(1) MODERATE TO HEAVY PUPPIES. Standback contributes “A Moderate Conversation Re: Sad Puppies”.
So to some extent, this is a sufficient answer to Stephanie’s question. Why is there so much vitriol against the Puppies? Because we’re on the internet, where it doesn’t take a whole lot to escalate an argument over Best Brand of Pasta into virtual knifings…..
To start things off: I would say I understand the core Puppy complaints, and agree with many of them (to varying extents).
I definitely see a shift in the “focus” of the genre, even if I’d be hard-pressed to nail it down to a definition (not unreasonable, in a genre still best-defined as “what we point to when we say it”). The disproportionate influence of particular groups and fandoms has been raised and enthusiastically argued over in the past (e.g. [1] [2] [3]). And I think there’s been a lot of snubbing, condescension and ad-hominem attacks coming from non-Puppies. Which they often don’t notice, or consider justified. (Scott Alexander’s I Can Tolerate Anything Except the Outgroup springs to mind, as it so often does.)
I won’t go over the Puppy grievances one by one, but I think I can see where all of them are coming from.
(2) DAN SCHNEIDER VIDEO INTERVIEW #68. Steven H Silver says, “Yesterday, Terry Bisson and I were interviewed for a podcast about Alternate History. If you want to hear what I would sound like recording on an Edison cylinder, I imagine this is pretty much it.”
(3) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman’s third episode of his Eating the Fantastic podcast is now live, with guest Bill Campbell.
Bill opened up about many things, including the genius of Samuel R. Delany, how Rosarium’s first book Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond gave birth to a new publishing company, the challenges of crowdfunding creative projects, why he was once blacklisted at a convention, and many other topics which I hope you’ll find as fascinating as I did.
Episode four, coming in two weeks, will feature writer Tom Doyle.
(4) REQUESTING MORE CONTENTS, FEWER TABLES. Black Gate continues its Hartwell tribute with “The Books of David G. Hartwell: Visions of Wonder and The Science Fiction Century”. I’m all in favor of paying tribute to Hartwell, I’d just like to see more in these posts than the reprinted tables of contents of his collections.
(5) NAMING CONVENTIONS. Michael J. Walsh observes what a well-Cultured sense of humor Elon Musk displayed in naming his ships.
By January 2016, a total of three ASDSs have been refitted. The first ASDS, named Just Read the Instructions (JRtI), was converted from a barge in late 2014 and was deployed in January 2015 during the CRS-5 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station in order to provide a landing platform for a test flight of the returning booster stage. It was used for two landing tests through April 2015, and by June 2015, was retired as an ASDS.[1] The second ASDS, named Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY), was converted from a much-newer deck barge and became operational in June 2015 to support a landing test on the CRS-7 mission.
(6) CRADLE OF SF’S GOLDEN AGE. Robert A. Heinlein’s birthplace in Butler, MO has been listed for sale. The asking price is $97,500.
Geo Rule says “The Heinlein Society will gladly accept a six figure donation to purchase it and turn it into a museum, if you’re feeling generous as well. Well, maybe seven figure to turn it into a museum…”
Lou Antonelli takes a selfie at Heinlein’s birthplace.
(7) STATHOPOULOS EXHIBITION. Rejects! The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, a retrospective of portraits by famed Australian painter Nick Stathopoulos , runs March 28-April 15 at Project 504 Studio in St. Leonards (Sydney). Stathopoulos is a 10-time Ditmar Award winner, who also was a 1999 Hugo nominee in the Best Professional Artist category.
(8) NANCY REAGAN OBIT. Former First Lady Nancy Davis Reagan died today, March 6, at the age of 95. Like her spouse, she had an acting career prior to living in the White House, which included a role in the genre movie Donovan’s Brain. The movie was based on a 1942 horror novel by Curt Siodmak who, showing what a small world it is, lived in those days not far from Robert A. Heinlein’s home on Laurel Canyon.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS
- Born March 6, 1906 — Lou Costello. “Abbott and Costello Meet… have to be some of the best monster movies,” says John King Tarpinian.
- Born March 6, 1928 – William F. Nolan
William F. Nolan, Forrest J Ackerman, and Ray Bradbury.
(10) ACE OF HORROR. SF Signal has “5-Time Bram Stoker Winner Jonathan Maberrry on His Prolific Career”
CARL SLAUGHTER: Which of your novels is being adapted by hollywood?
JONATHAN MABERRY: I’m fortunate to have several of my projects in development for film and television. My Joe Ledger thrillers are being developed by Lone Tree Entertainment and Vintage Picture Company as a possible series of movies, likely beginning with Extinction Machine, the 5th in the series. And my vampire apocalypse series, V-Wars, is headed to TV, with a brilliant script by former Dexter head writer, Tim Schlattmann. Several other properties, including Rot & Ruin, The Pine Deep Trilogy, and others, are being discussed.
