Pixel Scroll 3/9/16 Pet Symmetry

(1) REMEMBERING HARTWELL. Rudy Rucker has one of the best personal tributes to the late David G. Hartwell that I’ve read.

In 2005, Dave got me invited to give the keynote talk at ICFA, the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, held in a brutally cold motel Florida. One of the organizers quipped, “We don’t come here for the sun, we come here for the air-conditioning.”

Dave told me that a member of the committee had said, “We can’t invite Rucker, he’s a difficult drunk,” and Dave told him, “Not any more.” By then I’d been sober for nearly ten years. I said to Dave, “I wonder if my drinking years had a bad effect on my career.” Dave said, “I don’t think so. Even now, I still talk to people who are very disappointed when they see you at a con and you aren’t swinging from the chandeliers.”

(2) JEMISIN DISCUSSES ROWLING’S NEW WORLD MAGIC. N.K. Jemisin’s verdict on Rowling’s magical North America is: “It could’ve been great.”

…I’m still careful, even with “dead” faiths, because I don’t know how playing with these things might hurt real people. Nations have been built upon and torn down by the concepts I’m playing with. The least I can do is research the hell out of a thing before I put a toe in that ancient water.

It’s even more crucial for religions that are alive, and whose adherents still suffer for misconceptions and misappropriations. But these are easier to research, and it’s often much easier to figure out when you’re about to put a foot right into a morass of discrimination and objectification. All the evidence is there, sometimes still wet with blood. You just need to read. You just need to ask people. You just need to think….

Anyway. This is just to say that there’s a number of ways Rowling could’ve made her Magical North America work without causing real harm to a lot of real people. That would be for her to have treated American peoples — all of us — with the same respect that she did European. Pretty sure she would never have dreamt of reducing all of Europe’s cultures to “European wizarding tradition”; instead she created Durmstrang and Beauxbatons and so on to capture the unique flavor of each of those cultures. It would’ve taken some work for her to research Navajo stories and pick (or request) some elements from that tradition that weren’t stereotypical or sacred — and then for her to do it again with the Paiutes and again with the Iroquois and so on. But that is work she should’ve done — for the sake of her readers who live those traditions, if not for her own edification as a writer. And how much more delightful could Magic in North America have been if she’d put an ancient, still-thriving Macchu Picchu magic school alongside a brash, newer New York school? How much richer could her history have been if she’d mentioned the ruins of a “lost” school at Cahokia, full of dangerous magical artifacts and the signs of mysterious, hasty abandonment? Or a New Orleanian school founded by Marie Laveau, that practiced real vodoun and was open/known to the locals as a temple — and in the old days as a safe place to plan slave rebellions, a la Congo Square? Or what if she’d mentioned that ancient Death Eater-ish wizards deliberately destroyed the magical school of Hawai’i — but native Hawai’ians are rebuilding it now as Liliuokalani Institute, better than before and open to all? …

(3) BAR’S NEW NAME. SF Site News, in its story “Geek Bar Rebrands”, reports that Geek Bar Chicago has changed its name to SFCO.

The rebranding will also bring in an influx of video consoles, late night programming, and new hours, Sunday and Wednesday from 5pm to 10pm, Thursday and Friday from 5pm to Midnight, and Saturday from 3 pm to 2 am. The bar will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. In addition to their game selection, SFCO will continue to offer a rotating menu of geek-themed signature cocktails and a pop culture reference-filled menu items. The news of the rebranding was followed by former CEO David Zoltan announcing that he had resigned from Geek Bar in January.

(4) JULIETTE WADE’S FANCAST. Juliette Wade’s TalkToYoUniverse is a great place to find regular coverage of “linguistics and anthropology, science fiction and fantasy, point of view, [and] grammar geekiness.” Wade is often joined by a guest writer, as in the latest installment, “Andrea Stewart – a Dive into Worldbuilding”.

Something that makes Wade’s project exceptional is that every episode is accompanied by a post fully detailing what was discussed. Here are the first few paragraphs about her visit with Stewart –

We were joined for this hangout by author Andrea Stewart, who told us a bit about her worldbuilding and her work. Her work has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, IGMS, and Galaxy’s Edge.

We started by talking about a piece she had in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Set in a psudo-Chinese culture, it featured an opium den with magical smoke, in a place where the land surrounding the city was dying and this had become the people’s escape. Very cool story! Andrea explained that her mom is a Chinese immigrant, so half her family is Chinese. One of the key differences, she says, is in conversational interaction style.

I asked her about her series, the Changeling Wars. She told me that it had begun as a writing exercise, where every person in a group picks a word, and then each member has to write a piece that uses all the words chosen by the group. She describes this series as being part of a move from dark fantasy to a bit lighter fantasy. The first book begins when a woman walks in on her cheating husband, and her emotion is so powerful in that moment that it awakens magic in her. It turns out she’s a changeling, and not just adopted, as she believed.

Andrea has very warm words for writing exercises, which she says can spark ideas you might not otherwise come up with.

There are 101 Worldbuilding hangouts in the index, 25 featuring special guests, including Aliette de Bodard, N.K. Jemisin, Ken Liu, Myke Cole, Usman T. Malik, Cat Rambo, Sofia Samatar and Isabel Yap.

(5) IN FOR A DIME. Sonia Orin Lyris tells how she “Will Build Worlds for Spare Change” at The Fictorians.

The next week my inbox was filled with indignant treasures, among them this: “No, no, no! This is NOT a D&D game. Coins have names! Coins have histories!”

I instantly knew how right she was. Knew it like the contents of my own pocket.

Pennies. Nickels. Dimes. Not “coppers.” Not “large silvers.”

I dove back into my research and emerged soaked in currency-related facts, from minting to metals, from Greece to China. The facts went on and on, as did the likeness of people and horses and birds and insects, of ships and buildings, of angels and flowers, of myths and monarchs.

So many coins, each symbolizing their culture’s prosperity and priorities. Its very self-image.

