Pixel Scroll 9/5/24 The Good, The Bad And The Igli

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(1) FILM BASED ON GAIMAN BOOK SUSPENDED. “Disney Halts ‘Graveyard Book’ Film After Neil Gaiman Allegations” reports Variety.

Disney is hitting pause on its adaptation of “The Graveyard Book” in the wake of sexual assault allegations leveled against the book’s author Neil Gaiman.

The film from director Marc Forster hasn’t been thrown out entirely, but development was halted for a variety of reasons, including the claims about Gaiman.

Published in 2008, “The Graveyard Book” follows a young boy who is raised by graveyard ghosts following his family’s murder. The film adaptation had not yet entered pre-production and did not have any confirmed casting. Gaiman had no involvement with the film….

(2) DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT (WESTEROS) HISTORY. HBO and the House of Dragons showrunner answered criticisms of the series levied by George R.R. Martin in a now-deleted blog post: “HBO Responds To George R.R. Martin’s Dig At Creative Decisions Made On ‘House Of The Dragon’: ‘Showrunner Required To Make Difficult Choices’” at Deadline.

…“There are few greater fans of George R.R. Martin and his book Fire & Blood than the creative team on House of the Dragon, both in production and at HBO,” the statement reads. “Commonly, when adapting a book for the screen, with its own format and limitations, the showrunner ultimately is required to make difficult choices about the characters and stories the audience will follow. We believe that Ryan Condal and his team have done an extraordinary job and the millions of fans the series has amassed over the first two seasons will continue to enjoy it.”

Showrunner Ryan Condal also addressed the challenge of adapting Fire & Blood for the small screen on the latest installment of the Official Game of Thrones podcast. He called Martin’s tome a “history book” that doesn’t necessarily come with fully fleshed-out moments or characters.

“As dramatists, I think we have to approach this history, though it is fictional, as anyone would do, as trying to adapt a chapter from real history,” Condal said. “So we have to construct this three-dimensional reality and this full story for the world to inhabit and provide the characters with internal lives and flaws and desires that might not necessarily have made it into the historical account. Now there are plenty of opportunities in reading Fire & Blood to say, well, there was actually a flaw or a desire or something that does not make it into the record, but it’s often an incomplete picture. So really a lot of what we do is, as dramatists and adapters of this is coloring in the lines that we’re given … and a lot of that color is ultimately our own.”…

And in “George R.R. Martin fears ‘House of the Dragon’ season 3 ‘butterfly effect’ over cut character” Entertainment Weekly adds this timing detail:

…Coincidentally, Martin’s blog entry, which remains taken down, first published on the same day HBO released the final episode of the official Game of Thrones podcast’s current season. It includes an interview with Condal, who talks about the decision to remove Maelor from the season 2 narrative.

“Frankly, this goes back to our first season and trying to adapt a story that takes place over 20 years of history, instead of a story that takes place over 30 years of history,” the showrunner said. “We had to make some compromises in rendering that story so that we didn’t have to recast the whole cast multiple times and really just, frankly, lose people. I mean, we were walking right up against the line with it in season 1, and I think we did a really great job. I think the response to season 1 sort of extolls that.

“But the casualty in that was that our young children in this show are very young — very, very young — because we compress that timeline,” he continued. “So those people could only have children of a certain age and have it be believable where it didn’t feel like we weren’t hewing to the realities of the passage of time and the growth of children in any real way. People look at that stuff and, particularly with a show like this, they look at it very closely. So it was a choice made. It did have a ripple effect, and we decided that we were going to lean into it and try to make it a strength instead of playing it as a weakness.”…

(3) MEDICAL UPDATE. Some very sad news about author Howard Andrew Jones has been shared by Sean CW Korsgaard:

(4) AD CAMPAIGN RESET. “Finally, A New ‘Megalopolis’ Trailer is Released” – and World of Reel breathes a sigh of relief.

Here we go again. Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” has a new trailer, and this time without any of the AI-aided fake quotes. They’re going with a new angle here. No “Coppola is a misunderstood artist” shtick.

On August 21, less than 24 hours after backlash commenced, Lionsgate took down the “Megalopolis” trailer, apologized for the fabricated critics quotes and fired the marketing consultant responsible for the mess up.

There is nothing conventional about “Megalopolis,” and it’s become quite difficult for Coppola/Lionsgate to market this film. This is the first official trailer for the film, not counting the teaser, which comes to us just 22 days before it’s set to be released in theaters….

(5) SHAZAM! In case you ever wondered, here’s the official answer to “How Does Shazam Tell People His Name?” at DC Comics. It’s not the “Gotcha!” I imagined….

How does Shazam tell people his name?

From 1940 until 2011, he called himself “Captain Marvel.” He only started using the name “Shazam” in 2011. At first, during Geoff Johns’ Justice League run, there was a sort of intentionality clause where he would only transform while saying “Shazam” if that’s what he wanted to do. From about 2018 to 2023, though, he just avoided saying his name out loud altogether. These days, he’s been going by “The Captain,” so it’s largely a non-issue.

(6) SCREEN TIME. The New York Times has viewing recommendations. The link bypasses their paywall: “Five Science Fiction Movies to Stream Now”. “Among this month’s picks, there’s a blend of sci-fi and Hindu mythology, plus Nicolas Cage in postapocalyptic times.”

(7) HOLLY LISLE (1960-2024). [Item by Anne Marble.] Author Holly Lisle died August 27. Of course, she is remembered for her fantasy and SF books, starting with Fire in the Mist for Baen (a Compton Crook Award winner). She also published The Secret Texts series with Warner Aspect and the World Gates series with HarperCollins. She also delved into paranormal romantic suspense, and co-wrote books with Mercedes Lackey and S.M. Stirling, among others. 

But many writers remember her first as a mentor. This started from her original personal website and then the original Forward Motion for Writers website. (I was one of the first to get an invitation to “kick the tires” on the Forward Motion website.) She also wrote beloved articles and e-books on many aspects of writing, and taught classes on her sites and for Writer’s Digest. Holly believed in paying it forward, so she gave a lot of her time and energy to mentor aspiring writers.

J.A. Marlow has a tribute at Forward Motion for Writers: “In Remembrance of Holly Lisle: Writer, Teacher, and Inspiration”. There is an official notice of Holly’s death on her Holly’s Writing Classes forum. (You can see the announcement even if you have not signed up for the forum, but you can’t access anything else on the forum.) There is also a Facebook post from her daughter through the Alone in a Room with Invisible People page.

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

September 5, 1992 — Anniversary: Batman: The Animated Series

I’m simply amazed that I’ve not talked before about Batman: The Animated Series, my favorite animated series bar none. It first aired on this date thirty-two years ago with the “On Leather Wings” featuring Man-Bat, a typically bizarre Batman villian.

But I’m getting ahead myself just a bit. So let’s start at beginning, shall we? 

The very, very beginning of course, is who created the Batman character, which, as you know is Bob Kane who is again credited here and Bill Finger who once again is unfairly not. Rat bastards.

The series was developed by Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and Eric Randomski. Dini would be one of many writers on the show. One of the others I recognize is Michael Reaves who was also a writer on the most excellent Gargoyles series.

If you’ve seen it, you’ve no doubt admired it’s amazing visual style. It was unlike anything that went before it. Well, you can thank Bruce Timm for that. He says a great deal of the style came from the acclaimed Superman cartoons of the 1940s, that the Fleischer Studios did with the blimps, police, cars, fashions and much more all taken from the 40s.

The Music? That was inspired by the Tim Burton Batman film.

Most of the villains are from the comics — Mad Hatter, Two-Face, Clock King, though Harley Quinn, the companion of the Joker, was created here. She then, because she was so popular, got added to the comics.

Oh, the voices. 

Kevin Conroy is Bruce Wayne / Batman. Now considered by almost all Batman fans to be the definitive Batman, animated or not. Seriously a lot of fans, don’t think anybody else should be playing Batman whoever it is. I think more than a few of them think that should be a film with him playing Batman. He certainly made the character come alive. He changed his voice enough so that Bruce sounded different, which is an amazing thing to do.

I always found the Dick Grayson / Robin to be meh character, so I’m not really qualified to say well the casting of Loren Lester was there. I’ll leave that to y’all.

I just learned that two actors played Alfred Pennyworth who, unlike Robin, I did love a lot as a character. He’s been a character well done in animated and live Batman setting alike. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. played him in all but three episodes of the series. Clive Revill did those — “On Leather Wings”, “Christmas with the Joker” and “Nothing to Fear”.

We round the primary voice cast out with some fine actors with Bob Hastings as Commissioner James Gordon, Melissa Gilbert as a quite fun Barbara Gordon / Batgirl, Robert Costanzo voicing a grumbling Detective Harvey Bullock. Finally, there two women who voiced Officer Renée Montoya — Ingrid Oliu and Liane Schirmer. Loved that character! 

