Pixel Scroll 9/12/16 A Friend of the Pixel is a Friend of Mine

(1) NEWS AND VERSE. Ursula K. LeGuin told her blog readers about a recent medical problem:

I’m sorry about not keeping up my blog posts, but everything got interrupted for me this summer when my congenital heart murmur (leaky valve) finally began to exact its toll. I spent a few days in hospital, have been home now for three weeks. Doing fine but not doing very much — and that looks to be the way it will be for a while.

The notice is followed by a poem about her cat, which you wouldn’t want to miss.

(2) COMPETE FOR AUREALIS AWARD. Entries for 2016 Aurealis Awards are open now. Click on the link to get a copy of the entry form — https://aurealisawards.org/entry-forms/

How do I enter a work into the Aurealis Awards process, and where do I send my entry form?

For all regular categories, you must enter using this online entry form by December 7 2016 and supply a copy of the work(s) entered to each judge in the relevant category/categories by December 31, 2016. Once you have formally submitted an entry via the online form, the coordinator will contact you with the postal addresses for the relevant judges and details for electronic submissions. Entries will not be considered unless the entry fee is paid (if applicable – does not apply to short fiction or Children’s entries).

For entries to the Convenors’ Award for Excellence, you must enter using this online entry form by December 31, 2016.

What works are eligible?

Any work of speculative fiction written by an Australian citizen of permanent resident and published for the first time between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2016 is eligible to be entered.

(3) STEPPING FORWARD. Mary Robinette Kowal will oversee Nebula Conference 2017 program.

(4) FUTURE IMPACT. Adam Frank says the news about Proxima Centauri is important – “Why the discovery of an earth-like planet is such a big deal” on NPR.

After all, when the Wright Brothers lifted their rickety plane off the sands of Kitty Hawk, the rest of the world was just out buying their eggs, milk and toilet paper. On that day who knew — or could imagine — that decades into the future millions of people would be sitting in giant jet-planes watching Direct TV and soaring five miles above the planet’s surface.

I’m telling you this because two weeks ago a threshold of discovery was crossed when astronomers announced they found a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri — the sun’s closest neighbor.

Now, you may have heard that news — but did you really hear the news?

(5) CANSMOF SCHOLARSHIPS TO SMOFCON AVAILABLE. CanSMOF Inc. is offering up to three scholarships for convention runners to be used towards the cost of attending SMOFCon 34, to be held in Chicago, December 2-4, 2016. SMOFCon is the annual convention about organizing Science Fiction conventions.

The first Scholarship of up to 500 CAD is open to a Canadian citizen or resident involved in running conventions with a preference for those who have not previously attended a SMOFCon.

The second scholarship of up to 1000 CAD is open to anyone not residing in North America*, involved in running conventions with a preference for those who have not previously attended a SMOFCon.

The third scholarship of up to 500 CAD is open to anyone involved in running conventions, regardless of their place of residence with a preference for those who have not previously attended a SMOFCon. T

he submission deadline is September 18th, 2016 SST (UTC-11). To apply for a scholarship, follow this link: https://goo.gl/forms/l7mun84SZrcTomOw2

(6) TODAY IN HISTORY.

the-blob

  • September 12, 1958: The Blob absorbs theatres!
  • September 12, 1993: Chris Carter’s The X-Files aired.

(7) TWEAKING GEORGE. George Lucas has tried to overwrite all original prints with his CGI additions, but some fans prefer the vintage original: “Star Wars superfans restore unmolested 1977 print, distribute illegally online”.

As reported by Ars Technica, a restored version of the original 35mm print of 1977’s Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars Episode  IV: A New Hope) has hit the web.

A restoration of the pre-special edition of the film — thought by many to have been permanently altered by Lucas himself — was accomplished by a small group of Star Wars purists called Team Negative 1.

The new restoration doesn’t have the blessing of Lucas or current rights holder Disney, and represents the original version of the film that was officially disowned by Lucas in 2004, when he said in an interview with the Today show, “The special edition, that’s the one I wanted out there. The other movie” … “to me, it doesn’t really exist anymore. It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I’m sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it.”

How exactly Team Negative 1 acquired the original print is a mystery, with Lucasfilm having claimed that all original 1977 negatives were given the special edition CGI treatment.

