, who played Childs:

“ What I didn’t think at the time, and wasn’t thinking about until later, was how, traditionally, the Black man is not the guy who lasts to the end. This was one of the first movies where the Black guy lasts to the final scene. I don’t think I’m the only brother who’s ever survived in a horror or sci-fi movie, but I’m certainly one of the few. It was great foresight on John’s part.

I hear lots of theories about the final sequence. We played it various ways; as if I was the Thing, as if it was MacReady, and as if it was neither of us. People wonder why there’s no breath coming out of my mouth in the cold after the station burns down, and say it had to be me. But I say that if I’m downstage of the fire you wouldn’t see steam coming from my mouth because there’s too much heat. That’s how I explain it, but it’s your movie, your experience. The Thing is whoever you think it is.”

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born March 26, 1931 Leonard Nimoy. (Died 2015.) Pointy ears, green skin —  it must be Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock. And what an amazing role it was. So what was Roddenberry’s initial conception of the character? Here it is:

The First Lieutenant. The Captain’s right-hand man, the working-level commander of all the ship’s functions – ranging from manning the bridge to supervising the lowliest scrub detail. His name is Mr. Spock. And the first view of him can be almost frightening – a face so heavy-lidded and satanic you might almost expect him to have a forked tail. Probably half Martian, has a slightly reddish complexion and semi-pointed ears. But strangely – Mr. Spock’s quiet temperament is in dramatic contrast to his satanic look. Of all the crew aboard, he is the nearest to Captain April’s equal, physically, emotionally, and as a commander of men. His primary weakness is an almost catlike curiosity over anything the slightest alien. 

“The Cage” — Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike. Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

Although Memory Alpha says that Roddenberry settled on Nimoy from the beginning, other accounts say that Martin Landau was an earlier casting consideration for the character, and several sources say DeForest Kelley auditioned for the role as well. Actual history is often far messier than the official version is.

So we get to Nimoy. It’s hard now over a half century on to imagine anyone else in that role, isn’t it? Can you envision Martin Landau in the role, or DeForest Kelley? Especially the latter? I certainly can’t. For better or worse, well better, Nimoy made for me the perfect Spock. 

Cool, elegant, ever so, dare I say it? almost on the edge of being sarcastic if Vulcans could indeed be that. Certainly more fascinating a character by far on the series than Kirk was by far. Yes, Kirk was cast in interesting stories such as “Shore Leave” but Spock was script in and out just more interesting to watch.

So my favorite Spock centered episodes? “Dagger of the Mind” in which marked the introduction of his mind-meld ability; “Amok Time” of course which also has the bonus of when “Live Long and Prosper” first showed up; “Journey to Babel” in we meet his parents, Sarek (Mark Leonard) and Amanda (Jane Wyatt); and “The Enterprise Incident “ for his not really amorous relationship with the unnamed Romulan Commander (yes she gets no name) and the rest of that splendid story.

Leonard Nimoy (Spock) at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention 2011. Photo by Beth Madison.

I rewatched much of the series recently on Paramount+ as well as all of the other Trek series save the one season of the animated YA series whose name is completely escaping my name are here. (Never did figure out why they cancelled something so cheap to do when Strange New Worlds can cost them as much as ten million dollars an episode.)  He’s still my favorite when I rewatched them. I so wanted a spin-off Spock centered series to have happened after Trek ended. 

Usually I look at a performer’s entire genre career but I think I will look at just a single post-Trek undertaking, being Dr. William Bell in the stellar Fringe series. He decided to do the role after working with Abrams and Kurtzman on the rebooted Star Trek film and was offered with this series the chance to work with them again. He actually retired from acting before the series concluded but continued on here through its ending. 

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) EARTH ABIDES TO TV. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] TVLine reports that a six-episode limited series adaptation of George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides is about to go into production.

Alexander Ludwig is relocating from Starz to MGM+.

Fresh off the cancellation of Heels, Ludwig will headline the MGM+ limited series Earth Abides, based on the George R. Stewart novel of the same name.