The only villain I need mention here is obviously The Joker though be other I could go on The Scarecrow here is scary as Hell in one incarnation. 

But it’s the portrayal of him, both is the animation itself, and as voiced by Mark Hamill. Was there ever a more perfect match? Really, I mean that the animated Joker looked unhinged, looked evil, looked well, I’m not sure how to describe him, but the look was perfect for the role, and then Hamill sounded like he was having a perfect time. He’s given interviews talking about being The Joker and he says he had an incredibly delightful time doing so. I believe it was his first animated role, but he’s done dozens of animated roles since and is doing still doing them.

A quick check on IMDb, shows that he played the Joker a total of 15 times. That’s once more than Two-Face showed up here as a villain. Actually, he’s got one more appearance since he had The Return of The Joker film. Now that’s an interesting film because it exists in two versions one of which is PG-13 rated. Why it is I cannot say as that would be a massive spoiler. 

Need I say it was universally adored. I think not. There were 109 episodes over three seasons, a more than decent run I’d say.  I noted The Return of The Joker (which is actually a Batman Beyond film but ties into series obviously as The Joker and, oppps, can’t say as that’s a spoiler too, isn’t it?) but there are two more films set in this series, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm which got a theatrical release, and Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero.

I didn’t know til now it was a direct-to-video release.  It was produced as a tie-in to Batman & Robin. Its release was delayed until the following year due to that film being a financial and critical disaster. Don’t judge Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero by Batman & Robin, because it’s quite excellent.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) WONDER WOMAN’S DAUGHTER. “DC Comics Confirms Wonder Woman Spinoff Trinity Series From Tom King” at Bleeding Cool. Images at the link.

…A month ago, Bleeding Cool scooped the news that Trinity, the daughter of Wonder Woman, would be getting her own series. written by Wonder Woman writer Tom King. We also stated that “Bleeding Cool gets the tip-off that Trinity will see three different versions of Trinity from different times: the toddler, the middle-grader, and the older teenager previously seen in Trinity’s stories, but all existing together and working together at the same time.”

And in today’s Trinity Special: World’s Finest, which collects the Wonder Woman Trinity backup strips from Wonder Woman written by King and drawn by Belen Ortega, we get a special coda. An exclusive preview. With all three versions of Trinity together, sat on the sofa, discussing their current plight….

As Bleeding Cool also reported, they are on a quest to find their father, the identity of whom is meant to be revealed in Wonder Woman #14, along with the birth of Trinity….

(11) STUFFED TO THE GILLS. Variety explains “How ‘Astro Bot’ Packed in 150 PlayStation Character Cameos”.

When PlayStation‘s “Astro Bot” launches Friday, it will give PS5 owners access to a brand new, fully fleshed out story starring the little robot whose previous claim to fame was teaching gamers all the cool new features for the Sony gaming console launched in 2020 through pre-loaded title “Astro’s Playroom.”

Four years later, Astro has broken out of his playroom and is on a bigger mission: Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Sony Interactive in an easy-entry platformer that features more than 150 cameos of beloved PlayStation characters from across mega hits and deep cuts, including “God of War,” “Ratchet & Clank,” “Ape Escape” and many more.

(12) BLACK MYTH: WUKONG. [Item by Steven French.] Following up on a previous post: “How Black Myth: Wukong put China’s games industry under the microscope” in the Guardian.

A Chinese game called Black Myth: Wukong has been the biggest hit of the summer, selling 10m copies in just three days, according to its developer Game Science, with over 1 million people playing it every day on games marketplace Steam. China’s homegrown games industry is absolutely massive, but concentrated almost entirely on mobile phones: this is the country’s first successful blockbuster console and PC game, which makes it very interesting in itself. It’s also a massively successful single-player game arriving on the back of a few high-profile multiplayer flops, which suggests there is still more of a market for this kind of adventure than video game execs like to believe.

But Wukong has been grabbing headlines for other reasons, too. Back in November, IGN put together a report compiling crude, vulgar public comments from a number of Game Science staff, some of whom are very well-known in China’s games industry. IGN also spoke to several women who expressed their disappointment and despair over omnipresent sexism in games and in China more broadly. It is a very interesting and well-researched article that doesn’t so much point the finger at Game Science specifically as set it within the context of a bigger Chinese feminist struggle. But of course, it attracted the ire of an increasingly vocal swathe of “anti-woke” gamers that has found a gathering-place on YouTube and social media, some of whom accused IGN of trying to sabotage Black Myth: Wukong by making things up.

As a result, willingly or not, Black Myth: Wukong became a kind of talisman for the video game culture wars. This was not helped when, a few weeks ago, advance copies of the game were sent out to streamerswith guidelines prohibiting the discussion of Covid, the Chinese games industry and “feminist propaganda”, alongside more usual prohibitions against fetishisation and offensive language. It is normal for advance copies of games sent to influencers (though not to press) to come with conditions, but “feminist propaganda” was definitely a new one.’…

(13) MORE ABOUT STARLINER’S PROBLEMS. According to Futurism, “NASA Engineers Were Disturbed by What Happened When They Tested Starliner’s Thrusters”.

…At first, NASA remained adamant that it was simply a matter of routine procedure to investigate the mishap before imminently returning Wilmore and Williams on board Starliner. The agency repeatedly fought off reports that the two astronauts were “stranded” in space, arguing that engineers just needed a little more time to figure out the issue.

But it didn’t take long for NASA to change its tune. While attempting to duplicate the issue at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, engineers eventually found what appeared to be the smoking gun, as SpaceNews‘ Jeff Foust details in a detailed new breakdown of the timeline.

A Teflon seal in a valve known as a “poppet” expanded as it was being heated by the nearby thrusters, significantly constraining the flow of the oxidizer — a disturbing finding, because it greatly degraded the thrusters’ performance.

Worse, without being able to perfectly replicate and analyze the issue in the near vacuum of space, engineers weren’t entirely sure how the issue was actually playing out in orbit.

During a late August press conference announcing its decision to send Starliner back empty, NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich admitted that “there was just too much uncertainty in the prediction of the thrusters.”

“People really want to understand the physics of what’s going on relative to the physics of the Teflon, what’s causing it to heat up and what’s causing it to contract,” he admitted. “That’s really what the team is off trying to understand. I think the NASA community in general would like to understand a little bit more of the root cause.”

While engineers found that the thrusters had returned to a more regular shape after being fired in space, they were worried that similar deformations might take place during prolonged de-orbit firings….

(14) MINECRAFT MOVIE TEASER. “The live-action Minecraft movie gets a weird and wonderful first trailer, but all I can think about is Jack Black as Steve” is GamesRadar+’s reaction.

…Speaking to GamesRadar+ previously, Black joked that he thinks he deserves an Oscar for playing Steve – the real MVP of the trailer. “Oh, you know I’m playing Minecraft all the time. Whenever I’m not filming I’m playing Minecraft because an actor prepares,” he told us. 

“I like to be in that Minecraft headspace. I like to know the rules, and I like to get little, like, things like, ‘Oh, in the game you pickaxe like this. You hit stuff like that,’ then I do that in the movie. I think the members of the Academy will appreciate my research later. I don’t want to jinx it, but I’m pretty sure I’m getting an Oscar for this one…”

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Anne Marble, Steven H Silver, N., Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel “Glory Road” Dern.]

R.S.A. Garcia Wins 2024 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award

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R.S.A. Garcia. Photo by Owen Bruce.

R.S.A. Garcia’s “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200,” published by Uncanny Magazine, is the winner of the 2024 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best science fiction short story published in 2023. The award was announced September 5 by the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction (CSSF).

This year’s second-place runner up for the award was Beston Barnett’s “Patsy Cline Sings Sweet Dreams to the Universe,” and the third-place runner up was Naomi Krizer’s “The Year Without Sunshine”.

Sample of award trophy.

The award jurors were Elizabeth Bear, Kelly Link, Sarah Pinsker, Noël Sturgeon, and Taryne Taylor. They called Garcia’s work “inventive, humorous, and moving.” Jurors said that the story “shines with hope and connectedness,” and is “a fun combination of Science Fictional idea and voice and humor and heart.”

R.S.A. Garcia is a Nebula Award and MIFRE Media Award winning writer of speculative fiction. She is also a Locus, Ignyte and Eugie Foster Award finalist. She has published short fiction in venues such as Clarkesworld Magazine, Escape Pod, Strange Horizons and Internazionale Magazine. Her stories have been long-listed for the British Science Fiction Awards, translated into several languages, and included in a number of anthologies, including the critically acclaimed The Best of World SF, The Best Science Fiction of the Year, and The Apex Book of World SF. Her sff duology, beginning with The Nightward, is forthcoming from Harper Voyager US, October, 2024. She lives in Trinidad and Tobago with an extended family and too many cats.

