(1) BLACK GATE OUT. Black Gate has withdrawn as a Hugo nominee. Editor John O’Neill explained the decision:
Why did we decline? While we won’t know the exact number of nominating ballots until the stats are released (after the Hugos are awarded), it’s clear that Black Gate largely benefited from Vox Day’s Rabid Puppy Hugo slate. As we reported Wednesday, roughly 80% of this year’s Hugo ballot was dictated by that slate — it swept six categories, including Short Story, Graphic Story, and Fanzine. Our choice to withdraw was informed by many of the same factors that led us to make the same decision last year.
(2) REACTIONS. George R.R. Martin analyzed Black Gate’s “Hugo Withdrawal” at Not A Blog.
This is the second year that BLACK GATE has refused a nomination, so one certainly has to admire them for their consistency. And no one can deny that this is a very difficult decision for those, like BLACK GATE, that were put on the ballot by the Rabids without their consent (it is an easy decision for the Rabids themselves and their allies, of course, most of whom are squealing as happily as pigs in shit).
Since I’m on record as urging the “hostages” to stand their ground, I can’t applaud this decision. But I will not criticize it either. They had a tough call and they made it, consistent with their own politics and principles.
I will quibble, however, about one of their assertions: that even if BLACK GATE had elected to remain on the ballot, they had no chance of winning. I am not going to go so far as to say they were the favorite… but I think they would have had a shot. All five of this year’s nominees were on the Rabid Slate, yes. But two of the five — BLACK GATE and FILE 770 — are clearly hostages, slated without their consent. Despite the success of No Award in last year’s voting, I think the presence of so many hostages this year changes the equation. My hope is that fewer fans will resort to the Nuclear Option. If so, I think FILE 770 will win here… but BLACK GATE would have given Glyer’s zine its strongest competition. Oh, and yes, No Award will be contending too. TANGENT might have a very slim outside chance.
(3) THE 100% SOLUTION. What could be simpler? Send this tweet to the Hugo Administrators forthwith!
https://twitter.com/damiengwalter/status/726746771301404674
(4) SANDIFER. Phil Sandifer asserts “Vox Day Put A Child Pornographer On The Hugo Ballot”.
For obvious reasons, I will not be providing links here, however I am happy to provide them privately to anyone with a legitimate interest in the information, including law enforcement.
It was brought to my attention today that “kukuruyo,” one of the artists that Vox Day put on the Rabid Puppies slate in Best Fan Artist and that made it onto the Hugo Ballot recently posted to his blog a commissioned drawing of comic book character Ms. Marvel in which her genitalia is clearly visible and provocatively displayed. Ms. Marvel – whose comic won last year’s Hugo for Best Graphic Story – is a sixteen-year-old girl in the comics. Under US law, this would seem to legally be child pornography.
Although the drawing post-dates Day’s placement of the artist on his slate, the hypocrisy of Vox Day endorsing the work of a child pornographer is particularly glaring given that he continues to throw childish insults like this around…
(5) DAY SAYS NAY. Vox Day says it ain’t so:
A few relevant points that collectively demonstrate the utter absurdity of Pedophil’s libel:
- Kukuruyo has stated that he didn’t know the fictitious age of the Marvel cartoon character, Ms Marvel, and drew her as a 20-year-old.
- I am reliably informed that Ms Marvel was 16 when she was introduced in 2013. That makes her at least 18 now, possibly 19.
- The age of consent in Spain is 16. Kukuruyo is Spanish, lives in Spain, and US law is not relevant to his activities.
- The drawing cannot be child pornography regardless of what age the fictitious character is supposed to be. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that drawings and computer representations are not child pornography.
- Phil Sandifer has admitted that he was aware of the Supreme Court ruling when he made the accusation.
- The Ms Marvel drawing was drawn and posted well after I recommended Kukuruyo, who draws GamerGate Life, for the Hugo Award.
SJWs always project. This is more than a little alarming in this particular case.
(5) ARISTOTLE. Vox Day announced he has banned Camestros Felapton from commenting at Vox Popoli, in a lengthy post titled “Of enthymemes and false erudition”.
In other words, Felapton has confused Aristotle’s admonition to use rhetoric in the service of the truth with Aristotle’s definitions of what rhetoric is as well as with his instructions on how to use rhetoric effectively. In fact, Aristotle makes it clear that both dialectic and rhetoric can be used impartially on either side of an argument, although it is much easier to identify the deceptive use of dialectic due to its reliance on complete syllogisms and strict logic than it is the deceptive use of rhetoric due to its incomplete structure and its reliance on apparent truths that are accepted by the audience.