I now understood that not only did coins have names and histories, but they were keys to wealth and power, to trade and politics. Coins affected everyone, from rulers to merchants to the poorest of the poor. Coins mattered, and mattered quite a bit.

Coins had names and histories. They had faces. Coins traveled.

That’s when it hit me: Coins are stories.

(6) EVEN MORE WORLDBUILDING ADVICE. Coining words is the focus of “This Kind of World Building :: An Interview with Sofia Samatar” at Weird Sister.

Kati Heng: One thing that always amazes me is when a writer is able to make up not just a story, but also an entire language behind it. Like all creative writing, there must be rules you set for its creation. Can you tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind Olondrian, and especially how the names of characters were created?

Sofia Samatar: Making up the languages was one of my favorite parts of creating the world of Olondria. The biggest influence on the Olondrian language is Arabic, which I had studied before writing A Stranger in Olondria, and was speaking daily while writing the book in South Sudan. I was inspired by Arabic plurals, for example, to devise a complicated system of plural patterns for Olondrian. Olondrian pronouns resemble Arabic pronouns as well. And, like Arabic, Olondrian has no P sound (any word with a P in it has been imported from another language).

The creation of the language was closely tied to the development of names. I don’t have anything close to a complete Olondrian vocabulary, but I do know what the names mean. “Vain” means forest, for example, so there are a bunch of “vains” on my map — Kelevain, Fanlevain, and so on. “Kele” means hunting. “Fanle” means apple.

To invent the names, I chose small chunks of sound that seemed pretty to me and played with combining them. Few activities can be more self-indulgent. It was wonderful

(7) VALLEY FORGE SHARES CoC DRAFT. The Valley Forge in 2017 NASFiC bid’s “Progress Update 2” links to its draft Code of Conduct and other policies. (They also unveiled their mascot, Proxie the Celestial Raccoon.)

Next, we have had a number of queries about what our code of conduct will look like if and when we win the bid. Like I mentioned in the last progress update, we’ve been working on a draft of the CoC for a while now, and it has been a whole heck of a lot of work for the entire team. After many, many hours of sweat and toil by all of us, we’re happy to be able to share version 1.0 of the Valley Forge 2017 Code of Conduct (html version) with you.

Now obviously, calling it “version 1.0” implies that we expect updates, and we do. The convention is a long way (and a successful vote) away and there are some details that we just can’t get in place until we have more structure, like phone numbers and room locations and websites. A lot can change in a year and a half, so what you see here may not be exactly the same thing you see if and when you show up at our door – but substantively, we are happy with what we have and are proud to put our names behind it. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it.

We’re also elbow-deep in the guts of an internal procedures manual for how to deal with a variety of scenarios, including what to do if we receive a report of a code of conduct violation. That’s not quite ready for prime time yet, and may not be ready until we have a more formal concom structure in place of our current bidcom (in other words, until and unless we win the bid). If we can whip something into releasable shape before then, we will publish that as well.

(8) THE KESSEL RUNS. It is alleged the full title of Kitbashed’s “Complete History of the Millennium Falcon” is “The Complete Conceptual History of The Millennium Falcon or How I Started Worrying and Lost My Mind Completely Over a Fictional Spaceship Someone Please Do Something Send Help Why Are You Still Reading Someone Do Something.”

The Pork Burger

The ILM model shop built the new Pirate Ship model, and quickly found a way to distinguish it from the old one in conversation, namely by adopting Grant McCune’s nickname for it: The Pork Burger.

And if you want my theory, that’s where the myth of the design being based off of a burger Lucas was eating got started.

(9) FURRY CUSTOMS. The Independent learned from Twitter that “Syrian refugees in Canada got housed in same hotel as VancouFur furry convention and the children loved it”.

The fifth annual VancouFur convention, in which people dress up as fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics, was held at the same hotel where a number of Syrian refugees are currently being housed.

A message was given to all attendees at the convention that the hotel had been chosen as one of the temporary housing locations for the Syrian refugees in Canada, and that “a major concern that VancouFur has is ensuring that each and every one of the refugees (and attendees) feels welcome and safe and the fact that this is likely to be a major shock to them”.

“Keep in mind that they likely will not want to interact with you and consent is important to everyone,” the message added.

But luckily for everyone involved, the refugees – especially the children – loved it.

 

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRL

  • Born March 9, 1911 — Clara Rockmore.

Rockmore was a master of the theremin, the world’s first electronic music instrument and first instrument that could be played without being touched.

On what would have been her 105th birthday, Rockmore has been commemorated with a Google Doodle. The interactive game teaches you to play the theremin by hovering your mouse over the notes to play a melody.

google_doodle_clara_rockmore-large_trans++4k9pB6mVv575RZMUuuHUNod8NF4FUHHs1V8EwfI8yHk

(11) PROPHET IN HIS OWN LAND. Even George R.R. Martin won’t be allowed a hometown premiere of Game of Thrones Season 6.

And yes, it’s true. After last year’s unfortunate leak, HBO is not sending out any press screeners this year, to try and cut down on the piracy.

They have also eliminated all the regional premieres, including (sob) the one we had scheduled at my own Jean Cocteau Cinema. This year the only premiere will be the big one in LA at Grauman’s Chinese.

The Jean Cocteau will, however, go ahead with our season 5 marathon. Admission is free, so watch our website and newsletter for show times.

(12) LESSER OF TWO WEEVILS. Joe Hill brings his skills as a professional horror writer to bear on the Presidential race in his latest “Perspective”.

I asked my three sons and a cousin what would be scarier: 8 years of a Trump presidency, or two kaiju attacks, one on Washington D.C. and one on L.A., separated by 8 years. Assume standard kaiju size (20 stories, 80,000 tons), atomic breath, acid blood, probably the ability to produce subsonic blasts with one whap of the tail. Immune to conventional nuclear weapons. Highly aggressive.

By a vote of 3 – 1, they agreed two kaiju attacks would be much worse for the nation than if Trump were to become President of the United States. So if you feel depressed by Trump’s toxic mix of misogyny, xenophobia, and bullying, look to this for a cheer-up. It could be worse. You could be jellied beneath the trampling scaly feet of a salamander the size of a skyscraper.

