(1) YA AWARD NAME. Annalee Flower Horne makes a preemptive strike.
All I want out of the Worldcon YA award is for them not to name it after Heinlein.
Or any dude, actually, but especially not him.
— Annalee (@LeeFlower) April 27, 2017
Is this just gratuitous Heinlein hatred? Dude hatred? Have I missed a news item? Or maybe I haven’t. Kevin Standlee recently wrote that if the YA Award passes the Helsinki Business meeting, then the Business Meeting can take up the issue of what its name should be.
There was a nonbinding survey asking fans’ preferences among six names (Anansi, Lodestar, Ouroboros, Spellcaster, Tesseract, and Worldcon), but that places no limits on the Business Meeting.
(2) A REAL VIKING. Hampus Eckerman recommends, “For those Filers that will combine their visit to WorldCon with a visit to Sweden, a new Viking Museum, called Viking Life, opened this weekend. Some comments about being the only real place to see Vikings in Stockholm has already sparked a fight with the Historical Museum. The Historical Museum retorted that they had largest Viking exhibition in the world and that all authentic artifacts displayed at the Viking Museum had, in fact, been borrowed from the Historical Museum.
“But the thing that put Swedish twitter on fire was not this spat. It was the pictures of the Swedish king at the inauguration. Please enjoy a real Viking King.”
(3) HE’S THIRSTY. OK, Steve Drew is sold on going to the Worldcon.
Finland – where you can buy a 1,000 pack of beer pic.twitter.com/RHTKOqLFQm
— Steve Drew ???? (@elquesogrande1) April 28, 2017
(4) VON BRAUN’S HUGO. Bill Mullins visited a space shrine:
I was at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center today for my son’s graduation from Space Camp. After the ceremonies, we toured the museum and saw Wernher von Braun’s retro-Hugo (1954, from Boston’s Noreascon 4 in 2004) in the Best Related Work category, for his book Conquest of the Moon, co-written with Fred Whipple and Willy Ley. His office at Marshall Space Flight Center has been recreated there as a permanent exhibit, and his award is sitting on his desk.
Patrick Molloy also wrote about it here in 2012.
(5) CONTROVERSIAL EDITS. Natalie Luhrs articulates how “Failures of Empathy” are an sff community issue.
Recently, Seanan McGuire (1, 2, 3) and J.Y. Yang (thread) have talked on Twitter about copyeditors making changes which fundamentally alter the story, and not for the better. The change in question: redacting the use of the singular they—used by nonbinary characters—to whichever binary gender the copyeditor felt like substituting. This is an act of erasure and, as Yang points out in the linked thread, an act of violence.
Many nonbinary people use the singular they as their pronoun—while this is a relatively new usage, it is not incorrect (copyeditors of the world, take note). I have seen it become more widely used over the last few years and at this point anyone griping about it is basically using it as an opportunity to be a prescriptivist jerk.
…We have an empathy problem in the SFF community. These failures are more obvious when a convention dismisses the safety concerns of their female Guest of Honor in favor of their friend the serial harasser, but you can also see it at a smaller scale: World Fantasy’s initial decision to retain the H.P. Lovecraft pin and Brian McClellan suddenly deciding to tweet about how unprofessional it is to talk about your bad copyedit is when a person of color is the one talking. It’s an entire spectrum of failure, this lack of empathy.
(6) COMPANIONABLE ALIEN. ScreenCrush catches up with “Karen Gillan on ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,’ ‘Avengers: Infinity War,’ and Nebula’s Near-Death Experience in ‘Guardians 1’”.
I think it’s fair to say that when the first Guardians came out, these were the most obscure characters to get their own Marvel movie. Now, of course, the first movie is beloved and everyone knows the characters. Did that change anything about how you guys went about making the sequel? Was there new pressure that wasn’t there before?
That was quite an interesting thing for me as well, because I was wondering if anyone was going to be feeling the pressure; like second album syndrome or something. Maybe they did and they didn’t really show it, but I didn’t because I didn’t feel I had the responsibility of the film on my shoulders. I just got to come in and play this fun character.
