(1) THE PUPPET’S INSIDE STORY. Mary Robinette Kowal livestreamed “Ask a puppet about publishing” today. The answer to the old standby “Where do you get your ideas?” got perhaps the truest answer that has ever been given to this question.
(2) GREG KETTER MAKES NEWS. The legendary Minneapolis bookstore is featured in Twin Cities Geek — “From the Stands: DreamHaven Books Is Still Standing”.
A later memory I have of the store is hearing Neil Gaiman read his book The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish there upon the book’s rerelease in 2004. I remember maybe 35 or 40 people in the store, which can’t be correct—there must have been more than that to see Neil Gaiman—though I’m certain it was a number far smaller than you’d expect to see today, in the age of expanded cons, fandom, and the Internet social-media grapevine. Except for running into Gaiman a few weeks later at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival (and a few other places, actually—that was a weird summer), I wouldn’t see him again in the flesh until an MPR Wits show last year, crammed into the Fitzgerald Theater with over 1,000 other fans. That show was a little closer to what one would expect of a Gaiman sighting, where Neil is a smudge, his pale face and customary black clothes treating us to an impromptu and sparsely populated Mummenschanz show against the stage’s dark backdrop, not at all the mild, T-shirted man with the roiling mind, reading to us about the best deal you could get in a trade for your dad.
… Last April, DreamHaven returned to normal store hours with the help of Alice Bentley, a former business partner of Ketter’s. The two co-founded the Chicago bookstore The Stars Our Destination in 1998, which Bentley ran by herself from 1994 until 2004, when she closed the store, moved to Seattle, and got out of the book business. Says Ketter of Bentley, “She had been out of books for a while, and she really wanted to get back in. So, she moved to [Minneapolis] from Seattle and she’s partnering with me . . . She’s very knowledgeable; in the last 11 or 12 years since she left, things have changed a great deal [but] she’s been very happily relearning the book business.” The two now run the business as partners, with Ketter as the “go-to guy for questions” and Bentley employing her “love of spreadsheets” to keep the business on track.
(3) SPURNING PASSION. Andrew Porter recalls, “I wanted to reprint a Tolkien poem first published in the 1940s, and Tolkien refused me permission — and then he refused a whole bunch of other people including Ballantine Books, and it’s still not been ‘officially’ published. But some people got tired of waiting for “official” publication, and here it is, on the web: “The lay of Aotrou and Itroun” (1945).
A witch there was, who webs could weave
to snare the heart and wits to reave,
who span dark spells with spider-craft,
and as she span she softly laughed;
a drink she brewed of strength and dread
to bind the quick and stir the dead;
In a cave she housed where winging bats
their harbour sought, and owls and cats
from hunting came with mournful cries,
night-stalking near with needle-eyes.
(4) TELL ME IF YOU’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE. At MeTV, “7 reused props on television that will make you do a double-take”.
Neosaurus Disguise:
Lost in Space’s creator Irwin Allen liked to recycle props, but one of his most notable ones was reused by another iconic ’60s TV show. The neosaurus disguise first appeared in Lost in Space:
(5) NEW SAWYER NOVEL. Robert J. Sawyer’s 23rd novel Quantum Night will be released March 1 in hardcover, ebook (all formats), and as an audiobook from Audible.
What if the person next to you was a psychopath? And that person over there? And your boss? Your spouse? That’s the chilling possibility brought forth in bestselling author Robert J. Sawyer‘s new novel Quantum Night. Psychopaths aren’t just murdering monsters: anyone devoid of empathy and conscience fits the bill, and Sawyer’s new science-fiction thriller suggests that there are as many as two billion psychopaths worldwide.
A far-out notion? Not at all. As Oxford Professor Kevin Dutton, the bestselling author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths, says, “Sawyer has certainly done his homework about psychopaths and he understands well that, far from being just the occasional headline-grabbing serial killer, they’re everywhere.”
Sawyer says: “Reviewers often call me an optimistic writer — one of the few positive voices left in a science-fiction field that has grown increasingly dystopian. I like to view my optimism as a rational position rather than just naïveté, and so I felt it was necessary to devote a novel to confronting the question of evil head on: what causes it, why it flourishes, why there seems to be more and more of it — and what we can do about it. The theme is simple: the worst lie humanity has ever told itself is, ‘You can’t change human nature.’”
Click to read the opening chapters. Details of the Canadian and U.S. stops on Sawyer’s book tour can be found here.
(6) OSHIRO STORY CONTINUES. Here are links to new posts dealing with Mark Oshiro’s published harassment complaint.
The Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, Inc. (KaCSFFS) is the sponsor of ConQuesT, the oldest convention in the central states region. The KaCSFFS Board of Directors oversees ConQuesT, but the day-to-day operations of the convention are done by the volunteer chairs and convention committee, who change from year to year.
In light of recent issues we feel that more oversight of the convention committee as a whole is necessary by the KaCSFFS Board of Directors. This is being addressed by the current Board of Directors as we speak.
KaCSFFS is profoundly sorry that these issues arose, and the policies in place were not followed through to completion. We are taking steps to ensure that future complaints are addressed appropriately and in compliance with current policies and procedures in place.
Posted by Jan Gephardt
The KaCSFFS Board of Directors is: Margene Bahm, President, Earline “Cricket” Beebe, Treasurer, Kristina Hiner, Secretary, Jan Gephardt, Communications Officer, Keri O’Brien, ConQuesT Chairperson for 2016, and Diana Bailey, Registered Agent.
- M. C. Hana: “Mark Oshiro Speaks Out”.
From SFF and romance convention attendees alike. To the point that I’ve applied some probably unfair stereotyping of my own, in deciding that media and writers’ conventions in Those Four States (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri) are probably off limits to me. If I won a lottery tomorrow and travel costs were not an issue…I probably wouldn’t change my decision.
I get told, rightfully so: ‘That’s unfair. We have lovely, diverse people at X convention or Y festival! By not attending, you are letting the bad people win!”
True. I know some good people in those places. I’d love to visit them. There is a large romance convention in Texas and an even bigger SFF gathering in Kansas City that I *should* attend for career reasons. (Except that the romance con has a dismal record respecting M/M romance authors, and I’m not sure I’m at the professional level to go to the SFF con yet.)
By not attending, I’m not validating some indefensible behavior from con committees who keep getting away with this shit, and use fans and sane staffers as their human shields. I’m not paying into the tax coffers of hotels, cities, and corrupt hypocritical legislatures who still seem to be stuck in Pre-Civil Rights America. By myself, I’m a nobody, and I only have power over what I personally spend and buy.
- E.P. Beaumont: “In support of Mark Oshiro: my shit experience at CONQuesT 2013”.
I was unlucky enough to get tapped for a self-pub panel at CONQuest (Kansas City 2013) that consisted of me and two gatekeepers who bloviated the entire time, talking over anything I had to say. Lawrence M. Schoen was the moderator who opened his introductory email to me with a declaration that nobody should self publish unless they’d already been vetted by the publishing industry. He also used the term “politically correct” which prompted the following response from me:
“Please do not use the term ‘politically correct’ in my presence. My colleagues and mentors include survivors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Soviet GULag. Current American usage of this term trivializes these mass atrocities in the service of defending lazy-minded reflexive bigotry.”
In response, he doubled down on his insistence on right to say anything he liked.
On the panel, Silena Rosen was particularly notable for her crude, hostile manner as well as rant about how self-pub was shit, fanfic was public masturbation, yadda yadda yadda. Schoen wasn’t so much a moderator as a partner in the pile-on. I had quality assurance experience from multiple industry jobs, and a whole list of suggestions for editorial collectives and the like. They talked right over me as loudly as they could. None of that stuff even got said.
I felt the whole time as if I were fighting with both hands tied behind my back. I was there to give the audience new ideas and perspectives and to present myself with courtesy and professionalism; they were there to beat me up in public.
- Larry Correia made this Oshiro-related comment in his R.I.P. Twitter post.
I don’t know anything about the Oshiro thing. Is that the one where the guy was the GoH at a con and didn’t get treated well? I’ve seen that in passing is all. I can only assume that if File 770 is upset over it, they’re either on the wrong side, or just plain stupid.
A bunch of comments from File 770 are reproduced in that same thread. Which is great, because it proves how many of Larry’s fans find this blog despite his refusing to allow pingbacks from my posts, and how they force the rest to read the material anyway.
(7) REASONS WHY DOING NOTHING IS WORSE. Jim C. Hines reviews the recent history of convention antiharassment policy enforcement in “The Importance of Having and ENFORCING Harassment Policies at Cons”
I get it. It’s one thing to write up policies on harassment and appropriate behavior for a convention. It’s another to find yourself in the midst of a mess where you have to enforce them.
Emotions are running high. The person accused of violating the policy isn’t a mustache-twirling villain, but someone who’s been attending your con for years. They’ve got a lot of friends at the con — possibly including you. If you enforce the consequences spelled out in your policies, someone’s going to be upset. Someone’s going to be angry. Someone’s going to feel hurt. It feels like a no-win situation.
And it is, in a way. There’s nothing you can do to make everyone happy. But we’ve seen again and again that there’s a clear losing strategy, and that is to do nothing. To try to ignore your harassment policy and hope the problem goes away on its own.
