(1) X-OUT THE X-MEN FAN VIDEO PROJECT. Joel Furtado, an animator from Vancouver, Canada has cancelled his fan film X-men: Danger Room Protocols due to legal issues with Marvel, which prevented the first video in the series from being hosted on YouTube or Vimeo.
Now, there’s word of another fan production falling to legal issues: Joel Furtado’s X-Men: Danger Room Protocols.
Furtado has been working on the web series for a long while now, with eighteen episodes planned to showcase different pairs of 1990s-era X-Men characters in animated adventures against iconic villains in a Danger Room scenario. Furtado told io9 via email: “I’ve always loved X-men since I was a little kid. It was something I gravitated to, reading the comics at that time even before the animated series,” adding, “When Fox’s cartoon came out that was it, I was hooked. I’ve done a few personal projects over the years, but nothing of this scale or scope. I decided I wanted to take a year off and do this thing for myself, as well as the fans. I knew there were X-men fans out there, wanting more than what the official powers that be were giving them.”
The first episode featured Jean Grey and Wolverine against the Sentinels, but was quickly pulled from YouTube. Furtado released it on Vimeo, but the video was pulled from there as well.
Furtado gave a valedictory talk to his supporters in a new video.
(2) USING YOUR POWER. Kameron Hurley was at Confusion over the weekend, and was inspired to write a wisdom-filled post, “On Kindness and Conventions”.
I have argued with authors for years about the power imbalance between authors and fans. By the very fact that you’re an author, that you’ve had worked published, it puts you in a position of perceived power, even if you don’t feel powerful. And what you do with that power is important. But first you need to realize, and accept, that you have it and people have given it to you….
Most importantly, though, when I was out at parties, or in the bar, I opened up the conversation circle to people. This is probably the most important thing you can do at either of these events. There is nothing worse than hanging on outside the circle hoping to try and get someone to invite you in. Here are these people who’ve known each other for years, and you’ve been told to socialize at the bar because it’s so great to network! and all you’re doing is standing outside these circles of people with a drink, feeling stupid….
I have talked a lot of talk over the last decade. It’s my turn to pay it forward, and to help build the community I’d like to see, instead of just complaining about how shitty things are elsewhere.
Because there is no greater joy than seeing the reactions of people who’ve had their first amazing convention, and who tear up all the way home because in a single weekend they’ve found their people, they feel included, they felt like part of something bigger than themselves.
Be the change you want to see, right? I need to act like the author I always wished I would have encountered when I was twenty-one years old at my first convention. Every time I talk to some new person, especially those at their first convention, I imagine that I’m talking to somebody who is going to come up fighting through here just like me. I’m holding out the hand I didn’t get that first time. I’m opening up the circle.
(3) FANFIC. Mindy Klasky’s “F is for Fanfiction” at Book View Café is an overview of the topic for professional writers that raises good questions writers should consider about setting boundaries on the use of their work, however, it was this paragraph that generated all the comments – most disagreeing that one must outgrow fanfic.
Fan fiction might be a great way for an author to exercise writing skills, learning to recreate an established author’s tone and/or using known characters expected to act in specific ways. But if you intend to publish your work, you’ll need to move beyond fanfic. That “moving beyond” should include at least “filing off the serial numbers”, erasing the specific references to character names, locations, and other details. Thus, Bella Swan from Twilight became Anastasia Steele, and Edward Cullen became Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey. The special world of sparkling vampires became the elite life of a billionaire.
(4) KING CONTEST SHORTLIST. The finalists have been announced in a short story competition to celebrate the publication of Stephen King’s collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. There were more than 800 entries.
A team of dedicated readers carefully selected stories worthy of putting forward to the long list. 20 stories were in serious contention and after due deliberation judges Claire Armitstead (Books Editor at the Guardian), Philippa Pride (Stephen King’s British editor) and Kate Lyall-Grant (our independent judge and Publisher at Severn House Publishers) unanimously chose six stand-out stories for the shortlist.
The judges were extremely impressed by the quality of the six stories which are now on their way to Stephen King. The winner will be announced on or after 30 January. Watch this space…
Please join us in congratulating the talented authors on the shortlist:
‘The Spots’ by Paul Bassett Davies; ‘The Unpicking’ by Michael Button; ‘Wild Swimming’ by Elodie Harper; ‘The Bear Trap’ by Neil Hudson; ‘La Mort De L’Amant’ by Stuart Johnstone; ‘Eau de Eric’ by Manuela Saragosa.