(7) ANCESTRY. I can’t believe a spellchecker did this – but how else would you get that typo?
https://twitter.com/Witch_Burner/status/858003539037126657
(8) COMICS EVERYONE BOUGHT. You can infer these are not all that rare, right? Yahoo! News lists “The top 10 best selling comic books of all time”.
#10. The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #583 – 530,000 copies sold
This comic, featuring Spidey’s encounter with then President Barack Obama, became a must-have collectible after being highlighted on news programs around the country.
#9. The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #1 – 533, 000 copies sold
After a yearlong storyline that involved Doctor Octopus posing as Spider-Man, fans were more than happy to celebrate this back-to-basics approach to the friendly neighborhood wall crawler.
(9) FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE. Here’s the moos – The Boozy Cow, a restaurant chain with a charitable foundation and donates all its profits to charity, has opened a fourth location in Scotland: “Charity restaurant chain opens fourth Scottish eatery”.
The Boozy Cow chain – launched by philanthropist Garreth Wood two years ago – already has premises in Aberdeen, Stirling and Edinburgh, has now opened a venue in Dundee.
Mr Wood also revealed that a further five charities will receive a share of the profits from The Boozy Cow chain – Hot Chocolate Trust, Mid-Lin Day Care, Dundee Woman’s Aid, Art Angel and Help for Kids.
This brings the number of good causes currently supported by the company to 18.
Last month, the organisation announced it was giving away £210,000 to charities including CHAS, The Archie Foundation and the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative in Edinburgh, with almost half a million pounds given away since the company opened its first venue in Aberdeen in 2014.
(10) DAVIS OBIT. SF Site News reports the death of Grania Davis (1943-2017) on April 28.
Author Grania Davis (b.1943) died on April 28. Davis was married to Avram Davidson for 3 years and served as his primary editor after his death. She co-authored several works with Davidson as well as writing works on her own.
(11) DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUE COMPAINTS. Nevertheless, back in 1962, The Traveler tells Galactic Journey readers he is giving a vote of no confidence in new F&SF editor Davidson’s handiwork: “[Apr. 28, 1962] Changing of the Guard (May 1962 Fantasy and Science Fiction)”
I never thought the time would come that reading The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction would be the most dreaded portion of my duties…and yet, here we are. Two issues into new Editor Avram Davidson’s tenure, it appears that the mag’s transformation from a great bastion of literary (if slightly stuffy) scientifiction is nearly complete. The title of the digest might well be The Magazine of Droll Trifles (with wry parenthetical asides).
One or two of these in an issue, if well done, can be fine. But when 70% of the content is story after story with no science and, at best, stream-of-consciousness whimsy, it’s a slog. And while one could argue that last issue’s line-up comprised works picked by the prior editor, it’s clear that this month’s selections were mostly Davidson’s.
Moreover, Robert Mills (the outgone “Kindly Editor”) used to write excellent prefaces to his works, the only ones I would regularly read amongst all the digests. Davidson’s are rambling and purple, though I do appreciate the biographical details on Burger and Aandahl this ish.
(11a) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- Born April 29, 1923 — Irvin Kirschner, filmmaker, director of The Empire Strikes Back.
(11b) TODAY’S DAY
International Astronomy Day
Astronomy allows us to see the history of the universe with our own eyes. The stars that twinkle as you look out on a dark, clear night may not exist right now. They existed at whatever point in history they emitted that light, which has taken millions of years to reach Earth.
(12) LATE EASTER EGG STANDING. Hey, I’d already forgotten there was one — “Explaining the mid-credits scene in Suicide Squad”. BEWARE SPOILERS.
Suicide Squad’s mid-credits scene features a meeting between Amanda Waller and billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. The conversation starts off simply enough: Waller needs help when it comes to keeping everything that happened in Midway City (and her involvement) on the down low. In order to protect herself from Enchantress’ wrath and keep her reputation in the green, Waller makes a deal with Wayne to maintain damage control surrounding the movie’s events. Of course, she has to bring something to the table to make the deal happen…
(13) EXPANSIVE. Aaron Pound reviews Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey at Dreaming About Other Worlds.
