Where to Follow Johan Anglemark’s TAFF Trip

By John Purcell: Here are a couple updates on Johan Anglemark’s 2018 TAFF trip thus far.

First up, here is the blog address for Johan Anglemark’s 2018 trip:  www.taff2018.com The title is Westward, Hi! TAFF 2018.  The blog allows fans who are not on Facebook to follow his exploits. Currently he is on the way to Seattle; his plane should be landing there in approximately another two hours.

Here’s a sample:

I and John [Purcell] left Austin yesterday after a wee stroll through town, during which I bought physical artifacts with music for the first time in I don’t know how many years, but if there is a good record store, I say let’s support it. And Waterloo Records in Austin is that store.

We then took the 71 out of town and stopped by the Berdoll Pecan Candy store, so that we could take photos of ourselves standing by the gigantic squirrel statue they have there.

Secondly, here is what I wrote on TAFF’s Facebook page regarding the results of the ArmadilloCon 40 (Austin, TX, this past weekend) TAFF Auction and my “Busking for TAFF” musical adventure. It was supposed to be a combination concert/panel presentation, but ended up being very different from what we had originally planned. I will be writing this up for the next issue of Askew, definitely, which I would like to mail out #26 in the next week or so. But for now, here is this from the TAFF Facebook page:

Johan Anglemark and I far exceeded my expectations on what we would raise for TAFF this weekend. The TAFF portion of the Charity Auction Saturday afternoon was $146, which eclipsed the $100-125 range I expected. Then today I did an hour’s worth of “Busking for TAFF” and, with Johan’s help, we must have done something right because that raised an additional $94.85, plus items were donated for future sale for the fund. This is a total of $240.85 – which is twice as much as I had projected for ArmadilloCon 40, which had an estimated 375 attendance. Dang! Like I said in an earlier posting, the generosity of sf fans and pros this weekend had me feeling verklempt.

Thank you, ArmadilloCon fans, guests, and committee! Without you people, we could not have done this. From Johan and myself, thank you so much for supporting TAFF and helping it grow.

Words fail me. You people are the best!

Johan Anglemark’s 2018 TAFF Itinerary

Johan Anglemark

Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund delegate Johan Anglemark will soon leave Sweden on a journey that ultimately will take him to Worldcon 76 in San Jose.

TAFF co-administrator John Purcell announced Anglemark’s itinerary in a special news release:

Hear ye, hear ye! You better run, you better hide! Johan Anglemark is coming! He has set up his travel plans, lining up places to see and people to stay with. All in all, I envy Johan as he is about to embark on a life-changing event.

As it turns out, he can’t wait to attend Worldcon 76 so he is attending two other conventions to prepare himself: Finncon in Turku, Finland (July 14-15), and then ArmadilloCon 40 in Austin, Texas (August 3-5). Eventually he will wend his way out to San Jose, California for Worldcon 76.

Here are the salient points of his journey within North America:

25-JUL Dep Stockholm Arlanda 13:40 on FI309
Arr Reykjavik Keflavik 14:55
Dep Reykjavik Keflavik 17:00 on FI603
Arr Toronto Pearson 18:55
26-JUL Staying with Catherine Crockett & Colin Hinz
27-JUL Staying with Catherine Crockett & Colin Hinz
28-JUL Staying with Catherine Crockett & Colin Hinz
29-JUL Dep Toronto Pearson 14:45 on AC7733
Arr St Paul Intl 15:54
30-JUL Staying with Joyce S.
31-JUL Staying with Joyce S.
1-AUG Staying with Joyce S.
2-AUG Dep St Paul Intl 14:10 on UA6325
Arr Houston George Bush Intl. 16:59
3-AUG Staying with John & Valerie P.
4-AUG Armadillocon, Austin
5-AUG Armadillocon, Austin
6-AUG Staying with John & Valerie P.
7-AUG Staying with John & Valerie P.
8-AUG Dep Houston George Bush Intl. 16:36 on UA1792
Arr Seattle Tacoma Intl 19:20
9-AUG Staying in Vonda M’s guest apartment
10-AUG Staying in Vonda M’s guest apartment
11-AUG Staying in Vonda M’s guest apartment
12-AUG Dep Seattle Tacoma Intl 13:55 on AS330
Arr San Jose Municipal 16:07
13-AUG Staying with Sten and Evangeline T.
14-AUG Staying with Sten and Evangeline T.
15-AUG Staying with Sten and Evangeline T.
16-AUG Worldcon 76, San Jose
17-AUG Worldcon 76, San Jose
18-AUG Worldcon 76, San Jose
19-AUG Worldcon 76, San Jose
20-AUG Worldcon 76, San Jose
21-AUG Staying with some fan or in hotel (TBD)
22-AUG Dep Oakland Intl. 18:10 on DY7068
23-AUG Arr Stockholm Arlanda 13:15

2018 TAFF Result

Swedish fan Johan Anglemark has been voted this year’s Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund delegate to Worldcon 76 in San Jose over August 16-20, 2018.

