(1) ATTACKING CREATORS. Devin Faraci at Birth. Movies. Death. lit up the internet with the claim “Fandom Is Broken”.
… Last week the AV Club ran an excellent piece about the nature of modern fan entitlement, and I think it’s fairly even-handed. The piece covers both the reaction to an all-female Ghostbusters reboot but also the hashtag that trended trying to get Elsa a girlfriend in Frozen 2. The author of that piece, Jesse Hasenger, draws a line between the two fan campaigns, rightly saying that whether driven by hate (Ghostbusters) or a desire for inclusion (Frozen 2) both campaigns show the entitlement of modern fan culture. It’s all about demanding what you want out of the story, believing that the story should be tailored to your individual needs, not the expression of the creators….
The old fan entitlement has been soldered onto the ‘customer is always right’ mindset that seems to motivate the people who make Yelp so shitty. I’m spending a dollar here, which makes me the lord and master of all, is the reasoning (I don’t even want to speculate about whether or not modern fans spend their dollars on licensed, legal products – that’s an essay for another weary day). It’s what makes people act like assholes to servers, and somehow it’s become the way ever-growing segments of fans are behaving towards creators. It’s been interesting watching so many people bring up Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in the Captain America fracas; one of part of it is that their Jewishness allows angry, petulant fans to throw down a social justice bomb but it also speaks to how modern fans see many modern creators. They’re nobody compared to the ones who invented this stuff. The modern creator is the server, and they should be going back into the kitchen and bringing back a Captain America cooked to their exact specifications, and without any sort of complications or surprises. This is what fans have always wanted, but the idea of being consumers – people who are offering money for services rendered – only reinforces the entitlement.
And so we have these three elements – one old as fandom itself, one rooted in technological advances and one impacted by the corporatization of storytelling – coming together in such a way to truly break fandom. I wish this was the part of the essay where I come to you with a hopeful pep talk about how we can all be better, but I just don’t see a positive solution. If anything, I see things getting worse – creators walling themselves off from fans while corporate masters happily throw vision and storytelling under the bus to appease the people who can get hashtags trending. “You can’t always get what you want” is a sentiment that belongs to another era when it comes to mass storytelling. I recently read Glen Weldon’s excellent The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture and the arc of fandom it sketches out is a profoundly disheartening one, with Batfans morphing from monkish annotators of the character’s fictional history into crusaders harrassing anyone on the internet who sees Batman differently than they do….
(2) THE RISING OF THE DOUGH. More details about the Sons of Anarchy cast payment problems at a Houston convention this past weekend from Official Ava Jade Cosplay: “Space City Comic (Con) – Thousands Swindled, Contracts Broken and Many Still Looking for Answers”:
The previously included statement about the rooms not being paid for has been retracted- A representative from the staff contacted me and informed me that I was misinformed about the exact situation. There was a mishap regarding the hotel check in. The credit card for the room was for the reservations and not for incidentals. Upon checking in, some cast members had to pay cash for the incidentals, instead of putting their own credit card up, and risking being charged upon checking out. The cast was NOT charged for their room. I was informed during the interview, that there was a problem checking in the hotel due to the credit card not being accepted, it later was realized that we should clarify to what extent. When Mr. Hunnam took his check to the bank to cash it, he found out that the check that was given to him was written from an account that had been CLOSED. This happened to the entire cast. Many of the actors went to the promoters office to demand payment, where the promoter ended up calling the cops because he was “being held hostage”. The cast was in no way held him hostage, but wanted answers and payment. The panel schedule was completely jacked up, the cast was not given the correct times for photo ops and for panels. The Friday panel was canceled due to the AVI team refusing to allow anyone onstage until they were paid. They were promised payment upfront, instead they weren’t paid and pulled the plug on the event. The cast was all there, waiting to go on. It seems that the event promoter broke the contract not once, but TWICE.
