(1) MIGNOGNA FILES SUIT. Anime News Network reported in January that a Twitter thread accused dub voice actor Vic Mignogna of homophobia, rude behavior, and making unwanted physical advances on female con-goers. He’s now filed suit claiming several individuals and a corporation have damaged his professional career.
The Polygon story, “Anime voice actor Vic Mignogna sues Funimation after sexual misconduct fallout”, begins:
Anime voice actor Vic Mignogna has filed a million-dollar lawsuit against Funimation and industry colleagues Monica Rial, Jamie Marchi, and Ronald Toye in Tarrant County, Texas District Court. In the suit, Mignogna claims that a sexual harassment investigation that ended in his removal from several projects, constitutes defamation, interference in business, and civil conspiracy.
This comes after a wave of misconduct accusations which resulted in Mignogna’s removal from Funimation’s The Morose Mononokean 2 and Rooster Teeth’s RWBY. Allegations first started to surface around the release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, in which Mignogna voices the title character.
Anime News Network is also covering the suit: “Vic Mignogna Sues Funimation, Jamie Marchi, Monica Rial, Ronald Toye”.
Mignogna is seeking “monetary relief over $1,000,000.00” in part due to Funimation no longer contracting him for future productions, as well as conventions canceling his appearances. Mignogna and his lawyer are also seeking “judgment against the Defendants for actual, consequential and punitive damages according to the claims … in amounts to be determined on final hearing, pre- and post-judgment interest at the highest rate permitted by law, and costs of court” in addition to “such other and further relief to which he may be justly or equitably entitled” and “general relief.”
Mignogna is represented by Ty Beard of Beard Harris Bullock Hughes in Tyler, Texas.
The lawsuit alleges that Sony executive Tammi Denbow told Mignogna in mid-January she was “investigating three allegations of sexual harassment against him,” and that on January 29 “Denbow and another Sony executive informed [Mignogna] that his employment with Funimation was terminated” following an investigation. Denbow is listed on LinkedIn as “Executive Director, Employee Relations at Sony Pictures Entertainment.” Sony Pictures Television Networks acquired a majority stake in FUNimation in October 2017.
The Bounding Into Comics story details some of the accusations.
The suit claims that “Ronald (a Funimation agent or employee) has tweeted more than 80 times that Vic sexually assaulted or assaulted Monica, more than 10 times that Vic sexually assaulted or assaulted three of his “very close friends,” more than 10 times that Vic has been accused of hundreds and possibly thousands of assaults, and at least 17 times that Vic is a “predator.” It also points to a number of tweets made by Rial and Marchi.
(2) BROAD UNIVERSE. Broad Universe is “a nonprofit international organization of women and men dedicated to celebrating and promoting the work of women writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.”
According to its Frequently Asked Questions page:
Who can join?
Anyone who supports our mission is welcome to join. You don’t have to be a woman or a writer – just interested in supporting the work of women writers in science fiction, fantasy and horror.
Why do your readings and events only focus on the works of some members?
Our readings and events are designed to promote women writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
However, the question has been freshly raised — Who’s allowed to participate in Broad Universe’s Rapid-Fire Readings (RFR) programs at cons?
Jean Marie Ward, who put together the RFR for RavenCon, surfaced the issue in a long Facebook post:
This is a heads-up on a problem related to Broad Universe participation in upcoming cons.
As you know, I organized the RavenCon RFR. When I submitted my invoice for the poster, BU Treasurer Marta Murvosh informed me that men weren’t allowed to read. This came as a complete shock, since I’ve been organizing RFRs—and submitting invoices for posters—for years. When I objected, Marta advised me that it would only be okay if the man depicted in the poster identified as non-cisgendered. Otherwise, he couldn’t read…but maybe he could moderate.
I said no. It was too late to change line-up. Moreover, it would have been grossly unfair to a member who prepared to read in good faith, with no prior warning that it was not allowed…
(The poster expense has been reimbursed, but the main controversy is still under discussion.)