Adapted by showrunner Todd Komarnicki (Sully) and described as “a wildly imaginative new take” on the sci-fi classic, Earth Abides centers on Ludwig’s Ish, “a brilliant but solitary young geologist living a semi-isolated life who awakens from a coma only to find that there is no one left alive but him…

Production on the six-episode series is set to begin in Vancouver on Monday, April 8. MGM+ is targeting a late 2024 release date. 

There is similar coverage at VarietyDeadline and The Hollywood Reporter.

(10) THESE SUITS ARE MADE FOR WALKING. “’Walking Dead’ Creator Robert Kirkman, Others Beat AMC’s Effort To Get Profits Lawsuit Dismissed”Deadline tells how they convinced the judge.

The first season of the latest Walking Dead spinoff The Ones Who Live is concluding this weekend, but the latest profit participation lawsuit from zombie apocalypse creator Robert Kirkman, franchise executive producer Gale Anne Hurd and others is far from over.

With heavy emphasis on the $200 million settlement AMC suddenly made in 2021 to end ex-TWD showrunner Frank Darabont and CAA’s nearly 10-year long lawsuit over profits, U.S. District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha yesterday denied the outlet’s move to have Kirkman, Hurd, David Alpert, Charles Eglee and Glen Mazzara’s mega-millions case dismissed.

“It would be an illogical interpretation of the MFN (most favored nations) provisions and contrary to the reasonable expectations of the parties in entering into the agreements if the court were to allow Defendants, as a matter of law, to provide Darabont and CAA with increased contingent compensation and a greater share of future gross receipts for the series through a settlement agreement—at Plaintiffs’ expense—without providing Plaintiffs the same,” the California-based federal judge wrote in a 13-page ruling filed Monday (read the TWD EP case ruling here).

Having pulled the short stick in a previous suit against AMC, Kirkman, Hurd and fellow TWD EPs sued AMC for $200 million in a November 15, 2022 breach of contract action.

“Plaintiffs are entitled to the same treatment afforded to Darabont with respect to his MAGR interests, they are therefore entitled to have the same valuation applied to their MAGR interests, which, collectively, exceed Darabont’s and CAA’s,” the LA Superior Court filing declared with reference to  modified adjusted gross receipts metric used to gauge profit participation payouts. “As a result, Plaintiffs are entitled to a payment well over $200 million from AMC, in an amount to be proved at trial.”…

(11) DIBS ON LUNA. “Scientists call for protection of moon sites that could advance astronomy” reports the Guardian.

Astronomers are calling for the urgent protection of sites on the moon that are rated the best spots in the solar system for advanced instruments designed to unveil the secrets of the universe.

The prime locations are free from ground vibration, shielded from Earth’s noisy broadcast signals or profoundly cold – making them uniquely well-suited for sensitive equipment that could make observations impossible from elsewhere.

But the pristine spots, known as sites of extraordinary scientific importance (Sesis), are in danger of being ruined by an imminent wave of missions such as lunar navigation and communications satellites, rovers and mining operations, with experts warning on Monday that safeguarding the precious sites was an “urgent matter”.

“This is the first time humanity has to decide how we will expand into the solar system,” said Dr Martin Elvis, an astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts. “We’re in danger of losing one-of-a-kind opportunities to understand the universe.”…

[Thanks to Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, Ersatz Culture, Daniel Dern, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]

2024 GUFF Voting Begins

The 2024 Get-Up-and-over Fan Fund is open for voting to select whether Kat Clay or Ian Nichols will represent Oceania at the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon.  

Voting will close on April 22, 2024 at 23:59 British Summer Time (00:59 Central European Summer Time, 08:59 23 April 2024 Australian Eastern Standard Time).

Candidates

Kat Clay (Australia): I’m Kat Clay, and I’ve been a part of Australia’s fan community for more than a decade. For the past two years, I’ve won Australia’s Ditmar Award for Best Fan Writer for my blog, https:// www.katclay.com/ and YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/katclay. I’ve helped organise Melbourne’s local convention, Continuum, and you’ll always find me at the Fan Fund Auction – it’s my convention highlight! I’m also passionate about raising the profile of science fiction from the Asia Pacific and have hosted panels and written reviews featuring work from the region. I would love to be the GUFF delegate to act as a ‘Fanbassador’ from down under!

