174 thoughts on “Comments for August 31”

  1. Seeing as I live in Mo’s flat, maybe I can help with the Shoggoth. We put hats on the Charles Stross Memorial Tentacle at the top of the stairs, which keep It happy enough. Give the Shoggoth a nice trilby…

  2. Yes, “Tuesdays with Molakesh the Destroyer” is a perfectly fine story, but no more Hugo-worthy than hundreds of others published this year. It was on the Sad Puppy slate last year because its author was someone BT happened to know (although she has not been participating in the campaign or commenting at all as far as I know). “Spiteful” was not the right word; it’s more that, although the Sad Puppy campaign was in disarray this year, they at least can remember that their picks last year should have won, and call up the residual energy from that disappointment to renominate one of them that was kept out of the running. They did also manage to get Declan Finn’s “Sad Puppies Bite Back” on the longlist.

  3. I feel at this point lurkertype’s suggestion is the only way to go. We should ‘fess up and hope Our Glorious Hero understands.

    Re guilty reads… I read and loved Battlefield Earth around age 12 – used to run around the woods behind the field behind my house playing Battlefield Earth with my friend who’d introduced me to it. A semi-recent re-read made me realize it had been thoroughly beaten by the suck fairy, to the point that I felt bad for it.

    I also loved Thieves World. A semi-recent re-read of that series was very interesting and sent me in a Cherryh binge. She was my least favorite TW contributor at the time; my favorite now.

    Also read some Sweet Valley High, at the breakfast table in high school. I don’t remember it.

  5. lurkertype on August 31, 2016 at 3:26 pm said:
    @Camestros: Even if you somehow managed to get everything painted white, the shoggoth is still going to smell eldritch. With a hint of disintegrating German pulp fiction. And there ain’t no variety of Febreeze that will clear that up.

    We can recycle the Post-Its along with the pizza boxes and wine bottles.

    Now, eventually we’re gonna run out of even Perry Rhodan. The question is, do we keep the shoggoth on a diet of other pulps, feed it our other childhood regrets, feed it the modern equivalent of pulps, give it the mediocre comics that dealers are always putting in the bargain bins, or try to class up its diet with decent SFF?

    I… I think we’re just gonna have to ‘fess up to Mike that we have a pet shoggoth.

    Nothing the matter with that.

    Um, if we’re running short on pulps, perhaps it would be willing to go digital?
    Just sign it on to Fanfiction.net, or AO3.
    Sort of like getting the kitty an automatic feeder….

  6. SciFi4Me did a bunch of taped videos at MidAmeriCon II.

    I have watched some of the videos now. The Paulk one is terrible, mostly because Paulk is either completely clueless about the movement she is part of, or willing to lie through her teeth, or some combination of both, and the interviewer was enabling her. That’s about what I expected out of an interview with Paulk on the subject to the Pups.

    But watching the other videos, it becomes fairly clear that SciFi4Me is mostly run by clueless people. Or at least people who are terrible at interviews. Every interview is a stumbling, dull affair, with the interviewers at times not seeming to be prepared at all.

  7. Mallory: JJ: Thank you so much for taking the lead on the File770 bench and also the File770 upgrade. I was very appreciative of the chance to show OGH how much he means to us.

    I was happy to do so, I feel the same way as you. 🙂

  8. @Vasha

    Yes, “Tuesdays with Molakesh the Destroyer” is a perfectly fine story, but no more Hugo-worthy than hundreds of others published this year.

    Of course different strokes for different folks. I thought “Tuesdays with Molakesh” was an outstanding story–very unlike the usually crap the puppies nominated. I didn’t nominate it myself, since I thought there were even stronger stories, but I’d have cheerfully voted it above No Award had it been on the ballot.

  9. OK, Greg, fair point. I will agree that it’s quite plausible that that story got a nomination boost this year, not due to the reasons I attributed, but only because lots of people had their attention drawn to it and read it! Fair enough.