Bleeding Cool wrote a story of its own based on the Official Ava Jade post with the dramatic headline, “Police Called On Cast Of Sons Of Anarchy After They Demanded Space City Comic Con Pay Up”. Houston police were helpful in protecting the convention staff from an irate customer —
Comments from volunteers included this, from Shelley Montrose,
This will be the last Saturday/Sunday that I volunteer at any Comic Convention. I was shouted at more in the 6 hours that I volunteered on Saturday than I was in the entire year last year. Friday was amazing and Saturday in my LAST 2 MINUTES there HPD had to intervene as a grown man came into my face and threatened to “choke me to death, rape me, and burn me like on YouTube.” I decided not to come to my scheduled 8 hour volunteer shift on Sunday. I thought my life was in danger. One of Charlie’s bodyguards ran over to help me before the guy got to me. Honestly, I thought the guy was gonna to hit me. After reading this article I think I understand what happened a little bit better. I can’t even explain how horrible it was the tell people who traveled all the way from England, China, Australia,etc., that the $800-$3000 that they spent on a prepaid ticket will not be honored at the desk at the majority of the sons of anarchy autograph sessions , and that they would have to go to the ATMs on the inside of the convention ( because all the ATMs on the outside of the entrances were broken ) in order to get money to pay cash for any autographs or photo ops they wanted with the celebrities.I personally ended up going to the ATM to help people pay for the prepaid tickets that they purchased for autographs with the celebrities. I won’t even go into how much that puts me back on my budget, including but not limited to my rent, utilities, and food.I was with Charlie Hunnam for almost four hours, and He pulled it together for all of his fans. Anyone that was there saw me standing beside Charlie Hunnam, I was taking pictures of them with him, knows that he was very giving to fans as well as professional. I feel like I did a good job of keeping the fans calm, entertained, and happy until they got to Charlie Hunnam .Ron Perlman was also professional as well. When I left he was still excepting those bogus tickets that people had pre-purchased.
(3) BE ON THE LOOKOUT. Speaking of grand theft – Swedish astronomers theorize Planet 9 is a stolen exoplanet.
New research suggests the mysterious and controversial “Planet 9” isn’t an original member of our solar system. According to a new computer simulation developed by astronomers at Lund University in Sweden, the ninth planet is an exoplanet — stolen by the sun from its original host star.
“It is almost ironic that while astronomers often find exoplanets hundreds of light years away in other solar systems, there’s probably one hiding in our own backyard,” researcher Alexander Mustill said in a news release….
(4) EXCELLENCE IN FILKING. SF Site News reported that nominations have opened for the 2016 Pegasus Awards, given by the Ohio Valley Filk Festival.
Any member of the worldwide filk community is eligible to win. Past Nominees have hailed from the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Singapore as well as the United States.
The nomination and ballot procedure is similar to that of the Hugo, except that one does not need to be a paid member of the convention to nominate or vote. Anyone with an interest in Filking or Filk music can place a nomination and/or vote.
The results are tabulated, the winners determined, and the award is presented at the Pegasus Awards Banquet...
There are currently six Pegasus award categories, including two floating categories that are different each year.
Fans suggested nominees and songs through the Brainstorming Poll, and the results can be seen on these pages:
- Best Writer/Composer Ideas
- Best Performer Ideas
- Best Filk Song Ideas
- Best Classic Filk Song Ideas
- Best Adapted Song Ideas
- Best Exploration Song Ideas
Ballots must be received by 12:01AM PDT, August 1, 2016, whether cast online or by mail.
(5) BEWARE GAME OF THRONES SPOILER. Here’s something George R.R. Martin revealed at Balticon 50:
According to Vanity Fair, Martin appeared at a convention in Baltimore called Balticon to read aloud to those in attendance a new chapter from his forthcoming book The Winds of Winter. During his time in front of the crowd, the author announced that Brienne of Tarth is the descendant of Ser Duncan the Tall.
For those who don’t know, Ser Duncan the Tall is one of Westeros’ most famous knights, making this connection with Brienne particularly noteworthy, especially when considering he’s one of Martin’s favorite characters.
(6) MORE SHOOTING. ScienceFiction.com says “’Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Gets Planned Reshoots After Disney’s Rumored Unhappiness”.
