(1) James H. Burns shares his personal vision of a recent TV debut:
There is much that is wonderful, and also much that is silly, about the new Supergirl TV series.But Melissa Benoist, and so many of the cast, are simply so winning, it just more often than not, is utterly charming, For someone raised with the whole Superman mythos, particularly the Kryptonian elements introduced by DC Comics editor Mort Weisinger, there was actually something quite moving about many of the moments in the first Supergirl episode. (We all, after all, ultimately have our lost Kryptons…) But one surprise, and a small spoiler for those who have not yet seen the CBS series’ debut episode. Towards the finale, Kata receives a present from her cousin, Superman… In my mind’s eye, remarkably, I did not see any of the recent Kal-Els, but George Reeves, preparing the small package. Reeves, of course, was television’s Superman of the 1950s, and forever, really… And it’s fascinating to think how these two characters have finally been reunited, across the decades.
(2) Lenika Cruz’ article in The Atlantic about the World Fantasy Award, “’Political Correctness’ Won’t Ruin H.P. Lovecraft’s Legacy”, argues that the changing the award trophy signals that the genre is able to be inclusive to writers of color.
Starting next year, the World Fantasy Award trophy will no longer be modeled after the massively influential horror-fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft.
The convention organizers didn’t offer a reason for the change, nor did they name a replacement, but the decision is notable nonetheless. Lovecraft’s rise to fame happened largely after his death, but as he received more attention, so too did his racist and xenophobic beliefs. His disassociation from the WFC after 40 years feels in line with a growing inclusiveness in the science-fiction and fantasy community of women and people of color. The author Daniel José Older, who started a petition last year to replace Lovecraft with Octavia Butler, praised the decision. “Writers of color have always had to struggle with the question of how to love a genre that seems so intent on proving it doesn’t love us back,” he said. “We raised our voices collectively, en masse, and the World Fantasy folks heard us.”
Not everyone agreed with this sentiment. In a letter to the co-chair of the WFC board, the Lovecraft biographer and author S.T. Joshi called the decision “a craven yielding to the worst sort of political correctness.”
(3) At Black Gate, Jackson Kuhl puts Lovecraft in his idea of the proper context, in “S. T. Joshi Is Mad As Hell”.
Debate over Lovecraft’s racism — and let’s face it, he was a racist, and even if it blunted in his later years, he was never going to join the ACLU — generally falls into two camps: that he and his views were products of his times; or that his beliefs were particularly venomous even for the era. As usual with truth, I think it’s somewhere in the middle. Lovecraft was a naive shut-in, his head a Gordian knot of neuroses. No one will argue that Lovecraft was a well-adjusted individual; from sex to seafood, a psychiatrist would have worn out an IKEA’s worth of sofas itemizing a complete list of the man’s phobias. I contend those same anxieties are precisely what make Lovecraft’s writing so much fun. If his racism was more vile than that of his neighbors and contemporaries, then it originated in that same pool of existential paranoia from which only madmen sip. It was part and parcel with his oversensitivity to smells, his finicky eating habits, and all the rest. H.P. Lovecraft may have been a genius. He was also crazy.
Having said that, I often worry that scolding Lovecraft too harshly is to rub Vaseline on the lens through which we view early 20th-century America. For this country, those first three decades were a period of peak racism in a Himalayan history. The 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, by which SCOTUS granted the South carte blanche to do their worst, was the tamping of the soil upon Reconstruction’s grave; and 1915 saw the rebirth of the Klan, though this time with a more anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant bent, attracting millions of members in the 1920s. The nativism of the 19th century — which shows no signs of abating in 2015 — came to full bloom, with passage of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act (which was intended in large part to circumscribe Irish, Italian, and other immigrants) being its greatest successes. Somebody at this year’s NecronomiCon described Lovecraft as the last of the Victorian gentleman scientists, a man who had the leisure time to read journals and magazines about science and new discoveries and contemplate their repercussions. Alas, this was also a high time of pseudoscience, of theories about genetic memory and phrenology and racial traits; they are recurring topics in letters between Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, both of whom read widely on the subjects and included them in their stories. To say Lovecraft lived in racist times and channeled them through his writing is not to apologize for him so much as it is to confront our not-very-distant past.