  • Nominators: Belle McQuattie, TR Napper, Cat Sparks (Oceania), Jukka Halme, Marcin Kłak (Europe)

Ian Nichols (Australia) I’ve attended around a hundred cons since Swancon 2, in 1977, been on the program of most of them, on the committee for about ten, been GOH twice, once for a Natcon, had dealer’s tables and won an art competition and a Tin Duck. I know many Australian and international writers, courtesy of being a book reviewer for a newspaper. I’ve pubbed my ish, pro/am, I’m gregarious, knowledgeable and I’ve even got a doctorate in writing. I was an actor, so I can speak in public, sing and play filk and I’m good on panels. Please send me to Glasgow.

  • Nominators: Edwina Harvey, Perry Middlemiss, Julian Warner (Oceania), David Langford, Liz Williams (Europe)

How to Vote: GUFF Voting can be done online at the link, or by downloading and filling out the ballot form below and sending it to an administrator (Simon Litten, [email protected], or Alison Scott, [email protected] – postal addresses on request).

Votes are not valid unless accompanied by a contribution of at least GBP6, EUR7, AUD10, NZD10, or an equivalent amount in other currencies. Please pay by Paypal to Simon at [email protected] or Alison at [email protected]; if this doesn’t work for you, contact Simon or Alison for bank account details. Choose ‘friends and family’ or add 10% to cover Paypal fees.

Serbian SF Fandom Celebrates 55 Years of Kosmoplov

Kosmoplov 24 cover, June 1970.

By Žarko Milićević: On Monday March 11, 2024, at Belgrade Youth Center, Serbia, the “Lazar Komarčić” Science Fiction and Fantasy Society held a lecture on the beginnings of genre publishing in Serbia/Yugoslavia. The lecturers were Miodrag Milovanović, author of Srpska naučna fantastika (Serbian science fiction, 2016) and Žarko Milićević (LK society’s president, on bluesky facebook or nerazuman(at)gmail.com).

Since this is the first time we’re reporting: “Lazar Komarčić” Science Fiction and Fantasy Society is from Belgrade, Serbia, established 1981. Meetings are held every Monday at 19:00. Our host is the Belgrade Youth Center. Each monthly meeting is a panel / discussion / presentation (new books/comics) / book club. Our fanzine Emitor, which won best fanzine at 2014 Eurocon, published its 500th issue in September 2023. You can find some scans here. In #500 there is an almost complete list of all panels 1981-2023, and we’re trying to list the conventions and con programmes next.

Website www.emitor.rs fell into disuse but has plenty of non-current material. Online we hang out on Facebook mostly, also Instagram. Write at lazarkomarcic (at) gmail.com

These are the key parts of the lecture:

55 YEARS OF KOSMOPLOV – Beginnings of genre publishing

The 60s were a time of print magazines: there were school magazines, youth magazines, technology, home economics, astronautics, DIY, etc… magazines, and in almost every one (and also in daily and weekly newspapers) stories or novels in sequels were published, often of the science fiction genre which was on the rise during the Space Race. However none was dedicated specifically to science fiction. Same thing applies to books and book series.

Newspaper publishing company “Duga”, Belgrade, started a popular pulp magazine 300 ČUDA (300 wonders) in 1954. with sub-pages ZELENI DODATAK and PLAVI DODATAK that occasionally contained science fiction novels and SF stories. (300 ČUDA ended in 1974.)

“Dnevnik” from Novi Sad, Serbia, launched the pulp novel series X100 in 1962. with crime / western / sf novels, with over 1000 issues. Much later, in the 80s they launched the SF-only series X-100 SF.

 In 1967, the publishing house “Yugoslavia”, Belgrade, launched the KENTAUR science fiction series under the editorship of Ivan V. Lalić and Vitomir Korać. Impressive edition, 8 books, hardcover, black and white covers, sadly put to end immediately.

