Pixel Scroll 6/27/16 770 Sunset Scroll

(1) BREAKING IT DOWN. Damien G. Walter contemplates “Systems fiction: a novel way to think about the present” in The Guardian.

Weirdly enough, science fiction is not the best lens through which to examine science fiction. In the 80s, critic Tom LeClair came up with an alternative category for all the weird literary novels that veered into speculative territory: the systems novel. These books pick apart how the systems that keep society chugging along work: politics, economics, sex and gender dynamics, science, ideologies – all can be explored through fiction, especially experimental fiction. LeClair applied this tag specifically to Don DeLillo, but it can be expanded more widely: think Thomas Pynchon, Margaret Atwood, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Jennifer Egan and Umberto Eco, among others….

“The future is here,” William Gibson famously said. “It’s just not evenly distributed.” And in these difficult times, the visionary possibilities of the systems novel can be comforting. When we’re in the capable hands of guides like Atwood, DeLillo and Robinson, these novels can be a profound reminder of human progress and potential. In the wake of the EU result, and ahead of the US elections, if you are feeling at all unsettled about the future – go read these books today.

(2) POST-BREXIT FASHION. Jim Mowatt’s FB page displayed a “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted Remain” t-shirt, and I made an idle joke that the marathon runner should really be wearing a different slogan – which Alison Scott immediately made available (or that’s the impression I got).

i voted rhino

(3) WHAT’S UP WITH SFWA. Episode 3 of the SFWA Chat Hour features SFWA Board Members Jennifer Brozek and Matthew Johnson, CFO Bud Sparhawk, and President Cat Rambo.

Includes discussion of what the criteria for game writers will be like and when they’ll go out (hint: soon!). Also the usual books we like, writing advice, reports on the Locus Weekend, Stokercon and Origins, and ice cream vs. sherbet, in which we unanimously vote for ice cream.

 

(4) CAMESTROS FELAPTON. When not busily engaged arm-wrestling with Vox Day about their IQs, Camestros turns his talents to the visual arts.

(5) HORROR PODCAST. The Horror Writers Association recommends the Scary Out There podcast. The latest installment offers a dialog with Kaitlin Ward, the author of Bleeding Earth (Adaptive Books, February 2016). Listen to the episode here.

Hello Horror Fanatics! Today Scary Out There is sitting down with Kaitlin Ward, the author of Bleeding Earth (Adaptive Books, February 2016). Listen as Kaitlin discusses how she came up with the idea for Bleeding Earth, why it’s important for children and teens to read horror, what scary books she recommends, and more.

Kaitlin Ward grew up on a dairy farm in Monroe, New Hampshire, the same town where she lives today with her husband and son. Before settling back in her hometown, Kaitlin studied animal science at Cornell University. She co-founded the well-known blog, YA Highway, and by day she works at a company that sells coins. Bleeding Earth is her debut novel. Kaitlin’s new book, The Farm, will be released by Scholastic in 2017. Keep up with Kaitlin at kaitlin-ward.com and follow her on Twitter @Kaitlin_Ward.

Kaitlin recommends the following horror titles: Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics (Harlequin Teen, September 2016); Relic by Gretchen McNeil (HarperCollins/EpicReads Impulse, March 2016)

(6) FANS WHO SNORT. In the July/August Fantasy & Science Fiction, David Gerrold has a novelette called “The Thing on the Shelf” that begins as a report on the 2013 World Horror Convention, which hands out the Bram Stoker Award.

“The World Horror Convention was one of the better conventions I attended. Horror fans are clean, well-dressed, intelligent, polite, and enthusiastic. I have no idea why this is so. (Although I have to admit I was a little put off by the beautiful woman who came up to me and said she wanted to lick my Stoker. I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, and I’m not up on this year’s crop of new slang terms.)”

He adds the following:

“At one con, a young fan saw my badge had the ‘Pro’ ribbon attached, so he leaned forward and read my name.  ‘I never heard of you,’ he said. ‘What did you write?’

I replied, “I wrote the novelization of Battle of the Planet of the Apes. I said it with deadpan pride.

He snorted and walked off, his way of showing how unimportant I was.”

(7) DININ’ GAIJIN. Liz Braswell tells the readers of Eating Authors about a memorable meal in Japan. The best part follows this excerpt.

