(1) The Onion reports a major addition to the movie ratings scheme.
WASHINGTON—In an effort to provide moviegoers with the information they need to determine which films are appropriate for them to see, the Motion Picture Association of America announced Tuesday the addition of a new rating to alert audiences of movies that are not based on existing works.
According to MPAA officials, the new “O,” or “Original,” designation will inform viewers that a particular film contains characters with whom they are unfamiliar, previously unseen settings, and novel plots. The rating will also reportedly serve as a warning of the potentially disorienting effects associated with having to remember characters’ names for as many as two hours and the discomfort that can occur when one is forced to keep track of narrative arcs for an entire film.
The MPAA’s new O rating will appear on all movies containing explicitly original, unadapted, and unfamiliar material.
(2) In a day devoted to Back To The Future nostalgia, Bill Higgins would like to remind everyone that Ronald Reagan “smuggled a quote from the film into an important speech to Congress.” C-SPAN has the clip, from Reagan’s 1986 State of the Union address.
Reagan also liked the movie’s joke about him being president – according to the Wikipedia he ordered the projectionist of the theater to stop the reel, roll it back, and run it again.
(3) Here’s a link to BBC video of the Back To The Future day unveiling for a Belfast university’s electric-powered DeLorean project.
(4) And in (wind) breaking news — “Michael J. Fox arrested for insider sports betting”
Fox aroused suspicion after achieving a statistically-impossible, perfect record on the site under the username NoChicken.
Authorities found an unusually worn copy of a sports almanac which was just recently printed and which has markings cataloging winning bets Fox has placed since the late 80’s.
(5) Today’s Birthday Girls:
- Born October 21, 1929 — Ursula K. Le Guin celebrates her 86th birthday today.
- Born October 21, 1956 – Carrie Fisher, famous for portraying Princess Leia onscreen, and author of the bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge.
(6) New York Mets fan James H. Burns is flying high. He has some tales you’ve never heard before in “The Curious Case of Daniel Murphy” on the local CBS/New York website.
(7) Steven H Silver, on the other hand, is suffering and reminds people about his 2008 article for Challenger, ”I Call It Loyalty, Others Call It Futility”.
Several years ago, I spent two summers working at Wrigley Field. When most people say something like this, it means that they sold beer or peanuts during the games (which is what my brother-in-law did). I did something different.
On Sundays during the season, when the Cubs are playing on the road, Wrigley Field is open for tours for a minimal charitable donation (at the time $10, which goes to Cubs Care Charities). I spent two summers giving tours of the ballpark. The tours included the standard places open to the public, like the concourse under the stands, the stands, and the bleachers, but also non-public areas like the press box, the visitor and home team locker rooms, and the security office. Two of my more interesting memories were getting to watch a Cubs game on television from within the confines of the visitor’s locker room and escorting a woman out to the warning track in center field so she could scatter her husband’s ashes.
The tours, of course, included information and trivia about the Cubs’ history and the stadium’s history. The tour guides were pretty good on the whole and worked to debunk legends and stories about the field while presenting information in an interesting and memorable manner.
(8) Ken Marable says the 2016 Hugo recommendation seasons begins November 2 – at least on his blog, which is coincidentally named 2016 Hugo Recommendation Season: The Non-Slate: Just Fans Talking About What They Love. For the first week he’ll focus on the Best Semiprozine category.
(9) The Wall Street Journal’s “Dan Rather, Still Wrong After All These Years” opines —
The movie ‘Truth’ is as bogus as the original attempt to smear George W. Bush’s wartime service.
Seeing that brought to mind my article about Gary Farber in File 770 #144 [PDF file] where I mentioned Farber’s then-recent participation in outing that fraud:
Within hours of “60 Minutes” purported exposé of memos by George W. Bush’s old Air National Guard commander, people were blogging away with accusations that the documents were forged because the text could not have been produced on typewriter likely to have been in use at a Texas military office in 1971, if indeed it could have been produced by anything besides Microsoft Word. Gary’s analysis showed no one knows better than a fanzine fan about the capabilities of 1970s-era business typewriters.