Admit it. You feel better all ready.

(13) THIS JUST IN. “New Survey Finds 92% Of Evangelicals Would Have Supported Genghis Khan” reports Babylon Bee.  

Genghis Khan, the genocidal warlord who conquered most of Central and Northeast Asia during the first part of the thirteenth century, enjoys widespread support from twenty-first century evangelicals, a new CNN poll revealed Tuesday.

“The level of support for the Supreme Khan of the Mongols is off the charts,” explained Malcom Johnstone, the pollster who conducted the survey for CNN. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Clearly, there is a strong correlation between being pro-God and pro-Genghis.”

Still, many Christians question the accuracy of the new findings.

Like Buddy Buchanan of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “I’ve been in a Bible church my whole life, and I’ve never met anyone who likes this Genghis fellow,” Buchanan revealed to sources. “I just don’t get it. I can’t think of a single person who supports him. I remember there was a cool-looking Khan in one of those Star Trek movies, but I don’t think that’s the same guy.”

(14) SHARKNADO FOUR. “Syfy and The Asylum announce Sharknado 4 casting”Sci-Fi Storm has the story.

Syfy and The Asylum announced today that Ian Ziering will slay again in Sharknado 4 (working title), reprising his role as shark-fighting hero Fin Shepard, while Tara Reid is set to return as April Wexler to reveal the outcome of the fan-voted #AprilLives or #AprilDies social campaign. The fourth addition to the hit global franchise also sees the return of David Hasselhoff as Gil Shepard and Ryan Newman as Claudia Shepard.

(15) FOREVER FANS. Future War Stories presents the case for picking Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War as the best military sf work.

In 1974, Joe Haldeman, armed with his bachelors in Physics and Astronomy along with his experiences in the Vietnam War, would craft a military science fiction tale of UNEF soldier William Mendella. This book, The Forever War, would go on to win every major award and prize, rocketing Joe Haldeman into the realm of sci-fi literature. Since its original publication, The Forever War would be re-edited, translated into every major language, and be adapted into various forms, including an major studio film has been in the works since 2008 and the effort seems to be active. The book’s legacy is being hailed has the best military science fiction book of all time and it has been a source of inspiration for decades. In this installment of the continuing Masterworks series, we will explore and explain why Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War is the best literary military science fiction work. A word of caution: this blog article contains spoilers on key moments of the book. Read at your own risk!

(16) STROSS INTERVIEW. Charles Stross, in an interview at SFF World, thinks magic might be a better metaphor for one of sf’s typical tropes.

And what of newer authors? Are there any personal favourites?

In the past year, I’ve read and been incredibly impressed by Seth Dickinson’s “The Traitor” (US: “The Traitor Baru Cormorant”); grim, harrowing, and deeply interesting for his use of secondary world fantasy as a tool for interrogating kyriarchy. I’ve also been impressed by Alyx Dellamonica’s “Child of a Hidden Sea” (and sequel “A Daughter of No Nation”), V. E. Schwab’s “A Darker Shade of Magic”, and Naomi Novik’s “Uprooted”—secondary world/portal fantasies for the most part. SF … I find myself having a knee-jerk reaction against most of what comes to me as highly-recommended or highly popular SF these days; I think this is partly because—for me, these days—magic works better as a metaphor for depicting alienating technology than actual ham-fisted attempts at describing the thing in itself. (And also because so much of the exotic tech in SF is basically warmed-over magic wands.)

(17) VINESPLAINING. In this GEICO commercial, Tarzan and Jane get into an argument about asking for directions. (I may have linked this before, but I can’t find it…)

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, James H. Burns, Will R., and Michael J. Walsh for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]

291 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 3/9/16 Pet Symmetry

  1. Oneiros on March 12, 2016 at 1:26 am said:

    Re traffic in South East Asia: most countries have their own systems that work totally fine. Bangkok and Chiang Mai are actually really easy to deal with. Traffic in Vietnam scared the crap out of me when I first got here but I’ve learnt how to cross the road safely now and it’s all good.

    I don’t know how people cross the road in Vietnam. Thailand is much easier even if all road rules, traffic markings etc seem to be treated mainly as suggestions. I haven’t visited Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon and that is supposed to be even worse than Hanoi and I found Hanoi traffic scary. I think part of it was that there was LESS traffic on the road, and it was fast and free flowing, whereas Bangkok traffic was more of a lazy, crazy river of cars and mopeds and the occasional monks on mopeds.

  2. ULTRAGOTHA on March 12, 2016 at 8:31 am said:
    We were being driven by a professional driver and a professional tour guide in St Petersberg, Russia. While in the oncoming lane of traffic, when the cars came at us head on, the driver moved to the sidewalk. That was after we drove thorough the flooded street with water halfway up the door, then had a flat tire but they wouldn’t let us get out of the car while they changed it. That was an unforgettable drive.

    OK you win 🙂

  3. Re: Maps: My map of Winnipeg is upside-down. I have no problem within the city remembering that the North End is down and the University of Manitoba, in the far south, is up, and Mom’s place is to the left and down a bit. I can find just about anywhere, and its relation to anything else. (And the driving isn’t that scary, though there are a number of places I’d hate to bike.)

    But my maps of Manitoba, and Canada, and North America are all traditionally oriented, so I’m still half convinced when I leave the city to go anywhere that we are going the wrong way, and I have to keep reminding myself about the reversal.

    I also regularly have to concentrate to get the direction of flow of the Red River; the river goes north, therefore it should be going up, except that up is South… (I’ve had dreams including river travel and in the dreams, it goes the other way. Every time.)

    I’ve lived here since i was nine.

  4. In my hometown, and only in my hometown, I have a weird north/south reversal in my head. I know east and west instinctively, but I have to THINK about which way is north and which way is south. I lived in that town for the first eighteen years of my life, and I have no idea why I have that problem there. (Everywhere else, north is north and south is south.)

