The Wind’s Hind Quarters 6/30

aka Quit Zoomin’ Those Paws Through The Air

Starring in today’s roundup: Charlie Jane Anders, Jon F. Zeigler, Arianne, Melina D, Paul Kincaid, Martin Wisse, Justin Howe, Lou Antonelli, Doctor Strangelove, Terry Weyna, Spacefaring Kitten, Laura “Tegan” Gjovaag, Grac and embrodski. (Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editors of the day Richard Brandt and Daniel Dern.)

Charlie Jane Anders on io9

“Eight Books You Need To Know About To Understand The Hugo Awards Snafu” – June 30

about books

But all the discussions about the Puppies, pro and con, tend to bog down in generalizations. So let’s get specific. Here are eight books that can help illuminate this mess. Because this is about books, or it’s about nothing at all.

[Anders takes a highly interesting approach, contrasting what reviewers and Sad/Rabid Puppies advocates have to say about these eight sf works:]

  • The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
  • Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
  • Monster Hunter Legion by Larry Correia
  • Blackout by Mira Grant
  • Redshirts by John Scalzi
  • Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
  • The Book of Feasts and Seasons by John C. Wright
  • Seveneves by Neil Stephenson

 

 

Jon F. Zeigler on Sharrukin’s Palace

“The Hugo Dispute: An Assessment” – June 30

[Thorough article. This is just an excerpt of two of the topics:]

Over at Amazing Stories, Steve Davidson recently blogged about possible fan responses to this mess. Some of his suggestions strike me as either impractical or actively harmful, but I think he’s on the right track with at least one item:

“First, the crafting of a formal statement that articulates the position that Fandom and Fans (which includes authors, artists, editors, podcasters, bloggers, fan writers, fan artists and everyone) do not game awards (or other fannish institutions) for personal, political or financial gain. Further, that individuals who may be eligible for awards state formally that they do not grant permission for third parties to include them or their works in voting campaigns or slates or organized voting blocs and that if their names or works are found on such, it is without their express permission.”

As a purely voluntary principle for creators in this space, I think that’s well worth considering. So here’s my line in the sand, to be repeated if and when it becomes fully relevant.

I won’t participate in organizing a slate for any industry award. If and when I publish something that’s eligible, I will not give my permission for that work to be included on any slate. If someone includes my work on a slate without my permission, and that work reaches the ballot, I will withdraw it from consideration. If that means the award becomes irrelevant to my success as an author, so be it.

I can succeed without having to chase fan politics. I can do that by pursuing the work I love: writing and selling stories. If that isn’t enough, I don’t intend to waste my time stewing over might-have-beens.

Now, as it happens, the argument above assumes that the rules of the awards process aren’t going to change. If they do change to make slate voting more costly or difficult, that mitigates the problem. There are multiple ways to get that result, some of which admittedly constitute a cure worse than the disease.

Fortunately, there’s a proposed rule change that will be considered at the WSFS business meeting this year, and that seems very promising. That’s the so-called E Pluribus Hugo proposal, a modification of the procedure for counting nomination votes.

I’ve spent some time looking at the EPH proposal. In fact, while I don’t claim to be an expert, the comparative study of election systems is familiar to me (my professional background is in mathematics and computer science). Thus far I’m quite impressed.

 

Melina D on Subversive Reader

“Hugos 2015 – Where to now?” – July 1

So what do I do next?

I was talking to my sister about the Hugos the other night. My sister is not in the community (though she does read and watch speculative media), but she’s worked in politics, so she understands a lot about the political process and it was relatively easy to explain how the slate dominated the awards this year. She helped me clarify some of my thoughts and then asked the question:

“So what are you going to do about it?”

Funnily enough, I’d been turning this question over in my head for a few days. What was I going to do to make my voice heard? How was I going to stand up and say ‘I want the best writing – the absolute best – to be nominated for and win Hugos Awards.’ I want writing which makes me feel something, writing which makes me stay up late reading, writing which makes me want to tell everyone about what I just read.