KOSMOPLOV (interslavic for Spaceship) was launched in 1968 by “Duga”, as a specialized magazine for Cosmonautics and Science Fiction, edited by Gavrilo Gaja Vučković. It was the first specialized publication that had SF as an key and integral part of its editorial intention, as well as its name. KOSMOPLOV had color covers, 72 pages, 24 issues, starting as a monthly and then sped up to biweekly. Content was mainly western SF, in contrast to mostly Soviet stories that were available in the 40s and 50s. Vučković also started asking for Yugoslav authors, and published them under real names (most authors were published under foreign sounding pen names because rates were larger for “translation”, which gives researchers huge problems when establishing authorship).

KOSMOPLOV was shut down in June 1970, when the publisher fell into financial problems. It sold well enough on its own, so Vučković practically immediately after the demise of KOSMOPLOV successfully pitched a new magazine named GALAKSIJA (Galaxy) with similar concept, broadening the subject first to aeronautics and then to popular science and computer programming.

The first issue of GALAKSIJA was published in March 1972. Vučković continued publishing SF stories. The company “Duga” that owned GALAKSIJA was dissolved in 1974 for dissident and anti-communist content in their flagship magazine DUGA, and annexed to another publisher “BIGZ” (Beogradski izdavački grafički zavod). Some of the magazines were dropped, but GALAKSIJA continued to grow, while gradually reducing the space dedicated to SF. Vučković published ANDROMEDA in 1976, a first SF collection as kind of a best-of stories from GALAKSIJA, and also enlisted Zoran Živković as translator and editor. It was a huge success and sold out its 10,000 copies, and had three yearly issues.

Croatian publishing company “Vjesnik” launched SIRIUS, also in 1976, which became the best known SF magazine in Yugoslavia, attaining the largest circulation in Europe for a genre magazine, and winning two ESFS prizes.

The success of ANDROMEDA urged the revival of “Yugoslavia’s” SF series KENTAUR, a series that set a tremendously high bar, and won its editor Ivan V. Lalić an ESFS award also, at Eurocon in Poznan, Poland, 1976.

This lecture stops at the end of the 70s. The golden age of Yugoslav SF are the 70s and the 80s (marked by Živković’ publishing company “Polaris”). With the country’s demise in the 90s, the economic crash and the civil war, all these publications were slowly put to an end.

The 90s are a separate story now with separate countries, and separate attempts to revive the genre magazines, and that’s a topic for another lecture, as well as the history of fan organizations that started forming during the late 70s. Next time 🙂


Download the covers of the first 24 issues of Kosmoplov from Google Drive.

2024 BIPOC Caucus Awards

The 2024 BIPOC Caucus award winners were announced during the 45th International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, held March 13-16 in Orlando, FL.

2024 FEATURED CREATURE (CORPORATE PERSONS)

  • SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists)
  • Marriot Orlando Airport Lakeside Hotel

UPLIFTER

  • Haerin Shin
  • Sunyoung Park
  • Alec Nevala-Lee
  • Jennifer Rhee
  • Wole Talabi
  • Mame Bougouma
  • Diene Woppa Diallo

(Steven Barnes received the award last year)

EXEMPLARY ALLY

  • Martha Wells
  • Annalee Newitz
  • Mary Turzillo
  • C. E. Murphy
  • Michael Smith
  • Amanda Firestone
  • Brittani Ivan

[Thanks to Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki for the story.]

Pixel Scroll 3/25/24 For A Short Time, They Were Amber Pixels, But All Cried NAY, And They Returned To True Green

(1) THE THOUGHT PANZER PROBLEM. [Item by Doctor Science.] “Netflix blockbuster ‘3 Body Problem’ divides opinion and sparks nationalist anger in China” reports CNN.

A Netflix adaptation of wildly popular Chinese sci-fi novel “The Three-Body Problem has split opinions in China and sparked online nationalist anger over scenes depicting a violent and tumultuous period in the country’s modern history. …

Author Liu said in an interview with the New York Times in 2019 that he had originally wanted to open the book with scenes from Mao’s Cultural Revolution, but his Chinese publisher worried they would never make it past government censors and buried them in the middle of the narrative.