(4) Lee Martindale, SFWA Director-at-Large, should have been credited for assembling the SFWA Accessibility Guidelines in yesterday’s post here at File 770. Today the SFWA Blog ran Martindale’s history of the guidelines, “Back Story: The Accessibility Guidelines Checklist”.
When I was elected to SFWA’s Board of Directors in 2010, I brought with me the desire to see the organization move toward greater accessibility at SFWA-sponsored events, particularly the Nebula Awards weekend. That desire stemmed from my own experiences at SF conventions, particularly the Nebula Weekends I’d attended. But it was largely prompted by how ashamed I was of SFWA that, at the Nebula Weekend at which she was named Grand Master, the only way Anne McCaffrey could get to spaces in which she was being celebrated involved going through a very busy kitchen and up a service elevator.
I’m proud to have been involved in the work that resulted in SFWA’s Accessibility Guidelines Checklist and a member of the Board of Directors that approved it, in January 2014, for use at SFWA-sponsored events. And I’m delighted that SFWA is sharing it at http://www.sfwa.org/accessibility-checklist-for-sfwa-spaces/
(5) British Fantasy Award winner Juliet McKenna has a guest post on Sean Williams’ blog.
I see variations on the writing process as a spectrum, with Outline Writers at one end and Discovery Writers* at the other. I’m definitely way over there at the Outline end. I’ll know the beginning, the middle and the end of a story before I begin to write it, and a whole lot more besides. I’ll have notebooks full of background on people and places and all sorts of aspects of the world that I’m writing about. (I’ve learned a wonderful acronym for these vital scene-setting elements from a panel at Fantasycon 2015, thanks to Karina Coldrick. PESTLE: Political. Economic. Social. Technological. Legal. Environmental. Isn’t that great?)
(6) Today’s Birthday Boy and Girl
- Born November 13, 1850 — Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
- Born November 13, 1955 – Whoopi Goldberg. From the Wikipedia: “According to an anecdote told by Nichelle Nichols in the documentary film Trekkies (1997), a young Goldberg was watching Star Trek, and upon seeing Nichols’ character Uhura, exclaimed, ‘Momma! There’s a black lady on TV and she ain’t no maid!’ This spawned lifelong fandom of Star Trek for Goldberg, who would eventually ask for and receive a recurring guest-starring role on Star Trek: The Next Generation (as Ten Forward’s Guinan.)”
(7) Brandon Kempner originally stated that Chaos Horizon’s mission is “predicting the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel by using statistical and data mining techniques.” How does he square that with his unsupported comment about Ann Leckie’s work in “Final 2015 SFF Awards Meta-List”?
So how did 2015 turn out? There wasn’t a single dominant book, as was the case with Ancillary Justice in 2014 (7 nominations, 4 wins, with 2 additional nominations and wins in “First Novel” categories). This year, Cixin Liu did the best with 5 nominations, but he managed only 1 win. I suspect that if The Three-Body Problem came out earlier in the year (it was published in November), it would have done a little better. Leckie won twice for Ancillary Sword, and she was the only author to win two awards. Those wins, depending on how cynical you are, could be chalked up to last year’s success of Ancillary Justice.
(8) Morgan Holmes, in “Primary Research” at Castalia House blog, starts with a good anecdote about L. Sprague De Camp, but the best part is about researching Donald Wandrei.
Second story: I was going through the listing of the Donald Wandrei items in possession of the Minnesota Historical Society. Donald Wandrei was a member of the Lovecraft circle and pulp magazine writer. One could describe a good portion of his fiction as a logical continuation of H. G. Wells’ short stories though with a Lovecraftian cosmic inclination to them. Wandrei also wrote a number of detective stories that read like Lovecraft writing for Black Mask magazine.
