(1) INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY. Iain Clarke’s image of astronaut Mae Jemison, created for the Dublin in 2019 Worldcon bid, makes a great reminder that March 8 is International Women’s Day.
(2) THE FRANCHISE. And the BBC marked the occasion with its article “International Women’s Day: Why women can thrive in sci-fi”.
While the Star Wars expanded universe has a number of popular, female characters, the cultural impact of seeing a female Jedi’s hero journey on the silver screen can not be overstated. “For years we’ve been hearing that women couldn’t front a sci-fi/action film,” Jenna Busch, founder of Legion of Leia.
“The fallacious perception is that they just won’t sell. But, now we have Katniss, Furiosa, and Rey to prove that attitude wrong. There is something about seeing the box office numbers that might be a step in the right direction.”
(3) THERE IS ANOTHER. Last November, James H. Burns saw a van tricked out as the Mystery Machine on Long Island. Now, on the other side of the country, California authorities are seeking a different fan of the Scooby gang who’s been speeding around in her own version of those wheels — “Redding police: Suspect flees in ‘Scooby-Doo’ Mystery Machine”.
On Sunday, March 5, the Redding Police Department was alerted by Shasta County Probation Department about a subject who had allegedly violated their probation around 12:50 p.m. The subject was identified as Sharon Kay Turman, 51, Sgt. Ron Icely said in a news release.
According to the report, officers spotted Turman in the Mystery Machine, a 1994 Chrysler Town and Country minivan, at California and Shasta streets. Turman fled when officers tried to pull her over, traveling at high speeds. A CHP helicopter and Shasta County Sheriff’s Deputies joined the pursuit. Turman is reported to have reached speeds of over 100 m.p.h.
(4) FAKE FAN. A fake GalaxyQuest fan site, created to promote the movie, can still be viewed via the Wayback Machine. One of its features is ”Travis Latke’s” interview with Gwen DeMarco, replete with fannish typos. (I think Travis learned copyediting from me).
TL: How do you do it? How d you deliver one blockbusting performance after another?
GDM: It’s all about the craft. As an actor I try put myself inside the head of my character. Since I sgtarted acting, I always try to become the charactere, that sometimes is very trying. For instance I once played Medea in summerstock in the Hamptons and, gosh, for weeks I hadthey nauseating feeling of having done all the bad things Medea does in the Euripides play.
With Galaxy I delved into scientific research that by the time the show was cancelled I knew enough for a PhD in astrophysics. I mean, it’s a fascianting subject. I made some great friends at the Pasadena Jet Prupolsion Lab who I still consult whenever I have a question aboput quassars and wormholes.
(5) WINE PRESS. To this day, fake fans are still being used to promote things. Hats off to Trae Dorn, who’s been drilling to the bottom of “Wine Country Comic Con’s Bizarre Litany of Lies” at Nerd & Tie. There is no end to it!
Last week we published a piece on Wine Country Comic Con. A first year convention currently scheduled for April 23-24 in Santa Rosa, CA, we were alarmed to find they were using a fake Facebook account to spam groups and talk with potential attendees.
But the more we looked into this event, the more we discovered that this story went further than just the fictional “Frida Avila.” Wine Country Comic Con organizer Uriel Brena has constructed a complex charade of lies, fake staffers, and a whole bunch of weirdness.
This rabbit hole runs deep.
A Full Complement of Fake Staffers
The first thing we found out was that “Frida Avila” wasn’t the only weirdly complex fake staffer created by Wine Country Comic Con. Thanks to some email tips (and a bit of our own digging) we found several more:….
(6) A ROBOT WITH KEANE EYESIGHT. Kirsty Styles at TNW News says “Aido is pretty much the robot they promised everyone back in the 1950s”.
Aido will be friends with your weird kid, act as a security guard, remember your schedule and project movies onto the wall to help with anything from cooking to plumbing.
This is the robot to kill all robots. With kindness.
(7) ROWLING ON NORTH AMERICAN MAGIC. Will there be anything left to say about this topic by the time I post it to the Scroll? We’ll find out. Today Pottermore ran the first installment of J. K. Rowling’s revelations about wizardry in the New World.