CS: How long and how hard is the journey to the screen?
JM: Like most writers I’ve coasted the edges of the Hollywood experience for years. There are some frustrations, of course, but that’s part of the game. For example, back on 2007 I co-created a show for ABC-Disney called On the Slab, which was a horror-sci fi-fantasy news program. Disney paid us to develop it and write a series bible and sample script; and then there was a change of management in the department that purchased it. Suddenly the project was orphaned and therefore dead in the water. Another time producer Michael DeLuca (Blade, Magnolia) optioned the first Joe Ledger novel, Patient Zero, on behalf of Sony, who in turn took it to ABC, who hired Emmy Award-winning TV writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost) to write a pilot. Then after we’d gone a long way toward seeing it launch they decided instead to focus on the reboot of Charlie’s Angels, which flubbed badly. That’s Hollywood. I don’t take this stuff personally, though. And I never lost my optimism.
(11) FRIENDSHIP CALCULUS. Adam-Troy Castro explains “How To Remain My Friend When You Really Hate My Friend”.
I guarantee you, if I am close to Friend X, I know that “Asshole” is part of his Venn Diagram. As it is part of mine. As it is part of yours. I have clearly already made my personal calculations and decided that his other aspects are more important. I may someday change my mind. But it is my mind to change, based on whatever passes between me and Friend X; possibly even depending on what I see Friend X do to Friend Y. But you, who have had a different experience with Friend X, and therefore a different reaction, cannot win this argument with me using words, no matter how eloquently you express everything you find objectionable about him. It is, however, very possible for you to lose it. You can become a bore. You can become a scold. You can just become the distasteful person who always feels obligated to piss on my pal; the guy who gives me the impression that nothing will satisfy him until I start pissing on my pal too. That makes YOU the shithead.
(12) VIRUS WITH A LIBRARY. Nature reports “CRISPR-like ‘immune’ system discovered in giant virus”.
Gigantic mimiviruses fend off invaders using defences similar to the CRISPR system deployed by bacteria and other microorganisms, French researchers report. They say that the discovery of a working immune system in a mimivirus bolsters their claim that the giant virus represents a new branch in the tree of life.
Mimiviruses are so large that they are visible under a light microscope. Around half a micrometre across, and first found infecting amoebae living in a water tower, they boast genomes that are larger than those of some bacteria. They are distantly related to viruses that include smallpox, but unlike most viruses, they have genes to make amino acids, DNA letters and complex proteins.
(13) TO BOLDLY BUILD WHAT NO MAN HAS BUILT BEFORE. Collider explains why “NASA Has Designed a Warp Ship Inspired by ‘Star Trek’s Enterprise”.
When does science-fiction become science fact? Throughout various mediums over the last few centuries, we’ve seen early versions of concepts that would eventually become a reality. Sometimes these portrayals are pretty far off base (still waiting on those flying cars), while other times they feel downright prescient. But in the case of Star Trek and one particular engineer at NASA, science-fiction actually informed science fact, with NASA engineer and physicist Harold White now actively working on a space ship that would allow travel faster than the speed of light—or, for the Star Trek inclined, warp speed.
White announced this idea a few years ago, with the concept seeking to allow travel faster than the speed of light by literally expanding space-time behind the object and contracting space-time in front of it. In reality, the object doesn’t “go fast,” but instead takes advantage of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity to move between space-time.
If your head has yet to explode, sit tight—in concert with White, designer Mark Rademaker has now created a CGI design concept of the ship that would operate using this theory, which they have aptly named the IXS Enterprise. Per Rademaker in an interview with the Washington Post, the idea behind the concept art serves two purposes: to visualize their idea, and to inspire burgeoning young scientists
(14) PAGING HUGO NOMINEES. George R.R. Martin knows it’s “Nomination Time”. His short fiction recommendation is a needle in a small Venusian haystack.
Last year, however, these three categories were among those most impacted by Puppygate. The slates dominated all three, sweeping the board and shutting out all other work. In the novelette category, a disqualification allowed one non-Puppy nominee to squeeze onto the ballot, and that story ultimately won. In novella and short story, fans unhappy with the choices presented them voted No Award. Understandably, IMNSHO… still, it was not a happy ending. There was some wonderful and powerful work published in these categories in 2014, and it was a shame that none of it could be recognized. (I was proud and pleased to present Alfie Awards to Ursula Vernon for “Jackalope Wives” in short story, and to Patrick Rothfuss for “The Slow Regard of Silent Things” in novella… but we all know that an Alfie is not a Hugo, and in an ordinary year both Vernon and Rothfuss would surely have been contending for a rocket).
