(1) A TERRAN ECLIPSE. Click to see the Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 11
This snapshot from deep space captures planet Earth on March 9. The shadow of its large moon is falling on the planet’s sunlit hemisphere. Tracking toward the east (left to right) across the ocean-covered world the moon shadow moved quickly in the direction of the planet’s rotation. Of course, denizens of Earth located close to the shadow track centerline saw this lunar shadow transit as a brief, total eclipse of the Sun. From a spacebased perspective between Earth and Sun, the view of this shadow transit was provided by the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC).
(2) GROKKING THE FULLNESS. In “Fandom Needs to Change to Insure Its Future Survival”, Amazing Stories’ Steve Davidson devotes 3,500 words to thinking outside his box on the subject of Worldcons. (The newer ideas are in the last half of the piece.)
Fandom is growing. It’s growing tremendously. Unfortunately, the major percentage of that growth is taking place under the auspices of institutions and organizations that are not themselves fannish (or are fannish so long as being so is in service to making a profit).
As fans, we like to say that we’re not in “competition” with events such as SDCC or Dragoncon. Not only do we dismiss Anime conventions and multi-media cons as doing something that we’re not doing, we discount the experience that attendees and staff gain from these events. In our minds there is a difference between the conventions that are connected to fan history and largely follow fannish traditions (you buy a membership, not a ticket; we don’t pay guest to appear; we’re focused on the literature; those aren’t real conventions) and those that aren’t. We go to great pains to try and distinguish the bona fides of small ‘f’ fans and large ‘F’ fans.
But here’s the problem: the non-traditional conventions are offering the vast majority of “fannish experiences” these days. Traditional conventions have such a small footprint in national awareness that so far as most potential fans are concerned, non-traditional events ARE fandom.
In short, it is non-traditional events that are educating the public about what fandom is and what it’s all about. Not traditional fandom.
(3) INCOMING. Neil Clarke analyzed the “2015 Clarkesworld Submissions Stats”, complete with beautiful graphs.
In 2015, we received submissions from 109 different countries. In the above chart, the blue bar represents the percentage of total submissions for that country. The green bar indicates the percentage of all acceptances. (Reminder: The Chinese translations are handled by a separate process and not included in these numbers.)
Note: If you feel inclined to proclaim that this data indicates that I have a bias towards international submissions, perhaps you should read this editorial. That said, it pleases me that Clarkesworld has a more global representation of science fiction. There’s a lot of great work written beyond our shores.
(4) AND A DEAFENING REPORT. James H. Burns had a blinding insight.
Hanging out at Joe Koch’s comics warehouse the other day, it suddenly occured to me, that if Barry West was Catholic, he would have no problem with Lent.
(Or, if he were Jewish, no problem with Yom Kippur.)
Why?
Because the Flash is the FASTEST man alive.
(5) SILENT SPRING AHEAD. Matt Novak has a clever question – “What Time Is The End of The Daylight?”
What time is the end of the daylight? The sun is expected to die in roughly 5 billion years. But humans—provided we survive any number of ecological, nuclear, or alien-based disasters—are only expected to last about another 1 billion years on Earth.
So technically the “daylight” will be over for humanity in 1 billion years, which is again, predicated upon the absurd assumption that we make it that long anyway.
(6) YA WORLDBUILDING. Alwyn Hamilton picks “The Top 10 invented worlds in teen books” for The Guardian.
8) Crown & Court Series by Sherwood Smith
I have recently been led to understand that the world in Sherwood Smith’s brilliant duology is supposed to be ours, set far in the future on a distant planet, where the magic is alien science. This would certainly explain why they share many touchstones with our world, while also having two moons for the characters to gaze up at and trees willing to exact revenge. But the true magic in these books for me is in the complexities of the ballroom. Smith has created a complete court to rival Versailles in intrigue, with fan language, complicated symbolism woven covertly into jewelry, long lineage that gives you the feeling every character does have a twisting family tree, and old traditions so tangible you’re sure they must have been in fashion once in our world too.
(7) CHICKENS, NOT POTATOES. This week’s The Simpsons has a Bradbury-esque title: “The Marge-ian Chronicles.”
(8) TODAY IN HISTORY.
