Pixel Scroll 5/1/19 The Pixel That Can Be Scrolled Is Not The True Pixel

(1) FUTURE TENSE. This month’s entry in the Future Tense Fiction series is “The Song Between Worlds” by Indra Das, author of the award-winning novel The Devourers.

Each month, Future Tense Fiction—a series of short stories from Future Tense and ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives—publishes a story on a theme. The theme for April–June 2019: space settlement.

It was published along with a response essay “What Would Sound Be Like on Mars?” by the astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz of the Adler Planetarium.)

… Sound is a relatively simple physical phenomenon, but the way our minds shape it can be complex. It’s a wave, but not the same kind of wave one might see in the ocean, where the medium (water, in the case of the ocean) travels toward or away from us. If sound waves were like ocean waves, we would not be able to speak to one another without blowing a constant breeze toward the listener, which is (generally speaking) not what happens. Rather, sound waves travel by creating collisions between the molecules of air between us and the origin of the sound….

(2) SURVEILLANCE STATE. In The Atlantic, Lily Meyer reviews “Two ambitious new novels build techno-futures in which surveillance offers disturbing new threats” — “Science Fiction’s Preoccupation With Privacy”.

…The only character in Dark Constellations not interested in controlling others is Piera, a disaffected Stromatoliton biologist whose alienation from her male co-workers and from the overreach of her company leads her to cut herself off—from people, and from broader systems. She privately refers to her employer as “the animal of the state unleashed,” but remains at Stromatoliton, satisfying her voyeuristic curiosity even as the future of Argentine privacy is in question. With Piera, Oloixarac seems to underscore the impossibility of stepping away from power in a world in which science overrides ethics. Piera may consider herself an observer rather than a participant, but she remains complicit in the global expansion of surveillance….

(3) BRIANNA WU. Media people covering last weekend’s synagogue shooting in San Diego tapped Brianna Wu for comment about the shooter’s 8chan connection.

…Whether the Internet is creating hate groups or just serving as a gathering place, one thing has become clear: What happens online doesn’t stay there.

Brianna Wu is a software engineer who lives in Massachusetts. In 2014, she was targeted in something called Gamergate, in which men threatened female video game players and developers. The harassment started mainly on 8chan.

“They threw bricks through my windows. They sent me hundreds upon hundreds of death threats, rape threats,” Wu says. “I’ve had people from 8chan follow me around just to let me know, ‘I’m near you and could hurt you if I wanted to.’ “

Wu, who is running for Congress, says the solution is simple. “We need dedicated FBI agents that understand online culture to look at these kinds of extreme crimes and prosecute them,” she says.

…The message is trickling to the campaign trail. Brianna Wu, a software engineer who is running as a Democrat for a House seat in Massachusetts, told me she is “angry” that law enforcement has not done more to rein in 8chan, which has also been connected to the circulation of child pornography and is a place where people are frequently doxxed. 

After Wu herself was targeted on the website in 2014 with death threats during the Internet culture war known as Gamergate, she says she says she documented “tons of illegal activity” on 8chan and shared her findings with the FBI. She believes it’s possible the recent shootings could have been avoided if law enforcement took greater action, she said, and wants to increase funding for the FBI to investigate online crime if elected to Congress. 

“We need to fund a specific task force within the FBI that is very tech literate and tasked to prosecute these types of online crimes,” she said. More from Wu:

(4) CAMERAS ROLL ON PICARD. They’ve begun to “Make it so” — “Star Trek: Patrick Stewart’s Picard TV Show Starts Filming” at ScreenRant.

With a mix of old and newcomer talent on both sides of the camera, the Picard series looks to follow in Discovery‘s footsteps and blend old-fashioned Star Trek tropes with fresh sci-fi ideas and a more modern tone. Of course, this show has an advantage over CBS All Access’ first Star Trek series in that it’s not a prequel and has more freedom to play around with its storytelling, as opposed to having to work around classic lore and mythology. Something like the Star Wars sequel trilogy has certainly gotten a passionate fan response by bringing back old characters for new adventures, so it’ll be very interesting to see how Trekkies take to Picard’s story continuing by comparison.

(5) CARL BRANDON ORIGIN STORY. The Jeanne Gomoll-edited Carl Brandon, by and about the hoax fan Terry Carr co-created long ago, is available for order from Lulu ($16.00).

