Pixel Scroll 12/29/16 I Never Scroll Anything Twice

(1) NEAR FUTURE MARINES. The Marine Corps Security Environment Forecast: Futures 2030-2045 (MCSEF) provided “a high level snapshot of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory/Futures Directorate’s continual examination of the deep future.”

Chuck Gannon and several other writers traveled to Quantico last February and coached uniformed service members who produced Science Fiction Futures, the narrative accompaniment to the MCSEF. Writers included Commander Phillip Pournelle USN. The near-future military fiction they wrote can be downloaded as a free PDF at the link.

marine-corps-security-environment-forecast

(2) ON THE OTHER HAND. Nancy Jane Moore tells Book View Café readers why she’s not wild about Rogue One.

I was primed to be reflective about the movie because it was preceded by twenty minutes of trailers for truly dreadful movies that I don’t plan to see. About halfway through them, I said to myself, “No wonder the world is falling apart.” The prevailing narrative seems to be fighting and war as a response to everything.

Many of these movies strike me as right-wing narratives (though I suspect most of the people involved in making them don’t vote that way): Humans fighting either evil aliens or evil supernatural creatures. Others focus on the outsider who fights for us all, but gets no thanks – not a story about people coming together to solve their problems.

Stories like Rogue One might be seen as having a liberal bias – rebels fighting a fascist, dictatorial regime. But in every case the story assumes that the solution is to blow things up.

It’s not the violence and killing that I’m objecting to – I agree with pacifists about many things, but I’m not one – but rather the idea that those things are the only solution. A lifetime in the martial arts has taught me that while there are times when a physical fight (or a war) may be the best choice, those times are few and far between.

(3) UHLENKOTT OBIT. Rochelle Uhlenkott (1960-2016) died shortly before Christmas, reports Keith Kato, of complications from a flu infection. She was a UCI Extension instructor in Optical Engineering, and in SFF did a little bit of writing and editing. Her short story “The Gift” (as Rochelle Marie) was published in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress XI: An Anthology of Heroic Fantasy (1994),

(4) ICONIC HAIR. Chip Hitchcock says, “It’s unclear where Princess Leia’s cinnabon hairstyle came from, but George Lucas’ account is certainly wrong”.

According to Brandon Alinger, the author of Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy, the buns do not even appear in any of the concept artwork done for Leia in the preparation of the film.

In later interviews, Star Wars creator George Lucas said he looked to Mexico’s female revolutionaries, or “soldaderas”, who joined the uprising at the start of the 20th Century.

“I went with a kind of south-western Pancho Villa woman revolutionary look, which is what that is. The buns are basically from turn-of-the-century Mexico,” Lucas told Time in 2002.

It makes sense to look to such a band of women when creating a character far removed from a traditional princess awaiting rescue.

(5) DOUBLE TROUBLE. The Washington Post’s Jena McGregor, in “Even on this, America is divided: Was Cinnabon’s Carrie Fisher tweet offensive?”, discusses how Cinnabon leaped very deeply into the culture wars when they tweeted a photo of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia with a Cinnabon replacing one of the buns in her hair and the line “RIP Carrie Fisher,  you’ll always have the best buns in the galaxy.”

(6) DON’T LET THE YEAR MUG YOU ON THE WAY OUT. Everyone, be careful out there!

(7) PROGNOSTICATION. Our secret agent informs us this wall mural will be on next week’s Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest at Blast from the Past in Burbank.

pop-culture-wall-mural

(8) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • December 29, 1939 — Charles Laughton is The Hunchback of Notre Dame, first seen on this day in 1939.

(9) LET THE CUTE BE WITH YOU. This German Star Wars-themed Christmas ad for Kaufland is really sweet – and you don’t need to know any German to enjoy it.

(10) TOVE JANSSON NEWS. In the Financial Times, art critic Jackie Wullschlager reviews “Adventures in Moominland”, which is showing at the Southbank Centre in London through April 23.  British fans prepping for Worldcon can see this exhibit by Finland’s greatest fantasy writer and her creation, the Moomins, including discussions of why Tove Jansson thought herself more of an artist than a writer, how her lesbianism informed her work, and why she owned and read Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West.