What Felapton calls “bollocks” and “bullshit” is nothing more than what Aristotle calls “apparent truth”. But, as we have seen, rhetoric can rely upon these apparent truths just as readily as upon actual truths. And in this particular application, my rhetoric, even structurally reliant as it is upon apparent truth rather than actual truth, is more persuasive, and therefore more effective, than Slate’s rhetoric, in part for the obvious reason that it is absolutely true.
(5) BANNED FROM ARGO. Camestros Felapton’s attitude was, “Cool! Banned by Vox!”.
My claim is that I can’t reward obnoxious behavior by Castalia House. Nothing to do with the genetic fallacy. Vox concedes that I raise one valid point, which is that “there is no way of separating what is published by Castalia from how Castalia promotes itself and its published works.” That is the ethical basis of my position and Vox concedes that it is valid and not fallacious.
What is more interesting is Vox losing his cool. That is a major departure from his play book and poor tactics. He is actually rattled? Surely not by me, so I assume it must be by Philip Sandifer’s campaign.
(6) FELAPTON AMERICA. As part of our all-Felapton-all-the-time coverage, we must also mention his “Review: Captain America: Civil War”.
Films in a sequence or series that have a job to do (i.e. get the plot from A to B, join one film to another etc) can often be weak. Films with obvious required plot beats can be dull. Films that are obliged to shoe-horn in characters (particularly superhero movies that have to fit in a required number of villains or heroes) can be boring and over stuffed.
I think, on balance, Civil War manages to just avoid each of these obstacles. It isn’t as tense and tight as Winter Soldier but it feels a lot more plot driven and focused than Age of Ultron. It is arguably the most dark and bleak of the current crop of Marvel films, with substantially less humor.
(7) CATHOUSE. Camestros Felapton’s cat, Timothy, is also demanding a share of the attention. Timothy is going into publishing: “New From Cattimothy House”.
This is the sort of development for which the cry “Mayday!” was invented…
(8) OTHER PEOPLE’S FILES. Jeff VanderMeer wonders “What to Do With 30-Plus Years of Papers, Drafts, Correspondence, Projects?”
One project for this year is to get a handle on 30-plus years of papers, correspondence, rough drafts, and what I would call “project histories.” This includes a lot of material from before email and the internet, which means sometimes quite long letters with other writers and people in publishing, some of them well-known at the time and some of them now quite well-known but obscure then. It also includes all of my wife Ann VanderMeer’s correspondence and history with projects like her indie press mag The Silver Web (fiction and art) and from her five-year stint at Weird Tales. And because we were active in small press in the 1980s-90s, there’s a treasure trove of old issues of horror and fantasy magazines not only now defunct but also not much mentioned on the internet, because they existed pre-internet or just on the cusp.
(9) ASTERISKS. Kary English points out her exchange in comments on David Gerrold’s recent Facebook post about the Sasquan asterisks.
Kary English: I was hurt by the asterisks. They were displayed on a table at the pre-Hugo reception, and I walked by the table without taking one. I was approached by a couple of people during the reception who wanted to make sure I got mine. Some of them were well-meaning and probably didn’t know who I was, and some of them seemed to want to make sure I got mine in a not so nice way. After several instances of saying “no, thank you,” I finally accepted one because it was clear that not holding one was making me a target for further attempts to get me to take one. To be honest, the whole thing felt like that creepy guy who maneuvers you into a situation where you have to choose between letting him give you a completely inappropriate hug or making a scene in public. I would also like to push back against the idea that those of us who were hurt went there looking to be hurt, or that those of us who were hurt deserved to be hurt (said by someone in a recent File 770 roundup). This is victim blaming, and it is not OK.
David Gerrold replied:
I apologize. I feel bad about causing you pain. That was never the intention and it saddens me to hear that you were hurt. You are a talented Hugo-worthy writer. I thought your story Totaled deserved to be on the ballot, and I thought it was worthy of the trophy. I also liked Shattered Vessels in a recent issue of Galaxy’s Edge, so I look forward to seeing your next outing. I expect you will have more opportunities in the future to take home a Hugo. You have my best wishes, as well as my admiration for work well done
Kary English accepted the apology:
Thank you, David. Apology accepted, and that’s very gracious of you to say.
(10) ANIMAL RESCUE. Burt Ward, Robin the Boy Wonder from the 1960s Batman TV series, and his wife Tracy, say their nonprofit Gentle Giant Rescue has rescued more than 14,000 dogs in the last 18 years.