Terry Carr recounts the invention of an imaginary black science fiction fan named Carl Brandon, one of the field’s most (in)famous hoaxes. In addition to Carl Brandon’s complete history, this volume includes his J.D. Salinger parody, “The Cacher of the Rye;” a more current parody by Carl Brandon 2.0, “The Kvetcher on the Racists;” and an essay by Samuel R. Delany, “Racism and Science Fiction.” To quote Carr: “In the late fifties, several of the fans of the Bay Area…presented fandom with a new fanwriter who was quickly acclaimed as one of the best writers around and who was, not incidentally, the first prominent fan who was black.” Read the book for more of this fascinating tale. All proceeds go to the Carl Brandon Society, which promotes discussions on race at conventions and conferences, and through its support of the Parallax and Kindred literary awards, and the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund.

(6) JOHN SLADEK. The paperback edition of New Maps: The Uncollected John Sladek was informally launched at the UK Eastercon and the promised ebook is now available reports David Langford. Both can be ordered from Ansible Editions. Trade paperback 9″ x 6″, 255pp, ISBN 978-0-244-15877-4. $20 plus local postage from Lulu.com: click button below. Ebook in the usual formats at £5.50: again, click button below.

(7) FREE DOWNLOAD. Of more fannish interest, a free ebook reissue of Terry Carr’s 1986 collection Fandom Harvest has been posted on David Langford’s TAFF page as an incitement to give generously to the fund. He adds, “Many thanks to Bob Silverberg for allowing his 1986 introduction to be included and to the original publisher John-Henri Holmberg for his afterword and general approval. Carol Carr has given her blessing to this reissue.”

Langford further notes – “For anyone interested in acquiring the Sladek or the Brandon paperback: both are published via Lulu.com, which currently has a 15%-off discount code ONEFIVE that’s good until 2 May.”

(8) HARLEQUIN ART. The Bristol Board features nine pieces of Steranko art done for an edition of a Harlan Ellison story.

Repent Harlequin, said the Tick-Tock Man!, a portfolio of illustrations by Jim Steranko, done as an adaptation of a short story that was written by Harlan Ellison. the last plate is a 3-D pinup.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born May 1, 1905 Edna Mayne Hull. Wife of A.E. van Vogt. And yes, she too wrote genre fiction. Her initial sale, “The Flight That Failed”, appeared in the November 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction under chosen author credit of “E.M. Hull” though eventually she used her own name. She has but one novel of her own, Planets for Sale, and one with her husband, The Winged Man, and only a dozen stories, one with A.E. Van Vogt & James H. Schmitz. (Died 1975.)
  • Born May 1, 1924 Terry Southern. Screenwriter and author of greatest interest for the screenplay from Peter George’s original novel, Two Hours to Doom (as by Peter Bryant) of Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb directed (and in part written) by Stanley Kubrick. He was also involved in scripting Barbarella. (Died 1995.)
  • Born May 1, 1946 Joanna Lumley, 73. No, she was no Emma Peel, but she was definitely more than a bit appealing in the New Avengers as Purdey. All twenty-six episode are out on DVD. Her next genre out was Sapphire & Steel whichstarred David McCallum as Steel and her as Sapphire. Skip forward nearly near twenty years and find her playing The Thirteenth Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death in Comic Relief special. 
  • Born May 1, 1948 Terry Goodkind, 71. You obviously know he is. I’ve read some of the Sword of Truth series. It’s ok, but not really my cup of Earl Grey Tea Hot. Epic fantasy isn’t something that I really read a lot of to be honest preferring epic sf instead. 
  • Born May 1, 1952 Andrew Sawyer, 67. Librarian by profession, critic and editor as well who an active part of fandom. He is the Reviews Editor for Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. I’ve also got him doing Upon the Rack in Print, a book review column in Interzone and elsewhere and contributing likewise the Rust Never Sleeps column to Paperback Inferno as well. He hasn’t written much fiction, but there is some such as “The Mechanical Art” in the Digital Dreams anthology.
  • Born May 1, 1955 J. R. Pournelle, 64. That’s as in Jennifer, the daughter of the Jerry we know. She’s here because she wrote Outies (Mote Series Book 3) which I confess she sent me a digital galley of years ago but I still need to take a look at. The first novel in the series is great. 
  • Born May 1, 1956 Phil Foglio, 63. He won the Best Fan Artist Hugo Award in 1977 and 1978. He later did work for DC, First and Marvel Comics including the backup stories in Grimjack. He and his wife are responsible for the exemplary Girl Genius, a three-time Best Graphic Story Hugo winner.
  • Born May 1, 1957 Steve Meretzky, 62. He co-designed the early Eighties version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy video game with the full participation of Douglas Adams. SF Encyclopedia notes that he did also a space opera themed game, Planetfall and its sequel A Mind Forever Voyaging in the Eighties as well. He also did the definitely more erotic Leather Goddesses of Phobos as well. 