You reach the Southbank Centre’s Adventures in Moominland by opening the cover of a giant book that turns out to be a door. Flit through a few gauze curtains painted with Jansson’s illustr­ations and you find yourself standing in a storybook installation: a snow-clad Finnish forest with gleaming lights and a lost troll. “The sky was almost black but the snow shone a bright blue in the moonlight” when Moomintroll, the first troll not to hibernate, stepped out alone into a cold new world. Moominland in Midwinter (1957) is a small existentialist masterpiece — the story of a frightened, angry, isolated young troll who eventually comes in from the cold to understand “one has to discover everything for oneself, and get over it all alone”.

(11) FINAL TROPE. At The Book Smugglers, Carlie St. George says this is the final installment of Trope Anatomy 101 “Choose Your Own Family”.

When we discuss common tropes in pop culture, we’re often analyzing them as inherently negative things, stereotypes or clichés that are in desperate need of subversion. And often, we’re right to do so; in this past year, we’ve already looked at some seriously problematic tropes in this column, from the waving away of chronic conditions and disabilities to the variety of fat-shaming tropes that arise time and again in film, television, and literature.

However, not every trope is harmful and some are actually quite delightful when embraced. Honestly, one of the reasons I love fanfiction as much as I do is that it downright revels in its tropes. They’re frequently used as signposts, specifically, welcome signs: “Are you looking for Huddle For Warmth Romances? How about Body Swapping Fics with a focus on Team Building? Come in, come in, you’re in the right place!”

…If those terms mean nothing to you, found family stories are about characters that come together and make their own family unit, despite not being related by blood. (Generally. Sometimes, a few characters in found families will be biologically related; think River and Simon Tam in Firefly, siblings in a disparate crew of misfits and criminals (who all just happen to share meals and celebrate birthdays with one another, deep in the black of space.) Very often these characters have been orphaned, disowned, or have otherwise extremely strained or stressful relationships with their biological families; the second family functions to support, celebrate, and mourn with one another in a way that their blood relatives will not or cannot.

(12) ROYAL COSPLAY. The Queen’s wardrobe selection for her Christmas broadcast led to a wave of science fictional levity —

[Thanks to Gregory Benford, Keith Kato, John King Tarpinian, Martn Morse Wooster, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day ULTRAGOTHA.]

62 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 12/29/16 I Never Scroll Anything Twice

  1. (3) “herotic fantasy” — I think we’ve just created a new genre name!

    Some days you’re the scroll, and some days you’re the pixel.

  2. 4) According to an interview with Fisher that I heard recently (I think it was with Terry Gross on “Fresh Air” but I’m not sure), they just kept sending her back to get her hair restyled until they liked it. From what she said, it was after several other styles had been tried.

    (Sacrificial fourth)

  3. A call for help finding a book:

    There’s an SF novel set in a floating city of libertarian independent types, where everything is a transaction and if you can’t pay for fresh water you’re going to wind up dead. I seem to recall there were murders, and a female protagonist who had to solve them or maybe wind up permanently under the thumb of a powerful boss guy she dislikes. And there’s a sequel.

    I thought it was COMPANY TOWN, which doesn’t have a sequel (at least not yet), so I’m trying to figure out what it was. Something recent — the last 5 years or so.

    Any guesses?

  4. @Kurt Busiek: The “everything is a transaction” part sounds very familiar, but I can’t track down the book I’m trying to think of, which may be a different book anyway (I believe I’m remembering a male protagonist, but not sure). But wow, that first part sounds very, very familiar to me.

    BTW, is it possible you’re melding two books in your mind, like Company Town and something else? Just a thought.

    Good luck – hopefully the Filer hive mind comes through. 🙂

  5. @Kurt are you thinking of Windswept by Adam Rakunas? though I don’t think it’s set on a floating city and there are more conversations about alcohol than water.

  6. BTW, is it possible you’re melding two books in your mind, like Company Town and something else?

    It’s possible. But I’m pretty sure this book was set in a floating city out in the Pacific, that’s kind of accreted over the years as new floating bits get connected in, and that it’s a libertarian everything-a-transaction place. It’s not owned by a single company, and there are various power players. Maybe I’m thinking of something that ran at Tor.com…

    It’s not WINDSWEPT, Arifel, but thanks for the suggestion.