That’s last year, however. No amount of rehashing can change what happened. The important thing is to see that it does not happen again. And to that end, it behooves all of us to nominate the short stories, novelettes, and novellas that we enjoyed most last year… to share our thoughts with our friends… to shout our recommendations from the rooftops. Let’s make sure this year’s shortlists truly represent the best of what was published in 2015.
As to my own recommendations…
Ah, there I hit a problem. I am not making any recommendations in these categories. Problem is, I have a conflict of interest. As a writer I did not publish any original short fiction in 2015, true. As an editor, however… well, Gardner Dozois and I co-edited an anthology called OLD VENUS that came out last year, and in my (admittedly less than objective) view, that book contained several stories that are worthy of Hugo nominations, and one that is so bloody brilliant that I think it stands right up there with any story that ever won the Hugo.
I really can’t tell you which one it is, however. Or the names of the other stories in the book that I think worthy of consideration. Look, Gardner and I liked all the stories we included in OLD VENUS. If we hadn’t, we would not have purchased them (and we do reject stories for every one of our anthologies). But we’d be lying if we said we liked all of them equally. There are stories Gardner liked more than I did; there are stories I liked more than Gardner did; there are stories both of us loved, loved, loved. As editors, however, it would be unethical for us to say which were which in public. Just as parents need to maintain devoutly that they love all their children equally and have no favorites, it behooves the ethical editor to take a similar stance toward the stories they purchase and publish.
(15) GIVING KATE A HELPING PAW. Steve Davidson hated to let go to waste the effort he invested on a comment I deleted here the other day. It now has manifested as “Puppy See, Puppy Do-Do” at Amazing Stories.
Kate Paulk recently closed the comments (at the beginning of March) so that they could be compiled and a final list composed.
It’s a little late in the game, especially considering that nominators are kinda expected to read and be familiar with works they’re going to recommend (but that isn’t necessarily an impediment for organized voting), so we’ve decided to help them out a bit and give them a hand up.
We started with one of the most visible categories – Best Novel. The following list contains all of the individual works mentioned in the comments. We did not verify eligibility (although most, if not all of the works seems to meet that criteria). When judging whether or not someone recommended something, we took “Plus 1” and “Me Too” to count for a “vote”. If someone talked about a work but didn’t expressly indicate that it was something they were going to nominate, we didn’t count it.
If a “top ten” is going to be compiled, it’s pretty obvious from the counts below what we should see on the Sad Puppy IV Slate. It will be interesting to see how the final list compares.
(16) HAMMER EMCEE RAPPED. Marie Porter has some feedback for masquerade emcees, triggered by a recent bad example of the art.
I want to talk about Emcees for convention ?#?cosplay masquerades.
It feels like almost every masquerade we’ve competed in, judged, or watched – with maybe 1-2 exceptions – has had an emcee that behaves in a manner that I find disrespectful to the competitors.
As a general thing, it usually comes in the form of trying to be “entertaining”, and basically comes off like this emcee has an audience, that they are the STAR of the show, and the competitors are basically props to them. They feed off the laughs, which they try to obtain by any means necessary.
A lot of the time, it happens by cracking rude and unnecessary jokes while introducing the competitor, as the competitor leaves the stage, etc.
When it happens, it feels like the emcee has lost sight of what the show is actually about – showcasing the hard work of the competitors. It’s not the “emcee show”, no matter how much they would like to think it is.
Tonight, a few things happened that still have me mad, so let me describe it to demonstrate what I’m saying.
A friend of mine was competing in the beginner category, in a costume she SLAVED over – a Steampunk Lady Thor. I watched her build progress – she put a ton of work into it, and she had every reason to be proud of it.
As she was on stage – being judged, mind you – the emcee talked *over her provided audio* to say – and I quote
“She could hammer me any time”.
She looked horrified, and – quite frankly – like she wanted to murder the guy. Rightly so, IMHO. She basically had all of her hard work diminished into a sexual joke. It was degrading and objectifying, and had no place happening. SHE WAS COMPETING, during PERFORMANCE judging. Can you imagine being shocked by something like that, after all that work?
This is a Facebook link to video of the emcee’s “hammer” line. You can see it for yourself.
(17) UNLOOTED LOOT? Nile Magazine wonders if someone blabbed: “It is full of treasures… the discovery of the 21st century”.
Tantalising news about the ‘secret chamber’ in Tutankhamun’s tomb.
“We do not know if the burial chamber is Nefertiti or another woman, but it is full of treasures.” – Egypt’s Tourism Minister, Hisham Zaazou.
It seems that some secrets are too good to keep. Is this a phenomenal leak about what lays beyond the false wall in Tutankhamun’s tomb? Is it speculative wishful thinking? Or is this a clever boost for badly-needed tourism?
Mr. Zaazou claims that the announcement of what lays inside the secret chamber will be made in April. “It will be a ‘Big Bang’ – the discovery of the 21st century.”