Another paragraph in my article praised Gary for a quality still missing from most political discourse today:
Amygdala shows how disagreement can be handled without loathing, and that evidence is more important than orthodoxy, two notions practically extinguished from the rest of the Internet in 2004. I’ve always been more conservative than a lot of fannish friends and favorite sf writers, finding the contrast informative and fascinating. Yet in 2004, I had to drop off two fannish e-mail lists to escape the constant spew of venomous political nonsense, and tell two individuals to quit sending me their mass-copied clippings. So not sharing too many of Gary’s political views, one of the pleasures I find in reading Amygdala is how his provocative viewpoints are expressed in a way that values the reader’s humanity regardless of agreement.
(10) Bob Milne reviews Larry Correias’s new Son of the Black Sword at Speculative Herald.
Larry Correia is an author best known for his guns-and-monsters, no-holds barred, testosterone-soaked urban fantasy sagas, Monster Hunter International and the Grimnoir Chronicles. For those who were curious as to how he’d make the transition from guns to swords, Son of the Black Sword is pretty much everything you’d expect, with his macho sense of almost superhuman bravado slipping well into a pulpy heroic fantasy world.
(11) What a wonderful alternate universe it could be…
https://twitter.com/ann_leckie/status/656881220060585985
(12) Mayim Biyalik on “My Sort-Of Acting Method”.
I’m not a real actor. Well, actually, I guess that’s not fair – what I mean is I’m not a trained actor. Many actors you love and see on TV and in movies studied acting for real. Like, some of them even have degrees in acting and stuff. I call those people “real actors.”
I have never studied acting in a class or in school or in college. I don’t know Stanislavsky from Uta Hagen or method acting from acting that isn’t method. It’s all Greek to me. But I do have a method of my own, from my almost 30 years being employed as an actor, and trained actors I know tell me my ‘method’ actually is a sort of method. So there you have it.
The scene I had with Jim Parsons in this past week’s episode of “The Big Bang Theory” (Season 9, Episode 5, “The Perspiration Implementation”) was a very emotional one. I cried the first time we rehearsed it and each time we showed it to our writers and producers. (Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen it.)
(13) “You too can learn to farm on Mars” promises the article.
“Congratulations! You are leaving Earth forever,” the case study begins. “You are selected to be part of a mining colony of 100 people located on the planet Mars. Before you head to Mars, however, you need to figure out how to feed yourself and your colleagues once you are there.”
The task is similar to that of Watney, who has to grow food in an artificial habitat after he is separated from his mission crew in a Martian windstorm. “Mars will come to fear my botany powers,” he boasts.
“Farming In Space? Developing a Sustainable Food Supply on Mars” can be found here. Teaching notes and the answer key are password protected and require a paid subscription to access.
(14) NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars photographed Earth on January 31 using the left-eye camera on its science mast. See a video of Curiosity’s Earth-from-Mars images here.
(15) Makes yourself clean and shiny before lining up to see the new Star Wars movie with the help of these Darth Vader and R2-D2 showerheads.
What are the major differences between the Vader and R2 model? Aside from the price, the lowest setting on the Darth Vader showerhead makes water run from the mask’s eye sockets, allowing you to bathe in Sith Lord remorse. This model also provides a handle, leaving less of your bathing up to the Force.
Darth Vader has a handle, but I don’t know that I would want to aim Darth’s tears at any vulnerable body parts….
(16) Last night Camestros Felapton staked out his spot in comments with this video is about fours waking.
[Thanks to Mark-kitteh, Bill Higgins, Will R., and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Camestros Felapton.]
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Based on Guess’s post above, perhaps File 770 should add a weekly Agony Aunt column.
All the important questions about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Love answered by our resident fiction loving Guru. Coming especially for you from the year 3393!
Please help me File770, I lost my heart to a commenter from the future…
I didn’t read Postcards from the Edge, but the movie version was really good. Here in 5455, I sometimes project it onto the inside of my eyeball to pass the time while waiting for my personal wormhole to open up. Damn America’s crumbling infrastructure anyway.
