(1) MEN IN BLUES. In Fabrice Mathieu’s newest movie mashup the Blues Brothers are back… as Men In Black!
Agent J of the MIB is in prison. He swindled Aliens while on the job. Today he is released for a new mission. The Aliens are waiting for him!
(2) NOW UNDER COVER. Or under a cover — The Verge reveals the art on the front of Myke Cole’s next book, and Chaim Gartenberg does a Q&A: “Fantasy author Myke Cole talks about writing novellas and ending an epic fantasy series in The Killing Light”.
A big part of the Shadow Ops books and the Reawakening trilogy was how your own military voice and experience impacted those books. Partway through the Sacred Throne series, I know you published Legion Versus Phalanx. Has any of the research or work you did for that book factored into the Sacred Throne books?
Oh god, yes. I mean, first of all, the Sacred Throne trilogy is about a revolution that widens into a war, basically. And understanding war and understanding the emotionality and internality of soldiers and the soldiering experience has been instrumental in my writing for sure. (Legion Versus Phalanx, for those who don’t know, is this nonfiction I did studying Hellenistic heavy infantry combat in the third and second century BC. How the Romans fought the Greeks essentially. Really, it was the Balkan peoples, but Greeks.)
(3) SAN DIEGO 2049. “San Diego 2049: Radical Economies” is the next program in a series produced by the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination:
With Glen Weyl (Microsoft Research, co-author of Radical Markets), Renee Bowen (GPS Professor and Director, Center on Commerce and Diplomacy), and David Brin (science fiction writer and futurist, author of The Transparent Society)
February 19, 2019, 5:30–7:00pm. Roth Auditorium, Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. Free and open to the public; RSVP required.
With co-author Eric Posner, Glen Weyl argues for a new way to organize markets in the book Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society. They seek to demonstrate why private property is inherently monopolistic; how we would all be better off if private ownership were converted into a public auction for public benefit; how the principle of one person, one vote inhibits democracy; ways to leverage antitrust laws to liberate markets from the grip of institutional investors; and how to create a data labor movement to force digital monopolies to compensate people for their electronic data, among other provocative ideas.
…Joining Weyl on stage is David Brin, the celebrated science fiction writer and futurist who has long explored the future of economic possibility and privacy (The Transparent Society), and Renee Bowen, GPS professor and Director of the Center on Commerce and Diplomacy.
(4) DAWN OF THE DALEKS. Galactic Journey’s Jessica Holmes is back in 1964 watching the Doctor in glorious black-and-white: “[February 3rd, 1964] And Into The Fire (Doctor Who: The Daleks | Episodes 5-7)”.
THE EXPEDITION
In this episode, the companions must convince the Thals to help them reclaim a vital part of the TARDIS.
However, the Thals are so deeply opposed to violence that they won’t take any aggressive action against the Daleks. What’s more, the companions themselves can’t agree on whether it’s right to enlist the Thals in a conflict that has nothing to do with them, even if it could buy them their lives. After some shenanigans and a cruel but effective trick from Ian, Alydon manages to rally a few Thals to assist Ian and Barbara in their expedition to recover the part.
There are two big moral questions in this serial, and this episode is where they’re thrust into the spotlight: when, if ever, is it right to fight? And is it right to enlist someone else to fight your battles?
(5) WELL, IF YOU SAY SO. Will there be another Guardians of the Galaxy movie? Variety reports that, “Chris Pratt Promises There Will Be a ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’.” And he’s not the first to say so.
Chris Pratt braved the rainy Los Angeles skies Saturday to attend the “Lego Movie 2” premiere, where he assured fans that they will get a third “Guardians of the Galaxy” film.
When Variety‘s Marc Malkin asked if a third film could be made without James Gunn, Pratt said, “I promise there’ll be a third movie, I don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like, but I know everyone on board is just eager to give the fans what they want and wrap up a trilogy in a meaningful way.”
Whether or not a third “Guardians” would happen was thrown into question after director James Gunn was fired for years-old tweets appearing to make light of pedophilia and rape. Gunn apologized for the tweets […]
Despite Gunn owning up to his error, his firing did put the future of the Guardians franchise in peril. But, well before Pratt chimed in with his claim (above), Karen Gillan had told People Magazine (“Karen Gillan on Her Directorial Debut and Nebula Confronting ‘Daddy Issues’ in Avengers: Endgame“) in December 2018 that she has hope the series will continue.
