(1) WORLDCON ENDS: FILM AT ELEVEN. Watching CoNZealand’s Closing Ceremonies brought back a memory —
When Winnipeg started its bid for the 1994 Worldcon, chair John Mansfield had everybody on the committee fill out a questionnaire about their interests. On the last day of the convention he returned these forms to everyone saying, “Okay. Here’s your life back.”
At today’s Closing Ceremonies the gavel passed to DisCon III’s Bill Lawhorn and Colette H. Fozard.
(2) TABLE SERVICE. Camestros Felapton illustrates an aspect of the 2020 Hugo Award nomination process in “EPH Fan Writer”.
… As each person is eliminated, the points get redistributed. By looking at the change in points for each surviving nominee, you can calculate the proportion of points that the survivor gets from the eliminated.
(3) THE PAST THROUGH TOMORROW. There are several good rundowns on the problems with last night’s Hugo Awards ceremony, including this one from Sean Reads Sci-Fi, “Uh-Oh, the Hugos Were a Hot Mess!”, which includes some good excerpts from the acceptance speeches.
…Some of the history was admittedly interesting, but I kept waiting for Martin to catch up to the present day, to illustrate how the long arc of the Hugos has bent toward justice, how the field continues to evolve to this day. He never did. He stayed rooted firmly in the past, and as the night wore on his stubborn refusal to acknowledge current movements in SF/F began to feel pointedly exclusionary rather than just incidentally so.
And I haven’t even mentioned the names! To mispronounce someone’s name live is one thing. As a teacher, I can attest to the fact that you will occasionally get someone’s name wrong on the first day. But (a) they had plenty of time to practice, (b) they almost certainly were given pronunciation guides by most authors, and (c) this doesn’t excuse the constant mispronunciations during pre-recoded segments, unless, of course, Martin refused to re-record them, which is its own set of problems. The folks behind the scenes should have done more to vet these segments, and should have pushed back harder when it became clear what Martin was doing.
What’s fascinating to me, though, is how the awards themselves drew such a sharp contrast to the nostalgic navel-gazing of the toastmaster. It really felt like the past and the future colliding – and the future won. Literally! The winners often talked about systemic problems within the industry, about the fights that we still have to fight, about the hard work that women, people of color, queer folks, and others have to do in order to even be considered alongside the white/cis/het fuddy-duddies running last night’s show. It was such a welcome breath of fresh air, for instance, when R.F. Kuang, one of the first winners, emphasized the barriers that she faced getting into the field:
If I were talking to a new writer coming to the genre in 2020, I would tell them, well, if you are an author of color, you will very likely be paid only a fraction of the advance that white writers are getting. You will be pigeon-holed, you will be miscategorized, you will be lumped in with other authors of color whose work doesn’t remotely resemble yours. Chances are very high that you will be sexually harassed at conventions or the target of racist micro-aggressions or very often just overt racism. People will mispronounce your name, repeatedly, and in public, even people who are on your publishing team. Your cover art will be racist, and the way people talk about you and your literature will be tied to identity and your personal trauma instead of the stories you are actually trying to tell. If I had known all of that when I went into the industry, I don’t know if I would have done it, so I think that the best way we can celebrate new writers is to make this industry more welcoming for everyone.
R.F. KUANG, ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR THE BEST NEW SF WRITER
This was refreshing precisely because it’s an aspect of the history of the awards and of the fandom in general that George R.R. Martin, in his endless panegyrics to days gone by, refused to even acknowledge. Pointing out the deep-rooted, structural, and personal racism and sexism at the heart of the industry isn’t a sign of ingratitude – it’s a sign of strength and resolve in the face of tough barriers. As Ng put it in her speech:
Pulling down memorials to dead racists is not the erasing of history, it is how we make history … It would be irresponsible for me to stand here and congratulate us as a community without reminding us that the fight isn’t over and that it extends well beyond the pages of our books … Let us be better than the legacies that have been left us. Let them not be prophecies. Let there be a revolution in our time.
JEANNETTE NG, BEST RELATED WORK
That revolution was in strong form last night, as most winners took the time to celebrate marginalized voices and denounce the forces that marginalized them in the first place. I keep coming back to Martine’s speech, as well – to the knife that hurts all the more because you loved it before it cut you. A trenchant description of an industry and a genre that many loved but were excluded from for so long. That is, thankfully, changing. Not fast enough to prevent last night’s debacle – but fast enough to allow for last night’s inspiring wins
(4) GRRM RESPONSE. George R.R. Martin has commented here on File 770 about some of the reports and criticisms in circulation, beginning with – https://file770.com/2020-hugo-awards/comment-page-2/#comment-1205393
Whoever is circulating the story that I was asked to re-record portions of my Hugo hosting to correct mispronounced names, and that I refused, is (1) mistaken, or (2) lying. Never happened.