(8) HALLOWEEN STAMPS. A set of stamps with four different Jack-O-Lanterns will be issued late this month in anticipation of Halloween.

usps2016_jackolanternhalloween

According to USPS.com:

Jack-O-Lanterns – In the spirit of Halloween, the Postal Service issues these delightfully eerie stamps featuring photographs of four different jack-o’-lanterns.  These creatively carved pumpkins have been symbols of Halloween in the United States since the late 19th century, not long after celebrations of the holiday began here. These are the first Halloween-themed stamps issued by the Postal Service. Paul Montanari designed and carved the pumpkins under the art direction of Derry Noyes of Washington, DC.  Sally Anderson-Bruce photographed the lit Jack-O’-Lanterns used on the stamps.

Stamp News Now says the first day issue will be September 29 in Anoka, MN

The first day site, Anoka is known as “the Halloween Capital of the World” because it hosted one of the first Halloween parades in 1920, and still holds several Halloween parades.

(9) ANOTHER DUCK IN THE WALL. SFWA President Cat Rambo, having spoken at a conference in China, is now enjoying the essential tourist experiences and sharing them on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

From last night – real Peking duck.

A post shared by Cat Rambo (@specfic) on

View this post on Instagram

On the Great Wall!

A post shared by Cat Rambo (@specfic) on

[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock, JJ and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day RedWombat.]

107 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 9/12/16 A Friend of the Pixel is a Friend of Mine

  1. Fifth fatigue, well… If that’s just gonna be replaced by “Ticky” or “God Stalk!”, then I don’t care that much.

  2. I always see the first six comments or so as priming the pump. I tend to zip over them unless they’re longer than a couple lines.

    Hottest September day in the UK since 1911. 34.4C/94F in Gravesend. Anyone see Leo McKern* about?

    * The only cast member I could remember from The Day the Earth Caught Fire.

  3. @Lee Whiteside:

    Thanks for linking to “The Star Wars that I Used to Know”. That was an excellent parody.

    I enjoyed how the webcomic “Darths and Droids” pointed out how bringing balance to the Force was actually a Very Bad Thing Indeed. I never thought about that the first time I watched TPM, but during my rewatch last year the needle scratched off my brain record something fierce. “Waaait, so there are hundreds or thousands of Jedi, and only two Sith, and you want to balance the Force?!?”

  4. I find the whole fifthing thing dull, but then, I get bored with stuff like that really fast.

    And on the flip side, I can’t imagine why anyone would prioritize my opinion over theirs. I find lots of things boring that people love to talk about, and get charged up about plenty of things other people don’t embrace.

    To quote an eminent philosopher and observer of life on Earth, “So what? Big deal.”

  5. I keep trying to read Benjanun Sriduangkaew’s stories out of some kind of misguided sense of fairness. Yesterday/today I attempted “The Prince Who Gave Up Her Empire” in the most recent Apex.

    …DNF. Sriduangkaew’s prose is simply not for me. I’d say I like metaphor as much as the next gal, but apparently not! It tired out my brain and I found I just didn’t care about the plot.

    …at least the protagonist in this one doesn’t appear to be a horrible person?

  6. I should have specified that the original STAR WARS trilogy was given a dvd release with the initial version and Lucas’ version of tinkering within the same package.

    I prefer the BLOB remake. It’s a better film. There’s nostalgia for the original, but nostalgia is often a poor substitute for quality.

  7. I, for one, would greatly prefer eights over fifth.

    But seriously, Im new here and dont know the story behind it. If there is one.

  8. Today’s read — The Price of Valour, by Django Wexler

    Musket fantasy, third in a series; as NotParis continues to experience the repercussions of the Revolution, Notpoleon leads his troops through NotItaly and NotGermany.

    Almost caught up with this series — just a year behind now! And it continues to be excellent. Not just well-written but cleverly written, with all the character and plot elements clicking into place with neat precision. Well-written, propulsive battle scenes that don’t hold back on showing the horrors of war, plots and counterplots, characters behaving intelligently, stupidly, and/or according to the dictates of their consciences, as appropriate. And a few twists I didn’t expect. If I have a minor complaint, it’s that I found the sections with the army somewhat more interesting than the sections in Vordan City (NotParis), but it’s not like the latter were boring, more that the former were spectacular. Looking forward to the next installment, and big, big thumbs up.

  9. I think those who like to fifth should and those who find it boring or overdone should ignore it as it’s super easy to skip unlike long back and forth arguments going nowhere fast. Eyes glaze when Tasha posts.