CSSF will present the trophy and monetary prize to Garcia at the Sturgeon Award Ceremony on October 24 in a ceremony during the Gunn Center’s third annual Sturgeon Symposium. The theme, “Stars in Our Pockets: Celebrating Samuel R. Delany,” honors his lasting impact on science fiction, speculative fiction, and literary criticism.

[Based on a press release.]

The Curious Case of David Mitchell: A Guest Post by Rich Lynch

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By Rich Lynch:  Once upon a time there was a fan named David Mitchell.  He hailed from Blue Mountain, Alabama, and for a short time in late 1964 and early 1965 he was a member of the Southern Fandom Press Alliance.  But (spoiler alert) he wasn’t real – he was one of the best hoaxes ever perpetrated in Southern Fandom.  This is his story.

Back then SFPA was still a fairly new apa, having been in existence only for about three years.  It had been created by Tennessee fan Robert Jennings as a means for encouraging fan activity in the southeastern United States and beyond through amateur publishing.  SFPA membership over its first three years included fans who later became famous professionally (writer William Gibson and comics artist/writer Joe Staton), fans who were or later became renowned throughout fandom (of which there were several), and fans who were active only briefly before drifting back into relative obscurity (of which there were many).  And then there was David Mitchell.

His first SFPAzine, Endless Shadow #1, appeared in SFPA mailing #13 (September 1964), and in it he briefly described himself: “I’m fourteen years old and a fan of science-fiction.”  Mitchell wrote that he had discovered fandom after asking the proprietor of a local book-and-magazine store if she could put him in touch with somebody who bought s-f from her regularly.  That person turned out to be SFPA member Larry Montgomery, who lived in nearby Anniston.  Mitchell wrote in his SFPAzine that they hadn’t met in person but had frequently corresponded through the mail: “We swapped several letters and than he sent me a copy of his fanzine Warlock. It was the first of these ‘fanzine’ that I’d ever seen.  I told him that I would like to publish one myself.  He told he how to go about it.”  And with that Mitchell joined the apa.

Endless Shadow #1 was a five-page effort, except for the cover page abysmally printed using ditto.  It was a stereotypical neo-fan crudzine, complete with lots of typos and an amateurish piece of fiction.  There was also a couple pages of mailing comments, and that’s where things started to get interesting – Mitchell was opinionated.  Very much so.

One point of contention was that Mitchell felt discussions in SFPA and even the titles of SFPAzines should be related to science fiction.  He made this clear in his comment to Bill Gibson’s Wormfarm: “That sure is an odd name, I wonder why you didn’t pick a name related to science-fiction.  I mean your zine is supposed to be slanted towared science-fiction.”  And Mitchell particularly disliked SFPAzines that were mostly mailing comments: “I didn’t enjoy your zine too much because all it was, was mailing comments,” he told Dave Locke.

But he reserved his strongest opinions for two topics that were guaranteed to stir things up – religion and sex.  His comment on Al Andrews’ and Dick Ambrose’s excellent genzine IscarioT took dead aim: “I hope that you, Al and Richard, didn’t mean for that title to mean JUDAS Iscariot.  If you did, I don’t LIKE, that’s sacriligeous.”  And for Lynn Hickman’s Huckleberry Finnzine (which contained several tasteful illustrations of nude female dancers), Mitchell wrote: “Nothing here but mailing comments and some nude drawings.  Now nudes are alright in PLAYBOY but not in any part of science-fiction.  Putting sex into s-f I just don’t approve of.”

After all that and perhaps surprisingly, the mailing comments that Mitchell received in SFPA 14 (December 1964) did not very much criticize him.  Regarding the use of science fictional terms for a fanzine titles, Dian Pelz told him: “You will find, after you have been around fandom for a while, that very few fans have titles relating to science fiction.  Most fans choose titles that are puns, or references to something that they are interested in.”  On the topic of religion, Len Bailes gently chided him: “Gee, if you’re going to worry about fans being Sacrilidgious, you better not go much further.  You might as well get used to the idea that fans don’t hold anything sacred, on the average.”  And concerning drawings of naked women, Kent McDaniel declared: “What’s wrong with nudes in fanzines?  After all, fanzines are supposed to mirror their editors interests.  And, I ask you, just what red-blooded American boy isn’t interested in nudes?”

Mitchell’s Endless Shadow #2, was in SFPA’s 15th mailing (March 1965) and was much nicer in appearance and as a result a great deal easier to read than his first effort had been.  It had been printed by Montgomery with his mimeograph and once again included mailing comments and another (and better) piece of fiction.  But he was still as opinionated as he’d been concerning religion and nudes.  He commented back to McDaniel: “I still disapprove of nudity because I’m a Christian.  I will admit that I like girls and consider myself normal, but I DON’T like nudes in s-f zines.”

Cover of Endless Shadow #2. Art by Larry Montgomery

That comment to McDaniel apparently had grated on Dian Pelz, who was a pretty good fan artist.  For SFPA’s 16th mailing (June 1965) she produced a one‑off fanzine titled A Portfolio for David Mitchell that was “dedicated to the proposition that sex and stf do mix”.  In it she did ten drawings which illustrated snippets from mainstream science fiction novels by well-known authors.  Those ten scenes all included characters who were naked.  And so did Pelz’s drawings.  In today’s terminology, it was definitely NSFW.  Comments she later received from various SFPA members were mostly complimentary, as much for the concept as the artwork.  But if she were hoping to provoke a response out of Mitchell, she must have been disappointed.  Because it came to light in that same SFPA mailing that there was no David Mitchell.

Larry Montgomery along with a friend of his, Lamar Hollingsworth, had been behind the hoax, and it was all revealed in Montgomery’s fanzine Warlock #8.  As Montgomery described it: “When and where the idea came to me to try a hoax – I can’t remember, but by early July, 1964, I had rented a box at nearby Blue Mountain Post Office under the name David Mitchell. … The idea of having Mitchell as a VERY neo-type fan was hit on almost immediately. …  Originally I was going to do it myself, but when Lamar showed interest of getting into fandom I put the idea to him and he liked it.”  And as for the name of the hoax fan, Montgomery wrote: “David Mitchell was my best buddy in grammar school, but moved off when I was in the 5th Grade, so somewhere-someplace there IS such a person.”

As for why the Mitchell hoax ended, there was a pretty good reason.  Montgomery wrote that: “[Lamar] decided he was tired of ‘playing neo’ – he’ll admit he still might be considered one from his lack of time in fandom, but he’s much more mature than his alter-ego and wants to be himself from now on.”  But there was some irony.  Hollingsworth never did further emerge into fandom and eventually faded into obscurity.  The only place he ever had a presence in fandom was in the pages of Montgomery’s fanzines, which led to speculation (unfounded, as it turned out) that Hollingsworth himself might be a hoax.

There were numerous comments from SFPA members to Montgomery about the hoax’s reveal, among them one from Dave Locke who was mostly unimpressed: “A hoax can be amusing, but to unveil it too soon you put it more in the category of a joke rather than a hoax.  A good hoax is one that runs for a good length of time; you nip it too soon and you lose a lot of reaction.”  Joe Staton, on the other hand, seemed amused: “I must admit that I was taken in by the hoax.  You see, I have a bad habit – I trust people.  However, I assume that continued association with you will soon break me of this.”  Dian Pelz was wistful: “SIG*H, poor Mitchell, and he was such a nice little neo.”  And Richard Mann did a bit of postmortem analysis: “Congrats on your Hoax.  It did go over pretty well, but … we suspected things – there were inconsistencies in the story, like David Mitchell having read Larry’s entire fanzine collection, but never having met Larry.”

Mann was right that there had been hints about the true nature of David Mitchell.  In Endless Shadow #1, Mitchell had mentioned that he and Montgomery had never met in person, and yet Mitchell had two pages of mailing comments on the previous SFPA mailing – which he would not have had any means of obtaining.  But that went unchallenged.  Perhaps the first SFPA member to suspect that something seemed off had been David Hulan, who in a comment on Endless Shadow #1 wrote that: “What I can’t figure out is whether or not you’re for real.  I know these Alabama fans and how they delight in hoaxes … and you read just like the sort of hoax Al and Dick might come up with.”  But neither of them had been involved, even though as Montgomery described it, he’d had frequent conversations with Ambrose while the hoax was still active: “Many were the discussions with Dick that summer about this seemingly mysterious neo-fan.  My acting ability came in for many trials in those conversations and I always suspected that he KNEW. … But last month when I finally told him the truth, he said he never suspected.”

We’re coming up on the 60th anniversary of the Mitchell hoax.  Larry Montgomery is no longer with us, so this is all we’re ever going to know about what happened back then.  Even though it pales in comparison to the famous hoax fans Joan W. Carr and Carl Brandon of the 1950s, it was still a pretty good ruse that might have become renowned through fandom had it gone on longer.  All in all, it’s a tale that deserves to be preserved so I’m happy to help create a place in the history of science fiction fandom for the mysterious David Mitchell.