Full review: The first book in the Expanse series, Leviathan Wakes is a kind of hard-ish medium future science fiction almost Space Opera story that feels a little bit like Firefly and a little bit like a Dashiell Hammett novel. The book is full of adventure, intrigue, and excitement, but it is the kind of industrial, oil-covered adventure, intrigue, and excitement that results in broken bones, bullet holes, and dead characters. Alongside the truckers and detectives in space in the book is just enough alien weirdness to shake things up and add a bit of inhuman horror to the impersonal dangers of living in a hostile environment that will probably kill you if you make a mistake.
(14) NEWS TO SOMEBODY. Vox (the website, not the Rabid Puppy) said in its February review,, “Forget ‘white saviors’: The Great Wall is really about fighting giant lizard monsters”.
A few things you should know about The Great Wall: It’s simultaneously 400 percent more movie than most and 10 percent as much movie as most — huge, bombastic, colorful, explosive, and containing almost no story at all. It’s roughly equivalent to watching the assault-on-Mordor bits of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King for 103 minutes. It was filmed in 3D, and I ducked a few times while watching. It also made me seasick, but that’s my own damn fault for sitting too close to the screen.
(15) THE LONG VIEW. AI viewed with alarm: “Viewpoint: Is inequality about to get unimaginably worse?”. Chip Hitchcock snarks, “He probably wouldn’t have been paid if he’d just posted a link to ‘With Folded Hands’…”
Inequality goes back at least 30,000 years.
Hunter-gatherers were more equal than subsequent societies.
They had very little property, and property is a pre-requisite for long-term inequality.
But even they had hierarchies.
In the 19th and 20th Centuries, however, something changed.
Equality became a dominant value in human culture, almost all over the world. Why?
It was partly down to the rise of new ideologies such as humanism, liberalism and socialism.
(16) AND THE THIRD LITTLE MARTIAN PIG… There may be no straw or timber, but — “Scientists just discovered something awesome about the soil on Mars”.
The research, which was published in Scientific Reports, reveals that the soil on Mars is particularly well-suited to brick making. In fact, the dirt is so easily formed into bricks that building a rigid structure out of it wouldn’t require any special substance or even heat to bake them, and it’s all thanks to the same material that gives the Mars surface its reddish hue.
At first, engineers at the university were trying to figure out exactly how much additional polymer would be needed for the Mars soil to be shaped into bricks. As they gradually reduced the amount of additive used with their soil simulant they eventually realized that they didn’t need any at all. The team was able to successfully compact iron-oxide-rich Mars dirt with a flexible container which was then pressurized. The result was small, firm blobs of soil which were stable enough to be cut into brick-like shapes.
(17) SHINY. The New York Times tells where to buy “A Solid Gold Darth Vader for the Sith Who Has Everything”.
For less than the cost of a trip to Tatooine, one lucky Star Wars fan will soon be able to own a solid gold Darth Vader mask — perfect for bartering, though perhaps not so good for heavy breathing.
On Tuesday, the Japanese jeweler Ginza Tanaka unveiled the imposing headgear and announced that it would go on sale at the company’s flagship store in Tokyo on May the fourth (do we need to spell this out for you?) to celebrate Star Wars’ 40th Anniversary.
The price? A mere 154 million Japanese yen, or about $1.4 million. Tax included!
(18) ON ICE. This is the lede of an article by Helen Brown in the April 22 Financial Times (behind a paywall.)
A survey recently found that the most popular song among prison inmates in the UK was ‘Let it Go,’ the big number from Disney’s 2013 blockbuster Frozen.
Despite the incongruity of old lags carrolling along to a song more easily associated with preschoolers dressed as animated princesses, anyone alive to the emotional truths of the film would not be surprised to find it resonating with prisoners struggling to own the guilt of the past and move on…..
(19) AI SCRIPTWRITER RETURNS. “It’s No Game–A Sci-Fi Short Film Starring David Hasselhoff” is a commentary on the forthcoming writer’s strike, featuring David hasselhoff as an android, that explains what happens when writers are replaced by the Golden-Age-Ophile and the Sorkinator.