I have two main powers as a supporting member – I can nominate and I can vote. There is a third power though – I can write about it. I can write about the stories and books I read and why I love them or why they don’t quite work for me and why other people should go to read them. I can write about the nominees and why I would vote for one or the other. The power of the internet means that I can put my voice out there.

I can also read more. This Hugo ‘season’ has allowed me to find a lot of new places to find short fiction and I’ve already started reading some from the first half of the year. I’m reading more blogs and online magazines and looking at their book reviews and announcements. I’ve made sure that I’m putting more time into reading – even if it’s just a short story before bed.

There’s a few places I can go to find 2015 stories and media, but I’d also like to open it here. What new fiction or nonfiction are you consuming? What have you really enjoyed? What would you like to share with others? Leave a comment, tell me about it. I might go on to read and review it, I might not, but it gives me new places to explore and new things to try. I might find a new author I absolutely love, or find myself reading a new type of story I’d never even thought about before.

With more reading, I’m going to feel more confident nominating. And by sharing my reading, I hope I can encourage others to read and nominate their favourite stories of the year. Maybe it won’t be enough to negate the slate, but at least I’m doing something positive.

 

Paul Kincaid on BestScienceFictionBooks.com

“A Reply to Kevin Standlee on the Hugos”  – June 30

[Excerpt is first of four points.]

1: No, I do not want a “Strong Leader”, and that is not what I said. What I want is a more responsive organisation. Every award that I know of has a mechanism in place that would allow for a change in the rules between one award presentation and the next. Some of these amount to a strong leader, most do not. None of them takes at least two years to put in place any rule change.

Situations change, and in our modern digital age they change very rapidly indeed. It surely makes sense that awards should be able to respond just as rapidly. As it is, whatever might be proposed at the next WSFS meeting cannot take effect until after it is ratified at the following WSFS meeting in 2016, which means it will be the 2017 awards before there is any actual change. If the Sad and Rabid Puppies behaved within the rules this year, as indeed they did, then they have free rein to do exactly the same next year. That does not strike me as an award process that is fit for purpose.

Here’s is a proposal to make the award more responsive without a “Strong Leader”, (it may not be the only possibility or the best, but it is at least a notion that could be considered): I have seen a number of proposals online for possible changes to the Hugo rules. Why not provide a venue online where these proposals can be thoroughly debated by all interested parties, so that when the next WSFS meeting comes along all that is needed is for the proposal to be ratified or not by the meeting, and lo, the rule change is made, there and then, within the year? As it is, whatever debate has gone on previously, the proposal can only formally be made at the next WSFS meeting, by those who can attend the Worldcon (an expensive commitment, especially if it is on a different continent), and will then only be ratified by those attending the next WSFS meeting at the next Worldcon (yet another expense). By moving the debate online and making the WSFS meeting a ratification body, I think you would actually make the Hugos more democratic, not less.

So no, Kevin, I do not want a strong leader.

 

Martin Wisse on Wis[s]e Words

“If you want to change the Hugos, understand their history” – June 30

Okay, I don’t want to begrudge anybody their Hugo rant — ghu knows I’ve written enough and in fact I’d agree with quite a bit of this criticism:…

The Hugos are the way they are, with all their strengths and weaknesses because they’re the result of a decades long specific democratic process and the 2015 categories and rules are the fossilised remains of this process. You cannot understand the Hugos properly unless you not only know that the Best Semi-prozine category was created to shield all other fanzines from the Locus juggernaut, but also that the same sort of thing happened with the Best podcast category, the long struggle to get comics recognised properly and why there are two editorial categories and what went before that.