    And my hometown is on a midwestern grid. It’s not like the Connecticut town that my husband grew up in; he was driving me around to show him his childhood sites, and I suddenly realized (by noticing the position of the sun) that we were driving east on the same road we’d been driving west on, without turning around…

  5. I lived in Toronto for over a decade. The lake is South, and uphill is North. Easy peasy! A few years ago I moved, and now the lake is North, and uphill is South. Haven’t been entirely successful yet in making the mental switcheroo.

    Re: frightening cities for driving, I’ve never been there but several friends of mine have said that driving in Montreal is a terrifying ordeal.

  6. JJ –
    That’s a great story! Thanks for sharing! And yeah, not so much the done thing…

    Tasha –
    Ha! Well, I’ve moved nearer to Detroit, and have grown a bit of my own inner maniac for handling the highways here (696, anyone?). And I would not try to drive in Boston… I know my limits.

    Best wishes for your surgery!

  7. Tasha, I hope the surgery will be very successful, that the recovery will be swift and easy, and that you’ll feel better after it. Preferably in time for very good Pesach.

  8. Cassy B.:

    In my hometown, and only in my hometown, I have a weird north/south reversal in my head. I know east and west instinctively, but I have to THINK about which way is north and which way is south.

    This is me and Philly, where I spend literally half my time these days. I am convinced South is North and North is South unless I stop to remind myself.

  9. Camestros: 😀 😀

    On the plus side, I had the best cream of mushroom soup I have ever, ever had in St Petersberg. I will never have as good again.

  10. @Camestros Felapton: I have a hatred of most big cities (except Tokyo which is amazing and Seoul where I have some great memories) so I don’t have much firsthand knowledge of Ho Chi Minh City but my friends who spent time there assure me it’s similar to NT: slow, steady pace and the bikes will flow around you as you cross. It’s a weird sensation at first.

    Chiang Mai has intersections with lights that people obey but no pedestrian walk lights, and you have to be vigilant about watching for people u-turning or turning left (or flat out racing the lights – and that’s when you start seeing bikers/scooterers doing flips over the bonnets of songthaews…) It’s also an absolute nightmare for disabled people as what pavements there are tend to be thin and littered with ridiculous obstacles – up to and including random slabs of concrete.

  11. Oneiros on March 12, 2016 at 4:58 pm said:

    Chiang Mai has intersections with lights that people obey but no pedestrian walk lights, and you have to be vigilant about watching for people u-turning or turning left (or flat out racing the lights – and that’s when you start seeing bikers/scooterers doing flips over the bonnets of songthaews…) It’s also an absolute nightmare for disabled people as what pavements there are tend to be thin and littered with ridiculous obstacles – up to and including random slabs of concrete.

    Surprisingly (to me anyway) I’ve never been to Chiang Mai, but I have tried to navigate the pavements of Bangkok with my kids in a stroller when they were babies. So, I can empathize with that experience! (including the random slabs of concrete or the elephant hiding from the police)

  12. @ Tasha
    Best wishes for an easy surgery and recovery. Please remind us in April that you’re going in.

  13. @Junego
    I promise to remind everyone about the happy surgery right beforehand! If I’m not able to post right afterwards my husband will stop by to update.

  14. @Camestros Felapton: If you get chance to travel to Thailand again I would recommend Chiang Mai as a lovely little northern city. Apparently maybe even just 5 years ago it was a small, fairly sleepy little city… and then digital nomadism happened and everyone with an online startup seems to want to move there. As a consequence, “nomads” (not a term I particularly like) and backpackers make up a not entirely insignificant percentage of the people you’ll see around. It’s absolutely nowhere near as bad as the islands down south though, where I swear 95% of the population was idiots with backpacks who were happy to pay 3x over the odds for everything because they don’t know any better.

  15. MVH: We can ban carrying firearms the same way that, say, we can ban playing a banjo or a carrying a lit oil lamp — you’re allowed to violate our ban, which doesn’t carry with it the force of law, and we are equally free to then revoke your membership. The problems come with enforcement.

    Let’s say we prohibited it. Person A is carrying concealed, and person B knows about it and complains. Now we’re obligated to at least ask person A to stow their weapon in a safe place. If person A doesn’t comply with our request, we have to ban them from the event and ask the hotel to bar them from the premises. As soon as we ask the hotel to do that and we tell hotel security that person A is carrying, they’re most likely going to call the police so there’s an armed presence in case things go sideways. Now we have an armed police presence pulling someone who is also armed out of our convention… and for what practical purpose? The people with permits are generally the ones you have to worry about least.

     
    I just don’t even. 😐

  16. Why isn’t Person A complying with the request? He or she knew the rules, and the rules say the convention can kick them out. If “people with permits are generally the ones you have to worry about least”, that’s only “generally”, and a person with a permit who refuses to abide by the contract with the convention that they agreed to abide by when they become a member of that convention isn’t one of those “generally” people. If they feel they’re within their rights to break that contract, what other social contracts are they willing to break?
    TL;DR: if someone is willing to break the rules by carrying concealed when the venue prohibits it, and furthermore refuses to reconsider and abide by those rules when requested to by representatives of that venue, can we trust them not to break other rules? They’ve already proven themselves untrustworthy, after all.

  17. I once got lost in Swansea and decided to head downhill because eventually I would have to reach the ocean, where I could then get proper bearings. After about half an hour of heading downhill, I found myself back at the top of the hill where I began.

  18. @JJ: (not evening)

    Yeah, same here. I just can’t get over the “acquiring a concealed-carry permit magically transforms the recipient into a Good Guy with infallible judgment and complete immunity to alcohol, emotions, and all other factors which might cause a Loss Of Cool and lead them to act improperly” idea. It’s like the “gun culture” people are completely incapable of understanding that they’re bragging about being willing to kill people. That’s what carrying a gun means: “I possess lethal force and am ready to use it.” If part B isn’t true, why is part A happening?

    I don’t want anyone with that attitude anywhere near me unless using lethal force is literally part of their job description – and sometimes not even then.

  19. Rev. Bob: I don’t want anyone with that attitude anywhere near me unless using lethal force is literally part of their job description – and sometimes not even then.