Ward continued:
… It’s not right to ask them to host events that violate their anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies. Likewise, I will not knowingly participate in or organize any event for an organization that practices discrimination or accepts money under false pretenses.
Finally, as an officer of BWAWA, I am obliged to inform to inform the cons that look to me to moderate their BU-related programming (Balticon, Dragon Con, Capclave and all BWAWA-associated events, such as the 2014 and 2018 World Fantasy Cons) of the potential liability issues created by BU’s current policies. Some of the women responding on the BU forum thought I was bluffing when I said this could cause a number of major cons to drop all BU events. It wasn’t a bluff, or a threat. It was a statement of fact. In the absence of a commitment to change the problematic policies before they have to go to print on program materials and signage, both Balticon and Dragon Con will drop all BU programming. In the absence of a policy by mid-summer, there will be no RFR at this year’s Capclave. It won’t even make the preliminary list of panel ideas.
Balticon reportedly has addressed the issue by keeping the event and renaming it.
Jason Gilbert identified himself as the male Broad Universe member who read at RavenCon.
Jason Gilbert: I am the male member who was included in the Ravencon BU Rapid Fire Reading. I had a blast doing it, and enjoyed listening to my friends read. I was the only dude in the room. I thought my membership and the money I paid for that membership was my way of supporting women and the BU cause. Had I known that my membership was nothing more than a handout to an organization that excludes members from participating in BU events based on their gender, I would never have signed up or supported BU. I feel excluded, a little betrayed, and angry for my friends who are catching the heat and consequences for allowing me to participate. I am the other Co-Director of Programming at ConCarolinas, and I will also be reporting to the concom on the discriminatory practices of BU, as it directly violates the ConCarolinas anti-discrimination policy. I will also be canceling my membership, and will no longer support Broad Universe. Jean Marie Ward, I am sorry you are having to deal with this, and thank you for letting me read during the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading at Ravencon. I truly thought I was supporting an honest organization.
There is extensive discussion on Broad Universe’s Facebook page, including Morven Westfield’s appeal to give BU’s Motherboard time to work:
Morven Westfield: Please give the Motherboard a chance to find out what’s going on. I am saddened that the conventions dropped us without hearing the Motherboard’s side of the story, but I understand they probably want to err on the side of caution. Please give the Motherboard time to investigate this.
Someone recently commented (sorry, I’m reading too many things and can’t remember who said what) that bisexuals are endangered by the current policy of not letting men read. I’m not trying to stir anything up, but I am asking sincerely, how so? If a bisexual, pansexual, or asexual person identifies as female, she can read. It’s not sexual orientation, but gender. Remember that when Broad Universe formed, it was to help women overcome the problems they encountered in a male-dominated publishing industry because they were women, not because they had a different sexual orientation.
…To all who are reading this, let me reiterate what Inanna said. “The MotherBoard is not a bunch of fiendish con-artists who sit around chortling as we think up ways to cheat our members.” As I said before, I think it’s a communication error. In looking through my emails I found reference to a Broad Universe brochure we used in 2010 that said that only women would be allowed to read in RFRs. The wording was taken from our web page at that time. So something happened after 2010.
Also, it appears that Broads on the East Coast were still going by the 2010 and earlier policies (men not allowed to read), but other parts of the country were regularly allowing that, and it seemed like both halves were unaware what was going on. In other words, miscommunication.
Please bear with the Motherboard as they try to sort this out.
(3) ELLISON FANZINES. Edie Stern alerts Harlan Ellison fans to some new items at Fanac.org:
For those that are interested in Harlan’s early fannish career, Fanac has something nice for you today. We’ve uploaded 6 issues of his fanzine Science Fantasy from the early 1950s. Not only is there writing by Harlan, but by Bob Bloch, MZB, Dean Grennell, Algis Budrys, Bob Silverberg and more. Scanning by Joe Siclari. You can reach the index page at: http://fanac.org/fanzines/Harlan_Ellison/
(4) CHILDREN IN PERIL. Fran Wilde makes a point about the parallels of life and fiction. Thread starts here.