- March 12, 1971 — The Andromeda Strain opens in theaters.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY.
- Born March 12, 1923 – Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra.
(10) UNCORK NO ALIEN BEFORE ITS TIME. Io9 will hook you up: “Orson Welles Hosted a NASA Documentary About Aliens in the ’70s and It Is Amazing”
It is damn near impossible to explain the joy that comes from watching Who’s Out There, a documentary on aliens made by NASA in 1975 starring real scientists, regular people, and then Orson Welles, pontificating into the camera. I cannot emphasize this enough: Spend half an hour watching this.
(11) FEARSOME. “11 Books That Scared The Master of Horror, Stephen King, And Will Terrify You, Too” from Bustle.com.
King obviously has a way with words, and his Twitter is no exception. Full of hilarious thoughts and weekly answers to reader questions, it’s always entertaining. He alternates between adorable tweets featuring his dog, Molly (aka The Thing of Evil), and recommending the books he’s reading. Being the master of horror that he is, I consider him an authority on recommendations in that genre. You could make an entire reading list based on Stephen King recommendations, and be set for a long time.
Here are 11 books that scared the unshakable Stephen King, and so are pretty much guaranteed to keep you up at night and/or give you nightmares. But hey, that’s the fun part!
(12) RAGE SHORTAGE. Lela E. Buis dropped a post about J.K. Rowling into the well of the internet but never heard it splash — “No comments on cultural appropriation?”
Since I’ve not gotten any comments on this question at all, I’m going to assume either 1) it’s Saturday and everyone is out enjoying the spring weather or 2) there’s not much interest in what J. K. Rowling publishes on her Website.
Besides this, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot of concern about cultural appropriation except as a tool to attack people who are perceived as targets in some way. I expect Native Americans are fairly used to being abused, so another semi-fictional essay on skinwalkers isn’t going to affect their social outlook one way or the other.
(13) THE LONG VIEW. “11 Amazing Discoveries By the Mars Orbiter” at Mashable.
4. Fresh craters
The MRO has also treated scientists to views of relatively fresh craters on Mars.
One crater — which appeared in photos in 2010 — was not in images taken in 2008, meaning that whatever impact created the crater happened in between those years.
(14) THE ZERO LIFE. “Fukushima’s ground zero: No place for man or robot” from Reuters.
The robots sent in to find highly radioactive fuel at Fukushima’s nuclear reactors have “died”; a subterranean “ice wall” around the crippled plant meant to stop groundwater from becoming contaminated has yet to be finished. And authorities still don’t know how to dispose of highly radioactive water stored in an ever mounting number of tanks around the site.
(15) BATMAN SINGS. In the episode of The Hollywood Palace originally aired October 8, 1966 Adam West sings “The Orange Colored Sky” and “The Summer Wind.”
(16) IT’S GOT CHARACTER. “Ed Wood’s ‘Plan 9’ Studio To Be Preserved” says LA Weekly.
A storied Hollywood building once used by late pulp film director Ed Wood will be preserved by its new owners, said the sellers’ agent, Kay Sasatomi of Silver Commercial Inc.
That’s good news for fans of the low-budget auteur and for fans of the low-budget building.
The 13,650-square-foot Ed Wood structure on a seedy stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood is said to have also been used as rehearsal space by Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Guns N’ Roses.
The director housed his Quality Studios at the address, and classics including Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda were filmed there, according to Silver Commercial.
The building features a ground-floor dive bar, Gold Diggers, that plays home to Thai bikini dancers.
The residential hotel next door is a flophouse made famous when a suspect in the Beverly Hills murder of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen committed suicide as police descended upon the block.
There’s a lot of character here.
(17) STICKING IN HIS TWO CENTS WORTH. Spider-Man appears in the last seconds of Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War – Trailer 2.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Will R., Andrew Porter, and David K.M. Klaus for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Xtifr.]
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It may be first, it may be fifth…
(4) so either that joke might have worked if the guy hadn’t mucked up the Flash’s secret identity, or they changed things for the TV for no obvious reason.
(12) As I fancy some appertaining, I’ll mention that the italics for the quote are missing. I thought it was very odd editorializing by Mike for a minute….