(5) THORNTON OBIT. SF Site News reports Kathy Thornton (1957-2016) died on January 16. She was one of the founding members of Con-Troll in Houston and worked on Texas NASFiCs and Worldcons. In 2005, she was the fan Guest of Honor at Apollocon.
Kathy Thornton and Derly Ramirez
(6) CAST IN THE HAT. As Nicole Hill warns, “We Sort the Cast of The Force Awakens into Their Hogwarts Houses” at B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog is MOSTLY SPOILERS. So no excerpt here. Fun article, though.
(7) LOVECRAFT. Submissions are being taken for the Dunhams Destroys Lovecraft anthology through February 6. What do they mean by the title?
Destroy it all.
Burn the tropes.
Smash the traditions.
The statues.
The awards.
The apologetics.
The so-called gatekeepers of Weird Fiction.
Mock the big fish in the small pond of Lovecraftian fiction.
Nothing is safe.
NO ONE IS SAFE.
Parody as a means to topple to regime.
Spoof the blowhards.
Take anything Lovecraftian and mock the hell out of it.
Payment is $25 and a contributor’s copy for 5-10K word stories. And they repeat, “We do NOT want traditional Lovecraftian fiction.”
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- Born January 25, 1920 – Jerry Maren, leader of The Lollipop Guild – last of the Munchkins.
Jerry Maren
(9) BROKEN NEWS. People asked Jim C. Hines what he thought about his name being mentioned in a Breitbart story based on a comment here. He told them in “Fact-Checking for Dummies. And Breitbart.”
This is what rates an article on Breitbart. “Hey, a commenter on the internet said that some unnamed person is talking to a couple of Toronto bookstores and showing them what some of the Sad/Rabid Puppies have said and asking them not to stock said puppies. Oh, and yeah, there’s no actual evidence of it having any effect.”
(10) SOMETHING IN COMMON. George R.R. Martin’s tribute to David Hartwell touched John C. Wright. He sent this note to Martin.
It grieves me that you and I should be at odds over unimportant political matters when science fiction as a genre, and the people in our lives, and much else besides are things we both have in common and outweigh any differences.
The shadow of our mutual loss of a friend sharply reminds me of what is important in life, and mutual ire is not one of those things.
You wrote not long ago of a desire for peace in the science fiction community; I second that sentiment and voice it also. Let there be peace between us.
(11) ELIGIBILITY POSTS. Cat Rambo favors Hugo eligibility posts.
I blogged about it as a result of Twitter conversation with Daniel Older and Shveta Ta; he’s posted his own and I urged people to post links to theirs in my post. Any help spreading the word is appreciated; too many people let themselves get silenced by fear of internet kerfuffles. I’m hoping that puppies feel free to post on there as well; too many people forget that as SFWA President I’m representing a range of writers, not a single crowd.
Rambo introduces the post on her personal blog with these sentiments:
Let us begin by acknowledging that this is a rancorous period, full of clashing agendas, bewildered onlookers, and all too many innocents caught in the crossfire (although it is not the first time we’ve seen these storms, nor will it be the last.). And that right now making an eligibility post particularly mentioning Hugo Award categories like Related Work is something that some of us are circling and wondering about.
And my answer is yes. Yes, you should. Why?
Check the post for her three arguments.
(12) RSR CAMPBELL LIST. Rocket Stack Rank has made a list of new writers whose stories were reviewed on their site who should be eligible for the 2016 John W. Campbell Award.
Here are 62 writers who are eligible for the 2016 Campbell Award. They were selected from the 565 stories reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank and eight other prolific reviewers in 2015. There are many more new writers out there, but their stories weren’t read by Rocket Stack Rank so they’re not included here.
(13) A LONGLIST OF HUGO RECOMMENDATIONS. Nerds of a Feather will be posting lists of recommendations drawn from its contributors. First up is the Hugo Award Longlist for fiction.
For the past couple years I’ve posted a draft Hugo ballot (2014, 2015). Last year’s slate voting controversy, however, made me rethink that practice. True, this blog has limited influence within fandom, and we’ve never tried to mobilize voters to further a cause or agenda either. But it still feels strange to call out slate-based voting campaigns while publishing something that looks, superficially at least, like a slate of our own. So instead of giving you my personal ballot, I asked the the thirteen nerds of a feather to contribute to a longlist of potential Hugo nominees.