The first piece of writing from ‘History of Magic in North America’ by J.K. Rowling is here, and we can also give you a taster of what’s to come this week.
Today’s piece goes back through the centuries to reveal the beginnings of the North American magical community and how witches and wizards used magic before they adopted wands.
Wednesday’s piece will divulge more about the dangers faced by witches and wizards in the New World, and on Thursday you’ll discover why the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) took steps to move the magical community deeper underground.
The last piece will take us right up to the Roaring Twenties, when the magical community in North America was under the watchful eye of MACUSA President, Madam Seraphina Picquery – played by Carmen Ejogo in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
These stories will give you some idea of how the wizarding world on this continent evolved over the years, and of the names and events that lay the foundation for the arrival of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in November.
(8) TROPE TRIPE. Arguing over Rowling should put everyone in the mood for Mark J. Turner’s post at Smash Dragons, “Five Fantasy Tropes That Should Be Consigned to History”.
2. The Chosen One
In fantasy books the protagonist often begins life as Mr A.N.Other, minding his own business in some nowhere village doing nothing in particular. Then we discover that he is the son of a king or a powerful wizard or warrior, and suddenly he is able to take on the world, no training required. Or if there is training, the author presses the fast forward button on the process, and our protagonist learns in a year what it would take others a lifetime to master.
And the transformation in our hero doesn’t end there. He has spent his formative years as a farm boy or a swineherd, yet for some reason that has prepared him perfectly for the demands of running a kingdom. When he rises to the throne, everyone lives happily ever after. There seems to be a sub-text in these books that in order to stop the world slipping into chaos, all you have to do is put the “right” person in charge. It’s as if the natural order is somehow disturbed if there isn’t a man or a woman ruling everything. Whereas in reality we don’t have to look too far in our own world for examples of where putting all the power in the hands of one person isn’t necessarily a good idea.
(9) ON STAGE. James Bacon reviews The Ghost Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore at Forbidden Planet. The play features segments written by authors Christopher Fowler, Stephen Gallagher, Kim Newman, Robert Shearman, Lynda E. Rucker and Lisa Tuttle, alongside a wraparound story by director Sean Hogan.
The writing is hilarious, within moments of our travellers sitting down and their unpleasantness becoming clear, the audience are laughing at dark contemporary humour, riffing off recent well-known scandals, while smart language and profanity reflect more closely the mores and morals of modern society. Using traditional ideas of what we consider horror monsters, the authors skilfully show what monsters really are, that nothing is as monstrous as humanity, and the writers with their sharp razor-like ability to find angles in people, left the audience contemplating where the horror truly lies and what being a monster really is….
The framing worked well – a fancy dress party, as one’s favourite monster on a vintage steam train, a very nice little conceit to create the right atmosphere for the portmanteau of stories. Strobe lights, sudden intrusions, the chimey tinkley creepy music as the stage went dark for the changes, the sound effects and stage work, props and masks/costumes all were just right, adding the perfect amount of tangibility for a lively suspension of belief….
(10) OVER THERE. Larry Correia’s next tour stop is —
Just learned @monsterhunter45 will be at Ramstein Air Force base in Germany on April 20th, for those of you in the service.
— Baen Books (@BaenBooks) March 7, 2016
(11) SAVE GAME OF THRONES FAVORITES. George R.R. Martin’s characters face “Danger! Peril! Death!” Only this time, it’s not because he’s writing scenes for them in his next novel.
Suvudu is doing another one of their Cage Match tournaments. This time the theme is Dynamic Duos. Jaime (one-handed) and Brienne have been paired together. In the first round they are facing Garth Nix’s Sabriel… and a pussycat.
In the first Cage Match, lo these many years ago, Jaime defeated Cthulhu (with a little help from Tyrion). Surely he cannot lose to a fluffy little ball o’ fur (and fleas). Not with the mighty maid of Tarth by his side.
(12) TYSON HOSTS DEBATE. Panelists for the 2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate will engage the question: “Is the Universe a Simulation?”