The English version of the book, translated by Ken Liu, put the scenes at the novel’s beginning, with the author’s blessing.

Ye Wenjie’s disillusionment with the Cultural Revolution later proves pivotal in the sci-fi thriller’s plot, which jumps between the past and present day.

I learned of the CNN article via esteemed Sinologist Victor Mair at Language Log: “’The Three Body Problem’ as rendered by Netflix: vinegar and dumplings”.

All of this rancorous dissension surrounding the Netflix version of “The Three Body Problem” reminds me of what transpired after the airing of “River Elegy” (Héshāng 河殇), which was written during the latter part of the 80s.  This was a six-part documentary aired by China Central Television on June 16, 1988 that employed the Yellow River as a metaphor for the decline of Chinese civilization.  … I strongly believe that it was this artistic production created by Premier Zhao Ziyang’s (1919-2005) zhìnáng tuán 智囊团 (“think tank”) in an inclusive sense that precipitated the Tiananmen protests and massacre one year later …”

“The difference is that “River Elegy” was a documentary created in China by critical, progressive intellectuals, whereas the Netflix version of “Three Body” is a film adaptation of a Chinese sci-fi novel infused with Western ideas and standards by its American producers, making it a much more complicated proposition.

Let’s see if the chemistry is there in Netflix’s “Three Body” to cause the sort of ramifications that ensued from CNN’s “River elegy”.

(Dr. Mair’s history of the think tank, “River Elegy”, and the Tiananmen protests is here: “Thought Panzers”).

… As soon as I read the expression “sīxiǎng tǎnkè 思想坦克”, I had the exact same impression as Mark.  It sounded bièniu 彆扭 (“awkward”), weird, unnatural.  But I don’t think the person who translated the English term “think tank” into “sīxiǎng tǎnkè 思想坦克” was clever enough to add the extra military dimension consciously, though they may have done so sub/unconsciously ….

(2) NO AI RX FOR THE DOCTOR AFTER ALL. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] A couple of weeks ago, the March 7th Pixel Scroll covered the BBC’s plan to use AI to promote Doctor Who.  Today Deadline reports that this plan has been abandoned.

The BBC has “no plans” to use AI again to promote Doctor Who after receiving complaints from viewers.

The BBC’s marketing teams used the tech “as part of a small trial” to help draft some text for two promotional emails and mobile notifications, according to its complaints website, which was intended to highlight Doctor Who programming on the BBC.

But the corporation received complaints over the reports that it was using generative AI, it added.

“We followed all BBC editorial compliance processes and the final text was verified and signed-off by a member of the marketing team before it was sent,” the BBC said. “We have no plans to do this again to promote Doctor Who.”   

(3) AO3 VS. DDOS. Archive Of Our Own’s Systems volunteers have posted an account of last year’s DDoS attacks against the Archive. “The AO3 July/August DDoS Attacks: Behind the Scenes”.

…We later found out that the attack had actually peaked at 65 million requests per second. For context, the largest publicly announced HTTP DDoS attack by Cloudflare at the time was a 71 million request per second attack. Additionally, we received information that the attack originated from the Mirai botnet. However, Cloudflare did its job well and we saw very little, if any, impact….

(4) WOMEN ARTISTS HARD HIT AS NEWSPAPER CHAINS SHED PRINT COMICS. [Item by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.] Cartoonist Georgia Dunn discovered that Gannett has gotten rid of most of its diverse and female cartoonists, even if they’re making money for the syndicate.

Michael Cavna’s article in the Washington Post explains why “Standardization at Gannett, other chains, leaves few women in print comics” [Google cache file; article is behind a paywall.].

The latest warning signs for some female artists began last fall. Suddenly, their work began disappearing from many American comics pages.

An announcement started hitting the pages of newspapers dotted around the country: the USA Today Network, owned by Gannett, was “standardizing” its comics across more than 200 publications. One of those newspapers, the Coloradoan, published a list of comics, batched in groups, that it said made up Gannett’s new lineup of options.