The rules for inclusion were simple–just: (a) meet the eligibility criteria; and (b) be “award worthy” (i.e. good). Given the subjectivity of the latter, it should come as no surprise that the selections on our longlist reflect the spectrum of tastes, tendencies and predilections found among our group of writers. You’ll find selections ranging from the obscure and literary to the unabashedly popular and commercial, and from all corners and subdivisions of the genresphere
(14) UFO FILES. The Express has a photo-illustrated article, “Some of ‘world’s best ever UFO pictures’ go online with CIA former top secret files”.
The US intelligence agency, often accused by UFO conspiracy theorists of being involved in a major cover up to hide evidence of alien life from the public, has for some reason chosen to upload some of its formerly classified UFO case files to its website.
(15) RETROFUTURISM. Joshua Rothman comments on “The Nostalgic Science Fiction of ‘The X-Files’” in The New Yorker.
Scholars have a term for our fascination with the science fiction of the past: they call it “retrofuturism.” In the “Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction,” Elizabeth Guffey and Kate Lemay offer an elegant definition of the term: “Where futurism is sometimes called a ‘science’ bent on anticipating what will come,” they write, “retrofuturism is the remembering of that anticipation.” Retrofuturism tends to be both celebratory and regretful. On the one hand, the retrofuturist sensibility is drawn to old visions of the future because today’s have lost their appeal; on the other, it recognizes that those old visions had their downsides. Steampunk, for example, is attractive precisely because it rejects the disembodied corporatism of the digital world; still, the vision of the future in the film “Snowpiercer” is both refreshingly analogue and brutally Dickensian. (That’s not to say that retrofuturism is always ambivalent: “Star Wars” is, among other things, an upbeat retrofuturist response to the drug-addled sci-fi of the sixties and seventies.) “The X-Files” was a retrofuturist show. It celebrated the wide-eyed sense, prevalent in the forties, fifties, and sixties, that science was about to change everything. It also recalled the darkness of the Cold War, when individuals felt powerless against vast geopolitical forces, and science brought us to the edge of thermonuclear doom.
Because we live in a moment of reboots, remakes, and revivals, we seem to be surrounded by retrofuturism. Superhero movies, with their emphasis on mad-science mutation, have a retrofuturist appeal. So do the rebooted “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” and “Mad Max.” Even “Interstellar,” in many ways a forward-looking film, also looked back to the sci-fi of the past. If you’re of a theoretical cast of mind, you might wonder what it means to be nostalgic for a retrofuturist show like “The X-Files.” Is it possible, “Inception”-style, to square retrofuturism? Can you look back ambivalently at the way people used to look back ambivalently at a vision of the future?
(16) TV SUCCESS WOULD X-OUT THIRD X-FILES MOVIE. A third X-Files movie has been scripted by Chris Carter – but if the ratings are good for the TV series, he’d prefer to focus on that.
“I actually wrote a third movie, just because I was interested in the idea of where that might go,” Carter told the audience. When Fox approached him about bringing The X-Files back to television, Carter considered repurposing the script for the series. “I let my wife read the third movie,” he shared, “and she said ‘I think not for television.'”
Any chance of a third X-Files film will depend on how strong (or poor) the ratings for the upcoming mini-series are. If the ratings are good, Carter seems more interested it sticking to TV. “I’m waiting for Fox to come back and ask for more,” said Carter. “Then we’ll talk about it.”
And early reports are that ratings for the new show were good.
The preview of the mini-series premiered on Sunday night following the NFC Championship game between the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers and received strong ratings.
Monday’s debut on the mini-series’ normal night will be the true test, along with the subsequently five episodes. Should that run be as strong as many suspect that it will be, a third film might yet by in the cards
(17) SATIRE NOSTALGIA. The WSJ’s Speakeasy blog remembers “When Mulder and Scully Went to Springfield: An Oral History of the ‘Simpsons’ – ‘X-Files’ Crossover”.
Mike Reiss: We had the most illegal shot in TV history. [The episode has] a line-up of aliens where Homer is supposed to pick out which alien is his. We had Alf, Marvin the Martian, Chewbacca — they were all copyrighted. In one five-second shot, we violated five people’s copyrights. But the only comment we ever got was, we had Alf in there. Alf said “Yo!” and I got a call from the real Alf, who said, “Next time you do me, let me do it.”