Text of Glasgow 2024 Business Meeting’s Apology for 2023 Hugo Awards

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At Glasgow 2024, the WSFS Business Meeting passed a resolution offering an apology to those people who were harmed by the Hugo Award results in 2023. Kevin Standlee published the text of the apology today on the World Science Fiction Society website. Linda Deneroff, Chair, WSFS Marketing Committee, has requested File 770 to publish it, too. The text includes a Chinese translation by Sophia Xue, who did all of Glasgow’s Chinese translations.  

The following resolution passed at the 2024 Business Meeting of the World Science Fiction Society:

BE IT RESOLVED, that the World Science Fiction Society apologizes unreservedly to the nominators and voters of the 2023 Hugo Awards for any failures in the administration of the 2023 Hugo Awards; and

The World Science Fiction Society apologizes unreservedly to all nominees, finalists, and winners of the 2023 Hugo Awards for any failures in the administration of the 2023 Hugo Awards as well as any harm which may result from those actions; and

The World Science Fiction Society specifically and unreservedly apologizes to R.F. Kuang, author of Babel; Congyun “Mu Ming” Gu, author of “Color the World”; Hai Ya, author of Fongong Temple Pagoda; Neil Gaiman, author/writer for The Sandman; Paul Weimer; and Xiran Jay Zhao for their exclusion from the 2023 Hugo Award and/or Astounding Award Final Ballots.

Sophia Xue has provided the following Chinese translation of the official resolution:

世界科幻协会为2023年雨果奖评选过程中的任何失误，向2023年雨果奖的提名者和投票者表示毫无保留的歉意；

世界科幻协会为2023年雨果奖评选过程中的任何失误以及由此可能造成的任何伤害，向2023年雨果奖的所有获提名者、入围者和获奖者表示毫无保留的歉意；

世界科幻协会尤其向以下个人表示毫无保留的歉意：匡灵秀（R.F. Kuang）（《巴别塔》作者）、慕明（顾从云）（《涂色世界》作者）、海漄（《尽化塔》作者）、尼尔·盖曼（Neil Gaiman）（《睡魔》作者/编剧）、保罗·韦默（Paul Weimer）、赵希然（Xiran Jay Zhao），因为他们被排除在2023年雨果奖和/或惊奇奖决选名单之外。

[Thanks to Linda Deneroff for the story.]

Pixel Scroll 9/4/24 Oh Mr Pixel, Send Me A Scroll

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(1) PUFNSTUF FOR BREAKFAST. [Item by John King Tarpinian.] The ninety-nine-year-old Los Angeles Breakfast Club hosted a breakfast for Sid Krofft today.  At age ninety-five Sid was very gregarious, and still does a Sunday podcast.  Special guests included H.R. Pufnstuf and Johnny Whittaker. 

Sid talked about his career as a puppeteer, starting at age 15 in Burlesque. People that crossed his path, from Mae West and Liberace to Jim Nabors and the Queen of England. We forget that along with his psychedelic kids show he and his brother also produced Donnie & Marie.

The Pufnstuf costume was made by a cosplayer, a young lady. [Click for larger images.]

H.R. Pufnstuf banner
Sid Krofft.
H.R. with John King Tarpinian and Silvia Mancini
John King Tarpinian, Johnnie Whittaker, and Sylvia Mancini. Whittaker’s credits include Krofft’s “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters” series.

(2) BEWARE ‘HOUSE OF THE DRAGON’ SPOILER. Like, stop before you read this Variety headline!! “George R.R. Martin Calls Out ‘House of the Dragon’ Changes, Maelor Cut”. Martin wrote – then deleted – a Not A Blog post titled “Beware the Butterflies” detailing his criticism of a change to his story made by the House of Dragons series. The Google cache file is still available.

…It is a bloody, brutal scene, no doubt.  How not?  An innocent child is being butchered in front of his mother.

I still believe the scene in the book is stronger.  The readers have the right of that.   The two killers are crueler in the book.  I thought the actors who played the killers on the show were excellent… but the characters are crueler, harder, and more frightening in FIRE & BLOOD.   In the show, Blood is a gold cloak.   In the book, he is a former gold cloak, stripped of his office for beating a woman to death.    Book Blood is the sort of man who might think making a woman choose which of her sons should die is amusing, especially when they double down on the wanton cruelty by murdering the boy she tries to save.    Book Cheese is worse too; he does not kick a dog, true, but he does not have a dog, and he’s the one who tells Maelor that his mom wants him head.   I would also suggest that Helaena shows more courage, more strength in the book, by offering her own own life to save her son.   Offering a piece of jewelry is just not  the same.

As I saw it, the “Sophie’s Choice” aspect was the strongest part of the sequence, the darkest, the most visceral.   I hated to lose that.   And judging from the comments on line, most of the fans seemed to agree.

When Ryan Condal first told me what he meant to do, ages ago (back in 2022, might be) I argued against it, for all these reasons.    I did not argue long, or with much heat, however.   The change weakened the sequence, I felt, but only a bit.   And Ryan had what seemed to be practical reasons for it; they did not want to deal with casting another child, especially a two-year old toddler.  Kids that young will inevitably slow down production, and there would be budget implications.   Budget was already an issue on HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, it made sense to save money wherever we could.   Moreover, Ryan assured me that we were not losing Prince Maelor, simply postponing him.   Queen Helaena could still give birth to him in season three, presumably after getting with child late in season two.   That made sense to me, so I withdrew my objections and acquiesced to the change.

I still love the episode, and the Blood and Cheese sequence overall.   Losing the “Helaena’s Choice” beat did weaken the scene, but not to any great degree.  Only the book readers would even notice its absence; viewers who had never read FIRE & BLOOD would still find the scenes heart-rending.   Maelor did not actually DO anything in the scene, after all.   How could he?  He was only two years old.

There is another aspect to the removal of the young princeling, however.

Those of you who hate spoilers should STOP READING HERE.

(3) RUSHDIE’S LATEST AWARD. “Iceland: Salman Rushdie Wins Halldór Laxness Literary Prize” reports Publishing Perspectives.

Iceland’s biennial Halldór Laxness International Literary Prize is to be awarded to Salman Rushdie on September 13.

This is a €15,000 prize (US$16,598) designed to highlight internationally recognized authors whose work contributes to “narrative art, echoing the rationale of the Swedish Academy when Halldór Laxness received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.”…

…In its rationale for the selection of Rushdie as the awards fourth recipient, the jury writes that the author’s books are “captivating, philosophical, and enlightening stories for readers willing to explore new worlds.

“For readers around the world, Rushdie’s image—having continued to write his novels despite the fatwa issued by the Iranian clerical regime following the publication of The Satanic Verses and the assassination attempt he faced in the United States two years ago—has become a symbol of courage and unyielding will.”…

(4) APPLY FOR SLF WORKING CLASS WRITERS GRANT. The Speculative Literature Foundation will be accepting applications for the 2024 Working Class Writers Grant from September 1 through September 30, 2024. Full information at the SLF website.

Since 2013, the $1,000 Working Class Writers Grant has been awarded annually to speculative fiction writers who are working class, blue-collar, financially disadvantaged, or homeless, who have been historically underrepresented in speculative fiction due to financial barriers which make it hard to access the writing world. Such lack of access might include an inability to purchase a computer, books, and tuition, or to attend conventions or workshops. Often, these writers, many of whom work more than one job, have less time to write. The SLF seeks to bring more of these marginalized voices into speculative fiction.

Grant applications are open to all: you do not need to be a member of SLF to apply for or receive a grant.

(5) SCRIBES BACK HOTEL BOYCOTT. “Hollywood Writers Join Union Boycott of Beverly Hills Hotels” – The Hollywood Reporter tells why.

Around 40 Hollywood writers have joined a hotel union boycott of two Los Angeles hotels, the Cameo Beverly Hills by Hilton and the Beverly Hills Marriott.

The Good Place creator Mike Schur, Emily in Paris writer and co-executive producer Grant Sloss, The Simpsons writer and executive producer Ian Maxtone-Graham and Abbott Elementary supervising producer and writer Brittani Nichols are among the scribes that joined the campaign, spearheaded by the major Los Angeles-area hospitality union Unite Here Local 11. One Day at a Time co-showrunner Mike Royce, Halt and Catch Fire writer and executive producer Angelina Burnett and Two Sentence Horror Stories writer Liz Alper also joined the boycott on Labor Day weekend.

Unite Here Local 11 initiated the campaign against the two Remington Hospitality-operated properties last month after the Cameo’s existing union contract expired and the union and employer were unable to come to an agreement. (The Cameo was formerly the Mr. C Beverly Hills.) In early August the union also filed a wage theft complaint with the California Labor Commission, alleging that housekeepers were performing unpaid work prior to their shifts starting and that workers were not able to take mandated rest breaks due to the volume of work….