(10) DC WOULDN’T HAVE NEEDED A SEQUEL. On CBR.com, Vivian Achieng thinks MCU characters are relatively wimpy and there are at least “25 DC Characters That Are More Powerful Than Thanos.”

When we talk about the MCU blockbuster, Avengers: Infinity War, we cannot fail but mention the wrecking ball that was Thanos, and his infinity gauntlet of course. For the very first time, earth’s mightiest heroes, The Avengers, look to have met their match. All their powers, tech and a snarky Star-Lord were not powerful enough to stop Thanos’ crusade to save the universe. Fingers crossed for Captain Marvel. The superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe can appear to be underpowered compared to other superheroes. This isn’t a knock on Captain America or Iron Man or the rest, but they don’t compare characters from other franchises. If characters from other universes happened to show up in Infinity War, we think the fight against Thanos would have ended a tad differently. In fact, some wouldn’t even need the support of the Avengers and could take the Mad Titan out all on their own.

Granted, Thanos is not an easy walk over. Without the Infinity Gauntlet, he is as strong or stronger than Thor with fair speed to match, he is pretty much indestructible, and has scientific knowledge greater than anyone on Earth, which in turn makes him a master strategist. He also has access to cosmic power which he can use to release blasts from his hands and eyes. With the Infinity Gauntlet, however, he can manipulate all of reality, time, space and the minds and souls of others. He looks pretty unbeatable, right? Wrong! Here is a list of 25 characters from Marvel’s arch enemies, DC, which can very well handle the threat that is Thanos….

(11) RIPLEY! BELIEVE IT OR NOT. “Sigourney Weaver surprises high school cast of Alien: The Play”CNET has the story.

… “I’m so excited to be here,” Weaver told them. “I’m representing all the Alien fans from all over the universe … I think what you’re doing is so cool and so important.”

Another video shows one high school student yelling, “I love you, you’re my childhood hero! I can’t believe you’re here right now!” before hugging Weaver.

The whole play is online –

(12) SFF IN TRANSLATION. Rachel Cordasco’s “Love in the New Millennium [Why This Book Should Win]” is one in a series of thirty-five posts about every title longlisted for the 2019 Best Translated Book Awards

Love in the New Millennium by Can Xue, translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (Yale University Press)

Love in the New Millennium is a work of operatic magical realism; a book with many layers, many shifting romantic relationships, and no clear plot. Like Frontier, one of Can Xue’s previous novels, Love invites us into the hazy, sometimes frustratingly-elusive worlds of a handful of characters, many of whom are desperately trying to find a “home.”…

(13) CHALLENGE FOR THE WIKIPEDIA. UnDark discusses “What a Deleted Profile Tells Us About Wikipedia’s Diversity Problem”

You’ve probably never heard of Clarice Phelps. If you were curious, you might enter her name into Google. And, if you had done so anytime between September of last year and February of this year, you would likely have found her Wikipedia entry. The nuclear scientist is thought to be the first African-American woman to help discover a chemical element; she was part of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory team that purified the radioactive sample of berkelium-249 from which the new element, tennessine, was created. But on February 11, 2019, in the middle of Black History Month and on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Phelps’s page was deleted. The optics, as they say, weren’t good.

The deletion came after a brief but intense dispute between Wikipedia contributors over whether Phelps met the site’s criteria for notability. Ordinarily, such editorial spats are considered a feature of the crowdsourced encyclopedia, not a bug. If one of the site’s hundreds of thousands of active contributors mistakenly or purposely adds incorrect information, the wisdom of the crowd will ensure that truth prevails.

But in the case of Phelps, the crowd made the wrong call, and the site’s rules facilitated that. The entire spectacle revealed just how much work remains to be done to address the systemic biases that disproportionately keep women and people of color out of Wikipedia’s pages.