(4) AND A DEAFENING REPORT. – (i)Ohhhh, that’s pretty bad.
(ii)Also, Muslim, Ramadhan (what? It’s his fault, he started it)
Pre-emptive fifth
(17) STICKING IN HIS TWO CENTS WORTH. – (i) – This still looks over-stuffed
(ii) But I’m liking what I’m seeing thus far. Well, except for the super-corny comic book cover style “ooh let the opposing sides rush each other” bit.
Also, random thing I saw today that was funny:
@snowcrash – If there’s one place for a comic book style “two groups rush each other” moment, I would think a comic book movie qualifies.
Edit to add: Fifth? Fifth!
(4): Along those lines, I’ve never understood how hamburgers could be considered “fast food” – if I was fasting, I wouldn’t be eating hamburgers. *shrugs*
(2) Why is growing bigger better ? I think the current system is working well enough.
Since its Daylight Savings time, am I really 5th? Nah, probably not.
re: 11. I fondly remember IN SEARCH OF, and Leonard Nimoy speculating that the geological formations at Bimini meant that Atlantis could be there, but I had no idea Orson Welles got into similar turf with this documentary.
I don’t understand why Buis is bringing up 12. It looks like her blog is not usually a buzzing hive of commenters (with no offense intended; many excellent blogs aren’t), so a post not getting comments doesn’t seem, well, worthy of comment.
It’s a big world with lots of different people in it. I suppose there might be people who are starting to find diversity boring. I don’t think that has much to do with the Puppies though; “bored by diversity” is not the impression they give.
Regarding 5) the half-life of species is a million years, as I understand it. Humanity has lasted about five hundred thousand so far, depending on which of our ancestors you accept as human. A species that lasted a billion would be doing very well indeed. (The longest lived species I know of is the coelacanth which has lasted half that.) That said, some citations would have been really nice; though a little Googling did reveal why the author chose a billion years (Wikipedia mentions expected changes in the sun’s luminosity increasing mineral weathering that may pull the CO2 out of the atmosphere to the point where most plants can’t use CO2 as a carbon source anymore, but I don’t have time to chase these down to see why people think this is a likely progression.)
(12) RAGE SHORTAGE. – Going by the Twitters, people seem to care a great deal about the question of Rowling and cultural appropriation. They seem to not care a great deal about Lela E. Buis is all.
(14) THE ZERO LIFE. – One of my former doctors referred to radiation as “the gift that keeps on giving.”
(17) STICKING IN HIS TWO CENTS WORTH. – Spider-Man looks fakey. And if Marvel really kills The Black Guy to intensify the drama for the white characters I’m sending them to trope jail.
Ah, “In Search Of”! Leonard Nimoy was searching for an identity away from Mr. Spock, writing poetry, doing stage shows (Theo Van Gogh), “Mission: Impossible,” and narrating with Serlingesque gravity for Alan Landsberg. I was watching some of an early episode of the series in my bedroom when Dad entered, hovered for a fraction of a minute, then asked me, “That Old Pointy Ears?” I answered affirmatively, and in that moment, Mr. Nimoy was doomed never to escape his early success.
What do you mean “we”? He’s not speaking for me, and last time I looked I was a WorldCon Fan–having volunteered at many and been on staff at two.
Anime and multi-media cons are doing something more book-oriented cons aren’t doing, but so what? The more the merrier. I don’t dismiss that and I don’t discount the fun attendees and staff have at those events. Go forth! Have fun! Embrace your Geek!
Can we not have this faux fake geek thing? Huge professionally-run media-centric cons are catering to an obviously lively demographic. They’re offering fun to existing Fans and pulling in new ones. All cons don’t have to be cookie cutters of WorldCon. How homogenously offsetting that would be. Yay diversity!
In due course a sufficiency of those Fans will find the smaller more book oriented conventions and decide those are fun, too. Not all of them. Not even most of them. But enough of them to keep WorldCon and those other cons a going (and growing) concern.
nickpheas clearly doesn’t understand that #4 is much funnier on Earth 2.
😉
Jim
@Ultragotha – you’ve obviously not had the same conversations I have.