My husband, my crazy-blond toddler, my sister Sabrina and I were in Japan for work and fun — the vacation of a lifetime. One night Scott took the baby and a colleague of his took Sabrina and me for a night out on the town. Mutsumi asked us where we wanted to go and of course we answered someplace super obscure no Americans have been to Japanese only please we’ll behave.

She very nicely obliged and led us through the labyrinth of streets, around and around and deeper and deeper into Tokyo. Most of the city doesn’t follow a grid system and buildings are addressed by age rather than specific location; were my sister and I by ourselves we never would have found our way in or out of the tiny neighborhood we eventually wound up in. And forget about stumbling upon the tiny, unmarked, second-floor restaurant where we were, indeed, the only gaijin.

Everything about the place was perfect: from the rustic tables and wooden shutters to the little button one presses to ring for a waiter—otherwise diners are left in perfect privacy. The sake came in hand-thrown cups, Mutsumi ordered for us, we behaved.

We wanted to stop drinking at one point, but apparently that would not have been behaving, so we continued….

(8) EXIT POLL. Nicholas Whyte ranks his Retro and regular Hugo picks in “My Hugo and #RetroHugos1941 votes: Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)”. In second place on his Retro Hugo ballot —

2) The Adventures of Superman: “The Baby from Krypton”

The only radio play in the mix (as opposed to two years ago, when we had four radio plays and a TV play than nobody had seen), it’s the origin story of Superman, and does what it says on the tin perfectly competently. Lara, Kal-El’s mother, is played by Agnes Moorehead, later Endora in Bewitched.

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS

  • June 27, 1927 — “Captain Kangaroo” Bob Keeshan
  • June 27, 1966 — J.J. Abrams

(10) SKIFFY AND FANTY. I tend not to cover podcasts — even with hearing aids I’m not able to listen to them effectively. I will say the blurb for this episode of The Skiffy and Fanty Show makes it sound pretty irresistible: 298. Sphere (1998) — A Torture Cinema “Adventure”.

Eggs, squid, and bad dreams, oh my!  Our latest listener-directed Torture Cinema episode has finally arrived.  This time, we discuss the infamous adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Sphere starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, and more!  At least two of us have a bit of a rant about this movie, so you should expect some pure, unadulterated Skiffy and Fanty rage in this episode!

(11) AND SOMETHING BUT THE TRUTH. Alexandra Erin is right on the money about “Sad Boner Confessionals”.

You can tell you’re reading a Sad Boner Confessional when the language suggests a high wire act where the author is trying to achieve some delicate balance between “I’m a sensitive man” and “BUT I’M A MAN” and wants you to sympathize with the contortions he puts himself through as  a result. You can tell you’re reading a Sad Boner Confessional when a man is describing the worst trauma of a woman’s life purely in terms of what it means about him. You can tell you’re reading a Sad Boner Confessional when a man is telling you everything he’s learned from the mistakes he’s made but none of those things are accountability or personal responsibility. You can tell you’re reading a Sad Boner Confessional when all admissions of past sins have a sheen of humblebragging about them.

(12) LABYRINTH. The BBC article “Why Labyrinth is so memorable” talks about the advantages of real-time puppetry over computer animation. Chip Hitchcock comments, “They don’t discuss how/if the gap has been narrowed by motion capture; would be interesting to see discussion of this — or any input by Mary Robinette Kowal, who has done fascinating convention talks about the practice of puppetry and the theory behind it.”

Jim Henson’s beloved 1986 movie musical Labyrinth, one of only two non-Muppets films the legendary puppeteer directed, is famous for several reasons.

Fans of David Bowie will recall visions of the late musician wearing extremely tight trousers that fail to obscure an enormously large codpiece. Bowie wrote and performed all the songs, including the iconic Dance Magic Dance. He plays a nefarious, all-singing, all-dancing king of a fantasy world of goblins, castles and all manner of strange colourful creatures.

One of Labyrinth’s best-known scenes is a sensational finale that takes place on a set modelled on Escher staircases. It is also the production that brought a then-unknown, then-15-year-old Jennifer Connelly to the public’s attention.

… One of the first creatures she encounters in the Goblin King’s fantastical world is a dwarf named Hoggle: a morally dubious, Sméagol-esque character whose motives and allegiances are unclear. With a huge lumpy nose, spurts of shoulder-length white hair and a crinkled, finely detailed face, Hoggle is an amazing puppet, at once both magical and realistic.