(5) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
- Born April 20, 1937 — George Takei, 82. Hikaru Sulu on the original Trek. And yes, I know that Vonda McIntyre wouldn’t coin the first name until a decade later in her Entropy Effect novel. Post-Trek, he would write Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe with Robert Asprin. By the way, his first genre roles were actually dubbing the English voices of Professor Kashiwagi of Rodan! The Flying Monster and the same of the Commander of Landing Craft of Godzilla Raids Again.
- Born April 20, 1939 — Peter S. Beagle, 80. I’ve known him for about fifteen years now, met him but once in that time. He’s quite charming. My favorite works? Tamsin, Summerlong and In Calabria.
- Born April 20, 1949 — John Ostrander, 70. Writer of comic books, including Grimjack, Suicide Squad and Star Wars: Legacy. Well those are the titles he most frequently gets noted for but I’ll add in the Spectre, Martian Manhunter and the late Eighties Manhunter as well.
- Born April 20, 1949 — Jessica Lange, 70. Her very first role was Dwan in King Kong. Later genre roles are modest, Sandra Bloom Sr. in Big Fish and Constance Langdon / Elsa Mars / Fiona Goode / Sister Jude Martin in American Horror Story.
- Born April 20, 1951 — Louise Jameson, 68. Leela of the Sevateem, companion to the Fourth Doctor. Appeared in nine stories of which my favorite was “The Talons of Weng Chiang” which I reviewed here. She segued from Dr. Who to The Omega Factor where she was the regular cast as Dr. Anne Reynolds. These appear to her only meaningful genre roles.
- Born April 20, 1959 — Clint Howard, 60. So the most interesting connection that he has to the genre is playing Balok, the strange child like alien, in “The Corbomite Maneuver” which I remember clearly decades after last seeing it. Other than that, there’s very he’s done of a genre nature that’s even mildly interesting other than voicing Roo three in three Winnie-the-Pooh films.
- Born April 20, 1959 — Carole E. Barrowman, 60. Sister of John Barrowman. John and Carole co-wrote a Torchwood comic strip, featuring Jack Harkness, entitled Captain Jack and the Selkie. They’ve also written the Torchwood: Exodus Code audiobook. In addition, they’ve written Hollow Earth, a horror novel. She contributed an essay about her brother to the Chicks Dig Time Lords anthology.
- Born April 20, 1964 — Crispin Glover, 55. An American actor and director, Glover is known for portraying George McFly in Back to the Future, Willard Stiles in the Willard remake, Ilosovic Stayne/The Knave of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, Grendel in Beowulf, Phil Wedmaier in Hot Tub Time Machine, and 6 in 9. He currently stars in American Gods as Mr. World, the god of globalization.
- Born April 20, 1964 — Andy Serkis, 55. I admit that the list of characters that he has helped create is amazing: Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, King Kong in that film, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboot series. Captain Haddock / Sir Francis Haddock in The Adventures of Tintin (great film that was), and even Supreme Leader Snoke in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Last year, he portrayed the character of Baloo in his self-directed film, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.
(6) THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE. Out there, not here. Timothy the Talking Cat finds the path to success in “Beyond the Bounds of Genius: Chapter 6”.
Chapter 6: Cattimothy House – Birth of an Empire
LONDON! The heart of the world of publishing. It was here that I would build my empire! I immediately set off to the zoo to visit the penguins. Strangely, they were untalkative and showed no sign of controlling a vast business of iconic paperbacks. They mainly waddled around an enclosure with excellent views of Regent Park…
(7) YOU’VE HEARD THIS VOICE BEFORE. Radio Times tells about the voice casting for an H.G. Wells project: “David Tennant to bring The War of the Worlds to life in new HG Wells audiobook collection”.
If the BBC’s upcoming War of the Worlds TV adaptation wasn’t enough for you then buckle up, because a new project by Audible is bringing the works of novelist HG Wells to life with a series of star-studded audiobook adaptations.
Former Doctor Who star David Tennant is set to narrate alien invasion classic The War of the Worlds, while Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo will tackle The Invisible Man.
Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville will narrate The Time Machine, with Harry Potter and Star Trek: Discovery star Jason Isaacs lending his voice to The Island of Doctor Moreau and Versailles’ Alexander Vlahos reading The First Men in the Moon.
(8) THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD. LROC graphs the movements of the first astronauts on the surface of the Moon: “Apollo 11”.
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin landed the Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) in Mare Tranquillitatis [0.67416 N, 23.47314 E], at 20:17:40 UTC 20 July 1969. They spent a total of 21.5 hours on the lunar surface, performing one Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) and collecting 21.5 kg of lunar samples. Astronaut Michael Collins orbited the Moon in the Lunar Command Module (LCM), awaiting the return of Armstrong and Aldrin from the surface. Apollo 11 was the first lunar landing, however it was the fifth manned Apollo mission, earlier missions laying the ground-work for Apollo 11.
(9) OUR POSITRONIC PROSECUTORS. CrimeReads’ M.G. Wheaton surveys sf’s attitudes towards artificial intelligence and suggests that someday machines will make our lives better and won’t such be vehicles to crush us or take our jobs. Or maybe not: “Why We’ve Decided That The Machines Want to Kill Us”.
…While hardly the first filmic thinking machine to read the tea leaves and decide to either wipe out humanity (Terminator), subjugate it (The Matrix), or rid us of our freedom of thought (everything from Alphaville to any Borg episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation), Age of Ultron wins the prize for its antagonist coming to that conclusion the fastest.
So, why is this? Why does HAL 9000 decide the only way to complete his mission is to kill all the humans aboard his ship in 2001: A Space Odyssey? Why does Colossus, the titular super-computer from Colossus: The Forbin Project start out friendly then conclude the only way to end the Cold War is to seize all the nukes and demand subservience in return for not setting them off? Why as early as 1942 when Isaac Asimov laid down his Three Laws of Robotics did he feel the need to say in the very first one that robots must be programmed not to ever hurt humans as otherwise we’d be doomed?
I mean, are we really so bad?
Well, as we’re the ones writing all these stories, maybe it’s not the machines that find us so inferior….
(10) ASIMOV IN THE COMICS. CBR.com’s Brian Cronin recalls “When Isaac Asimov Became a Muck Monster Who Fought Superman!”.
Perhaps in response to Asimov’s rebuttal in 1980, he showed up in a Superman comic book at the end of that year in a story by Cary Bates (with artwork by Curt Swan and Frank Chiaramonte) in Superman #355. Here, Asimov is, instead, Asa Ezaak, and he is a bit of a condescending jerk to Lois Lane at a science conference….
…He plans on injecting himself with a special “potion” that gives him gravity powers! He is now Momentus!
Yup, he’s now a big ol’ muck monster…
(11) AHH, THE CLASSICS. Next time you’re in Northumberland, visit The Museum of Classic Sci-Fi:
‘The Museum of Classic Sci-Fi’ is a permanent exhibition, nestled in the historic, Northumberland village of Allendale. Situated beside the market place square, visitors will embark upon a nostalgic tour of some of the genre’s most influential imagery and themes. Featuring a substantial and eclectic collection of over 200 original screen-used props, costumes and production made artefacts; the museum tells the story of the Science-Fiction genre and acts a visual ‘episode guide’ to classic era ‘Doctor Who’. In addition, artist Neil Cole has produced unique paintings and sculptures, to enhance the impact of the presentations.It includes a “Doctor Who Gallery” –
(12) GOOD DOG. SYFY Wire nominates these as “The 8 best dogs in science fiction”. Number 4 is —
Ein from Cowboy Bebop
Oh, Ein. Sweet, sweet Ein. Where would the Cowboy Bebop team (especially Edward) be without this data dog? This super-intelligent corgi has all the charm of a pup and all the computing power of a… well… a computer. He’s the best of all worlds.
Now we just have one question: Which lucky corg will play Ein in the upcoming live-action Cowboy Bebop?
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, Hampus Eckerman, Mike Kennedy JJ, Martin Morse Wooster, Chip Hitchcock, Michael Toman, Carl Slaughter, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Darren Garrison.]