I was – I thought – careful not to lay blame on those other expressions of fandom, but was addressing an issue that traditional fandom has been wrestling with for years.
YMMV – as will others.
2. I attended SDCC for many, many years. I stopped attending when attendance reached its current highs. It became hard to find the smaller more interesting panels and impossible to attend the big ones unless you wanted really long wait times. Also, hallways became so crowded that people constantly walked into you. Its very popularity has made it impossible for me to enjoy.
I’ve been thinking about attending Worldcon precisely because it’s smaller. If all cons grew to the size of SDCC, I would never consider attending one again.
Also, I find the idea that people have to be taught how to be fans extremely off-putting. There is no One True Way to be a fan. Fandom is a large tent that includes readers, viewers, gamers, cosplayers and more.
As far as SMOFs go, I would imagine volunteers working at a smaller con work as hard as those at larger ones, and maybe harder because there are fewer volunteers.
ETA Please explain the joke in number 4. I feel really stupid because it whizzed right on by…
SteveWorld Weary on March 13, 2016 at 7:59 am said:
This. Are you interested in things SF/F/H? You’re a Fan. If you’re interested in the history of Fandom, that’s great. But not being interested in the history doesn’t make one a lesser Fan.
World Weary – Yom Kippur and Lent (and Ramadan) are seasons of fasting. And Flash is the fastest. Get it? Get it?
[“Repent, Scrollikin!” Said the Tickbox Man]
Ultragotha,
Thanks! I feel stupider now for not getting it but glad to be clued in.
It’s a joke, son. You missed it. — Foghorn Leghorn
@Ultragotha
Now that it’s spelled out I’m wishing I was back in my ignorance and not getting it. LOL
@all
I’m so tired of the whose a fan discussion. I see no reason for Worldcon to get lots bigger (isn’t this a puppy leader talking point?). There are things we need to do to fix problems with the SFF cons:
1. Harassment & other safety issues
2. Making people who aren’t the default enthusiastically welcome
3. Treat each other with real respect because everyone is a human being
4. Treat the hotels and their employees hosting us with respect
5. Treat the volunteers running the con with respect
6. Concoms need to uphold their rules and learn to deal with the age of social media
7. Everyone needs to take personal responsibility for themselves
Clicky.
(2) GROKKING THE FULLNESS. Given my personal experience of Mr. Davidson’s acceptance, as a new WorldCon member I must say he’s got some serious work to do.
Example from this very post, among other things one does not generally find at an anime or comic con, we have:
(12) RAGE SHORTAGE: “Besides this, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot of concern about cultural appropriation except as a tool to attack people who are perceived as targets in some way.
Nobody in the mainstream of Western life gives a single crap about what J.K. Rowling does with a Navajo myth in a work of fiction. Cultural appropriation is a rhetorical device used by people who make money out of being perpetually offended on behalf of supposedly oppressed groups. Any non-Japanese who has ever eaten sushi, or any non-Italian who enjoys a nice cappuccino now and again is as guilty of a sin as J.K. Rowling in this regard. Which is to say, not at all.
So the more Mr. Davidson and “fandom” pursue this type of shibboleth, the more “fandom” and science fiction is going to shrivel into a bunch of shrewish, elderly dickheads waving their canes at the kids for having fun the wrong way.
So why is Fandom going to ComicCon instead of scoldy SJW con?
17) There is nothing about Captain America III that is not awesome, as far as I can tell from that trailer. Spiderman -and- Black Panther? I want to pay money to see that right the hell now. Is there anything that won a Hugo in the last ten years containing one tenth the awesome of even just the trailer for that flick? Don’t think so.
And now, as a shot over the bows of all you SJW cane wavers, I have two serious questions: Can a white actor play T’Challa the Black Panther? Is the African kingdom of Wakanda cultural appropriation?
My answers are A) No. B) Yes, and good on Marvel for not listening to scolds.
Maybe it will work better if we think of it as “literary cons would like to recruit more attendees and volunteers from the larger media cons because 1) we think the people joining us will enjoy what we have to offer and 2) we would like the energy and new viewpoints they have to offer in return.”