“Our director won’t be with us any longer but we are excited to continue the Guardians of the Galaxy story and keep delivering to the fans,” says Gillan. “That’s the most important thing. I don’t have any details as to when [the next Guardians film will come out] but there’s a script in existence.”
She cheekily adds, “I may have had a little teeny peek, but I can’t say anything.”
(6) AN ALT-SATIRE. Politics and furry fandom have collided, but maybe not in the way you would predict (VICE Canada: “This Man Bought a Far-Right Group’s Domain and Made a Furry Dating Site,” Mack Lamoureux).
Wolves of Odin, a group affiliated with an Edmonton mosque stakeout, now has a plushier, kinkier web presence.
If you try to go to the website for an Alberta far-right group, you won’t read the anti-immigration views “Wolves of Odin” usually spout, but you will see the dating profiles of some cartoon wolves packing serious heat.
Instead of finding some conspiratorial ramblings about how Muslim immigration is a purposeful conspiracy to replace the “real” Canadians, you’ll learn about “Bigger_Woofer” who loves “when you mark your territory on your chest.” This little bait-and-switch website was posted on the Edmonton subreddit Wednesday and it promptly blew up.
Brady Grumpelt is the man behind the Wolves of Odin’s new web presence. The Edmonton man told VICE that the idea was sparked when he saw men he thought were members of the Wolves of Odin “trying to pull their whole intimidation thing” in the Buckingham, a punk(ish) bar on Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue, where Grumpelt used to work. (Full disclosure: the Buckingham is one of this reporter’s favourite haunts in Edmonton.) A video posted to Facebook appears to show the group causing a disturbance in the bar on Friday, defacing some property, and arguing with the owner. Grumpelt said that while the owner of the bar, Ben Sir, is “lawful good and would never do anything like this,” he’s personally more “chaotic good” and decided to pull something.
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
- Born February 3, 1925 – John Fiedler. He’s solely here as he played the ever so bland bureaucrat who gets possessed by the spirit of Jack the Ripper on the Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold”. I’m less interested in him than who wrote that screenplay. It was written by Robert Bloch, a master of horror who would write two other Trek episodes, “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and “Catspaw”. (Died 2005.)
- Born February 3, 1938 – Victor Buono. I remember him best in his recurring role of Count Manzeppi in The Wild Wild West. In his very short life, he showed up in a number of other genre roles as well including as a scientist bent on world domination in the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in an episode titled “The Cyborg”, as Adiposo / Fat man in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Colonel Hubris in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Professor William McElroy / King Tut in Batman, Sir Cecil Seabrook in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and Mr. Schubert on Man from Atlantis. (Died 1982.)
- Born February 3, 1963 – Alex Bledsoe, 56. I highly recommend his Tales of The Tufa which can sort of be described as Appalachian Fae though that’s stretching it. His Eddie LaCrosse novels remind of Cook’s Garrett PI series and that’s a high compliment as that’s one of my favorite fantasy PI series. Anyone read his Firefly Witch series?
- Born February 3, 1970 – Warwick Davis, 49. Forty-five live and voice appearances since first appearing in the Return of the Jedi in in place of Kenny Baker who was going to be a Ewok before he fell ill. Did you know he’s in Labyrinth as a member of the Goblin Corps? I certainly didn’t. Or that he did a series of humorous horror films centered around him as a Leprechaun? They did well enough that there was six of them. Hell he even shows up in Doctor Who during the Time of the Eleventh Doctor.
- Born February 3, 1979 – Ransom Riggs, 40. He’s best known for Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children which I’ll confess I know absolutely nothing about, so educate me. I know it was turned into a film by Tim Burton which could a Very Good Thing.
(8) COMICS SECTION.
- In this Get Fuzzy, we discover writer’s blockhead…
- Over the Hedge’s Hammy worries about a cranial probe.
(9) WHO KNEW? Hard Drive reports “J.K. Rowling Reveals That You, The Reader, Were Gay All Along”:
In a controversial Tweet this morning, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed that you, the reader, have been gay ever since the release of the best-selling children’s series.
“When writing, I always envisioned the reader as gay,” Rowling wrote. “This has been the case since the first page of Philosopher’s Stone, and as the dictator of canon, what I say is now established lore.”