    Exactly. There is just no legitimate reason for anyone to be engaging in concealed carry at a SFF convention.

    And I am utterly mystified at Valley Forge’s claim that allowing people to carry concealed weapons is a “compromise” with the people who don’t want concealed carry allowed. “Compromise”. What a joke. Why don’t they just be honest and say, “Screw you, we’re going to allow people to bring weapons regardless of whether you feel it endangers your safety.”

    It seems to me that the sort of people this convention is hoping to attract are not the sort of people I want to be around.

  20. It seems to me that the sort of people this convention is hoping to attract are not the sort of people I want to be around.

    They haven’t actually won the NASFiC bid yet, have they? If this is their policy on firearms, I’m inclined to vote against their bid even though a NASFiC in Pennsylvania would be very convenient for me.

  21. North/South reversal is very common in Edinburgh, too (because the city, or a large part of it, slopes up towards the south).

    In Oxford, where I used to live, East/West reversal is more common for some reason.

  22. When I grew up, whichever way I went, I would eventually hit a wall. I did after all grow up in West Berlin.

    There used to be a joke along the lines of (paraphrased and translated):

    When you’re on the North pole, whichever way you go is south; when you’re on the South pole, whichever way you go is north. So Berlin is the West pole, because whichever way you go, you end up “im Osten” – literally “in the East”, colloquial for “in East Germany”.

  23. The firearms policy isn’t any kind of political statement — it’s strictly utilitarian. If I thought it was safer for our members to ban CCW permit holders from carrying, I would do so. The thing is, that just isn’t the case. There are zero cases that I know of involving a legit CCW permit holder causing a potentially dangerous ruckus at a convention with their firearm, but nonzero cases of armed law enforcement officers drawing down on convention attendees because of even just toy guns. My goal was to minimize the risk of the more likely hazardous scenario.

    The thing you may not realize is that the majority of the people with CCWs that carry habitually are going to carry no matter what any code of conduct might say. Every daily-carry CCW permit holder that I know does, and I know quite a few. If you have attended a major science fiction convention anywhere in the US in the last twenty years that does not have a body search as a condition of entry, it is extremely likely that you will have been in close physical proximity to someone carrying a firearm. In Pennsylvania, which is a shall-issue state for CCW permits, it is a virtual certainty.

    We had three options. The easiest was to refuse to address the issue and just hope it doesn’t come up. If it does, then we would have to make an on-the-spot decision which is going to offend a significant portion of our membership either way, and someone who has already paid their money for a membership is going to end up very unhappy. Further, it does not reduce the risk of a potentially dangerous confrontation. This is the worst option, though perhaps it would have been the safest from a public opinion point of view.

    If we prohibited concealed carry, an otherwise lawful activity, it would make almost zero practical difference in terms of the number of guns at our event, and it would create the potential for an undesirable confrontation as described in OP. Also, what do you do about off-duty law enforcement officers who are expected to carry a weapon even on their days off, or other people expected to carry as part of their legitimate occupation? Are they prohibited from attending the event? This is a better option that not addressing the issue in its entirety, but not a good option. It also creates a lot of bad feeling with people from the gun culture.

    The third option, explicitly allowing legal carry, gives people clear guidelines as to what is and is not acceptable and minimizes the possibility of armed law enforcement officers confronting our membership. This is the least risky scenario, even though it might create as much bad feeling as scenario #2 but from the other side of the field.

    TL;DR: Explicitly allowing lawful concealed carry actually reduces the chances of a dangerous firearms-related incident, counterintuitive as that may seem.

    It’s worth noting, incidentally, that inside the portions of the facility that are a casino, it is prohibited to carry a firearm by state law.

  24. Mike VanHelder: The thing you may not realize is that the majority of the people with CCWs that carry habitually are going to carry no matter what any code of conduct might say. Every daily-carry CCW permit holder that I know does, and I know quite a few.

    So what you are saying is that you expect there to be a significant number of people at this convention who feel perfectly comfortable violating convention policies.

    This is not my sort of convention.

  25. The thing you may not realize is that the majority of the people with CCWs that carry habitually are going to carry no matter what any code of conduct might say. Every daily-carry CCW permit holder that I know does, and I know quite a few. If you have attended a major science fiction convention anywhere in the US in the last twenty years that does not have a body search as a condition of entry, it is extremely likely that you will have been in close physical proximity to someone carrying a firearm.

    So you know people who routinely violate convention guidelines, and you’re perfectly okay with that? That makes you a fool. Why are you in charge of anything again?

    Given your response to this question, and the enormous amount of silliness in your response, I have no choice but to vote against any bid for any convention that you have any part of running.

  26. @Mike VanHelden,

    It’s worth noting, incidentally, that inside the portions of the facility that are a casino, it is prohibited to carry a firearm by state law.

    If gun owners with a concealed carry permit can be expected to follow the law and leave their gun behind if they wish to visit a casino, why would it be so much more difficult for them to leave their weapon elsewhere for the purpose of going to an event that had specifically requested that guns be left elsewhere?

    And similarly – presuming for the sake of argument that there were a “please leave your guns at home” policy in place; are you saying that gun owners would or should be expected to ignore that policy? And if that is the case, what other policies should people be expected and permitted to ignore, if they have a habit of doing something that is against a stated policy?

  27. Before I posted my response, I thought to check what had been written most recently. Christian Brunschen was much clearer about getting to the core irrationalities in the firearms policy. I will also be voting against the bid.

  28. @Mike VanHelder: “There are zero cases that I know of involving a legit CCW permit holder causing a potentially dangerous ruckus at a convention with their firearm”

    Ever stop to think that the ubiquitous “no firearms allowed” rule – present at literally every con I’ve ever attended – might have something to do with that? Imagine that – no guns present means no guns to be involved in a ruckus.

    By saying that you both expect CCW holders to balk at do-not-carry rules and not merely allowing them to do so without repercussions, but adjusting the con’s rules so that no repercussions are even possible, you are making the political statement that you’re fine with letting volatile jerks* with guns run “your” convention.

