Pixel Scroll 2/1/16 By the Pixels of Babylon, I Scrolled, For I Remembered Filing

(1) PRELIMINARY PUPPIES. Vox Day issued his first “preliminary recommendations” today: “Rabid Puppies 2016: Best New Writer” (Preliminary, since he may change them based on feedback about eligibility, or for other reasons.)

To kick things off, we’ll begin with the Campbell Award: Best New Writer category:

  • Pierce Brown
  • Cheah Kai Wai
  • Sebastien de Castell
  • Marc Miller
  • Andy Weir

There was a noteworthy exchange in the comments.

[Phil Sandifer] Just for the record, Vox, the only reason Andy Weir wasn’t on the ballot last year was the Puppies. Without you, the Campbell nominees last year would have been Chu, Weir, Alyssa Wong, Carmen Maria Marchado, and Django Wexler.

[VD] Oh, Phil, you’re always so careless. That is not the only reason. It is a reason. Had you SJWs favored Weir over Chu, he would have also been on the ballot.

In any event, since you all are such champions of Weir, I’m glad we will all be able to join forces and get him nominated.

(2) GRRM REQUESTS. After announcing that the Locus Recommended Reading List is online, George R.R. Martin explicitly said

Just for the record, before the issue is raised, let me state loudly and definitively that I do not want any of my work to be part of anyone’s slate, this year or any year. But I do feel, as I have said before, that a recommended reading list and a slate are two entirely different animals.

— an announcement whose timing may be more relevant today than it would have been yesterday.

(3) LOCUS SURVEY. You can now take the Locus Poll and Survey at Locus Online. Anyone can vote; Locus subscriber votes count double. Voting closes April 15.

Here is the online version of the 46th annual Locus Awards ballot, covering works that appeared in 2015.

In each category, you may vote for up to five works or nominees, ranking them 1 (first place) through 5 (fifth).

As always, we have seeded the ballot with options based on our 2015 Recommended Reading List [this link will open a new window], mainly because this greatly facilitates tallying of results. However, again as always, you are welcome to use the write-in boxes to vote for other titles and nominees in any category. If you do, please try to supply author, title, and place of publication, in a format like the options listed, where appropriate.

Do not vote for more than one item in a category at the same rank (e.g. two selections ranked 1st); if you do, we will disregard your votes in that category.

File 770 is seeded in the Best Magazine or Fanzine category and would cherish your fifth place votes. Or twenty-fifth, for that matter – the competition is formidable.

(4) IT IS THE END MY FRIEND. And perhaps this is the right place to admire John Scalzi’s Whatever post title: “The End of All Things on the 2015 Locus Recommended Reading List”.

(5) STATISTICS. Brandon Kempner at Chaos Horizon began the month of February by “Checking Back in with the SFWA Recommended Reading List”. He prepared a change table and interpreted the rising fortunes of various novels, beginning with the greatest uptick —

What does this tell us? That Lawrence M. Schoen’s Barsk has emerged as a major Nebula contender, despite being lightly read (as of January 30th, this only has 93 ratings on Goodreads, 31 on Amazon, much much lower than other Nebula/Hugo contenders). That’s due in part to Schoen’s late publication date: the novel came out on December 29, 2015. That’s a tough time to come out, as you get lost in the post-Christmas malaise. A Nebula nomination would drive a lot of attention to this book. Schoen now seems like a very good bet for the Nebula, particularly when we factor in that he received Nebula nominations in the Best Novella category in 2013, 2014, and 2015. There’s clearly a subset of Nebula voters that really like Schoen’s work; a Best Novel nomination might be a spark that gets him more read by the rest of us.

(6) CONGRATULATIONS SCOTT EDELMAN. He did it! Scott Edelman celebrates a special sale in “Never give up, never surrender: My 44-year question to sell a short story to Analog”.

I’ve lost track of how many submissions I made to Analog during the intervening years, first to Ben Bova, then Stan Schmidt (for more than three decades!), and now Trevor Quachri. Were there 25 short stories? Fifty? It’s probably been more than that, but I don’t know for sure. And it doesn’t really matter.