What began to concern some cartoonists and industry observers: None of the dozens of comics listed as print offerings for Gannett papers was actively being created by a woman artist.

Just three strips in Gannett’s list of print comics have a credited woman: “For Better or For Worse,” which creator Lynn Johnston says is in reruns; “Luann,” by writer-artist Greg Evans and his daughter, co-author Karen Evans; and “Shoe,” by artist Gary Brookins and Susie MacNelly.

As the changes rolled out at many Gannett papers between October and early this year, Hilary Price, creator of the long-running syndicated strip “Rhymes With Orange,” said she began to see a significant dip in her sales income.

Price said she is accustomed to encountering misogynistic reader responses to her work as an artist. What is becoming professionally demoralizing to her lately, though, is the sense that female artists are being removed from America’s comics pages as several newspaper chains have consolidated or contracted their print funnies in recent years.

Some female cartoonists say that as they endure double-digit percentage losses in their income from client papers, their representation in print, already historically unbalanced, is growing alarmingly, and disproportionately, small.

…Georgia Dunn, creator of the syndicated “Breaking Cat News,” said her income dropped substantially in recent months as a result.

“I don’t think it’s a Machiavellian plot — I don’t think it’s intentional,” Dunn said of the optics that female artists are being disproportionately affected by the industry’s changes. “But they overlook us a lot.”

…The “Breaking Cat News” creator shared with her readers the bad news that she might have to make some hard financial decisions as her client income dropped sharply. But “when I shared with them how this restructuring hit me, they made up my lost income overnight,” she said.

“I woke up and opened Patreon and started crying,” she continued. “I felt like George Bailey at the end of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’”…

And here’s Dunn’s follow-up post on GoComics. (Scroll beneath the cartoon itself) — Breaking Cat News – March 23.

(5) SAM I AM. John O’Neill’s “The Horrors of Sam Moskowitz” at Black Gate begins its discussion of a series of horror anthologies with this discussion of their fanhistoric editor:

…Moskowitz was an interesting character. A professional magazine editor, he edited the trade journals Quick Frozen Foods and Quick Frozen Foods International for many years, and he gradually put his professional skills to use in the genre, starting in 1953 with Science-Fiction Plus, Hugo Gernsback’s last science fiction magazine. He began editing anthologies with Editor’s Choice in Science Fiction, published by McBride in 1954, and produced two dozen more over the next 20 years.

Moskowitz (who sometimes published under the name “Sam Moscowitz,” maybe because the ‘k’ on his typewriter was worn out?), was just as well known as a critic and genre historian. While still a teenager, he was one of the key organizers of the first Worldcon, held in New York City in 1939 (where he famously barred several Futurians, including Donald A. Wollheim, Fred Pohl, Robert A. W. Lowndes, Cyril Kornbluth, and others).

His genre histories and biographies, including Explorers of the Infinite and Seekers of Tomorrow, are still well worth reading today — as is his legendary history of fannish feuds, The Immortal Storm, which fan historian Harry Warner Jr. summed up with,

“If read directly after a history of World War II, it does not seem like an anticlimax.”

First Fandom still presents an annual award in Moskowitz’s memory each year at Worldcon….

(6) IT’S NOW AN EX-CASE.  Deadline is on hand as “Judge Tosses X/Twitter Case Against Group That Produced Study On Proliferation Of Hate Speech On Platform”.

A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit brought by X/Twitter against a watching group that produced a study that examined the proliferation of hate speech on the platform.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer concluded that the platform, owned by Elon Musk, was attempting to chill the speech rights of the Center for Countering Digital Hate and other groups.

The judge wrote that X’s “motivation in bringing this case is evident. X Corp. has brought this case in order to punish [Center for Countering Digital Hate] for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp.—and perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage in such criticism.”

X/Twitter had sued the group, claiming that in doing their study, they unlawfully “scraped” the platform for its data that led to an exodus of advertisers.

“X disagrees with the court’s decision and plans to appeal,” the company said.

Read the judge’s decision in the X case….