    Furthermore, how do you plan to enforce “don’t show your gun or you’re out” if you don’t even have the guts to say “no carrying”? Think about what that says: “That armed man might get upset and cause a ruckus if we tell him he can’t bring his gun to the panel, but I’m sure he’ll cooperate if we kick him out of the con for waving it around.” How’s that again? Does that line of reasoning actually make sense in your head?

    Tell me – what will you do when (not if) someone with a CCW violates, say, your harassment policy? Will you confront them for breaking that rule, or will you kowtow to them so they don’t open fire? Do you expect someone without a gun to feel safe speaking up if harassed by someone with one?

    This is a terrible, horrible policy, and your attempted defense of it is shameful. On the one hand, you’re saying CCW holders are responsible individuals who can be trusted… but then you depict them as fragile, unstable people who could snap at any moment. Do you seriously expect anyone to be okay with that? No CCW holder I know would be flattered by the idea that merely telling them to leave their guns in their room would cause them to start shooting up the place!

    * Someone who would rather break con rules than leave their gun in the room is a jerk, and someone who would cause an incident over it is volatile.

  29. Mike VanHelden:

    The firearms policy isn’t any kind of political statement — it’s strictly utilitarian.

    Uh, yeah, that’s where you’re wrong. The fact that you think it’s not political speaks volumes about your political viewpoint.

    The thing you may not realize is that the majority of the people with CCWs that carry habitually are going to carry no matter what any code of conduct might say. Every daily-carry CCW permit holder that I know does, and I know quite a few. If you have attended a major science fiction convention anywhere in the US in the last twenty years that does not have a body search as a condition of entry, it is extremely likely that you will have been in close physical proximity to someone carrying a firearm. In Pennsylvania, which is a shall-issue state for CCW permits, it is a virtual certainty.

    And this is where it gets political: The assumption by a certain flavor of gun lover that their right to carry trumps not only anyone else’s preferences, but the laws giving property owners and event managers the right to ban guns from their property and events It’s the fetishization of guns and the contempt for anyone else’s rights.

    Someone with that attitude can’t be relied on to act on it in just one matter, and is not safe to be around. You’re making a great case for voting against Valley Forge as the NASFiC, and for not attending it if it wins.

    Also, what do you do about off-duty law enforcement officers who are expected to carry a weapon even on their days off, or other people expected to carry as part of their legitimate occupation? Are they prohibited from attending the event?

    Standard gun-loving concern trolling. Well-written weapons policies do exempt people required by law to carry. Not an issue, if your weapons policy is not written by idiots.

    This is a better option that not addressing the issue in its entirety, but not a good option. It also creates a lot of bad feeling with people from the gun culture.

    And the hell with any bad feeling created among non-lovers of guns, because, after all, they’re not armed and at least in theory easily controlled, I guess.

    I am not interested in attending an event where a substantial subset of attendees feel entitled to ignore event rules and policies because they have guns, and are indulged and encouraged in that attitude by event organizers, is approximately zero.

  30. When I was naive young thing, 18 years old, mumble years ago, I was literally backed into a corner at a Worldcon by a Very Big Name Person who took great pride after doing so in showing me the gun in his shoulder holster and complaining about the local municipal laws that said he should not be carrying it. This did NOT make me feel safe. This did NOT make me feel warm fuzzies towards that person. This did NOT improve my convention experience in any way. I’m sure he thought he was flirting with me; as far as I was concerned I felt both threatened and helpless.

    So much for concealed-carry folks being always on their best behavior. So yes, I do have issues about concealed carry at conventions. Wouldn’t you?

    I’ve been going to conventions since the ’70s, and yes, even back then, there were weapons policies that said “no real weapons”. I didn’t complain because even as a naive young thing I’d already heard enough stories to know that nothing would be done because Very Big Name was a Very Big Name. At least now I could file a Code of Conduct complaint and hope and expect to be heard. Because things have gotten a lot better.

    But not having even the basic sort of weapons policy they already had back in the 1970s? Really?

  31. @Mike VanHelder:

    One more thing…

    We had three options. The easiest was to refuse to address the issue and just hope it doesn’t come up. […or…] If we prohibited concealed carry, […or…] The third option, explicitly allowing legal carry,

    (Emphasis mine: Refuse, prohibit, explicitly allow.) The real tragedy is that, buried in your second option, there’s a fourth possibility you didn’t even see:

    Also, what do you do about off-duty law enforcement officers who are expected to carry a weapon even on their days off, or other people expected to carry as part of their legitimate occupation? Are they prohibited from attending the event?

    Here’s an idea: make an exception for those people. “If you’re required to be armed for some reason, let us know so we can properly accommodate that need.” Handle it the same way you would any other special circumstance: with reason, understanding, and the goal to make the convention as fun and safe as possible for everyone attending.

    Instead, you chose to surrender the safety and security of your convention to any rando with a gun, a permit, and a surly attitude. Saying “no guns” either stops him before he gets in or gives you undeniable justification for ejecting him if he breaks the rule. Saying “come on in” lets him get nice and drunk before deciding to grope that girl in the skimpy costume… and arguably, that makes you an accessory to whatever crime happens next.

    After all, you knowingly let him in.

  32. In today’s installment of “Magic in North America”, Rowling takes on segregation while avoiding any mention of black people, which at this point is probably preferable to her trying to write about the black experience in historical America.

    Got to admit, I kinda like the possibilities inherent in a Historically Black Magical School, like Howard University with wands.

  33. I’m on the Valley Forge bidcom.

    People keep saying our policy is a pro-gun stance, but it’s really not. It simply recognizes that regardless of our CoC, there WILL be guns there. There are guns at every con, whether you know it or not. The greatest danger to convention-goers will not be the CCW person, even if they are a ‘rule-breaker’, but actually the cops who might get called in by someone who is nervous. It’s not about kow-towing to gun-owners, but about logically considering what ACTUALLY makes people safer. It’s counterintuitive, because it doesn’t ‘feel’ like it would make you safer, I know.