(18) REV. BOB CROWNED. Our own Rev. Bob was king for about as long as it takes to boil an egg at the Whoisthekingrightnow site. He’s still searchable as Robert in the Hall of Kings, where his three decrees have been immortalized.
King Bob the Horizontal.
- The denizens of Sensible Castle do not judge. Unless you’re a jerk.
- Get thee down. Be thou funky.
- In case of emergency, the masks that drop from the ceiling will make everyone’s final moments MOST interesting. You’re welcome.
[Thanks to Brian Z., John King Tarpinian, Gregory N. Hullender, and Nick Mamatas for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Nigel.]
Update 01/26/2016: Corrected Rev. Bob’s royal name to the right royal name, with the right decrees.
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pherzt
zekund
Thurdurdurdurd.
phorrth
Fifth?
And it is nice to see GRRM and JCW reconciled, does that mean JCW will also offer an olive branch to the rest of the human race?
(1) Not unexpected: fan derived works are always vulnerable to copyright holders protective of their property.
(2) Good sentiments. (As someone who finds con socialising, challenging.)
(10) Here’s hoping.
(11) ELIGIBILITY POSTS. I find eligibility posts useful. There is a big difference between “here’s what I published in the last year that is eligible” vs Robin Wayne Bailey‘s naked attempt to get himself nominated:
Sith!
(1) X-OUT THE X-MEN FAN VIDEO PROJECT: Now Marvel is owned by the House of Mouse, I am surprised this project didn’t get stamped on sooner. There have been previews getting news attention for a while and the Mouseketeers aren’t known for their openness in relation to copyright.
(3) FANFIC: I know people who use the experience of FANFIC as a springboard to learning craft, and I know people who just love the characters of a world and are happy playing in their favourite author’s sandpit. Neither is right or wrong. Unlike…
(10) SOMETHING IN COMMON: Wright who can’t seem to stop sounding like a pretentious prat even when he is trying to evoke fellow feeling with others.
(18) REV. BOB CROWNED: Bravo Your Highness!
Zeverse
Sebent.
Well, okay. Not sebent.
Ate, instead.
Hmm. Does the Breitbart article explain why Vox Day was booted from GoodReads for TOS violations?
Nein.
@Glenn Hauman,
I don’t think that was its inTENt…
Glenn Hauman: Hmm. Does the Breitbart article explain why Vox Day was booted from GoodReads for TOS violations? Nein.
Well
playedtendered.(10) SOMETHING IN COMMON
And Martin responded.
As far as intent goes, best not to
dwelve.dammit, Mark! You ninja’d me! Know how hard it is to make a pun on thirteen?@Glenn
I’m afraid you got a bakers dozen there….
ETA: Those ninjas are sneaky. Always check your mirror before executing a pun.
and now that I’ve had time to read the scroll!
I am very interested in (7)
(10) well, that was… quite nice, actually, for Wright.
(2) Kameron Hurley seems nice. Maybe this time I’ll actually remember to buy that book of hers that I’m always on the verge of buying.
Oneiros: Kameron Hurley seems nice.
She does seem very refreshingly grounded, for someone who has achieved “overnight” success after a couple of decades.
It reminds me of that quote about fame, voiced by Christopher Pine after his career skyrocketed due to playing Captain Kirk:
@Mike:
Actually, I am/was King Bob the Horizontal. Robert the Flatulent is an usurper!
My decrees were:
* The denizens of Sensible Castle do not judge. Unless you’re a jerk.
* Get thee down. Be thou funky.
* In case of emergency, the masks that drop from the ceiling will make everyone’s final moments MOST interesting. You’re welcome.
(9) BROKEN NEWS
Well played Hines. I particularly like:
(11) ELIGIBILITY POSTS
I agree with Cat Rambo as a matter of practicality – eligibility posts help everyone remember the name of that story they really liked when they read it in March. She’s got a big list of other peoples posts at the bottom of the article and is offering to update it further, which I think is very handy.
There’s the lingering concern that eligibility posts can slide over into campaigning, but I think that most reasonable people can tell the difference between the two things and react accordingly.
(12) RSR CAMPBELL LIST
Very helpful post. There’s also the eligibility page at Writertopia.
Some interesting possibilities I spotted on the RSR list:
Kelly Robson – a strong possibility for Waters of Versailles and Two-Year Man, both of which were good-quality stories IMHO.