TAFF co-administrator John Purcell described it as “a very close, highly contested race.” Complete voting result breakdowns will follow in an official TAFF Press Release within the next 24 hours which Purcell and Anna Raftery, the outgoing European TAFF Administrator, are preparing. “Anna and I congratulate Johan for this exciting win, and also thank candidates Fia Karlsson and Helena McCallum for making this campaign so much fun and a great success.”

Forty Years? That’s Not Too Many

By John Purcell: Sometimes it is hard to believe how long you have been involved with science fiction fandom, or how many issues of a fanzine you have produced, how many conventions you have attended… The list goes on.  Whenever I get into this reflective mood, I can’t help but be surprised at how much things have changed while also noting that some things still remain, and even those have changed with the times. Such is the case with File 770.

When Mike Glyer began producing this fanzine, it was done that tried and true way of being mimeo’d. This was the preferred means of production then; for some fans even now, in 2018, they still type up their stencils, insert art work (a magical process to me: I never mastered this aspect), then ran them off on the mimeograph machine, slip-sheeting away, collating pages, stapling, etc. It is a time-consuming process, but the feeling of satisfied accomplishment when an issue is completed is something else. Thinking back, it’s hard to believe that we actually did it that way every few months or so, or even on a monthly basis. Not only that, keeping it up for any great length of time is a definite head-scratcher.

I used to get File 770 in trade for my fanzines, devouring every issue the instant it plopped into the mailbox. As a news-of-fandom fanzine, File 770 was an informational life-line connecting me with fans and the doings in the science fiction world community. This was how we communicated with each other: trading fanzines, writing back and forth, even gasp! making telephone calls. When computers began coming into our homes, they naturally became a primary means of fannish communication.

Now look at us. Thanks to these changes in communication technology, the sharing of information and news is practically instantaneous. No more waiting a few weeks, months, or – in some cases – years for the next issue to come out to get the scoop on what’s going on in the sf universe. And through it all, File 770 remained as a constant. Like bouncing potatoes and rubber chicken convention banquet food, this fanzine is a fannish institution.

It is pretty darned incredible how easily Mike has changed File 770 formats. I enjoyed getting the dead-tree fanzine back in the day, and now I get File 770 RSS feeds directly to my email account a few times a day! I call that living in Skiffy Land.

Congratulations, Mike, on reaching forty years of File 770.  No matter the format, the fanzine/ blog is a huge part of our stfnal lives. Thank you for your devotion to the cause.

[John Purcell is the editor of the zines Askance and Askew, and co-administrator of the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund.]

How To Contribute to the Worldcon’s Annual APA

A message from John Purcell:

SUBJECT: Contributing to WOOF #42 – the Worldcon Order of Faneds, the APA (Amateur Press Association) collated annually at the World Science Fiction Convention – at WorldCon 75 in Helsinki, Finland.

Here is an UPDATE on what You Need To Know:

There is a European Official Editor of WOOF #42! Simo Suntila, a fanzine fan for many years, has “volunteered” (at the end of Jukka Halme’s volunteer-prodding stick) to be an OE as well. Since he is a local Finland Fanzine Fan (a Scandinavian N3F, there), that means contributions can be emailed ahead to him at [email protected] in PDF (preferred) or Word Document attachments and he will then print contributions locally well before the collation occurs. The due date for these WOOFzines is Saturday, 5 August 2017; that gives Simo a week to print them before the collation. A proper Table of Contents will thus be created ahead of time, as well. Gee, this sounds so shudder organized!

Speaking of the WOOF #42 collation, it is tentatively set for Saturday, 12 August 2017, from 1300 to 1500 hours (as it will be listed in the program guide: all times are done in military or international time; otherwise that translates to 1 to 3 PM for those folks who don’t do math) in the Fanzine Lounge at WorldCon 75. España Sheriff is the Fanzine Lounge Coordinator, and I have contacted her to see if we can arrange for refreshments (soft drinks and munchables) to be available for the collating masses.