Many films that are destined for the big screen get re-shoots or planned production times after an initial cut of the film has been done where the crews can go back and shoot additional or replacement footage for certain scenes. It’s a fairly common practice, although the re-shot and re-edited scenes are usually minimal in nature, comparative to the overall plot of the film. Rumor has it, however, that the upcoming Star Wars spinoff, ‘Rogue One,’ has heavy reshoots planned by parent company Disney, who is unhappy with how the film has fared so far with test audiences.
There has only been one trailer released so far for the film, which was actually met with great enthusiasm from the fans. However, a cool-looking trailer does not directly equate to a successful and well-received film — look no further than this very franchise’s ‘Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace’ for evidence of such.
(7) WHO BLABBED? Cora Buhlert shares Cap’s secret with us:
So this is what happened to Captain America. He took the wrong moisturising cream. pic.twitter.com/J2uAXkmaaT
— Cora Buhlert (@CoraBuhlert) May 31, 2016
(8) SFWA YA JURORS. “Andre Norton Award Jury Announced” at the SFWA Blog.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announce the members of the jury for the 2016 Andre Norton Award. Throughout the coming year, the jury will be compiling its list of picks for the Norton Award. This year for the first time, SFWA will release a Norton Honor list of the top 15-20 books compiled from member votes and jury picks.
Chair Ellen Klages says, “Speculative fiction is a literature about exploration, possibilities, and dreams. The Andre Norton Award honors the best SF/F works written for the people who will create the future — children and young adults. What they read today will influence them — and the world — for decades to come.”
The jury members are: Ellen Klages (jury chair), E.C. Myers, Fran Wilde, Leah Bobet, and Jei D. Marcade. Read their bios at the linked post.
(9) SFWA SFWA. Cat Rambo notes anyone can watch the SFWA Chat Hour, 1st edition, on YouTube, “complete with annoying echo that we will fix next time.”
Come hear Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) officials and staff Cat Rambo, M.C.A. Hogarth, and Kate Baker talk about the recent Nebula conference weekend, current SFWA efforts, and what’s coming in 2016 in the first episode of the biweekly SFWA Chat Hour.
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRL
- Born May 31, 1961 — Lea Thompson, known to the world for other things but to fans for Howard the Duck and Back to the Future.
(11) BUTLER CONFERENCE. UC San Diego will be the site of “Shaping Change: Remembering Octavia E. Butler Through Archives, Art, and Worldmaking”, a conference from June 3-5 that is open to the public.
50 years from now, how have we shaped change (through art, activism, and archives) in the world? What have we left behind that that we can draw from our presents and pasts? What lessons in Butler’s life and writing will help forestall what seems like the inevitable collapse of human civilization?
Organized by Shelley Streeby (UC San Diego) and Ayana Jamieson (founder, Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network), the event will feature talks from: Adrienne Maree Brown, Aimee Bahng, Alexis Lothian, M. Asli Dukan, Ayana Jamieson, Krista Franklin, Lisa Bolekaja, Melanie West, Moya Bailey, Nisi Shawl, Ola Ronke, Rasheedah Phillips, Shelley Streeby, Sophia Echavarria, Ted Chiang, and Walidah Imarisha.
(12) MEETING ABOUT MEDUSA. Steven Baxter and Alastair Reynolds will speak at Foyles Bookshop in Charing Cross Road (tickets required) on June 4.
Join us for a conversation with two leading figures in science fiction, Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter, as they discuss their new collaboration The Medusa Chronicles. Inspired by the classic Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s short story ‘A Meeting with Medusa’, The Medusa Chronicles continues the story of Commander Howard Falcon over centuries of space-exploration. One of the most compelling novels of either author’s career, it combines moments of incredible action with an intricately-realised depiction of an expansive universe.
Stephen Baxter is the author of more than forty novels, including the Sunday Times bestselling Long Earth series, co-authored with Sir Terry Pratchett, and the acclaimed Time’s Eye trilogy, co-authored with Sir Arthur C. Clarke. He has won major awards in the UK, US, Germany, and Japan. Born in 1957 he has degrees from Cambridge and Southampton.
Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St Andrews universities, has a Ph.D. in astronomy and worked as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency before becoming a full-time writer. An award-winning as well as bestselling writer, with more than thirteen published novels to his name, Locus described him as ‘the most exciting space opera writer working today’.
Together, Reynolds and Baxter will talk about Clarke’s influence on their own writing, the themes that underpin his work, and how they were inspired to continue his story, as well as their bodies of work as a whole. This will be followed by an opportunity for the audience to ask their own questions and a book signing.
This event is in association with The Arthur C. Clarke Award and SFX.
(13) BYO LIFE ON MARS. SpaceReview.com sifts its favorite ideas from the many conferences about human expeditions to the red planet, in “A Year on Mars”.
How many humans on Mars conferences do we need in a year? That thought came to mind during the recent Humans to Mars (H2M) Summit in Washington, DC. There are a lot of them, especially in Washington. There were at least six humans-to-Mars related public events in Washington in 2015, not counting the NASA-sponsored human Mars landing site selection workshop in Houston. Now 2016 is shaping up the same way. Last Tuesday following the H2M conference, the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning DC-based think-tank, held a talk “Beyond the Moon: What will it take to get astronauts on Mars?” The Mars Society was in Washington last August and will be back in September, and there will probably be at least one or two other Mars-related meetings or lectures that will happen later this year. And not everything is happening in Washington: the same week as the H2M conference there were a series of talks on Mars at the International Space Development Conference in Puerto Rico.
Some, but not all, of this attention to the humans to Mars subject is due to the success of the movie The Martian and the book that inspired it. But the subject is also culturally bigger than that: witness the attention that Mars One got last year, both positive and negative, and NASA pushing the theme hard as well (every time somebody uses the hashtag #JourneyToMars an angel gets its wings.) Human missions to Mars, or at least talking about humans on Mars, is all the rage these days, and H2M has made a pretty impressive effort at taking the lead.
H2M seems to have upped its game recently. Their website is slick, featuring computer animations and links to video recordings of most of the presentations at their conference, much of which was live-streamed….
(14) ATTENTION ANN LECKIE. “Tea in space” might be a highly scientific idea. Scientists say it could be used to create useful materials for astronauts visiting Mars.
Former Prime Minister William Gladstone said: ‘If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are excited, it will calm you.’
It may also one day help astronauts on Mars.
The humble cup of tea holds the key to new ‘wonder materials’, new research suggests.
The bacteria found in tea could lead to breakthroughs in water filtration and technology.
(15) THIS IS STRANGE. An sf novel hidden in Reddit posts? The BBC interviewed the anonymous author.
The plot ranges across the CIA, hallucinogenic drugs, humpback whales, Nazis and the death of Michael Jackson. But just as mysterious and intriguing is the way in which what is being dubbed ‘The Interface Series’ is emerging into the world.
If you watched the TV-series Lost, you’ll probably be familiar with that feeling of confused anticipation as you hope for several threads of narrative to tie together. Over the course of this month, a new kind of mystery, for a new kind of audience, has been unfolding on Reddit – the online bulletin board where people post articles and comments on threads about a bewildering range of subjects….
The posts appeared in threads about a bizarre range of seemingly unconnected topics including: a debate about whether pirates really did have parrots, the responses to somebody seeking advice about how to help a relative with a drugs problem and the comments under a video of a cat sliding down stairs.
But these weren’t just random nonsensical rants. There is a theme that ties them all together; ‘The Flesh Interfaces’ which seem to be “portals of some kind, made of thousands of dead bodies, which transport biological matter to some unknown place and returns it inside a fleshy sack, heavily dosed with LSD.”
(16) DAILY TRIVIA. George R.R. Martin, wrote 14 episodes of the Beauty and the Beast TV series, which ran from 1987-90.
(17) JOHNSON TRIBUTE VIDEO. See part one of the George Clayton Johnson Memorial held at the Egyptian on February 26.
[Thanks to Wendy Gale, Chip Hitchcock, Martin Morse Wooster, Will R., Cat Rambo, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Arifel.]
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(16) Aw, man. I didn’t know anything about George R.R Martin then, but I loved that show. I still have the cassette with the music and Ron Perlman reading poetry.