    Ticky is boring. Godstalk was good. I miss Godstalk.

  10. I’d rather have a fifth in front of me than a frontal lafifthomy…no, wait….

    On that planet: yeah, it’s important to astronomers, as the article points out, and one other thing I haven’t seen mentioned yet, which I’ll get to in a second. But first, since this is an SF forum, I think it’s worth pointing out that…we’re not getting there any time soon. Yeah, in theory, we might be able to get probes there during (some of) our lifetimes, but that would require a huge, dedicated effort that almost certainly isn’t going to happen. More realistically, probes that get there in 800-1000 years are much more doable, but not quite as exciting.

    And even if we did have some way of getting there, well, the term “Earth-like” covers a lot of territory, most of it completely useless to us. In this particular case, according to sources I trust, because it’s orbiting a red dwarf, it’s going to have to be so close to its primary that radiation is going to be a big problem. It may receive the right number of photons for us, but they’re going to be largely wrong type for us. Probably. Not a healthy environment, even if it’s a lot more Earth-like than we suspect.

    Anyway, the additional reason it’s important is that so-called “Earth-like” planets are hard to spot. The fact that we managed to find one on the very closest star to us suggests that they’re really common throughout the universe. I mean, we already figured they were going to be pretty common, but this! This is just astounding! The implications for life-as-we-sorta-know-it are staggering!

    The Pixels of God Scroll Slowly but Exceedingly Fine.

  11. @Peer,
    Here’s Cassy B‘s explanation to Bill:

    Bill, it has to do with Vox Day’s epic rant, SJWs Always Lie, which he slated onto the Hugo ballot in Best Related Works. In its original web publication, it had two chapter fives. (If memory serves, it was chapter four that was mislabeled as the extra five.) This was noted by the File770 commentariat, who collectively found it hysterically funny, especially given the fact that Vox Day was promoting himself for Best Editor, and has indeed also slated himself in that category. (The version of SJWs Always Lie in the Hugo packet only has one chapter five, much to the disappointment of many regulars here.)

    As a direct consequence, the number five has acquired an intrinsically comical property. Especially the second (or third, or fourth) number five…

    Hope this clarifies.

    By now it’s File770 tradition, but it’s not required, and (obviously) if you feel it’s not your thing, feel free to ignore.

    ETA: It’s what I (and some other commenters) use as a placeholder comment (others include “ticky”, “Godstalk”, “Pixelstalk”) so I can check the “Notify me of follow-up comments by email” box & get the follow-up comments of this thread sent to my email, which makes following thread much more convenient for me.

    ETA:
    @Lenora Rose, you’re welcome!

  12. Peer; When Vox Day released SJWs Always Lie, the first edition he released had two chapter 5s.

    This is the person who had already at that point gamed himself onto the Best Editor Hugo Finalist lists, for both short and Long Forms, so it was a particularly pointed mistake for him to make. (Mike Glyer has accidentally repeated numbers on Pixel Scrolls, for instance, but he’s never been up for Best Editor, so we point it out when it happens, but not so gleefully.)

    ETA: I Knew I’d be nnja’d…

  13. @Kyra

    Wexler’s series is bubbling near the top of my tbr, so good to know it’s keeping the standard up.

    Have you read Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky? The notEngland v notFrance theme is there, but surrounded by a Jane Austen novel where the Austen-esque female lead ends up getting conscripted and sent to fight in a swampy quagmire of a war.

    (Content note : Gjb fprarf bs nggrzcgrq encr, fbzr zrzbevrf bs ure sngure univat pbzzvggrq fhvpvqr, naq boivbhfyl fbzr jne/svtugvat)

  14. > “Have you read Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky?”

    I have not; on the TBR pile it goes! It sounds like my cup of tea, and I’ve been meaning to check out Tchaikovsky at some point anyway.

  15. @Kurt Busiek: Totally off topic, but on yesterday’s season premiere of Jeopardy, the winner shared your less-than-common surname. As the new champ, Anne Busiek of Chicago will be returning today. Any relation?

  16. George: I don’t even like the fifth.

    Jerry: You don’t like the fifth?

    George: Hate the fifth.

    Elaine: I LOVE the fifth.

    Jerry: How could you not like the fifth?

    George: What’s the fifth?