Going through a list of letters, one popped up that grabbed my attention. A letter from Robert E. Howard to Donald Wandrei. No one knew of this before I found it. Another case of primary research.
This past week, I remembered looking into a Wandrei story in Robert H. Barlow’s small press zine Leaves. I remember reading that Wandrei has fiction in the first issue. I found a table of contents of Leaves, Summer 1937 and “A Legend of Yesterday” did not register with me.
I contacted Dwayne Olson who is the Donald Wandrei expert on this to see if this story had been reprinted under a different name. Dwayne got back to me and this story had gotten past him for the Fedogan & Bremer collections. He did not know the story existed. So, we have another case of depending on work done before.
Take home point: Thoroughly research your subject. Go back to primary sources. Don’t depend that someone before has done the ground work.
(9) At Amazing Stories, MD Jackson discusses the “Science Fiction and Fantasy Spoken Word Recordings” from Caedmon Records.
This was back in the days of the vinyl record, of course and it was always a special, almost magical thing to have and to listen to one of these recordings. To hear the author of a famous work reading selected passages aloud was thrilling. Most particularly if it was J.R.R. Tolkien.
J.R.R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring was a record released by Caedmon in 1975. It was taken from a reel to reel recording made in Tolkien’s study in 1952. One side was a recording of Tolkien reading the chapter Riddles in the Dark from The Hobbit. The other side featured poems and songs from The Fellowship of the Ring.
I had the recording as a teen and it was absolutely marvelous to hear the words from The Hobbit read by the author himself. His “Gollum” voice was hysterical and the songs –yes, songs – Tolkien actually sings some of his poetry to old tunes. He even reads some Elvish poetry!
The recordings can be found today fairly easily on Youtube if one is so inclined to look.
[Thanks to David K.M. Klaus, Dana Sterling, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]
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1. Excalibur
My favorite King Arthur movie that is not by Monty Python
3 Princess Bride
My son and daughter and I quote this one all the time
8. Time Bandits
Frozen (don’t tell granddaughter )
The Crow
I am going to cry before I start and then it won’t hurt so much. Right?
1. DOING STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE OF BEAUTY
Excalibur (1981)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
I recall that I liked Excalibur well enough in 1981 but it has not aged well for me. Meanwhile, Cocteau’s Belle et la Bete is still marvelous.
2. TO REJUVENATE THE LANDS
Yellow Submarine (1968)
The Dark Crystal (1982)
Oh, my goodness. These two get to be against each other when really, wonderful things have to fight it out below? ABSTAIN, I tell you. ABSTAIN!
3. REPEATING THE SAME DAY WHILE LEARNING EXCELLENCE
The Princess Bride (1987)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Incredibly painful and so unfair to pair these two. Who repeated the same day in The Princess Bride, by the way? Have I forgotten something?
4. UNICORNS AND IMMORTALITY
The Last Unicorn (1982)
Stardust (2007)
5. LIFE IS UNFAIR AND I HATE THIS BRACKET
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Kikis Delivery Service (1989)
Haven’t seen Kiki. Abstain.
6. CHANGING BODIES
Ladyhawke (1985)
All of Me (1984)
Ladyhawke is lovely and I’m sure it’s going to crush All of Me, but I freaking love All of Me and I kind of hate Matthew Broderick. Back in bowl, Broderick! I said, BACK IN BOWL!
7. OBSERVING FROM OUTSIDE OR BEING A PART OF
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Another of my absolute favorites. Being John Malkovich has its charms, but… Yeah, Purple Rose of Cairo stomps it in my heart.