What matters is—in the face of rejection, I kept writing.

What matters is—in the face of rejection, I kept submitting.

What matters is—I never took it personally. I knew that I wasn’t the one being rejected—it was only the words on the page that weren’t the right match.

(7) WILL EISNER AUCTION. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is auctioning books from Will Eisner’s personal collection.

Will Eisner wasn’t just the godfather of comics, a creative force who changed the face of modern comics — he was also a staunch advocate for the freedom of expression. In celebration of Eisner’s indomitable talent and advocacy, CBLDF is delighted to offer up for auction books from Eisner’s own personal collection!

All books in this collection come from the late, great Will Eisner’s personal library. The books from this collection are bookplated with Eisner’s own personalized bookplate, featuring his most famous creation, The Spirit. Most of the books in this collection are signed and personalized to the master himself by creators whom Eisner inspired over his illustrious 70-year career

The items are on eBay. The CBLDF’s post has all the links to the various lots.

(8) FAN ART AT RSR. I see that with help from eFanzines’ Bill Burns, Rocket Stack Rank terrifically upgraded its “2016 Fan Artists” content. Gregory N. Hullender explains.

With the help of Bill Burns, we’ve updated the Best Fan Artist page at RSR to include cover art from eFanzines (plus a few that Bill scanned by hand). This doubled the number of artists and tripled the number of images, making it comparable to the Pro Artist page.

(9) INCONCEIVABLE. Japan’s huge convention Comic Market, aka Comiket, which draws half a million fans (in aggregate over three days) expects to be bumped from its facilities in 2020. What could bump an event that big? The Olympics. Anime News Network reports —

Tokyo Big Sight, the convention center where Comiket is usually held, announced earlier that it would not be able to hold the convention between April 2019 and October 2020. Event spaces have been closing throughout the Tokyo area for the past decade. Tokyo Big Sight has also announced that industry booths at this summer’s Comiket would close after two days (instead of the usual three) to accommodate construction work to expand the building for the upcoming Olympics.

(10) TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF THE CANON. We might call this a contrarian view.

(11) TODAY IN HISTORY

  • February 1, 2003 – Space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

(12) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY

  • February 1, 1954 – Bill Mumy, soon to be seen in Space Command.

(13) WOODEN STARSHIP. A Washington Post article about the renovation of the original Starship Enterprise model reveals it was mostly made from big pieces of wood. When ready, the Enterprise will be displayed in a slightly more prestigious spot .

Collum said the model had long hung in the gift shop of the Air and Space Museum on the Mall. Now it is headed for the renovated Milestones of Flight Hall there.

“The historical relevance of the TV show, and this model, has grown,” he said. “So it’s now being brought up into the limelight, and it’s going to be in the same gallery as the ‘Spirit of St. Louis’ [and] the Apollo 11 command module.”

(14) HOW GAMES INSPIRE ENGAGING FICTION. N. K. Jemisin in “Gaming as connection: Thank you, stranger” talks about the aspect of game play that challenges her as a writer. (Beware spoilers about the game Journey.)

I see a lot of discussion about whether games are art. For me, there’s no point in discussing the matter, because this isn’t the first time I’ve had such a powerful emotional experience while gaming. That’s why I’m still a gamer, and will probably keep playing ’til I die. This is what art does: it moves you. Maybe it makes you angry, okay. Maybe it makes you laugh. Not all of it is good, but so what? There’s a lot of incredibly shitty art everywhere in the world. But the good art? That’s the stuff that has power, because you give it power. The stuff that lingers with you, days or years later, and changes you in small unexpected ways. The stuff that keeps you thinking. Right now I’m trying to figure out how to recreate that game experience with my fiction.

(15) SF IN CHINA. Shaoyan Hu discusses“The Changing Horizon: A Brief Summary of Chinese SF in Year 2015”  at Amazing Stories. Quite an impressive roundup.

Fandoms

There were more than 70 college SF clubs in China in year 2015. Compared to 120 clubs in 2012, the number was reduced. However, two independent fandoms, Future Affairs Administration in Beijing and SF AppleCore in Shanghai, were still very active.