(11) THIS ANIMAL RESCUED ITSELF. io9 in “Read Alien, retold from the cat’s perspective”, excerpts a no-longer-published work.
Only one character in Alien has the wits and wherewithal to survive to the end of the movie at Ripley’s side: Jones the cat. While everyone else on Nostromo was screaming like chickens with their chests ripped open, Jones exhibited the cool becoming a cat. Now Jones finally gets to tell his side of the story, one filled with naps, food, and yes, the occasional alien.
Novelist and film critic Anne Billson wrote “My Day by Jonesy,” a recap of the first Alien film from Jones’ point of view. Apparently, Jones spent most of the film fretting over his food and being annoyed that the humans (or “can openers” as he calls them) keep waking him up from his naps…
(12) SEEKING EMPLOYMENT. Jen Yamato of The Daily Beast speculates “Why the Original Darth Vader Is Now ‘Persona Non Grata’ at Star Wars Events”.
Forty years ago on a soundstage just across the pond, British actor David Prowse donned a shiny black helmet and became the most iconic movie villain in history—until Star Wars director George Lucas overdubbed his performance as Darth Vader with the dulcet, booming voice of James Earl Jones.
Prowse, now 80 years old, still hasn’t gotten over the snub that simultaneously made his career. But there’s a bigger disturbance between the O.G. Vader and the architect of the Star Wars universe.
In the new documentary Elstree 1976—about the hopes, dreams, and rather mundane real lives of the supporting actors and background extras cast in the original Star Wars—Prowse sounds off on the beef with Lucas that’s made him “persona non grata” at the billion dollar franchise’s biggest annual conventions.
Interviewed at his home two years ago for the film, Prowse says he has no idea why he has been “barred” from Star Wars Celebration—the biggest Star Wars event on the fan convention circuit where he, like many former cast members and celebs of yesteryear, now makes much of his income.
“Unfortunately I’ve been barred for some obscure reason—also [from] Disney Star Wars Weekends. Ask Mr. Lucas,” he adds with a bittersweet shrug. “I’ve obviously upset him at some stage or another. And they just feel I’m persona non grata at those two shows.” …
[Thanks to JJ, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
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I am so glad that SOMEONE went there.
alexvdl on May 2, 2016 at 4:30 pm said:
Oh, good luck! I wish I could try for it. Maybe someday. I am hoping against hope for a DVD.
Never forget their textbook approval committee, gamed by tactics which should be familiar to us all.
@stewart: I could be persuaded that corruption from power is the theme. Though, I always thought that Tuf didn’t really change that much, just that the impact of his actions and feelings became so much larger as his power grew. Tuf is not a good guy, he does not identify with the rest of humanity before he becomes powerful. He tricks people, and destroys at least one world’s ecology because he disapproves of them.
@ Sean O’Hara: Yes, you are right the people did not get free will. The choice did only go to the representative, however, he presented the offer to her and made her choose. Furthermore, it was not a just choice, or the right choice. It was a horrible crime that violated the trust of her people and trampled on rights of the residents of the planet. She is not celebrated for this choice. Quite frankly I’m not convinced that a genocidal war does not still break out.
All plots within books exist because someone set them up that way. It doesn’t make it invalid to examine the situation. Chess puzzles, or bridge columns are still fun even if they are contrived situations that you will never actually see. I felt that the warts were fully visible on this toad of a choice.
Fugue
Fugue, John Wright is noted for having made the following statement – “I am, in all modesty, a skilled author, one of the finest writing today.”.
As best anyone can tell, from all our observation and discussion, he was perfectly serious. No sense of irony, no use of hyperbole, no doubt – he really and truly believes that to be a simple self-evident fact. He’s so far up de Nile, he’s paddling in Lake Victoria.
@ULTRAGOTHA
This piece of news might interest you…
http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Rialto-Chatter-HAMILTON-to-Be-Filmed-Prior-to-Lin-Manuel-Mirandas-Exit-This-July-20160428
A little more about GRRM:
Now that the HBO Game of Thrones has surpassed ASOIAF, I find myself trying to decide if I have any desire to finish the series. At this point I’m leaning towards “no”, but I’ll probably reevaluate when Winds of Winter comes out. Whenever that happens to be.
(I knew someone who would not begin series until they were complete. I kinda see where he was coming from now.)
I also read his response to JCW, and then the comments. One of which contained this nugget:
Very professional. Much ethics. Dammit, internet.
(Except the internet is how I put books on hold at the library! Which I can never keep up with and keep me from tackling Mt. Tsundoku…dammit, internet.)