His seemingly effortless facial and body movements required the collaboration of six people working in real time. The character’s large face contained 18 motors, which were manipulated off-frame by four crew members using remote controls. Diminutive actor Shari Weiser controlled Hoggle’s body and Brian Henson, Jim’s son, provided his voice.

(13) STOPWATCH. Are you worried about how long Suicide Squad will run? ScreenRant is going to tell you anyway.

Collider has heard from their sources that Suicide Squad runs approximately 130 minutes with credits. Its DCEU predecessors were both in the range of 2.5 hours, meaning Suicide Squad will be about 20 minutes shorter than either Man of Steel or Dawn of Justice. Considering the sheer amount of characters Ayer is working with, some may be concerned that Squad is actually too short, but a shade over two hours gives him plenty of time to flesh everything out. After all, Star Wars: The Force Awakens had a lot on its plate and accomplished it all in 136 minutes.

(14) A DIFFERENT DICTIONARY. John G. Hartness, in Magical Words’ “Making Money Mondays” post, uses a commercial definition of “Fans v. True Fans”.

Now on to our main topic – fans. Now I’m not ever going to bash fans, because I love my fans. Hell, I love everybody’s fans, because I’m a fan myself. But what we want to talk about today is the concept of the True Fan, what they are, how best to interact with them, how to find them, how to keep them. Looking at that, it’s going to take more than one post, so this week we’ll talk about what a True Fan is, then later on ee’ll look at how to cultivate them, how to deal with them, and how to convert a Lesser Fan into a True Fan.

For the record, exactly ZERO of this material is anything I came up with. The concept of 1,000 True Fans was first put forth by Kevin Kelly in 2008 on his blog post here. He later references a couple of other folks who had similar ideas a little earlier, unbeknownst to him, but his site, with a tip of the hat to Seth Godin, who wrote the blog post that first turned me on to Kevin’s work.

Kelly postulates that any independent artist, that is any artist outside the big machine of superstar entertainment, needs to cultivate only 1,000 True Fans to survive. BTW, this whole blog post came out of a late-night conversation with AJ Hartley, where I claimed the number was 100. I’m bad at math. He defines a True Fan as someone who spends $100 per year on your work, and those thousand people then contribute to a $100,000 annual income, which is a pretty comfortable living in most places. At least that’s the rumor. I’m a writer, I don’t make anywhere near that kind of money.

So what’s a True Fan, and how do I get their hundred bucks? I assume that’s what you’re all asking. In this case, it’s usually a lot easier to show you than tell you….

(15) DON’T BE ALARMED. George R.R. Martin expressed gratitude about winning a Locus Award together with Gardner Dozois, and he couldn’t resist adding a punchline.

All kidding aside, I am very proud of OLD VENUS, and I know Gardner is as well. There are some terrific stories in there, and one that in any normal year would have been a surefire Hugo finalist. This is the third year in a row that one of the original anthologies that I’ve done with Gardner has won the Locus Award, and I can’t tell you how gratifying that is. Gardner and I both began our careers (a long time ago) with short fiction, and it pleases me no end to be able to provide a showcase for some of the extraordinary short stories, novelettes, and novellas still being written in this age of the series and the meganovel. If you don’t read anthologies, friends, you are missing out on some great stuff.

Oh, and before the crazy internet rumors start flying, I had better say that I was only kidding about OLD URANUS….

[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock, Martin Morse Wooster, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Peter J.]

127 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 6/27/16 770 Sunset Scroll

  1. Second fifth!

    And I get the scroll title as audio, complete with finger-snapping….

  2. That “systems fiction” piece really sounds to me like it’s just describing what the ‘cyber’ in ‘cyberpunk’ means.

  3. Camestros Felapton: Technically, we were arm wrestling about Aaron’s IQ

    Yes, I guess that’s true, come to think of it.

  4. (6) FANS WHO SNORT

    I have always hated the use of “snorted.” People don’t actually do that! Whenever I read it, the picture that comes to mind is someone blowing their nose without a hanky, and that throws me right out of a story.

