Pixel Scroll 2/7/17 I Will Set My Scrolls of Silver And I’ll Sail Toward The Pixel

(1) GET IN ON THE ART. Many museums are offering free downloadable coloring books this week, February 6-10, as part of the #Color Our Collections event. There is quite a lot of fantastic imagery of interest to fans — indeed, one item literally is fan art.

Orycon. (October 30, 1981 – November 1, 1981). A review of Orycon ’80 – Document 1, Page 1 Fritz LeiberScience Fiction & Fantasy Convention Flyers & Programs. Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries,

From February 6-10, 2017, libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions around the world are sharing free coloring sheets and books based on materials in their collections. Users are invited to download and print the coloring sheets and share their filled-in images, using the hashtag #ColorOurCollections.

All content is sourced from the collections of participating institutions. With participants from around the globe, this campaign offers an opportunity to explore the vast and varied offerings of the library world, without geographical constraints. Last year’s campaign included over 210 institutions and featured coloring sheets based on children’s classics, natural histories, botanicals, anatomical atlases, university yearbooks, patents, and more.

Here is a list of participating institutions.

(2) THE ECHOING GREEN. Diana Pavlac Glyer’s Bandersnatch: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings reviewed by Donald T. Williams at The Five Pilgrims.

Glyer’s detective work is not only intriguing; it is also often insightful.  Her readers will gain useful perspectives on two things: many of the Inklings’ works that they already love, and the writing process itself, especially the role of collaboration and encouragement in it.  Judged by their longevity and their output, the Inklings were surely the most successful writers’ group ever assembled.  There are reasons why.  Each chapter of Bandersnatch ends with a sidebar entitled “Doing What They Did.”  People interested in starting their own writers’ groups, or those already involved in one who want to make it work better, will find a gold mine of practical wisdom there.

(3) WHO WINS. The BBC Audio Drama Awards, shortlisted here last month, were presented on January 30. Just one item of genre interest won this year —

Best Online Only Audio Drama

Dr Who – Absent Friends Big Finish Productions

 

(4) CLARKE CONVERSATION. The first in a series of interviews exploring themes of science fiction and STEM, sponsored by the Arthur C. Clarke Award, is online at Medium, a conversation between Anne Charnock and Ada Lovelace Day founder Suw Charman-Anderson.

[Charman-Anderson] …The first of my cherished books was Stranded at Staffna by Helen Solomon. Mrs Solomon was my English teacher and when I was nine she gave me a signed copy of her book:

I hope you enjoy reading this story about Morag MacDonald, Susan, and that you agree with me?—?that she was a real heroine. With love, Helen Solomon. December 1980.

Mrs Solomon was right?—?I did enjoy it and I did agree with her that Morag was amazing. It’s the first book I remember crying at the end of, not least because it’s based on the true story of Mary MacNiven, who rescued a horse from a shipwreck in 1940.

I was already an enthusiastic reader, but Mrs Solomon was the person who helped me understand that books didn’t just appear out of nowhere, that someone sat down and wrote them. It was around this time, I think, that I wrote my first complete story, about a girl who lost her sight when she was hit on the head, and who entered into a parallel world when she slept. It was a complete rip-off of Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr, of course, but I structured it properly and even had character development! It was then that I started to think that I would become a writer when I grew up.

(5) AUTHORITY DIES, Professor Irwin Corey, the comedian, died February 6 at the age of 102.

It’s impossible to provide a short explanation of Corey’s surreal brand of comedy, which was most potent when delivered in his seemingly nonsensical stream of non sequiturs. But the breadth of his career hints at his creative genius: Who else could have appeared in the 1976 film Car Wash, two years after accepting a National Book Award on behalf of the reclusive Thomas Pynchon?

Billed as “the World’s Foremost Authority,” Corey’s guise as an absent-minded professor offered a way to poke fun at multisyllabic jargon and those who use it. When political or scientific authorities seemed to annex a chunk of language, there was Corey to claw it back — a very human antidote to our complicated modern times.