CoNZealand did ask me to re-record three of my videos, all for reasons for quality control: poor lighting, poor sound, wobbly camera. I complied with their request on two of the videos, the two that opened the evening; I re-did those live from the JCC. (The originals had been done in my cabin on an iPhone, when we were just trying to get the hang of this thing). The third segment they wanted re-recorded was the bit about the Hugo trophy, where I had some fun with the juicer, the Alfie, and the like. In that case, we decided to stay with the first take, since I no longer had the props on hand and could not easily have reproduced what I’d done at the cabin, which everyone seemed to like.
There is also a story out there that I was provided with the correct phonetic pronunciations of all the names. That too is completely untrue….
(5) YOUR NEW HUGO LOSERS HOSTS. Who wouldn’t sign up for that?
(6) GROWING PAINS. Scott Edelman stirred up some memories that were called out by his sister-in-law in service of an anti-Vietnam War protest.
(7) LEM STORY DRAMATIZED. “Review: A Sci-Fi Classic Featuring a Multiverse of Stooges” comes recommended by a New York Times reviewer.
…You wouldn’t think that the 4-foot-wide by 8-foot-tall space, approximately the same shape as an iPhone screen, would be big enough for a play, let alone an avant-garde company. Yet the closet, only 2 feet deep, is one of the stars of Gelb’s Theater in Quarantine series, which since late March has produced, on a biweekly schedule, some of the new medium’s most imaginative work from some of its simplest materials. As in silent movies, clowning, movement and mime are usually part of the mix.
“The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy,” which was livestreamed on Thursday evening and will remain available in perpetuity on Gelb’s YouTube channel, has all of those and then some. Based on a 1957 story by Stanislaw Lem, the Polish science fiction writer most famous for “Solaris,” it concerns an astronaut named Egon who, passing through a minefield of gravitational vortexes, is caught in a causal loop paradox that bombards him with innumerable (and insufferable) alternative selves.
Lem’s story is a satire of the infinite human capacity for self-defeat, with the various Egon incarnations bickering and undermining one another as the gyrations of space-time bend them into conflict. When “a meteor no bigger than a pea” pierces the ship’s hull, destroying the rudder, everyone has ideas about fixing it — but since it’s a two-man job, making cooperation essential, nothing actually gets done.
(8) HEARING A DISCOURAGING WORD. Entertainment Weekly’s Darren Franich asks “Why are all these science-fiction shows so awful?”
Science fiction was once a niche TV commodity, but March brought three major live-action genre projects. Star Trek: Picard finished its debut season on CBS All Access. FX shared Devs with Hulu, pitching the miniseries as prestige bait for the chattering class. Season 3 of Westworld was HBO’s new hope for a buzzy, sexy-violent epic. And they were all terrible….
I get it: We are all scared of phones, and bots, and the Algorithm. Yet by demonizing technology, these projects oddly exonerate the people behind that technology. CEOs with tragic origin stories in Westworld or Devs are puppets for machines they can’t control. Higher-tech powers in Brave New World and “You May Also Like” control whole civilizations comprised of unaware humans.
(9) LIBRARIES TAKE HEAT IN CANADA. Publishers Weekly has the story:“Canadian Libraries Respond to ‘Globe and Mail’ Essay Attacking Public Libraries”.
[Intro] Editors Note: In a nearly 3,000 word opinion piece published on July 25 in ‘The Globe and Mail’ Kenneth Whyte, publisher of Toronto-based indie Sutherland House Books, pinned the troubles of Canada’s independent bookstores and publishers on the work of public libraries….
Publishers Weekly reprinted the Canadian Urban Libraries Council’s response:
… It is otherwise hard to understand why public libraries are to blame when bookstores and libraries have coexisted harmoniously and supported each other for decades.
So what’s changed? While there are a lot of changes that point to shifts in the marketplace, such as the research identifying a decline in leisure reading, coupled with less and less space for literary reviews in major news outlets, these are minor compared to the two major developments that have dramatically altered the book and reading landscape—and they have nothing to do with public libraries. First is the explosive growth in popularity of e-books and digital audiobooks. Second, is the increasing dominance of Amazon in the book retail and publishing marketplace.…
(10) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.