Because personally I don’t want the cons I love to get as big as the big media cons–I get anxious in large crowds and also it’s hard to have fun in a place so full of strangers. But personally I would like the cons I love to get a little bigger, with more people having fun and proposing and working on new programming.
Perhaps there is some happy medium to be found–or even one that is already in the process of unfolding.
::ticky::
(4)
And Ramadan too! Oh wait, ninja’d. Not fast enough…
I very much enjoyed Joe Abercrombie’s Two’s Company on Tor, which probably means I lack gravitas; meanwhile, the 2015 Best of Tor has yet to arrive on Amazon.co.uk, free or otherwise.
@Stevie
Gravitas is overrated, it was a good fun story.
I think the Best of is available direct from their website; I’ve certainly acquired it from somewhere.
Finished Zen Cho’s “Sorcerer to the Crown” over the weekend.
Verdict: Socks greatly loosened.
How very odd. It did exist, I have a copy.
Aha. It may not have ever existed on Amazon, but seems to be available direct from Tor.com on this link.
I had all these pithy responses to The Phantom, then I remembered we only have until the end of March to nominate for the Hugo. I could get into a cultural appropriations discussion with a troll or I could read/watch stuff.
Just read Not All Is As It Seems by Faith Hunter in the Temporally Out of Order anthology. Witches, vampires, enchanted teapot, dogs, humor, friendship, family, food, tea, and a little history lesson.
Earlier was a cute Seanan McGuire short about a Temporally Out of Order library room. I’d kill to have a room with causality effects like Seanan dreamed up.
A number of the others have been good so far. Im not sure if any are Hugo worthy but the authors have done well with the premise.
Tasha Turner
“Why bother?” seems exactly right. Reading that last strenuous attempt to troll us SWJs put me in mind of a classic from The Onion.
@Kip W
Thanks for the laughs even as they hurt. The only thing missing from the article was people offering bottled water as door-to-door performing is hard work and one should stay hydrated.
I always have bottled water on hand for missionaries and door-to-door salespeople. It’s all the get from me. I get confused looks, genuine thanks, and rude responses. You can learn a lot from offering a little kindness to those invading your private domain.
@The Phantom
Surprisingly, I suspect a lot of people agree with you on this–in part, at least. “Cultural appropriation is a bad thing” like the idea that “race/gender are cultural constructs” seems like one of those really-bad-but-well-meaning ideas that pops up out of academia every now and then, enjoys a brief period of excited discussion among a very small group of people, and then disappears forever. It’s not usually worth fighting over, no matter how silly you think it is.
For example, I have good reason to be upset about the “gender is a cultural construct” since, as a gay man, I hear “it’s a choice” in that. (I hope no one condescends to “explain” to me why it’s not “really” offensive.) However, as long as the real enemy doesn’t latch onto it, it’s just easier for me to ignore it and wait for it to go away.
This sort of stuff does have an effect on science fiction, if only because it offers way-out ideas that haven’t been explored recently (or at all), but that’s not a bad thing. We did see a fair amount of gender-bending fiction the last couple of years, for example. Most of it was token, much of it was very silly, and little of it got onto anyone’s recommendation lists, but none of it was mean-spirited. Such as did win awards was very mild stuff (e.g. “Ancillary Justice” with its pronouns) which also had other strong points (e.g. the composite AIs in “Ancillary Justice.”)
I think the Puppies make too much of what really amount to internal debates among liberals/progressives that (usually) come to nothing. These are not issues that have any significant effect on what sort of works win awards, nor are they a big factor at conventions. If even 5% of the conversation at Sasquan was about this kind of stuff, I’d be surprised.