(6) VISITORS TO A SMALL PLANET. [Item by Steven French.] Tony Milligan of King’s College University of London, summarizes his recent paper on alien visitations: “Belief in alien visits to Earth is spiralling out of control – here’s why that’s so dangerous” at The Conversation.

The idea that aliens may have visited the Earth is becoming increasingly popular. Around a fifth of UK citizens believe Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials, and an estimated 7% believe that they have seen a UFO.

The figures are even higher in the US – and rising. The number of people who believe UFO sightings offer likely proof of alien life increased from 20% in 1996 to 34% in 2022. Some 24% of Americans say they’ve seen a UFO.

This belief is slightly paradoxical as we have zero evidence that aliens even exist. What’s more, given the vast distances between star systems, it seems odd we’d only learn about them from a visit. Evidence for aliens is more likely to come from signals from faraway planets.

In a paper accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, I argue that the belief in alien visitors is no longer a quirk, but a widespread societal problem….

… All this is ultimately encouraging conspiracy theories, which could undermine trust in democratic institutions. There have been humorous calls to storm Area 51. And after the storming of the Capitol in 2021, this now looks like an increasingly dangerous possibility.

Too much background noise about UFOs and UAPs can also get in the way of legitimate science communication about the possibility of finding microbial extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology, the science dealing with such matters, has a far less effective publicity machine than UFOlogy….

(7) IMAGINARY PAPERS. [Item by Steven French.] Some interesting essays on futures, world building and the imagination: Imaginary Papers, Issue 19, a quarterly newsletter from Arizona State University Center for Science and the Imagination. Philipp Kürten discusses For All Mankind. Chinelo Onwualu recalls pop culture’s “Reality Crisis in the 1990s”. Christopher Cokinos describes taking part in a simulated Moon mission.

(8) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Anniversary: Xena: Warrior Princess (1995)

Twenty-nine years ago Xena: Warrior Princess first aired in syndication by MCA TV (which did it for the first two years of this followed by Universal Television Enterprises doing so for a year and Studios USA Television Distribution doing so for the rest of the run).  Before ending its six years run, there would be one hundred and thirty-four roughly forty-eight minute episodes.

It was created by John Schulian and Robert Tapert. Schulian’s previous genre credits included writing for Tremors. Tapert, of course, created Hercules: The Legendary Journeys that same year, along with Christian Williams. Busy year for New Zealand series production, eh? 

The executive producers were R.J. Stewart and Sam Raimi. The former, other than co-creating Xena, just created Cleopatra 2525; Raimi of course has a long list including directing the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy and the Evil Dead franchise. 

The real reason watching was and is now if you catch it on the streaming services now, Xena as performed in that amazing leather outfit by Lucy Lawless, and companion Gabrielle as played by Renee O’Connor. Their adventures episode in and episode out were always worth watching. 

A number of fascinating secondary cast were here as well. Bruce Campbell, Karl Urban, Kevin Smith, Alexandra Tydings — all these performers were fun.

NBC announced a reboot, but the Gods were merciful, and it got cancelled. 

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) REUBEN AWARDS. The winners of the National Cartoonists Society’s 78th Annual Reuben Awards were announced on August 24.

Reuben Award for 2023 NCS Cartoonist of the Year

  • Hilary B. Price

2023 Divisional Reuben Award-Winners

  • Advertising/Product Illustration – Chuck Dillon
  • Book Illustration – Tom Richmond
  • Comic Book – Jay Stephens
  • Editorial – Michael De Adder
  • Gag Cartoon – Dan Misdea
  • Graphic Novel – Sarah Bollinger
  • Magazine/Newspaper Illustration – Nick Galifianakis
  • Newspaper Comic Strip – Tauhid Bondia
  • Newspaper Panel – Wayno
  • Online Comic Long Form – Evan Dahm
  • Online Comic Short Form –  Sarah Andersen
  • Variety Entertainment – Chuck Dillon

(11) LEGENDARY REVIVAL Boing Boing has learned “A ‘long lost’ 70s superhero comic is finally being published”.

As the name suggests, The Legendary Lynx is the stuff of legends—a 70s feminist superhero classic whose pages were long believed to be lost in a labyrinthine conspiracy of murder, drugs, and intellectual property theft.

Or at least, that’s how the fictional comic book is framed in the pages of Secret Identity, Alex Segura’s pulpy crime thriller about the 70s comic book industry. The book’s twisty noir plot centers around a queer Latina woman working as a secretary at a comic book company who has to hide her identity to order to get recognized as an actual writer with her book, The Legendary Lynx. But a few behind-the-scenes betrayals cause more complications for poor Carmen Valdez, leaving her comic pages and identity unknown for years (in the story’s world, anyway.)

Real-life author Alex Segura has teamed up with artist Sandy Jarrell to create a metafictional “reprint” of the “long lost” issues of The Legendary Lynx from within the world of Secret Identity. 

“…THE LEGENDARY LYNX was created by writer Harvey Stern and artist Doug Detmer, two creators who died under mysterious circumstances before and shortly after the series was first published. Though originally credited solely to Stern as the writer, diligent research has uncovered that Stern co-created the script and story to the Lynx’s seminal debut by renowned novelist and writer Carmen Valdez. For the first time ever, she is given proper credit in this volume.

“(But in reality, ‘The Legendary Lynx’ is no reprint. Crafted by LA Times Book Prize-winning novelist Alex Segura in his 2022 work, ‘Secret Identity’ – a story that continues in the follow-up, ‘Alter Ego,’ – and brought to life by artist Sandy Jarrell’s masterful artwork, this series blurs the lines between fiction and reality in the best way possible – the remastered pages of this forgotten gem, restored to its former glory and presented anew for readers hungry for adventure.)…”

(12) MCMURTRIE Q&A. Shelf Awareness for Wednesday, September 4, 2024 “Reading with… John McMurtrie”:

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. In my childhood brain, little had as much magical allure as the wardrobe through which four young siblings travel in these stories. And I can still conjure the taste of my own version of Turkish Delight; I didn’t know that the stuff actually existed until years later, and its flavor was far more disappointing than what my mind had imagined.

Book you’ve faked reading:

Any Harry Potter book. Easier than admitting the truth and having fellow parents at bygone kiddie parties look at me aghast, shocked that I was not a member of the J.K. Rowling cognoscenti.

Book you’re afraid to read again for fear that it’d be a letdown:

Dune by Frank Herbert. As a child, I was taken in by the sandworms and magical spice and political intrigue–the earnest gloom and doom of it all. Perhaps best left undisturbed, frozen as a memory from long ago.

(13) FUNGAL BOOGIE. This isn’t exactly the “Mushroom Dance” from Fantasia. “Engineers Gave a Mushroom a Robot Body And Let It Run Wild” at ScienceAlert.

Nobody knows what sleeping mushrooms dream of when their vast mycelial networks flicker and pulse with electrochemical responses akin to those of our own brain cells.

But given a chance, what might this web of impulses do if granted a moment of freedom?

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Cornell University in the US and the University of Florence in Italy took steps to find out, putting a culture of the edible mushroom species Pleurotus eryngii (also known as the king oyster mushroom) in control of a pair of vehicles, which can twitch and roll across a flat surface.

Through a series of experiments, the researchers showed it was possible to use the mushroom’s electrophysiological activity as a means of translating environmental cues into directives, which could, in turn, be used to drive a mechanical device’s movements.

“By growing mycelium into the electronics of a robot, we were able to allow the biohybrid machine to sense and respond to the environment,” says senior researcher Rob Shepherd, a materials scientist at Cornell….

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day korydg.]

Internet Archive Loses “Fair Use” Appeal to Second Circuit

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The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed a district court decision that the Internet Archive’s “Free Digital Library” violates the suing publishers’ copyrights. (A complete copy of the Second Circuit decision in Hachette vs. Internet Archive can be downloaded at the link. A discussion of the 2023 district court decision is here.)

The court summarized its ruling as follows:

Internet Archive creates digital copies of print books and posts those copies on its website where users may access them in full, for free, in a service it calls the “Free Digital Library.” Other than a period in 2020, Internet Archive has maintained a one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio for its digital books: Initially, it allowed only as many concurrent “checkouts” of a digital book as it has physical copies in its possession. Subsequently, Internet Archive expanded its Free Digital Library to include other libraries, thereby counting the number of physical copies of a book possessed by those libraries toward the total number of digital copies it makes available at any given time.

Plaintiffs-Appellees―four book publishers―sued Internet Archive in 2020, alleging that its Free Digital Library infringes their copyrights in 127 books and seeking damages and declaratory and injunctive relief. Internet Archive asserted a defense of fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The district court rejected that defense and entered summary judgment for Plaintiffs.