Fifth?
I’m still recovering from Balticon. I’m hoping to write something up about it to post tomorrow. There were some really nice things that happened at the con, and some pretty serious screw ups. Overall, it was a decent convention, but was marred by disorganization and poor planning (as well as a horrible convention hotel with some of the rudest hotel staff I have ever come across).
Kip Wth!
(Perhaps even Kip Wrd.)
Pre-Fifth!
I just can’t resist a fifth lying around unposted.
Ordered.
::ticky::
7) Glad to see that my little joke caught OGH’s attention. BTW, this is a real product, a moisturiser for me heavily marketed by L’Oreal in Europe. I only added in the “Hail”.
Title credit! Thanks! That’s going to keep me going through the approximately 58 person-hours of work I have to get through by the end of today…
Also looking forward to the first cup of Earl Grey on Mars, though won’t space tea suffer from the same problems as aeroplane tea where the pressure difference changes the boiling point of water?
I’m still recovering from Baycon, which was a swell time despite being in the Escher Marriott, where two steps or a ramp take you from the mezzanine to the third floor. Many interesting panels, lots of free books, and I had a nice chat and lovely dinner with awesome Filer Heather Rose Jones.
(1) ATTACKING CREATORS.
That looked disturbingly familiar to me — and then I realized that if you read the second excerpted paragraph, with the occurrences of “creators” replaced with “Worldcon”, “Captain America” replaced with “Hugos”, and “fans” replaced with “Puppies”, it still makes perfect sense. 😐
@Bonnie McDaniel
Same here! I mean, about loving the show despite not having the faintest clue about the people behind it. I didn’t know there was a cassette. I’d have probably snapped it up if I did.
In addition to writing a large number of them, I think GRRM is also credited as producing most if not all of the episodes. If not producing, then something. Look, IMDB is way over THERE and I’m TIRED.
One of the ones he did write (if memory serves), “Arabesque,” still makes me cry at the end. A lot. Like, enough to make my husband ask if I’m OK if he walks in after I’ve turned off the TV but before I’ve recovered myself.
Vincent was totally my teenage crush and I am not even the littlest bit embarrassed to say so.
I’m not sure how (5) is supposed to be a potential spoiler. Martin dropped a humungous hint about it in one of the books already – by “hint” I mean he basically said it, just didn’t have to mention the character by name but used a distinctive coat of arms instead.
“The Flesh Interfaces” — hidden novel or simply a crazy person?
Clicky.
Re 5) Yeah, its not too surprising. And as noted above, Dunk is one of Martin’s favorite characters, so…
AmazonWatch (UK edition)
Daily Deal today: Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair
New monthly deals include Gaiman, Harkness, Gillian Anderson, though little I’ve not seen before.
[godsnark]
Today’s read — Daughter of the Sword, by Steve Bein (as seen on File 770)
A Tokyo policewoman investigating a crime discovers the existence of a set of magic swords with a long and eventful history.
It was OK. I appreciated the examination of Japanese culture in both the present and the past, but at the same time I felt like I was being exposited at with it a lot. With the notable exception of scenes set in the past (which to be fair took up a good chunk of the book), the plot sometimes felt a little formulaic. Destiny was used as an excuse for unlikely coincidences, which is a plot device I tend not to be overly fond of. I thought the protagonist was an interesting character, though, which matters a great deal. I didn’t dislike it by any means, but at the moment I’m not highly motivated to pick up the sequels.
I’m sorry not to be contributing; I’ve been feeling lousy for a few weeks and it’s now morphed into flu, if I’m lucky, or pneumonia if I’m not.
So, good luck to everybody else; I have no functioning brain to tackle anything…
(14) I was concerned about the “the bacteria found in tea”, until I read further and saw that they were talking about kombucha, hardly proper tea at all.
And I suppose you brew space tea in a pressure vessel of some sort, if the ambient pressure won’t support the water temperature you want.