  5. Oh, and to whoever recommended Hellspark some weeks ago, thank you!
    And it was lovely seeing Hartwell’s Locus award just as I was getting to Kegan’s Afterword and her very affectionate recounting of his encouragement.
    And – wow – how did I miss reading it the first time around?

    Sad to see in Discussion on Amazon a reader wanting a sequel to Uhura’s Song.
    Me too, sigh.

  6. Technically, we were arm wrestling about Aaron’s IQ

    And I wasn’t even aware of the struggle. Either I am oblivious or above it all, I’m not sure which.

  7. Alexandra Erin’s version of the Sad Boner Confessional is the funniest thing I’ve read in ages. Thank you so much for bringing it to my attention.

  8. Aaron on June 27, 2016 at 9:21 pm said:

    Technically, we were arm wrestling about Aaron’s IQ

    And I wasn’t even aware of the struggle. Either I am oblivious or above it all, I’m not sure which.

    I had my doubts as to Mr Day’s capacity to estimate relative disparities in IQ based on contrasting views on televisual depictions of late medieval battles. Mr Day then disputed my capacity to do so.

  9. 11) I read the original sad boner confessional by IanMack, because someone – might have been Alexandra Erin, come to think of it – linked to it on Twitter, and thought what a [insert rude swearword of your choice here].

    I also couldn’t help but think that dudes like IanMack are what gives polyamory relationships a bad name. I know a couple of examples where dudes (and they all were dudes) like IanMack pressured their partners into open relationships and it certainly coloured my views of polyamory relationships negatively.

    Alexandra Erin’s parody of the sad boner confessional is hilarious BTW and proves once again what an excellent parodist she is.

  10. Well, I’m looking forward to GRRM’s curation of OLD URANUS, the definitive collection of the early works of Chuck Tingle.

    In other news, I will be more scarce than usual for a bit; I just this minute got the latest Charlie Stross book on my Kindle. So if anyone asks, I’m doing the Laundry …

  11. I don’t remember if it was mentioned here before, but here’s an awesome Labyrinth cosplay: the Junk Lady, from the people who bring you cakewrecks. They won Best In Show at MegaCon.

    (8) Oops, I thought it was the two-part MLP finale that got nominated, which at least had some time travel even if they did nothing new with it. (I’d been trying to track it down because I haven’t seen all of it.) So turns out I have seen the nominated one, which is not SF any more than any other MLP ep. OK, I can NA with a clear conscience now.

  12. I also just got The Nightmare Stacks, but I really gotta read The Aeronaut’s Windlass and Seveneves first. So it may be a while.

  13. (11) AND SOMETHING BUT THE TRUTH

    I read both the horrifying original, and Erin’s parody of it. I found that I could not laugh reading her version (as she put it, “translated from douchebag”) — it was not funny to me, because I had the feeling that her version was all too close to how things really happened.

  14. Well I’m not likely to try raw chicken any time soon but next time I’m in Kumamoto I’ll be seeking out basashi. Looking at the pictures, I see why the Japanese refer to it as sakuraniku (cherry blossom meat) now.

  15. ObSF: I started Ninefox Gambit over the weekend – I’m only a couple of chapters in (other reading obligations – I’m trying to get paper books read before I head down south next week) …. anyway, I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a new sci-fi universe since I started reading the Culture novels.

  16. @David Goldfarb

    I had the exact same dilemma – so I just went and read The Nightmare Stacks anyway! I probably shouldn’t test your resolve by telling you it’s very good.
    Also, Stross probably isn’t amused that the bits of UK politics he included went out of date on release day

    @Oneiros

    I finished up Ninefox Gambit at a gallop, your enthusiasm is well-placed.
    For others who’ve read it: V tbg funqrf bs Gur Dhnaghz Guvrs va gur frafr bs fhssvpvragyl nqinaprq grpuabybtl vaqvfgvathvfunoyr sebz zntvp, rkprcg zhpu zber fb – nsgre n juvyr V fgbccrq gelvat gb vagrecerg gur pnyraqevpny grpu nf grpu naq whfg gerngrq gur jubyr guvat nf n snagnfl jvgu fcnprfuvcf va, naq vg jbexrq zhpu orggre.