- August 1, 1986 — Howard The Duck premiered. Directed by Water Huyck and produced by Gloria Katz who were also the screenplay writers. George Lucas was executive producer. Its human stars were Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones and Tim Robbins. Howard The Duck was Ed Gale in the suit with the voice being Chip Zien. Critics almost unanimously hated it, it bombed at the box office, and audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently give it a 38% rating. It would be the last Marvel Film until Captain American twenty-one years later. (CE)
(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]
- Born August 1, 1819 – Herman Melville. Without debating – though some do – how far Moby-Dick is fantasy, we can claim some more clearly – hmm, maybe not the best word with this writer – anyway, “Bartleby”, “The Tartarus of Maids”, “The Encantadas”, let’s say nine or ten. John Clute would include The Confidence-Man. (Died 1891) [JH]
- Born August 1, 1898 – William Ziff. I mean Ziff Sr., though Ziff Jr. is noteworthy too. The elder was the Ziff in Ziff-Davis Publishing, which took over Amazing from Hugo Gernsback, added Fantastic Adventures, comics with art director Jerry Siegel and e.g. John Buscema. I happen to think this cover for Weird Adventures 10 is feminist – look how the man is fascinated while the woman with him knows they should fear – but then I think Glory Road is feminist, and how many see that? (Died 1953) [JH]
- Born August 1, 1910 — Raymond A. Palmer. Editor of Amazing Stories from 1938 through 1949. He’s credited, along with Walter Dennis, with editing the first fanzine, The Comet, in May, 1930. The secret identity of DC character the Atom as created by genre writer Gardner Fox is named after Palmer. Very little of his fiction is available in digital form. (Died 1977.) (CE)
- Born August 1, 1914 – Edd Cartier. Oh, how great he was. Eventually we put him on two Retrospective Hugo ballots. We think of him as a comedian; true enough, but see this cover for Foundation and Empire. Vince Di Fate knew; see his treatment of EC in Infinite Worlds. World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. (Died 2008) [JH]
- Born August 1, 1923 — Alan Yates. Though better known under the Carter Brown name where he wrote some one hundred and fifty mystery novels, I’m noting him here for Booty for a Babe, a Fifties mystery novel published under that name as it’s was set at a SF Convention. (Available from the Kindle store.) And as Paul Valdez, he wrote a baker’s dozen genre stories. (Died 1985.) (CE)
- Born August 1, 1930 — Geoffrey Holder. Best-remembered for his performance as Baron Samedi in Live and Let Die but he’s also the narrator in Tim Burton’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. He was also Willie Shakespeare in Doctor Doolittle but it’s been so long since I saw the film that I can’t picture his character. And he was The Cheshire Cat in the Alice in Wonderland that had Richard Burton as The White Knight. (Died 2014.) (CE)
- Born August 1, 1945 – Yvonne Rousseau, 75. Author, editor, critic, long-time fan. Australian SF Review, 2nd Series with J. & R. Blackford, Foyster, Sussex, Webb. Three short stories and a novelette. Contributor to Banana Wings, Chunga, Flag, Foundation, Journey Planet, The Metaphysical Review, Riverside Quarterly, SF Commentary, SF Eye. Fan Guest of Honour at ConFictionary, where the fire alarm went off and the hotel actually was on fire. [JH]
- Born August 1, 1954 — James Gleick, 66. Author of, among many other books, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman and What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Electronic Frontier, and he is one of us in that he writes genre reviews which are collected in Time Travel: A History. Among the works he’s reviewed are Le Guin’s “Another Story or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea” and Heinlein ‘s “By His Bootstraps”. (CE)
- Born August 1, 1955 — Annabel Jankel, 65. Director who was first a music video director and then the co-creator and director of Max Headroom. She and her partner Rocky Morton first created and directed The Max Talking Headroom Show, a mix of interviews and music vids which aired on Channel 4 and HBO. Jankel and Morton would go on to direct Super Mario Bros. And they’re both responsible for the Max Headroom movie and series. (CE)
- Born August 1, 1969 – Dirk Berger, 51. Five dozen covers, a score of interiors. Here is Sucker Punch. Here is Empire Dreams. Here is Nova 23. Here is his Website. [JH]
- Born August 1, 1979 — Jason Momoa, 41. I knew I’d seen him before he showed up as Aquaman in the DC film franchise and I was right as he was Ronon Dex on Stargate Atlantis for its entire run. He was also Khal Drogo in the first season of A Game of Thrones. And not surprisingly, he was the title character in Conan the Barbarian. (CE)
- Born August 1, 1993 – Tomi Adeyemi, 27. Children of Blood and Bone, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, both NY Times Best Sellers. Norton Award, Waterstones Book Prize, Lodestar Award. Parents thought she’d be better off if they didn’t teach her their native tongue (they’re Yoruba), so with an honors degree from Harvard she got a fellowship to study it in Brazil. Website here. [JH]
(12) COMICS SECTION.
- Non Sequitur offers a suggestion on how to get started on that post-apocalyptic novel.
(13) BE PREPARED. A Public Service Announcement from the Dread Pirate Roberts channeling Inigo Montoya.
(14) ADVICE FOR SFF POETS. Veteran editor of Star*Line and Mobius: A Journal for Social Change “gives some surprising insights on submissions” in this interview conducted by Melane Stormm at SPECPO.
A must watch for any writer, but especially if you identify as female or if you’re feeling hesitant to submit your work someplace.
(15) ON BRADBURY’S SHELVES. The second installment of Phil Nichols’ Bradbury 100 podcast had dropped.
My guest is Jason Aukerman, Managing Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies. The “Bradbury Center”, as it’s known for short, is the place where Ray’s working papers are held in archive, along with the contents of Ray’s personal library, and many of his professional and personal artefacts such as awards, videotapes and film prints.