Copy count of contributions is still set at a limit of 50 copies. [NOTE: If that is not enough, we will try to get the word out as quickly as possible to people who are bringing their WOOFzine to the collation.) I guess North American fans who wish to contribute and will not be attending WorldCon 75 can send their pre-printed WOOFzines to me ahead of time (ask me for my mailing address), but please include a 9″x12″ SASE. Your final collated copy of WOOF #42 will be mailed to non-attending North American contributors upon my return home to keep postage costs down. Naturally, if contributors are attending the convention, they should bring their pre-printed contributions to the collation, and are encouraged to participate in said collation. Not only does the collation go faster, it is much more fun, too. We want to treat this like the RUNE and MINNEAPA collation parties I remember from the late 1970s and early 1980s. If historic trends continue, the total page count of WOOF #42 will be 80-100 pages in length. We might need a bigger stapler.

I am still – silly me – willing to create an e-apa version of this year’s WOOF, and send it off to Bill Burns for eFanzines, another to Fanac.org for archiving, and any other interested parties. Therefore, please send your emailed contributions (as either PDF or Word Document attachments) to Simo Suntila at [email protected] or me at [email protected] by 5 August 2017. We will make sure that all submitted contributions get into the APA in one way, shape, or format.

For additional information, here is the link to the article WOOF is the Answer” written by John Hertz for the File 770 website: There is more information there for your edification and entertainment.

As additional information develops, it will be shared on many group pages on Facebook, the FILE 770 website, and also in my fanzines ASKANCE and ASKEW.

WOOF is the Answer

By John Hertz: The torch of WOOF has passed to John Purcell of Texas.  He will be Official Editor of WOOF this year, his second time around; he previously served in 2013.

He is also this year’s TAFF (Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund) delegate.  Although he campaigned using images of Henry Purcell, which Gerard Manley Hopkins taught us to rhyme with reversal, Brother John is from a branch of the family whose name is pronounced “purr-SELL”.

WOOF, the World Order Of Faneditors, is an amateur publishing association (or “amateur press association”) whose contributions are collected, and whose distributions are issued, at and from (but not by or for) the World Science Fiction Convention.

The 2017 Worldcon will be August 9-13 at Helsinki, Finland.  Some Worldcons have nicknames, but this one, the 75th, is just called Worldcon 75.

An apa is an assemblage of amateurs’ publications.  You send copies of yours and get back a distribution containing yours and everybody else’s.

We borrowed the notion of apas from another hobby, amateur journalism.  What seems the first apa was theirs, founded 1876 (NAPA the National Amateur Press Ass’n), still ongoing.  The first in the SF community was FAPA the Fantasy Amateur Press Ass’n, founded 1937, also still ongoing.

Apas come and go on various continents, each apa with its own rules, customs, and jokes.  Most apas have been quarterly or monthly.  I’m in one that’s weekly.  WOOF is yearly.

The central receiver-sender of WOOF is the Official Editor.  The 2017 WOOF distribution will be WOOF 42.

This year’s copy count is 50, i.e. 50 copies required of each contribution.

WOOF is another invention of the late great Bruce Pelz.  As Suford Lewis said, he had a fruitful imagination.  Some say his epitaph, among us anyhow, should be Si monumentum requiris circumspice (Latin, “If you seek his monument, look around you.”

This year the OE must have your contribution by noon (local time) on Saturday, August 12th.  A Table of Contents will be made and collation will follow.

The Fanzine Lounge at this year’s Worldcon will be hosted by España Sheriff.  The OE plans to collate WOOF there.  He hopes to get a WOOF drop-off box placed there after the con opens on Wednesday.

If you do not expect to be present, please make your own arrangements.  Some long-time WOOFers have seldom been able to attend the con at all, instead sending contributions via friends, providing for return envelopes and postage as needed.

Usually WOOF distributions consist of contributions stapled together, and at least some copies of the distribution are sent by real-mail.  Please consider accordingly the media by which and onto which you publish your contribution.

Various apas have tales of fans’ sending strange paper or even slices of bologna.  Some practices are more honored in the breach than in the observance.

What to write about?  Well, cabbages, kings, why the sea is boiling hot (I think it’s the influence of the sun, myself), whether pigs have wings; rum-pots, crack-pots, and how are you, Mr. Wilson?

The OE this year may be able to print some contributions sent him by E-mail; ask him, askance73 [at] gmail [dot] com.  You’ll recognize the title of his fanzine Askance.  You may also write to him at 3744 Marielene Cir., College Station, TX 77845, U.S.A.  Despite the street where he lives, he is not very near Abilene, 260 miles away.  That may seem close if you are Jukka Halme.

College Station is so named on account of a railroad.  The Houston & Texas Central began building there in 1860.  The Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas opened in 1876 (there’s that year again), first public institution of higher education in the State, since 1963 Texas A&M University.

You may also write to or call me, 236 S. Coronado St., No. 409, Los Angeles, CA 90057, U.S.A., (213)384-6622 (Pacific Daylight Time).