To be honest, I’m not sure what to make of the news that has wafted out of Egypt via Spain in the past 24 hours. The Spanish national daily newspaper, ABC, claims that Egypt’s Tourism Minister, Hisham Zaazou, who was in Spain a few weeks ago, confirmed that there is “treasure” in Tutankhamun’s tomb.
(18) OLD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS. Shortly after Ray Bradbury died in 2012, Jessica Allen wrote a retrospective for Maclean’s about the Bradbury stories Maclean’s had published, in “Here’s to you, Ray Bradbury”. Her article was adorned with photos of the title page art, including a notable typo in the credit for his contribution to Maclean’s September 15, 1948 edition.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Michael J., Walsh, Steven H Silver, Lis, Andrew Porter, and Will R. for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day IanP.]
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Even the deepest female voice is very unlikely to fall into a range to be described as baritone
I saw Barbara Jordan’s voice described as baritone, just this weekend. (It was a quote from Molly Ivins.)
It’s 3834, and YMMV.
@Ryan H:
Hey, I hadn’t thought of that! Wikipedia informs me that the baritone range is A2–A4, while contralto is F3–F5.
But isn’t it established that there are many different alien races in the Ancillary universe, as well as generic modification? If so I can easily imagine a female with a baritone register.
Del Rayva seems about as goofy as the rest of the puppies. He is trying to justify spoiling a nomination process to promote some political agenda.
A dialogue with a pup is fine but I don’t think much ever comes of it. So I wouldn’t make that a goal in life.
Pups are a tiny number of people. They will get lost in the noise eventually.
To paraphrase Lincoln: I Will Send a Barrel of Her Wonderful Misandry to Every Sci-Fi Writer in the World
Hey gang, I’ve been busy doing life things and also adding artists to Hugo Eligible Art. I’d appreciate any of you who could look through the Fan Artist Eligible tag (the index page isn’t up-to-date) and see if you have any suggestions.
Not just names! But artists who have websites such that it’s possible to tell that they have more than one eligible work for 2015, and which ones they are. I’ve spent hours of frustration trying to find this info. If an artist has only one work for 2015, it had better be *astounding*, because (as you can see) there’s a lot of competition.
Will R.: A chance of puppies in the forecast kind of makes me hope Camestros would rework Magritte’s bowler hats with young pugs.
Et voilà.
Del Rayva was an asshat from start to finish, Greg. I suggest you actually read that first comment you linked to, and think to yourself, “now why would people think this chap is a dickhead?”
Once you can answer that question, you may understand why the rest of us got tired of his shit.
Re: female baritones — my mother sang baritone in a barber-shop quartet when she was in college. Of course, she was in college during World War II when men were rather thin on the ground. I expect her range was actually very low alto, like mine.
@Stevie,
In case you missed it, I specifically indicated that I didn’t see anything “nefarious” in this particular case of filtering.
I’m not sure which person of hay that you are seeking, but I am it.
I do think it is helpful to keep in mind that the genre has fortunately gotten large enough that it is impossible for any one person to read everything that it published.
Regards,
Dann
Vasha – Thank you for posting the link to the table of contents. I have so much to read right now, that the idea of downloading the whole anthology felt daunting. At least now I can see if I recognize some names on the list and compare them to those I was already thinking of for that nomination.
So many books, so little time….
Doctor Science, I need to say thank you SO MUCH for this artist project and all the hours you’re putting into it. I wouldn’t know where to start looking for fan artists otherwise.
One fan artist I didn’t see on your site was Jason Porath of Rejected Princesses (each image originally published as a dated blog post).
Seivarden, Mianaai, and the younger sibling on the planet/space station who was ill-used were the only people I was sure were male, b/c they were referred to as such in languages that make the distinction. Oh, and the ones who were mentioned as having beards, b/c probably? There were a few who I was fairly sure were female (like on the snow tavern planet, where they were talking a language that had he/she), but mostly I just figured whatevs. People in a group milling around in the background, being soldiers, or delivering plot information, it doesn’t really matter; I saw crowds as being half male and half female, b/c they would be.
I’ve sung baritone myself when need be, as many altos have. Sometimes when the tenor part is very low, the altos have to pop in to save the poor chaps… honestly, it’d be better a lot of the time if the second altos and the high tenors just switched parts, especially if the tenors are required to sing harmony, which they ain’t so good at.
Sometimes people like a character study where violence and The Fate of Worlds isn’t at stake, which is why people like GJ&TRQ. It doesn’t mean there’s no plot or action, it just means there isn’t stereotypical plot and action. However, without pew-pew and with the open you-know-what, I bet there are a lot of people who ordinarily think Baen Does No Wrong who are going to make an exception here.
Why hasn’t anyone named the terrible Marscon MC? Is it that “Minnesota Nice” (usually passive-aggressive) thing?
@Doctor Science: are you adding these artists to the Hugo Spreadsheet O’Doom?