(14) UNLIKELY STEPS. Scoffers can’t believe the discovery, or that military authorities tweeted about it — “‘Yeti footprints’: Indian army mocked over claim”.

The Indian army has claimed to have found footprints of the yeti, sparking jokes and disbelief on social media.

The army tweeted to its nearly six million followers on Monday that it had discovered “mysterious footprints of mythical beast ‘Yeti’ at the Makalu Base Camp [in the Himalayas]”.

(15) IT BITES. CNN’s AJ Willingham says “The ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ trailer is out and people are having visceral reactions to it”.

People are weird about teeth, and always have been. According to dental researcher Rosemary Wells, ancient cultures had a variety of ways of dealing with baby teeth, as described in her essay “The Making of an Icon: The Tooth Fairy in North American Folklore and Popular Culture:”

(1) the tooth was thrown into the sun; (2) thrown into the fire; (3) thrown between the legs; (4) thrown onto or over the roof of the house, often with an invocation to some animal or individual; (5) placed in a mouse hole near the stove or hearth or offered to some other animal; (6) buried; (7) hidden where animals could not get it; (8) placed in a tree or on a wall; and (9) swallowed by the mother, child or animal.

That’s right, people have historically been so freaked out by teeth they used to THROW THEM INTO THE SUN. Dental anxiety is real! You can’t just stick a full set of veneers in any old cartoon character and expect people to not be traumatized!

(16) PTERRY WEEPS. Chip Hitchcock advises a trigger warning should accompany BBC’s video: “Leuser rainforest: Baby orangutans rescued from Indonesia’s pet trade”.

Baby orangutans on the island of Sumatra are being captured and sold as pets, but charities are working to rescue the animals and confront the owners.

(17) HIGH-PRICED COLLECTIBLE. “Star Wars Bib Fortuna toy prototype sells for £36k” – BBC has the story.

A prototype of a Star Wars toy has sold for £36,000 at auction.

The 1980s master model of Bib Fortuna, a male Twi’lek who lived on Tatooine, had an estimate of £12,000.

It sold at Thornaby-based Vectis Auctions along with prototypes of an ewok called Logray which fetched £12,000, and an Emperor’s royal guard which reached £28,800.

Auctioneer Kathy Taylor said the three “relatively unknown” characters had “beaten all expectations”.

They had been made in America by Kenner for the production of the toys in Europe by Palitoy, which was based in Coalville, Leicestershire.

…Ms Taylor said the master models are larger and more detailed than the final figures sold in toy shops.

(18) RESISTANCE. Season 3 of The Handmaid’s Tale arrives June 5 on Hulu.

[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, Joey Eschrich, Andrew Porter, Carl Slaughter, Mike Kennedy, Chip Hitchcock, JJ, Cat Eldridge, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew.]

41 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 5/1/19 The Pixel That Can Be Scrolled Is Not The True Pixel

  1. A Twitter user did a rework of Sonic to make him look more like Sonic and less like a small human in a onesie costume here.

  2. On the medical front, Jenner says the right forearm effected by the blood clot caused by the PICC looks better than when she saw me on Monday and the tests for my post-staph treatment infection monitoring were generally good. Not completely good but generally good.

    Yes I saw my PCP twice in three days. It’s going to be that sort of an extended period for awhile.

    Both the blood clot and the staph infection will need weekly monitoring for the next six weeks so I get to visit her weekly unless I’m seeing another someone else there such as my osteopathic shoulder therapist as I’m doing next week.

    Just downloaded The Strange Case of Alchemist’s Daughter auduibook for listening based on the recommendations here. I expect it’ll make great listening on long walks. It’s in the queue behind Bear’s space opera also purchased based on recommendations here.

  3. @9 typo: I don’t know who-all relevant died in 1995, but it doesn’t seem to be Joanna Lumley, who is still around (per Wikipedia, and as suggested by the age given at the top of her entry).

    @Cat Eldridge: I’ll be interested to hear how well you think the interjections are handled in the audiobook.

  4. Chip Hitchcock says @9 typo: I don’t know who-all relevant died in 1995, but it doesn’t seem to be Joanna Lumley, who is still around (per Wikipedia, and as suggested by the age given at the top of her entry).

    I do know and have sent OGH the needed correction. I did have to look it up in my notes as I wasn’t sure either. It wouldn’t have been uncharitable to have noted that Lumley’s career had died in the years before that for a very long period.