    (1) BREAKING IT DOWN

    Despite that opening sentence, Walters seems to be presenting “systems fiction” as something that overlaps both SF and non-SF, which is quite an interesting position, although I’m not convinced by labeling it as an actual genre if it was coined in the 80s and hasn’t caught on yet. I suppose it’s a handy label for those authors who seem to stumble into writing something we would consider SF by technical definition but don’t want to be seen as part of SF as a genre.

    (8) EXIT POLL

    I suspect I’m going Jessica Jones then Dr Who. I’ve not watched much of either Supernatural or Grimm (didn’t dislike anything I saw of either, just there’s only so many shows I can fit in) so I don’t know which will come out best yet. MLP is definitely the wild card, I’m going to have to work up to watching that.

  17. Cora Buhlert:

    “I also couldn’t help but think that dudes like IanMack are what gives polyamory relationships a bad name. I know a couple of examples where dudes (and they all were dudes) like IanMack pressured their partners into open relationships and it certainly coloured my views of polyamory relationships negatively.”

    He, my first thought when starting to read his article was: “Oh my god, yet another dysfunctional monogamous relationship”. It is not as if it worked very well during the period before they opened up the relationship.

  18. Re 10) Our rage in our Skiffy and Fanty episode isn’t quite as incandescent as it was for Mazes and Monsters, but we did rage at points in Sphere at the stupidity and boringness of it all.

  19. I’m editing an anthology of stories about a wandering Scandinavian on the fringes of Central Asia from whose experiences we can all draw important communitarian lessons:

    URAL DANE (US).

  20. @Bonnie: when I snort at authors whose work does not impress me*, the sound is generated by an intake of air through the nostrils, not an exhalation. It also involves tightening the glottis (?) so that there is something of a “flutter” involved.

    *Note: I have NEVER snorted at an author in their presence. (Laughed later in private…maybe….)

  21. 14. OMG, LOL and WTF!?

    A. now we have to add “True Fan” to the lexicon beside Trufan, fan, unfan, wrongfan?

    B. My first and only question for the author of that piece: do you write to write, or to make money? Remember? The ART is supposed to come first.

    I am now snorting in public at an author for the first time ever.

  22. @BGHilton. I sort of melted down during our podcast about Mazes and Monsters, about just how horrible the GM is in the ‘game’ within the movie.

  23. Cora–

    I think you have a selection bias there; it’s like learning about monogamous marriage by hanging out in divorce court and reading advice columns.

    “Relationship broken: add more people” is a cliche bad idea in poly circles for a reason. (The socially accepted monogamous version of this is the couple who decide to “save their marriage” by having a baby, thus raising the stakes and adding sleep deprivation to their problems.)

  24. @Paul Weimer – I’ll have to go listen to that podcast. I’ve loved that movie since I was a 14 year old D&D nerd. And I still like to watch it. Whenever I’m feeling insecure about about my ambitions, I watch Tom Hanks’ performance and think ‘…and that guy went on to win an Oscar.’

  25. 11) I know some people who think verbal knockdowns and anger as the basis of a successful relationship. They confess to “make up” sex after arguing.

    And then there was the brief affair I had with a women who asked me, “How come you don’t hit me? Everyone else does.”

    My current relationship is 37 years and ongoing. We talk a lot..

  26. @Mark: (Ninefox Gambit) Lbba Un Yrr’f qrpvfvba abg gb vasbqhzc ubj naq jul pnyraqevpny grpu jbexf vf n ovt ernfba jul V guvax (fb sne) gur obbx vf fb fhpprffshy ng qenttvat zr vagb gur jbeyq. V zrna, bs pbhefr gur grpu jbexf. V qba’g arrq gb xabj gur vaf naq bhgf bs vg nyy gb haqrefgnaq gung vg unf n irel erny vzcnpg ba gur jbeyq bs gur abiry.

  27. At (6) FANS WHO SNORT, david Gerrold is quoted as writing: I wrote the novelization of Battle of the Planet of the Apes.

    Well might they snort (or jump up and down hooting), since, as the cover linked shows, he actually wrote the novelization of “Battle for the Planet of the Apes

  28. @6: I’ve heard that World Horror Con is not just for horror fans but for would-be writers; some fraction of them may be there to pitch and are therefore on good behavior.

    So basashi is horse carpaccio, but cold. Would be useful to know if I had a hope of getting to Japan.