Tintinaus, are you volunteering?
I am disappointed that the Darth Vader showerhead does not cry out “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” when water is forced through it.
I really, really hope it was a starship trooper.
I consider myself more of an “ideas” man. Admittedly mostly of bad ones though.
Well, they say their name is Captain Jonathan Strange, and they’ve been exiled to grow pootatoes on Mars by their Darth Vader showerhead.
Tries not to chortle, and especially not to chortle while holding four fingers up.
There’s also Wimbledon, and of course Eurovision. Now if the UK is ever in danger of winning Eurovision, that would be the moment to find the nearest nuclear shelter.
On my ballot, certainly.
Phew, finally finished Exiles Gate. On to The Martian…
Stay classy, Benjanun.
FFS.
Thanks to everyone who recommended indie and self-published books – you guys are pretty knowledgeable and helpful! I’ve been merrily wishlisting, bookmarking and downloading samples.
I tend to think that constantly losing Eurovision is to the UK’s credit. (Finishing last is a bonus. Now the Germans are even taking that award!)
RE: The Campbell
Are Zen Cho and Seth Dickinson eligible? Both Sorcerer to the Crown and The Traitor are listed as their debut novels, but do their previous short stories (I know Cho has some) etc affect their eligibility?
Finishing last isn’t the same since they stopped reading out every score. Who can forget the call of “Norvège, null points”?
Are Zen Cho and Seth Dickinson eligible? Both Sorcerer to the Crown and The Traitor are listed as their debut novels, but do their previous short stories (I know Cho has some) etc affect their eligibility?
Yes. The countdown for Campbell eligibility starts with “first professional publication”. Cho’s first professional publication appears to have been in 2010, and Dickinson’s in 2012, so they would be beyond the two year window.
Susana: That is interesting, even if every single thing in it is wrong.
This is my counter-argument: Le Guin.
I dunno. I think Pulley has an interesting point about fantasy world-building in general, in contrast to some sf world-building . . . worth exploring, maybe. Particularly in terms of the Rise of the Fantasy Mega-Novel. It’s become almost a cliche that market forces are driving fantasy publication these days, and Pulley does acknowledge that market-forces are involved; and she doesn’t say that short fantasy with strong world-building is impossible (just difficult). Instead, she hypothesizes that maybe there is something about fantasy as a category that encourages long works. And she’s got a point about short fantasy, too. I’ve been in her position–looking for standalone (no already-created world behind them) fantasy short stories to use as examples of world-building as well as story-telling–and such stories aren’t easy to find. They exist, but too many of them seem to rely on conventions of fantasy rather than independent world-building. Or they are basically urban fantasy/horror of some sort sort, which would also tend to illustrate Pulley’s hypothesis, I suspect.
Where I’d look to investigate Pulley’s hypothesis further is two places. First, I’d look for far future sf, preferably with truly alien worlds: how much length does the world-building require/encourage? Second, I’d look to older fiction, before the Rise of the Mega-Novel. And third–the relationship between fantasy and fairy-tale has always fascinated me. Turning a fairy tale into a short story isn’t easy, and way too many readers and critics assume that the two types of fiction are basically the same thing . . . which is maybe why I’m finding this topic interesting, in general. Anyway.
Besides, if your counter-argument is Le Guin, I counter-counter: Le Guin does everything brilliantly. That she makes it look easy doesn’t mean it isn’t difficult!
Uh-oh … Jurassic Park is caving to the heel lobby. http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/21/bryce-dallas-howard-high-heels-jurassic-world-2
Oh yes; Benjanun demonstrating once again that Laura Mixon earned and deserved her Hugo.
If people haven’t come across Rochita and her writing then Aliette de Bodard, in her acknowledgements in The House of Shattered Wings, pays tribute to her:
I am very happy to be able to help support Rochita and her family, to give back a little of what she has given to us, and I very much hope she’ll be able to get back to her writing in the not too distant future!
@Guess,
Echoing JJ, has someone linked SW and sex? I feel obligated to point out how much fun you can make it:
“Get in there you big hairy oaf, I don’t care what you smell.”