8. THIS IS A VERY SILLY MIX
(arrange in order of support)
The Crow (1994)
Time Bandits (1981)
Frozen (2013)
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
I don’t know these well enough to participate and I am still reeling over having to pick between The Princess Bride and Groundhog Day, although I know realize that I should’ve chosen fantasy as the unifying theme for that class I was supposed to teach that I dropped out before I had to because I couldn’t come up with what I wanted to teach (that I could get past the person in charge of film, who said no to film noir and genre in general and I thought about musicals but then I thought the students would run screaming from the room when they found out the topic..). So, anyway, if I’d chosen fantasy I could’ve taught just from this bracket and been very happy with my class.
I realize I did not read the instructions carefully for number 8. So very sorry! Here they are, ranked properly:
8. THIS IS A VERY SILLY MIX
(arrange in order of support)
1. Time Bandits
2. Frozen
985. The Crow
BigelowT:
Dread Pirate Roberts finishes every day with saying to Wesley:
“Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.”
Not exactly repeating the whole day, but at least part of it.
1. Excalibur (except for the armour sex scene, yikes)
2. Dark Crystal!!!
3. The Princess Bride (have fun storming the castle!)
4. The Last Unicorn
5. Arrrghghgh… calls Cally’s hotline for forehead cloths… Totoro
6. Ladyhawke
7. Being John Malkovich
8. Time Bandits, Frozen, abstain
—————-
1. abstain
2. Lord of Light
3. Chalion
4. abstain
FANTASY MOVIE BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
1. Excalibur (1981)
2. Yellow Submarine (1968)
3. The Princess Bride (1987)
4. Stardust (2007)
7. The Purple Rose of Kairo (1985)
8. Time Bandits (1981)
The Crow (1994)
Frozen
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
2. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
1. DOING STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE OF BEAUTY
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. TO REJUVENATE THE LANDS
Yellow Submarine (1968)
3. REPEATING THE SAME DAY WHILE LEARNING EXCELLENCE
Groundhog Day (1993)
6. CHANGING BODIES
Ladyhawke (1985)
7. OBSERVING FROM OUTSIDE OR BEING A PART OF
Being John Malkovich (1999)
8. THIS IS A VERY SILLY MIX
Time Bandits (1981)
Frozen (2013)
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
2. THE ALMOST FILMED
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
4. BORN TO BE FEARED
The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
FANTASY MOVIE BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
1. DOING STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE OF BEAUTY
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. TO REJUVENATE THE LANDS
The Dark Crystal (1982)
3. REPEATING THE SAME DAY WHILE LEARNING EXCELLENCE
The Princess Bride (1987)
4. UNICORNS AND IMMORTALITY
The Last Unicorn (1982)
5. LIFE IS UNFAIR AND I HATE THIS BRACKET
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
6. CHANGING BODIES
Ladyhawke (1985)
7. OBSERVING FROM OUTSIDE OR BEING A PART OF
Being John Malkovich (1999)
8. THIS IS A VERY SILLY MIX
(arrange in order of support)
Frozen (2013)
The Crow (1994)
Time Bandits (1981)
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
1. ROCK AND HARD PLACE
Nightrunner, Lynn Flewelling
2. THE ALMOST FILMED
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
3. TUTORED PRINCESSES
Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede
4. BORN TO BE FEARED
The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
1. DOING STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE OF BEAUTY
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Because of all the Beauties and the Beasts, I love Cocteau’s the bête. Sorry, beste.
2. TO REJUVENATE THE LANDS
The Dark Crystal (1982)
This is the bracket that I hate the most. I’m sorry to the sub, I lean toward the crystal.
3. REPEATING THE SAME DAY WHILE LEARNING EXCELLENCE
The Princess Bride (1987)
4. UNICORNS AND IMMORTALITY
The Last Unicorn (1982)
Okay, I hate this one a little bit as well.