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@5: Serkis is for once seen in his own body as Ulysses Klaue in a couple of MCU movies.
@10: Condescending? Only in some woo-woo comic universe where scientific papers have to pretend to understand superheroes.
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“Why does HAL 9000 decide the only way to complete his mission is to kill all the humans aboard his ship in 2001: A Space Odyssey? ”
The movie may not have been clear on this point, but the book certainly is. HAL is programmed to give accurate and complete information to humans, but is ordered to lie to Bowman and Poole – leading to first to HAL killing the sleeping experts (who would have revealed HAL’s lie), disabling the antenna (which would have allowed communications from Earth, which would reveal the lie) and eventually, trying to kill Poole and Bowman (who if dead, would never learn about the lie).
Chip Hitchcock says Serkis is for once seen in his own body as Ulysses Klaue in a couple of MCU movies.
I knew somebody would point which films he’d actually been himself in so I didn’t bother trying to figure what they were. And you did.
(5) Serkis also appears in his own body in Jackson’s King Kong (as “Lumpy”) as well as providing the motion capture for Kong.
Serkis also does a great job playing the jerk boss in 13 Going On 30.
Serkis also does a remarkable, sinister, impressive performance in his own body in the horror film Deathwatch, where a squad of British soldiers in World War I end up in a haunted part No Man’s Land.
(5) Clint Howard played Matt Frewer’s unfortunate best friend in a 1990s Outer Limits episode. Also, he was briefly in the Ron Howard-directed Splash.
Clint Howard has actually had a lot of genre roles. My favorite one is that after he played Sy Liebergot in Apollo 13, he was given a cameo callback to that as a Mission Controller in Night at the Museum 2.
Well, he is in a woo-woo comic universe where scientific papers have to pretend to understand superheroes.
Science is much stranger there than it is here, but he’s a denizen of that universe, and the facts are all around him…
Another Serkis appearing as himself, and genre as well: The Prestige.
12: #1. Bo, the Wonder Dog.
I should note that while I agree with this placement of Bo within the ranks of 8 Best Dogs in SF, I am also obligated to make this statement.
(Dogs and AI have been working together for quite some time now)
5) Clint Howard also had a small role in Solo (he was the mean man whose face L3-37 grabbed outside of the droid fighting ring) — my understanding is that Ron Howard puts him in most or all of his films as a sort of good luck charm.
Happy Easter to those who celebrate it.
7) Listened to an audiobook of WOTW (the novel) for the first time last year. Interested in seeing what Tennant would do with it.
(5) If you can find them, Crispin Glover has also published some deeply, deeply weird books through his company Volcanic Eruptions.
(2): I am giving a bit of a side-eye to the “handout” wording from a self-professed, but apparently fragile, ally.
And recorded some very strange songs as “Crispin Hellion Glover”.
Serkis played the choreographer in Topsy-Turvy – a pretty small role but to me one of his funniest, as the guy’s bewildered contempt for Gilbert’s ideas about the staging just drips off the screen while he paces around the stage doing goofy movement warm-ups because he’s bored.
Clint Howard also appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Discovery. He truly is the glue that holds the Trek eras together.
@John Winkelman: I have one of Glover’s self-published tomes, with a bizarre dedication thanking me for “asking good question” (sic) following a screening of one of his equally odd movies as a director.
My favorite Clint Howard credit was in the Night Gallery version of “The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes” based on the Margaret St. Clair short story from 1950. Maybe I just saw it at an impressionable age, but it’s one of the few Night Gallery stories that is still as good as I remember it.
You’re face to face with the man who scrolled the world
(5) Louise Jameson’s other genre role I can think of is that she played one of the leads in Big Finish’s audio revival of Terry Nation’s Survivors. She’s really, astoundingly good in it. I mean, I like her as Leela, but Survivors really let her show what she was capable of.
(9) I was going to write a comment about how this article isn’t so bad, it’s just the author was in such a hurry to make their point that they left out the actual answers to their rhetorical question (that is, it’s not a mystery why things happen as they do in The Terminator, Age of Ultron, and The Forbin Project; there are clear in-story explanations).