Malka Older – only one story, that I thought was very solid, but nothing else to base a nomination on. She’s got a novel coming out this year, so I suspect I’ll pencil her in to check out again next year.
Sara Saab – I liked In the Queue for the Worldship Munawwer but found Rush Down, Roar Gently a bit so-so.
Some other names I already had pencilled in were Becky Chambers for A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet; Natasha Pulley for Watchmaker of Filigree Street; Lisa Bolekaja for stories like Three Voices; and Iona Sharma for Nine Thousand Hours and Quarter Days.
(2) USING YOUR POWER
Good thoughts.
(3) FANFIC.
I don’t quite understand what’s controversial with the quoted paragraph. It doesn’t say that moving beyond fanfic is a goal in itself, and everyone should strive for it, it says that “if you intend to publish your work, you’ll need to move beyond fanfic.” And it doesn’t say that this means you have to write without being influenced, but that you should at least “file off the serial numbers”. And that seems accurate to me.
(10) SOMETHING IN COMMON
I appreciate the sentiment, and I agree with Martin’s reply that talking about stuff that unite us is a good way to heal wounds – but honestly, I don’t consider my disagreement with Wright over whether it’s natural to want to beat up gays with tire-irons an “unimportant political matter”.
(11) ELIGIBILITY POSTS
For what it’s worth: I agree that it’s useful and legitimate to list what you’ve published, to help readers find it so they can read it, and to help people place short fiction in the correct categories (short story/novelette/etc.) I think it’s also legitimate (and not overly much campaigning) to say things like “I’m particularly proud of this novella”.
I’m particularly proud of this ticky-focused comment.
Eligibility posts:
Especially useful to people who are reviewers, because we sometimes read books off-schedule. I read Elizabeth Bear’s Karen Memory, for example, in late 2014, even though it was an early 2015 release. Being gently reminded of that is a good thing.
Mark kitteh: [Cat Rambo ]’s got a big list of other peoples posts at the bottom of the article and is offering to update it further, which I think is very handy. There’s the lingering concern that eligibility posts can slide over into campaigning, but I think that most reasonable people can tell the difference between the two things and react accordingly.
The beauty of what Cat is doing is that the combined list is so long, it can in no way be perceived as a slate. Nominators will have to go through each post to pick out things which they’d like to read, or which they’ve read and want to nominate. The names are all in alpha order.
I’ve bookmarked her list, because I think I’m going to find it very helpful in the nomination process.
Sounds good, so long as Aaron Aardvark doesn’t sweep the nominations.
Glenn
Making a pun on thirteen
Is like the dirt seen
When an oil spill you’re skirteen
Not as much fun as flirteen.
Simon BJ
(3) FANFIC
That’s a weird coincidence. I finished a big fan-fiction project over this past weekend, and celebrated by making my own blog-post on the subject: Fan-Fiction as a Writing Exercise.
Executive summary: doing fan-fiction work can be a valuable experience and an opportunity to work on your literary skills, but there are limits to how useful it will be if you have professional ambitions. In that case, it can’t be the whole of your development strategy.
Which sounds pretty close to Klasky’s thesis. I don’t find it terribly controversial.
What Jon F. Zeigler and Johan P. said: yeah, if you intend to write for publication, that writing needs not to be fanfic, or at least not obvious fanfic. Your favorite series is probably not going to do a James Bond thing where the original author dies and they bring someone else on indefinitely; if it does, it probably won’t be you; comics and film involve more writers, but even so, the odds of you personally ending up working on that one property are staggeringly low.
Also with you on 10, Johan P. It’s nice that Wright is a human being who can mourn and all, but seeing as how he still doesn’t consider me or many of my friends human beings in any practical sense, I’m less than touched.
I totally get why many people, especially those from oppressed groups who have been targeted by JCW’s rhetoric, may be slow to warm to his declaration of peace. The politics, after all, are not insignificant; people like JCW have worked hard to make other people’s lives harder than they need to be – and people a little worse than him have worked to kill people outright.
My personal problem is that Micah’s injunction to love mercy is not just a fun club to bash self-styled Christian “warriors” with. I’m enjoined to follow it myself. At the very least, this means that if JCW starts to move in the right direction, I’ve got to be open to the possibility (and hope) that he can make it further. So while I make zero claim regarding what anyone else should do, for today at least, peace is where I’m at too.