  10. Guys, I’ve been straightening the pictures on the walls. Did all of them used to have a black monolith in the background? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t in the Monet print before…

  11. Um, if we’re running short on pulps, perhaps it would be willing to go digital?

    I wonder if thrift stores would pay us to take the pulp novels, if we’re going to be giving them (the books, not the stores) to the shoggoth.

  13. @PJ Evans: I’m sure they would. Thrift stores are overwhelmed with copies of 50SOG (I saw a picture of a fort built out of them), Dan Brown, etc. They’d give us at least a small amount to haul away their junk. Question is, is that wise to give Shoggoth — would it cause tummy upset or make it declare CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN? We might have to restrict its diet to only SFF pulpy stuff, seeing as we started it with Perry Rhodan, which seems to placate it.

    @lauowolf: NO! We should NOT allow Shoggoth onto the internet! That way lies literal madness. What if it became a Puppy or a Trump fan? Or started muttering about chemtrails or summat. Let Shoggoth stay more innocent. By the time it gets through all of Rhodan, I’m sure we’ll have all found books in our own collections to give to it, and then we can start collecting at cons or run a GoFundMe to get cash to scour used bookstores and online.

    Please send books to:

    Shoggoth
    The Galvanized Tub
    In the closet
    In the spare room
    Of File 770

  15. LunarG on August 31, 2016 at 6:01 pm said:
    Guys, I’ve been straightening the pictures on the walls. Did all of them used to have a black monolith in the background? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t in the Monet print before…

    That was just Monet’s Black monolith period, duh.
    I’m just wondering what all the weird lights coming out from under the door are.
    So strangely compelling.
    Maybe I should go look.

  16. PhilRM on August 31, 2016 at 6:27 pm said:

    Not even Harlequins? (I’m sure the thrift stores would like to get rid of those, too.)
    I suspect we can keep the shoggoth in pulp SF and adventure without any problems, though.

  17. I am seeing weird things in all the photos I’ve taken lately. Something is screwy in my camera, or in lightroom. I mean, two suns looks cool, but in every photo? And I don’t recognize this city by this lake…

  18. Is it just me, or does anyone else hear chanting coming from the basement? I don’t think it’s in English, but I swear I’m just on the verge of understanding it anyway…

  22. Is it just me, or does anyone else hear chanting coming from the basement?

    I didn’t think this place had a basement. How much trouble are we going to be in, if Building and Safety finds out?

  23. Dawn Incognito said:

    Oh, and randomly, Dad and I watched Galaxy Quest last night which was highly entertaining. Enrico Colantoni is a sheer delight.

    The man is a treasure. Galaxy Quest and Person of Interest and Just Shoot Me and on and on.

  25. OK, I wanted to help, so I was going to sweep the corners, but the corners here are really strange.

    And where am I supposed to put these old bottles? And why do the little suspended pieces of lead keep vibrating at me?

  26. @Steve Simmons:

    I’m getting closer and closer to watching Flashpoint just because Enrico Colantoni (I first noticed him as Veronica Mars’ dad) and Amy Jo Johnson (who I had a huge crush on when she was the Pink Ranger).

    Galaxy Quest really hit the trifecta with Colantoni, Alan Rickman, and Tony Shaloub. (I like Sam Rockwell too, but he doesn’t quite have that effortless presence and charisma.)

  28. @lauowolf

    Perhps we could just leave a note on the fridge

    I was eaten
    by the shoggoth
    that was in
    the galvanized tub

    and which
    you were probably
    expecting
    to eat pulp novels

    Forgive me
    I was delicious
    so sweet
    and so cold

  30. Well, the door’s locked from the other side, so I guess we won’t know. Hey, whoever’s making the scratching noises, please! It’s starting to get to me.

  33. I love you all. Wom-bat, monoliths, and what I assume is titled This Is Just A Note To Scream by William Alhazred Williams.

    so much depends
    upon

    file seven
    seventy

    glazed with book
    talk

    beside the Mike
    Glyer

  34. @RedWombat if you change William to Willhelm you get an extra joke out of the word scream.