This appeal presents the following question: Is it “fair use” for a nonprofit organization to scan copyright-protected print books in their entirety, and distribute those digital copies online, in full, for free, subject to a one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio between its print copies and the digital copies it makes available at any given time, all without authorization from the copyright-holding publishers or authors? Applying the relevant provisions of the Copyright Act as well as binding Supreme Court and Second Circuit precedent, we conclude the answer is no. We therefore AFFIRM.

The Court’s analysis revolved around “four non-exclusive factors” for determining whether a particular use is “fair”: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

In the Court’s analysis of the fourth factor, “The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the work”, it said:

…Within the framework of the Copyright Act, IA’s argument regarding the public interest is shortsighted. True, libraries and consumers may reap some short-term benefits from access to free digital books, but what are the long-term consequences? If authors and creators knew that their original works could be copied and disseminated for free, there would be little motivation to produce new works. And a dearth of creative activity would undoubtedly negatively impact the public. It is this reality that the Copyright Act seeks to avoid. While IA claims that prohibiting its practices would harm consumers and researchers, allowing its practices would―and does―harm authors. With each digital book IA disseminates, it deprives Publishers and authors of the revenues due to them as compensation for their unique creations…

The Internet Archive posted this response to the decision:

We are disappointed in today’s opinion about the Internet Archive’s digital lending of books that are available electronically elsewhere. We are reviewing the court’s opinion and will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books. 

What statutory damages the Internet Archive should owe is a question the district court is expected to revisit once the plaintiffs reduce their damage claims to judgment. In the district court case, the Internet Archive asked that damages be remitted if the court rejected IA’s fair use defense, citing Section 504 of the Copyright Act which directs courts to remit statutory damages where the infringer is a “nonprofit educational institution, library, or archives,” or one of its agents or employees, and the defendant “infringed by reproducing the work in copies” and “believed and had reasonable grounds for believing” that its use of the work was fair use. At the time of the district court’s decision they said the request was premature and that IA may renew the argument “in connection with the formation of an appropriate judgment” (i.e., when the plaintiffs try to get paid.)

2024 Royal Society Science Book Prize Shortlist

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The Royal Society has announced the six titles shortlisted for the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, which celebrates the best popular science writing from across the globe.

The winner will be revealed October 25. The author of the winning book receives £25,000 and £2,500 is awarded to each of the five shortlisted books.

The full shortlist – selected from 254 submissions published between July 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024 – is as follows:

In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, she covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it’s an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon’s findings, including everything from the way C-sections in the industrialized world are rearranging women’s pelvic shape to the surprising similarities between pus and breast milk, will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens have become such a successful and dominant species, from tool use to city building to the development of language.

Thomas Bayes was an eighteenth-century Presbyterian minister and amateur mathematician whose obscure life belied the profound impact of his work. Like most research into probability at the time, his theorem was mainly seen as relevant to games of chance, like dice and cards. But its implications soon became clear.

Bayes’ theorem helps explain why highly accurate screening tests can lead to false positives, causing unnecessary anxiety for patients. A failure to account for it in court has put innocent people in jail. But its influence goes far beyond practical applications. A cornerstone of rational thought, Bayesian principles are used in modelling and forecasting. ‘Superforecasters’, a group of expert predictors who outperform CIA analysts, use a Bayesian approach. And many argue that Bayes’ theorem is not just a useful tool, but a description of almost everything – that it is the underlying architecture of rationality, and of the human brain.

Fusing biography, razor-sharp science communication and intellectual history, Everything Is Predictable is a captivating tour of Bayes’ theorem and its impact on modern life. From medical testing to artificial intelligence, Tom Chivers shows how a single compelling idea can have far-reaching consequences.

For fans of Bad Blood, a thrilling account of the tech start-up selling a radical new form of facial recognition.

When Kashmir Hill stumbled upon Clearview AI, a mysterious startup selling an app that claimed it could identify anyone using just a snapshot of their face, the implications were terrifying. The app could use the photo to find your name, your social media profiles, your friends and family – even your home address. But this was just the start of a story more shocking than she could have imagined.

Launched by computer engineer Hoan Ton-That and politician Richard Schwartz, and assisted by a cast of controversial characters on the alt-right, Clearview AI would quickly rise to the top, sharing its app with billionaires and law enforcement. In this riveting feat of reporting Hill weaves the story of Clearview AI with an exploration of how facial recognition technology is reshaping our lives, from its use by governments and companies like Google and Facebook (who decided it was too radical to release) to the consequences of racial and gender biases baked into the AI. Soon it could expand the reach of policing — as it has in China and Russia — and lead us into a dystopian future.

Your Face Belongs to Us is a gripping true story. It illuminates our tortured relationship with technology, the way it entertains us even as it exploits us, and it presents a powerful warning that in the absence of regulation, this technology will spell the end of our anonymity.

The great auk is one of the most tragic and documented examples of extinction. A flightless bird that bred primarily on the remote islands of the North Atlantic, the last of its kind were killed in Iceland in 1844. Gísli Pálsson draws on firsthand accounts from the Icelanders who hunted the last great auks to bring to life a bygone age of Victorian scientific exploration while offering vital insights into the extinction of species.

Blending a richly evocative narrative with rare, unpublished material as well as insights from ornithology, anthropology, and Pálsson’s own North Atlantic travels, The Last of its Kind reveals the saga of the great auk opens a window onto the human causes of mass extinction.

Would you want to live forever? Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan transforms our understanding of why we age and die – and whether there’s anything we can do about it. We are living through a revolution in biology. Giant strides are being made in our understanding of why we age and die, and why some species live longer than others. Immortality, once a faint hope, has never been more within our grasp. Examining recent scientific breakthroughs, Ramakrishnan shows how cutting-edge efforts to extend lifespan by altering our natural biology raise profound questions. Although we might not like it, does death serve a necessary biological purpose? And how can we increase our chances of living long, healthy and fulfilled lives? As science advances, we have much to gain. But might we also have much to lose?

Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away – no climate change, no war, no Twitter – beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of original research, and interviews with leading space scientists, engineers and legal experts, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea. Space tech and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the deep knowledge needed to have space-kids, build space-farms and create space nations in a way that doesn’t spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create a nightmare, both for settlers and the people they leave behind.

With deep expertise, a winning sense of humour and art from the beloved creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, the Weinersmiths investigate perhaps the biggest questions humanity will ever ask itself – whether and how to become multiplanetary.

JUDGING PANEL. Alongside Professor John Hutchinson, the 2024 judging panel comprises Booker Prize-winning author and screenwriter Eleanor Catton; New Scientist Comment and Culture Editor Alison Flood; teacher, broadcaster and writer Bobby Seagull; and lecturer in Functional Materials at Imperial College London, and Royal Society University Research Fellow, Dr Jess Wade.

[Based on a press release.]

Pixel Scroll 9/3/24 Nor Shall My Blog Sleep In My Hands, Till I Have Built Mount Tsundoku On My Bedroom’s Clean And Handy Nightstand

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(1) ANIME BANZAI IS SORRY. In the midst of apologizing for cancelling this year’s event, Utah’s Anime Banzai told Facebook followers their demise was primarily due to a committee member embezzling over $99,000. A criminal case is in progress. However, as they are still on the hook for their venue, the group says they are planning a three-day “Farewell to Banzai” party.

…We want to reiterate our remorse for losing sight of why we started this convention in the first place. It was our actions – and in fact, our inaction – over the years that caused a great deal of lasting hurt to former staff, volunteers, guests, and attendees. Concerns were brought to us time and time again, and we should have listened to them and taken action. We didn’t, and for that, we are truly sorry. You deserved better from us.

Additionally, we want to apologize for the frustration, confusion, and heartache that followed our decision to cancel Anime Banzai 2024. We see now that this decision felt like a violation of the trust and loyalty our community has shown us for almost two decades. The financial state of the organization, lack of staffing, and the event’s dwindling reputation made it seem like cancellation was the only feasible way to move forward. We realize now that we may have been too hasty, and should have explored more options before enacting what we saw as the only solution.

This time, we are listening. We are acting. We want to do what we can to make things right for those of you that are mourning the abrupt loss of the convention, as well as those financially impacted by the choices we made.

As some of you may know, a few years ago Banzai was the victim of significant embezzlement. A former staff member drained the organization’s accounts of almost 99,000 dollars, resulting in a criminal case that is still ongoing. Despite this, the convention continued to spend as though the accounts were full, making payments, purchases, and reservations that were beyond the organization’s means. This is something we should have noticed sooner. We should have stepped in and put a stop to recurring payments we could no longer afford, and cut costs wherever possible. We were not paying attention, and now find ourselves in a dire financial situation.

We do not currently have the funds to refund everyone who has already paid to attend the event, and have been working these last few weeks to plan something that would still provide attendees with something of value. With this in mind, we have decided to use the venue – which we can no longer cancel – to host a 3-day Farewell to Banzai party….