And not only that, you need to know the process and rules under which these changes are made, like the proposers of E Pluribus Hugo frex do seem to. You need to understand how the business meetings work as well as why and how it was established, even without Kevin Standlee to prompt you. You need to be a bit of a process nerd to be honest. (You also need to realise that much of this was designed by Americans, who seem to have a national weakness for over complicated voting systems with huge barriers to entry…)

This bone deep understanding and awareness of what is and isn’t possible given the history and current structure of WSFS and the Hugos is likely why people like Kevin Standlee might be a bit dismissive of such criticsm as well as looking overly lawyerly. That’s the risk of being an insider, you have a much better grasp on the mechanism of the system and less of an idea of what it looks like from the outside

But what you should also realise is that knowning this history and being familiar with the whole process more than likely also gives you an overwhelming sense of how fragile the whole structure is, how easy it is for a well intended proposal or rules change to damage or destroy WSFS. I see a deep fear and wariness behind that “slow and prone to complexify process, a desire to err on the side of caution, knowning how close it has come to all going kablooey.

 

Justin Howe on 10 Bad Habits

“Caring is Meaningless” – June 30

This is a thing I wrote in response to some SFF fandom bullshit going on. If you’re reading this and don’t know what the Sad/Rabid Puppies are, well, I envy you. Stay unaware. Don’t google it. Google prehistoric squirrels or Steven Universe conspiracy theories instead. It’ll be time better spent. For the rest of us poor bastards who have eaten of the Fruit of Bullshit from the Tree of Train Wreck, this post is for us.

When someone says, “Well, at least I care!” all they’re saying is, “Well, at least I have an opinion!” I’ve read this from one of the Sad Pup ringleaders, and couldn’t help but read the bit about “caring” as the foot-stomp of the petulant, self-righteous child. Caring is meaningless. Caring can be split so many ways and made to mean anything. You can carry it down into all kinds of Godwin Law absurdity. Mussolini cared about train schedules. Custer cared about the Sioux. You can’t say they didn’t. They certainly cared enough to have opinions about them. To state so sternly that you’re justified in your actions, because “you cared” is simply a sleight of hand attempt to raise feelings up to the level of values, because you’re not wise or self-aware enough to process your feelings without making noises.

 

Lou Antonelli on This Way To Texas

“Puppies in the heartland” – June 30

The Puppy Kickers cite well-known authors who are known conservatives – Mike Resnick and Larry Niven are two – but they came up through the ranks years ago. People like Larry Corriea and Brad Torgersen have entered the field in the past ten years, and have seen and felt first-hand the snubs and insults of the snobs. Both were nominated for the Campbell Award for Best new writer in their first year of eligibility. They didn’t win. Now, that award allows you two years of eligibility, and over the years many writers have has two shots at winning – but neither Larry nor Brad were even nominated in their second years of eligibility.

The Puppy Kickers would assert it’s because as people got to know them better, they realized they sucked as authors. I suspect it’s more likely they were shunted aside because they do not conceal their Mormon faith.

In 2012, when Mitt Romney was the Republican nominee for president, most of the leading lights in the s-f  literary world combined their hatred for people of faith with their hatred for Republicans by attacking Romney in the most vile language. Quite frankly, I personally believe there are some things you should never say to or about people, regardless of the subject. In light of the attacks on Romney, is it any wonder all the Mormon s-f writers went off the reservation? It’s almost a human rights issue – “you can’t say that about one of my coreligionists.

I doubt most of the Puppy Kickers have any Christian friends, and certainly no Mormons. But here in Middle America there are plenty of Christians, Mormons, and even – as Jay Lake used to say – “low church atheists” – people who don’t believe in the supernatural, but, like Jay, didn’t mind if you needed a faith.

I remember when Jay said the source of so much ill feeling were the “high church atheists” – people who didn’t believe in God, and wanted to stamp out your religion, too. Jay was a smart man and a nice guy.

As I have made the convention circuit, I have been heartened by the many people who have been kind and supportive of my work, and either supportive or tolerant of the Sad Puppies effort. It reminds me that most people are thoughtful and considerate human beings, and the internet is a tool that is – like the machinery left behind by the Krel as depicted in the s-f classic movie “Forbidden Planet” – letting the darkest and worst innermost aspects of human nature loose upon the land.