“At that speed, do you think I’ll be able to pull out in time.”
“It’s a small thermal exhaust port just below the main port.”
“I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me.”
“Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh… everything’s perfectly all right now.”
“Let’s blow this thing and go home!”
Hopefully what you won’t hear in your Vader shower is:
“You came in that thing, you’re braver than I thought.”
“Pull out, you’re not doing any good back there!”
“Negative. Didn’t go in, just impacted on the surface.”
Silly But True
“his provocative viewpoints are expressed in a way that values the reader’s humanity regardless of agreement.”
That’s the magic right there, Mike. Bravo.
@Mary Frances
Re: short fantasy. Interesting question. I have some full-blown secondary world fantasy short stories on my long list, but I suspect you are right that at most they present an element or two of world building and then use the conventions of fantasy to sketch in the background. I’ll take a look at the list for interesting examples later.
Zen Cho was actually a Campbell Award finalist already in 2013 (her second year of eligibility), along with Max Gladstone, Stina Leicht, Chuck Wendig, and winner Mur Lafferty.
@Aaron @CeeV
Thanks for the info. Sigh. Time to look for more worthies for the Campbell I guess.
ETA: @Will R. – Does that mean Howard has done a Heel-Face Turn?
@Silly but True So you’re saying you think Star Wars is Fantasy? 🙂
@snowcrash
High heel faceturn surely…
Snowcrash
Have you read Alex Lamb’s Roboteer? It’s his first novel, and I can’t find any short fiction of his; I will probably be nominating him for the Campbell, and possibly for the Hugo, depending on what comes out between now and 2016.
Antonia Honeywell’s The Ship is also on my Campbell/Hugo radar; her dystopia is too grim for my taste, but it is a remarkably accomplished novel. It’s also a stand alone, which is incredibly rare these days; the publisher has to really, really love it to put it in the marketplace…
Well it has magic and swords….
@Greg,
Put me in very much in the SW is fantasy camp. Lucas wasn’t concerned with science in his storytelling, he was purely interested in the mythology of it all. Anything SFnal in SW is a facade slapped on the fantasy.
Silly But True
@Snowcrash: “Does that mean Howard has done a Heel-Face Turn?”
Can you pivot on a point that’s no longer there? Wait, don’t answer that…
@JJ, your comment needed a winkie face as much as mine did, i.e. not needed at all, as it was abundantly clear that both were trying for humour.
Yes, very trying.
Shaddup…
The Campbell is a weird duck – it seems to reward people who come out of nowhere and make a huge splash. If your career has a slower take-off, you’re probably not going to be in contention for it. Which means there are going to be some odd edge cases for which it’s not clear if the author is even eligible.
(Ironically, I think I may be in my second year of eligibility for the Campbell, depending on how the rules committee would view the one sale of genre fiction I’ve managed to make so far. On the one hand, small-press collection with a fantasy game tie-in, with limited distribution. On the other hand, I did get paid five cents a word for it. But yeah, career taking off rather slowly here.)
Star Wars, Doctor Who, and suchlike tend to fall into the category of “Space Fantasy,” in my internal categorization. They still get filed under SF, but it’s a different SF.
Of course Star Wars is fantasy. Didn’t you see the tavern? (And the second movie had a whole planet of snow!)
Re: Item #9:
It should be noted that while the memo was a fake, the underlying reporting that Rather did remains very sound. Rather’s initial report was going to be on the absolutely true and shameful fact that the Bush family pulled strings to get George Jr a cushy National Guard post instead of military service in Vietnam, using their family connections to avoid the draft for their wealthy sons in exchange for…oh, let’s just call them financial considerations.
Not long before the story was ready to air, Rather received the evidence that caused the controversy. People warned him that it wasn’t as well sourced, and that Karl Rove had a history of leaking sensationalistic information about stories likely to embarrass his clients so that he could then discredit the entire story by discrediting the false information that he himself leaked, but Rather couldn’t resist the temptation for the big story and went with the memo. Sure enough, Rove made a field day out of proving that the “AWOL” part of the story couldn’t be proven, causing people to completely ignore the much better-sourced and reliable information that Bush used his family connections to evade the draft. Then he got Rather fired.