We might sing (with apologies to Betty Comden, Adolph Green & Jule Stein, 1960) WOOF is the answer; some OE for WOOF is the answer: once you’ve found him, build your zine around him; make our OE happy, make just one OE happy, and you will be happy too.

Pixel Scroll 4/18/17 There Is A Scroll In Everything, That’s How The Pixel Gets In

(1) WISDOM. Chuck Wendig’s birthday gift to himself can also be shared with the universe — lucky us: “What I’ve Learned After 5 Years And 20 Books: 25 Lessons”. JJ’s favorite is #21. This is my pick —

  1. The Opposite Of ‘Kill Your Darlings’ Is ‘Know Which Hill To Die On’

Early on you learn to kill your darlings. Your work has these precious, preening peacocks who strut about for their own pomp and circumstance. These darlings are like chairs you can’t sit on, food you can’t eat — they’re just there to look pretty and take up space. So, you kill them. You learn to kill them. You get good at killing them. And then, one day, you realize maybe you got too good at it. Maybe you went too far. You started to think of everything as expendable, everything as negotiable. But it isn’t. It can’t be. I learned this writing Star Wars: yes, those books are not purely mine. They belong to the galaxy, not to me. Just the same? It’s my name on those books. If they fail, they fail on my watch. If there’s something in there you don’t like, it doesn’t matter if it’s something Mickey Mouse his-own-damn-self demanded I put in there: it lands on my doorstep. That’s when I saw the other side of the brutally execute your peacocks argument: some peacocks stay. Some peacocks are yours, and you put them there because that’s where you want them. Maybe they add something specific, maybe you’re just an asshole who demands that one lone peacock warbling and showing its stuff. But you own that. You have to see when there are battles to lose, and when there are wars to win. There are always hills to die on. It can’t be all of them. You want to die on every hill, then you’re dead for no reason and the book will suffer. But some things are yours and you have to know which ones to fight for, and why. You have to know why they matter and then you have to be prepared to burn the book to ash in order to let it stay.

(2) WRITE LIKE THE LIGHTNING. Too Like the Lightning author and Hugo nominee Ada Palmer is interviewed in the Chicago Maroon.

CM: Where’d your inspiration arise from, and what made you want to write a book with such an intersection of so many topics like philosophy, politics, science fiction?

AP: I mean, good science fiction is like that. Great science fiction is full of ideas, not just one, or two, or five ideas, but new ideas in every page. Also, I was inspired by reading pre-modern science fiction, which I do as a historian. We think of science fiction as a late 19th- and 20th-century genre, but Voltaire wrote a science fiction short story called “Micromegas,” in which aliens from another star and from Saturn come to the Earth. When they make first contact with people, the first thing they discuss is, “Is Plato or Descartes correct about how the soul and body connect to each other?” and “Is Thomas Aquinas’s discussion of Aristotle’s divisions of the parts of the soul true?” Voltaire’s society was obsessed with providence, so providence and the existence of God and the immaterial soul was what his people talked to aliens about, and it was as plausible to him as our science fiction works are to us.

So I wanted to write science fiction that used the amazingly sophisticated vocabulary of modern science fiction, all the great developments we’ve had in terms of thinking about AI and flying cars, but to ask questions like Voltaire would.

(3) GOT TO HAVE IT. A couple of other Hugo nominees woke up the internet.

Ditch Diggers has been nominated for a Hugo Award! You did it! Mur and Matt will go up against the likes of The Coode Street Podcast and Tea & Jeopardy in Helsinki for Best Fancast (even though we’re all professionals. Because there’s only one podcast category)! Thank you to all Ditch Diggers listeners who supported the show and don’t forget to vote for Mur and Matt for the Hugo itself!

(4) PROFESSIONALISM. Michi Trota reinforces the lessons of Odyssey Con in “Volunteers, Professionals, and Who Gets to Have Fun at Cons”.

…Being on the job at a con doesn’t have to ruin my fun–or anyone else’s for that matter–but you know what does? The dude with the grabby hands and eyes trained on my chest. The person who kills a conversation with their racist jokes. The gatekeeper who quizzes me on the X-Men then tries to play Gotcha! with a question about Legend of Zelda because obviously the brown Asian woman’s just playing at being a nerd. The asshole selling misogynistic art. A concom that selectively enforces their code of conduct and dismisses concerns I’ve expressed about my safety because “Stories about X’s behavior are just exaggerated.” Not only does that ruin any fun to be had, it also makes my job that much harder to do, potentially costs me opportunities as a creator, and makes me wonder how much of my investment that con is actually worth (Elise Matthesen had some excellent things to say about the real costs of harassment and who pays them).