    Elaine: “What’s the fifth?“!?!

    Jerry: The fifth is good!

    * * *

    Of course later, Elaine is all, “I’m starting to REALLY not like the fifth” and Jerry says, “HATE the fifth!” so there is that.

    But I still like the fifth. It amuses me. And some days, you know, you really need some kind of amusement.

  17. Man, I keep seeing the name Adrian Tchaikovsky and I swear I read something awesome by that author once, but I haven’t been able to remember it.

    Just got back from about a week on the road, where I wasn’t driving at all, so I managed to actually get some reading in. Finished The Obelisk Gate, which I can almost unabashedly say I love, though at some point the unrelenting “survival mode” mentality and completely unsentimental nature of Essun and Nassun started to grate on me. Given that, I’d rate the book maybe 4.5/5 stars.

    Also started and finished Ninefox Gambit this last week. As Filers who liked or loved the book have said, if you can get past the utter weirdness of the first few chapters, it settles in nicely. It is definitely not something you want to read if predictable plots annoy you (I started suspecting the “twist” somewhere around 10-20% of the way through the book, and I’m usually pretty dense about that stuff), but the setting and world-building are creative. Writing-wise, at first I thought the book was a translation. The dialogue seems stilted, kinda like The Three Body Problem, but I either got used to it or it got better. Oh, also, yeesh, the frequency of what appeared to be auto-correct-induced errors was over the top. All that aside, it was an excellent read. It is, so far, on my long list.

    I’m currently reading Gene Wolfe’s The Sorcerer’s House. I’ve pretty much only read material set in the universe of the Long Sun, and now I’m regretting that. This is an enjoyable book with what seems to be a lot going on just beneath the surface.

    My next read will probably either be the next one in the Kencyrath series (To Ride a Rathorn, IIRC) or Saunders’ Safely You Deliver, though I’m worried about the density of the material, given the reviews I’ve read of it.

  18. I just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s new novella Spiderlight. NOT for the arachnophobic. Provides some thoughtful and humorous (more sarcasm/irony than slapstick) takes on some standard quest fantasy tropes, with decently three dimensional characters.

    My impression from reading his reddit AMA is that there is less humor and more darkness in his other novels. Can someone suggest how his stuff compares to, say, David Drake or Glen Cook?

  19. My next read will probably either be the next one in the Kencyrath series (To Ride a Rathorn, IIRC) or Saunders’ Safely You Deliver, though I’m worried about the density of the material, given the reviews I’ve read of it.

    To Ride a Rathorn is one of the best of the “later” Kencyrath books (dividing them into the “early” first two and the “later” rest.) Really riveting stuff.

  20. @emgrasso

    I can’t speak to his Shadows of the Apt doorstopology, but Children of Time and Guns of the Dawn were generally serious – I think Spiderlight was a bit of a departure for him. I’d pitch GotD in roughly the same space as The Black Company – a touch less nihilistic, but without the character-based black humour either.

  21. @Peer

    “Fifth” dates back to February 1843 (exact day unknown). In those days the popular broadsheet known as “Doctor Glyer’s Muraculous[sic] Seven Hundreth and Seventieth File of Tid Bits from the World of Phantasmoroligical Literature” carried a letters column in which people would discuss topics of the day. Such topics included “Is Voyage to Icaria SJW message fiction or what?”, “Ain’t you just sick of Edward Bulwer-Lytton” Etc

    Now at the time the “Know Nothing” anti-catholic immigration party was on the rise (they hadn’t adopted that name yet) One of their earliest groups was led by a demagogue known by the pen name Vexatious Days or “VD” or “Vex”.

    Vex had declared that the world of fantastical stories was being infiltrated by “Irish Anarchists and ner’do wells”

    Now rather than name Vex directly in the letters column (as this might result in litigation ) people would write “fifth”.
    Two explanations were given at the time:
    1. V is 5 in Roman Numerals
    2. The distintive opening of Beethoven’s Fifth symphony was similar to morse code for V

    As much of the letters column was sent by telegram, I tend to believe the second one.

  22. You know I hate to ask
    But, are ‘scrolls’ electric?

    Has anyone heard anything about Arrival? There was a showing at the Toronto International Film Festival and most of what I’ve read is very positive.

  23. A quick mention of Cold-Forged Flame by Marie Brennan – yet another tor.com novella.

    I picked this up on the basis that it looked like Marie Brennan doing something sword and sorcery-esque, which sounded good, but I actually got something really clever along with it well.