  5. 10) Thanos was heavily based on DC’s Darkseid, with similar powers and power level. So this is, as usual for this sort of crap, based entirely on what line-up you like better.

    15) Typical. I can’t get working dentures and this blue . . . speed . . . thing gets a full set where he never had any.

  6. Retrieved car from shop this afternoon, having taken it in very early this morning for some major work. Genre-related, in a sense: it’s a hybrid, and the rechargeable battery pack (AKA 50kg of cell-phone batteries) needed to be replaced. (The “check engine” light came on, Sunday morning, and Monday morning they diagnosed the problem.) I still think the car needs a sticker on the hood: “No User-Serviceable Parts Inside”. No real complaints though, as it’s been out of warranty for several years; I’ve had the car for 17 years.

  7. “Only the True Pixel denies his scrollability!
    “Well, what kind of choice does that leave me? All right, I am the Pixel!”
    “I KNEW IT! HE IS THE PIXEL!”

  8. 11) that’s pretty cool. And hopefully fewer cast members got damaged than in the Eastercon Aliens stage production.

  9. (6) and (7): All thanks for spreading the word, Mike. A small footnote to (7) is that the “Many thanks …” bit was written for a particular mailing list of which Messrs Silverberg and Holmberg are members. As noted on the linked Fandom Harvest download page, I’m also hugely grateful to Grant Canfield for permission to use his fine cartoons.

  10. Cat/Mike: at (9) I think you’ve aged Andy Sawyer by 10 years. — Mark

  11. (10) DC WOULDN’T HAVE NEEDED A SEQUEL. How powerful the characters are has never been a big factor for me when choosing which comics to read. Marvel may or may not have wimpier characters, but for my money, they still have more interesting characters in general. Though DC has improved a lot over the years. But they still haven’t caught up.

    (Gail Simone’s run on Birds of Prey was one of the first times I found myself actually caught up in the characters of a DC story. But then Simone is just plain awesome.)

    Joanna Lumley had several genre roles before her appearance in The New Avengers. She was in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Tam-Lin (1970), and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973), which was the last Hammer film to feature Christopher Lee as Dracula.

    But it was her over-the-top role in the not-at-all-genre but still bizarrely entertaining Absolutely Fabulous that made me a fan. And she was also in the wonderful (though not exactly genre) Cold Comfort Farm, which is a movie I recommend to everyone.

  12. (4) Cameras may have started “rolling” on Picard, but there are widespread rumours that shooting is confined to second-unit work due to major disagreements between the show’s producers, CBS and merchandise manufacturers (the last of which are deeply unhappy with the current designs, which they apparently consider impossible to market).

  13. Today is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s birthday.

    Can you smell what the Rock is cooking? Because I suspect it’s a birthday cake.

  14. RE: #13 Clarice Phelps
    As a long-time veteran of Wikipedia, I can say with complete confidence that the problem here isn’t so much the “lack of diversity” on Wikipedia, but the fact that Phelps’ article didn’t have a strong enough defense. The way way Wikipedia works is that when you put up an article, you have to be ready to defend it. If you don’t have the time or inclination for that, you need to find someone in the community who does. There are specific requirements for “notability” and if these aren’t shown, then the article just gets deleted.

    However, not to worry. A quick look suggests the defense for Phelps has now assembled. A new, more heavy-weight article is in work at the site.

  15. Steve Green says Cameras may have started “rolling” on Picard, but there are widespread rumours that shooting is confined to second-unit work due to major disagreements between the show’s producers, CBS and merchandise manufacturers (the last of which are deeply unhappy with the current designs, which they apparently consider impossible to market).

    I wouldn’t pay much attention to such rumors as the reliable news sources for the entertainment buisness siuggest the scripts themselves are still being written. Given that they are still adding cast, this is not surprising. Hollywood Reporter thinks principal filming isn’t likely to start until late summer which means the show itself might not air until 2020.

    Toy sales certainly aren’t driving decision making at CBS!

  16. Been running short(er than usual) on time and sleep lately. I try to browse F770 daily, but haven’t had a chance to post any comments.

    But wanted to let people here know my 12,000 word novelette “Nick’s Last Flight” is now available to read at Silver Blade magazine’s website. (Santa! Cats! Puking reindeer! Unexpected goddesses!). It was a lot of fun to write; hope it’s a lot of fun to read.

