266 thoughts on “Little Comments 8/30

  1. I’m Jewish, and as a kid TLTWatW’s Christian allusions went right over my head. Of course the hints got heavier and blunter till I completed The Last Battle gritting my teeth in loathing at what the author did to Queen Susan the Gentle.

  2. @Heather Rose Jones: I usually or always back something because I actually want it, not just to send a message that I think it should exist. To me, that would imply I don’t want it (or don’t care if I get it) – just want to support it in principle. So I don’t totally agree.

    But I think I get what you’re saying and I can think of other examples that feel like a better fit. E.g., Filer benches, upgrades for OGH, stuff like that – is my support there visible-only-in-the-aggregate virtue signaling? Yeah, maybe so. And, uh, maybe I have a knee-jerk reaction to considering anything I do virtue-signalling, because I’m not doing it to say “look at me” or “fear my SJW prowess” which seems to be what Puppies think.

    Re. the Longlist Anthology, I read little short fiction (more than I used to!), so I backed it for the fiction and especially audio goals (so glad those panned out), with “this should exist” being a secondary . . . well, shoot, see, now I’m thinking and rethinking this as I type, so you have a good point and I’m wrestling with it. 😉 Thanks for that.

  3. @John A Arkansawyer: Oh, well done on the “Shoggoths from both sides” bit!

    @Lis Carey: LOL!

    @World Weary: I’m glad I didn’t read the Robinton book (I’m pretty sure I have it), though I don’t see what’s wrong with Robinton being a prodigy (I thought that was at least strongly implied in Dragonsinger). I just skimmed a couple of the other later books, like All the Weyrs of Pern. I don’t believe I read Renegates of Pern at all; making all so many new protaganists talk to dragons got absurd, and I just wasn’t as into the series by then. But some of the older books are still old favorites, though I haven’t re-read them in years.

    @Lee: Great pix, thanks for posting! I love costumes, so it’s great to see this photo set. Heh, the two that really made me laugh were the Harley Quinn with baby Robin and the Tabletop Gaming guy. Re. McCaffrey, I only ever read Stitch in Snow of those romances; actually, I’m not sure I realized she did other ones, but it sounds like I should be glad I missed them.

  4. @Lee: Cool photos. Thanks for sharing. One note: the one you have titled “Multi-color” might more aptly be called something like “Gender-bent Sixth Doctor”. (I left a note there, but since I don’t know whether you get notified about comments on the photos, I thought I’d mention it here too.)

  5. Lee said:

    My MACII photos are here.

    Okay, two questions:

    1.) What the heck did that Dalek do to get those Mardi Gras beads?

    2.) Why was there no outrage! over the poster for Destination Planet Negro, even though it is a modern use of a currently unacceptable word, like in Spicy Oriental Zepplin Stories?

  6. JJ:

    I think you are mistaken. My impression is that the vast majority of people who supported this award, like me, really mean “YA”, not middle-grade, and not children’s fiction.

    Well, I base my view on the fact that in 2011 there was a proposal for a ‘children’s or YA’ Hugo, and in in 2013 there was proposal for a ‘youth book Hugo’, and yet everyone called them YA proposals; and indeed the 2013 debate led to the setting up of a committee to prepare proposals for a YA Hugo, yet nobody that I know of suggested that the subject had been changed. Also that the 2015 report cited all Newbery medal winners as examples of YA, as if that was totally uncontroversial.

    I’m not sure why one would want an award specifically for YA, when children’s fiction is either excluded entirely or lumped in with the (old) adults. Possibly there ought to be an award for each (as there is at Goodreads, and in the Edgars), but a. That’s a lot of awards, and b. It’s very hard to decide which is which – while the two classes certainly exist, and some books definitely belong on one side or the other, there are a lot which float back and forth. (Possibly there are also national differences – I sometimes get a sense that UK ‘older children’s’ goes higher than US ‘middle-grade’, which would mean that the lower bound of YA is different in the two countries, though I also sometimes see things which conflict with that.)

  7. Lee: I didn’t think there was a series award in the Dragons. It doesn’t seem to be mentioned on their website – though I wouldn’t put it past them to introduce one without telling anyone.

    But I think the Dragons will be more hospitable to (long) series fiction than the Hugos, because of their first past the post structure, which encourages you to vote for what you are already a fan of (as do the actual guidelines, urging authors to get out the vote). You won’t actually have to compare all the series which have work nominated; if you’re familiar with one, and like it, you can vote for it.

  8. “2.) Why was there no outrage! over the poster for Destination Planet Negro, even though it is a modern use of a currently unacceptable word, like in Spicy Oriental Zepplin Stories?”

    Because it was part of a very obvious anti-racist satire.

  9. @Kendall: But supporting Filer benches and the upgrade aren’t visible to everyone either in or out of the group. Almost nobody knows who did or didn’t contribute to those efforts. Nobody but Mike’s going to see the computer, and I doubt the average fan wandering the parks noticed or cared who donated. So there’s nothing to connect it with you. Pretty poor virtue-signaling if the signal doesn’t exist.

    I got the longlist anthology b/c I wanted to read the stories. Approving of the SJW message was secondary. But again, till I said this here, nobody but me and Amazon knew that. And believe it or not, “lurkertype” is not my legal name. 😉

    @Lee: great pix! Note that the chap with the awesome striped Mohawk is your 2018 Worldcon chair, and the builder of both Tiki Dalek (not Mardi Gras Dalek) and the SJ light tower. Loved the gryphon costume once I figured out what it was. Your outfits were nice too.

  10. lurkertype on September 1, 2016 at 4:34 pm said:
    I thought that was a very impressive Mohawk. And I loved the photos of the griffin perusing the jewelry.

  11. lurkertype: Note that the chap with the awesome striped Mohawk is your 2018 Worldcon chair, and the builder of both Tiki Dalek (not Mardi Gras Dalek) and the SJ light tower.

    Kevin Roche is always magnificently dressed and/or costumed at cons. He’s also pretty much a genius: an engineer for IBM, creates all his own costumes, and builds robots and helps run SFF cons in his spare time.

    lurkertype: And believe it or not, “lurkertype” is not my legal name.

    Shocked, I am, I say, SHOCKED!

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