This is where the argument that having things like rules, codes, and policies that attendees and organizers are expected to abide by also ruins everyone’s fun usually comes up. But it begs the question: just whose fun are we referring to here? Because let’s be real, con’s haven’t always been fun for everyone.

… The widespread adoption and implementation of anti-harassment policies and codes of conduct has made it a bit easier for people like me to be more involved in fandom. They don’t mean that I never run into problems, but it’s less likely those problems will outweigh the time and effort I invest in those cons. It’s because of my participation and attendance at cons as both a fan and a pro that I was able to meet people and find opportunities that helped me get to where I am now. Expectations of professionalism on the part of con organizers are not unreasonable simply because those organizers are volunteers. There’s absolutely nothing wrong about professionals treating cons as a workplace (particularly if they’re guests who have been contracted by the con for their presence) and nothing preventing pros and fans from being friendly with each other. There’s nothing about running your con with a minimum of professional standards, practices, and behavior that excludes everyone also having fun.

If your fun is dependent using your status as a volunteer as an excuse to not act responsibly, if it requires victims to stay quiet about mistreatment: then it’s not really a fun time for “everyone” is it? It’s not the expectation of professionalism that’s killing the fun at cons, it’s the lack of it.

As Deb Geisler says, “Never, ever, ever should “but we’re just volunteers” be an excuse not to do the finest job of which we are capable.”

(5) STUMBLING BLOCK QUESTIONS. Alyssa Wong says it in her own way in “Why ‘I’m a feminist, but –‘ isn’t enough”.

ii.

Incidents of sexual harassment in the SFF field are distressingly numerous. And it’s nothing new; Isaac Asimov was so well known to grope women that in 1961 he was asked to deliver a “pseudo lecture” on “the positive power of posterior pinching” (read the correspondence between Earl Kemp, chairman of Chicon III, and Asimov here).

But this isn’t 1961. SFF is more global, diverse and inclusive than ever, and much richer for it. Writers who challenge and explore systematic injustice and oppression through their work are myriad; their work can be found in bookstores, presses, and online across genres, across the world.

And yet we keep asking:

are you sure she didn’t just have a vendetta?

how could it be sexual harassment if he didn’t touch her?

why do we need to be so politically correct?

Why? Because real people are affected. Because both macro- and microaggressions are harmful.Because everyone deserves to feel safe in professional settings, and for writers and industry professionals, that is what conventions are. Moreover, Wiscon is a feminist SFF convention. If safe feminist space exists in genre, Wiscon should definitely be part of it.

What concerns me is the number of women and men who continue to stand up for known abusers. In this sense, it seems that Jim Frenkel is not alone.

(6) CARPENTRY. Cat Rambo also says it is “Time to Fix the Missing Stair”, in a multifaceted post that includes this allusion to a Superversive SF post, and highlights from a relevant panel at last weekend’s Norwescon.

…[Re: Monica Valentinelli’s departure as OdysseyCon guest] One manifestation of that is a brief statement asking why she hates women, declaring that her example will make conventions reluctant to invite any women in the future. Let’s unpack that one a little because the underpinnings seem ill-constructed to me.

There are many kinds of humans in the world. That means there’re also many kinds of women. The logic of the above statement says two things: 1) that it is wrong for people speak out about conditions that are uncomfortable, unprofessional, or sometimes even dangerous and 2) that only people with the strength to survive a gauntlet that can include being groped onstage, being mocked publicly, having their work denigrated for no reason other than having been produced by a woman, and a multitude of other forms of harassment deserve careers and the rest are out of luck. Does that really need to be demanded for someone to have a career? Writers are notoriously unstable mentally as it is. Serial harassment is a professional matter.

This was underscored for me on a Norwescon (a con that does a great job with selecting programming and volunteers and understands the issues) panel that I moderated last Friday, Standing Up to the Mob, with panelists Minim Calibre, Arinn Dembo, Mickey Schulz, and Torrey Stenmark. The description was:

How do you support female creators who are being harassed online by the ravening hordes of the unenlightened? Tips for voicing your support in ways that mean something.

Here are Arinn Dembo’s excellent notes on the panel overall.

(7) THEY’RE GONE. Would you like to bet this writer’s stance was a factor in today’s decision to retire the Lovecraft nominee pins?

(8) THE ONE-PERSON SALES FORCE. A lot of things affect an indie author’s sales and it isn’t easy to keep all of them in mind, as Amanda S. Green explains in “It really is a business” at Mad Genius Club.