    An excerpt (somewhat edited for brevity), if it’s not pushing the self-promotion thing too hard:

    – – – – –

    Nick’s head was already pounding when Gunther sent word of an emergency in the stables.

    In every stall, reindeer were down or barely standing. Gunther himself was adding various powders and herbs to a large tub of water and stirring vigorously.

    “Reindeer flu, m’lord,” the weathered little man explained. “I’d heard it was striking the wild herds in the southlands, but I hadn’t expected it to reach this far north.”

    Nick sat wearily on a low stool and placed his head in his hands. He wondered if Gunther’s concoction might help his own through-a-knothole-and-beaten-with-a-stick misery. He really, really needed to cut back on the drinking. Snap out of it, he told himself. You’re not the first man whose wife has left him. Buck up! It’s Christmas Eve!

    “Will that–” He waved a hand towards Gunther’s tub. “–get the reindeer sky-worthy in time?”

    “Not a chance in Hell, m’lord.“

    Nick sighed. He knew what had to be done. It was his duty, damn it. Millions of children around the world counted on him. The rotten little shits, he thought.

    “Gunther,” he said. “Gather up the cats.”

  17. May 1st is also the birthday of Joel Rosenberg, Ray Parker Jr., Glenn Ford and Wes Anderson. Glenn Ford gets a mention because he was Jonathan Kent in Superman. Wes Anderson hasn’t done a lot of genre films, but the animated Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs come close.

    Who you gonna scroll? Ghostpixels!

  18. Mark Plummer: I’ve turned back the clock for Andy! Thanks for the correction.

  19. The first 15 scrolls of Harry Montag

    Thanos is not the strngest foe in the Marvel universe and the heroes are not the strongest characters from the comics. But thats OK, because overpowered characters are boring (not to mention difficult to work with)

  20. @Chip —

    @Cat Eldridge: I’ll be interested to hear how well you think the interjections are handled in the audiobook.

    The Goss audio is done by one of my favorite female narrators, Kate Reading. She does an excellent job with the whole thing. (And I enjoyed the interjections anyway. IMHO they simply further the intermixing of “reality” and “fantasy” — in the book’s universe things like Frankenstein were supposed to be fantasy, but then they turn out to be real, and they’re being reported as though the story is real, but then we find out through the interjections that the women are actively rewriting some aspects of the story as they go, so we don’t actually know what is “true” and what isn’t — and so on.)

    Also — I went to see Endgame last night. I know, it’s a superhero movie, there are inevitably going to be huge plot holes, but the plot holes in this one REALLY bothered me. Sigh.

  21. Lis Carey says Cat, keep getting better.

    I recover in fits and starts from my far less serious illness.

    Today was actually a much better day and I’ve been out doing things since eight this morning. As a result, I listened to a nice piece of Shepherd’s Spiral Wars novel.

    The blood clot will require weekly monitoring to make sure it’s not making the forearm worse and the post-staph infection needs weekly blood testing to insure it is indeed truly gone. I’m going to be visiting Martins Points twice a week for the next month.

  22. Jack Lint: In what way is Isle of Dogs NOT genre? It has robot dogs, links which allow dogs and humans to communicate, weird experimental treatments applied to dogs, and other nonexistent tech, plus the exploration of social changes, albeit simplistically. I don’t like it terribly much but I don’t argue its genre credentials (even if it lacks the other kind of Credentials.)

    _________________

    So for counterintuitive reasons, I joined the quagmire that is twitter. @LenoraRoseSFF .

  23. @ Camestros Felapton

    Gaiman’s version of Death is an odd one to include given Thanos’s relationship with (Marvel) Death.

    I think Gaiman’s Death would probably slap Thanos and yell (ahem) “SNAP OUT OF IT!” like Cher’s character did in Moonstruck.

  24. Re: Wikipedia notability requirements…

    Given that there is a separate Wikipedia page for every individual episode of the sit-com “Friends” (just as a random example), I will always give the side-eye to claims that there are any objective criteria for notability involved.

  25. I recently rewatched all of the Star Wars movies, so maybe I’ll have to have a commemorative viewing of Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger this weekend.

  26. Heather Rose Jones: Re: Wikipedia notability requirements…Given that there is a separate Wikipedia page for every individual episode of the sit-com “Friends” (just as a random example), I will always give the side-eye to claims that there are any objective criteria for notability involved.