Or, as a great Filer might say, “::click::.”
At the very least, this means that if JCW starts to move in the right direction, I’ve got to be open to the possibility (and hope) that he can make it further.
I’m inclined to wait until JCW actually makes some moves in the right direction, and until he actually explains if what he means by “peace” is something different from his “shut up and do what I say” version he previously came out with.
Well JCW did say (in a different thread admittedly) that his people just wanted to be left alone, which surely no-one has any objection to.
Wellll, there’s the minor issue of his “leave us alone” actually being “will the rest of you deity despising residents of Sodom shut up”, but other than that minor matter. it’s all good.
RE: Campbell
Hmm. I’ve got Weir, Chambers, & Pulley thus far, so I guess RSR and Writertopia will be useful to research the rest, rather than leaving it blank or throwing in Sandford and Ctein as a semi-joke/ all-stupid nomination.
On that note, Saturn’s Run was really fun. Not as ambitious as Seveneves, but sticks the landing better.
Well Kameron Hurley, Confusion was a very different experience for this first timer who attended in a wheel chair. Alone. I was made to feel that I was attending someone else’s private party. I attending the “is this your first confusion” session. It was basically about how we all know each other and are like a family. Which I found extremely unwelcoming.
I will also note that the bar you hung out in didn’t exactly look accessible to wheelchairs with all those high tables.
I wear a nasty medical orthotic boot, and can walk with a cane, but not in crowds. Scooter/carts were not available at this venue so I brought my own wheel chair. And pushed my own wheelchair. Did anyone else notice that the hall from the 2nd floor program rooms back to the elevator was an uphill climb?
I spent two days there. People were friendly and helpful. I went to some great programs.
I came home knowing three new people by name. But I came alone and I spent two days doing confusion alone.
I will note that I was unable to get a hotel room and was being driven back and forth from home, so wasn’t there for the evening on Saturday.
But in general, based on my experience I doubt if I will go again to your private party.
You don’t appear to allow comments on your post, so you are unlikely to see my response.
I’m continuing to update the list as people send me award-eligibility posts and as I run across them.
Small correction, the conversation was also with Shveta Thakrar, not sure how I typoed that so badly.
And holy smokes, any of you who for some inconceivable reason hasn’t read Redwombat’s Razorback yet should go do so, because it’s just lovely.
[ticky]
@Cat Rambo
There was much squeeing about Razorback yesterday, in fact.
@Mark — so well deserved. If she wasn’t so nice, she’d be easy to hate for being so darn talented.
@NickPheas
That’s something you hear a lot from folks who’re strongly anti-gay for religious reasons. What Wright almost certainly means is that he wants to be allowed to wield his tire iron against gay men without anyone objecting to it. (It’s also why some people argue that anti-bullying laws discriminate against Christian boys.)
At dinner one night at Sasquan, Eric and I thought we saw Wright and a few other rabid puppies sitting at a table near us. It’s a creepy thing when you realize that you’re sitting near people who are open about their desire to kill you.
I would like to see some evidence that he’s changed his mind on that subject before taking any of his peace overtures too seriously.
“Razorback” is an early entry on my longlist for next year’s Hugos. Now I just need to get cracking on this year’s nominations. Speaking of which; thanks to Cat Rambo for the list.
(15) The thing that always got me about X-Files is that I wanted occasionally, or even once, just once, for their to be a scientific explanation for whatever the heck was going on. And I’m really not sure where the writer is finding optimism in the X-files. “Science Will Kill You” was one of the chief themes of the show, up there with “Scientists Are Always Hiding Something.”
But the broader point of retrofuturism is a fun one – I think you get a better view of what people were really worried, what the anxieties were, from their choice of escapism. Interesting as I survey my past years reading about hierarchies of control and hidden power structures.
(10) On the one hand, JCW moving in the right direction is something I am also bound to look at it positively, due to the same injunction in Micah. On the other hand, professionally, I’m made all too aware of particular situation where someone who has been a font of abusive words and behavior makes a very public show of how they are seeing the other side of things, make a very show of public mercy – and then double down all the harder on the abuse when the object of their abuse doesn’t assume a supine position. They then moan about betrayal and distrust.
There’s showing JCW mercy, and there’s the fact that I do possess a memory and an ability to recognize patterns.