The next thing I looked at happened to be my product pages. Oh my, there is so much there we have to take into consideration and we don’t tend to. At least I don’t. Sure, I want to have the best possible cover to draw the reader’s eye. I want a snappy and interesting blurb to grab the reader and make them want to buy the book. But I don’t tend to check the product page on anything other than my laptop. I forget to look at it on my Kindle Fire or Mom’s iPad. I sure forget to look at it in my phone. Or, more accurately, I used to forget it. After the last few days, I won’t. What I learned is that the longer blurbs will work on a tablet or computer screen but, on a phone, they are a pain because you have to keep scrolling. Not good. Scrolling for a screen or two is one thing but for screen after screen after screen — nope. Not gonna happen. Fortunately, most of mine weren’t that bad and those that were happen to be on two titles I am going to withdraw because they were supposed to be short term promo titles initially.

(9) I’M A DOCTOR NOT A MILLIONAIRE. By the way, if you want to know how much the tricorder X Prize was worth, the Washington Post article says that Final Frontier Medical Devices, led by Dr. Basil Harris, won the $2.6 million first prize in this contest, with Dynamical Biomarkers Group got $1 million for second place.

(10) MAGAZINE LAUNCH. Anathema has published its first issue. The free, online tri-annual magazine publishes speculative fiction by queer people of color. The magazine was funded by a 2016 IndieGoGo campaign.

Exceptional art is a bruise: it leaves its mark on you. At its best it leaves us vulnerable and raw, transformed by the experience. At Anathema we’re interested in giving that exceptional work a home. Specifically the exceptional work of queer people of colour (POC). As practicing editors we’re keenly aware of the structural and institutional racism that makes it hard for the work of marginalized writers to find a home.

So Anathema: Spec from the Margins is a free, online tri-annual magazine publishing speculative fiction (SF/F/H, the weird, slipstream, surrealism, fabulism, and more) by queer people of colour on every range of the LGBTQIA spectrum.

(11) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • April 18, 1938 – Superman made his first appearance in Action Comics #1. (Cover-dated June, but published in April.)

(12) TAFF. SF Site News reports John Purcell has won the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund race. Voting details at the link.

(13) CARTOON OF THE DAY. Martin Morse Wooster recommends The Bigger Picture, a cartoon by Daisy Jacobs done in the style of a painting about two brothers feuding over their ailing mother. It was a 2015 Academy Award nominee

(14) DEVIL’S DICTIONARY. In McSweeney’s, Rajeev Balasubramanyam’s “A Short Description of Cultural Appropriation for Non-Believers” supplies a wryly amusing 10-point illustration of the term.

(15) WINTER IS HERE. Dave Truesdale, who had a lot to say about “special snowflakes” at last year’s Worldcon, has been using an F&SF forum discussion to call into account Liz Bourke’s Tor.com post “Thoughts on the 2017 Hugo Awards Ballot”.

….Going back to 1993, women received the majority of the 15 Hugo short fiction nominations that year. Hardly discrimination by the entire SF field. And that was just shy of 25 years ago!

But now it’s not yay!, look how far we’ve come in a positive celebration for a year in which women and poc dominate several major awards ballots, it’s neener neener we dominated an award ballot and “This year is a historic one for the Hugo Awards in more ways than one. In addition to the changes to the awards process, this is the first year in which the Best Novel nominees have been so completely devoid in white men.” [[Link added]]

Why the F bring up white men I ask for the umpteenth time. Why not white straight women too, then, who have been on the ballot plenty over the past 40 or 50 years and have taken up plenty of slots that could have gone to poc, especially in the past decade or so (pick your starting point).

Why just white men? An unconscious bias perhaps? A conscious prejudice? Give me a sound reason why not just “white” people, or “men” were noted in the article, but “white men.” There’s something else going on here. The article doesn’t have to come right out and be the instigation of a flame war in its use of inflammatory language and tone to reveal certain things about the writer or her view of the situation. That she’s more subtle in doing it doesn’t give her a pass.

He came back again and added:

In the stuff-you-always-think-of-later department:

CJW wrote: “She noted the lack of white men on the Best Novel list, because there were no white men on the Best Novel list.”

There were also no black, brown, yellow, or red men on the list either. So why single out white men I ask again for the 3rd or 4th time? Subconscious prejudice bubbling to the surface because that is her default–that pesky white color? What could possibly be the reason she forgot non-white men? I mean, there has to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for her discriminatory statement.

Although other commenters weren’t interested in engaging with Truesdale’s complaint, they couldn’t resist dropping in another coin to see him go off again.

SHamm ended a reply —

P.S.: Dave, I am not quite sure from your phrasing: are you under the impression that Milo Yiannopoulos is a “straight white male”?