(7) CHECKING IN ON THE COPYRIGHT CLAIMS BOARD. At Writer Beware, Michael Capobianco suspends judgment about the effectiveness of the relatively new Copyright Claims Board: “To CCB or Not to CCB: The Question is Still Out”.

It’s been more than a year since my last post about the now not-so-new Copyright Claims Board (CCB).

Victoria covered the CCB when it first started hearing claims in June 2022, and her post gives a good summary of how it operates and what it is supposed to accomplish. The short version:  The CCB was created as a judicial body under the US Copyright Office to administer small copyright claims that would be too expensive and/or time-consuming in federal court.

At the time I confess I was worried about an eventuality that fortunately hasn’t come true. There are vanishingly few copyright trolls trying to use the CCB to collect money from innocent or ignorant individuals by scaring them into paying settlements. On the other hand, it has worked for some business to business claims: Joe Hand Promotions, Inc., a company that “serves as the exclusive distributor of all Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and select boxing pay-per-view programming” is by far the most frequent CCB claimant, with forty-five claims and counting, mainly against bars and restaurants, and many of those are withdrawn from consideration by the CCB and apparently settled privately.

What has happened in the intervening 20 months has been a disappointment for anyone hoping that the CCB would become a useful tool for writers seeking to get redress for infringement of their work. First of all, the number of “literary” claims is still very small, around 10% of total claims, and many of those, as we previously pointed out, are dismissed by the CCB because they weren’t filed correctly or have other flaws. Some are outright bizarre, and I may do a post about them in the future. With others the claimant doesn’t understand that a vendor selling used copies of their books is not a violation of their copyright….

…In short, even as its second birthday is only a few months away, it’s still too early to draw conclusions about the efficacy of the CCB when it comes to literary works, especially books. The majority of the claims that it has decided so far involve photographs and, in those cases, it generally is finding in favor of the photographer and awarding reasonable to low damages. But there are still only a handful of contested decisions and none of them involve the kinds of published material that Writer Beware usually deals with….

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born March 25, 1920 Patrick Troughton. (Died 1987.) So let’s talk about Patrick Troughton, the Second Doctor. 

(Digression: All of the classic Doctors are available on the BritBox streaming service. It’s $8.99 a month for a lot of British content including all of the Poirot mysteries. End of digression.) 

The first time that I watched his run I wasn’t at all fond of him as I thought his characterization wasn’t that serious. Rewatching them a few years ago on BritBox, I realized that he was a much better actor than I thought he was and that his Doctor was a much better, more nuanced persona that I realized. No, he’s still not anywhere near my favorite Doctor but now I can watch him without cringing. 

Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor Who.

Ok I’m getting distracted…

Part of his problem, and yes of the first Doctor, and yes this is just my opinion, is that the scripts weren’t that good. It wasn’t until the Third Doctor that they started actually thinking about having decent scripts.

So what did he do? Well he had the distinct honor of being in The Gorgon, an early Sixties horror film with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.   

Horror films involving Dracula, Frankenstein, feathered serpents and demons would all see him make his appearance. He showed in a lot of mysteries including the Danger Man and The Saint series. And several Sherlock Holmes series as well. 

I think Space: 1999 is the only other genre series he appeared in besides a lot of Robin Hood work in the Fifties, mostly on The Adventures of Robin Hood

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) A CHANCE TO START AT THE BEGINNING. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The weekly 2000AD British anthology SF/F comic has its landmark 2,375 issue coming out next week. “New readers start here: jump on board with 2000 AD #2375”.

First up, it’s a little longer at 48 pages.  Second, all the current stories ended this week, so the next, 2,375 prog will see the start of all new stories: so, no jumping into the middle of something. In short this is an ideal place for newcomers to give it a try. 2000AD is perhaps most noted for its Judge Dredd strip. But there is a Rogue Trooper film in the works….

The new issue of 2000 AD has been precision-tooled for those hungry to discover why it’s called the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic – with bitingly good stories from top comics talent!

2000 AD Prog 2375 is a 48-page special on sale from 27 March, with a bold new cover by Hitman artist John McCrea and colourist Jack Davies.