    There’s a sample here, but briefly – a woman wakes up, summoned into an unfamiliar scene, unable to remember who she is. The surrounding figures want her to perform an annoyingly vague quest, and geas her in lieu of asking nicely. So, a literal Woman with No Name character heads off into a blank slate of a world. For a character who has no idea who she is, she’s strangely compelling, and the story itself is more adventure and (self) discovery than hack-and-slash, although there’s a bit of that too.
    It’s about 20,000 words, so fairly short for a novella, and it feels like a fully expanded short rather than a compressed novel, but that’s no bad thing – the story is complete by the end, although I suspect sequels are possible, and some intriguing bits of worldbuilding have been revealed.

  24. A review of Arrival from the Consequence of Sound website warned potential viewers to shun spoilers. Dunno if that applies to those of us who have read the Ted Chiang story, but I’m taking their advice.

  25. @Kyra – Yay! After accepting that the entire series wasn’t going to be God Stalk, I’ve been loving it.

    @Mark – novella purchased. Now I need to check out Tchaikovsky.

  26. @Anthony: I was coming over here to post that — our AI master from this year’s Hugo winning short story must be pleased! More cat pictures!

    @Doctor Science: that is a delightful piece of fanfic. Short, sweet, and “of course!”

    @Camestros: Forsooth! ‘Tis so, my good man, e’en as you say.

  27. Huh. A bit of fandom-relevant commentary from a source I don’t normally think of as involved with fandom:

    What SJW Really Means

    (The source is Fred Clark, otherwise known as “the Slacktivist,” whose normal field of commentary is American evangelical religion and politics. Although he’s certainly familiar with comic books and SF, and one of his most long-running threads has been merciless deconstruction of a work that could be considered SF if you look at it from the right angle. Fred is a pretty smart guy.)

  28. I scroll the pixel electric.

    Grow scrolled along with me, the pixel is yet to be.

    It’s possible I’m a bit too heated, exhausted, and have a headache. Send ice.

  29. @Jon: That is a great essay. Thanks for linking it. I enjoy Fred’s writing, although the books he’s famous for deconstructing are better classified as fantasy, not SF.

  30. Jack Lint:
    You know I hate to ask
    But, are ‘scrolls’ electric?

    In the tradition of punning & (deliberate) typos, I give you: “Are Scrolls Eclectic?””

  31. Oh, I’m all in favor of retaining the timeless file770 tradition of claiming the “Fifth” and especially the “Second Fifth!” comment.

    We know that Beale reads here; I think it’s worth reminding him in every thread that a substantial fraction of SF fandom – and of decent people everywhere – finds him to be an incompetent fool.

    We should continue the tradition until he moves his attention from trolling fandom on to another of his Very Important Avocations – say, his grifting of MRAs, or whatever else he does to while away his empty hours.

    As was said above:

    kathodus on September 13, 2016 at 4:28 am said:
    Everything is fifth and fifth is everything. It’s not becoming old; it can never become old. It was always already eldritch. This is probably the most significant contribution the soft devilman will have ever made to any human culture. Let him have his five minutes of fame, forever and ever, throughout eternity. Let him be paid what he is owed.

    The recurring joke of crying “Fifth!” might be the ONLY positive accomplishment that he’s made in the entire decade or so he’s been active in the genre.

  32. The thing about the fifthing for me is that it’s a specific attack against a specific person. Is that really the kind of thing we want to incorporate as a permanent part of our culture? “God Stalk” is a celebration instead of an attack, which strikes me as healthier.

    Hmm…what if, instead of “ticky” or “second fifth”, people were to post the title of the book they’re currently reading, or have most enjoyed recently?

    So, that said, if anyone from this point is moved to post “second fifth” and for some bizarre reason cares about my reaction, imagine me shrugging with a “You do you.”

  33. @Kathodus: If you’ve read The March North and A Succession of Bad Days, you have a reasonable idea of what to expect from Safely You Deliver. (The latter does have some chapters from the POV of a unicorn, that are somewhat rough going, but they are quite a small portion of the book all told.) If you haven’t read the former two, I strongly urge you to do so first.

  34. Jon F. Zeigler

    Huh. A bit of fandom-relevant commentary from a source I don’t normally think of as involved with fandom:

    That was a great link! Thanks for sharing it.