(16) BALESTRIERI JOINS READ-A-THON. A Bradbury Read-A-Thon is planned as part of the author’s centenary celebration: “Iowan to join top authors, celebs in sci-fi ‘read-a-thon’” RadioIowa has the story.
A library curator at the University of Iowa will join “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and a list of other celebrities, authors and science fiction experts in a Ray Bradbury Read-a-thon next month. The event on August 22nd will mark what would have been the famed author’s 100th birthday.
Peter Balestrieri, curator of science fiction and popular culture collections at the UI Libraries, says he’s thrilled to be taking part.
“The Read-a-thon will be about 40 people reading segments of Ray Bradbury’s famous novel, ‘Fahrenheit 451,’” Balestrieri says. “All of the clips from all of the different readers will be put together into one seamless audio-visual book.”
Balestrieri will read a six-minute portion of the book as part of the roughly-four-hour event. Top sci-fi authors who will also read aloud include Neil Gaiman, Marjorie Liu and Steven Barnes, as well as former NASA administrator Charles Bolden.
(17) THAT’S NOT GOOD NEWS. “Nasa: Mars spacecraft is experiencing technical problems and has gone into hibernation, space agency says” at Yahoo! News.
Nasa‘s Mars spacecraft is experiencing technical problems and has sent itself into hibernation, the space agency has said.
The spacecraft was sent to space Thursday in a launch that had no technical problems – even despite an earthquake that struck just before liftoff, and a preparation period that came during the coronavirus outbreak. Shortly after it was launched, Nasa announced that it had received its first signal from the spacecraft.
But soon after it was in space and headed towards Mars, it became apparent that something had gone wrong with the craft. After that initial signal, mission controllers received more detailed telemetry or spacecraft data that showed there had been a problem.
The signal, which arrived on Thursday afternoon, showed that the spacecraft had entered a state known as “safe mode”. That shuts down all but its essential systems, until it receives new messages from ission control.
The hibernation state is intended to allow the spacecraft to protect itself in the case of unexpected conditions, and will be triggered when the onboard computer receives data that shows something is not as expected.
Nasa’s engineers think that the state was triggered because part of the spacecraft was colder than expected while it was still in Earth’s shadow. The spacecraft has now left that shadow and temperatures are now normal, Nasa said in an update.
Mission controllers will now conduct a “full health assessment”, the space agency said, and are “working to return the spacecraft to a nominal configuration for its journey to Mars”.
(18) TOLKIEN SAYS. At BookRiot: “28 J.R.R. Tolkien Quotes From His Books, Essays, And Letters”.
“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.
‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’” —The Fellowship of the Ring
(19) NAVIGATING ON VIRTUAL SEAS. Mlex reports on the Cyberpunk Culture Con (July 9-10), with some commentary on other virtual cons (BaltiCon, ConZealand, Fantastikon): “Cyberpunk Culture Conference”.
…I want to report on the recent virtual con, the Cyberpunk Culture Conference (Jul 9-10, 2020), which managed to swim perfectly through the fantastic milieu of the future that has already become the past, and floated out from the wreckage on that frenzied ouroboros of possibility waves as easily as a swimmer takes to an inflated tire inner tube on a summer pond.
The conference sprang up around recent books published by Routledge, which are quite excellent, I should add…
(20) 3D. [Item by Daniel Dern.] Great article about racing and 3D printing — “3-D Printing, a Boon for Racers, Inches Closer for Carmakers” — in the New York Times. Here’s two key ‘graphs from the top:
The Belgian racing team Heli had an engine problem. Specifically, under race conditions, the manifold of the four-cylinder turbo diesel in its BMW 1-series exploded, bursting along an ultrasonically welded seam that held together the manifold’s two halves.
…In 2018 Heli took the problem to ZiggZagg, a Belgian company that fabricates parts using an HP 3-D printer. ZiggZagg made a digital scan of the two-piece manifold and after 10 hours had a digital blueprint for a stronger, lighter, one-piece manifold. In its first race with the new manifold, printed using what is known as PA 12 nylon, the part held up and Heli took third. That same manifold lasted until the car was retired earlier this year.
(21) THE DRAGON RETURNING – MAYBE. NPR reports “Astronauts Set To Return To Earth In First U.S. Splashdown In Decades”.
The two astronauts that blasted off in the first private space vehicle to take people to the International Space Station are about to return to Earth — by splashing down in the waters around Florida.
This will be the first planned splashdown for space travelers since 1975, although a Russian Soyuz capsule did have to do an emergency lake landing in 1976.
NASA astronaut Douglas Hurley says that he and his crewmate Robert Behnken are prepared for the possibility of seasickness.
“Just like on an airliner, there are bags if you need them. And we’ll have those handy,” Hurley said in a press conference held on Friday, while on board the station. “And if that needs to happen, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that that’s happened in a space vehicle. It will be the first time in this particular vehicle, if we do.”