(2) I’ll quote myself from a post I wrote back in October 2015:
After the convention, I spoke with my mother on the phone. She had traveled to New York to visit my sister for the weekend, and she was somewhat perplexed that the redhead and I had gone to CapClave rather than New York ComicCon. While the redhead and I enjoy big conventions with tens of thousands of attendees every now and then – we have been to DragonCon once, and we go to GenCon every year – there is simply no substitute for the congenial and friendly atmosphere of the smaller fan run conventions like CapClave, Balticon, Chessiecon, and the hundreds of other small conventions that take place every year. The blunt truth is that the large professionally run media conventions like New York ComicCon are simply exhausting. New York ComicCon had about 170,000 attendees this year. CapClave had about 400. To attend almost any panel at New York ComicCon, you have to wait in line, often for hours. You might be able to see stars like Chris Evans, George Takei, or Carrie Fischer, but you’ll likely see them from the back of an auditorium as they speak to a couple of thousand people. Or if you want a personal interaction you’ll pay for the privilege, and you will likely only be able to interact with them for a minute or two. At CapClave, on the other hand, the panels are small and interactive. I have never had to spend any appreciable time waiting in line for anything. Most of the authors who attend are more than happy to sit down and talk with you, whether after a panel, sitting in the con suite, or simply while hanging out at the hotel bar. An event like New York ComicCon is a spectacle, while CapClave, by contrast, is a conversation. There is room for both in the genre fiction world, but as for myself, I prefer the conversation.
I don’t begrudge anyone the experience of attending a ComicCon, or DragonCon or any of the other large commercial cons, but the truth is they aren’t the same experience, and despite Davidson’s insistence that they are in competition with Worldcon and the collection of other local “traditional” cons that dot the fannish landscape, they simply are not. I’ve been to DragonCon, and it was entirely different from cons like PhilCon, CapClave, or InConJunction: Different in kind as well as in size. Saying the one must become like the other is saying that some fans are doing it wrong. I think there is room for both in fandom.
@nickpheas,
Your link is broken. Try this one.
SF stuffs!
@Petrea Mitchell (I think): Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! I have watched five episodes so far and find it amusing but not earth-shattering. A lot of anime have several establishing episodes before getting into the nitty-gritty of the plot, though. Should I give it more time? If so, what episode would you consider the turning point?
@Vasha (I think): Thanks for the recommendation for “Polyglossia”. I had some trouble finding its rhythm because of the perspective shifts, and would have maybe enjoyed a little more of the linguistic stuff, but it was still an interesting story.
Uprooted: I loved the magic system, and would have enjoyed a little more exploration of that and a little less friragrra-lrne-byq tvey frqhpvat n praghel-cyhf-byq jvmneq. Jnf V fhccbfrq gb svaq gung frkl? Pnhfr vg jnf xvaq bs tebff gb zr.
Aiming to finish Cuckoo Song today. It has not gone anything like my expectations so far. Which is really exciting tbqh.
Steve Davidson seems to suggest that Worldcon needs to change because otherwise it’s dying in a few year’s time or something. Is the situation really that bad? I thought it’s doing well and both Loncon and Sasquan broke some membership records.
I personally prefer going to the small lit cons. I’m there to get people interested in my work, frankly, and I’d rather present to 500 people who are interested specifically in books than to 50,000, of which 1% MIGHT be interested in books.
Speaking of small lit cons, are any of the New England Filers planning on attending ConBust, the con put on by the students at Smith College? It is remarkably well-run, focused on women in SFF, and attendance skews young and very female. Guests include Tamora Pierce, Holly Black, Sharyn November, and Annette Curtis Klause –and the Smithee Awards, if you like B movies. It’s at the end of the month in Northampton, MA:
http://sophia.smith.edu/conbust/
Mike, please let me know if you’d rather I didn’t pimp cons (and my event at them) in the comments. I don’t want to abuse your hospitality.
@Tasha
I’ve only had missionaries 4 times in 30 years in this house, and when they come they do it by car. I don’t offer water — if they want to drive completely out of their way to disturb total strangers, they can supply themselves for the trek. If someone ever climbed the hill on mountain bikes, I’d offer water.
The last time someone knocked on my door and asked whether I was interested in discussing the Bible. I answered eagerly, “Oh! Which translation? I own four…” They excused themselves and left hastily, and I wasn’t sure whether to be amused or disappointed.
On another occasion, when asked my current religious affiliation, I answered, “Heterodox Shinto” which was a reasonable approximation of my practice at that time. Those missionaries also left quickly. I’m not sure why, really. I’m sure they must have encountered odder things in Boulder county… and leaving so quickly seems to indicate a certain lack of zeal. Here they were supposedly out preaching to the heathen, and I had admitted to being a heathen, and they left.