JJ: brilliant! C’est magnifique. Meow.
Vasha:
Thank you! Oo, good idea, I’ve seen the Rejected Princesses before but forgot about them!
lurkertype, do you have a throwaway e-mail address where I can send you something?
16) Problems at MarsCon (MN):
Oh, great, now it turns out that a con attendee filed a report of inappropriate behavior by another attendee with con security, and the con chair yanked the reporting person’s badge and ejected them from the con.
re voice ranges: Lauren Bacall’s voice was commonly described as a “whisky baritone”.
Ryan H: Considering the range of entire choruses of Russians, I suspect that a woman with baritone range isn’t as uncommon as you say. I met my first female who sang tenor before I went to college, and know another now in a not-exactly-edgy chorus I sing in.
Dawn I: Wikipedia’s range statement is interesting; I’d have said a contralto could go lower — considering that Mozart asked a soprano to sing A3 (“Christe Eleison” in the C-Minor Mass).
(I used to sing third bass, but don’t have the low end anymore unless I’m in exceptionally good shape — probably no more Mahler 2nd for me, grumble.)
Like Scrappy Doo, the rest of the gang in the Mystery Machine may dislike you, may even seek alternate timelines without you, but can’t pretend you don’t exist.
Me:
–did I actually say third-person narrative? *facepalm* I MEANT FIRST PERSON DAMMIT
@JJ:
Wowsers. The source you linked requires a Facebook login. Can you quote or is that not cool?
Dawn Incognito: The source you linked requires a Facebook login. Can you quote or is that not cool?
I’m not Friends with any of these MarsCon attendees on Facebook, but I can see their posts, which means that they are designated “Public”.
So what say you, Filers: is it kosher to quote here public Facebook posts?
@lurkertype: You may like How to Speak Minnesotan. 😉 I love her “Uncastable series, too.
@lurkertype: I got the distinct impression that Raughd Denche also had a penis, and that the male-male thing was part of why the family objected quite so much. (The Radchaai themselves are above caring about that sort of thing, but not every culture.)
@JJ
Fully public posts are reposted here upon request a few times in the last few weeks. The specific person making the claim you reference – her link goes to a person who has locked the posts of interest… Or at least when I followed the link off of the original conversation to the individuals page I didn’t see the claim on the personal page when I was logged into FB.
@David Goldfarb I also thought of Raughd Denche as of the male sex despite the lack of physical cues which is strange because when I think of Radchaai, I most imagine a rather androgynous looking crowd passing by.
I’m not sure why, but I just thought of all the characters as female, albeit sometimes with a penis.
@JJ, public FB posts are just that and I don’t think quoting from them is at all out of line. I wouldn’t quote the comments, though.
Cheryl S.: Not writing this as a disagreement, just felt prompted by you raising the question to explain how I handle this for File 770.
I consider Facebook public posts to be fair game to quote, same as a blog or tweet. The comments on a public post, I classify the same way. Generally, I will seek permission to quote FB posts set to “friends.” (I can visualize a situation where I might break that rule, however, the time I actually did turned out to be a dumb decision on my part, so I’m wary about that now…)
Okay, here is some more of Marie Porter’s post from (16), where Mike’s quote left off:
It wasn’t the only problematic thing that happened during tonight’s event. The emcee also screwed up almost everyone’s name, and rather than apologizing, seeming embarrassed at all, etc… he made jokes of it. It really started to seem like he was doing it on purpose, after a while. Just making jokes of people.
It’s a distraction, and it throws people off their game. Competitors put a ton of time, money, and effort into their entries. Late nights, burns, inhaled chemicals, cuts, tears, etc. To see them be made a joke of like that – it really pisses me off.
At one point, a large group was on stage competing with their Middle Earth bikers thing. Very well thought out, tons of detail, etc. They obviously put a ton of thought into it – and ended up winning best in show
At one point, the sole black woman in the group lifted up her newborn baby, and the emcee TALKED OVER THEIR AUDIO to yell – YELL! – “LOOK! IT’S SIMBA!!!!”
I was so annoyed by him not only interrupting, but doing so to make a completely unrelated reference, I didn’t even think about the racial implications, that two other friends brought up shortly afterwards. It rattled a few people, and was terribly uncomfortable.
According to a 19 year old competitor, he changed HER introduction to include a comment about how she was “doing shrooms with Princess Peach”. Why this middle aged man apparently thought it was appropriate to make a drug reference about a kid is beyond me. He then also decided to add “She’s NO angel!” in the middle of her routine. Not only was this gross, it also messed up her timing. As with most competitors, she takes cues from the audio that she provided to compete with.