    Given that a troll who periodically comments here has a Wikipedia profile despite being utterly lacking in notability, while the profiles of people who have actually accomplished something significant keep getting deleted, Wikipedia’s notability requirement is obviously a joke. 🙄

  27. Heather Rose Jones says
    Re: Wikipedia notability requirements…

    Given that there is a separate Wikipedia page for every individual episode of the sit-com “Friends” (just as a random example), I will always give the side-eye to claims that there are any objective criteria for notability involved.

    Wikipedia has absolutely no,objective criteria for notability as near as I can tell. And given the decentralised nature of its organisation, it certainly has no way of enforcing any such objective criteria if they did exist.

    My favourite story concerning wiki was when I attempted quite unsuccessfully decades ago to correct the pages concerning Charles de Lint that quite in error has several of his early characters listed as pen names for him. I even listed which stories were characters were in so that there was no mistake that they were indeed fictional characters. A week later, the false information was back in place. Curious as to what was going on, I contacted the admin person and was told that authority on de Lint had said simply that I was wrong. Never mind that I was friends with de Lint and had asked him what he’d used for pen names, that person was the authority.

    I gave in, it wasn’t worth the energy to fight it. Ironically the Encyclopaedia of Fantasy I found out made exactly the same mistake in their summation of his pen names.

  28. @Xtifr: that version of Tam Lin sounds seriously weird — not to mention shifting the balance of the story in a way I haven’t seen in other adaptations — but it also sounds like it fits in its period, having some of the decadent-London feel of Brunner’s few contemporary-but-genre novels (The Productions of Time, The Gaudy Shadows, and maybe Black is the Color). A bit like Gimme Shelter in making one feel the Sixties were well-gone.

    @Contrarius: so does she do the interjections in different voices, or label them, or …? ISTM that the first would be difficult (not impossible, but non-trivial) with a single reader, and the second would be awkward.

  29. @lenora rose It actually did have the other kind of credential, unfortunately, they were mostly villains.

    I love that movie to death!

  30. Cat Eldridge: I attempted quite unsuccessfully decades ago to correct the pages concerning Charles de Lint… I gave in, it wasn’t worth the energy to fight it.

    I tried once more than a decade ago to make a factual correction to a page that was in error. My update was immediately reverted, and the person who reverted it posted quite a snide, self-important comment on my Talk page. I decided that since there were several other online organizations which were actually appreciative of my volunteer efforts, Wikipedia was not worth any further effort on my part.

    Some time later I read a piece by Wikipedia’s founder which castigated its editors for the extreme arrogant and self-important policing culture which has sprung up among them, which values personal status and making egotistical smackdowns more highly than actually having good content on the pages.

    The fact that Wikipedia editors are preferentially allowed to create and maintain pages for non-notable subjects does not help their credibility any. The same rules should apply to everything, whether or not a known editor is involved.

  31. Back in the day Wikipedia had a guideline that high schools were not considered notable unless they had some kind of uncommon news story about them or something. I was able to successfully defend my high school’s article from a deletion vote by relying on a priest abuse scandal that had hit the school a couple years before I attended. Probably not the publicity that the school would have wanted, but it worked.

    I believe the guideline has since been relaxed to realize that you can likely have a decent article on any high school, although it’s been well over a decade since I edited even remotely actively. My position was always that if you can write something substantial about something based on reliable sources, it’s not doing any harm by staying there.

    The culture of “‘page ownership” there is pretty absurd though given that it goes against pretty much every formal policy and guideline that the project claims to support.

  32. Goobergunch notes that The culture of “‘page ownership” there is pretty absurd though given that it goes against pretty much every formal policy and guideline that the project claims to support.

    And it means when I’m putting together the Birthday notes that I damn well better check elsewhere the facts presented there as there’s a better than even chance that something won’t be right.

    By the way the de Lint page has a new editor as it’s now spot on for accuracy. Mind you I’m fairly sure it’s a hundred percent copy and paste off his website.

  33. @Chip —

    @Contrarius: so does she do the interjections in different voices, or label them, or …? ISTM that the first would be difficult (not impossible, but non-trivial) with a single reader, and the second would be awkward.

    Well, she does different voices for all the characters, as most narrators do, but not special ones for the interjections. In this case it’s just someone reading a story to a group of friends about that group of friends, and occasionally one of the friends interrupts. The tone of voice naturally changes between the story-telling bits and the interruption bits.

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