Honestly… it’s like trying to get some people to actually talk about the SF books they like…
Being part of the establishment (straight, white, conservative* male), I still find cultural appropriation problematic. When reading, it is very jarring to hit a section as tone-deaf as the Rowling kerfuffle.
I don’t pretend to fully understand the impact, but I can see an issue with it. Thankfully, there are people better informed than I to tackle the subject.
*Gods above, don’t get me started on the candidates. I am only allowed so much anti-nausea medicine in a day.
#4 Lela Buis. Well, Greg Hullender and I added a few comments over there now. Ask and ye shall receive.
I don’t think it’s a problem.
On Dragoncon etc v Worldcon.
A long time ago…
I was living with cool people. They weren’t actually that cool when you got to know them and they are how I found out that cool people are really just nerdy people with different interests. We lived in a small town which had a lively music scene. It had one particular venue that was really little more than a two room bar in a converted house/pub. I didn’t have any taste in music back then so I largely borrowed my friends taste in music. Unfortunately I am a morning person, so I had a comical tendency of falling asleep even during very loud bands and also I really did prefer to stay at home and read comics a lot of the time.
So, one evening:
‘We are all off to see band. Want to come?’
‘Hmm, I’m a bit sleepy. I’d probably only nod off.’
‘OK, but they are really good.’
‘Hmmm, have I heard them?’
‘I was playing that record last night.’
‘The loud noisy American guitar stuff?’
‘Yup, that one.’
‘mmmm no thanks’
‘OK you’re loss’
‘What’s the band’s name again?’
‘Nirvana’
‘That is a stupid name for a pseudo-punk band. It makes them sound like new-age hippies. I really don’t want to listen to some punks who are secretly new-age hippies.’
And that is how I didn’t see Nirvana before they were super famous.
Small is good. Small is important. Big is important as well but the foundations of popular music can’t be stadium rock.
Cat: I don’t understand why Buis is bringing up 12. It looks like her blog is not usually a buzzing hive of commenters (with no offense intended; many excellent blogs aren’t), so a post not getting comments doesn’t seem, well, worthy of comment.
Buis has made a practice of trawling for blog hits. I have a Twitter feed set up for posts with specific SFFnal keywords, and her tweets will frequently show up in it. She’ll write a low-to-no-content blog post (surprisingly, this particular post is a departure from that, with some actual content), and over the course of a day or two, post numerous different tweets which include provocative statements and hashtags and link back to her post. She’ll frequently namecheck File770 (usually a propos of nothing) in an attempt to get picked up here.
It’s really transparent, and it’s kind of sad and desperate. It doesn’t appear that anyone on Twitter every really responds to her tweets.
I think she’d do a lot better to actually make a practice writing some substantive blog posts like this one, with a little more personal analysis thrown in — she might get some attention then. But those take a lot of time and hard work, and it looks like her goal is just to attract potential readers for her books, not to provide substantive blog content.
spacefaringkitten: You can read Steve Davidson’s posts at Amazing Stories to get the full sense of what he means by “traditional fandom,” which has more implications than I attach to it in my own mind. To me, the “tradition” is that we’re part of something good that’s been going on for awhile, and we can share stories (histories) that help others connect with it — yet “fandom” is a thing anyone can start themselves with a few friends. There are people who did it and later found their way through fanzines, clubs, cons, filk and costuming to “traditional fandom” (I’m an example of that, as one who had only heard of fanzines and set out to invent one for the local library YA discussion group I was part of). However, it’s true there are lots more who are doing it by organizing around things that don’t intersect with these traditions.
But in fact “traditional fandom” was such a successful invention that over the decades it spun off several other fandoms, including comics fandom, that no longer have any particular connection with it except in honoring the memory of founding fans like the Lupoffs and Thompsons.
I think Steve Davidson is arguing that “traditional fandom” deserves some kind of primacy among genre fandoms. That’s not my issue — I’m mainly interested in strengthening the community and continuing to work out solutions to the problems that interfere with people’s legitimate enjoyment of fandom I’m in.
That McDonald’s place is getting more business than the local cafe, so in order to survive the cafe should become more like McDonald’s.
That’s about the size of it. Hers is among the blogs I frequently check just in case today might be the day it happens.
[ticky]