(6) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • February 7, 1940 — Walt Disney’s movie Pinocchio debuted

(7) FAN WRITER, FANZINE, EDITOR: Rich Horton posted the final installment of his recommendations, — “Hugo Nomination Thoughts — Other Categories” — which included some very kind comments about Filers, such as the fan writing of Camestros Felapton and Greg Hullender’s Rocket Stack Rank.

But of course there are many wonderful fan writers out there. For years I have been nominating Abigail Nussbaum, especially for her blog Asking the Wrong Questions (http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/), and I see no reason not to do so again this year. I will note in particular her review of Arrival, which captured beautifully the ways in which the movie falls short of the original story, but still acknowledges the movie’s strengths.

Another fan writer who has attracted my notice with some interesting posts is Camestros Felapton (https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/). Some of the most interesting work there regarded (alas) the Puppy Kerfuffles, and I was quite amused by this Map of the Puppy Kerfuffle: https://camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com/the-puppy-kerfuffle-map/. But the blog is much more than Puppy commentary – indeed, it’s much more than SF commentary. In the more traditional fanwriting area, I can point to the most recent entry (as I write), a well-done review of Greg Egan’s Diaspora.

Another possibility is Greg Hullender at Rocket Stack Rank (http://www.rocketstackrank.com/). The site is run by Greg along with his partner Eric Wong, and both deserve a lot of credit – I mention Greg in particular because of article like his analysis of the effect of slate voting on the 2016 Hugos (http://www.rocketstackrank.com/2016/09/reanalysis-of-slate-voting-in-2016-hugo.html)

(8) THE REAL ESTATE. Curbed reports a bit of literary history is for sale — “A.A. Milne’s Real-Life ‘House at Pooh Corner’ Hits the Market”.

Christopher Robin Milne, the son of Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne, grew up in this quaint brick manse in the English countryside. Christopher Robin inspired the young boy of the same name in Milne’s iconic children’s stories and, so too did the bucolic setting of the family home serve as the backdrop. Known as Cotchford Farm, and on the market for the first time in more than 40 years, the Grade II listed estate spans 9.5 acres of lawns, forest, and streams. The six-bedroom main house, the quintessential English country house if there ever was one, is listed for $3.22M. There’s more to the Milne house than just Pooh, as it was also later owned by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, who reportedly died on the property.

The best part of the news item might be that the author’s name is “Rob Bear.”

(8) HEAVENS TO MURGATROYD. Cartoon Brew has the story — “Warner Bros. Reboots Snagglepuss As A Gay Playwright Being Hunted By The U.S. Government”.,

The eight-page story will debut this March in the Suicide Squad/Banana Splits Annual #1, before turning into a regular DC series this fall. “I envision him like a tragic Tennessee Williams figure,” writer Marc Russell told HiLoBrow.com. “Huckleberry Hound is sort of a William Faulkner guy, they’re in New York in the 1950s, Marlon Brando shows up, Dorothy Parker, these socialites of New York from that era come and go.”

The sexual orientation was never affirmed in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons, but Russell, who has also done an updated take on The Flintstones for DC Comics, is making Snagglepuss’ sexuality a key part of the story, in which the pink mountain lion is dragged before the Communist-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). He’s accused of being a pinko, get it?

This is the first I’ve heard that Snagglepuss was pink. I watched those cartoons when I was really young — the station they were on was still broadcasting in black-and-white.

(9) THE CAT’S MEOW. Naomi Kritzer is releasing her collection Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories” in July 2017.

Table of Contents:

  • “Cat Pictures Please” (Clarkesworld) (Hugo Award-winning story)
  • “Ace of Spades” (not previously published)
  • “The Golem” (Realms of Fantasy)
  • “Wind” (Apex)
  • “In The Witch’s Garden” (Realms of Fantasy)
  • “What Happened at Blessing Creek” (Intergalactic Medicine Show)
  • “Cleanout” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
  • “Artifice” (Analog Science Fiction and Fact)
  • “Perfection” (not previously published)
  • “The Good Son” (Jim Baen’s Universe)
  • “Scrap Dragon” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
  • “Comrade Grandmother” (Strange Horizons)
  • “Isabella’s Garden” (Realms of Fantasy)
  • “Bits” (Clarkesworld)
  • “Honest Man” (Realms of Fantasy)
  • “The Wall” (Asimov’s Science Fiction)
  • “So Much Cooking” (Clarkesworld)

(10) BACK TO WORK. The Hugo Nominees 2018 Wikia site has gone live. Not to early to list the 2017 works you love that might deserve an award next year.