It won’t. As unpleasant as it is to be dealing with a report of harassment, doing nothing will make it worse. Here are just a few examples from recent years.
(8) THE F IN SF IS NOT FILLET. Seeing a comment on File 770 about all the fiction with “bone” in the title, Fred Coppersmith recommended:
https://twitter.com/unrealfred/status/702285447217745920
(9) HENCEFORTH THEY WILL BE CALLED FUCHSIA HOLES. Gazing at black holes – “What does a black hole actually look like?” at Vox.
Impossibly dense, deep, and powerful, black holes reveal the limits of physics. Nothing can escape one, not even light.
But even though black holes excite the imagination like few other concepts in science, the truth is that no astronomer has actually seen one….
We do have indirect images of black holes, however
Some of the best indirect images of black holes come from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, where Edmonds works. “The friction and the high velocities of material forming out of a black hole naturally produces X-rays,” he says. And Chandra is a space telescope specially designed to see those X-rays.
For example, the Chandra observatory documented these X-ray “burps” emanating from the merger of two galaxies around 26 million light-years away. The astrophysicists suspect that these burps came from a massive black hole: …
Similarly, the fuchsia blobs on this image are regions of intense X-ray radiation, thought to be black holes that formed when two galaxies (the blue and pink rings) collided: …
Be sure to check out the fuzzy but fascinating video showing the proper motion of stars around an apparent black hole.
(10) YES THERE IS A DRAGON. Pete’s Dragon official teaser trailer.
(11) FARTHER BACK TO THE FUTURE. TechnoBuffalo declares “This fan-made Back to the Future prequel trailer is amazing”.
There’s never going to be a Back to the Future sequel or reboot—at least as long as director Robert Zemeckis is alive. With that in mind, what if there was a prequel? Didn’t think of that, did you? I sure didn’t, but after seeing the trailer above, I’d totally be on board.
If you’ve never seen BTTF (what’s wrong with you?), it begins with Doc Brown revealing to Marty that the only way to produce the 1.21 Gigawatts necessary to time travel is to use plutonium. The prequel would be a story about how Doc Brown gets hands on the plutonium, which he only mentions in passing in the original film.
The prequel trailer was brilliantly edited together by Tyler Hopkins, who used footage from various movies featuring Christopher Lloyd (the actor who played Dr. Emmett Brown).
(12) HE’S A MARVEL. “Stan Lee Makes a Cameo During Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 30th Anniversary Panel”. (Check out the photo at the post — Stan looks younger than Frank!)
In Los Angeles to celebrate the 30th Anniversary Edition of the book’s release, Miller sat down with IGN to talk about The Dark Knight Returns’ enduring legacy, what makes Batman relevant, and why he keeps coming back to the character. He then took the stage for a Q&A moderated by DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio, where he discussed his initial apprehension at reinventing such an established character, the impact he’s had on future creators, and who would win in a fight between Batman and Captain America.
The evening took an unexpected turn right out the gate as Miller’s panel was interrupted by an audience heckler. That heckler turned out to be none other than Marvel Comics legend/cameo king Stan Lee, who was on hand to celebrate pal Miller’s accomplishments. Lee of course demanded to know who would win in a showdown between publisher mainstays Batman and Captain America, to which Miller slyly responded “Robin.”
(13) THE ICON’S IMAGE. Abraham Riesman profiles the icon in “It’s Stan Lee’s Universe” at Vulture.
A comic-book Methuselah, Lee is also, to a great degree, the single most significant author of the pop-culture universe in which we all now live. This is a guy who, in a manic burst of imagination a half-century ago, helped bring into being The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, and the dozens of other Marvel titles he so famously and consequentially penned at Marvel Comics in his axial epoch of 1961 to 1972. That world-shaking run revolutionized entertainment and the then-dying superhero-comics industry by introducing flawed, multidimensional, and relatably human heroes — many of whom have enjoyed cultural staying power beyond anything in contemporary fiction, to rival the most enduring icons of the movies (an industry they’ve since proceeded to almost entirely remake in their own image). And in revitalizing the comics business, Lee also reinvented its language: His rhythmic, vernacular approach to dialogue transformed superhero storytelling from a litany of bland declarations to a sensational symphony of jittery word-jazz — a language that spoke directly and fluidly to comics readers, enfolding them in a common ecstatic idiom that became the bedrock of what we think of now as “fan culture.” Perhaps most important for today’s Hollywood, he crafted the concept of an intricate, interlinked “shared universe,” in which characters from individually important franchises interact with and affect one another to form an immersive fictional tapestry — a blueprint from which Marvel built its cinematic empire, driving nearly every other studio to feverishly do the same. And which enabled comics to ascend from something like cultural bankruptcy to the coarse-sacred status they enjoy now, as American kitsch myth.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Moshe Feder, Paul Weimer, Andrew Porter, and Michael J. Walsh for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]
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@JJ – It must be like The Truman Show in there…
The Phantom: *loud farting noise*
OGH: *swats him away*
Commentariat: *glances over briefly, resumes discussion of soap operas*
NB: Nathan Fillion played the “best Joey ever” on One Life to Live.