@Sunhawk: no worries, I think I misread you and the fault is mine. But, anyhow, yes. He saw the women as things he was entitled to because of his minor celebrity. And he was a pain to the con staff regardless of gender, which is probably what got him uninvited — he was annoying to men.
Re: fanfic — I used to edit a zine based on a Lucasfilm property, and they not only knew I did it, they paid for their own copies. With checks that had Yoda on them. I also got Christmas cards. They knew I was losing money on it, and I kept the “rating” of the stories strictly equal to the rating of the movies. They took a much dimmer view of X-rated fanfic. Of course, that was in the pre-net days.
Re: GRRM — I love Armageddon Rag (Led Zep with a little Doors is how I heard them) and Fevre Dream, plus several of the short works. For me, nothing he’s written since is as good. Not that he cares, with all his fame and money, but those books were truly great.
Sorry, NOLA fen, but San Jose in 2018 has the stronger bid and ought to win. Have fun at the parties, though.
Wow! That PoC Destroy cover is gorgeous! And so sci-fi.
@Camestros: I’m not surprised about Timothy’s father.
It’s rare that I’m in favor of Disney lawyers, but the Teddy Boys* have made them look like a good idea. But are they actually paying any attention to the Hugo nominations? Are there any Disney lawyers lurking here on File 770 or other places that have discussed this issue/”artist”? They may not know at all. If none of us are Disney lawyers, there’s no way to let them know.
@RDF: He’s so far up de Nile, he’s paddling in Lake Victoria. is a MOST felicitous turn of phrase, and I’m going to start using it everywhere about everyone who’s in serious denial about anything. You want credit or not?
*TM Mark-kitteh; Wiki the term if you don’t realize how perfect it is.
I’m not going duck the substantive discussion but I had to post to say what a fabulous article title this is…
@lukertype I’ve never followed Worldcon bids. What makes San Jose’s bid stronger?
alexvdl, I read that earlier. But my takeaway is this quote from Miranda:
So I live in hope.
Snodberry, for ME, based on what I’ve seen so far, San Jose has a more experienced staff and more information out there on their facilities. I’m hoping NOLA will beef up their web site Real Soon Now.
I’m going to speculate that Disney would have a lot of in house IP counsel (but would have some suitably fire-breathing outside counsel on call) tasked with hunting down threats to their copyright. Marvel too most likely. And as to Marvel itself, it’s not like it’s overall chief is a lunatic who hasn’t been photographed in public in near thirty years… Oh wait…
Copyright is intellectual property, that property that is so essential to the continued functioning of a free market system, the free market system the Puppies are so quick to remind us they support and defer to. Could the Puppies really object to Disney and Marvel being informed of this potential infringement on their brand and copyright? It’s about protecting property – and the free market!
You want credit or not?
Only as “Internet Wisdom” or some such – it’s original, but it riffs off other funny lines.
Even on failfandomanon, they shut down the people who post screaming “DON’T YOU PEOPLE CARE SHE’S A PEDOPHILE!?” as being insufferable tossers trying to stir up crap.
Get some actual proof of anything other than a doctored chatlog produced by people who think they’re the great Satan for making anti-harassment software. Like…oh…them drawing blatant porn of underage characters, say. Then I’ll be concerned.
If you’re actually arguing in good faith, then I’m sorry you’re getting hit with this, but this is an old and blatantly slanted argument, and it tends to be a hallmark of a certain sort of person. You may not be a duck! You may not like ducks! But you showed up out of nowhere quacking loudly, and this does tend to cause people to go “Oh great, another goddamn duck.”
I’ll ignore other aspects of the bids to explain why I think one aspect of San Jose makes it stronger than New Orleans. Namely, assuming competence of the concoms, past evidence makes it very likely San Jose would have a significantly higher attendance than New Orleans. And given how it looks ’17-’20 is going to go, I think we badly need it to have that.
Right now, Helsinki is ’17. There is no opposition to either Dublin in ’19 or New Zealand in ’20. That means for 3 of 4 years in a row, Worldcon will be off the North American continent. And I think New Zealand is likely to be the smallest Worldcon for decades (Australian Worldcons are significantly smaller than NA/Europe ones. NZ draws a whopping 200 people to its natcon and is a minimum 3 hour air flight from Australia, so figure probably fewer Australians than for an Australian Worldcon).