P.P.S.: Dave, I believe Best Novel nominee Liu Cixin qualifies as a “yellow man,” in your parlance, although I am told that particular descriptor is no longer much in vogue.

P.P.S.: Dave, does it have to be a “straw MAN”? Asking as a man.

Truesdale answered:

SHamm, of course Milo is gay, but he doesn’t agree with the party line and so is reviled and efforts are made to silence him.

Liu Cixin is a yellow man in historical terminology, which makes the essayists use of “white men” even more telling. Person of color=OK. White men not OK.

Straw man is just a phrase we are all familiar with. No need to make anything out of it.

Why bring Puppies into this? No Sad Puppy I know of is afraid of women/people of color/LGBTQ writers dominating the awards. Certainly not me. I’ve said it a hundred times, the more the merrier. The problem for me arises when these same people heralding diversity for their own benefit try to silence diversity of thought from everyone else. And if you dare speak out you suffer the consequences–inside and outside the SF field, witness Milo and others lately who have suffered similar fates while trying to express differing views on university campuses (though maybe not with the violence attendant at Milo’s cancelled talk). It’s the darker underside agenda of those rallying behind good causes such as diversity that puts the lie to their true agenda. And it’s hurting SF. Again, writers aren’t taking the kinds of chances in speaking of social or political issues they used to, for fear of various forms of reprisal from those waving the banner of diversity. Their diversity only runs in one way, and its killing free speech and controversial thought experiments in our stories. That Puppy crap still being thrown out is ridiculous and an intellectual dodge. Besides, there was no SP this year as far as I know, but every time this discussion comes up someone thinks that tossing in SP or RP is the answer to everything, when it is an excuse to honestly address the issue.

(16) MAKES SENSE. The head of Netflix isn’t worried about Amazon and HBO because, he says, they aren’t the competition.

But today, on Netflix’s Q1 earnings call, [Netflix CEO Reed] Hastings got a little more expansive, in a bong-rip-in-a-dorm-room way, if that’s still a thing. (Is that still a thing?) Here’s the answer he gave to an Amazon competition question; we join this one mid-response, right after he finished praising Amazon and Jeff Bezos:

They’re doing great programming, and they’ll continue to do that, but I’m not sure it will affect us very much. Because the market is just so vast. You know, think about it, when you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night. You really — we’re competing with sleep, on the margin. And so, it’s a very large pool of time. And a way to see that numerically is that we’re a competitor to HBO, and yet over 10 years we’ve grown to 50 million, and they’ve continued modestly growing. They haven’t shrunk. And so if you think about it as, we’re not really affecting them, the is why — and that’s because we’re like two drops of water in the ocean, of both time and spending for people. And so Amazon could do great work, and it would be very hard for it to directly affect us. It’s just — home entertainment is not a zero-sum game. And again, HBO’s success, despite our tremendous success, is a good way to illustrate that.

(17) AND NOW FOR MORE SCIENCE. This unauthenticated video may date before the Ice Age. Or before breakfast today.

(18) INKLINGS NEWS. Inklings Abroad is developing an international registry of known Inklings groups.

(19) DANCE WITH ME. Believe it — Guardians of the Galaxy has a La La Land moment!

(20) THINK TWICE BEFORE GETTING THAT EXTRA LARGE SODA. In its own way, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 threatens to have as many endings as Return of the King. As ScienceFiction.com says — “Just To Outshine The Rest Of Marvel’s Movies, ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2? Will Have 5 Post-Credit Scenes!”

Director James Gunn blew away expectations with his first foray into Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, and now he’s doing it again by adding five post-credit scenes at the end of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2‘! Originally it was being announced that he had four included from early press screenings and now Gunn himself took to clarify that it would be five. That’s one announcement he could make that would easily top his return to helm ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, ‘ but honestly, I think we were all hoping that was going to happen anyway.

This will set an all new record for the most post-credit scenes in a superhero movie, possibly of any genre.

[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, Cat Eldridge, Carl Slaughter, John King Tarpinian, Cat Rambo. and Kate Nepveu for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Schnookums Von Fancypants.]

2017 TAFF Race Begins

Voters can now register their choice for the 2017 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund delegate from among candidates Sarah Gulde, Alissa McKersie and John Purcell. The winner will travel from North America to Europe to attend next year’s Worldcon in Helsinki, Finland.

The TAFF ballot and online voting is available here. Voting continues until Midnight (Eastern US time) March 4.

Here are the contenders’ platforms:

  • Sarah Gulde

What’s the best part of a con? The membership, of course! At Loncon 3 and Sasquan I made new friends from around the world. It’s a trend I’d like to continue in Helsinki – because that’s what TAFF is all about!