Stevie,
My sympathies & healing thoughts for a speedy recovery. (I’m just getting over a bug myself)
@David Shallots,
Kombucha, being a fermented is to tea as yoghurt is to milk. What’s undeniably true is that they both have culture…
I found the Faraci article lumpy and implausible. I recommend Gavia Baker-Whitelaw in response.
Except none of these examples are remotely comparable, representing different issues from different corners of fandom. Criticism is not the same as entitlement. Death threats are not the same as social media activism. And death threats aren’t purely the realm of disgruntled fans sending hate mail to creators; harassment is a broader issue of sexism and bigotry online.
and
With social media increasing consumers’ access to producers, fans and creators are still negotiating their boundaries online. Sometimes, a handful of fans will wildly overreact to a creative decision and behave like immature dicks. Sometimes, a creator will misinterpret a piece of constructive criticism as a personal attack and freak out. Occasionally, a hashtag campaign like #OscarsSoWhite or The 100’s lesbian death backlash will start a productive conversation that might inspire real, positive change.
The Voxman Cometh. Although given a choice, I’d prefer to see Tingle…
Sure are a bunch of theories surrounding “planet 9”, considering that nobody has confirmed that it actually exists yet.
@Aaron,
I’d be interested in reading that blog post. Last year felt lackadaisical and not well planned, and i think the majority of people brushed it off as “Oh it’s the concom’s first year” and “They’re really concentrating on B 50”. I really don’t feel that this year’s balticon was really anything different than any other year’s balticon, to be honest. I mean, GRRM was there, which is pretty darn cool, but it was just the same Balticon in a different location, with what appeared to be more people.
@Bonnie McDaniel and Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little,
The series ended up on DVD a few years back. That’s Mom’s favorite TV Show, so as a dutiful son I got her the first season.
@Hampus, I’ll be interested in hearing your thoughts on that book. It looks like it could be a good read.
@Darren Garrison,
Now you’re letting facts get in the way of a good time and research grants.
Balticon: there were elevator police. I was singled out a few times to get off, and refused, since I wasn’t the last one entering. Too many people. Too few elevators. Almost normal.
Hrk. Recovering from latest episode of Person of Interest.
Shits gonna go down realllll soooon.
@stevie: Get well soon! Rooting for the best diagnosis.
Stevie, I hope you feel better soon.
@snowcrash
I’ve got to love a program that consistently gets me swearing at the TV when the plot goes sideways, proper involuntary “f**k, F**K! f**kity f**k” ones too.
My prediction for the ending is still Gur Znpuvar gb chyy n Jvagrezhgr ba Fnznevgna’f Arhebznapre. Which would still leave an opening for a 6th season if say Netflix were to pick it up.
@Kyra: I feel very similar to you about Daughter of the Sword. Very competently written for the most part and Bein seems to have a good grasp of modern-day Japan (at least from stuff I already know from reading about it and having been there, which admittedly isn’t huge amounts compared to other Filers). I also really like Mariko as a character, and bought the second book on the strength of that.
The history bits… ehhhh, there were some anachronisms and suchwhat in there that threw me out of the story a little…
@IanP
Yeah, I’ve got a similar WMG theory as well, though I call it Qnrqnyhf naq Vpnehf chyyvat n Uryvbf
Also, Michael Emerson does scary intense reallllly well.
1)
Another thing I read recently was a Kotaku writer who said that he’d gotten to the point where it was no surprise that reporting a game being delayed earned him a deluge of death threats against him and his family. That this was the new normal writing about anything to do with geeks and gamers.
Amazon’s running a 99 cent sale on select Kindle books today, although a lot of the stuff in the SFF section is by authors I’ve never heard of.
@TYP: But it’s not just fandom, which I took as an important part of Baker-Whitelaw’s post. That’s a deeply evil problem affecting all public net activity to varying degrees, and all public net activity by women particularly. (I’ve seen it discussed with regard to its effects on science reporting recently, for instance.) A very wide range of male-dominated communities and a much smaller sampling of female-dominated ones have decided that anything-goes brutalization is the appropriate response to all challenges. It’s no more a fandom problem as such than the existence of the KKK and Storefront.
@Darren Garrison: But that’s the best kind of theorizing!