Of course, that won’t come as a surprise to every reader…
(10) MORE THAN JUST MONEY. The Little Red Reviewer’s Kickstarter did not fund but there are compensations:
As you all know by now, my Kickstarter for The Best of Little Red Reviewer did not fund. Of the $5000 I was asking for, I was at less than $2000 when the campaign ended.
Those first 24 hours of the kickstarter were amazing! I was a “project we love” on Kickstarter. Amazing people (you know who you are!) put in $50 or $100 right out of the gate to give me a good start. At work that day, I refreshed my phone incessantly, and didn’t know if I was going to happy cry or puke. The last time I was this excited/happy/nervous for something was the day I got married.
My kickstarter didn’t fund, but I had an amazing experience, and more importantly I have the best, kindest, most supportive friends in the world. All day on February 1st, my phone was blowing up with text messages, e-mails, twitter DMs, and phone calls from my friends saying how sorry they were that the KS didn’t fund. Those messages? That support? People saying how much they cared about me and my project, and saying they hope I try it again? Those messages are worth more than $5000 could ever be worth.
(11) NOT THROUGH THE THIN WHITE DUKE. “David Bowie’s son blocks new biopic from using music” but he’d be happy if Neil Gaiman wrote a script.
David Bowie’s son has criticised a new film about his father’s life, saying that none of the singer’s music will feature in it.
Duncan Jones tweeted: “If you want to see a biopic without his [Bowie’s] music or the family’s blessing, that’s up to the audience”.
The film, called Stardust, is scheduled to start production in June with Gabriel Range as director.
Jonny Flynn is set to play young Bowie, with Jena Malone as his wife Angie.
The film is said to document a young Bowie’s first visit to America in 1971, which gave him the inspiration to create his Ziggy Stardust character and 1972 album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
But Jones, who is a Bafta-winning film director and producer, said his family has not been consulted on the film, nor does he know anything about how it will take shape.
He later tweeted to say that if Neil Gaiman, the author of The Sandman and Stardust, wanted to write a biopic, then he would have his blessing.
(12) DON’T SLOW FOR ART. BBC has photos — “Tregarth dragon sculpture prompts police road safety warning”.
A giant wooden dragon has prompted a police warning to drivers not to slow down to look at it after an accident and numerous near-misses.
The seven-metre (25ft) carving, called Y Ddraig Derw – the oak dragon – looks down on the A5, near Tregarth, Gwynedd.
Sculptor Simon O’Rourke, who made the dragon, also urged motorists to pay attention to the road.
North Wales Police said that while they “love the oak dragon” they were “concerned” about road safety issues.
“There has already been one accident and numerous near-misses on this section of road which really does require a driver’s full concentration,” said the force in a post on its Bangor and Bethesda Facebook page.
“Please concentrate on the road ahead at all times, if you want to view it, then please find somewhere safe to park.”
(13) SHORT FICTION REVIEWS. Adri Joy shares “Adventures in Short Fiction: January 2019” at Nerds of a Feather, covering Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Uncanny and the anthology A Thousand Beginnings and Endings.
I read Strange Horizons through their Patreon subscription issues, which are a handy way to get each month’s content in an easy e-book format. Useful as this is, the drawback is that each month’s “omnibus” only comes out partway through the following month, which means I am always quite far behind compared to the weekly output of new issues on the site. Also, this roundup doesn’t include the fundraising drive stories which came over this period, which have been collected for backers in a separate ebook and are also available online. The silver lining to this delayed coverage is, of course, that all the original stories here are eligible for Hugo awards right now, should you wish to check them out (and also they didn’t stop being good, relevant stories just because they were published three months ago.)
There are three original stories in the October edition, encompassing very different voices with strong sense of place and a running theme of death and loss….
(14) SUPER BOWL TRAILERS.
- Alita: Battle Angel
- A Handmaid’s Tale: Season 3
- Captain Marvel
- Avengers: Endgame
- Jordan Peele’s Us
- Bud Light ad cross-promotes HBO’s Game of Thrones
[Thanks to JJ, Chip Hitchcock, Andrew Liptak, Martin Morse Wooster, Mike Kennedy, Cat Eldridge, John King Tarpinian, Carl Slaughter, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Steve Davidson.]
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Dragon crossings should be better marked, apparently.
Clickity
(11) A Gaiman Bowie screenplay would be marvellous
Did I forget to actually click? I think so.