 

Doctor Strangelove on Strangelove for Science Fiction

“Attention seeking troll puppies” – June 30

The various Puppy leaders, it turns out, have little to say, and their arguments implode into insignificance. They don’t think a literary award, the Hugos, should go to literary fiction. They don’t think science fiction should contain messages, or be socially progressive. Their voting slates, of course, contain attempts at literary fiction and message fiction. If we set aside their arguments, all we are left with is noise. Their attention-seeking trolling of the Hugo nomination process in essence says “look at me, look at me!” That is sad, indeed.

 

Terry Weyna on Fantasy Literature

“Magazine Monday: Hugo-Nominated Short Stories 2014”

[Reviews all five nominees.]

The short stories nominated for the Hugo Award this year are a disappointing lot. I read a great many stories in 2014 that were far better than at least four of these tales.

 

Spacefaring Kitten on Spacefaring, Extradimensional Happy Kittens

“Jeffro ‘GURPS-disadvantaged people ruin SFF’ Johnson” – June 30

Reading Jeffro Johnson was an interesting and even SFFnal experience. I mean, one of the most enjoyable aspects of science fiction and fantasy is that it has the capacity to offer alien experiences and viewpoints.

Most likely I disagree with Jeffro Johnson on a wide range of topics, but unlike the three Mad Genius Club bloggers who are competing with him for the Best Fan Writer Hugo, Johnson makes a better job at explaining his views. He is also mainly interested in science fiction and fantasy instead of waging a culture war against “social justice warriors” which is more than a welcome change after wading through the polemics of Dave Freer, Cedar Sanderson and Amanda S. Green…..

 

Laura “Tegan” Gjovaag on Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog

“Hugo Reading – Fan Writer” – June 30

[Reviews all five nominees.]

Johnson is the clear winner here, since he seems to be the only one that really fits what I think of as the category. I might put Mixon on the ballot as well, but that is a difficult choice. Both of them are going below “No Award” I think. The other three do not deserve awards for the writing in their packets. In fact, they really shouldn’t have been nominated at all. My guess is that all three must have been on the slates, since I do not believe they could have been nominated by the merits of the writings they provided.

If I sound a little bitter, it’s because I’m feeling bitter… How can people who clearly hate fandoms not their own be nominated for a Hugo Award? My concept of fandom is a big umbrella under which all of us can hang out and do our own thing in a non-judgmental setting. To read screeds against other fans is depressing. To see those screeds nominated for awards? Gah. Seriously, did any of the people voting on the slates actually read these works and say, “Yes, this is the best writing about fandom I saw in 2014.” and, if so, why? How? How can writing that rips someone apart be the best? Why all the hate?

 

Grac on Grac’s Never-Ending TBR Pile of Doom

“The Three-Body Problem – Liu Cixin” – June 30

… I gave this book 3 because of the clunky/heavy part midway through, which almost made me give up. I can see why some people loved it, but I wasn’t one of them – it may well still end up winning this year’s Hugo but I don’t think it’s better than my vote (The Goblin Emperor, in case anyone is interested!). I prefer my science fiction a bit more people-oriented, to be perfectly honest, and the characterisation of many folks in this novel left something to be desired, even as the background of the Cultural Revolution and modern-day China added to its interest.

 

embrodski on Death Is Bad

“Amazing Man” – June 22

I dashed off a little short story, inspired by the Sad Puppies Hugo Fiasco. I had fun writing it, I hope someone finds it enjoyable to read. :)…

….“So all of this…” Paula gestured around herself to indicate the Presidential Palace, the Liberty Legions, and presumably the entire Liberated States of America. “All of this was because you felt snubbed by a group of people you don’t even like?”

Amazing ripped the glasses from his face and crushed them in his fist. His responding roar was super-human, shattering all the glass in the Palace and leaving Paula with mild, but permanent, hearing loss.

“It’s about ethics in journalism!”

Emilio won a Pulitzer that year, as well as a Peabody, an Oscar, a Grammy, a Dobby, and a Tony Award; all purely on merit and not for any other reason at all. Amazing Man won the Nobel Peace Prize. That last one raised a few eyebrows, but it was pointed out that the Peace Prize had previously been awarded to people with a much higher body count than Amazing Man had managed, and wouldn’t it be better to keep it that way? It was hard to argue with that logic.