(2) GLASGOW WORLDCON REPORT AT SF2. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] SF² Concatenation has an advance post up ahead of its autumnal edition later this September of a first-timer’s review of the Glasgow Worldcon. This is the first of a few con reports SF² Concatenation are planning. More will appear in the spring edition in January. 

Attending this year’s Worldcon in Glasgow (8-12 August, I made it for the middle three days) was a big deal for me. As a first-timer – and solo at that – I knew I needed a strategy. As a tabletop gamer and environmental activist of many years standing, this wasn’t my first time turning up to a large building populated by strangers with hats, beards and a certain personal flamboyance. But Worldcon was different – a nearly entire Scottish Event Campus with 7,081 in-person attendees and a little over 600 watching online; a mix of sub-cultural gathering, international literary festival and hard-nosed networking opportunity. In the face of this, being a mere spectator was not an option conducive to my own sanity… 

You can see the rest of first-timer Tim Atkinson’s review of the Glasgow Worldcon conrep at the link.

Station welcome. More low-key fannish than Chengdu’s ostentatious buses. We’re here for the beer not the marketing images.

(3) IS CLIMBING OVER THE DOCTOR A PATH TO POWER? From Deadline we hear “Conservative Party Leadership Hopeful Says She’s ‘Not Afraid Of Doctor Who’ As She Devotes Majority Of New Campaign Vid To Spat With David Tennant”.

Kemi Badenoch launched her campaign on X yesterday and unveiled a 30-second video prior, in which she focused almost solely on her very public spat with Tennant. Tennant, who played the 10th Doctor, told Badenoch to “shut up” in July due to her views on trans rights and she responded at the time that she “will not be silenced.” Big anti-trans names including JK Rowling also rushed to Badenoch’s defense, calling Goblet of Fire star Tennant part of the “gender Taliban” in a ranty X post.

In the new campaign vid, which can be watched in full below, Badenoch said: “When you have that type of cultural establishment trying to keep Conservatives down you need someone like me, who’s not afraid of Doctor Who, or whoever, and who’s going to take the fight to them and not let them keep us down. That’s not going to happen with me.” The vid begins with a clip of Tennant criticizing her….

(4) GAME WRITING. John David Beety kicks off a five-part series “Playtesting Game Narratives” with “Introduction to Game Writing and Playtesting” at the SFWA Blog.

In science fiction and fantasy (SFF) terms, game writing is exactly what it sounds like: writing for games. Calling oneself a game writer, however, is akin to declaring oneself a scientist. Divisions within game writing include game media, such as board games and video games; forms, such as planning dialogue trees and naming collectible cards; and publishers, from solo efforts to some of the world’s largest corporations.

This post introduces a series on playtesting, the process of improving games through hands-on feedback. Think of it as an editing pass for games, though with a twist. Unlike prose writing, which usually presents a single, stable experience for readers, games depend on player choices to create a range of experiences, from an early Game Over to a grand finale years in the making. Playtesting allows games to deliver great experiences for the greatest number of players. 

By playing through a game and observing other players, playtesters can identify problems to fix, such as consistent reports of a disliked quest or a moment when story and gameplay mechanics seem to clash. Playtesters can be game-makers or outside parties, and it’s not uncommon to see the game-writing equivalents of authors and beta readers side by side in a multiplayer game’s playtesting sessions.

Future posts will offer specific insights on playtesting from experts in board games, card games, tabletop role-playing games, and video games. Here are brief overviews of those four game types, and the writing opportunities they provide….

(5) WORLDWIDE SERIES AWARD SUBMISSIONS OPEN. The Sara Douglass Book Series Award is taking entries through September 30.

ABOUT THE AWARD

  • This year, the Sara covers series ending (in original publication anywhere in the world) between January 2021 and December 2023.
  • The current judging year is deliberately excluded. This permits an earlier submissions deadline to allow adequate time for the judges to consider all works entered.
  • The Sara Douglass Book Series Award is not an Aurealis Award as such, but a separate, special award conferred during the ceremony (like the Convenors’ Award for Excellence).

GENERAL ELIGIBILITY

  • For the purpose of the Sara Douglass Book Series Award, a “series” is defined as a continuing ongoing story told through two or more books, which must be considered as ending in one of the years covered by the judging period.
  • This award is to recognise that there are book series that are greater as a whole than the sum of their parts – that is, the judges are looking for a series that tells a story across the series, not one that just uses the same characters/setting across loosely connected books. It is anticipated that shortlisted works will be best enjoyed read in succession, with an arc that begins in the first book and is completed in the last.
  • The series may be in any speculative genre within the extended bounds of science fiction, fantasy or horror (that is, if a book would be considered on an individual basis for one of the novel, or possibly novella, categories in the Aurealis Awards, the series may be considered here).

(6) PETE KELLY Q&A. The Horror Writers Association blog did an “Interview with Pete Kelly, Poet-in-residence for the Dracula Society”.

Pete Kelly: The Society was founded in October 1973 by two London-based actors, Bernard Davies and Bruce Wightman. The Society’s field of interest embraces the entire Gothic literary genre, and incorporates, too, all stage and screen adaptations, and the sources of their inspiration in myth and folklore. Trips are organized to locations of interest in the UK and abroad. There are regular meets in London with guest speakers, discussions, film and video screenings. My responsibilities are to deliver a poem for each quarterly voices from the vaults magazine and to perform at each meet, the first performance was June 15th so had been rehearsing like mad as it’s been two years since I did anything live. The response was brilliant though even got a wow or two from the audience.

Can you tell us about yourself as both person and poet? 

Pete Kelly: Bonkers and passionate. Though not classically trained, I love when things get weird pushing my understanding of this thing called life. Being an underdog  myself I will always root for them be it writers, bands or in any walk of life. I feel the big hitters have their support in place so I give new talent what help I can give. Also I generally see fresher ideas coming through with them, bucking trends for more fertile imagination.  Writing poetry pretty much mirrors who I am, solitary at times venturing off into my own world. The conventional is more horrific than horror…

(7) SHE BRINGS THE HEAT. On Facebook, Tom Digby (not the California fan), shared a photo of Margaret Atwood wielding a flamethrower.

Margaret Atwood, the 84-year-old Canadian novelist and poet, is pictured here attempting to burn an ‘unburnable’ copy of her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” with a flamethrower.

A single unburnable copy was created to raise awareness about increasing censorship; her dystopian science fiction novel, which centers around one woman’s quest for freedom in a totalitarian theocracy where women’s rights are completely suppressed, has been the subject of numerous censorship challenges since its publication in 1985.

The unburnable copy was auctioned off after her flamethrowing attempt, raising $130,000 for PEN America, a literary and free expression advocacy organization.

As Atwood famously asserted in her poem “Spelling”: “A word after a word after a word is power.”…

(8) JAMES DARREN (1936-2024). Actor James Darren died September 2 at the age of 88. He gained fame as “Moondoggie” in three Gidget movies. Fans knew him best from his work in the 1966 TV series Time Tunnel, and cameos as the holographic lounge singer Vic Fontaine in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Ninein the 1990s. Full details at Deadline.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) SUNDAY OFFERING. Sunday Morning Transport, a 2024 World Fantasy Award finalist, posted its monthly free story “The Memorial Tree” by Alaya Dawn Johnson. As they say, “Bringing out great short fiction each Sunday depends on the support of our readers. Our first story each month is free. We hope that you will subscribe to receive all our stories, and support the work of our authors.”

(11) SUSPICIOUS DEALINGS WITH DALEKS. Crime doesn’t pay. (Not even fake crime?) “A Dallas Writer Was Investigated for Selling Secrets to the Daleks” – the Dallas Observer says it happened. “There’s really an FBI file out about Paul Riddell’s supposed double-dealings with Dr. Who’s Nemeses.”

Paul Riddell is one of Dallas’s best eccentrics. He is the former owner of the Texas Triffid Farm, a now closed gallery of carnivorous plants named after aliens from a John Wyndham novel. Previously, he published science fiction essays for the likes of Clarkesworld, but these days he writes strange stuff at the Annals of St. Remedius on Substack.

In 1987, though, Riddell worked for Texas Instruments, employee number 800069, at Trinity Mills (now Carrollton). This is back when TI was designing the AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile), which would seek and destroy enemy radar-based air defenses. The weapon was used to enforce no-fly zones during the first U.S.–Iraq War. For obvious reasons, this made the workings of the HARM very important to keep secret.

Riddell had a boss, a nice guy from a Mormon family who Riddell says, “had clearly heard of this ‘humor’ thing people did and was desperately trying to learn it.” His boss’s attempts led Riddell to joke back with him, though Riddell’s wide-ranging pop culture experience sometimes left the man perplexed….

… One day, the manager came up to Riddell and clapped him on the back. “Sell any secrets to the Russians this weekend?” he asked. Riddell replied, “No, but I sold a few to the Daleks.”…

… Riddell’s boss knew none of this and wasn’t great at humor, either. Working at a top-secret-security-clearance facility, he thought it best to report Riddell as a possible enemy agent. The matter kept climbing up the chain of command, with each person questioning Riddell….