ConnieJo on January 26, 2016 at 6:24 am said:
Elise (@LionessElise) had a similar problem, at least according to her Twitter account. She couldn’t get anyone from the Con to discuss problems she was having getting info on a hotel that she needed to have. So she didn’t go.
I will note that Kameron was speaking as a program participant and attendee. Not as a member of the ConCom. And even if she had been it still wouldn’t have been her private party. She was speaking of things we all could do better. Not stating how perfect the Con was at doing them.
I suspect a lot of backlash to the fanfic thing may simply be that fanfic authors have had it up to the neck with people telling them their hobby isn’t REAL WRITING and being treated like it is, at best, some kind of training wheels they must inevitably outgrow, instead of an end to itself.
I mean, if I make delicious cookies and enjoy them and give them to my friends so that we all have delicious cookies, I would get pretty tired of bakers who reminded me at every bloody opportunity that I cannot sell my cookies because it’s the recipe from Joy of Cooking and I have to realize that’s not MY recipe and God, it’s so sad all these potentially great bakers are wasting their time making cookies from recipes when they could be making actual money if only they’d dedicate themselves to their craft and take off the training wheels and Jesus H. Christ maybe I just wanted a goddamn cookie, okay?
Eta: …naturally I must post my irritable screeds right after someone says I’m nice. 😛
(2) USING YOUR POWER
I once wrote something very much like this, except with regard to the SCA. It was in the context of one of those conversations where all the people that others considered “the cool kids” were protesting that no, they weren’t the “cool kids” at all, other people were! I was coming out of a very thinky period where I’d decided it was time to stop dwelling on my own sense of feeling ignored and left out and instead own the understanding that other people really did think I was one of the “cool kids” — even if that just meant that they were afraid to talk to me. (Which, of course, is exactly one of the things that made me feel ignored and left out and uncool.) The “opening the circle” technique is one of the ones I discussed as well. It’s something that anyone who’s in a circle has the power to do, not just the “cool attractor”.
But ConnieJo, I know exactly what you’re talking about as well. People who go on and on about how “we’re all one close happy family in fandom” (or the SCA, or whatever) don’t realize how that comes across to people who don’t feel like part of that family. It cuts even deeper, because it tells you that they don’t see you. They don’t understand that it’s like attending someone else’s family reunion and hearing constantly about how wonderfully loving and tight-knit this family is. For those of us (and it sounds like you’re one) who don’t automatically assume that we’re part of an existing social circle, the “one big happy family” line only builds the wall higher, with us standing on the outside.
I guess the only thing I can offer is that you aren’t alone in your reaction, and it sucks, and I can’t even promise that if you persevere it will get better any time soon. Even the people like Kameron who have pushed through to the other side and still remember what it was like on the outside, for all the good will in the world, can’t be there for everyone who’s still on the outside.
I’ve been going to conventions for over 30 years. I’ve had some great times, and I’ve had some of the most miserable times of my life. I’ve been to conventions where I had to leave Saturday evening because I’d gotten to the point where all I was capable of was hiding in the ladies’ room crying. And that hasn’t been a chronological progression.
A lot of people don’t like to talk about this sort of thing — they figure that they need to suck it up, paste on a smile, and “fake it till they make it”. I appreciate that someone who has as high-profile a name as Kameron is willing to lay out some of what goes on behind the mask.
Back in the middle of last year, I posted in my blog about “How I Survive Conventions“. It isn’t a prescription for other people, just a description of the mechanisms I’ve cobbled together over the years. And note that it isn’t a guideline for “how to have fun, win friends, and be the life of the party” at conventions, just how to survive. Ideally, how to survive long enough that when those good times that I have no control over happen, I’m not off in the ladies’ room crying.
I hope it’s ok for me to mention here that I’ve just released a free e-story on my website. It’s a fluffy historical novelette entitled “The Mazarinette and the Musketeer” — a swashbuckling romp chock-full of bisexual women who are actual historic figures.
(Not SFF, I know, but likely to appeal to readers who enjoy my historical fantasy.)
This opening of circle is not that easy. I’m often a host at things and in circles where people now me, I can be a circleopener. But opening a circle means that everyone in it has to adjust. That they will have to move a small bit to enlarge the circle, adjust their angle so they are more turned towards the newcomer.
I often try to open a circle on reflex, but in more insular groups the result is often that I almost take myself out of the circle as I will have to tiurn towards the bew person and back a bit, which puts me outside of the non-moving circle and slightly turned from them.