The astronauts will come home in the same SpaceX Dragon capsule that took them up on May 30. Their flight marked the first time people had been launched to orbit from U. S. soil since NASA retired its space shuttles in 2011.
The success of their trip in the SpaceX vehicle has been a major milestone for commercial space travel, and a vindication of NASA’s long-term plan to rely on space taxis for routine flights to and from the orbiting outpost—while the government agency focuses on developing vehicles for a return to the moon.
The current plan is for the Dragon “Endeavour” capsule to undock from the International Space Station on Saturday at 7:34 p.m. ET, with scheduled splashdown at 2:42 p.m. ET on Sunday. There are potential splashdown zones both in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. With a hurricane headed towards Florida, however, it’s unclear if the weather will cooperate with the plan.
(22) VIDEO OF THE DAY. “Virtual Viewing: Disney’s Cruise Line’s Tangled, The Musical” on YouTube is an hour-long musical, with three songs composed by Alan Menken, that was performed on Disney’s Cruise Line and is worth seeing for people who need a Disney musical fix. (Hat tip to Mark Evanier.)
[Thanks to Darrah Chavey, Mike Kennedy, John King Tarpinian, Martin Morse Wooster, Michael Toman, John Hertz, Chip Hitchcock, Daniel Dern, Mlex, Cat Eldridge, JJ, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kip Williams.]
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(3) THE PAST THROUGH TOMORROW.
Hear hear!
(10) I saw Howard the Duck in a movie theater and lived to talk about it.
“Another Scrollurday night and I ain’t got no Hugos”
Andrew says I saw Howard the Duck in a movie theater and lived to talk about it.
So did I. Weird film where it was obvious that the screenplay wasn’t something that any intelligent thought had gone into. I think we’re a half dozen other people there. No one save two of us stayed all the way through.
Love Howard the Duck.
Clickity
[11] How can we talk about Ray Palmer and NOT mention the Shaver Mystery, for better or worse?
Michael J. Lowrey: I mentioned it at least once, maybe twice. But fire away.
Howard the Duck should be appreciated as a true and honest “bad movie.” Duck condoms! Need I say more?
9) AGH, THESE PEOPLE. Everyone goes after libraries and completely ignores the major corporations that are the actual source of the problem.
Because I didn’t feel like noting it. And these are after all my Birthday notes. It’s not really all that interesting.
Howard the Duck is available for streaming on NBC’s Peacock. It’s free of charge, but you have to give them an email address to sign up. They also have some of the Universal monster movies and I think they just added ET.
Thing I didn’t know/remember about Howard the Duck: Thomas Dolby plays a bartender in the movie. He also did some music.
Trapped in a Pixel he never Scrolled
Rob Thornton notes sagely that Howard the Duck should be appreciated as a true and honest “bad movie.” Duck condoms! Need I say more?
I’m reasonably sure that it’s the worse genre film ever made. It’s actually worse than The Green Hornet which is my Gold Standard for bad genre films.
The next The Green Hornet is to be an animated one which updates it by using the American Sherlock series take on sidekicks.
Part of what makes Howard the Duck as bad as it is is that the comic was actually good in its own bizarre way.
Also, funtime:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1289274404501741568
(14) F. J. Bergmann
Let’s hear it for SFF poetry and the SFPA.
Back in the early 70’s, Arizona State University had a number of bound volumes of Ray Palmer-era AMAZINGs from the late 1940s. I spent a free afternoon browsing thru some of the volumes.
It was…a pretty dismal experience overall. Shallow characters, dull and hackneyed plots. The only story I remember any details about was a story about the Gates of Heaven getting overwhelmed by a millions-strong flash mob when nuclear war breaks out on Earth.
Cat Eldridge:
I thought the screenplay had some really brilliant parts. Jeffrey Jones is totally fantastic as Dr. Jennings when he starts to turn into the Dark Lord of The Universe. The bar scene when he refuses to help, because someone took his eggs is great and I can watch it again and again. The movie keeps a good pace with silly, goofy jokes and it’s not until the boring flying scenes it starts to drag along. Still a movie I have a great fondness for and have watched some 10+ times.
Martin’s response is interesting it means over 3-4 months he never looked at the list and thought he better work on pronouncing names properly; he never asked for a list or realised while recording he had no idea how to say them and check up. Also a puzzle as why he thinks experienced New Zealand SF fans would need a overlong history of the Hugos in the first place. They bid for it so just be aware as the bidding process takes years.
So someone called the Animal Control Officer and complained that no one was taking care of Tally, my cat, while I was in-hospital as they only saw somebody at the apartment once a week. Definitely not true as Andy who’s taking care of him is there three times a week, usually after running at six in the morning.
So I called the ACO who is named Ruu and had a nice chat with her. Turns out she was the one that hospital contacted three years ago when I was dying over and over. They told her at that time that I was dead, so she was going to take the cats, but a friend was there and said I was alive. So the cats were left alone.