However, looking again, I think actually the article is so bad. The thesis makes no sense. Wheaton seems to be saying 1. fictional AIs started out on TV, and they were threatening; 2. but then SF writers started writing about them, and… made them threatening too, but maybe bigger?; 3. the writers won out in some way, so now depictions of AIs are threatening; 4. we think computers are gods, so we worship them, by… making them villains and saying we will always win against them. As cultural criticism this is pretty incoherent.
I know I keep complaining about articles. I’ll try to have something nice to say next time. This was just really irritating.
(9) It is a grim view of the future, all our robots and intelligent toasters coming after us, but there are genre examples of non-homicidal AI’s. The most interesting one I can recall is in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home. A world (and maybe galaxy) spanning AI system lives very peacefully with the low-tech humans of the future, seeing them as a good source of what every computer wants, data.
“I fought the TBR stack – and the TBR stack won”
(2) Broad Universe
It does seem a little strange to have male writers reading at an event designed to promote women writers.
Kevin Harkness says It is a grim view of the future, all our robots and intelligent toasters coming after us, but there are genre examples of non-homicidal AI’s. The most interesting one I can recall is in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home. A world (and maybe galaxy) spanning AI system lives very peacefully with the low-tech humans of the future, seeing them as a good source of what every computer wants, data.
So how explicit does Le Guin make the presence of this AI in the novel? I notice it’s not something most reviewers bring up instead they focus on the culture she’s created there.
Other examples of non-homicidal AIs – “Solace” in Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s bar series, HARLIE (in “When HARLIE was One”), the protagonist of “Cat Pictures, Please,” and most of the Culture AIs.
(I was going to mention Mycroft Holmes (usually called “Mike”) but though he was a friendly sort, he did kill a lot of people and it didn’t seem to cause him much angst.)
@ Cat Eldridge
In Always Coming Home, Le Guin describes the AI in detail but only in one section (Time and the City: The City) and she pretty much drops it for the rest of the book. It feels like she didn’t want to lose technology in her ideal world but didn’t exactly want to keep it either, and produces this AI/infinite library as a compromise to herself.
Andrew says I was going to mention Mycroft Holmes (usually called “Mike”) but though he was a friendly sort, he did kill a lot of people and it didn’t seem to cause him much angst.)
Did Mike even realise that he was killing human beings? It’s been a long time since I read that novel but I got the strong impression that he didn’t realise the consequences of his actions in therms of actual lives being being lost. To him, it was just a matter of numbers being applied to a problem, nothing more.
The City of Mind, the AI in Always Coming Home, is discussed explicitly, both in the relatively limited ways the humans use it (mostly for weather forecasting, and sending messages like inviting people in the next valley to a harvest festival). In one of the “Pandora” sections the narrator describes asking a Kesh man to help her find information: the AI will answer any question you know how to ask, but the answers may not be useful, so that her Kesh informant “has spent his life finding out how to find out.”
As a side note, the non-computer technology the Kesh have, and use, includes printing presses, washing machines, and a railroad.
Regarding non-homicidal AIs, would Data, C-3PO, and R2-D2 count, or are (an)droids considered a separate category?
Reading update: Finished Chanur’s Legacy and I’m sad that there aren’t another dozen Compact Space novels, and this seemed like a good point to pause my current Cherryh Alliance/Union reread (since the subsequent books all take place much further down the timeline. Next up: I’ve just started Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand.
Jack Lint: I should have remembered Clint Howard in “The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes,” as I also first saw it at an “impressionable age”. Thanks for mentioning it.
@Cat Eldridge:
I think as Mike went on becoming more human, the realities of his actions became more clear to him. But as early as when he was recruited into the Revolution, Manny, Wyoh, and Prof drilled him on the fact that they were’t playing:
By the time of the first Terran attack, Mike was killing on his own initiative:
I love that, at the moment Mike is killing, he’s addressing Mannie as “Man”. It really points up the man/machine contrast.