[Thanks to Dawn Incognito, Martin Morse Wooster, Bill Mullins, JJ, John King Tarpinian, and Carl Slaughter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to Fie 770 contributing editor of the day Matthew Johnson.]
Update: Corrected item one to the name Annalee Flower Horne. (Not Newitz, as I mistakenly wrote to begin with.) Apologies to all concerned.
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First and contributing editor on the same day! Somepixel up there scrolls me.
(1) YA AWARD NAME.
I’m not sure why Newitz is going on about this. Heinlein’s name is already on several different awards, and it was ruled out as a possible name for this award a long time ago.
#7: The massacre of the Hugoawards was a real tragedy, right up there with the Defenestration of Prog.
(7) I’m assuming you mean the first typo in that tweet – there are two.
If I remember the comments around it, it’s because Heinlein’s name gets brought up a lot for it due to the juveniles (despite having been already ruled out, not everyone knows this), and she doesn’t think another white male writer with issues as to how he wrote women is the best choice for an award in a category that is largely written by and consumed by women, even if he wrote a bunch of books 60 years ago that are well-remembered largely by older white male fans.
I like Heinlein’s juveniles quite a bit, but I’d agree with that rationale — not that it matters, since his name has already been ruled out.
“Are you crazy? You’ll never beat a mingle and a snazzle with a lousy pixel!”
[tick box]
That’s not Annalee Newitz in #1. That’s Annalee Flower Horne.
Aiyeeee! Thanks for the quick correction.
The pixels never bothered me anyway.
(17) SHINY! – The world’s most expensive hood ornament!
Yeah I came across this video of Vader’s golden bust sometime yesterday. You can see the coin sets in the video as well.
I’ve always known that cat was solid gold.
I respect the right of transgender people to be addressed with their desired pronoun. I’m in favor of language (and people) making adjustments accordingly. I make an effort to get this right in my personal dealings and have a transgender relative I hope I’ve always spoken of with accuracy, compassion and love.
But I’m not seeing any way in which the word “violence” fits the situation of an editor changing a pronoun or writing around a pronoun in a heavy-handed manner.
Insensitivity? Yes. Intolerance? Probably. Violence? Nuh uh.
@bookworm1398
The scrolls never bothered me anyway?
2)
From context, I believe that should be from rather than by.
ticky
(10) *SIGH* Requiescat In Pace I must admit, I found the proximity of the next item a bit jarring, considering the connection between Grania Davis and Avram Davidson. Oh well.
Were the results of that nonbinding survey about the name ever published? I don’t recall seeing them.
@4: I was similarly croggled to see Willy Ley’s realtime Hugo in the Air&Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Annex (aka the Big Things building, just south of Dulles airport and seriously worth a visit.)
@OGH: Title credit goes to Fie 770…. Can’t even spell your own name right? Have you been doing a bit too much appertaining of your own?
(I’m guessing someone sent you that BBC story first, thus displacing my possible credit, rather than something else being dropped on the floor.)
Yes, I did some appertaining before getting here (not anticipatory, just a nice dubbel that needed drinking as it didn’t have the strength to keep).
I first met Grania Davis when I sought the reprint rightss to Davidson’s Limekiller stories, which I did published. Everytime I saw her at a convention it was a good time. She was smart and clever. I wish I had her energy.
I want to share something sort of interesting. I post a good bit on Reddit, usually in three of the SFF-related forums, and over two years, I’ve slowly accumulated about 1000 “likes” in each category–generally two or three at a time, but occasionally as may as 20 for a single post.
I do contribute occasionally to other Reddit groups, though. A couple of days ago I answered a relativity question in the askscience forum and, bang, 628 likes in just a day or two. It would take months to accumulate that in the fantasy or scifi subreddits.
And it wasn’t even a hard question.
Maybe the moral is that if you just want to be liked, stick to real science. 🙂
@Greg Hullender: It’s not so much that it was a hard question–it was relatively easy–as that you gave a clear, well-written answer, understandable to people without expertise. It would pass the J. Robert Oppenheimer test for understanding.