SF AppleCore is the most important fandom in Eastern China. Last year, in addition to orchestrating the annual Shanghai Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival, SF AppleCore continued to operate on a regular base to bring about the public SF events such as AppleCore Party (speeches and gatherings of fans) and AppleCore Reading Group.

Future Affairs Administration was the backbone behind the 2016 Worldcon bid for Beijing. Although the bid was not successful, they organized the Chinese Nebula Award ceremony in 2014. Last year, this fandom was consolidated into a media platform for SF and technology related information, although the function for fan events still remained.

(16) WORLDS OF LE GUIN. The Kickstarter fundraising appeal for Arwen Curry’s documentary Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin has begun. So far, 514 backers have pledged $39,699 of the $80,000 goal. The SFWA Blog endorsed it today:

Viewers will accompany Le Guin on an intimate journey of self-discovery as she comes into her own as a major feminist author, inspiring generations of women and other marginalized writers along the way. To tell this story, the film reaches into the past as well as the future – to a childhood steeped in the myths and stories of disappeared Native peoples she heard as the daughter of prominent 19th century anthropologist Alfred Kroeber.

Le Guin’s story allows audiences to reflect on science fiction’s unique role in American culture, as a conduit for our utopian dreams, apocalyptic fears, and tempestuous romance with technology. Le Guin, by elevating science fiction from mind candy to serious speculation, has given permission to younger mainstream writers like Michael Chabon, Zadie Smith, and Jonathan Lethem to explore fantastic elements in their work.

(17) CGI OVERDOSE? At Yahoo! News, “These ‘Star Wars’ Blooper Reels Show Exactly Why the Prequels Failed”.

The blooper reels for the Star Wars prequel films have been available for a while, but there’s a noticeable trend with all of them. Nearly every blooper — genuinely funny or otherwise — is filmed within a green screen backdrop.

 

[Thanks to Janice Gelb, JJ, Petrea Mitchell, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Gregory N. Hullender.]

289 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 2/1/16 By the Pixels of Babylon, I Scrolled, For I Remembered Filing

  1. Bitty: The second message automatically went in the trash — in fact I just this moment found it there and went looking to see if a later version posted, which I see it did. Seems like everything worked out as you hoped.

  2. What makes a slate a slate? IMO, the listmaker’s intention to give his choices disproportionate weight by persuading other people to subvert their judgment to his. “Nominate this because I say so.”

    Everything else is irrelevant. The reason why he says so, the number of items, the popularity… none of that matters. Those merely affect the slate’s effectiveness.

    Oh, and “Oral Argument” reminds me much more of that Clarke story about “ambrosia” than it does Heinlein’s “Life-Line.”

  3. Paul (@princejvstin) on February 3, 2016 at 5:22 am said:

    I am (typically) pessimistic about EPH’s chances of being ratified. Given the conservative nature of the general Hugo business meeting electorate, and the motivation for certain parties to stop it at all costs…it being passed is not at all guaranteed.

    I feel pretty good about it actually. But if they don’t, they don’t. Worldcon Fans get to run their organization anyway they see fit. But strictly personal, I am prepared to stop caring after this year. I will feel that their was a solution on the table and they didn’t take it. So if it doesn’t matter to them, it shouldn’t matter to me.

    I guess I didn’t understand you comment of “certain parties to stop it at all cost”. I didn’t realize there was that faction in the Worldcon fan base.

  4. As to, is it a slate? I just call it freeping. It is the process of pumping up votes to achieve a political agenda not reflective of reality. It comes from what Free Republic used to do with online polls. It is a form of propaganda.

    The Hugo nominations are subject to freeping this year. It might be a recommendation list of 10 where puppies know which are the real five. Or it may be straight up marching orders. Or it may be something else. Doesn’t really matter.

    Using a slate is just the tool for freeping. Recognize the freeping and act accordingly. Next year freeping won’t work very well and I will just ignore it.