Let’s try that again.
Speaking of (4) Daleks, there is this tweet, which is not entirely safe for work.
Greeting fellow filers. Haven’t been around much for reasons of a personal nature so a few updates.
Read The Armored Saint. Enjoyed it for the most part. Worldbuilding is heavily front-loaded and that’s a touch tedious but after that, the story moves well enough and had enough uncertainty to keep me interested. Recommended.
Read Vultures by Chuck Wendig. Gods I admire the man’s way with profanity. A fit end to the series. Recommended if you liked the other five books.
Anyone remember that kitten I found a few months back? I-I lost him. Worried that he may have been eaten by this tiger I found in my bathroom.
http://prntscr.com/mgaa7j
Being unsure of what to do, I took the tiger to the vet and had him fixed and chipped. Calling him by the same name I used for the kitten, Fisher.
(7) John Fiedler was also the voice of Piglet for years, and that must be genre, right?
He was also in STAR TREK, GET SMART, BEWITCHED, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, THE LOST SAUCER, ARK II, THE RESCUERS, THE MUNSTERS, THEY CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE and other SF and fantasy TV and movies.
(11)
I think what he said is that if Neil wanted to write something featuring his father’s characters, he’d absolutely take that meeting. But it didn’t sound like he was suggesting a biopic, more like something imaginative that used such characters as Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom and other creations of Bowie’s.
He also suggested Peter Ramsay, one of the co-directors of SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, as director.
Iphinome, thanks for that photo. He has gotten to be quite the handsome guy! Does he like playing in water?
JJ: He does. And drinking from the faucet, and jumping in the sink, and biting his bitey fish and sometimes biting the hand that feeds him. Lots of teething. For a week I got to see the rare double eyeteeth till the baby ones popped out on top.
And by the way, Fisher weighs 9 pounds, none of it appears to be fat. Had cats, never had a tiger before.
Still waiting on his sister, she was to be brought up from Georiga a couple weeks ago, weather happened. So much snow then so much artic vortex. Her planned name is Carrie since she’s to be hand carried to me.
That’s a fine cat, but why is it not sleeping on SF?
Click
(7) Warwick Davis also had the title role in the fantasy movie Willow and appears in the Harry Potter franchise as Professor Filius. Currently working as an afternoon tv gameshow host.
@8: I was underimpressed by the first “Miss Peregrine” book, and thought the movie had logic holes you could drive a city through — don’t know whether those came from the second book or the adaptation. A pity, as there were some interestingly weird ideas scattered through the first book.
@14: that GoT x Bud Light trailer is truly weird; one wonders how the parties involved shared the USD ~10,000,000 that a minute cost, considering that it didn’t cast Bud in a very good light….
He will sleep till noon, but with humor dark,
He’ll scroll every pixel packet in Jurassicstone Park!
Like Pixels through File 770, so are the Scrolls of our lives.
Got a new Kindle Oasis over the weekend. (On my previous 2GB Paperwhite I was starting to bump up against the storage capacity.) I’ve generally enjoyed using it as a reading device — I have to admit that I really do like having physical page-turn buttons on the side — but they REALLY need to come up with a better way for people like me (i.e. people with large eBook collections) to transfer things wholesale; especially because I have a not-inconsiderable number of books I acquired from other sources and which I’m now in the process of emailing to my Kindle address just to get them added directly to my library.
(Yes, I know, I should probably be using Calibre or something. But I’ve never really gotten on with it when I’ve tried it in the past.)
Oh, and they seem to have fiddled with the file format again and now everything seems to create about half a dozen different files (which I think is supposed to allow for better formatting?).
(6) *wipes away a tear* So proud of the activists in my city.
I almost sent an article about this to Mike when it was first in the local newspaper, but worried it wasn’t SF&F enough.
12) I know that if I saw a wild animal of that size by the roadside, not obviously restrained by a fence, I would certainly slow down. But that’s a result of years of experience with deer running into the road, and a week or two driving in moose country. I don’t know what the situation is in Wales.
@Chip Hitchcock
I thought it was great! Bud Light gets to be a character in Game of Thrones and, unsurprisingly, gets killed off. 🙂
Cannot wait.
https://www.tor.com/2019/02/04/fx-releases-first-trailer-for-what-we-do-in-the-shadows-television-series-from-jemaine-clement-matt-berry/
Good luck to David Brin at Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society–trying not to laugh. This seems as funny as Stan Robinson’s “To stop climate change, first destroy capitalism and banks.”