7) I’d like to exchange the patrilineal Huguenot who’s currently German secretary of the interior (and who looks uncannily like the villainous police commissioner in the first two seasons of Gotham) with a patrilineal Hugo Award, please
I hope to be posting reviews of Caliban’s War, Abaddon’s Gate, and Cibola Burn next week. Nemesis Games and Babylon’s Ashes should come shortly thereafter.
Yeah, if you want to be taken for anything more than a clown that induces eye-roll related injuries, you should refrain from saying something as idiotic as editors “correcting” somewhat unfamiliar pronouns as “violence.” Being a laughing stock isn’t exactly a great means of affecting change.
Cora: I’d like to exchange the patrilineal Huguenot who’s currently German secretary of the interior (and who looks uncannily like the villainous police commissioner in the first two seasons of Gotham) with a patrilineal Hugo Award, please.
*snort*
Aaron: I hope to be posting reviews of Caliban’s War, Abaddon’s Gate, and Cibola Burn next week. Nemesis Games and Babylon’s Ashes should come shortly thereafter.
They’re like crack, aren’t they? I enjoyed your first review, and am looking forward to the rest of them.
@JJ: The bottleneck is the time it takes to write the reviews, not the time to read the books.
@Matthew Johnson: I am envious of your Prog pun.
Hmm… I read a lot of Lovecraft as a young adult. Maybe they could name the award after him? Or, if that’s controversial, Robert E. Howard? If neither of those suggestions, surely Orson Scott Card wouldn’t make waves.
Silliness aside, I’d go for a reference to either Susan Cooper or Lloyd Alexander, assuming my childhood reading is the focal point of the award’s name.
But honestly, I said this all just to ticky.
@kathodus: I was thinking along those lines myself. But on reflection, I think there’s only one logical choice. Alice Dalgleish.
I had the same thought, a while back.
If it had to be named after a writer, I’d pick L’Engle.
But instead, I think it should be called the Tesseract, just so I can see what the award would look like.
@Kurt – like an ant, crawling across a folded cloth.
@Darren Garrison
A bit of hyperbole hardly warrants calling someone a clown or a laughing stock. Did you notice that the linked article is about failures of empathy?
@kathodus
“Silliness aside” or maybe adding to it I think the award should be The Gammage Cup
https://www.amazon.com/Gammage-Cup-Novel-Minnipins/dp/015202493X
The Psammead!
(1) Wasn’t it stated already that it wasn’t going to be named after a person? So there wouldn’t be the problem like we already have where people have to clarify which Campbell award they were nominated for/won.
(5) Singular “they” has been around about as long as singular “you”. So the grammar prescriptionists best be using “thou” in all their address to one person, or verily, I shall say unto them, “Thou needeth to STFU.”
Is gaslighting violence? Because telling someone that they’re incorrect about their pronoun identity is gaslighting. In any case, it’s at best thoughtless, at medium egotistical, and at worst, actively malicious.
Everything Natalie said there is true. But what can you expect when the country with the biggest military in the world is run by people who are allergic to empathy? At least SF is trying to do better instead of going backwards.
Reading report: just finished the anthology Cosmic Powers , ed. John Joseph Adams. Lis Carey reviewed it here a few days ago and I agree with her that it’s excellent, even by JJA’s usual high standards. The theme is ‘cosmic’ SF, so think Jack Kirby in his pomp with big bold stories that get a bit ridiculous sometimes but are still lots of fun.
Yes, I agree.
In my own experience, violence is what in the past has left me in Glasgow Royal Infirmary A&E department on a Saturday night, or closer to the topic, is what transgender people have to contend with on the streets of Istanbul.
That kind of hyperbole doesn’t make me more empathetic. Just highlights a relative degree of privilege.
Yes, my mistake. Mike, could you please change?