5. LIFE IS UNFAIR AND I HATE THIS BRACKET
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
6. CHANGING BODIES
Ladyhawke (1985)
7. OBSERVING FROM OUTSIDE OR BEING A PART OF
Being John Malkovich (1999)
8. THIS IS A VERY SILLY MIX
8.1. Time Bandits (1981)
8.2. The Crow (1994)
8.3. Frozen (2013)
But I would watch any of them again right now.
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
Which one would make the better fantasyfilm?
1. ROCK AND HARD PLACE
Nightrunner, Lynn Flewelling
2. THE ALMOST FILMED
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
4. BORN TO BE FEARED
The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
FANTASY MOVIE BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
1. DOING STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE OF BEAUTY
Excalibur (1981)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. TO REJUVENATE THE LANDS
Yellow Submarine (1968)
The Dark Crystal (1982)
3. REPEATING THE SAME DAY WHILE LEARNING EXCELLENCE
The Princess Bride (1987)
Groundhog Day (1993)
4. UNICORNS AND IMMORTALITY
The Last Unicorn (1982)
Stardust (2007)
5. LIFE IS UNFAIR AND I HATE THIS BRACKET
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Kikis Delivery Service (1989)
ARGH I HATE THIS BRACKET TOO!!!!
6. CHANGING BODIES
Ladyhawke (1985)
All of Me (1984)
7. OBSERVING FROM OUTSIDE OR BEING A PART OF
The Purple Rose of Kairo (1985)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
8. THIS IS A VERY SILLY MIX
(arrange in order of support)
1-The Crow (1994)
3-Time Bandits (1981)
2-Frozen (2013)
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
Which one would make the better fantasyfilm?
Special rules: Vote even if haven’t read both contestants. Winner with fewer votes than two will be removed from bracket.
1. ROCK AND HARD PLACE
War for the Oaks, Emma Bull
Nightrunner, Lynn Flewelling
2. THE ALMOST FILMED
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
3. TUTORED PRINCESSES
The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede
4. BORN TO BE FEARED
The Thirteenth Child, Patricia Wrede
The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
And I’m back from spending a long weekend at a convention, ready to dispense forehead cloths to the masses! I’ll just open up the crate that I left … right … here….
Ok, who jimmied open the crate? I’ll just leave this cash deposit box right over here….
(Good thing I had more in the back room!) Forehead Cloths! Getcher Official Bracket Forehead Cloths here! Cool that fevered brow! Build a comfy soft fort!
FANTASY MOVIE BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
1. DOING STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE OF BEAUTY
Excalibur (1981)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Excalibur, for the wonderfully creepy Merlin.
2. TO REJUVENATE THE LANDS
Yellow Submarine (1968)
The Dark Crystal (1982)
Dark Crystal, no question.
3. REPEATING THE SAME DAY WHILE LEARNING EXCELLENCE
The Princess Bride (1987)
Groundhog Day (1993)
I just finished listening to the audiobook of “As You Wish”, the making of The Princess Bride as written by Cary Elwes. Gotta go with Fezzik. Anybody want a peanut?
4. UNICORNS AND IMMORTALITY
The Last Unicorn (1982)
Stardust (2007)
Abstain
5. LIFE IS UNFAIR AND I HATE THIS BRACKET
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Kikis Delivery Service (1989)
Totoro, for the catbus.
6. CHANGING BODIES
Ladyhawke (1985)
All of Me (1984)
For Rutger Hauer. Or however you spell his name.
7. OBSERVING FROM OUTSIDE OR BEING A PART OF
The Purple Rose of Kairo (1985)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Abstain
8. THIS IS A VERY SILLY MIX
(arrange in order of support)
1-Frozen (2013)
2-Time Bandits (1981)
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
Which one would make the better fantasyfilm?
Special rules: Vote even if haven’t read both contestants. Winner with fewer votes than two will be removed from bracket.
1. ROCK AND HARD PLACE
War for the Oaks, Emma Bull
Nightrunner, Lynn Flewelling
War for the Oaks. I’ve seen the fan trailor, and I think it would make a decent movie.