Unless it’s scripted, there is NO reason in the world for an emcee to say ANYTHING during a skit. People provide their own audio for a reason. When they are performing – and being judged on that performance! – it is WHOLLY inappropriate to talk over their audio to interject whatever word vomit pops into their head, in the hopes of garnering a laugh or two for themselves… AT THE EXPENSE of the very people that the event is to celebrate.
Again, this is far from the first time that emcee commentary has left me feeling gross. It’s far from the first time that I’ve felt that the costumers on stage were being used as accessories to the emcee’s personal standup routine, rather than the emcee being there to highlight *the competitors*.
And here is the rest of Marie Porter’s post:
So, emcees and potential emcees… a few things:
1. Please try to learn competitor names and pronunciations ahead of time. Take phonetic notes if possible. Stumbling and blurting out several possible ways of pronouncing it is really disrespectful, and comes off REALLY unprofessionally.
2. If you are going to make any jokes or comments about the competitors, clear it with them first. If they so much as LOOK comfortable, DROP IT.
3. NEVER EVER TALK WHILE THEY ARE COMPETING UNLESS IT IS SCRIPTED AND ASKED FOR.
4. Never make sexual jokes about competitors. I can’t believe I even have to say this. Seriously, gross.
I’m sure there’s more, but I really need to go to bed.
Anything competitors would like to add?
Btw, my friend ended up winning best beginner. It’s just too bad that the experience involved being creeped on and degraded on stage, in front of a room full of people.
ETA:
I would like to see this guy banned from the convention. If he had been someone randomly making hugely inappropriate sexual comments to/about several women (including a kid), making a racist remark about a baby, and making drug references to a 19 year old… He’d be banned from any con worth their “cosplay is not consent” posters. Assuming he wasn’t a good friend of the con chair, anyway.
Instead, he didn’t do that in the halls. He did it when he was in a position of power over these women. He did it when they were pretty much helpless to say or do anything about it – as they were competing. He did it to them on stage, in front of an audience, adding whole other layers of creepiness, humiliation, degradation, and objectification to it.
The fact that he was installed in that position by the chair herself adds to it as well.
I, for one, am sick of having to spend hours on end at conventions I pay to go to – conventions with supposed harassment policies, conventions with ‘cosplay is not consent’ posters everywhere – calming down friends after having something like this happens to them. If a con is going to put it out there that this is not welcome, they need to make the perpetrators not welcome… Friend of the chair or not.
Because from where I’m standing, I’m getting the message that young women aren’t welcome.
With regard to the person who filed a complaint about inappropriate behavior with con security, and was then subsequently ejected from the con, there is this comment on another person’s post on the MarsCon page (names elided):
I’m boycotting for more than just this incident. We’ve also had 2 MarsCons in a row now where a woman was assaulted and then victim-blamed by security.
and in a subsequent comment says:
All I know is… in the incident I was witness to, con security decided the best course of action was for my partner and her attacker to just stay away from each other, and we agreed to that. About an hour later, I learned (from Tim at con security) that none other than the con head decided to call the cops ON HER and pull her badge…oh, and my testimony as a witness was nullified.
I repeat, SHE was the one attacked, I witnessed the attack, and somehow the blame was put on her anyway.
Unacceptable.
And in a post on MarsCon’s page, this person says:
I’ve decided to share here on the main MarsCon group exactly what happened to Tak at MarsCon….
She and I were sitting at Krushenko’s when she noticed a child, aged about 10, smearing his hands all over the food, picking up numerous pieces and putting them back.
TAK (to the child): Stop putting your fucking hands all over the food!
CHILD (purple with rage): DON’T SWEAR!!!!
TAK: Then stop putting your hands all over the food.
CHILD: YOU’RE NOT MY FATHER!!!
[understandable child’s mistake, since Tak is a rather butch lesbian]
TAK: Apparently, neither is your father….
[meaning, of course, that said father wasn’t watching his kid…this comes into play later on]
The child then handles some more food as an act of defiance, and screams to his father, who comes up to Tak, ***hits her on the shoulder***, gets in her face, and…
FATHER: Shut up, bitch!
TAK: What do you think you’re going to do to hurt me?
FATHER: *growl* [yes, he actually growled]
At that point, Tak started laughing, and the father left with his kid when he realized he wasn’t going to get any violent reaction out of Tak. Throughout this entire exchange, Tak was seated and was leaning in the chair with her hands rested on the head of her cane. She did not even so much as raise a hand at either of them.
Well, later on, Tak went into ops with me as a witness to explain what went on. After we explained the incident, it was decided that she and the father would just stay away from each other for the rest of the con, and we agreed to it, and to not press assault charges against the father.
What we didn’t know at the time was that apparently the last thing said to the child ended up triggering said child as he took the quote as meaning “your father’s not your real father”. Due to that, the con head had the cops called to “deal with” “known carry permit-holder” Tak [who btw, was NOT carrying for the entirety of con].