Fascinating to see that Benford, in addition to being a bit of a jerk, is apparently somewhat reading-impaired.
@Gregory Benford
Glen Weyl is the author of the book, not David Brin. Brin’s very much a believer in capitalism.
In general though, I agree that the notion of replacing capitalism with something better is hard to believe in. I’d rather hear ideas for fine-tuning it.
A better thing than capitalism is a blended economy, i.e a well-fare state.
@Hampus Eckerman
I don’t think anyone has ever been able to run a 100% capitalist economy. All the big industrial countries have had mixed economies at least since the 1930s. The only difference has been whether they run a “lean” mix, like the US, or a “rich” mix, like Sweden. They’re different in degree but not in kind.
This is some of what I mean when I say I want to hear ideas for fine-tuning the system we’ve got. For example, sharply higher taxes on high incomes and big estates could help fund things like basic income and reduce inequality.
It’s old news, but since Benford popped up I thought I’d mention that he gave a longer statement about his ejection from Loscon to the fanzine Challenger. It’s part of a story on pages 3-8 of the fanzine and includes unsigned grousing from old SF pros declaring they won’t go to cons any more.
As I recall from Brin’s writing, he’s all in favor of the free-market, but he considers it an invention which can be productively tinkered with, rather than a law of nature which can not be altered.
rcade: It’s old news, but since Benford popped up I thought I’d mention that he gave a longer statement about his ejection from Loscon to the fanzine Challenger. It’s part of a story on pages 3-8 of the fanzine and includes unsigned grousing from old SF pros declaring they won’t go to cons any more.
Benford: In short, from now on whenever I am a panelist in any SF venue, I shall self-identify as a 24 year old black woman. Diversity is thus achieved, and my opinions therefore become that much more valuable to the SF community. Oh yes, by virtue of my marriages to two self-identified women, I am also a lesbian.
You know, I’m really okay with the idea that people who think that this sort of sexist, racist, homophobic, dismissive dickishness is acceptable will not attend cons any more. They’re not nearly as important, indispensable, or relevant as they seem to believe they are, and the way that they treat the rest of the SFF community is reprehensible.
I do not agree at all. The question is at what breaking point you stop calling it capitalism. I’d say that the well-fare state Sweden had until the beginning of the 90:s was too regulated and had too much state control to be simply labeled “capitalism”.
I do note that the wikipedia entry for Social democracy looks very different in the english and swedish versions. I think this might be a cultural difference in what is accepted as capitalism.
The Cato Institute (a right-wing group, so beware) makes an attempt to rank countries according to how capitalist they are. Sweden, in their ranking, falls just below the top quarter.
I’ve never heard anyone seriously try to argue that Sweden isn’t a capitalist country. You can start your own business there, hire people, sell your product at home or abroad, sell stock in your company, etc. There are more rules and regulations than in the US (which makes Cato unhappy), but it’s not onerous.
I readily concede that words like “capitalism” and “socialism” may not mean exactly the same thing in Swedish. But in English, you really can’t deny being capitalist when you’ve got a stock market! 🙂
You know, I will automatically stop reading when someone mentions the Cato Institute. Might as well call in the ghost of Milton Friedman.
And yes, Sweden is a capitalist country. Now. But not 30 years ago. I do not accept that a country with mixed elements of socialism and capitalism should be purely named after the latter.
I’m not sure that passage is really by Benford. I think it was sent to him (or the fanzine’s author) in an email as a parody of what Benford should say.
I emailed the fanzine author to see who wrote it.
rcade: I’m not sure that passage is really by Benford. I think it was sent to him (or the fanzine’s author) in an email as a parody of what Benford should say.
I’ve scrutinized the entire Benford section of the fanzine, and I think you’re right. Nevertheless, from the context, it seems to be a position he endorses.
There are comments from a whole lot of elder fen in that magazine complaining about how they’re now expected at fan conventions to behave like decent human beings toward women, POC, and LGBTQ people. It makes me feel ill to read so many people not just wallowing in, but bragging about having, such disgusting attitudes.
I really don’t care whether the door hits them in the ass on the way out. 😐
The usual storm of condemnation, from the usual suspects. Much expected.