    It’s also naive on the part of commenters who think there aren’t tons of guns in fandom already. Lots of people who go to Worldcon every year are big gun owners. They just don’t wear ribbons about it. Meanwhile everyone is promoting gun culture and violence with their cosplay as if it makes it okay because it is ‘pretend.’ If you feel that strongly about gun violence, then don’t promote it with cosplay, just like you wouldn’t promote rape culture with ‘pretend’ violence against women. There is a reason Slave Leia is going out of style.

  34. @KR:

    Meanwhile everyone is promoting gun culture and violence with their cosplay as if it makes it okay because it is ‘pretend.’ If you feel that strongly about gun violence, then don’t promote it with cosplay, just like you wouldn’t promote rape culture with ‘pretend’ violence against women.

    This is an excellent point. Gun culture is not the result of massive marketing and lobbying campaigns by gun manufacturers, nor is it the outcome of the choice to valorize some aspects of the country’s history and not others. It stems from nerds wearing Star Wars armor to occasional weekend get-togethers attended by, in aggregate, well less than one tenth of one percent of the country. I’ve been trying to make this point for years.

  35. KR: Should I have called the cops against the person who physically backed me into a corner and then showed me his gun, in a municipality that forbade concealed carry at the time? Yes or no? Because I can tell you the only reason I didn’t was that I was young, female, and trained to Not Make Waves. The thing is, that convention did have a weapons policy, and if I’d done anything at all besides freeze like a deer in the headlights, I’d have complained to convention security or the concom, not the police.

    If there had been no weapons policy, then my ONLY option in that case besides “ignore it and hope he goes away and never does this to anybody else” (which is what I did, because I was young and naive, and there was no culture that told me that making code of conduct complaints would have been likely to help) would have been to call the police. Because making a weapons policy complaint won’t help if the concom has specifically said that carrying that weapon is ok, which makes the only logical option to escalate all the way to calling the cops.

    Seriously, having that extra layer of “it’s against our weapons policy” helps PROTECT you against police calls, because convention goers have a recourse short of calling the cops. Only if the weapon-brandisher refuses to listen to convention security/the con chair/whomever is sent to talk to them do the police need to be called. And if the weapon-brandisher is refusing to obey convention security, do you REALLY want him or her there?

  36. KR: People keep saying our policy is a pro-gun stance, but it’s really not. It simply recognizes that regardless of our CoC, there WILL be guns there.

    Your policy says that it is okay for people to carry firearms at the convention. That is a pro-gun stance.

    If the CoC says “no firearms allowed”, then those gun-owners who respect convention policies will not bring their firearms.

    If you are anticipating a large group of people who have no ethical problem violating the convention’s policies, and will bring their guns anyway, then you have a much bigger problem on your hands than dealing with the objections of people who do not want firearms permitted.

  37. And use your goddamn blinker if you’re changing lanes.

    But — but — if you use your turn signal, the people behind you will KNOW!

    You’ve given away the advantage of surprise!

    [I learned to drive in suburban Boston.]

    The two longstanding bits of wisdom we used to quote about Boston drivers:

    1. The reason Massachusetts license plates had no state slogan on them for so long was because the government didn’t want to put “Get the Fuck Out of My Way” on a license plate.

    2. Boston drivers are very good drivers. They know _exactly_ what laws they’re breaking. They’re just in a goddamn hurry, sorry Father.

  38. KR, you are simply repeating Mike VanHelder’s claim that we need to rely for our safety on the goodwill of people who, by your own account, can’t be expected to respect rules they’ve agreed to, but don’t agree with, and that the real danger comes from the men and women who have taken an oath to uphold the law, and have received serious, regular training in the use of those guns–far more than the average Concealed Carry fanatic who thinks he’s entitled to ignore rules he’s agreed to and disrespect the wishes of people he disagrees with, as well as the law which inconveniently gives those people the legal right to ban guns from their property and their events.

    Oh, and anyone who has the bloody nerve to be “nervous” about rulebreakers with guns will be the ones responsible for the trouble that results, and not the gun nuts who responds badly to being told that he, too, has to obey the rules.

    It absolutely is about kowtowing to gun owners–and actively disrespecting anyone who dares speak up against gun culture.

    I won’t be supporting or attending any convention you or Mike VanHelder are involved in.

    Everyone, please forgive an awkward autocorrect error that I failed to completely correct the first time. Fixed now.

  39. @KR: ROFL. Please don’t try to make us afraid of the cops instead of people who are conceal carrying in violation of . . . oh, wait, you’re not going to make a sensible policy. The mind fairly boggles at all the possibilities of why not.

    It is very intuitive that allowing concealed carry makes things less safe, because of guns wandering around. I think you’re logic chip needs an upgrade.

    I fail to see what “Slave Leia” has to do with having a sensible gun policy. I’m fairly sure that’s some kind of fallacy on your part – not sure which one. Trying to blame people who prefer a sensible gun policy, or people who cosplay with toy weapons, or people who cosplay Slave Leia, for any lack of safety . . . wow. That’s just wack.

  40. @Mike VanHelder & @KR
    I have to say your policies are looking more and more like examples of how not to write CoC and weapons policies. On the one hand you say people will obviously behave and on the other they are dangerous if asked to follow rules. Cognitive dissonance.

    I’m not sure if you understand the point of CoCs: They are to let attending con members know ahead of time what behavior is and is not acceptable. When they arrive the CoC is a reminder of what is acceptable.

    Do you have a list of SFF conventions where guns are allowed? I can’t think of any offhand. I don’t believe Libertycon allows CCW although their policy simply states all weapons must be peace bonded so I could be wrong.

  41. Mike VanHelder: There are zero cases that I know of involving a legit CCW permit holder causing a potentially dangerous ruckus at a convention with their firearm

    Please provide a list of the large national SFF conventions which have permitted concealed carry but had no problems because of firearms.

    I am sure that you did thorough research when drawing up your policy, and will have no problems providing such a list.