@JJ: I’m not saying this as someone whose opinion you trust on books (‘cuz a. you don’t know enough about my taste for that to be the case, and b. tastes differ anyway), but I enjoyed Sawyer’s Quintaglio Ascension (intelligent dinos) books at the time. But it’s been a long time, and I don’t remember a ton about them. It sounds like Sawyer’s very hit or miss for you, so I’m not saying “OMG READ NOW” – just “hey I liked them.” One day, I’ll probably re-read them; I kinda wish they had audiobooks.
On the other paw, I’m re-reading-via-audiobook the Neanderthal books, and finding them . . . tedious. I liked them more at the time than now. Even back then, there were a few things I hated (despite liking the books overall); those parts haven’t improved with age, and audio really seems to emphasize some flaws in his writing style.
ObSFTV: I’m slowly catching up on “The Magicians.” Some things make little sense (and/or people mumble), but overall, I like it! I haven’t read the books yet, BTW. But the next ep queued up (I’m way behind!) looks like a generic “oh is it all fake cuz he’s crazy.” No, I hate that trite, tired plot, which seems required for any SF/fantasy series. I’m surprised people still write TV episodes with this plot. Hopefully it’s better than it looks like from the “scenes from next time.” (Maybe it was better in the books.) Anyway, like I said – so far, I’m enjoying the series. 🙂
Ob…SoapOpera?! In college, a few friends and I watched “Guiding Light” for a little while. The Spauldings! India!!! 😉 My sister one summer hooked me for a couple of weeks on a trio of back-to-back soaps on whatever-channel: “One Life To Live” and, uh, whatever was before? after? it, and “General Hospital” (which I was least into). I watched some of these later on for the heck of it, but not for long.
But hey, I remember Anna Devane from “General Hostpital”! I think! Didn’t she have scars on half her face for a while? They weren’t explained or even mentioned for the short time I watched, and then later they were gone and I didn’t know what they’d been from or how they disappeared. I always wondered what the in-show explanation was.
I got hooked for a while on “Dark Shadows” re-runs – cheesy but some intriguing ideas, too. I saw some random sets of episodes on (IIRC) the SciFi Channel (as it was called then). So I got some stuff hundreds of years in the past, then stuff at the end just before “Parallel Time” and the “Parallel Time” stuff and the end of the series. Kinda fragmented – I saw almost no present-day stuff! My favorite flub (they had so many) was when someone, usually the vampire, mis-spoke and said the wrong person’s names. 😉
/feeling-extra-rambling
There was a period where I watched Dark Shadows with some college friends. We mostly looked forward to Fridays. If the same writer was going to be back the following week, Friday would just have an ordinary episode. But if a new writer was coming in on Monday, the Friday episode would be full of all kinds of crazy-ass stuff.
“Please put your clothes back on.” Perhaps adding, “That’s inappropriate in a setting like this.” Firmly but politely. That’s how I’d do it ideally.
Actually I’d probably say, “Um… could you put your pants back on… please? I mean, um, c’mon…geeeeez” and flail my hands around. I wouldn’t call someone a disgusting pig in a loud voice in public.
@Charon D.: Also, if “everybody knows” the big seekrit, the expensive defense lawyer would have known it too. They check out their witnesses very carefully to keep those sort of things from happening. The seekrit would have been found with Google, much less the databases lawyers have access to, and he wouldn’t have put that witness on the stand. I dig an old rerun of Perry Mason as much as the next gal (who had a grandpa who collected the books), but I expect slightly more realistic legal procedure nowadays.
And to tie this back into soaps, “Theee EDGE of Night” was Perry Mason with the serial numbers filed off and romance added.
My brother and I ran home from school to watch “Dark Shadows” when it was on originally. Mom would have the snacks ready and all 3 of us would gather ’round the ol’ RCA in the den. I watched a few reruns when it was on SciFi. The budget was so low, but they had cool ideas.
Meanwhile, I was v. annoyed by the cliffhanger on “X-Files” (the ep was going okay till then, at least the Mulder parts) but totally charmed and delighted by the song and dance number on “Agent Carter”.
Since I’m not actually qualified to discuss soap operas, I’ll look at a couple of other dangling topics.