  5. @steve davidson, I hear what you’re saying and will continue to think you’re wrong and wrong in a particular way, one that accepts VD at his own perceived level of importance and then reacts against that inflated value. I don’t actually care if you leave authors like Andy Weir off your ballot, but I do very much care that doing so creates an actual victory condition for VD, whose ego appears to be satisfied by even the appearance of influence. Getting Steve Davidson (among others) to nominate and/or vote around your slate? That’s probably enough to give VD the warm fuzzies for at least a few months.That seems counterproductive if your ultimate aim is:

    firmly rejecting those behaviors that are unacceptable.

    Anyway, you will do what you will do and I will do it differently.

  6. Zenu: I guess I didn’t understand you comment of “certain parties to stop it at all cost”. I didn’t realize there was that faction in the Worldcon fan base.

    There is now. They’re called “Puppies who intend to go to MAC II specifically so they can try to block passage of EPH”.

  7. @Mary Frances: I really enjoyed Invisible Cities… but to be on the safe side I might just read a sample of Radiance before blindly jumping in and buying it, just in case I bounce hard off the writing style. From descriptions she seems a very Marmite writer – you love her or hate her.

  8. steve davidson: [Weir is] being used by Day. Like last year, I’ll not be nominating or voting for anything on a slate – unless the originator has requested that they not be included in these games.

    No, VD is attempting to use Weir as a weapon in the Hugo nomination process. But you are the one who is granting VD the use of that weapon by allowing VD to manipulate your choices.

    You are, of course, entitled to nominate based on any criteria you see fit. But from where I stand, you’re allowing yourself to be manipulated by VD instead of acting as an individual.

    If I see Weir posting a profuse “Thank You, Puppies!” on Puppy blogs as some of the slated authors/editors did last year, then I’ll consider him a Puppy supporter.

    Otherwise? He’s the frickin’ author of a mega-international-bestseller book and a mega-international-box-office-hit movie which has taken home a dumptruckload of awards and nominations. I’m not a bit surprised that the pissant attempt by a two-bit white supremacist/misogynist to use him is beneath his notice or action — I would react exactly the same way in his shoes.

    You let him know how his name is being used. Cool. I would want to know that if it were me.

    You demanded that he disavow the Puppy slate. Totally NOT cool. Childish and petulant, even, from my point of view.

    You are allowing VD to control and manipulate you. As I said — your choice. But it’s certainly not what I would choose. And I really hope that other Hugo nominators will choose not to allow themselves to be controlled by VD, either.

  9. (My deepest apologies, I’m afraid this popped into my head and is forcing its way out!)

    Scrolllander II: The Pixeling

    Though of course, who could forget the haunting music from the first one on the series?

    Who wants … to scroll … forever ….?

    Pure classic. Of course, I do prefer the one that was also used for the TV series, Pixels of the Universe

  10. Well, if Beales victory is to get a candidate nominated that would have been nominated anyhow, then he has mostly succeeded to display how irrelevant the rabids are. Which is ok with me.

    They will not really factor into my decisions.

  11. JJ on February 3, 2016 at 9:17 pm said:
    Zenu: I guess I didn’t understand you comment of “certain parties to stop it at all cost”. I didn’t realize there was that faction in the Worldcon fan base.

    There is now. They’re called “Puppies who intend to go to MAC II specifically so they can try to block passage of EPH”.

    Indeed. And I hear all of the reserved hotel rooms for MAC II have already been snapped up.

    A nice central US location is way easier for Puppy supporters to swamp and overwhelm.

    And if they do I would not dream of washing my hands of fandom and saying there was a solution on the table they didn’t take so it’s their fault.

    If there is a solution on the table and a mob of disruptors destroy it, that is no fault of the people of goodwill, nor should they be abandoned to the mob.

  12. I had the impression that the WorldCon hotel rooms usually disappear pretty fast? Was that a false impression?

  13. @Cat:

    I’m not an expert. It just seemed mighty early to me.

    I might be being a tad alarmist.

  14. “Indeed. And I hear all of the reserved hotel rooms for MAC II have already been snapped up.”

    I seriously doubt that there would be hoards of puppies paying that price only for the possibility to vote down EPH. If they go, it will be because they are fans.