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not someone who thinks “World”con should always be in the US. But I do think we can make a mistake by having too many years in a short period be outside the US, particularly the five sites that traditionally draw the best; SoCal, NorCal, Chicago, Boston (with a subarea of the BosWash corridor), and Britain (yeah, I’m lumping everything from Glasgow to London here, and yes I know it isn’t in the US).
Like it or not, Worldcon is focused on sf published/viewable in English. Also, one reason it’s not a giant relaxicon is that it gets a greater number of authors, artists, editors, etc. than you’ll see at a regional. It’s my belief that too many years where a fair number of such from the US, the 800-pound gorilla with regards to sf in English, aren’t able to attend Worldcon due to the various international issues with such (yes, I’m aware coming to the US is equally or moreso inconvenient for those outside it) causes Worldcon attendance in general to drop.
Look at ’07-’11; Japan, Denver, Montreal, Australia, Reno; five in a row outside the US or in a relatively isolated US site. Attendance at Chicago and San Antonio in ’12 and ’13 was noticeably lower than when Worldcon had been there in ’00 and ’97.
So given the likely locations of ’17-’20, for the one site right now where we have a choice between a top drawing site and a site likely to draw a fair number fewer, I have to vote for the likely better drawing one (again, assuming facilities and concoms are sufficiently good). This is actually a bit harder than it might have been, because I’m also of the opinion we badly need an Eastern Time Zone Worldcon, not having had one in the US since 2004. But New Orleans is relatively isolated for such, at least as compared to a BosWash location.
I’m another one, actually. I did not read Acillary Justice until last fall, no matter how much everyone went on about it.
Heh. That’s probably my single most broken rule. I blame Abraham. And Brett. And Jemisin. And Lynch. And Martin. And Novik. And Sanderson. And…well you get the idea.
Self control: I no haz it.
@robinareid – I used to teach a fair amount of college freshman and sophomore comp. Breaking students of the 5-paragraph essay was bad enough (although I loved the moment when students realized that their writing could be so much more once free of those bounds). This 26-line ridiculousness sounds absolutely wretched. I’ve got a whole lot of empathy for you and everyone else faced with this task.
Thank you Tom and ULTRAGOTHA.
I’ll still hold out hope for NOLA, but I appreciate the explanations.
K8: Breaking students of the 5-paragraph essay was bad enough (although I loved the moment when students realized that their writing could be so much more once free of those bounds).
Yes, yes, it was! And I had a significant percentage each term who thought hat if the five paragraph essay wasn’t allowed, then there were no. rules. at. all, so why was I being so mean about it.
That isn’t quite the same thing as being free of those bounds! There are still guidelines! I developed a pretty nifty performance piece about the necessity of some rules for writing academic essays based on my inviting them to a party at my house, suggesting we play football, and explaining how we’d play it–with a net, between sprinklers, in tutus, etc. (improving each time), until finally someone (often in the back row, hee) would exclaim something on the line of “that’s not foot ball!” And I’d ask why not, and they’d say “because it’s not following the RULES.”
And then a bunch would look all abashed, and say, oh. Right.
Those moments were fun.
Some of the others….*shudder.*
@robinareid – One of my favorite moments teaching writing in a lit course was when a biochem major (who previously had been very frustrated and unhappy about close reading exercises) decided that close reading was fun. She couldn’t see any logic in it at first, and thought it was just some English department chaos we were throwing at her. Then I told her that words are data and that she’s to pull together data sets to analyze. She wrote some great papers after that and actually enjoyed herself. It was wonderful to see, even though at the time, when those words of advice left my mouth, I wondered what the hell I had just said to a student. Fortunately, it worked.
I’ve often wondered if bigots/assholes try to latch on to overkill labels like “pedophile” for their enemies because they are looking for something that will evoke the same sense of immediate rejection and revulsion that their bigoted words and actions evoke in the rest of us. Or, like many MRAs, pick up “artists” and “free men movement” devotees, they think that there are magical words that, if used in the right combination/situation like casting a spell, will either get them out of taking responsibility for their own actions or make people around them bend to their petty, small-minded wishes and desires. Just keep repeating the same nonsensical accusations and lies until their awful “magic” takes hold. Sad, really.
@lurkertype – no worries, I think every community exists on its own frequency and while I’m working at adjusting my own wavelength to match the radiowaves of this lovely station in particular, I appreciate having an opportunity to clarify when I misspeak. Y’all are quite sharp and don’t miss a beat, encourages me to think my words over more before I post them, which is a good thing overall, really.
RedWombat (among others) may be amused by my latest post about birds and nests and gardening. I’m particularly interested in any suggestions about how to improve my clay+rock soil before my new composter gets its act together.