Meredith moment: Spotted the Cyber World anthology in bookbub this morning, with stories from some Filer favourites (including Cat Rambo, Alyssa Wong, Isabel Yap, E. Lily Yu and Nisi Shawl) for £0.99. Needless to say I snapped it up as I’m never sure when the bookbub deals end (especially as I’m in GMT+9 right now and I tend to get the emails overnight for the previous day at the moment)
Also, @Mark(kitteh): sadly I only saw a touring version of the Woman in Black in my hometown, but it was superb. If I’m in London again, seeing high quality plays will be a priority of mine.
Darren Garrison:
I do not think using hyperbole about something you are really emotional about is good enough reason to make someone a laughing stock.
lurkertype, did you see that Mike called you on the ansible in a thread the other day?
@Hampus Eckerman
It does tend to discredit your cause when you say things that aren’t true. I’ll agree that people don’t tend to laugh; grit their teeth is more like it. But it does mean people who might have supported your cause find other ways to spend their time.
@Mark it’s bad hyperbole though. The stuff we made fun of Brad for.
If there’ no hitting/stabbing/shooting/etc, don’t call it violence.
If no one’ being rounded up and sent to death camps don’t invoke Hitler.
If political prisoners aren’t being sent off to awful remote prions, don’t invoke gulags.
While we’re at it, lay off of Marxism and socialism every time something’s collectively paid for, okay? Volunteer or subscription fire departments may work on a small scale, the just won’t in a city and you don’t need to be Marx to use taxes to pay for something for everyone.
I like the use of the singular they over the more traditional ‘his or her.’ I don’t like ascribing malice to copy-editors over it when traditional grammar is their (ooo look I did it) job, just STET and send a note for the future.
Also in book news! The Impossible Fairytale finally has a Kindle edition! Not sure how many filers will be interested in it though, it sounds quite dark and not particularly SFFish. Anyway, I’ve also just started reading The Scar (Miéville), but have put it aside to devour this book instead.
@lurkertype Singular You is formal.
Standard English Pronouns
1’st I me my mine: I am Groot
2’nd (t)Thou three thy thine: I thou art Groot
2’nd (v) Ye You: You are Groot
3’rd (man/boy) He him his: He is Groot
3’rd (woman/girl) She her hers: She is Groot
3’rd (neuter) It: It is Groot.
3’rd (v) One: One does not simply walk into Mordor, except Groot
1’st (Plural) We us our: We are Groot
2’nd (Plural) You: All of you are Groot
3’rd (Plural) They them their them: They are Groot.
Interrogative Who Whom: Who is Groot?
I think most of us agree to add 3’rd (unknown/genderles) They: They are Groot instead of he or she is Groot.
And they took a long time to type because my S key is sticking, might be new keyboard time.
@Iphinome
When an earlier poster pointed out that “violence” was an inaccurate use without additional insults I had no issue with that. When Darren added “clown that induces eye-roll related injuries”, “laughing stock” and “idiotic” I felt that that was unnecessary, hyperbolic itself, and a failure of empathy in thinking about the depth of feeling that led the writer to that choice of words.
Or the shorter version: it’s possible to disagree with people without directly insulting them on top of it. (I’ll happily stipulate to not being consistent in this regard myself)
Singular they goes back at least to Chaucer.
However, most copy editors have probably been taught that it’s Wrong Wrong Wrong, and aren’t aware of just how old this “new” usage is.
Calling this incorrect correction “violence” is overwrought hyperbole, but it’s also an issue on which the writer may be painfully sensitized. Noting the overwrought hyperbole is one thing; declaring the person a laughingstock is another and a demonstration of the lack of empathy the article is about.
Is there in scroll no pixel?
@Mark
Wouldn’t that be nice? 🙂
@Iphinome While we’re at it, lay off of Marxism and socialism every time something’s collectively paid for, okay?
I sympathise, but I’m personally torn between “let’s be sure to call it socialism to remind people that socialism is good and works well in practice” and “it’s not really Marxism if we’re not aiming to abolish money”.
As for the violence thing… there’s some hyperbole involved here, but erasure can definitely be a form of violence – consider the AIDS crisis, for example – and small acts of erasure build up into a pattern. So I’m inclined to let it go on the grounds that it’s better to tolerate a bit of hyperbole than to turn a question of oppression into a question of tone.