(12) ANOTHER FBI FILE. And if you want to see the FBI’s 1974 report mentioning Harlan Ellison, click the link: “Harlan Ellison : Federal Bureau of Investigation” at the Internet Archive.

(13) NOT “CLOSE ENOUGH FOR GOVERNMENT WORK”. “AI worse than humans at summarising information, trial finds” – Crikey has details of the Australian study.

Artificial intelligence is worse than humans in every way at summarising documents and might actually create additional work for people, a government trial of the technology has found.

Amazon conducted the test earlier this year for Australia’s corporate regulator the Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) using submissions made to an inquiry. The outcome of the trial was revealed in an answer to a questions on notice at the Senate select committee on adopting artificial intelligence.

The test involved testing generative AI models before selecting one to ingest five submissions from a parliamentary inquiry into audit and consultancy firms. The most promising model, Meta’s open source model Llama2-70B, was prompted to summarise the submissions with a focus on ASIC mentions, recommendations, references to more regulation, and to include the page references and context.

Ten ASIC staff, of varying levels of seniority, were also given the same task with similar prompts. Then, a group of reviewers blindly assessed the summaries produced by both humans and AI for coherency, length, ASIC references, regulation references and for identifying recommendations. They were unaware that this exercise involved AI at all.

These reviewers overwhelmingly found that the human summaries beat out their AI competitors on every criteria and on every submission, scoring an 81% on an internal rubric compared with the machine’s 47%…. 

(14) SAY CHEESE. From Reuters: “Exclusive: U.S. researchers find probable launch site of Russia’s new nuclear-powered missile”.

Two U.S. researchers say they have identified the probable deployment site in Russia of the 9M730 Burevestnik, a new nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile touted by President Vladimir Putin as “invincible.”

Putin has said the weapon – dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO – has an almost unlimited range and can evade U.S. missile defenses. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik’s strategic value, saying it will not add capabilities that Moscow does not already have and risks a radiation-spewing mishap….

(15) JUSTWATCH TOP 10S. JustWatch has released the streaming movie and TV rankings for August 2024.

(16) SUBTERRANEA TRAILER. “Kenyan Sci-Fi Series ‘Subterranea’ Set at Showmax, Trailer Unveiled” – Variety introduces the trailer.

Award-winning Kenyan director Likarion Wainaina returns to Showmax with “Subterranea,” a new science fiction series. The streaming platform has unveiled a trailer for the eight-part show.

Wainaina, known for his award-winning superhero film “Supa Modo,” brings together a cast of Kenyan talent for this psychological experiment-turned-apocalyptic tale. The story follows eight participants trapped in an underground bunker after a global catastrophe….

[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, David Doering, Kathleen Pardola, Cath Jackel, Rich Lynch, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Camestros Felapton.]

Solving the Fan vs. Pro Artist Conundrum — Cut the Knot!

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By Kevin Black: I have been following the discussion of the Hugo Award artist categories here by Tammy Coxen and Colin Harris closely, as well as the Facebook discussion threads on JOF. I am not a fan artist, although my spouse is–I do, however, amend code professionally, as senior counsel for a chamber of a state legislative body in the U.S. I have become convinced that it is important to reject ratification of the “F.18–Cleaning up the Art Categories” amendment which the business meeting in Glasgow passed forward to Seattle, but that there is a significant problem which needs addressing, which is the retitling of the Best Professional Artist Hugo category to Best Artist in the Field of Professional Illustration. It is time to solve the Fan vs. Pro Artist conundrum by cutting the Gordian Knot. The amendment which I recommend is set forth in full below, followed by explanation.

End the False Binary

Moved, to amend the WSFS constitution as follows:

3.3.13: Best Professional Artist in the Field of Professional Illustration. An illustrator artist whose illustrative work has appeared in a professional publication in the field of science fiction or fantasy has appeared in a professional publication during the previous calendar year.

3.3.18: Best Fan Artist. An artist or cartoonist whose work related to science fiction, fantasy, or science fiction or fantasy fandom has appeared through publication in semiprozines or fanzines or through other public, non-professional, display (including at a convention or conventions, posting on the internet, in online or print-on-demand shops, or in another setting not requiring a fee to see the image in full-resolution) during the previous calendar year (including in semiprozine or fanzines, at a convention or conventions, posting on the internet, or in online or print-on-demand shops where the benefit from direct sales inure to the artist or the artist’s business instead of to a second party to whom the artist has sold or licensed their work).

3.10.2 In the Best Professional Artist in the Field of Professional Illustration category, the acceptance should include citations of at least three (3) works first published in the eligible year.

Explanation: Recent fan scholarship reveals remarkable stability in the Hugo Award categories of Best Professional Artist (awarded since 1955, first published description in 1968) and Best Fan Artist (awarded since 1967, first published description in 1972), until recent turbulence and Glasgow’s approval of “F.18–Cleaning up the Art Categories” for ratification in Seattle has threatened to overthrow the community’s understanding of what these categories are, and what work and artists should be recognized in each category. This amendment takes a measured approach by respecting the code we have and the community’s long-held understanding of the scope of the categories, while finding opportunities to more carefully and respectfully describe the differences between the artist categories.

The wellspring of angst, I argue, is the title of the Best Professional Artist category, which commits a multitude of sins:

  • It creates a false dichotomy between professional artists and fan artists, implying we should be able to defensibly sort artists into one category or another. But “professional” and “fan” are not opposites (or we would not allow artists to qualify in the same year in both categories). It should be obvious and understood that artists making fan art may operate and conduct themselves as professionals, and may produce work which is of professional quality.
  • It’s misleading.The Best Professional Artist category has been limited by its description to illustrators since 1975, but art is not limited to illustration, and professional artists exist who are not professional illustrators.
  • It’s insulting. By labeling only one form of art as “professional,” it implies that professional illustration is the only form of art the community values, and has the feeling of casting shade. Because one opposite of professional is unprofessional.

So, we should rename the category to reflect what it is actually for, Best Artist in the Field of Professional Illustration. I differ from some other commenters by believing that it makes evident and eminent sense to continue this community’s 70-year tradition of honoring professional illustration, based on its singular importance to our genre. Nor would it be fair or sporting to expect the artists producing fan art, which we equally revere with its own Hugo Award, to compete against beloved professional illustrators whose work receives mass market distribution and is attached to products and IP that we love. The amendment makes a small change to the category description by repositioning “has appeared in a professional publication” to make it clearer that genre illustrations may be counted for award consideration if they appear in a range of professional publications, including not just novels and magazines but other things like game cards and postage stamps.

No change is made to the Best Fan Artist category title, which respects our community’s tradition of recognizing and esteem for fan work. The changes made to the description in this category are almost entirely nonsubstantive and for the purpose of cleaning up convoluted language. The few substantive additions specify that the work must relate to “science fiction, fantasy, or science fiction or fantasy fandom,” and that if the work is for sale in an online or print-on-demand shop, the benefit from direct sales must inure to the artist or the artist’s business instead of to a second party to whom the artist has sold or licensed their work.

The Best Fan Artist amendments leave the scope of the category essentially unchanged since the last amendments to it were ratified in 2021, and arguably since “or other public display” was added to the description in 1974. Fan art itself has changed in the past 50 years, which has had an impact on what kind of artists get recognition in the category, but the category itself really hasn’t. The only period in which the category was limited to fanzine art was 1972-1974. Professional illustrators were recognized as fan artists all the way back in the 1970s and 80s. Fan art, understood as the kind of genre art appealing to fans which is commonly (but not exclusively) found at SFF conventions, is more prominent and important than ever–as reflected by the ability of some artists to reportedly make money producing it! Meanwhile art donated to fanzines and conventions continues to exist alongside these creations, and continues to receive Hugo Award recognition. This is no time to try to roll back the clock or put the genie back in the bottle. It will be easy to think of technically eligible artwork which does not feel like fan art to you–in which case, don’t nominate it! Don’t vote for it if it becomes a finalist! Ultimately it is the community, and not the business meeting or Hugo Administrator, which should continue to decide what merits the title of Best Fan Art.

These amendments maintain the Hugo Award artist category framework, which has worked for this community 98% of the time, while making a few small changes and one big change in retitling the Best Professional Artist category. They should end the reductive fan vs. pro artist debates. Free your mind from the pro vs. fan artist binary!

2024 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Finalists

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The New Mexico Book Co-Op has announced the finalists for the 2024 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Genre finalists are shown below. The complete list is here.

FICTION – SCI FI/FANTASY

  • E J Randolph — Oceana
  • Catherine Wells — Crystal Desert
  • Avery Christy — Guardians of the High Pass
  • Kris Neri — Magical Mushrooms (Well Read Coyote Books)