This latest issue is designed to make it easy for new readers to pick up 2000 AD, with a mix of brand new stories and ongoing series that showcase the best the GGC has to offer!

(11) SHATNER ON JIMMY KIMMEL. The Captain celebrated his birthday on late night TV a few days ago with a flaming cake and a mulligan on Captain Kirk’s final moments: “William Shatner on Turning 93, Going to Space & He Gets a Do-Over of His Star Trek Death Scene”.

(12) A LAUGHING MATTER. Bob Byrne’s enjoyment is contagious in his article “Terry Pratchett – A Modern-Day Fantasy Voltaire” for Black Gate.

…Rincewind isn’t Conan, or Elric, or Gandalf (I’ve met Gandalf, and you sir, are no Gandalf). But while we love reading about the great heroes (or villains), we ‘get’ Rincewind….

(13) FUNNY VIDEO. [Item by Jennifer Hawthorne.] This clip showed up on Reddit. It’s apparently from the shooting set of Ford’s TV show, Shrinking. “Harrison Ford is too old for this shit”.

(14) CARGO CULTISTS. “Astronauts’ mementos packed on Boeing Starliner for crew flight test”Space.com has the story.

A NASA astronaut who had the honor of naming her spacecraft will fly items inspired by that name when she launches to the International Space Station next month.

Sunita “Suni” Williams, who is set to fly with fellow NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore on Boeing’s first Crew Flight Test (CFT) of its CST-100 Starliner capsule, will reveal the “Calypso”-related items once she is in orbit.

“A little homage to other explorers and the ships they rode on, I think we are going to call her ‘Calypso,'” said Williams in 2019, when she announced the ship’s name just after it returned to Earth from flying its first uncrewed mission.

Boeing announced Williams’ intentions as it completed packing Calypso for the CFT launch, which is currently targeted for April 22. All that remains to be added to the vehicle are some late stow items and the astronauts, themselves.

The CFT Starliner will carry 759 pounds (344 kilograms) of cargo, including 452 pounds (205 kilograms) from Boeing and 307 pounds (139 kilograms) from NASA. Boeing will have 25 bags and NASA will have 11 bags stored in the cabin where Wilmore and Williams will be seated….

(15) MARK WATNEY’S HOME AWAY FROM HOME. View NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day at the link – a photo of a place you’ve probably read about already.

Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited. Explanation: This close-up from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera shows weathered craters and windblown deposits in southern Acidalia Planitia. A striking shade of blue in standard HiRISE image colors, to the human eye the area would probably look grey or a little reddish. But human eyes have not gazed across this terrain, unless you count the eyes of NASA astronauts in the scifi novel The Martian by Andy Weir. The novel chronicles the adventures of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded at the fictional Mars mission Ares 3 landing site corresponding to the coordinates of this cropped HiRISE frame. For scale Watney’s 6-meter-diameter habitat at the site would be about 1/10th the diameter of the large crater. Of course, the Ares 3 landing coordinates are only about 800 kilometers north of the (real life) Carl Sagan Memorial Station, the 1997 Pathfinder landing site.

(16) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Black Nerd Problems tees up the Studio Ghibli Fest for 2024.

Studio Ghibli Fest is back in theaters in its biggest year yet! Now, coming off the triumphant Oscar® win for Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature The Boy and the Heron, celebrate this iconic studio with an all-new selection of fan favorites and iconic titles alike.

This year’s lineup highlights the works of studio co-founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, as well as directors Yoshifumi Kondo, Hiroyuki Morita, and Hiromasa Yonebayashi. In celebration of Hayao Miyazaki’s recent Oscar win, Studio Ghibli Fest 2024 kicks off with the acclaimed director’s previous Academy Award-winning feature, Spirited Away, which took home the Oscar in 2001.

The lineup also includes special celebrations for the Howl’s Moving Castle 20th Anniversary, Kiki’s Delivery Service 25th Anniversary, and Pom Poko 30th Anniversary.

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Mike Kennedy, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Kathy Sullivan, Jennifer Hawthorne, JJ, Doctor Science, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Mark.]