Six Bloomington cops showed up, realized that Tak was in fact rather stable (in fact, she and the cops were trading political jokes), but since the con wanted her badge pulled for traumatizing the kid, the cops had to at least oblige that. Tak was allowed to stay in the hotel until morning.
I repeat: Tak was the one struck, and she gets HER badge pulled because a misbehaving child (who probably shouldn’t have been in the party room area between 11pm and Midnight in the first place) misparsed something she said. Also turned out the father was a friend of the con head, resulting in a fair amount of favoritism.
And I already know some of the arguments that will come up…
1) “You shouldn’t have sworn in front of a kid”
Sorry, it was after 11pm in an adult-leaning area of the con. She is under no obligation to make herself “kid-safe” at that hour.
2) “He wasn’t your child to discipline”
Sorry, the child was creating an unsafe situation for the ENTIRE CON-GOING PUBLIC. It was every congoers’ prerogative to call a child on behavior that may negatively affect them if the parent won’t do it.
So yeah, that’s it in a nutshell, with more detail than I mentioned earlier.
And the person who was ejected from the con says:
(line breaks added for readability)
Yes. I was polite, and I even REPORTED the incident, “I” wanted to call the police, but they convinced me that it didn’t need the police and just to forget about it, Turns out they called the police on ME the moment they talked me out of calling the police on their friends. They then FIRED the security officer who talked to the friendly witnesses, then destroyed her incident report. They then LIED to the police and said there were no friendly witnesses.
Their rationale as I have gotten it from people on the inside was that as a GUN OWNER I must be inherently unstable. They actually thought I was going to go on a killing spree for two more hours of shitty consuite food. (Snarkey’s Rocks though) Seriously. I’ve locked my carry gun in the safe at Marscon for the last TEN YEARS!
They did what they did it keep me from getting their FRIEND in trouble with the police, Just shitty behavior from them and VERY unprofessional. If they wanted my badge, all they needed to do was ASK me for it. Id have just given them the silly thing. They never even asked.
And John Garner has posted the following comment on the Marscon page:
Marscon has released the official statement about the 2016 Masquerade.
On Saturday there was an unacceptable incident involving the Marscon Masquerade MC and we apologize for this. Due to other circumstances the planned MC was unable to perform that evening. An individual was chosen to take his place and the choice of this person was unfortunate. During the competition he made multiple inappropriate and offensive comments while they were performing. He did not follow the introduction scripts as given to him as well as talking during the performances which caused multiple people to miss their musical queues so their performance wasn’t what they desired. This type of behavior is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We do everything we can think of to make this a fun, family oriented convention that is a safe place to attend. The actions of this person in no way reflect the attitudes and policy of Marscon. We will work with the Masquerade community to make sure that there is a qualified individual in this role in the future as well as verify our policies and procedures to reflect how this type of behavior is unacceptable. There will be further actions taken in regards to this and we welcome any input.
Please accept our sincere and heartfelt apologies. Especially to all of the hard working performers, you are an inspiration to all of us. We were wrong and it will not happen again.
When asked for a statement regarding the person who was ejected, he says:
I have already asked for that to be done. It is being looked into, but more people are involved and it will take longer to get input from everyone involved.
@JJ Thanks — it’s good to see that cats and dogs can nest beneath bowler hats!
@Nicole — LOL, because for me that was a feature: the first-person narrative is so dry as to suggest a third-person perspective, which is exactly the point. For me, it is one of the inherent horrors of the books.
lurkertype:
!! I hadn’t realized art was on the Spreadsheet O Doom!! I shall see if I can enlist my Hugo voter offspring to fill it out and cross-reference.
@JJ
Thanks for posting the follow up. What a mess in so many ways.
Thank you JJ! I had been able to read the initial posts by Marie Porter, but not about the person being ejected from the con for reporting harassment. I had seen some mention about unsupervised children and victim-blaming, but couldn’t locate any more info.
In the “be the change you want to see” category, I contacted my local con of cosplay and geekery and asked them about their code of conduct. Which is apparently being rewritten and will then be posted on their website. The person who replied to me said all the right things, including “cosplay isn’t consent”, but this and the ConQuesT incident proves to me that a written code of conduct isn’t sufficient by itself.
If the CoC is in order, I will sign up to volunteer. I have friends who cosplay, and I quite enjoy seeing all the young ‘uns dressed up and invading downtown. (Not to say only young ‘uns cosplay, but they’re primarily the ones I notice.) I want them to have a good time, and if I can assist in that it will be worthwhile.
Dann665
In case you missed it, I didn’t suggest that you had suggested that anything nefarious was going on with the digest. Perhaps you could try rereading my post, if this is still unclear to you.
You claimed that the digest was an example of filtering, a claim which you made no attempt to substantiate, and you were insulting in suggesting that the readers here might not give de Castell’s work a fair chance. After all, the only reason to ask that we give him a fair chance is because you believe we would not otherwise do so.