2. THE ALMOST FILMED
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
Umm. I think Lies is more cinematic.
3. TUTORED PRINCESSES
The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede
And Dragons are more cinematic. Also, hi Meredith!
4. BORN TO BE FEARED
The Thirteenth Child, Patricia Wrede
The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
Hmm. This one is hard. Given that CGI is now so good, I think the Wrede could be filmed. Adventure! Terror birds! Magic!
@Cally
“Cally’s Forehead Cloths” is the name of my next band. 😉
redheadedfemme: You’re angling for a sponsorship deal, are you? Have your people call my people….
1. DOING STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE OF BEAUTY
Excalibur (1981)Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. TO REJUVENATE THE LANDS
Yellow Submarine (1968)
The Dark Crystal (1982)3. REPEATING THE SAME DAY WHILE LEARNING EXCELLENCE
The Princess Bride (1987)
Groundhog Day (1993)4. UNICORNS AND IMMORTALITY
The Last Unicorn (1982)
Stardust (2007)Unicorn did less violence to the source material, and its source material was the better. (A high bar, to be sure.)
5. LIFE IS UNFAIR AND I HATE THIS BRACKET
My Neighbour Totoro (1988)
Kikis Delivery Service (1989)Totoro is such a dear movie that it beats almost anything.
6. CHANGING BODIES
Ladyhawke (1985)
>All of Me (1984)7. OBSERVING FROM OUTSIDE OR BEING A PART OF
The Purple Rose of Kairo (1985)Being John Malkovich (1999)
8. THIS IS A VERY SILLY MIX
(arrange in order of support)
1. Time Bandits (1981)
2. Frozen (2013)
3. The Crow (1994)
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
Which one would make the better fantasyfilm?
Special rules: Vote even if haven’t read both contestants. Winner with fewer votes than two will be removed from bracket.
1. ROCK AND HARD PLACE
War for the Oaks, Emma Bull
Nightrunner, Lynn Flewelling2. THE ALMOST FILMED
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott LynchLord of Light, Roger Zelazny
3. TUTORED PRINCESSES
The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede4. BORN TO BE FEARED
The Thirteenth Child, Patricia Wrede
The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinleyWHISTLEBLOW
Voting closes in one hour.
FANTASY MOVIE BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
1. Excalibur (1981)
2. Yellow Submarine (1968)
3. The Princess Bride (1987)
4. The Last Unicorn (1982)
5. Abstain
6. Ladyhawke (1985)
7. Being John Malkovich (1999)
8.
Time Bandits (1981)
Frozen (2013)
The Crow (1994)
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
1. War for the Oaks, Emma Bull
2. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
3. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold
4. The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
VOTING IS CLOSED!
FANTASY MOVIE BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
1. DOING STUPID THINGS FOR LOVE OF BEAUTY
Excalibur (1981) – 27 votes
Beauty and the Beast (1946) – 16 votes
If there was one thing the filers seemed to remember, it was the steamy sex in cold plate mails? Still, because of or in spite of this they voted for Excalibur. Beauty and Beast remains locked in their castle, trying to argue for their place in a weird language no one understands.
WINNER: Excalibur
2. TO REJUVENATE THE LANDS
Yellow Submarine (1968) – 17 votes
The Dark Crystal (1982) – 29 votes
While Yellow Submarine had a very strong following during the nomination phase, it couldn’t stand up against The Dark Crystal, one of the favourites among the filers. The Beatles join the Nowhere Man in the Sea of Nothing while the Gelflings continue to struggle for their destiny.
WINNER: The Dark Crystal
3. REPEATING THE SAME DAY WHILE LEARNING EXCELLENCE
The Princess Bride (1987) – 43 votes
Groundhog Day (1993) – 6 votes
Only slightly less well-known than “never get involved in a land war in Asia” is the classic blunder “Never go up against The Princess Bride when a bracket is on the line”. Bill Murray is stuck on repeat, doomed from the beginning, and joins Johnny Depp in his garden, making ice sculptures.