By the time of the second Terran attack–let Mannie tell it:
One wonders–as Mannie wondered–what would have happened had Mike told Mannie about Ludmilla’s death before Mannie ordered the retaliatory attack on Earth.
It’s possible that Mike knew Ludmilla had been killed and chose not to inform Mannie. Whether from conscience, strategy, or fear of hurting his friend? Don’t know, don’t know.
re @9: my skim of the article didn’t find any acknowledgment that the picture was less one-sided outside of the [moving] pictures; did I miss something? I’ve previously noted the mistaken argument of a scholar (Patricia Warrick) who spent a whole book arguing that written SF has only hostile cyber-intelligences, and the contradicting bibliography.
Another non-hostile AI–the internet in Robert J. Sawyers’s WWW trilogy.
How would you classify the AI in Steel Beach?
@John A Arkansawyer: Thanks for finding the MiaHM quotes.
Another non-homicidal AI in SF – Multivac
@John A Arkansawyer : CC in Steel Beach was (rot13) vavgvnyyl aba-ubzvpvqny naq gura _irel_ ubzvpvqny
How about the library computer in the Starlost? Or the really, really friendly intelligent ship in Time Enough for Love?
@Andrew: I hope I wasn’t quotesplaining! I was trying to isolate a small story arc. And yes, CC was indeed (rot13) n gentvp svther. And the language that he used.
@Kip Williams: I don’t there is a single malevolent AI in Heinlein’s works.
@John: Definitely not quotesplaining – I appreciated your explication of Mike’s arc.
(2) It is a mystery to me how anyone could look at the premise of Broad Universe and conclude that including men in BU promotional events was within the scope of the organization, regardless of whether there were official guidelines on that point.
I’m also concerned that this might be the leading wedge of an “anti- programming focused on marginalized groups” campaign, similar to campaigns attacking affirmative action programs (without every concerning themselves with the still-entrenched bias that the AA programs were trying to counter).
What next? Entitled white men demanding to be given equal consideration for Con or Bust memberships?
It didn’t sound like the man in question demanded his spot — only that he was given one and it became an issue because someone wanted him cut **at the last minute**. Reading it as white men demanding space, or the beginning of a campaign, seems a remarkably ungenerous reading of the entire sequence of events — even in the face of his rather ugly “I spent money to support a group I knew was out there to promote women as writers and if they don’t want me maybe I’ll take my ball and go home” rant.
I also don’t see how including one man in an RFR (which are usually 10-15 readers IIRC?) is a serious undermining of the support of women or of Broad Universe overall, though I can see how it could become an issue if the number increases too much. I mean, nobody says James Davis Nicoll’s inclusion of a male or two in his best of lists is somehow undermining the other 20 voices (although there are a few male commenters whose reaction is much uglier, we cannot blame Nicoll for those).
@Lenora Rose: There’s taking your ball and going home, then there’s making a public incident and wielding whatever institutional power one claims as a con’s Co-Director of Programming. The former seems like a result of poor reading comprehension and/or variable BU policies. The latter kicks it into something between “overkill” and “bad faith.” I’m not up on ConCarolinas gossip, but given programming decisions in the recent past Heather Rose Jones’s wedge theory feels even more plausible.
@Lenora Rose
It was the assumption (from both the female organiser and the male writer) that men are entitled to promotional space at an event specifically designed to promote women that raised my eyebrows. Maybe that isn’t a demand, but it’s definitely something.
A.P. Howell: His ConCarolinas link does raise my concern level. Thanks for reminding me of it.
Meredith: I do want to know how he got on the reading list in the first place before commenting on the female organizer’s actions at being asked to take him off, because I do kind of agree that kicking someone out at the last minute is tricky at best (if they haven’t done anything to violate other terms), but how he got ON the reading list is a bigger question. Did she just approve all Broad Universe members without thinking about it? Was it an auto-registration?
(Also, if there was a rules change in 2010, what happened to prompt it?)
Looking forward to hearing Broad Universe’s final opinion, assuming they choose to air it publicly.