(11) BIG BROTHER WAS WATCHING WHAT YOU WERE WATCHING. The FTC found that Vizio’s TVs were reporting moment-by-moment viewing, plus location info, back to a server.

TV maker Vizio has agreed to pay out $2.2m in order to settle allegations it unlawfully collected viewing data on its customers.

The US Federal Trade Commission said the company’s smart TV technology had captured data on what was being viewed on screen and transmitted it to the firm’s servers.

The data was sold to third parties, the FTC said.

Vizio has said the data sent could not be matched up to individuals.

It wrote: ” [The firm] never paired viewing data with personally identifiable information such as name or contact information, and the Commission did not allege or contend otherwise.

“Instead, as the complaint notes, the practices challenged by the government related only to the use of viewing data in the ‘aggregate’ to create summary reports measuring viewing audiences or behaviours.”

(12) HOLY PUNCHOUT. Netflix is bringing Marvel’s Iron Fist to television in 2017.

[Thanks to John Lorentz, Bruce D. Arthurs, Chip Hitchcock, Mark-kitteh, Gregory N. Hullender, John King Tarpinian, and Carl Slaughter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Lee.]

32 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 2/7/17 I Will Set My Scrolls of Silver And I’ll Sail Toward The Pixel

  1. By the way, Mike, did you mean “I’ll SAIL toward the pixel”? Maybe I’m missing a reference here.

    I’m gonna go appertain some sleep.

  2. Ooooh, Iron Fifth!

    Boooo, Netflix!

    What a drag, a Marvel hero I’d watch, on a purveyor I’ll never use. 🙁

  3. Kip W.: Yes, that’s what it’s supposed to be. Looks like I was appertaining my nap in the middle of typing the headline.

  4. (7) FAN WRITER, FANZINE, EDITOR

    Horton echoes a dilemma I have. He highlights no less than a dozen names for Best Editor Short Form, all of which I’d agree with, and I could add at least four more without trying. That’s an embarrassment of riches to cut down to five.

    (Mind you, that’s nothing compared to short story. I was doing my Locus poll this morning, and despite thinking their longlist was a good one with plenty of great stories on it, I could have easily gone for five write-ins from great stories that didn’t make their cut. I suppose it’s a nice problem to have!)

    (9) THE CAT’S MEOW.

    I’m looking forward to this. Everything I’ve read by Kritzer has been delightful.

    (10) BACK TO WORK.

    This title is sadly accurate. The problem with magazines is that they arrive every month whether you’re caught up or not. At least with books I can not buy them yet and then pretend they’re not on the tbr.

    @Camestros

    To be settled by a graph-off in extra time?

    Now then, I want a nice clean fight. No biting, gouging, or falsification of data.

  5. 9) Oh goody. Kritzer is delightful, although I hope she does go back and does more novels sometime.

  6. And thus will begin the heated war of words between those who praise the new Snagglepuss direction in the name of diversity and those who condemn it in the name of the flamboyant pink character being made gay playing to obvious stereotypes.

    (At least we may get to see a hilarious new John C. Wright rant from the “Eeeek! A gay! crowd.)

  7. The Snagglepuss reboot blows my mind. Are we going to get Red Max as a PTSD inflicted jet fighter pilot? The Ant Hill Mob in a tense HBO-style gangster drama?

  8. The Snagglepuss reboot blows my mind. Are we going to get Red Max as a PTSD inflicted jet fighter pilot? The Ant Hill Mob in a tense HBO-style gangster drama?