  7. 12)
    “Scan the planet please, Mr. Windsor”

    (The mister is assuming of course that she’s “only” a lieutenant and not a higher ranked officer).

    I can’t find it now, but someone photoshopped her with that outfit onto the bridge of the TOS Enterprise.

  8. @JJ I saw a different one than that. Looks like several people have gotten into the spirit 🙂

  9. 2: A lifetime in the “having two brain cells to rub together” arts tells me that power mad dictators don’t give up power just because you ask nicely.

    4. The tell for when George Lucas is telling a lie: his lips are moving.

  10. It’s possible. But I’m pretty sure this book was set in a floating city out in the Pacific, that’s kind of accreted over the years as new floating bits get connected in, and that it’s a libertarian everything-a-transaction place. It’s not owned by a single company, and there are various power players.

    Been a while since I’ve read it so I’m vague on details, but could you be thinking of The Scar by China Miéville?

  11. @Mark: sounds like Seastead to me also, especially given the “accreting in the Pacific” detail; the series is an overall piss-take of the {l,L}ibertarian project of founding an offshore polity that would have all the advantages of proximity without being constrained by any of the U.S.’s pesky (e.g., human rights) laws, but each of the pieces in the cluster has its own variations on the theme. ISFDB shows the last published piece (of six) in the July 2015 F&SF; I read it recently (yes, I’m a couple of years behind in my TBR walls) and recall it as something of a wrapup.

  12. @Darren: re 2: and a couple of decades of watching the results of other than “asking them nicely” suggests that the galaxy would be in a far worse state afterwards than shown in SW7. Star Wars is a setup; the question raised is which setup is picked to tell a story in, and the writer correctly observes that current entertainment is picking from a limited (and arguably unrealistic) set. re 4: I think there’s a difference between lying and {misrecollecting from a distance, being confused, …}; why should Lucas be more knowledgeable about history (especially history outside his nation) than the average USian?

  13. Our fiction/entertainment reflects us. It’s full of fear, fear, fear, fear and the natural reactions – run away or attack.

    We’ve lost, seemingly, any kind of a vision of a future (other than corporate greed); we’re rudderless and flirting with that area of the map marked unknown territory – here be monsters.

    Camelot is decayed, decrepit and overgrown with weeds….

  14. (4) Carrie Fisher doesn’t have a Star on the Walk of Fame, so fans appropriated a blank one and are leaving tributes. Including two cinnamon buns. I laugh/cried.

  15. @9 – Thanks! That sort of tidbit is the reason I visit this blog.

    @5 – Getting worked up about Cinnebon is a sign that people have way too much free time.

    Hollywood Star – These are sold by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for $30,000 a pop. They are not “honors” per se. If you cough up the money, and if you are deemed acceptable by the Chamber, they put in the Star.

  16. Fairly sure it wasn’t Cinnabon, per se, that they were unhappy with, but the inane and not very appropriate nature of the tweet itself. Perhaps you’d be fine with such an observation being made regarding someone you cared about, but not everyone can be so open-minded and detached.

  17. Dave Langford: (3) ISFDB gives the pseudonym as Rochelle Marie (i.e. her first and middle names), not Rose Marie.

    Appertain yourself your favorite New Years Eve-Eve beverage!

  18. When you file through a scroll, hold your pixel high
    And don’t be afraid of the Beale
    At the end of the scroll there’s a golden File
    And the sweet, silver song of a snark

    scroll on through the wind
    Scroll on through the rain
    Though your comments be tossed and blown
    Scroll on, scroll on
    With pixels in your hearts
    And you’ll never scroll alone
    You’ll never scroll alone
    Scroll on, scroll on
    With SciFi in your hearts
    And you’ll never scroll alone
    You’ll never scroll alone

  19. Naomi Kritzer’s Seastead stories from F&SF?

    Maybe! I don’t often read F&SF, though, and I’m pretty sure what I read of this I read online, which was how I’d convinced myself it was an Amazon sample. But what I see written about the stories sounds familiar, and the title LIBERTY’S DAUGHTER sounds even more familiar, so maybe I encountered one of the stories online somehow.