Fevre Dream is my all-time GRRM favorite, and the last chapter usually makes me cry.
Armageddon Rag was a great book but at the time I read it, it felt like yet another curmudgeonly baby boomer trying to tell us the only Real Music occurred during their adolescence. I’m watching my contemporaries do the same thing right now with Prince (sniff). I imagined the Nazgul as sounding more like early Blue Oyster Cult, and that band from Wylding Hall would open for them.
Cross-posting an update on the File770 mini-parks:
We’ve currently amassed enough donations to get TWO mini-parks! Well done!
We’re about $100 away from an Ancillary Plaque. If we don’t make it, no biggie, we’ll just throw whatever excess is there in our check to MidAmeriCon II.
I’ve been in touch with the coordinator, and they’re still nailing down some of the details, but we do have our two parks reserved. I will keep you posted with updates as I receive more information.
If you haven’t already offered your suggestions for what to put on the plaques and park signs, please go over to the Sponsor a Bench at MidAmeriCon II thread and chime in.
I loved Armageddon Rag when I read it when it first came out, but I also had a romantic view of the 60s as the Best Time that I had been born too late for. My view of the 60s and Boomer worldview in general has become more cynical since then so I doubt I’d enjoy it so much if I reread it now.
I totally saw the Nazgul as a Led Zep band esp since their first albums had so much Tolkien influence in them.
One of my happiest Geek moments was seeing a throwaway line in an X Men comic where Lila Cheney reminisces about seeing/opening for/playing with the Nazgul back in the day “before Hobbit Hobbins got his head blown off at West Mesa”. And then the letter column had a letter a few months later that was written as another band member (the one who was into hot air balloons ) thanking Lila for the shout out and mentioning that they were working on getting the band back together…
@Cmm – that fucking rules.
On the whole child pornography thing–
I think the Sandifer headline is a bit overblown but nevertheless as VD is someone who has 1) made such a shtick of denouncing “SJWs” as deviants who support even worse deviants in their midst and 2) forced 2 different essays making that point onto the ballot this year and 3) referred to another author as McRapey and an admitted rapist for literally years based on a willful misreading of a blog post — I don’t find it too much of a stretch, and the counter arguments are laughable. I can tell you based on personal knowledge (as in bringing molestation charges against several people over my career) “she looked older” or even “she said she was older” doesn’t cut it, at all. While I don’t think the guy who made the picture should be prosecuted, multiple people did correctly point out that representations of underage people in a sexual way is understood as kiddie porn in multiple venues around the world, and also that age of consent and age at which its okay to make porn with/about are two different things, which is why there are cases of sexting teens being accused of making child pornography even when the pictures are taken of themselves, by themselves!
The ins and outs of the various legalities may be debatable, but we are still left with the uncomfortable truth that VD got a nomination fr a guy who thinks its a-ok to create pictures of sexualised teenagers and has then defended him with a series of shallow rationales at the same time that he continually calls other people various types of perverts and sex criminals with far less justification. He is a gross hypocrite.
Also it’s a little squicky to read the comments over on Sandifer’s post and see how many people are really harshing him out for it and basically saying there is nothing wrong or even terribly icky about drawing naked sexualised pictures of teens, and how few see his point about the hypocrisy and the “okay for me but not for thee” posturing behind it. The vociferous backlash against Sandifer’s post from his own readers just feels a little, well, defensive to me. Like he struck more nerves than just Day’s or the artist’s.
Also, a point I haven’t seen anyone else make is that drawing this particular character this way has an extra level of offensiveness since she is clearly portrayed in the book as someone who has religious beliefs that include female modesty to the point where that is a big part of her thinking in designing her own costume, and all that is literally stripped away from her in this drawing. It is offensive on multiple levels (granted, being offensive toward Muslim beliefs is a feature not a big for VD).
Finally, Trying to hack my way through the Aristotelian argle barge in that VD quote reminded me of the famous description of Newt Gingrich as “a stupid man’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.” For that matter, one could say the same thing about JCW, except substitute “what a literary author sounds like.”
Clicky
@Charon D: I imagined the Nazgul as sounding more like early Blue Oyster Cult, and that band from Wylding Hall would open for them.
Man, I’d have killed to see that show.
@Doc Science–Yay for phoebes!
Hmm. Green manures I haven’t done much with, and a couple of the ones people recommend, I get very green around the gills–I’m fighting vetch right now, and clover can get surprisingly monstrous in a flowerbed! But I also don’t plow stuff under much, so my view is a bit slanted. (If nothing else, a layer of straw or hardwood will make things easier NEXT year.)