  15. Re: Sad Puppies and whether or not it was a slate, Del Rayva might want to take up their argument with these two gentlemen:

    “Almost the entire rest of the Sad Puppy 2 slate has been nominated.” –Larry Correia on Sad Puppies 2

    “I am going to slowly compile a slate. Of books and stories (and other things, and people) for the different categories. So that hopefully deserving works and artists — who tend to be snubbed at awards season — get a chance on the final ballot.” –Brad Torgersen on Sad Puppies 3

  16. @Hampus & PIMMN,
    Not all Worldcon members wanted the rules changed in the wake of last year’s events, and we saw that at the Business Meeeting. A quarter of members voted against EPH (the vote was 186 for, 62 against) and in the lead-up, GRRM was quite clear that he didn’t support changing the rules. I am hopeful EPH will be ratified this year, but that outcome is not guaranteed.

  17. Cat said:

    I had the impression that the WorldCon hotel rooms usually disappear pretty fast?

    The initial room block tends to go very quickly, but then the backlog of additional people who want rooms usually allows the con to go back to the hotels and ask for more rooms to be added to the block.

  18. Hampus Eckerman: I seriously doubt that there would be hoards of puppies paying that price only for the possibility to vote down EPH. If they go, it will be because they are fans.

    A lot of Puppies live in that geographical area, and travel expense for them would not be high. What’s more, SFF fans often tend to pack 4 or more people in con hotel rooms to save money.

    In the wake of the 2015 Hugo Awards ceremony, there were a lot of Puppy comments on blogs about going to MAC II to vote against EPH (in addition to expressing utter contempt for Worldcon and the people who run it and attend it). It’s not the slightest bit of a stretch to believe that these people are willing to spend the money just to “get back” at the people whom they feel have done them wrong.

    But given that you live not in the U.S., but in a country where people tend to think and behave pretty sensibly, I can understand why you would find it hard to believe that there are many Americans who are willing to drop a considerable chunk of change just to further a grudge.

    Trust me — there are many Americans for whom behaving this way is typical.

  19. JJ: Trust me — there are many Americans for whom behaving this way is typical.

    That’s right, my father’s father’s ancestors and all the rest of the ornery feudin’ and fussin’ Swedes moved to the U.S., leaving all their sensible and well-behaved neighbors behind….

  20. Mike Glyer: That’s right, my father’s father’s ancestors and all the rest of the ornery feudin’ and fussin’ Swedes moved to the U.S., leaving all their sensible and well-behaved neighbors behind…

    I’m just going by how I see Sweden behave as a country, in terms of policy and legislation. I have no doubt they have some loonies — but they don’t seem to have nearly as much power and influence over there as they do in the States.

  21. JJ: No, actually loonies aren’t running the country. Apparently this comes as news to you.

  22. Mike Glyer: No, actually loonies aren’t running the country. Apparently this comes as news to you.

    Oo! Amazingly mobile goalposts! What I actually said was:

    they don’t seem to have nearly as much power and influence over there as they do in the States.

    Are you seriously trying to deny that there are loonies who have a lot of power and influence in the U.S.?

  23. I had a lisp as a child. It went away, except for the words “Lucy” and “loonie.” I have never had a friend named Lucy and I use her full name when I talk about Lucile Ball, so that’s not a problem, but money in Canada is a constant irritation. Still, it’s worth it to be able to say that Canada is far more loonie than the US.

    This non sequitur is brought to you by jet lag.

    Also, we still don’t have our PINs.

  24. Cheryl S.: money in Canada is a constant irritation. Still, it’s worth it to be able to say that Canada is far more loonie than the US.

    My apologies for inadvertently casting aspersions on your esteemed presumptive national bird. Your loons are far nicer than ours. 😉

  25. @JJ – My apologies for inadvertently casting aspersions on your esteemed presumptive national bird. Your loons are far nicer than ours.

    {clears throat and swallows a Canadian money pun} No apologies necessary. I live a few miles south of that particular border and yearning to be free doesn’t count…

  26. JJ: Are you seriously trying to deny that there are loonies who have a lot of power and influence in the U.S.?

    Citations please. Who are the loonies who have “a lot of power and influence in the U.S.” if they are not people running the country? If you don’t believe that the people actually running the country are loonies, then how are these non-loonies staying in office if your loonies have so much power and influence?