Miss Perry was released, because Amazing Man was above petty things like personal revenge. She is now happily employed as a Field Hand in the Angola Liberty Farm.

591 thoughts on “The Wind’s Hind Quarters 6/30

  1. Gabriel F.: Sun tea is not cold brewing.

    Huh. You know, that makes a lot of sense . . . it isn’t a term I’ve ever used, but I had always kind of wondered!

  2. Jason: do you have a recommendation for finding [bbq] in NYC?

    Blue Smoke, Hill Country, Virgil’s. And all the Korean barbecue you can stand. For Portuguese barbecue, you have to cross the Hudson.

  3. I used to love sun tea when I was a kid. Mom would put the jar out on the porch before she went to work and when we came home there’d be fresh tea! Now I prefer it cold brewed but I still have a lil soft spot for sun tea, bacteria-laden as it may be!

  4. @Dr. Science “– A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin. Still in the first chapter, moving so slowly that I wouldn’t know the protagonist was dead if the book jacket hadn’t told me.”

    But he gets better!

    (seriously, it’s worth a push through the beginning – I’m almost puppy-like in my appreciation of exploding space-ship books, and I still felt that this one is special)

  5. OK, OK! I’ll give A Madness of Angels another chapter or maybe two. But if it doesn’t grab me soon, it’s back to re-reading Leviathan Wakes — I just bought used copies of the first 3 books in the series to re-read, because the trailer for the TV show has got me all excited. SPACE SHIPS.

    Speaking of which, doesn’t it give you a chill of excitement to go to Sasquan Member Numbers and see “Space | Earth Orbit”?

  6. @Dr. Science “Leviathan Wakes — I just bought used copies of the first 3 books in the series to re-read, because the trailer for the TV show has got me all excited. SPACE SHIPS.”

    Wait, trailer? Be right back!

  7. Doctor Science: doesn’t it give you a chill of excitement to go to Sasquan Member Numbers and see “Space | Earth Orbit”?

    Yes, yes it does. 🙂

  8. Dunno about Korean bbq, but I think Korean food in general is delicious as fvck. Korean chili paste (gojuchang ) is a basic in my kitchen. I may be biased, as a military brat-half of the kids on base were Korean American -but I am firmly pro-korean food. Fried rice with kimchi and fresh crab remains my favorite breakfast of all time. Yum!

  9. >>Crypto: 0
    >>
    >>As-Received-By: File770.com
    >>
    >>Language-Path: Drazhar->Marain M1->Gallifrey->Radchaai, SJW units
    >>
    >>From: Water that falls from the Skies
    >>
    >>Subject: Rabid Video thread
    >>
    >>Keywords: Hexapuppia as the key insight
    >>
    >>Distribution: Threat of the Slate
    >>
    >>Approved: yes
    >>
    >>Date: 89 days since Hugo Incident
    >>
    >>I haven’t had a chance to see the famous video from Realm Popoli, except as an evocation. (My only gateway onto the Net is very expensive.) Is it true that puppies have six legs? I wasn’t sure from the evocation. If these puppies have three pairs of legs, then I think there is an easy explanation for…

    >From: Indominus Theropoda
    >Subject: Rabid Video thread
    >
    >Keywords: Hexapuppia as the key insight
    >
    >Distribution: Threat of the Slate
    >
    >Approved: yes
    >
    >Date: 89 days since Hugo Incident
    >Clearly the hydrated one knows nothing of the matter at hand as it is clear even to the most primitive sophonts that *Voxolalia* is the key insight!

    MODERATOR NOTE: And so begins yet another flamewar on the Net of a Million Lies.