She visited yesterday and declared that Tally was fine. Not losing weight as Andy thought he was as his breed is naturally skinny.. You’ve seen a photo of him — he’s skinny and long.
@Cat Eldridge– I’m glad that worked out well, though sorry it happened.
@Cat Eldridge I will echo Lis on that. Sucks it happened, good it turned out well,
Re:(9) LIBRARIES TAKE HEAT IN CANADA
First: Books have increased in price at a higher rate than inflation for decades.
Second: People have been through extreme economic recessions in the last twenty years, with lingering effects, and the current one will probably last long after a Covid 19 vaccine is perfected.
Third: Corporate publishing CEOs and their own kids may not have noticed this, but young people are a hell of a lot less well off than they used to be. Even before the Covid Depression began, in an allegedly great economy, they were burdened with debt from every kind of higher education, many had given up hope of ever buying a house, and the claim that they weren’t as interested in cars could be just that many could only just barely afford basic transportation. Now, how are they going to develop the book buying/collecting habit when they grow up in a household where Mom and Dad are contending with layoffs, furloughs, and even mass bankruptcies, or the fear of them, and are more concerned with survival spending. In the ’70’s, after I bought textbooks at my college bookstore, I’d go over to the new books section, or to the many new or used books bookstores in my college town. How many college students have any money left after being cleaned out by tuition and textbook costs today?
Bozos like Kenneth Whyte should be glad that enough interest in reading is being kept alive through the library system so that if things ever do get better, hanging out in bookstores and either buying copies of your favorites that you’ve already read a copy of, and/or impulse buying while you’re there returns on a massive scale. In summary: Mr. Whyte, libraries are keeping reading on life support. Quit whining, sell them books, and along with your other fat cat corporate colleagues, stop supporting politicians who implement your schemes for economic inequality. – K
Wilford Brimley (who was younger when he appeared in Cocoon than I am now, and doesn’t that just make me feel old) has left us.
He was also, of course, in John Carpenter’s The Thing.
https://www.etonline.com/wilford-brimley-cocoon-star-and-face-of-quaker-oats-dead-at-85-150632
Warner Holme says I will echo Lis on that. Sucks it happened, good it turned out well,
It did. I do think that a lot of people have no idea how self-distancing cats, well some cats at least, can be. He’s not at all fond of anyone but me so even Andy really doesn’t see him all that often. And it’ll be interesting to see how he greets me after fifty days away.
Now reading: Aliette De Bodard’s Of Wars, and Memories, and Starflight. There’s a Hugo in her future I think.
@Cat Eldridge: I had one that was impossibly shy with strangers once. She loved me but when I went on vacation my then-partner did not see her once for the entire week even though he was there checking on her frequently (and even though she loved him when I was there).
@ Cat Eldridge
Now reading: Aliette De Bodard’s Of Wars, and Memories, and Starflight. There’s a Hugo in her future I think.
There should be!
I’m legit terrified every time I cat-sit for one of my sisters; I know she has cats because there are cat toys and the food disappears from the dish, but I never, ever see them. (Even when she’s home, the ONLY times I’ve seen them is the few times she’s gone and wrangled them out of hiding places and carried them out into public.
The only way I’ll know if a cat is sick (or, heaven forbid, dead) is if all the food doesn’t vanish from the dish.
She tells me that her cats are loving and cuddly. I believe her. But for me, they’re ghosts.
I am unsure as to what the desired outcome is …
if we look at the Best Novel category (the most prestigious and the only one I’ll do) and go back 15-20 years …
2020 — 6 female nominees and a gay winner
2019 — 5 female to 1 POC male nominees, female winner
2018 — 3 to 3 with a POC female winner
2017 — 4 female to 2 male (both POC) with a female POC winner
2016 — 3 female to 2 male with a female POC winner
and the previous decade before that was pretty much always 3-2 or 2-3 ratio with women winning as often as men.
what is it you want to have happen? No white men ever? Cause that’s the trending direction. Kinda weird how bad racism and sexism is when it’s against women and POC (and don’t get me wrong I DO think it’s bad), but when it goes against white men … well then it’s mostly about “getting even” and “how do YOU like it?”
to be honest … this ‘movement’ is losing me. Granted, I’m an old white straight male … but I’m not seeing any welcome or place for me. Perhaps that’s intentional, perhaps not. But it’s awfully hypocritical. You guys are winning!! Who gives two shits if two old farts like GRRM and Silverberg applaud you for it. Although I never knew Science Fiction was a contest to be BE won … I just like reading good stories.
cliff laments to be honest … this ‘movement’ is losing me. Granted, I’m an old white straight male … but I’m not seeing any welcome or place for me. Perhaps that’s intentional, perhaps not. But it’s awfully hypocritical. You guys are winning!! Who gives two shits if two old farts like GRRM and Silverberg applaud you for it. Although I never knew Science Fiction was a contest to be BE won … I just like reading good stories.