  35. Maybe we can feed poems and filks to the Shoggoth.

    I dunno, maybe we need to feed it modern romance to counteract old men’s adventure. Balance out the yin and yang.

  37. If you run out of Perry Rhodan, why not feed the Shoggoth Ghost Hunter John Sinclair and G-Man Jerry Cotton, cause German pulps are nothing, if not plentiful? If all fails, there’s always Dr. Norden. I wouldn’t recommend trying Der Landser, though, cause that one gives even the strongest stomachs indigestion and needs a trigger warning.

    Regarding “Tuesdays with Molakesh, the Destroyer”, I felt it was an okay story, but nothing special. Perhaps it’s better if you are familiar with the book it’s named after.

  38. All this Shoggoth talk has me digging out my Darkest of the Hillside Thickets CDs.

    (Interesting; It’s linking to the playlist rather than to the song – “Shoggoths Away” is the song I’m trying to link … )

  39. @Bruce Arthurs: LOL at your nice image of the Filers politely cranking out comments! 😀

    @lurkertype: Look, we (many thanks to @JJ!) got his tech upgraded; can’t we just say we upgraded his pet to the Shoggoth? I’m sure that’s an improvement in any non-Euclidian space.

    @microtherion: Oh my, that was a beautiful spoof, thanks! I ROFL’d!

  40. @Kendall – …can’t we just say we upgraded his pet to the Shoggoth?

    I vote we make like Microsoft and call all the changes (including the basement) “upgrades.” Everybody is good at looking innocent, right?

  41. ::whistles innocently, looking around::

    (Please ignore that I can’t actually whistle.)

  42. Random book question – maybe @JJ, who I believe likes SF, space opera, and related stuff – or anyone else:

    Anyone read Behind the Throne by K. B. Wagers? My TBR stack is full, so of course, I must be asking for a friend. 😉 ::trying out my innocent whistle again::

  43. Wait wait wait, guys, maybe I’ve got this:

    ::removes ‘File770’ sign from door::

    ::swaps with ‘File768’ sign next door over::

  44. Cora: Regarding “Tuesdays with Molakesh, the Destroyer”, I felt it was an okay story, but nothing special. Perhaps it’s better if you are familiar with the book it’s named after.

    I still, on very rare occasions, read fiction that is not SFF. However, books like the wildly-popular “Tuesdays with Morrie” and “I Know This Much Is True” pretty much put a nail in the coffin of my non-SFF reading.

    Right now I’m reading a non-SFF e-book which is Overdrive’s current Big Read. And… I’m thinking that I should be down on my knees being thankful for books like Too Like The Lightning — which, if you’ve been keeping score at home, you know that I totally bounced off of, but which is still better than this book.

  45. @Kendall. Yes, I read it on recommendation from The Book Smugglers. Bear in mind that I love space opera and will give any book with a middle aged heroine a fighting chance. With that said, I thought it was a great read. I cared about the characters and wanted to find out what happened next. It was a little predictable but, IMHO, well written. I would read the next one.

  46. Iphinome: @RedWombat if you change William to Willhelm you get an extra joke out of the word scream.

    Gods, I love you all so much, I think I may have to go drown my sentimentality in my beer. 😉

  47. @Kendall I also read Behind the Throne and really really liked it – I’d compare it most strongly to the Goblin Emperor from among my recent reading, in that it has the same “reluctant heir thrown into nest of courtly vipers but also builds trusting relationships with awesome allies” thing going on, although the reluctant heirs in question are very different people. The setting is also great, though there’s more room for development and I’m also hoping for more time in space in the next instalment (which I will definitely be picking up in December regardless of the TBR size at that time).

  48. “::swaps with ‘File768’ sign next door over::”

    SIGN WAR!!

    ::swaps File668 with ‘File666’ sign ::

Comments are closed.