—
I vote hit-or-miss on Sawyer. His stuff can be a lot of fun, but I never did manage to finish the Hominid books. There’s something I can’t quite put my finger on about his writing, but it rarely sucks me in. And when I am sucked in, I think it has more to do with his ideas, which are generally first-rate, rather than his wordcraft, which is workmanlike but unexceptional.
Of course, being good at ideas is a pretty useful strength for an SF writer.
—
Re. Firefly: Not only were the Browncoats clearly Confederate-analogs, but their name is creepily reminiscent of another not-so-pleasant group: the Brownshirts! It amazes me that anyone ever mistook our protagonists for good guys! 😀
I really couldn’t get into the show when it was first on (though Netflix later allowed me to find and appreciate the good parts, and I admit, there are quite a few). First, I’m just not a big fan of westerns. Second, while I might not have minded it being western-like, I found that actually putting the characters in straight-up cowboy garb, and having ’em talk like cowboys, and all that, totally ruined my ability to suspend my disbelief. I kept muttering things like, “ooh, nice suit. Wonder what movie that was originally made for?” I feel like I should give them props for actually using a spaceship to travel between planets, because magical flying horses towing a covered wagon would have fit the flavor all too well.
(If they’d played the actual-genuine-old-timey-cowboys-in-outer-space angle for laughs, I probably could have laughed along with it. But it felt all too serious to me—and oh, so stupid.)
The fact that I managed to overcome all that, and actually do like the show says a whole lot about Whedon and his stable of writers!
But the whole brown[coats/shirts] thing still creeps me out a bit. 😀
@Kendall
Guiding Light, the Spaulings, India, oh the drama, the drama. Kids these days have no idea what good drama is. I can’t remember if I liked One Life to Live or not.
Dark Shadows my husband introduced me. I thought it was a joke. I watched a season of reruns before I’d believe him it was for real.
For some reason I just refuse to believe certain shows are really on TV. I get addicted to them waiting for Candid Camera to jump out and tell us what the show is parodying and what will be happening from now on. Silk Stalking totally hooked me as I waited for the unveiling.
I’m cured. I now know that really bad shows and concepts with awful acting get produced and may see numerous seasons while good shows get cancelled before the season is over.
Thanks all for joining me in soap opera reminiscing instead of laughing me off the blog.
@Tasha Turner: I believe “One Life to Live” had the woman with the split personality – Vicki who has a “bad girl” personality “Nicki.” If that helps. 😉
ETA: BTW I love weird tangents like this (even the ones I don’t get into or don’t comment on). 🙂
@Anyone who was confused by the category the Golden Globe used for “The Martian”: Heh, a “trailer” for “The Martian” as both comedy and musical:
ETA: Woah, this embedded by pasting a URL. Fancy. Now I know how people do it! Well, damn; editing this turned it from an embed to just a link. ;-(
Kendall: Anyone who was confused by the category the Golden Globe used for “The Martian”: Heh, a “trailer” for “The Martian” as both comedy and musical
That is EPIC. Totally Scrollworthy <wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more>
I could have sworn he’d renamed himself “Woody Allen” 63 years ago.
Hey, Wanderley Wagon was great!
@Kendall
Went and did a little research. Nope I watched a few episodes but I never got into One Life to Live. Too many creepy and/or alcoholic and/or abusive men for me the few times I watched
I also love these tangents.
On 2/22/16 their discussing gardening in clay.
We’ve been discussing world geography terminology on 2/17/16. I might be playing the brat on that one. 😉
@JJ and/or @Mike Glyer: This pixel is no more. It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to meet its scroll.
/monty-python (also perhaps /god-stalk)
@Kendall, please report immediately to the Ministry of Silly Stalks. It’s past time for you to face….the comfy chair.
Well, that trailer’s the best thing I’ve seen today. 😀
Needs more disco, though.
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Pixels* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)
To play devil’s advocate a little bit,
On pseudonyms: Just because you’re using a pseudonym doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not also brave. For instance, if someone uses a consistent pseudonym, then you can follow the history of what they have they have said or done, and thus they are still opening themselves up to being potentially traced or identified by a determined adversary; and thus they may be braver than someone who remains entirely anonymous or simply says nothing at all – and it may be that they have excellent reasons for wanting to remain not-immediately-identifiable.
On using a phrase like “you disgusting pig”: To me, that phrase alone does not give enough information. It could be that the person saying it is disgusted by the other person’s actions, rather than the person as such. For a different but similar example, a comment in a discussion like “you’re clearly a troll” could also be interpreted by someone as a comment on their appearance, even though it’s intended to comment on their behaviour. So my hope is that anyone being asked to judge whether a particular utterance counts as harassment would look at the context. And yes I know that may sound a bit weasel-y, but as we’ve seen there are also people who might attempt to fabricate a harassment or other ‘objectionable’ incident for their own purpose, such as by bothering someone until that person has enough and responds with frustration and exasperation, and then complaining about that reaction while conveniently omitting mention of the context.