(1) Faraci, who has been shocked by how many people have been missing, or (he think, purposely) misrepresenting his point, has posted an interesting follow up to his opinion piece:
http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/05/31/yes-disney-should-have-a-queer-princess
My take away quotes:
and
His mistake, always, is assuming his readers already can tell the difference between critique and harassment.
Just idle wondering, but does anyone know if there is an connection between the multi volume MilSF series by Jack Campbell called “The Lost Fleet” and the multi colume MilSF series by Raymond L. Weil called “The Lost Fleet”?
They don’t look obviously connected, and there are only so many words to describe things, but it seems vaguely odd to have two writers under the same series name.
I just finished the book on Tuesday.
It didn’t work for me at all–describing a few people whining online about the last few pre-Nolan Batman films doesn’t prove the existence of a “rise of nerd culture”. He needed to provide more history of his nerd culture during that period to back up his premise.
(Actually, his premise was “Batman is gay, and you can’t tell me otherwise.”)
It was useful in one respect. I was able to find out how thoroughly DC has screwed up the Batman comics since I finally gave up on DC in 2007 after 50 years–without actually having to read the recent comics.
Reading – finally given up on Southern Reach after slogging through Authority – the boredom of the glacially slow pace eventually overwhelmed any desire to see what happened. MJohn Harrison and JG Ballard both do dislocation so much better and tighter. Couple of good set pieces with the video and the storage closet couldn’t compensate for the bad pacing and seven deadly words (sorry Ghostbird 🙂
New Patricia Briggs next then Aeronauts Windlass extract.
Latest cool AI trick: an auto-photo-colorizer.
That’s really cool, Darren, but holy crap what is with that glowing child!
@lurkertype: mezzanine to 3rd floor? Piker. Consider yourself lucky a mis-step didn’t land you in:
* the Ryetown (“Escher Memorial”) Hilton, sometime Lunacon hotel where floors 4 and 7 are connected by the Transdimensional Passageway;
* the former Sheraton Park in DC (the site of many Disclaves, until it was rebuilt and became too upscale; it’s now the Marriott Wardman Park), where one step took you from the basement (aka function level) to the 6th floor of the “motor inn” (AFAICT replaced by the Cleveland House Apartments).
(stamps cane, waves foot)
Or why Batman, in particular, was tied to any rise in the nerd culture. (People complain online about everything, not just Batman films.)
He really didn’t tie the two things together.
Obviously a cute ghost girl.
I am on tumblr and the “Make Elsa Queer” voices are loud there. What’s interesting is that she is claimed as representative by: gay, pan, ace, aro and just about every other flavor of sexuality. The lesbian contingent is still enraged by the sin committed by “100” when they killed off Lexa and invoked the “Bury Your Gays” trope, and that sure did seem like a cynical ploy to me, and I don’t even watch the show.
Personally, I agree with Faraci: Disney will eventually have a canonically gay princess, but Elsa isn’t her. I think Elsa is so popular because she is everywoman, if you will. She is smart, competent, beautiful, possibly a victim of PTSD, and not involved romantically with anyone. So just about anyone can relate to her.
But BOY is this an emotionally charged topic with everyone looking for representation.
@Bruce: Thanks for the link to Gavia Baker-Whitelaw’s response—she made some excellent points! And yes, as you said later, it’s not just fandom: the harassment is an online (well, offline!) problem.
@John Lorentz: People complain
onlineabout everything. There, fixed that for you!I remember writing a letter back in Ye Olden Days to demand a third season of Star Trek! Weren’t we nerds rising then? I mean, heck, we had to get off the couch, walk to the MANUAL typewriter, then walk out to the mailbox unlike kids these days that have it so easy with the emails and such /sarcasm.
I see. I am half blind, half deaf, sexually ambiguous and dyslexic, suffer from gout and allergies, and I can’t find any Disney characters that resemble me.
Who can I sue?
Book sale; For those of us in Canada, Becky Chambers’s The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is currently 2.99 on Amazon.ca. Don’t know if that’s the permanent price, or if it’s the same in other countries…. I’ve already read it, due to many recommendations here, but thought I’d pass the information along.