For more permanent plantings, particularly shady I’m-not-doing-anything-for-awhile under trees, I have good luck recently with running foamflower, a nice little native that wanders about, rather like coral bells, but spreading (though politely) via runners.
For “it will be decades, I will likely never use that spot, and I just want SOMETHING other than leaf litter” I mention, with some trepidation, the groundcover know as green-and-gold, specifically “Eco-Lacquered Spider.” It’s a thug, it spreads via hairy runners, it takes crappy shade under pine trees with no irrigation, it eats paths…but it grows, even on brutalized soil. And it is not so dense that sturdy plants like hostas can’t come up through it. It is very effective for filling a spot where English ivy has been removed, but much like fire, be sure you want it in that spot before you start.
For lousy compacted soil that gets hot and dry and sunny, honestly, Walker’s Low Catmint is one of those dead reliable plants. Every hot spot in my garden gets three tries with native or food plants, and when it’s killed all three, I usually put in catmint so that at least the neighbor’s bees are happy.
@ Sunhawk: You’re describing what I actually call a “magic-word argument” — one in which the mere deployment of the term in question is expected to shut down all possible objections because how can you support (or oppose) WORD?!!
You see it both in negative aspects (pedophile, socialist) and positive ones (freedom, rights). And yes, it’s very common indeed among the people from whom the SPs/RPs have learned their tactics.
RedWombat:
I had forgotten about Chrysogonum! For some reason it didn’t do all that well at our old house — which is only about a mile away, but even shadier and *much* wetter. Tiarella I had at the old place and it did ok, but I gave some to my mother (lives in CT solidly in zone 6a) and it’s gone gangbusters for her. So when I go up to New England to pick up the Younger Sprog for summer break, we’ll stop at my parents’ house and PILLAGE as all good gardeners do. In my case: Tiarella, Phlox (derived from my Grandmother’s garden in Wisconsin, Zone 4b now but probably 4a then — not as flowery as current cultivars, but *mildew-resistant*), maybe some of the peonies (also from Grandma’s) … maybe something else. I’m bringing her some Dicentra cucullaria (Dutchman’s Breeches) from the local Native Plant place, too.
What Zone are you?
eta: As you can tell, I’m one of those “Latin name” gardeners. My mom is an “English name or what *her* mom called it” gardener, so we occasionally have communication problems …
@K8: Breaking students of the 5-paragraph essay was bad enough
One of the funniest bits in all of Battlestar Galactica is when the totally out-of-his-depth lieutenant Crashdown is trying to organize his team in a hopeless emergency situation in the wilderness, and he does this:
The beauty of the scene is that Crashdown is clearly paralyzed with mortal fear. He’s not an idiot, he’s just clinging for security to a thing someone taught him once. Much like a college freshman.
@tyg: New Orleans isn’t actually on Eastern Time. (A nitpick, to be sure.)
Has anyone heard anything about the NZ bid recently? Last I heard they hadn’t even decided on a town to hold it in.
It’s a lovely country, and it’d be nice to have an excuse to go visit the friend lucky enough to move out there, but I’m not convinced it’s a live campaign.
@nickpheas ,
According to the website, there will be a “New Zealand in 2020” presence at MidAmericon. I’m not involved so don’t know anymore than that.
nickpheas: Has anyone heard anything about the NZ bid recently? Last I heard they hadn’t even decided on a town to hold it in. It’s a lovely country, and it’d be nice to have an excuse to go visit the friend lucky enough to move out there, but I’m not convinced it’s a live campaign.
Based on my conversations with NZin2020 concom members last year, it will be in either Auckland (pop. 1,420,000) or Wellington (pop. 200,000, capital city). These are really the only two potential options in NZ (Christchurch is bigger than Wellington, but has not yet sufficiently recovered from the 2011 earthquake). Both have sufficient hotel and convention facilities.
I do believe that it is a live bid. They solicited SFF members worldwide last year to indicate willingness to volunteer, and it’s my understanding that they received this in sufficient numbers to go ahead with the bid. They will definitely be relying on Australians as well as people from other countries to help.
They are indeed the only two viable options, but I think we knew they were the only two viable options two years ago, hence my expecting to have heard a bit more by now.
Wellington would be nice… There’s a sunken soviet passenger liner I’ve failed to dive in the past and would like to try and see again.