    Anyway, Kritzer said she hoped to self-publish a book of the stories once they were done, so if that happens I’ll buy it and find out!

    In the meantime, it sounds like a likely suspect. Thanks!

    It’s definitely not Mieville. I’d have remembered that.

  20. Apparently I need a subscription to read about Tove Jansson, but I love her novels and am happy to see her on todays (or I guess by now yesterday’s) Pixel Scroll.

  21. @JJ: Thanks for the Queen and Carrie-impromptu-unofficial-star image links!

    @Darren Garrison: Gak! I love/hate the Mediaite quote at your link (“Placeholder text is common. Sometimes, editors forget to remove it.”) since no one should ever use placeholder text that isn’t okay to go live. 😛 Le sigh. That “placeholder text” looks more like someone talking to themselves. I remember trying to get it through a co-developer’s skull not to use weird or “bad” placeholder text in programs or reports or anything, basically. Another developer I worked with would name variables with four letter words.

    @Kurt Busiek: I’m pretty sure I read one of Kritzer’s stories from this series online, though I’m not sure it’s still available. Something about a woman investigating the disappearance of another woman’s sister (one of whom was a prostitute, maybe?). My brain is fuzzy. I’m still trying to figure out what this other book you made me think of is!

    @Lis Carey: 🙁 “I’m Mr. Heat Miser, I’m Mr. hundred-and-one.” (Or something like that.)

  22. If anyone feels like digging through a huge pile of poorly organized manga, I have discovered this section of archive.org.

  23. Gak! I love/hate the Mediaite quote at your link (“Placeholder text is common. Sometimes, editors forget to remove it.”) since no one should ever use placeholder text that isn’t okay to go live.

    And then there’s this.

  24. Kendall:

    I’m pretty sure I read one of Kritzer’s stories from this series online, though I’m not sure it’s still available. Something about a woman investigating the disappearance of another woman’s sister (one of whom was a prostitute, maybe?).

    That sounds very familiar too.

    My brain is fuzzy. I’m still trying to figure out what this other book you made me think of is!

    I can recommend the strategy of barfing out what details you remember here and seeing if someone else remembers it. It seems to have worked for me…

  25. The Adventures in Moominland Exhibit was absolutely wonderful … as in WONDERFUL!!!! If you find yourself in London be sure to get a ticket. It’s not to be missed, no matter your age. It was absolutely magical. Tove Jansson and her art are an inspiration. This is highly recommended!

    Be sure to buy your tickets BEFORE you get to London because they will be sold out if you try to buy them at the door.

  26. @Hampus
    2016 is conspiring to destroy our childhood, I swear.

    4) Twisted braid hairstyles like Leia wears in the original trilogy were (and still are occasionally) worn with Bavaria folkdress, so I always assumed that was where Lucas or his costume designer got the idea from. See this 19th century portrait of one Helene Sedlmeyer, wife of a wealthy Munich merchant, for example. My parents have a reproduction of this portrait on their wall and as a kid I assumed the woman pictured was Princess Leia, until I realised that made no sense. Or this 1940s photo of a little girl with looped braids like Leia wears on Bespin. And here is a random model wearing a braid wrapped round her head like Leia wears it on Hoth from a contemporary article about Oktoberfest hairstyles.

  27. @Hampus Eckerman: AW! 🙁

    @Kurt Busiek: I can’t think of much more. Some kinda slightly cyberpunk SF novel with everything costing credits/money, including, I think, something like not seeing ads in your cyberpunk visual interface. I . . . can’t really remember anything about the actual book. I think there was something about a special transaction that was almost mythical; that is probably the MacGuffin. This is making less sense the more I type, isn’t it. @Filers? 😉

  28. There’s a Lawrence Watt-Evans novel, REALMS OF LIGHT, where cyber-intrusive ads were so prevalent that people paid to turn them off, but the rest of it doesn’t sound like what you mean.

  29. I really am surprised what I’m looking for wasn’t in my list o’ books to consider. It’s something pretty recent, like from the past year or so, or so I thought. I’m gonna check the iPad – maybe I have a sample there. I think I don’t have enough info in my brain-memory for this to work. 😉

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