    I’ve usually figured that what united the alt-right folks was a powerful aversion to anyone telling them what to do. Hence their hatred of the government for telling them they can’t use force to put blacks, women, and gays “in their place.” But his argument that their real objection is to being judged is an interesting one.

    During the later phases of the gay-rights movement, I remember Christian opponents often complaining that it was wrong to call them names (e.g. homophobes) just for expressing their religious beliefs (that homosexuals are damned to Hell). I always brushed that off as disingenuous at best, but maybe Clark is onto something here.

    I’m not sure it offers a clue as to how to put our country back together again though.

  35. David Goldfarb

    The thing about the fifthing for me is that it’s a specific attack against a specific person. Is that really the kind of thing we want to incorporate as a permanent part of our culture? “God Stalk” is a celebration instead of an attack, which strikes me as healthier.

    I’ve never figured out what “god stalk” is supposed to mean.

    My biggest real objection to the firsting and fifthing is that I often point people to File 770 as a great source for info, and the first thing they’ll see in the comments section is something very childish. But maybe I’m worrying too much. Perhaps they’re just as likely to say “this is a group that has a lot of fun.” 🙂

  36. I’ve usually figured that what united the alt-right folks was a powerful aversion to anyone telling them what to do.

    I think there’s also a belief by some among that group that until someone says someone is racist, sexist, or homophobic, they aren’t, because they regard doing so as nothing more than a political tactic used by their enemies. The Alt-Right has engaged in the practice of throwing accusations against their ideological targets (such as the attacks launched against both Scalzi and Martin) regardless of whether they are true or not. The point, when they do this, is the smear and its hoped for effects. They regard someone pointing out their racism, sexism, and homophobia as the same kind of attack, rejecting the possibility that it could merely be a truthful label applied to their positions, and treating as an attempt to scurrilously impugn their character.

    I’ve never figured out what “god stalk” is supposed to mean.

    It refers to a book by P.C. Hodgell that did really well in one of the brackets.

  37. That’s odd: Guns of the Dawn doesn’t seem to have an ibook version, although Tchaikovsky’s other novels are available. Bummer. It sounded intriguing.

    Maybe I’ll look for a paperback, though I usually save physical shelf space for nonfiction and vintage books these days.

  38. To be more specific, in the 20th century fantasy book brackets, Kyra allowed, nay, encouraged write-ins. And one particularly vehement person whose name I’ve forgotten kept writing in God Stalk, by P.C. Hodgell. Emphatically. Eventually there was enough of a groundswell of support that it was added to the bracket, where it did quite respectably. So semi-randomly shouting “God Stalk” in the brackets became a thing, which then morphed into a ticky (or “c4c” in MGCspeak) post saying.

  39. Down in the scroll where the God Stalks meet
    The long list and play “Kill-by-slating”
    Down in the scroll with a friend called “Five”

    I was in a Worldcon or was it the Locus
    Well, I’ve never been quite the same
    Pixeled scrolls like I was there

    Oh, look, there’s a rage machine
    I’d post the fifth if it looked the other way
    You wouldn’t believe the things they do

    (The original, in an anniversary remixing that I like for its strong sense that God is disappointed and angry at you, the listener, personally.)

  40. And let us remember: It was 17 years ago today that the nuclear waste dump on the far side of the Moon exploded, sending Martin Landau and Barbara Bain and various others haring off across the cosmos in defiance of pretty much every single known law of physics.

  41. @ Greg Hullender

    I’ve never figured out what “god stalk” is supposed to mean.

    One thing about tribal rituals is that if you expect them to “mean” something other than “this is one of the rituals of my people”, you may be left baffled. Yes, one can dig up the historic context of why “godstalk” became one of the ritual performances of comment-follow-box-ticking, but that historic context isn’t what it means.

    Eventually, the “fifth” ritual will have its origins eroded sufficiently that alternative mythic origins will be attributed to it that will have a far more plausible “meaning” than the actual history.

    All any of those rituals actually “mean” is, “I am a Filer, and I follow the ways of Filers and take joy in them.”

    ETA: I know a lot of blogs with an active commentariat where posting the first comment in a thread is claimed with a crow of triumph. If random people happen across the “fifth” ritual on File 770, I suspect they’ll assume it’s an extension of that sort of thing and think nothing of it.

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