Are Pseudonym’s the same as handles? I’ve used this name to log on to things for about twenty years. If you can really be bothered then you can find out my real name with about fifteen seconds of googling.
I do not consider this an act of either bravery or cowardice.
Not to cross the streams, but remember when Spike was watching Passions? Something about Timmy falling into a well…
As for actors leaving and coming back, I wasted a part of my life watching a season of Dallas that turned out to be nothing but a dream so they could bring back Patrick Duffy. I suppose watching Dallas at all was my first mistake.
Good times.
Time worked weirdly on soap operas, too.
My mom watched As the World Turns (and some of the others). There was a baby born on the show the same week as my youngest brother, who was an adult working as a doctor by the time brother was in junior high. But the parental generation characters did not age similarly.
@NickPheas
Yes, sorta. For those of us tech savy and understanding and without agendas to limit others speach yes.
To those either not tech savy, with agendas, trying to limit speach/harass others no. The people in the various categories listed are not all the same. Your grandparents/parents (some older people) may not understand your handle/Pseudonym is easy to track down your real name and easy for others to know you’ve been using it for years (and refuse to listen/understand as you explain multiple times). For a painful discussion check out the last few pages of the Mark Oshiro full page post and the polite (seriously) derail we have with Curt Phillips on the topic (who knew Fandom had a way to confirm a Pseudonym could be traced to an IP address). I think with agendas and limit speach/harass are self-explanatory.
I’m in agreement there for some people. Those who speak up on topics and fit the right markers for being doxxed, rape threats, death threats I do consider brave.
Jack Lint Not to cross the streams, but remember when Spike was watching Passions? Something about Timmy falling into a well…
I believe that’s what induced my husband and I* to give Passions a try.
@emgrasso: Time worked weirdly on soap operas, too.
That it did.
*ETA: edited for historical accuracy
Mike Glyer on February 24, 2016 at 6:03 pm said: “The Phantom: So what is Larry Correia doing to stick up for “the witch they want to burn” besides badmouthing File 770 in his comment section, after reading long extracts of quotes from File 770’s comment section that you folks copy there? Or is that all he’s doing?”
I have copied and pasted -nothing- on this subject from File770 to Monster Hunter Nation.
I’m sure I have no idea what Larry Correia is doing. He’s on the other side of the continent from me, in another country, and we’re not buddies. He doesn’t know me from Adam.
I dropped a comment in his blog, he responded with “I don’t know anything about the Oshiro thing. “ and that is the extent of his involvement.
Should he be doing something? If so, what did you have in mind?
You, Mr. Glyer, are providing the forum for people to slag the reputations and attempt to ruin the lives of several people over hearsay, and hearsay that amounts to “She touched my leg!!!!” and “He’s mean to the Aztecs!”
Best part of this shirtstorm, I am the one defending the large gay woman, (who would hate my guts in person, I’m about 80% sure) and you are feeding the fire to burn her. And trying to rope Larry Correia into the splatter zone.
Very conducive to brotherly love and heartwarming feelings in all of Fandom, I’m sure.
DriveByFruiting on February 24, 2016 at 6:20 pm said: The phantom thinks that s/he is brave, it seems.
Not particularly. I’m questioning the internet swarming of an individual from the comfort of my fortified compound. Mind the alligators, they’re hungry today. Incidentally, my condolences on your name being DriveByFruiting. Your parents must be real jokers, eh?
It is easy to be “brave,” hidden behind seven proxies and a fake name, with nothing to lose, taking orders from a d-list internet celebrity.
What about anything I’ve ever said, here or anywhere else, makes you think I’d take orders from anyone?
The anon legions of Gators and Puppies et al think they are brave as well, swarming in lockstep at the beckon of their masters, taking a stand because someone told them to do it.
What colour is the sky in your world?
I would not call that bravery.
Me neither, I’d call that the American Democrat Party.
…Would you speak your mind so freely if you were trapped in a crowded elevator beside the object of your discontent?
Some wanky hipster screaming sexual harassment because a middle aged gay woman touched his leg with her leg? Oh yeah. I’d be the other guy on the panel with his shirt off in solidarity. I’m more polite and restrained on-line than in Real Life ™.
You’re welcome.
Me too.
I had the impression Whedon thought he was being subtle about the Confederacy-Civil War references. But maybe not?