  10. Matt Y, your list of thematic cocktails, including the “Sore Loser”, reminds me of Larry Niven’s entry in the cookbook “Cooking Out of this World”: The “Busted Kneecap”, which consists of drop a small chunk of dry ice into a glass of whiskey. The cold freezes out much of the non-alcoholic liquid, making the drink much higher proof, while simultaneously the frozen carbon dioxide carbonates what’s left, making it enter the bloodstream faster. Niven invented it at a Worldcon, after losing a Hugo and a public side-bet about the Hugos.
    P.J. Evans: yes, there were @ parties at a few Worldcons, around the time of Noreascon 2. Those of us who are truly old-time fans were doing fanac well before the Internet, Usenet, or Arpanet had any fannish significance.

    nightengale: let’s not think about Roland Castle, please.

  11. @ Soon Lee – re: six legged puppies…I did an illustration gig once where I was drawing monsters (always fun!) and the entire brief they gave me for one was that something was an alien jackal. Like two lines.

    Well, all right. I drew a jackal, gave it feeler-bobbly things, made the eyes too big and the muzzle too narrow, and sent it off.

    I got back a huffy note going “It’s supposed to have six legs!”

    I am still indignant about this. You have to TELL people when something have six legs! Six legs is not obvious! You do not get to handwave another set of limbs! Six legs must be included in the brief!

    …this is still a sore point a decade or so later.

  12. Michael Eochaidh on July 1, 2015 at 5:50 pm said:
    If I could still drink beer I’d steal that for a homebrew label (“Half a Bison Hefeweizen”). Unfortunately gluten free beer is mostly terrible, so I stick with wine.

    Stone Delicious IPA and Omission IPA are both quite good – I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but I have yet to find any good gluten-free beers that aren’t IPAs. Stone Brewery doesn’t make any other gluten-free beers, and the Pale Ale from Omission is kind of meh. These are actual beers, however, which have been processed to remove gluten, not some ersatz swill that sullies the word beer.

  13. Ooh nice trailer …. I need to start reading those books. I love the smaller scope of solar system settings rather than sprawling galactic empires.

  14. Soon Lee on July 1, 2015 at 8:28 pm said:
    Ooh, I like that mashup. Lovely.
    —-
    I went book browsing in a bookstore today. Good thing that I was saving my discount coupon at that bookseller. I bought a copy of
    -Goblin Emperor (yeah I have the eBook, but I wanted the mass market for possible future signing)
    -Uprooted (I usually donate hardcovers to the library when I’m done)
    -The Feminine Future: Early Science Fiction by Women Writers (a Dover Thrift collection of out of copyright stories by women I’ve never heard of, except Edith Nesbit).

    I’ve got to stop picking up new stuff or I’ll never get through the Hugo Packet. I figure I’ll use these and my Tor picks as rewards after I get through a harrowing category.

    (I also have a pile of Molly Ivins and Helene Hanff books from the library, but that’s not SFF).

  15. As someone who’s followed politics both personally and professionally for as long as I have. I know the only reason the Democratic Party gets as many votes as it does is the relentless ballot box stuffing in the big cities. Most Americans vote Republican.

    I find it interesting that Lou states something as a ‘fact’ that has been disproved in every single legitimate study for the last 20 years. He also shows his political acumen that ignores the fact that Democrats regularly win the popular vote and are traditionally underrepresented in voting numbers for a number of factors.

    So, if he’s been following it personally and professionally for years, what we can draw from this is that he’s astonishingly ignorant and his idea of professionalism is the same as Fox News.

  16. @Dex
    I think that must have slipped by in all the other stuff in that article. I went back and re-read a bit. Yesh. Urban areas, higher population leans more democratic. The best thing for the puppies is to avoid the public eye. They are not their own best ambassadors.

  17. Shorter Lou Antonelli: “There’s not enough angry culture-war bullshit in this world. We should dump a few truckloads of it into Fandom. We’ll be greeted as liberators.”

  18. Even Shorter Antonelli: “How could Obama have won? Nobody I know voted for him”

  19. Even Shorter Antonelli: “How could Obama have won? Nobody I know voted for him”

    It seems a pretty short step from ‘nobody I know voted for Obama’ to ‘nobody I know votes for this kind of SJW crap for the Hugos’, with a whole lot of the same sort of assumptions of being representative of the population at large (as opposed to a self-selected circle of friends because they’ve driven out anybody who thought differently), leading to the same sort of conclusion that there must have been a conspiracy to fix the vote, because he can’t let himself conceive of any other possibility.