TL;DR: Karl Rove is a really terrible person. 🙂
@Jon,
As a long-time fan of Traveller, Shadowrun, and GURPS, best of luck in quickening that pace. GURPS Space was quite an ambitious effort.
I checked, and have quite a few of your RPG sourcebooks on the shelf, some fairly well worn and dog-eared.
Silly But True
John Seavey: Dan Rather and his corrupt production team lied to further their political agenda. Should they get away with celebrating themselves in a movie titled “Truth”?
If the Lensman series is science fiction, then Star Wars is science fiction.
I’ve been reminded lately that the amount of science in Foundation could be measured in thimbles.
Happy Wombat Day to our favorite marsupial!
re: Star Wars: seems like the useful term “science fantasy,” which I used to see applied to lots of C.L.Moore’s stories, could serve here.
My feelings about another Star Wars revival are best summed up by that proposed new motion picture rating, “O” for Original, which is what I’d rather see. I’m not even sure I can face seeing another James Bond movie next month, and I haven’t missed one in the theaters since Roger Moore started making them in 1971. And don’t get me started on Marvel and DC, I have hit complete burnout on superheroes.
I would take another “Detective Dee” (Judge Dee) movie though… but in 1394, we’re going to have to wait a few centuries for motion pictures to be invented.
The first four chapters of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold are up at Baen. And you can then purchase the e-ARC if you wish.
Re: Star Wars as Fantasy
It does seem very obvious based on the lightsabers and FTL, fantasy. But then is Foundation or Star Trek fantasy too? One year ago, I would have put the dividing line as attitude: the pseudo-medieval, vaguely Arthurian feel of Star Wars (and Who) would make it fantasy, whereas the Enlightenment, progress through science and human reason would make Foundation and Star Trek science fiction. Since then, I’ve read N.K. Jemisin, Scott Lynch, and Ken Liu, and realized there’s more to fantasy than warmed over Romantic period nostalgia (which can be loads of fun, no lie), the question is much less clear.
Re: RH
There’s a lack of self-awareness combines with a preening sociopathy, a shining self belief that they can bullshit up as down and down as up (and get away with it in at least a few otherwise-perceptive covers), and the cherry on top of a shining self-importance that always, always reminds me of Teddy and the Puppies. This allows one to pause for reflection.
“You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought”
“Luke, at that speed do you think you’ll be able to pull out in time?”
@Murray
You’re skimming the surface to a fairly small point there…
Sigh. I hadn’t visited the LJ of whatsisname in a while, and went back only to send the link to another person. And I find this shining example of playing fair.
He closes the comments and then adds this:
Way to go man, way to go. As Nicholas (not Nick) once said in another memorable exchange: “I’ll let you have the last word, you seem to need it much more than I do.”
I see Star Wars (the original trilogy, at least) as both Science Fiction and Fantasy; its world has some distinctive features of a scientific or technological nature, and some of a magical or supernatural nature. (Other examples of works that are both are some of the writings of Gene Wolfe, and, I think, Jo Walton’s current trilogy.)
I understand science fiction as fiction where the distinctive features are scientifically explicable (within its world) rather than fiction where they are scientifically possible (in the real world) – if you take the latter path, FTL and time-travel become fantasy, and the SF genre loses much of its core material. I think this makes overlap between the genres easier; if SF is about the possible, then any fantastic element immediately makes it not-SF, but if it’s about the explicable, explicable and inexplicable things can co-exist. (Or you can have another kind of borderline work where it’s just unclear whether things have a scientific explanation or not.)
Echoing JJ, has someone linked SW and sex?
“You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought”
“Luke, at that speed do you think you’ll be able to pull out in time?”
Oh, come on – isn’t it obvious?
“Use the force, Luke!” – Obi Wan Kenobi.
And C3P0 is a masochist
“It’ll all end in tears!”