If you were more familiar with File770 you would have realised that I had already commented favourably on his work; it would also have dawned on you that Mike isn’t running an echo chamber, and that all sorts of people, with all sorts of tastes, meet here to catch up on SF news and argue with each other.
About the only thing the regular commenters here have in common is slates: we hate ’em, and even then there is one very obvious exception to that rule. In the meantime, perhaps you could actually recommend some books which you think one or more of us would enjoy here in the year 5365, which is otherwise not notable for the quality of the reading matter…
@lurkertype:
Yes, tenors are total prima donnas what with their always getting to sing the melody line and I’m not jealous at all.
Signed,
— The Serviceable Baritone
@RedWombat:
I like to think that with consistent effort Brian could work his way up from B.J. to Baby Bop.
Jim
I consulted the family expert on these matters – he’s the Director of Music at England’s second oldest cathedral, and himself a tenor – and he assures me that good baritones are a sought after bunch. He also added that tenors tend to overrate themselves whilst baritones do the reverse, so you seem to be running true to form.
Signed
The person whose fillings hurt if someone hits the wrong note.
@Jim Henley:
Come on, who else is going to sing E-flat for 36 measures in a row? The Altos? Don’t be silly! (We’re holding down the A :P)
Hmm. The kid shouldn’t have been there, shouldn’t have been touching all the food and the father was clearly well out of line, but I don’t think that there’s a cut-off time where it becomes okay to swear at strange children. I’m slightly taken aback at the idea that there’s an obligation not to swear at children you don’t know which disappears at certain times in certain places. I’m not saying she was in the wrong, or anything, just… that’s an odd way of putting it.
@Nigel, no, true, and she agrees she shouldn’t have used a curse word, but that’s pretty minor next to what the kid and Dad ostensibly did. Some folks seem to be condemning the bad word while ignoring both the response and the initial uncontrolled behavior of the child. (ETA: I don’t mean you. There are some commenters on FB doing this. One persistent one in particular, who is a friend of the Dad’s.)
Now, we haven’t seen alternate witness stories so far. But so far I haven’t seen anyone arguing with the events, but only with whether they were justified.
Hm, I didn’t see that expressed, but God knows verbal frustration with kids is easy sometimes, so I’m not condemning her for it, as such, just snagged by that phrasing. The kid was out of line and the Dad was out of control, no question. Even if you thought the person was being mean to your kid, if you’re actually concerned about the kid you don’t escalate an argument like that right in bloody front of them, let alone commit an assault and threaten violence.
I’d be somewhat miffed that someone swore at my kid. I’d be deeply embarrassed and rather apologetic that he’d gotten so much into the food unsupervised as to need someone else to speak to him. The former might have made me defensive about the latter, which could make the whole moment unpleasant, but it sounds like a situation that could have been resolved by two adults both acting like adults (instead of one being an adult and the other a terrible example to his child.)
Agree entirely. There was no reason at all for the whole thing to get any worse setting everyone ears burning with embarrassment and awkwardness. A dreadful example set by the dad.
@ jonesnori/Lenore Jones:
I strongly prefer it when people use my actual first name, but I’ve been letting the occasional e/a mix-up slide online a bit more, unless it turns into a chronic mistake. (I’m more inclined to insist on 3 syllables in spoken communication.) I’d correct anyone who outright mixed us up in very short order, though.
I suppose it might help if I ever went and got a gravatar, though.
Well, and “don’t curse around/at kids” is one of those things that can vary by culture and indeed family. (My parents tried, but I suspect there were some “Goddammit, stop biting your sister,” moments, and I know my dad told me not to take that fucking tone with him at least once.*) For some people profanity’s just another form of emphasis, but for others it’s above and beyond, and it’s not like there’s a lot of consensus about that.
If you don’t want people swearing around your kids, don’t bring them to adult gatherings; if you don’t want people swearing at, or otherwise speaking harshly to, your kids, maybe teach them to behave themselves.
* He was right to do so, IMO: this was well into my Teenage Douchebag phase.
A sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore:
Lenora Rose, people are bound to confuse us, given the name similarity (or not notice that our names were autocorrected to the other version, as my computer tried to do to your name just now).
As I was on the File a-tapping on my keyboard, posts o’erlapping
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
Suddenly there came a fwapping: “The Rose and Jones are not for swapping.”
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
When the accurs’d hour tolls our doom, shall we mistake the name Lenore?”
Said the Filers, “Fear no more.”
@Stevie: Heh. Thanks for the report!
@Dawn Incognito: LOL.
I am dangerously close to deciding to tackle a Frank Turner song (“The Next Storm”) in piano lessons and the son of a bitch hits a G above Middle C in the chorus. And, I’m sorry, no. We’re either changing key or seeing how it all sounds an octave lower.