    The anteater is haunted by the knowledge that he needs to consume other sentient life to live, is trying to convert to a vegan diet, and is in constant moral battle with his visceral ache for that sweet, sweet antflesh.

  9. Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
    Of that colossal hive, boundless and bare
    The lone and level pixels scroll away.

  10. Now Greg and I must fight to the death armed only with spreadsheets. In Excel that’s surprisingly easy to do.

  11. How did that Snagglepuss artist end up drawing him as a dog?? His name is SnagglePUSS @_@ He’s a mountain lion, I am pretty sure it comes up in the old cartoon more than once.

  12. Joe H, thanks for the heads-up on the Butler!

    I have, after a bunch of non-sff stuff, been deliberately and defiantly choosing sff when I have other stuff waiting to be read & reviewed, because. I. Want. To.

    So there.

  13. Guys, you should see the Wacky Races comic – a hellish, brutal Mad Max style sci fi dystopia. The Flintstones comic is a brilliantly savage satire, though, and bodes well for Snagglepuss.

  14. He aint clicky, he’s my pixel

    …and I feel myself in love of the File and the only Thing to do is to
    Clicky-ti-click my boxi-di-brin-long

  15. Hey there, Filers. Just got back from a trip out to New York City (well, got back Monday evening, am starting to feel a little less exhausted). Given this scroll has comic-pertinent news, I feel it’s apropos to mention I briefly attended the grand opening of Quimby’s in Brooklyn. For those who aren’t familiar with Quimby’s, it’s a famous, excellent comic shop in Chicago. I sort of just drifted away from collecting comics some time around 2007 or so, but at least back in the early 00s, Quimby’s was one of those nationally-known (internationally?) bad-ass comic shops like Comic Relief (R.I.P.) in Berkeley. If you’re in the NYC area, I recommend checking it out. From what I recall, it’s right off the L line, either in Bushwick or Williamsburg (I think).

    10+ hours on a plane gave me some time to finish up books I’d dropped off of and also get some more Discworld reading done. Finished Ballard’s High-Rise, which I found a little too appropriate a metaphor for modern times, inspiring me to pick up the next in line for me from Pratchett – The Last Hero. Having bolstered my hope for the world, on the way home I finished a book I’d started a couple years back but never finished – The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom, by Candida Moss. I highly recommend that book for a Christian scholar’s take on the Christian persecution complex. Some of it flew over my head, as I wasn’t raised Catholic and understand little about the cult of the saints, but I was brought up to believe that one defining element of being Christian is to always be persecuted by the Other. Discovering this root perception of persecution is ahistorical was eye opening. Went on to Pratchett’s The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents after that one. A Pratchett story starring a cat – can’t possibly go wrong there. First children’s novel, I guess, from the Discworld series, and worth the read. Not sure what I’m on to next. It was very nice to have so much time to read over the weekend.

  16. Hiya! Off-topic but sfnal: I’m looking for references to Elvis worship/Churches of Elvis in SF for a little side-project. I’ve got a few so far: Walter Jon Williams, Robert Aspirin, Jack Womack, Melissa Scott, and Fallout: New Vegas. But I’m sure there’s a lot more out there. Any suggestions?

  17. Xtifr:

    In downtown Portland, Oregon, there was an art installation called The 24-Hour Coin-Operated Church of Elvis for years. I am officially a saint in that church. I bought a T-shirt, and it came with sainthood.

    Also, Mike Baron & Steve Rude’s NEXUS comics series had the Elvi, a violent religious movement centered on you know who.

  18. Xtifr, Kurt Busiek:
    For comics, there were also ‘The Elvi’ from Scott Saavedra’s “It’s Science with Dr. Radium’. They were aliens in the far future who worshipped Elvis, and at one point tried to highjack a time machine to go back and actually meet him. They tended to be far more annoying than violent.

  19. @kathodus: Thanks for mentioning Candida Moss’s book; that intrigues me, though I read very, very little non-fiction. I’ll take look.

  20. Pingback: NEWS FROM FANDOM: 2-12-17 - Amazing Stories

Comments are closed.