So do I. Right now some of the best writing I’ve read has come from the the likes of Martha Wells, Aliette De Bodard, Ann Leckie, Elizabeth Bear and K.B. Wagers. Very few male writers that I follow are releasing books right now, so it’s good that they are. (Gareth Powell was brilliant as was the latest from Simon Green.) I read what’s good and I’m delighted to say there’s a lot of really great female writers.
@clif
I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m jumping on you, but honestly your comment bumfuzzles me.
Why do you have to have, or think you have to have, ‘old white straight male’ stories to feel welcome? You say you like reading ‘good stories.’ Why can’t you enjoy the good stories that are there, the ones you just listed, without caring who wrote them or who the protagonists are? I’m finding it wonderful, all the breadth of cultures and ethnicities that have opened up the field in recent years, cultures and ethnicities we never got to read before because the authors were shoved to the margins.
And now that those marginalized authors are finally being heard, you’re mad (or disgruntled) because there aren’t any, or perhaps fewer, “white men”. (And there is no such thing as racism against white men. There is, however, the fact that white people are finally having to share their sandbox and take their turn, and some of them can’t stand it.) Come on. That sounds like sour grapes, to say the least.
It’s not a zero-sum game. N.K. Jemisin, to use the most outstanding example, is writing rings around nearly everybody else out there, including the white men. Has it ever occurred to you that now that these marginalized authors are finally getting some of the attention that’s been denied them for so long, people are waking up to the fact that they’re really good? As good or better than the white men that ruled the field for so many years, simply because they’ve had to be, to make any progress at all? And yet the white men are still there! David Gerrold, for example, just published a new book, Hella, which I am now reading. Just because Arkady Martine won the Hugo didn’t keep his book from coming out.
I don’t know what you’re trying to say. I wonder if you do. But frankly, on its face, it sounds like whining, and it ‘s not a good look.
Did you have this reaction when the percentage of fiction category Hugos won by women was 0% in the 1950s, 3.6% in the 1960s, 28.2% in the 1970s, 22.5% in the 1980s, 31.7% in the 1990s or 27.5% in the 2000s?
Since you’re freaking out over men doing less well in the Hugos for the last few years, I wonder if you’ve considered how women felt over the half-century in which men dominated the ballot and the victories (and most of us fans and pros got pretty comfortable with that status quo).
Robert Silverberg hasn’t applauded the diversity of the new winners. His reaction to N.K. Jemisin’s historic three-for-three Hugo best novel win was call her acceptance speech “graceless and vulgar” — despite the crude humor he’s repeatedly employed at the award podium for laughs — and insinuate that identity politics was a factor. He’s also said he stopped reading new SF/F over a decade ago, which means he’s got zero interest in the present field.
GRRM could have used his toastmaster gig to talk about diversity and the new writers taking home awards, but instead he mispronounced names and talked a lot about Campbell and other long-ago luminaries, which doesn’t suggest much interest in the new and unprecedented historic diversity of the Hugos.
If I was running the next Hugo Award ceremony, I’d pick presenters a little less by their fame and more by the enthusiasm they demonstrate for contemporary Hugo winners and nominees.
rcade says If I was running the next Hugo Award ceremony, I’d pick presenters a little less by their fame and more by the enthusiasm they demonstrate for contemporary Hugo winners and nominees.
I’d definitely pick presenters who are in their first few decades in the field, are not older white males and who have demonstrated that they’ve actually read deeply in the genre over the past twenty years.
The Heinlein story by GRRM was pointless & embarrassing. Did he have any stories about the current crop of writers? And why didn’t someone in the Con admin say to him that it wasn’t really in keeping with the present reality?
@Cassy B.: My sister-in-law’s cat is like that too. She hides under the bed whenever anyone visits. My mother-in-law’s cat is pretty shy, but did consent to play with her toys in the same room as us when we visited last Christmas.
Just to note: “Arkady Martine” is a woman with a wife.
I typed out a long response … but tl;dr version is that relegating my opinions to ‘whining because white guys didn’t win’ is more or less what I’m talking about.
white guys don’t deserve to always win. Neither do female authors of color, gay/trans authors, foreign authors etc etc.
Russell Letson says Just to note: “Arkady Martine” is a woman with a wife.
Indeed she is. And her acceptance speech was magnetic.
considering the number of women actually writing science fiction in those decades … I’d call some of those numbers pretty good.
How many decades will it take to “get even”?
since that’s clearly what this is about.
and with that I will not so gracefully exit … I’m not good about being silent when piled on .. so
I used to have a cat that I often referred to as the Invisible Cat, because no else ever saw her except when I put her into her carrier and took her to the vet. Some people claimed to believe she didn’t exist, and that I only had the other two.
Her name was Midori.