WINNER: The Princess Bride
4. UNICORNS AND IMMORTALITY
The Last Unicorn (1982) – 17 votes
Stardust (2007) – 24 votes
One of these has an unfair advantage – Gaiman. So the unicorn remains caged while Tristan if free to continue his search for his jewel.
WINNER: Stardust
5. LIFE IS UNFAIR AND I HATE THIS BRACKET
My Neighbour Totoro (1988) – 18 votes
Kikis Delivery Service (1989) – 10 votes
So unfair that many filers refused to vote. It was close all the way, but not even the fact that Kiki has a cat could save her. Catbus trumps ordinary cat. Kiki is stuck in her house on Fjällstreet in Stockholm.
WINNER: My Neighbour Totoro
6. CHANGING BODIES
Ladyhawke (1985) – 35 votes
All of Me (1984) – 7 votes
Romance, crossbows and horrible music. Ladyhawke was as good as fantasy could get for a long time and there was never a contest here. Steve Martin is put back in bowl.
WINNER: Ladyhawke
7. OBSERVING FROM OUTSIDE OR BEING A PART OF
The Purple Rose of Kairo (1985) – 7 votes
Being John Malkovich (1999) – 21 votes
Two outliers on the fantasy map, but this was no contest. Being John Malkovich was in the lead from the beginning and Cecilia is back in the theater, staring whistfully at Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
WINNER: Being John Malkovich
8. THIS IS A VERY SILLY MIX
(arrange in order of support)
The Crow (1994) – 8 first place, 10 second place, 18 third place
Time Bandits (1981) – 28 first place, 9 second place, 7 third place
Frozen (2013) – 12 first place, 23 second place, 8 third place
Terry Gilliam is favourite among the filers, as we could see in the last heat. This movie is even more popular and Frozen, while having its fans, could never reach that popularity. Elsa is stuck in her castle, making blocks of ice for Bill Murray and Johnny Depp while Brandon Lee crawls back into his grave.
WINNER: Time Bandits
BONUS BRACKET – THIRD HEAT
Which one would make the better fantasyfilm?
Special rules: Vote even if haven’t read both contestants. Winner with fewer votes than two will be removed from bracket.
1. ROCK AND HARD PLACE
War for the Oaks, Emma Bull – 22 votes
Nightrunner, Lynn Flewelling – 8 votes
Rock music and faeries? Yes, please. Flewellings nightrunners never stood a chance.
WINNER: War for the Oaks
2. THE ALMOST FILMED
The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch – 9 votes
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny – 27 votes
Zelazny is to much fan favourite for Locke Lamora to have a chance.
WINNER: Lord of Light
3. TUTORED PRINCESSES
The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold – 25 votes
Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede – 8 votes
Another bracket with no contest.
WINNER: The Curse of Chalion
4. BORN TO BE FEARED
The Thirteenth Child, Patricia Wrede – 7 votes
The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley – 27 votes
Again a clear victory. What will happen in later rounds when these books have to compete against each other?
WINNER: The Hero and the Crown
The fourth heat is up here.
Woo-hoo, another heat – another chance for the dice to hate on us all! 😉
/god-stalk-once-more
Hampus Eckerman: Ladyhawke: Romance, crossbows and horrible music.
Hey, I love that soundtrack! — no matter how incongruous the prog rock is with the medieval setting — and listen to it fairly often (as I do with with all the Alan Parsons oeuvre). It’s one of my Non-Guilty Pleasures. 😀
JJ, I like Alan Parsons Project too (“Tales of Mystery and Imagination” is on my frequent-play list) but it’s just not right for the movie….
god stalk
Cassy B.: I like Alan Parsons Project too (“Tales of Mystery and Imagination” is on my frequent-play list) but it’s just not right for the movie
<sticks fingers in ears> LA LA LA LA LA