@ULTRAGOTHA
yeah, Lin Manuel isn’t really one to rest on his laurels when he wants something. You could say he
doesn’t hesitate,
he exhibits no restraint,
NickPheas: Wellington would be nice… There’s a sunken soviet passenger liner I’ve failed to dive in the past and would like to try and see again.
Oh, are you a nitrox/drysuit diver? You can still do the Lermontov, the flight from Auckland to Wellington is only an hour, and the ferry crossing 3 hours.
Re Lermontov in NZ
Yes, I was going to say that you will spend much more time getting from Wellington to the dive site than on one of the dozen-plus-daily one hour long Auckland-Wellington flights (which can cost as little as NZD49/USD34).
I day-trip from Auckland to small airshows (of Peter Jackson’s WWI types) in Masterton, a 90 minute drive NNE of Wellington.
NZ Natcon is in a month (I’m going), possible announcement post that?
@ULTRAGOTHA: Lemme give you a kiss. Mwah!
@alexvdl: And you, for luck!
@Heather Rose Jones: And you!
Come on, group hug!
OK, I have exposed an email address at the Userstyles page for the troll filter. If someone wants to email me info on any that I missed during a low spoon period, now’s your chance.
And because I’m a compulsive reader who needs the trolls blanked completely, I’m going to add a filter that will do that. In case anyone else needs the same.
Fevre Dream is my favorite GRRM novel (and several of my students have written articles/presentations on it or included it in their theses). However, taking off my octagonal academic tam and going all-in fan, I love most of those mentioned here. Also worth mentioning:
I lurve me sum Rag, 2. But in mai li’l multi-geeky heart, “Unsound Variations” rulz. (Tom Galloway noz wai).
One good thing about being Hal Winslow’s old buddy? I haz lotsa stuff wif GRRMz autografs.
Rail: I have exposed an email address at the Userstyles page for the troll filter. If someone wants to email me info on any that I missed during a low spoon period, now’s your chance.
img[src*="64864327e231bfd6007d9f0bfb1051ce"] + span::after, /* Protest Manager */
img[src*="4b1e05d5d5e554f9923485570054ea47"] + span::after, /* The Phantom */
img[src*="769dc03bf7703e7fefd3635f0f1fa7c2"] + span::after, /* Sean */ */
img[src*="6615c7c08c7e92a4b747826e0ac34205"] + span::after, /* Lela E Buis */
img[src*="934fb5420743a56906fa20026886bd69"] + span::after, /* Daniel Kauffman */
@Doctor Science – read your blog post, so lovely 🙂 We have Boston Ivy growing on our house here, it turns such a lovely shade of red-orange in the fall 😀 It’s funny, we tried years ago to get English Ivy to grow as well but it’s never really thrived, mostly just growing on the ground in a corner of the garden, looking sad and discouraged, dunno why exactly – either too much shade or maybe the stucco exterior isn’t what it likes to climb on.
Regarding poor soil, our soil sounds similar, for my garden the past five years I’ve been working to enrich it with a mixture of sheep manure and bags of actual topsoil, with some fencing and letting our honeysuckle grow around it to provide some erosion control. It seems to be helping, though my big problem now seems to be that the garden is too close to some cedar trees and either their very fine roots or its acidic nature or both make it so that vegetables closest to it do not grow very well (like last year, tried to grow cauliflower, ended up with the tiniest heads lol) and most don’t make any “fruit” when they do grow a decent size. This year I’m going to experiment with placing long planter troughs ON the soil rather than put the seedlings IN that soil and see if we get a better result, fingers crossed! I haven’t yet come across a vegetable or herb described as acid-loving to try there either.
@RedWombat – I mention with similar trepidation that Lemonbalm seems to grow anywhere you let it (most of the mint family seems keen to do that), it smells nice but planter beware that once introduced it can be hard to get rid of as the way the roots spread out is really persistent and fast-growing lol
another one for the list is Judge Dredd, who has aged 39 years since his debut in 1977
also ticky
@JJ: TY, updated.
@Sunhawk: Fruits and veggies for acidic soil.
We built planters on top of some pretty unpleasant North Carolina clay and have had pretty good luck with them. Tomatoes, various peppers, cucumbers, oregano, basil, catnip.
Sunhawk:
I have less of a problem w/ soil chemistry, because I’m one of those native plant gardeners, as much as possible. I also don’t have enough sun to do veg or herbs except in pots on the patio.
I had a lemon balm infestation at our old house, no way I’m touching that stuff.
I’ve gotten in some topsoil, I guess I’ll have to get more.
Have you been gardening long enough to see the effects of climate change? I feel as though we’ve moved almost half a USDA zone in the past 25 years.