  20. I’m supremely frustrated right now. This thread has many interesting side-threads (this web has many interesting threads?) that I’ve been trying to catch up with before posting and now, I kind of have (I’ve been skimming the last few pages, though).

    From my notes:

    A gin gimlet is, to me, one of the best cures for hot weather, cocktail-wise. Somehow, hot sake also works, but in more of a sauna/sweating-out-the-heat kind of way.

    While I appreciate, admire, and am mortally frightened of people who use emacs, vi will always be my choice (and whoever said pico – that’s not so much heresy as saying “hecka” instead of “hella”). Now that I think of it, emacs users and Peter Watts’ aliens may have something in common, mainly horrifying incomprehensible intelligence that I also suspect is devoid of consciousness.

    And a thing that’s been sticking with me… somebody surely mentioned Miles Vorkosigan in the side-thread about disabled characters being “message” characters, right? I didn’t see it, but given the Baen/puppy connection, it seems obvious. So much of Bujold is *ahem* SJW, or at least seems that way to me, when I attempt to view SFF through puppy-shit colored glasses.

    BBQ-wise… I’ve been exposed a bit to various sects, in the Bay Area. My absolute favorite, so far, is a Texas-style place that opened recently. Lots of smoke, and the sauce is added later. I really don’t have much grasp of BBQ, though, and need to get out and try more.

    Then there was the tofu discussion. Kyra said something about bibimbap. Vegetarian or not, tofu or otherwise, I highly recommend everyone try it. Amazing stuff. The rice on the bottom forms a crust because of the stone bowl, and you mix a raw egg in, which cooks and adds texture to the dish. Then there are pickled vegetables, spices, pork (if you go that way)… so good!

    Speaking of Kyra, I’ve been meaning to pipe up for days, but holy crap! I’m starting to understand why a new category of Hugos was created to try to keep Locus from winning all the time. She’s on another level. She’s won the internet, what, at least a week in a row? Which, no offense everyone else here, I’ve read a ton of hilarious and creative material just in the comments here in the past couple weeks. I came for the slate-kicking but have been drawn in by the book recommendations, mash-ups, Hugo “history” posts, and also to see if maybe Meredith will finally convince Brian Z to stop being disingenuous. On that last bit, though, whoever recently said he’s a contrarian – I think that’s it right there.

    The last line of my notes is “guac”, but I feel like that’s been covered adequately. It caused quite a kerfuffle amongst my fellow Bay Areans, but it’s settling down now. Everyone knows New Yorkers don’t know/care about guacamole.

    Fuck, I’ve written far too long a post. Thanks, Mike, for hosting this, and thanks almost everyone here for being creative and hilarious and giving me an even ridiculously longer list of books I need to read.

  21. Three billion human lives ended on July 9th, 2015. We thought the Hugo-Puppy battles were divisive, but they were a stack of subatomic particles compared to… BBQ-DAY. We File770 voters survived “The Great Slatening” only to face a new nightmare: a five-pronged, multi-faceted war about barbecue sauces. One faction even built their own artificial intelligence system, BBQnet, that promptly went haywire (jesus, guys, what did you THINK was going to happening.) Its mission: to destroy all inferior human sauces and potential cooks, which turned out to be every single human. The first BBQER was programmed to strike at File770 in the month of June, before barbecue sauce was even mentioned.

    It failed.

    This is the story of the second BBQER: BBQ2: CONDIMENT DAY.

  22. …BBQ-wise… I’ve been exposed a bit to various sects, in the Bay Area. My absolute favorite, so far, is a Texas-style place that opened recently.

    Ooh, where?

  23. Jack Lint on July 1, 2015 at 3:30 pm said:
    If cricket can have the Ashes, then gaming shall have the Diana Jones Award. Copies of the Adventures of Indiana Jones RPG remaining when the license expired were burned and the ashes placed in a perspex pyramid.