In my spare time I organize geeky fundraisers for my local food bank, where I’m on the Board of Directors. I’ve been involved in several local cons, was the treasurer of Westercon 69, and ran my own con in October 2016: “NERD CAMP”.

I look forward to the opportunity to fundraise for and administrate TAFF – thanks for your vote!

Nominated by: (NA) Nisi Shawl, Randy Byers, and Lea Rush. (Europe) David Langford, Sarita Robinson

  • Alissa McKersie

Here you go, exactly what you needed, another tough election…

I’m usually running Kids’ Program, no matter where the convention is (from Chicon 7 to Loncon 3). Ask kids and parents about it…in other related news, I was one of the editors on stage when Journey Planet won a Hugo. In my real life job I’m a fundraiser for a non-profit, so it carries over! I wrote about my three-month journey in and around Ireland for friends and family, so a trip report will be doing the same thing! I look forward to sharing adventures with and meeting new people.

Nominated by: (NA) Chris Garcia, Meg Frank, Dave and Elizabeth McCarty. (Europe) James Shields, Emma England

  • John Purcell

John Purcell (College Station, Texas), an active fan since 1973, discovered fandom at the tender age of 19 in Minneapolis, Minnesota via Minicon 7. Fannish karma, that. Since then he has published multiple fanzines, apazines, attended and worked on assorted conventions (most recently the LoneStarCon III fanzine lounge coordinator in 2013), finished second to John Hertz in the 2010 DUFF race, currently produces the online fanzine Askance (www.efanzines.com), the paper-only personalzine Askew, and most recently edited/published the one-shot Shitgibbon: the Rant-thology. John and his artist/crafter wife Valerie share passions for Steampunk, Whoviana, gawd-awful skiffy movies, grandchildren, grilling, and dark lager.

Nominated by: (NA) Jacqueline Monahan, Lloyd & Yvonne Penney, David Thayer. (Europe) Jim Mowatt, Ro Nagey.

For comprehensive Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund information, visit Dave Langford’s extraordinary TAFF website here.

Update: Curt Phillips, TAFF co-administrator, writes —

It’s been pointed out to me that the PayPal form we’re using in the TAFF race is less than clear about “how” one casts their vote.  This can be done either by writing those votes under “Comments To Seller”, or votes can simply be emailed to either administrator at the addresses on the ballot.  When a subsequent donation to the fund also arrives, such votes will be counted.

May I also point out that it’s important that voters cast their votes in the hemisphere in which they live.  A voter in the UK *could* send their vote to me in the US, but doing so would wreak havoc with the 20% rule, and thus Plunge All Fandom Into War.  Again.  So, let’s not do that, please.

TAFF Platforms Released

Brad and Cindy Foster, Curt Phillips and Randy Smith are your official Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund candidates in the 2014 race to pick a delegate to Loncon 3. Here are their platforms and nominators —

Brad and Cindy Foster

Why Brad and Cindy? Because they are one mind in two bodies. (They wish they had two minds, but that’s asking too much.) Because between them they have covered almost all the fannish bases. And, because this is probably the only way they will ever get to see London. He draws pictures – lots of them, and has lived the life fannish through zines and locs. (A paper-person.) She has been social (a people-person) through conventions and conversations. He’ll have to look you up in his files to remember which zine you pub, but she’ll remember your name, face, and family history.

Nominators: Mike Glyer (US), Andy Hooper (US), Steven Silver (US), David Langford (UK), Yvonne Rowse (UK).

Curt Phillips

I am a fan. I guess I always have been; I think I always will be. I’ve collected more science fiction than I’ll ever have time to read, but I keep on collecting more. I’ve written for and published fanzines; I’m the OE of FAPA. Have done many other fannish things in my time, both usual and unusual. But I’ve never traveled outside America. I’d very much to meet some of the wonderful fans in the UK and from across Europe as your TAFF delegate, and then come home to write about my adventures for you. Please support TAFF! Vote!

Nominators: Randy Byers (US), Ulrika O’Brien (US), John Purcell (US), Claire Brialey (UK), Pat Charnock (UK).

Randy Smith

Fandom is a conversation that began in the letter columns of the 1920s pulps and now extends around the world. As active participants in that conversation, we can look for new ways to expand, strengthen, and create new and divergent paths of exchange. We truly never know where it will take us. The TAFF delegate to LonCon 3 will be able to contribute in some small and unforeseen ways to that creative conversation. I would be honored if that person were me. I also promise a speedy appearance of my trip report.

Nominators: Christopher J. Garcia (US), Mark Olson (US), Kevin Standlee (US), Colin Harris (UK), Patrick McMurray (UK).

[Thanks to Jim Mowatt for the story.]