  27. Mike Glyer: Citations please. Who are the loonies who have “a lot of power and influence in the U.S.” if they are not people running the country? If you don’t believe that the people actually running the country are loonies, then how are these non-loonies staying in office if your loonies have so much power and influence?

    Well, there are such people in positions of power and influence, in government, in businesses, in organizations and institutions.

    But I suspect that it’s a question of terminology. My definition of “loony” is not the same as “mentally ill” — though I admit there is certainly the possibility of overlap there.

    For instance, I expect a publicly-elected government representative to uphold their oath of office and to do the job to which they’ve been elected, to serve the people to the best of their ability. When someone openly brags — brags — about not doing that job for reasons of vindictiveness and spite, they fall under several of my definitions, one of which would be “loony” (another would be “incompetent”, and another would be “traitor”).

    Your definition of “loony” may be quite different from mine. That’s fine, and I suspect that’s where we’re crossing signals here.

  28. @JJ – Loonies in government aside, I think the chance of a formidable presence of puppy power is tiny. I have had a couple of passions in my life time – attending political conventions as a delegate and looking for ways to find positive expectation in games of chance. If there was a place I could bet on puppy attendance I would be happy to do so. And I have been to enough conventions to know that talk is cheap when compared to the commitment of travel, missed worked, and hotel expense.

    I am reminded of “Not a Blog” last year when GRRM was worried that increased membership might represent puppy power. It didn’t; it just meant increased Fan participation. And no … puppies are not generally Fans. Which is one reason I don’t expect them to show.

  29. JJ: Your definition of “loony” may be quite different from mine. That’s fine, and I suspect that’s where we’re crossing signals here.

    This went a different direction than I was expecting — and it’s likely we do apply different personal rules of engagement for using the word “loony”/crazy/etc.

    Most people think they have some good reason for what they’re doing. In the case of certain public figures, I may not trust them, I may not want to put my fate in their hands, I may not want them given the authority to affect large numbers of lives — and in that case I don’t want to diminish the possible effectiveness of my criticism by sounding like I’m just doing humor.

  30. There actually is a folk theory around that European emigration to North America was over-indexed for oddballs and difficult people, including heritable traits like ADHD (waves) and other cognitive and social dysfunctions. It makes a nice Just So Story and I sometimes take it seriously until a pretty butterfly passes by and disrupts my train of thought. And yet. We’ve done a lot crummy things over here, and continue to do them. But those nice sane Europeans we left behind managed to start wars that slaughtered eight figures worth of each other – twice n 25 years. That would seem to take a reasonable amount of social dysfunction to pull off.

    So we do seem to have left some problem children back in the old country. Perhaps they are finally all dead though.

  31. Mike Glyer: I don’t want to diminish the possible effectiveness of my criticism by sounding like I’m just doing humor.

    Ah, that explains our differences. When I call someone a “loony”, it’s intended with pity, or disgust, and/or contempt — but definitely not with humor.

  32. When I refer to a candidate as a loon I don’t mean “this candidate’s policies are going to destroy American education” or “he sounds like he’s in favor of Armageddon,” I mean “he thinks King County should have its own space program” [1,2] and maybe “yes, he’s running, but does he actually want the job” (Captain Jack Sparrow, I’m looking at you [3]).

    It’s possible that my usage/terminology was influenced by Screaming Lord Sutch and the Monster Raving Loony Party.

    [1] I am not making this up, we really did have a candidate proposing that.

    [2] 47 degrees north latitude is not a good place for a spaceport (Europe keeps theirs in French Guiana).

    [3] I’m not making this up either.

  33. JJ:

    “But given that you live not in the U.S., but in a country where people tend to think and behave pretty sensibly, I can understand why you would find it hard to believe that there are many Americans who are willing to drop a considerable chunk of change just to further a grudge.”

    I would say that the last years development in Sweden is proof that we are as stupid and irrational as people in any other country.

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