    The Adventures of Indiana Jones also gave us the story of TSR trying to trademark Nazi, but they were just using the list given to them by the legal department at Lucasfilm.

    I’ve held the Diana Jones Award! I was on the Gaelcon commitee the year Irish gaming conventions won for our charity work.

  24. jamoche – Perdition, in Berkeley. But I am seriously a complete noob at BBQ. If you’re in the bay area, and you have recommendations, please, recommend.

  25. Stevie: This story seems remarkably similar to those other stories we’ve been told by assorted canines;…

    Well, Roberts can actually read and write Latin, which puts him ahead of most Puppy leaders. He also didn’t claim the Hugos were biased against English authors or Literary authors or Academics or some other group and put up a slate of his mates work to dominate the nominations, instead relying on the traditional methods of reading and reviewing books, moaning about award winners and shortlists*, and writing stuff he thought should be written.

    * I think it was one of his caustic posts on the Clarke awards that first made me aware of his online presence.

  26. Neil W

    I did not suggest that Adam is a member of puppidum; I pointed out that he is is not a disinterested party when it comes to winning Hugos. Attempting to rebut my non-existent statement that Adam belongs to puppidum looks like yet another straw man in a discussion which has already produced a world shortage of bricks.

    Please explain why you believe that all of the SF/F writers in the world must be a member of one or more groups, because it sure as hell looks like an attempt to create, once again, ‘Sides’.

    I stand with Treebeard when it comes to sides…

  27. I apologise for being unclear and for putting people into groups that they have not chosen for themselves.

    Roberts point, as I understood it, was that he felt that hype and being a fan of an author (or publication, publisher etc) were somtimes unhelpful in deciding what are genuinely the best works of the year and that eligibility posts tended to promote feelings of loyalty rather than critical facility.

    As for not being disinterested, anyone who is eligible for an award falls into that group, and they are also the group who can choose to make eligibilty posts or not. Cranky writers (and fans) complaining about awards is a regular occurance, hardly unique to the Puppies. Assuming that he is actually motiviated by envy and resentment in the same way as the Puppies, he doesn’t actually make his case on those grounds. I felt that your line about his complaints resembling canine stories was unfair, but I can see that is mostly because I was being stupid; I should not have read it as a close analogy.

  28. @ Shambles – Thank you! Glad you liked it. There’s a sequel in the (painfully slow) works…

  29. If you’re in the bay area, and you have recommendations, please, recommend.

    None at all, alas. Moved out here from Texas 25 years ago and haven’t found a decent BBQ place yet – the South Bay is pretty lacking in BBQ at all, actually.

  30. Glenn Hauman wrote

    TYG: Oh lawsy, Allen and Sons. Still the best pulled pork and hush puppies I’ve ever had…

    .

    Is it bad that I misread this at first as “Alien and Sons”? The image that popped (sorry) into my head is not the same as barbecue/BBQ/barbeque.

    Re: Child-brewed, germs, and general stickiness: Oh yes. Although my son is now going on 20, my partner’s daughter is older, and has started producing the grandchildren. There’s nothing like a self-feeding toddler for stickiness and general messiness, is there? The only difference is, this time around, it’s vastly more amusing. Cleaning up after my son = still irritating; cleaning up after my step-grandson = awesomely funny. I can’t figure out why.

  31. I greatly admired the dignity with which Howard Tayler conducted himself last year in SP2

    … wait, what? Howard was involved even tangentially with puppymess?

  32. And Howard Tayler’s comment on Sad Puppy 2.

    “I’m not sure why Larry put me on his Sad Puppies slate. It’s certainly not something I asked for, nor is it something I’ve EVER asked for. I like it when fans read and recommend my work, but I don’t campaign for that. I certainly don’t think that Schlock Mercenary not winning a Hugo (five times in a row!) is somehow a sign of Great Injustice somewhere. Because that’s just ridiculous. Not winning means it’s not good enough. That’s okay. I can keep making it better. And other people will keep making other excellent graphic stories, and thank you, Hugo Awards, for encouraging an ever-raising bar.”

Comments are closed.