The problem with GRRM and Silverberg at the Hugo ceremony wasn’t that they’re old white guys. It’s that they, well, even the women GRRM mentioned are all dead, and he still didn’t have any of the enthusiasm and stories about them that he had about the men. They mostly were just names and awards. And Silverberg–I don’t think he indicated any awareness of any women in the field other than the names of the finalists in the category, and it’s not that long ago that he was insulting a three-time Best Novel Hugo winner–quite gracelessly and crudely.
@Clif —
The desired outcome is to recognize the “best” sff writing every year. “Best”, of course, just means whatever the Hugo voting population believes is best for that year.
And guess what? Sometimes it ain’t the straight guys who are fulfilling that role in the zeitgeist. Sff is and has always been political — and when the culture’s politics are focusing on diversity issues, it should be no surprise that diverse authors are doing the best job of capturing it.
Incidentally — “Arkady” is typically a masculine name. I would be confident in betting that a lot of people who voted for that book didn’t even know it was written by a woman. I often don’t know the gender or race or orientation of a particular author — because I don’t particularly care, and I don’t make any effort to find out.
So quit whining and go read some good stories. Nobody is stopping you.
And — surprise surprise! — lots of us think that these ARE the good stories being written right now.
Was it clearly about men asserting the supremacy of men when they won everything for decades, or do you look at that period as rewarding excellence in the field?
In an interesting Twitter thread about the Hugo Awards ceremony, Foz Meadows writes about GRRM and Silverberg and states, “I briefly met Silverberg in 2018 at San Jose; he looked through me, not recognising my name even though I was on the list of Best Fan Writer nominees he was set to read out that evening. Neither man was rude, per se; they just weren’t interested.”
As an old, white, straight guy, I wanted to say that I’m perfectly okay with recent Hugo voting. Memory was my vote for best novel, an excellent story.
I feel sorry for clif, who appears to be stuck in the past with GRRM and Silverberg.
I grew up reading the same kind of stories. Those Big Name White Male Writers? So much of their stuff has been hit by the suck fairy. The second line writers seem to have held up much better.
@Lis Carey
Mostly dead, maybe, but I’m fairly sure neither N K Jemisin or Lois McMaster Bujold are dead, and they both got name-checks for their achievements. (Am not suggesting this makes everything fine, just trying to make sure a minor factual error doesn’t get your whole point dismissed.)
@clif
What books would you suggest have been overlooked this year? Did you rec them in the Pixel Scrolls/recs thread and try and get the word out for people to read them? I’m all for finding new authors.
I do think it’s possible to think that SFF was structurally sexist etc. for decades and also be wary of the idea that cishet white men just don’t write good books these days.
Personally, I am becoming less interested in the Hugos as I know that the electorate definitely has its favourites and places a higher value on diversity than I do. That’s fine though, they don’t have to satisfy everybody.
Let’s talk about the idea here. The idea is that white cis men can’t enjoy books by anybody else.
“Granted, I’m an old white straight male … but I’m not seeing any welcome or place for me. ”
“white guys don’t deserve to always win. Neither do female authors of color, gay/trans authors, foreign authors etc etc.”
Here’s an idea that is missing: What if the best SF of any given year was written by people who aren’t white straight males? Should the awards be given to white straight males nonetheless?
To give an example, I defy anybody to say that Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire isn’t a magnificent work of science fiction, with imaginative worldbuilding based on a culture that is rarely represented in SF. That was a wonderful, wonderful book. If a white straight male can’t read it, that’s his great loss.
@Rob: ” the electorate definitely has its favourites and places a higher value on diversity than I do.”
Or perhaps we think that the works we’re reading by diverse writers are fabulous, and the best things we read that year. I am highly skeptical that people are buying Hugo memberships to nominate books they didn’t enjoy.
@rob_matic —
That’s a straw man. I don’t think anyone is saying that “cishet white men just don’t write good books these days”. I can name you multiples who are doing that. The issue is that they’re just not writing the books that best capture the Hugo-voting population’s attention right now.
Again: sff has always been political. While it looks to the future, it’s grounded in the politics of the present. And today’s politics are greatly focused on issues of diversity.
I am kind of flabbergasted that so many people appear surprised to discover that diverse authors tend to do a good job of addressing those issues.
I didn’t mean to imply that people don’t like what they are nominating. But maybe they have different priorities in what they seek out or what they deem worthy of praise.
@rob_matic
Maybe I’m dim, but I’m not following you here: “maybe they have different priorities in what they seek out or what they deem worthy of praise”
Isn’t that normal?
Contraius notes Incidentally — “Arkady” is typically a masculine name. I would be confident in betting that a lot of people who voted for that book didn’t even know it was written by a woman. I often don’t know the gender or race or orientation of a particular author — because I don’t particularly care, and I don’t make any effort to find out.
The only Arkady I’d run across prior to this was a character in episode of Batman: The Animated Series which was written by Joe Lansdale. He was definitely male.
So I had no idea what gender the author was. I listened to it because it sounded interesting based on the Audible recommendation. It got my first place vote because it was easily the best novel bar none of what I experienced that year.