To open a circle, you must be someone established enough that others listen to you.
X-OUT THE X-MEN FAN VIDEO PROJECT
Ah this is sad to hear. I think if a project gets too big or too much media corporations have to take notice. I would have thought an animator would would be more aware of the dangers of unapproved projects using IP.
(2) USING YOUR POWER
This is meaningful for me as I will be going to MidAmeriCon II this summer and I have some trepidation about how well I will enjoy it. Like Heather Rose Jones, I have a limited social battery and employ some of the same strategies to cope but none of them make things fun automatically.
ULTRAGOTHA on January 26, 2016 at 7:29 am said:
Elise (@LionessElise) had a similar problem, at least according to her Twitter account. She couldn’t get anyone from the Con to discuss problems she was having getting info on a hotel that she needed to have. So she didn’t go.
I did get informed about a week before the con that they had added a hotel across the street and would be using a shuttle. Since I was unlikely to be able to use the shuttle with orthotic boot (stair climbing is iffy) or transport my wheelchair in it I did not follow through.
And I did get a good fast reponse when I contacted the con committee in December regarding what turned out to be the non-availability of scooters. Which are so much better than pushing yourself in a wheelchair.
Also, Heather Rose Jones, thanks for your comment.
And it was not my intent to blame KH, rather to say, good experiences like yours don’t necessarily happen to everybody.
And there were lots of good things too. I am looking forward to trying out the other metro Detroit con later this year, Conclave.
I wish the Big Happy Family thing would just die already. We’re a group of strangers who don’t all know each other and who like a thing and many of us don’t have a shared history and don’t know how to make one (or have the sort that makes one not want any further shared history!)
I am pretty darn cool (and modest!) I have been doing cons for over a decade, and if I look around between panels and don’t know anyone? I go hide in a corner or go to my room. I do not have the…thing…that allows me to go up and talk to strangers unless I have a really good excuse. (What would I say? “Hi, I’m cool! Please talk to me?”)
I have the great good fortune that I’ve made enough of a name that people who do have this thing come up and talk to ME. Thank god. And I usually have my spouse or a friend so I am not sad and alone at dinner every night. But there were a lot of cons of what-the-hell-am-I-doing before I got even that far…
Yeah, the disconnect on fanfiction is largely due to the perception a lot of authors have that anyone writing fanfic wants to be a professional writer. In my experience, the reality is very different. Fanfic writers I worked with were lawyers, university professions, doctors, IT professionals, engineers, and pretty much every field that makes a lot more than most writers. They liked to write, enjoyed the worlds they liked, and used fanfiction to expand and explore them.
As for the wannabe professional writers, the other part that gets missed is writing fanfiction is a good way to get feedback on your work without publishing something on the net that could be publishable elsewhere. I wrote a lot of fanfiction when I was younger, using it to explore different styles and concepts, while slowly building up a professional file of material that I hope to sell one day. Putting original work on the net is mostly unsaleable for the future and doesn’t have a built in audience for feedback.
NickPheas on January 26, 2016 at 5:54 am said:
Here you go – http://www.scifiwright.com/2015/04/an-outbreak-of-peace/
But note these lines:
So JCW’s idea of “wanting to be left alone” is to insist that “the other side”
– Censor out anyone criticizing him and deny them the right to speak
– Cease to say anything that he might arbitrarily regard as a “libel” or a “lie” such as, you know, quoting his exact words AND
– Cease to say anything that he might regard as rude, while allowing him to continue spouting whatever he wants to say about others without criticism.
Now, I imagine he is getting tired of the fighting and wants out, and he recognizes the genuine sentiment on both sides over the death of Hartwell. But there’s a fundamental problem in that he wants everything on his terms, and anyone else should just shut up rather than disturb his feelings.
His desire for peace is as genuine as that of Saddam Hussein after invading Kuwait.
Heather Rose Jones said:
That’s kind of what I was thinking when I wrote the above ^^, and not articulating it very well.
Personally, I also try to respect others’ boundaries. So if I perceive someone is giving off “leave me alone” vibes I’ll leave them alone. But sometimes that’s NOT the vibe they’re giving off and I’m misinterpreting it.
Some cons have interaction ribbons. Red for leave me alone, yellow for interact only if you know me, green for please interact regardless. Even if the con doesn’t do that, perhaps people can do it for themselves? A button, or a post-it note on a badge, or even a piece of paper pinned to a shirt.