None seem to have noted that the con apologized within hours, and those who caused all this are…gone.
Try the Radical Economics–no democracy, no free markets, but a Politburo you can believe in.
Gregory Benford: None seem to have noted that the con apologized within hours, and those who caused all this are…gone.
No, pretty much everyone noticed that the con allowed you to run their Incident Response for them. Do not make the mistake of thinking that makes you look “vindicated”. It just makes Loscon look really, really bad.
There is no storm here of condemnation. A few of us are having a conversation you could have made a meaningful contribution to, since we’re unclear on whether you wrote something or not about Loscon.
Instead you want to declare victory against nobody in particular. All hail the non-specific conquering hero!
The con cochairs explicitly proclaimed they could expel anyone accused of Improper Speech, and made it happen. I doubt they’ll ever run a con again,
I proclaim no victory. I do say cons that try to censor speech will fare badly, as have Wiscon, Readercon, others. Having run cons since the 1950s, I doubt they can withstand the buffeting winds of PC if they so comply. with such suppression.
I do know that Loscon has lost m’ships over this and is struggling to continue, as pros exit it over the last several years. More to come, it would seem.
Tolerance for different views does not seem popular with some. Especially those who condemn people because they’re old, male or white.
The writers I quoted are major pros. They too are abandoning cons.
I’m concerned that this behavior will damage our community. Letting mere politics dominate it will damage it.
The con cochairs explicity proclaimed they could expel anyone accused of Improper Speech, and made it happen. I doubt they’ll ever run a con again,
I proclaim no victory. I do say cons that try to censor speech will fare badly, as have Wiscon, Readercon, others. Having run cons since the 1950s, I doubt they can withstand the buffeting winds of PC if they so comply. with such suppression.
I do know that Loscon has lost m’ships over this and is struggling to continue, as pros exit it over the last several years. More to come, it would seem.
Tolerance for different views does not seem popular with some. Especially those who condemn people because they’re old, male or white.
The writers I quoted are major pros. They too are abandoning cons.
Such damage is hard to repair.
Gregory Benford: The writers I quoted are major pros. They too are abandoning cons. I’m concerned that this behavior will damage our community. Letting mere politics dominate it will damage it.
What you call “mere politics” is what I call “expecting all con attendees to treat each other with courtesy and decency”. What you call “tolerance” is what I call “allowing people to behave as badly as they want, just because they’ve been in fandom a long time”. The damage you’re concerned about is the damage to the ability of longtime fans and “major pros” to carry on as they have for decades.
Many of the elder fen are accustomed to having been allowed in the past to be as sexist, racist, and homophobic as they wished, and now that they are being required to shape up and behave like decent human beings they are crying “politics!!!” and pretending that other people are the problem.
As I said, it has escaped no one’s attention that Loscon’s Code of Conduct is merely posturing, that enforcement of it is a joke, and that if someone is a published author with enough friends on the concom, they can get away with anything and, in addition, be allowed to dictate the convention’s response to the incident. I am quite sure that has done a significant amount of damage to Loscon and its reputation.
I don’t know what you see as speech suppression. I see a lot of cons taking the responsibility more seriously of making their events welcoming for all attendees and handling any allegations that arise promptly. SF cons turned a blind eye to abuse and harassment for too long.
Neither Readercon nor Wiscon is faring badly. Both had good attendance in 2018, as did many other cons during an era where you regard conventions as failing.
Gregory Benford:
Did anyone see that strawman walking past?
I have not seen anyone condemn anyone for being “old”, “male” or “white”. But there’s a subset of unacceptable behaviours that have an anecdotally higher correlation with being “old”, “male” and “white”, that may have been acceptable in the past, but are no longer considered to be so. If these behaviours are sufficiently ingrained that the people exhibit them don’t even notice that they are, this will cause friction.
If they are aware that this is a thing that is no longer acceptable, they at least have a chance to simply “not exhibit” them, especially since these behaviours DO hurt other people, that being the primary reason they’re no longer acceptable.
In short, it’s not “opinions” or “views” that are prohibited, it is acting on those opinions such that it hurts and/or injures other people.
rcade: Neither Readercon nor Wiscon is faring badly. Both had good attendance in 2018, as did many other cons during an era where you regard conventions as failing.
Yes, I see that Wiscon keeps failing right up to its 1,000-member cap each year.