    I wonder what “system” Walter thinks is being picked apart in Nova? It gets him beyond the range of overt cyberpunk (contra @August), but it seemed to me to be more about strange people on the fringe of several strange societies rather than picking apart how anything worked (or might work in the future).

  29. Speaking of Charles Stross, did y’all see his Brexit post where he says:

    This is a book launch month and I should really be blogging about “The Nightmare Stacks” but British politics has just entered a nightmarish alignment and we’re in CASE NIGHTMARE TWEED territory.

    Case Nightmare Tweed. yup, that just about sums it up.

  30. I had my doubts as to Mr Day’s capacity

    I would have just stopped there. Anyone who feels the need to bring up their IQ score pretty much loses any argument they are in at that point.

  31. @Cora Buhlert I know a couple of examples where dudes (and they all were dudes) like IanMack pressured their partners into open relationships and it certainly coloured my views of polyamory relationships negatively.

    Same for me. It took a long time and having several friends who really were poly for me to understand that the dudes were just asshats using poly as an excuse to sleep around. Based on the descriptions he and his wife occasionally checked-in they had no day-to-day hard work relationship which is nothing like the working poly relationships I know. I came to realize these guys weren’t poly they just wanted a label which let them not feel guilty for cheating. When he asks what he could have done better it’s staring him in the face: show remorse for the initial cheating, suggest couples therapy, get therapy himself, start dating his wife again not jump to a solution which further alienates his wife, lets him sleep with other women, and suggest guys for his wife to sleep with. It seems obvious to me.

    No monogamy isn’t for everyone. Polygamy works better for some people. But you have to be willing to do the work and take responsibility for your actions to have adult relationships work.

  32. I have always hated the use of “snorted.” People don’t actually do that!

    Really? I’ve done it, I’ve seen other people do it.

    The Labyrinth mention reminds me of the day of being an early adopter of DVD (when I bought my first DVDs–even before I bought the first player–there were around 300 titles available on the format.) For the first couple or three years, there were studios and producers that were holding out on releasing anything on DVD (some because the format was “too good”, reminiscent of the old studio war against VHS, some because they were Laserdisc fanboys.) Among minor items such as anything by Spielberg or Lucas that were a loooong time (or so it seemed at the time) coming, Labyrinth was one of the titles with a vocal “go ahead and release it already” lobby. (For years, it was out of print even on VHS–I had a battered old retired rental tape.)

    One of my best book finds at a local flea market during that period was a copy of an illustrated hardcover children’s book based on the movie for seven bucks. (I see that it continues to be a great price.) Beautifully-illustrated book. And yes, I see it is on-line.

  33. @Aaron I would have just stopped there. Anyone who feels the need to bring up their IQ score pretty much loses any argument they are in at that point.

    I think you should be above it because obviously you’d win. 😀

  34. Oops, I thought it was the two-part MLP finale that got nominated, which at least had some time travel even if they did nothing new with it. (I’d been trying to track it down because I haven’t seen all of it.)

    Coincidentally, just a couple-three weeks before VD suggested nominating MLP, I decided to finally (after 6 years of airing) watch an episode and see what all the hype is about. So I scoured youtube and found only a small handful of recent episodes (they are quickly purged, except for the “blind reaction” ones, a trend that doesn’t interest me in the least.) The first episode I watched was a parody on the Hatfields and the McCoys. The second (and third) was the two-parter you mentioned. For probably a month or more, I made the same mistake you did, thinking that the two-parter with time travel (The Cutie Re-Mark) was the nominated episodes (The Cutie Map.)

    Sadly, after managing to avoid the habit for 6 years, I have ended up watching around 60 to 70 episodes of the show (spread across all seasons) since I discovered that all episodes (that I’ve looked for so far) are available on http://www.dailymotion.com, and you can download the videos using http://www.telechargerunevideo.com/.

  35. 11) Polygamy requires that people be straight forward honest. This is hard enough for couples. And adding onto that is harder work.

    Finding men who aren’t asshats? Good luck with that.

  36. #10 sounds like a perfect opportunity for anyone who loves podcasts to pitch to Mike a guest post or two.

  37. (7) I’d like to take this opportunity to inform everyone that gaijin is a genuine slur in Japanese and not to be tossed around lightly. It doesn’t mean “foreigner”, anyway, but “outsider”.

    If you’re curious, the actual word for “foreigner” is gaikokujin.

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