Anyhow, it sure didn’t take long for the South Shall Rise Again crowd to glom onto the show.
Which, I confess, may have been why it took me the better part of a decade to even watch the thing.
Mr. Glyer, are providing the forum for people to slag the reputations and attempt to ruin the lives of several people over hearsay, and hearsay that amounts to “She touched my leg!!!!”
As I noted before, Oshiro reporting on something he was present for is not hearsay. Every time you say it is hearsay, you expose yourself as the uneducated idiot that you are.
I am curious as to what part of “she touched my leg” unwanted and repeatedly is NOT assault?
@Phantom
As usual, you are full of it. Did you read Mr. Oshiro’s post? Selina Rosen did not just touch his leg, and she did not just do it once. She rubbed his leg with hers, and she did it several times.
Once is an accident. More than once is not.
Also, Mr. Oshiro is the person this happened to. This is not “hearsay,” and you know it. You are, in fact, calling Mr. Oshiro a liar.
Apparently you feel qualified to opine on something you know jackshit about. Congratulations.
And, once again, Phantom, you play identity politics whilst accusing us of doing so. Once again, the issue of priority to us is not what identity either Oshiro or Rosen claim, it’s Who was the harasser and who was harassed? Right-wingers are so quick to say lefties are eager to give minorities a pass on shitty behaviour they’d never forgive in a white male. BUt when we call out someone on actual shitty behaviour, here come the right-wingers to say “How dare you attack a gay woman! That’s against your own rules! Waah!” Even though we have said consistently that we don’t make or agree with those rules you attribute to us.
I’m also wondering in what way we are “Burning the witch”. The WORST I have seen anyone suggest having done to Rosen is barring her from a few science fiction conventions until she gives some indication she knows how to behave in public. Which is, frankly, about what we ask of most adults, and most school-age children. (Though children are often given some kind of support in teaching them to become socialized.)
Nobody is suggesting she never write another book, publish another book, make public appearances that don’t involve shock theatre in inappropriate settings, wear sackcloth and ashes, or do anything particularly outside the bounds. And when the same people who treat this as a witch hunt often dismiss the SF/F cons she *might* be asked not to attend as uninteresting unwashed nerd wankery and say things like “Why would anyone even want to go?”, that doesn’t exactly sound like the world’s worst punishment.
AS for publicizing the fact that she committed sexual harassment somehow ruining her reputation, well, A) She ruined her own reputation by committing the behaviour (And you keep conveniently ignoring how after being relatively discreetly led out, she came back in and made sure that instead of a quiet removal of disruption, innocent witnesses got a parade of being called names, harangued, forced to watch another person disrobe, insulted further if they decided to leave. Is this really mature behaviour you want to experience or have emulated at the next gathering you enter?), and B) obviously not everyone thinks less of her for her behaviour, like, say, you.
Oh, and C) If the damn concom had done their job, this wouldn’t BE public.
@Peace: I’m pretty sure that the Confederate element in Firefly was deliberate and intended to be spotted—though what the implications of that are, I’m really not sure. The Nazi connection (browncoat=brownshirt?) is more likely to be an unintentional and unfortunate coincidence, but having thought of it, I find it hard to shake. 🙂
@Xtifr:
Hmm. Brownshirt + Redcoat = Browncoats?
For an American audience, amalgamating three “enemy sides” (RW Brits, CW Confederates, WWII Nazis) to make up Mal’s faction would certainly be a good way to make them bad guys.
The Phantom: I have copied and pasted -nothing- on this subject from File770 to Monster Hunter Nation.
Nope, but you are certainly participating in a conversation in which at least one of the commenters copies and pastes . . . and you are adding your own descriptions and opinions of what’s going on in File 770 discussions. So your response here seems at bit disingenuous, at best.
redheadedfemme on February 25, 2016 at 9:34 am said: “@Phantom As usual, you are full of it.”
Why thank you my dear, and a good morning to you too.
“Did you read Mr. Oshiro’s post?”
Yes I did. And quoted from it, in fact.
“Selina Rosen did not just touch his leg, and she did not just do it once. She rubbed his leg with hers, and she did it several times.”
So he says.
“Once is an accident. More than once is not.”
Possibly. But I wasn’t there, so I don’t really know, I only have Mr. Oshiro’s word on it. Given his going off on Chris Gerrib (about Aztecs, for f- sakes) I’m not comfortable assuming Oshiro’s veracity.
“Also, Mr. Oshiro is the person this happened to. This is not “hearsay,” and you know it. You are, in fact, calling Mr. Oshiro a liar.”
No, I’m very definitely not calling him a liar. I’m saying I have my doubts, and I’d like some corroboration before I throw my torch at Selina Rosen. It seems a bit much, given the actions in question.