  42. I attend a con with a strict no firearms policy. If you are required by law to carry–and I know two attendees who are–you write to the con-chair and explain the situation. If you are not required to by the government, you leave your gun elsewhere. You can strap it on as soon as you leave the con, (or in this case, as soon as you cross state lines, generally) and I know people who do–but because my friends aren’t total dicks, they don’t go to a con with the express intention of breaking the rules.

    Jesus. “We won’t ban it because people won’t obey anyway and calling them on it could be dangerous!” is a HORRIBLE idea. Are you applying that to the drug policy as well? The assault policy? Calling someone on that could be dangerous, after all. Underage drinking? It’s illegal, sure, but if you try to check a drunk person’s ID, the police might get involved, and the drunk could get belligerent!

    Lord have mercy.

  43. @Tasha:

    To the best of my knowledge, as a former Libertycon volunteer (and department head), nobody is allowed to carry a gun at the convention. It is possible that there are exceptions (the legally-required situation, for instance) that I have not been aware of, but if I ever saw anyone there carrying a gun, I would’ve speed-dialed the con chair immediately.

    Now, that paragraph does deserve one big asterisk, and here it is. A long-running Libertycon tradition is an invitation-only excursion to a shooting range. Some of those participants bring guns – in particular, I know MZW brings/has brought an assortment of long guns, which I believe includes at least one 50-cal – and my understanding is that the excursion is a chance for those invited to see (and fire) uncommon firearms. However, that happens off-site, before the con.

    Thus, while I am certain there are guns present at the con (because the out-of-towners have to put them somewhere), I have never seen one in the con. Whether they’re checked with the hotel, kept in the rooms, or held somewhere else, I don’t know and can’t say – but I have not seen one of these avowed gun enthusiasts carrying so much as a live round while the con is in progress. Even when the event happened at a hotel where there was no space for a dealer’s room and so the vendors turned their suites into shops (we called it “dealer’s alley”), even when MZW was selling his Sharp Pointy Things that way, I never saw a gun in that area. Not once. (And the SPTs got peace-bonded as soon as they were sold, in accordance with the con’s weapon policy.)

    So, when the Valley Forgers say they have to allow CCW at their event… no, they really don’t. If hundreds of gun enthusiasts in a deep-red state in the heart of the South can do without their sidearms for the weekend of Libertycon, so can they. Claiming otherwise is an insult to all involved – carriers and non-carriers alike – and I’d hate to work Security at a con that allowed CCW. No volunteer benefit could ever be worth the risk of getting shot by a drunk gun nut.

    If VF somehow wins the bid with this rule intact, I sure hope they get good insurance. Something tells me they’ll need it.

  44. @Rev Bob
    Thanks for chiming in. I mentioned Libertycon because I remembered you mentioning the pre-con shooting range. I couldn’t find anything on Libertycon’s website to confirm the rest of my memory of your comments on their gun policy. My thoughts mirror yours.

    I grew up with an uncle in the military and extended family which hunts to stay fed. As a kid I was used to being around guns. I can’t imagine any of those relatives having a problem with not carrying at events. I took gun safety classes at 10 because that was what you did when you live around guns.

    I just don’t get the thinking that one needs to wear a gun like they do pants. They violate state, federal laws as well as convention CoCs rather than be separated from their gun. They’ll shoot anyone who tries to disarm them when it’s pointed out they are in violation of rules/laws? This doesn’t sound like the gun owners I know.

  45. @Tasha:

    I have heard some gun owners grouse about not being allowed to carry in certain places. The most memorable argument (at least, right now) is the Parking Lot Problem, which involves the vulnerability exposed when you can’t pack heat in a place that serves alcohol, meaning you have to leave your gun in the car, and therefore you’re in Great Danger for the time it takes to… cross the parking lot between your car and the entrance to the bar.

    Yeah, it sounds ridiculous to me, too. I mean, I’ve had to wander around downtown in the dead of night after having car trouble, trying to get to a place with a phone (yeah, it’s been a few years), and not once did I ever fear for my life. Didn’t get assaulted, mugged, or anything… and I’m not exactly the poster boy for Imposing Martial-Arts Master. Still, I never found myself thinking, “man, if only I had a gun, this situation would be so much better for me.”

  46. The greatest danger to convention-goers will not be the CCW person, even if they are a ‘rule-breaker’, but actually the cops who might get called in by someone who is nervous.

    If you have a no X policy, and I see someone doing X, I don’t need to call the cops. I can call one of the convention volunteers or organisers and say, “That person is violating your no-X policy”
    If the convention policy on X is to shrug your shoulders and say, “yeah, we thought about making a rule on that, but people would only break it, so, whatever” then you’re telling me that if I have a problem with X I have to call in people from outside the con to resolve it.

  47. People keep saying our policy is a pro-gun stance, but it’s really not. It simply recognizes that regardless of our CoC, there WILL be guns there. There are guns at every con, whether you know it or not. The greatest danger to convention-goers will not be the CCW person, even if they are a ‘rule-breaker’, but actually the cops who might get called in by someone who is nervous.

    You VF people keep going on about this, and yet you’ve provided no actual support that this is the case. You’ve just asserted that the cops will be called and the cops will be more dangerous than a concealed carry holder who won’t simply accede to the policy when asked. That is a stance that is so ridiculous that it makes me wonder how you say it with a straight face.

    Every time one of you chuckleheads running the VF bid open your mouths, your complete cluelessness and complete disingenuousness just give me yet another reason to vote for any bid other than yours.

  48. This cluster-fuck of a Code of Conduct reminds me of those Darwin Awards stories, where you read what the person did, and the result, and you think, “How in the world did they not see that coming?”

    How did Valley Forge write this CoC — allowing, as far as I can see, something that no other major SFF con allows — and not see a shitstorm over firearms coming?

    Ah well, if that’s the hill that they want their bid to live and die on, so be it. I guess they’re counting on gaining more pro-gun people to support their bid than the people whose support they would lose by allowing concealed carry at their con.

  49. The more I read of this the more I think that I shall never attend a con in the USA.

Comments are closed.