What may have started as a science fiction speculation—that perhaps the universe as we know it is actually a computer simulation—has become a serious line of theoretical and experimental investigation among physicists, astrophysicists, and philosophers. Join host and moderator Neil deGrasse Tyson and his panel of experts for a lively discussion and debate about the merits and shortcomings of this provocative and revolutionary idea.
The Asimov Debate panelists are: David Chalmers, Professor of philosophy, New York University; Zohreh Davoudi, Theoretical physicist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; James Gates, Theoretical physicist, University of Maryland; Lisa Randall, Theoretical physicist, Harvard University; and Max Tegmark, Cosmologist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The debate takes place April 5 at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium. Check the website for tickets. The debate also will be livestreamed via <amnh.org/live>.
(13) BOOKS SCIENTISTS LOVE. Charlie Jane Anders at io9 pointed to a forum in reddit’s Print SF Resources where scientists talk about their favorite books and the scientific problems they find in SF. Filer Greg Hullender makes an appearance there.
(14) STEAMPUNK RULES WHERE STEAMBOATS DOCKED. The Riverfront Times was there when “The Science Center Went Steampunk on Friday – and Everyone Had a Victorian Good Time”.
The St. Louis Science Center takes Fridays very seriously, with a themed evening of special events the first Friday of each month. Last Friday was no exception, as the Science Center hosted a night entirely devoted to steampunk science. The event drew everyone from families to costumed fanatics. All enjoyed a night of demonstrations (did someone say “escape artist”?), activities (where else can you try a steampunk shooting range?), films and more devoted to this take on Victorian-era science fiction.
(15) HYPNOTIC SCULPTURES. Everybody with a quarter-of-a-million spare dollars is going to want one of these.
(16) SUPERGIRL WILL BE BACK. The Mary Sue has deduced Supergirl will get a second season.
While technically nothing official’s been announced, while speaking at Deutsche Bank Media, Internet & Telecom Conference, CBS President Les Moonves pretty much stated that Supergirl is getting another season. Well, specifically he said:
We have about five new shows on this year. Of those five, I believe all five of them will be renewed, and we own four of them.
[Via Nerd & Tie.]
(17) A NEW SUIT. Another Comic Con is being sued for trademark infringement – but the mark involved is not “Comic Con,” as the Houston Chronicle explains — “Convention bureau sues comic convention over ‘Space City’ trademark”
Houston’s convention bureau is suing the operators of a popular local convention over the use of “Space City” in its name, claiming it infringes on a 12-year-old trademark.
The convention in question, Space City Comic Con, also happens to compete with a similar event that is half-owned by the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau itself. The bureau acquired a 50 percent stake in the more established Comicpalooza last September, spokesman A.J. Mistretta said….
Houston has billed itself “Space City,” a boastful nod to its founding role in U.S. space exploration, since the 1960s. Over the decades, dozens of local companies from plumbers to construction outfits to tattoo parlors have used the moniker as part of their name. But they are not affected by the trademark registered by the convention bureau in 2004, said Charles S. Baker, an intellectual property lawyer with Locke Lord in Houston who is representing the bureau in its lawsuit.
The trademark is narrowly constructed and applies solely to efforts that promote tourism, business and conventions in the greater Houston area, Baker said.
(18) TODAY IN HISTORY
- March 8, 1913 – The Internal Revenue Service began to levy and collect income taxes in the United States. (Go ahead, ask me what that has to do with sf. They’re raising money for the space program, okay?)
(18b) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRL
Born March 8, 1967 — Tasha Turner
(19) MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. Amazing Stories’ Steve Davidson makes an ingenious comparison in “The 7 Levels of Recommending”.
Maimonides, a Jewish scholar and Rabbi (which are pretty much the same things: he was an astronomer too…) once developed a “hierarchy of charitable giving”. He essentially analyzed the different kinds of charity that people extended and attempted to define the different types and then ordered them from least to most selfless. He ended up with 8 different levels of giving. The lowest form of charity is giving grudgingly – forced to hand over a dollar to the street bum because he’s blocking your path. The highest form is giving before it is even needed (my father thought that included my allowance….).
I mention this because, as a result of all of the discussion regarding slates vs recommended readings lists, I thought that a similar hierarchy of the levels of recommending might be instructive.
(20) SHUT UP, PLEASE. Max Florschutz uses “The Loud Neighbor” as a social media analogy. I found his argument appealing until he decloaked his attack —
And this is where a lot of “social” groups these days get it wrong. A lot of what’s being touted online and in social circles these days is the act of calling the landlord to complain about noise, while being just as loud on one’s own, but giving one’s self a free pass to be loud because you have the “right.” It’s wanting the freedom to do what you want, produce as much friction as you want, while not being willing to extend that same courtesy to others. It’s the kind of mentality that leads to things like “safe spaces” where only individuals of one sex or skin tone are allowed entry. Freedom to produce as much friction as possible while denying others the same freedom. One group is allowed to be “loud” while simultaneously “calling the landlord” to complain that the other group needs to be silent.
Is it a perfect allegory? No. But it still holds. We can’t be as loud as we want and expect that no one else be given the same treatment. We need to extend the courtesy that we give ourselves to others. If we don’t do that, then what are we doing but putting ourselves on a pedestal and pushing those around us down?
(21) IS THIS A GOOD THING? You can now pre-order 2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush, edited by Kevin J. Anderson and John McFetridge, at various places including Amazon. (My header, there, is just a joke. A message board I used to follow had a devoted Rush fan, and yanking his chain about it was an indirect way of expressing affection.)
Ron Collins drew my attention to the book in a promotional e-mail —
I’m super-thrilled to announce that you can now pre-order copies of 2113, an anthology of stories inspired by Rush songs that includes my work “A Patch of Blue.” I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this one. I’ve spent a lot of good times listening to those guys. [grin]
My story is one inspired by Rush’s “Natural Science,” which is a monstrous work in three acts that’s just cool as all get-out. It was a total blast to write, partially because I got to put it on endless loop while I did it–so, yeah, the song is pretty much indelibly inked onto my brain now.
(22) ENERGIZE – THEN DIE! This is freaking alarming — The Trouble with Transporters.
(23) RAVEN MANIAC. From Amoxtli, the poetic masterwork of the day.
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.”
[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock, JJ, John King Tarpinian, Rob Thornton, David K.M. Klaus, James Bacon, Martin Morse Wooster, and Kendall for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Steve Davidson.]
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Erm, upon rereading my post about Twilight and the issue of teaching race in the American literature classroom: I don’t mean to imply that ONLY X teachers should be doing it (or that there isn’t the necessity to do more in other classrooms as well as in other cultural areas), but that if one IS teaching American literature then one should realize that American constructions of race are foundational/inherent: one of the best books I ever read on this topic is Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination..
American lit anthologies (used in universities–high school textbooks are a whole other thing) have changed since I was an undergrad (early 1970s): then, we started with the Puritans! Now, a good Am Lit anthology will start with translations of American Indian text and, often, translations of Spanish texts produced in the “New (to Europeans) World.” (Spain was colonizing away as well, remember).
Bad overgeneralization on my part–or at least confusing. I just got so tired of that debate in the last half of the 1980s, and it’s depressing to see it still popping up.
To the enormous credit of the overworked grad student who taught my Native American Religious Traditions class, many years ago, she got both a speaker in from AIM and a very nice Ojibwe woman willing to talk to wide-eyed, not terribly bright college students. Otherwise, it might have just been another “Here’s a copy of Black Elk Speaks, here’s your required cultural diversity credit knocked off” class. She was hardcore and it was only years later that I realized how incredibly well she was handling getting shoved into the “You, teach this class,” role. I had her like three times, and she basically had to handle every diversity class in the Religions department, except for African American Religious Traditions, and she did GOOD. (The African American Religious Traditions class was also pretty wild, because the teacher had been a Southern Baptist preacher, and only had the one speaking style. He could take attendance and you would want to give him an Amen (and I was an angry young pagan at the time!) That man had a talent.)
And when Ted Turner was all set to be our keynote speaker at graduation, we protested about the name of his team until he bowed out, because screw that guy.
Yegods. I didn’t know about the uranium mining. I’m one of Today’s 10,000, and thank you for that edification — but I’ll leave off the word “Lucky” today 😐
robinareid: Thank you very much for the link to the “It’s OK to like problematic things” essay. That conflicted feeling is very much something I get with things like Firefly, the Darkover series, and Money for Nothing.
JJ: You’re welcome! That is one of my favorite essays in the whole world, and it’s SO incredibly useful and brilliant and opens up chances for discussion in so many ways.
And, really, what isn’t problematic in some ways (and sometimes the problematic parts are worth thinking about–which is what Toni Morrison said in her book I referenced above!).
Also, as a datapoint, I first heard the word “Skinwalker” as a song-title on the album Anonymous by Tomahawk. But that is probably an extreme minority of cases.
ETA: Lyric, not title. The song is called “Red Fox.” (I had to go re-listen to it…)
@Rose Embolism: Brandon Sanderson does some interesting things with prophecy in the second book of his original “Mistborn” trilogy, The Well of Ascension. Not exactly what you’re asking for, but not a million miles away, either.
Lenora Rose – Yep! Definitely a librarian. I work with both children and adults, and I manage our children’s collection. I’m fairly entrenched in discourse communities focusing on children’s literature, childhood literacy, and related issues. Obviously, caring about children as readers is a large part of this.
Debbie Reese’s work at American Indians In Children’s Literature is great! She is tireless!
I personally like a lot of problematic books (glances over at bookshelves filled with Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood). But, I can recognize and process the ways in which they are problematic and I have no problem with folks criticizing those aspects of them. But (and this is what I was getting at when I mentioned thinking about the intended readers), your average 10 year old isn’t as adept at this as most adults. About a year ago I came across an easy reader about a founding father that featured a picture in which the people most adults would recognize as slaves working in the fields were smiling and being served lemonade by white people. As an adult reader, I can parse the problems with this image. A 6 or 7 year old reading this book would get a very inauthentic view of slavery. If anyone comes in and asks me for this book, I will do what’s necessary to get it for them, but if I’m asked about the content in terms of historical accuracy, you better believe I’m mentioning that portion of the book.
Fantasy literature is not the measure of a concept’s authenticity, nor is it good source material for genuine folklore.
So far as I can tell, no one outside of ethnographers and the Navajo knew or said a thing about skinwalkers before Tony Hillerman’s novel introduced the rest of us to the term and meaning in 1986.
Every reference since then seems to be a direct ripoff of that novel, often mixed with a bunch of modern piffle about werewolves (which skinwalkers are *not*!).
Careless people have conflated the Navajo concept of the skinwalker with animal-form stories from non-Navajo traditions, of which there are thousands. That does not make them the same thing, at all.
The Cherokee do not have the tradition. I do not know for sure about the Hopi and the Ute; they are close neighbors to the Navajo. I migt ask my Zuñi friend about it.
@robinareid: I also enjoyed that “liking problematic things” essay. Thanks for linking it!
@JJ:
I wish! It would be amusing/horrifying to see. But I lost my bookmark for the site when the family finally ditched AOL in the mid 00s, and I don’t remember the original address. The last thing I remember posting there was enthusiasm for the then-upcoming Star Wars Episode II, so perhaps it’s best left forgotten!
@junego:
I’m sure I’ve read this one too…no clue where, though. I think I liked it at the time.
Cat:I don’t know the southern US nations’ mythology remotely well enough to answer that. My point was that it was a North American Indigenous specific term, not that it was a Navajo term, and as such, bringing in a specific Welsh character and a painfully unspecific “the seelie” is both not helpful and not accurate.
Also, my name is referenced in the bloody pixel scroll today, never mind at the top of my post. WTF Leonard?
ETA Ninja’d by a vastly more knowledgeable PIMMN. Thanks!
It happens. I managed to give one author another author’s last name once. I just found the timing entertaining/bemusing/frustrating.
(I grant you, I’m in the pixel scroll in a quote from another person of similar name who was being replied to by the person (The obviously talented amoxtli) whose delightful poem, which, while riffing on our names, was decidedly their own. But it’s about the only way I’m getting on the pixel scroll anytime soon, so i gotta take what i can get.)
Er, wait, what was that last part? I have very little fiction out there, and I don’t think I have many reviews, so this must be a reference to someone else.
Aaah, Robin ninja’d me on some of my links. But this is what happens when you go in against an academic when citations are on the line. 🙂
Because of the uranium mining, the Navajo have a water crisis that makes Flint’s look like nothing. I mean, like having decades of uranium poisoning wasn’t enough. They still find time to get upset about non-researched kids’ books, though.
Uh oh – I think we’re triplets now.
Lenore Jones
Lenora Rose
Heather Rose Jones
Okay, Lenore (with an “e”) Jones is the 58-year-old widowed, semi-retired accountant, who often works Access at worldcons. Sisters?
I first heard “Skinwalker”, the song by Robbie Robertson & The Red Road Ensemble.
https://youtu.be/gMp_ofOA5Qw
Re (22) ENERGIZE – THEN DIE!
Nobody seems to have mentioned Algis Budrys’ novel ROGUE MOON, where the source person is scanned (non-destructively), and that data is sent to a [3DNA printer (my term)] doohickey, resulting in, well, a copy.
There’s also been sundry ephemeral-duplicates stories, like David Brin’s KILN PEOPLE. And there’s an X-Men character that spawns and resorbs dupes, ah, Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man. (I recently library-borrowed a collection of these, plotline involving the dupes forming a detective agency…)
And didn’t Larry Niven write an essay on transporter conundra?
OTOH, Gully Foyle didn’t seem to worry about this… nor did Gil “Bert” Gossyn. 🙂
Daniel Dern
Look back to 3:20 pm.
@Stevie: Well, thinking it through, I suppose that I am just stunned by the fact that not one person here has commented on the contents of the script I linked to – which, incidentally, includes amongst all the other horrible things a disgusting dismissal of Native American spirituality- and it’s really, really hard to deal with that.
Oh, is that the issue? That’s probably a combination of A) most of us saw that and registered disapproval or signal-boosted other people’s disapproval a year ago, when it happened, and B) many of us have had Adam Sandler mentally filed under “pretty much irredeemably horrible” since Tropic Thunder.
@Soon Lee — FWIW, Robbie Robertson is Mohawk on his mother’s side and grew up in part on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. My impression is that since he’s not Diné it’s not appropriate for him to be referencing it, but (since I’m not Native American myself) it’s also not my place to call him out on it.
@Lexica,
Oh I was not calling anyone out but sharing my first encounter with the word. I’m aware of Robertson’s heritage, and also that the song was in the soundtrack of “The Native American” documentary series.
[I’m a fan of the album but have never seen the documentary. It was never broadcast here.]
@Soon Lee — oh, no worries. I just wasn’t sure how familiar you were with Robertson. Plenty of North Americans aren’t aware that he’s got Native/First Nations ancestry (not sure which term, if either, he uses).
Rich Hall’s BBC documentary Inventing the Indian is worth watching, IMO. (As are his other documentaries for the BBC about America, including California Stars; How the West was Lost; The Dirty South; You Can Go to Hell, I’m Going to Texas, and more.)
It’s interesting to see one’s culture explained to outsiders by somebody knowledgeable and thoughtful. IMO.
[Why is the Vimeo link the only one that’s showing up as an inline preview? It all looked fine at first.
That’s weird…]
@JJ
I would not consider the last year or two to be mild in any way. Perhaps I will finish the TLDR piece that I drafted some day. Motivation is low on that project.
@Aaron
Would you please re-read what I wrote. All of it. Including the asterisks.
Regards
Dann
Slightly off topic, and say what you will about Rowling’s writing skills, but I found The Casual Vacancy to be one of the most engrossing books I’ve ever read. One of the legitimately few books I had a hard time putting down so I could sleep, and then couldn’t wait to get back home the next day to read again. I honestly don’t understand the criticism that book received. Now I want to reread it, just thinking about it again. Did anyone watch the mini-series? I haven’t and wonder how good it is…
As far as I know. I’m pretty sure I’m the 39-year-old currently-at-home mom from middle Canada. Who should get more writing done than she does, and way more submitting. (And does most of my volunteering for Folk music and theatre festivals, not cons, but that’s travel cost and proximity as much as anything.)
I don’t know HRJ’s age or place, but I do know she’s the one with the really awesome sounding books actually out there.
Would you please re-read what I wrote. All of it. Including the asterisks.
The asterisks don’t make your citing that bit of Starship Troopers in this context any less idiotic. In fact, it makes it more so. Do you actually not realize this?
I’m the 57-year-old Californian who does industrial failure analysis in biotech and writes fantasy novels. And now I’m wondering if we have a Heather Lenore lurking out there somewhere. (And if someone has been saying nice things about my novels recently, I’m bummed that I seem to have missed it!)
NON-CONTROVERSIAL (well, I hope)
@Rose Embolism: ROFL re. the correct names for coffee, vodka, etc. 😀
@junego: I want to re-read that story! 😉
@Viverrine: That’s a nifty idea (older seers – visions shift further into the future). I could see doing it the other way, too.
@Mark (Kitteh): Sorry, it’s one credit, which (for my plan) is basically $11.50 for ten novellas, which is IMHO very good. Anyway, thanks for the rec! Kai Ashante Wilson’s happens to be first in the audiobook, but I plan to listen to all, although I may go out of order (because time waits for no audiobook narrator), so I’ll keep Of Sorrow and Such in mind if I skip around.
@Vasha: Similary, thanks for the rec! I feel like I’ve seen mixed reviews for Binti, but I need to try something by Okorafor, so I’m going to try to listen to it by the end of the month. (I’ll definitely listen to it eventually). I’ll bookmark that review for after I hear it; I have a folder with several review bookmarks where want to read detailed reviews after (I’m not super-anti-spoiler, but some things are better experienced first).
Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.
Steve Davidson thanks for the poem/filk. Put a smile on my face.
The echocardiogram went fantastic. My heart is where it belongs, is the right size, shape, no abnormalities. I’m cleared for surgery. This was a first for me. I’ve never had an ultrasound with the results everything’s normal. It was exhausting. Tomorrow I meet with the surgeon and hopefully set a date for laparoscopic gallbladder removal.
So much on this thread to catch up on my I don’t think I can be coherent enough to chime in until Friday. I have lots of thoughts.
Did want to make one comment about Faith Hunter and the Jane Yellowrock books. My understanding is she has gotten guidance/mentor(s) in presenting the skinwalker and other Native American Indian parts fairly culturally accurate. I’ve believe I’ve seen more than one Native American Indian mention how well she does on the details. She discovered she has Native American Indians in her ancestry through genealogy research which sent her doing research and making connections. I can’t remember which nation. I don’t remember if I’ve read this in online interviews, her bio, or if it’s mentioned at the end of the books including where she stays true and where she changes things. It’s been a while since I last read anything by her.
@Tasha Turner: I’m so glad to hear the echo went well!
@Jenora Feuer:
*facepalm*
I have read and reread Jennifer Roberson’s Novels of Tiger and Del (Sworddancer, Swordsinger, etc.) and only now, looking at your post, do I realize why the strong liquor Tiger favors is called aqivi.
Ow.
One of the recent Syfy Channel series had a similar concept – don’t remember which one or how similar, it was mostly on for background noise.
“It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N’N-T’N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme.” – Douglas Adams
Lenora Rose :
So… the scroll title wasn’t a reference to this guy?
Adam Sandler had nothing to do with Tropic Thunder.
Not that there aren’t many reasons to see Adam Sandler on irredeemably horrible. Just Tropic Thunder isn’t one of them.
@Kip
Exactly the book I was thinking of – and a great story. But in that story the focus of ‘transporter’ technology is merely there so that the protagonist can be killed over and over again….
Or a Heathar Rosa Jones.
Marshall Ryan Maresca: Not that there aren’t many reasons to see Adam Sandler on irredeemably horrible. Just Tropic Thunder isn’t one of them.
I really enjoyed The Wedding Singer (yeah, it’s that whole 80’s nostalgia thing), thought 50 First Dates was okay, and hated Anger Management; Sandler’s other movies all seemed like things I would totally not enjoy, so I haven’t seen them.
With the exception of Reign Over Me — a drama about a man who loses his family on 9/11 and ends up with major PTSD. It’s really an amazing movie (but not a terribly uplifting one). Sandler got the role after Tom Cruise backed out. I can wholeheartedly recommend this film — but I pass on anything else that Sandler is in.
@ Stevie
For what it’s worth I went to the link and read the bit(s) of script and thought “wow, this is awful.” It was news to me, if not to many other people reading. I never thought much of Sandler but I think less of him now.
I just don’t see why that means only Native Americans should point out stereotypes about Native Americans and object when people who have a huge fan following lift and distort bits of various Native American cultures.
I don’t want to be mean, I just want to point out that this puts a serious burden on minorities in general as they try to oppose stereotypes that harm them, a burden that escalates in proportion to how small the minority is. If only 15% or 5% or 2% of the population is considered “qualified” to object to a particular stereotype, logically it gets that much harder for the hold of the stereotype on the mind of the remaining 85% or 95% or 98% of the population to be reduced.
Sure the 2% can at least talk to their children–but that is only 2% of the next generation. And while “you’re not bad honey; the rest of the world is just mistaken about us” can be a helpful message when it comes to self-esteem, it doesn’t do anything about the problems the rest of the world, in their mistakenness, cause the 2%.
I think it would be condescension if people who weren’t Native American demanded to be in charge of the pushback, or told Native American individuals or groups how to feel about it, but that is not what I am seeing here.
Okay, if a fantasy novel introduced such a character with hidden depths, would it be a QUILTBAG of holding?
@ Darren
Nah, a QUILTBAG of holding is when you start reading the fantasy novel and realize that there are more marginal identities contained within it than there are characters.
There’s also a Vasha and a Tasha; sorry about that – I would choose another nym if I hadn’t been using this one for 15 years.
Vasha: But you both use Gravatars.
Love it! It’s not fantasy, but Charles Stross’ “Rule 34” comes to mind:
“ “Rule 34” a decisively non-heteronormative work. The only significant character who is remotely conventionally heterosexual is the psychopathic gangster: everybody else is somewhere else on the Kinsey scale, even if they don’t admit it”
I use my real name in most online situations because it seems to be more distinctive than any handle I would make up.
I have never met another person with my name. I’ve never even met another person with the same first name as mine.
Lowell Gilbert: It does seem to be an uncommon first name. The only Lowell I’ve run into at a con is Lowell Cunningham, creator of Men In Black.
@Vasha
I don’t think we’ve been confused even before you found the great picture for your gravatar. I could always switch to my Jewish name Malka Esther or go by my initials (TT or ME) if filers start confusing us.
I have never met another person with my name. I’ve never even met another person with the same first name as mine.
I will take the opportunity to appraise you of the existence of Lowell Thomas, author of Doolittle: A Biography.
@Heather Rose Jones
I’m the 57-year-old Californian who does industrial failure analysis
Completely off topic but…
Ooooh, my fave job was in a test lab when I was much younger. Getting paid to break things and figure out the failure modes was so much fun, except when one of our products failed in the field and we were under the gun to analyze and report! I planned to stay in that specialty, but life happened and I ended up managing QA in a different company.
Back on topic…
My name is neither Lenore, Lenora or Jones and I don’t write fiction (but I read it), I was born in Texas and I’m older than all of you ;^}
@Aaron:
I didn’t say I’d never heard of any other Lowell, just that I never met one. Lowell Thomas was one of the major national newscasters when I was a child, and another Lowell (Weicker) was senator from a state neighboring the one I lived in.
/Celebrate god-stalk, come on!
It occurs to me that this may be of interest. Years ago, I lusted for the Ellery Queen anthology, The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes, a collection of parodies that was quickly quashed by the Doyle estate when it came out. Copies went for over $50 (in the 70s), clearly unaffordable. Well, the book’s legal now, and Archive has it as a free download in various formats (I prefer the PDF facsimiles), or you can read it online. So many things are online these days, like the First Folio of Shakespeare (which can be found elsewhere as a single download, as can the second, third, and fourth). The fourth is interesting for having seven additional plays, one of which is actually by Shakespeare.