“Apparently you feel qualified to opine on something you know jackshit about. Congratulations.”
Well redheadedfemme, unless you were there that day I know -exactly- what you know. Which is that Mark Oshiro made a bunch of claims, and that nobody who was physically there in the room when it happened has backed him up so far on the leg touching thing.
We aren’t even at “he said-she said”, we’re at “he said.” I’m unwilling to plaster a human being with the scarlet letter “Sexual Harasser” based on one guy’s unsupported word.
But by all means, let’s blame Larry Correia. He’s begging for it, that guy.
Mary Frances on February 25, 2016 at 10:59 am said: “So your response here seems at bit disingenuous, at best.”
No, my response is the 100% easily verified truth. Go look, then tell me which part I coped and pasted. None. I mentioned the nom de plume of one commenter who has taken me to task for using a nom de plume, I thought the irony was worth a giggle.
If you don’t want to have your antics in an open forum reported and commented upon, perhaps you should think about using a pseudonym. I recommend it, the peace of mind is definitely worth it.
And really, if Mike Glyer is combing through other people’s comment sections for scandal like a squirrel hunting an acorn, cutting and pasting away, are others somehow bad for doing the same?
Pot, meet kettle.
I will again make a plea that we ignore The Phantom now that we know just how much of a game they are playing. Feeding the troll really is to their benefit and we’ve been there, done that, do we need the t-shirt?.
TROLLS SAYS
FILE770 WITTY REJOINDER
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
ANOTHER FILE770 WIITY REJOINDER
ANOTHER FILE770 WIITY REJOINDER
ANOTHER FILE770 WIITY REJOINDER
ANOTHER FILE770 WIITY REJOINDER
GARDENING TIPS
BOOK COMMENT
ANOTHER FILE770 WIITY REJOINDER
ANOTHER FILE770 WIITY REJOINDER
ANOTHER FILE770 WIITY REJOINDER
ANOTHER FILE770 WIITY REJOINDER
ANOTHER FILE770 WIITY REJOINDER
Slowly filers notice the troll left hours ago and we get back to regular discussion.
@Tasha Turner: I think it’s a matter of, as Scalzi once put it, “There’s still so much candy in him!” I’m personally finding it heartwarming that his tolerance extends to autistic people, large women, lesbians, and anyone else so long as their cause can be used to bludgeon people he doesn’t agree with. 🙂
The Scarlet Pimpernel!
I’m starting to understand how miscommunication might have led to the Mark Oshiro mess.
We came together because the puppies shat in the punch bowl.
We stayed for the good discussions.
Trolls came and distracted us.
What were were we about again?
I believe I owe Kristina Hiner a major apology. Wow this week really has been full of apologies. My goodness.
Far from it. Clearly they are doing the Lord’s work to put File 770 comments before people who otherwise would have avoided reading them.
@The Phantom
The act of reading what was said will reveal that no-one actually statedyou personally were copying and pasting anything; everyone who occasionally looks in on puppy blogs is aware of who it is that regularly finds amusement in doing that, and it’s not you.
There’s nothing wrong with repeating what others have said per se, the trick is whether it’s sourced and relevant or selective and out of context.
File 770 Missionaries? Who knew?
Mike, that was a beautiful comeback. 🙂
Bar the doors!
@Jack Lint: File 770 Missionaries? Who knew?
Good afternoon, sir! Can we interest you in the good news of our gracious host, Mike Glyer?
Ok now that was just too funny. Maybe I was a bit uptight earlier.
The Phantom: No, my response is the 100% easily verified truth. Go look, then tell me which part I coped and pasted. None.
Agreed (and acknowledged in my previous comment) that you personally did not cut and paste. However, you did contribute to the conversation in which several people were cutting and pasting–more than one contribution, I believe–and hence you are part of the conversation. Hence my comment that you were being–not a lot, but “a bit” disingenuous, particularly in the sense of disingenuous = insincere. Have I explained myself sufficiently? I hope so, because I am not going to bother checking for responses from you, so I won’t be doing any more explaining–the discussion is getting too silly even for nit-picking.
-ticky-
I can’t seem to find it but did Mr. Oshiro actually call it ‘sexual harassment’? or is that some meme that got attached somehow?
And why bothering arguing with Phantom about ‘burn the witch’? He knows perfectly well that it was his attempt to rachet up the situation. I have the same thing with a friend of mine who accelerates situations in that manner. He adores playing ‘what if?’ whenever his arguments start to lose.
@Harold Osler:
Oshiro did not. He described the behavior but did not label it in any way, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions.
Peace, I think he did, actually. From Oshiro’s initial post: