(1) GGBOOKS. The Governor General’s Literary Awards presented by the Canada Council for the Arts celebrate literature and inspire the general public to read books by creators from Canada. The five finalists in the fiction category include one work of genre interest, Pure Colour by Sheila Heti. Category winners, who will be named November 16, receive C$25,000 (about US$18,850). The publisher of each winning book receives C$3,000 (about US$2,260) to support promotional activities, and finalists each receive C$1,000 (about US$755).
(2) NOT SUGAR AND PUMPKIN SPICE. Lisa Morton shares her extensive experience writing Halloween-themed fiction with the Horror Writers Association blog: “Halloween Haunts: A Taste of Halloween Beyond – The Talking-board by Lisa Morton”.
I’ve written a lot of Halloween fiction, and I do mean A LOT. As in, I’ve already had one entire collection of just Halloween short stories and novellas – The Samhanach and Other Halloween Treats – published (by JournalStone) in 2017, and I’ve written a bunch of new Halloween fiction since. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that I’m both a horror fiction writer and an expert on Halloween history (with three non-fiction books on that subject to my credit).
When I’m asked to contribute a new Halloween story to something, I always stop first to think about some aspect of the beloved holiday I maybe haven’t done….
(3) SFF BY POC AT MELBOURNE WRITERS FESTIVAL. “Books: A new wave of sci-fi that has plenty to say about today’s world” at the Sydney Morning Herald.
When Maya Hodge read Parable of the Sower, a 1993 novel by Octavia E. Butler, it opened up her mind. This was the first science fiction book the writer had come across written by a black woman. It was about an African American teenager living in a dystopian America, and it made her realise what these books could mean to black and brown folks: “We live in these dystopias. These books are our escape.”
Hodge, a Lardil and Yangkaal woman, told the recent Melbourne Writers Festival that she went on to discover the novels of writers such as the African American N. K. Jemisin, hailed by The New York Times as “the most celebrated science fiction and fantasy writer of her generation”. Or more locally, Mykaela Saunders, a Koori and Lebanese writer who has edited This All Come Back Now, the world’s first collection of blackfella speculative fiction (or spec fic, as it’s often known).
What is going on here? It’s a new worldwide wave of science fiction and fantasy from writers of colour, First Nations writers, and writers with diverse and migrant backgrounds. They see that creating works in these popular, entertaining and sometimes mind-blowing genres is a way to make serious and subversive points about the real dystopian worlds of marginalised communities, worlds they know only too well….
(4) HEADED FOR NEW ORLEANS. Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki told Facebook readers that his Gofundme to attend the World Fantasy Convention funded successfully. The World Fantasy Convention 2022 committee also donated him a free, full membership.
(5) SMOFCON SCHOLARSHIPS AWARDED. Cansmof Inc. announced it has given two people scholarships for the purpose of attending Smofcon 38 in Montréal, Canada.
The first scholarship was awarded to Alex Stornel of Kenora, Ontario.
The second was awarded to Meg Macdonald of Glasgow, Scotland.
Cansmof Inc. created these scholarships to allow promising convention-runners to attend the annual Smofcon convention-runners’ convention. The scholarships include a complimentary membership to SMOFCon 38. Smofcon 38 will be held in Montréal. Canada, December 2-4, 2022.
(6) I’M TALKING TO YOU. Katherine Garcia Ley tells SFWA Blog readers how to get answers from their characters: “ROMANCING SFF: ‘So, How’s Your Love Life?’ and Other Questions to Ask Your Characters”.
We’ve all seen them: the thirty pages of interview questions you should ask your characters. The analytical texts on astrological signs. The “ultimate of ultimate” tools offering twenty-some Enneagrams for character development. All these resources are fantastic. Heck, I use them, and they’re amazing. I’m a list-loving personality theory hoarder.
These are great tools to use to build characters, but as romance writers (and anyone with a bit of love in their stories), are we asking specific questions about our character in relation to love?
Whether it’s for romance novels or romantic subplots, it’s incredibly important to examine a character’s love life, their perspective on love, and biases on love, because it strengthens arcs, dialogues, and the tone of the story. Honing in on their love life offers insight ranging from a character’s body language to their voice….
(7) VALUES BEING LIVED. Poets & Writers interviewer Renée H. Shea finds out “How It Felt: A Profile of Namwali Serpell”.
… Activism is part of who Serpell is, her life a bold exercise in human rights in the most literal sense. When she received the Caine Prize in 2015, she announced that she would split the monetary part of the award with the other shortlisted nominees. She was surprised by the impact and intensity of responses. On September 23, 2020—the same day she learned that the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor would not be charged with murder—she learned that she won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award for The Old Drift. She donated the entire monetary prize to the Louisville Community Bail Fund for those detained during protests. She eschews being praised for “generosity”; instead, these actions are motivated by her political and philosophical beliefs about the nature of art. “The logic of competition, of reward, is deeply capitalistic,” she says, part of “the insistent corporatization of publishing.” She looks to what she calls “people recognition”—other writers, talented editors, and her readers—instead of monetized success….
(8) SERPELL Q&A. Then Shondaland interviewed Serpell about her book The Furrows. “Namwali Serpell Distills the Disorienting Experience of Grief in ‘The Furrows’”.
SN: Death is portrayed in the book as a dynamic and ongoing experience, especially for the people who are left behind. But Wayne has his own life in the book in unexpected ways. How did you approach rendering Wayne’s death and life, and the ghosts who live in the bodies of the people you might not even expect?
NS: The second half of the novel really starts to play with this notion of haunting and doubling and doppelgangers in a more explicitly genre sense, and there I was really riffing on Edgar Allan Poe’s story “William Wilson.” The family in the doppelganger story of Jordan Peele’s Us is also named the Wilsons, so he’s obviously thinking about this as well, the way that there’s some kind of uncanny relationship between the notion of the double or the doppelganger, the notion of haunting, or being haunted by a version of yourself, that seems particular to Black experience. And one of the ways that I think about this is that the double consciousness that W.E.B. Du Bois speaks about manifests as a doppelganger in my novel as well.
(9) PARTY ANIMAL. You’ll find “Ray Bradbury’s Guide to Throwing the Best Halloween Party” at the American Writers Museum.
Ray Bradbury was a true lover of Halloween. As his favorite holiday, he always made sure to dress in costume and have an amazing Halloween bash. If you’re looking to host your own Halloween party—in-person or even online—we’ve got you covered with advice from the legend himself. To learn more about Bradbury and his love of all things spooky, check out our exhibit, Ray Bradbury: Inextinguishable online and at the museum….
Pro Tip 3: Don’t forget the pumpkins!
“The pumpkins began to come alive. One by one, starting at the bottom of the Tree and the nearest pumpkins, candles took fire within the raw interiors. This one and then that and this and then still another, and on up and around, three pumpkins there, seven pumpkins still higher, a dozen clustered beyond, a hundred, five hundred, a thousand pumpkins lit their candles, which is to say brightened up their faces, showed fire in their square or round or curiously slanted eyes. Flame guttered in their toothed mouths. Sparks leaped out their ripe-cut ears.”
—Ray Bradbury, The Halloween TreeWe can’t guarantee that your jack-o-lanterns will come to life, but they will certainly add to the ambience of the evening. We also cannot necessarily endorse lighting 1,000 candles for pumpkins, so please keep fire safety in mind just in case your pumpkins do come to life.
(10) MEMORY LANE.
1964 — [By Cat Eldridge.] Outer Limits’ “Demon With A Glass Hand” (1964)
Through all the legends of ancient peoples — Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Semitic — runs the saga of the Eternal Man, the one who never dies, called by various names in various times, but historically known as Gilgamesh, the man who has never tasted death … the hero who strides through the centuries … — Opening narration
Fifty-eight years ago on this evening, Outer Limits’ “Demon With A Glass Hand” first aired on ABC. As you all know, it was written by Harlan Ellison and it was directed by Bryon Haskin who is best remembered for directing The War of the Worlds which won a Retro Hugo Award.
Really I don’t need SPOILER warnings here, do I? Surely you’ve seen it by now. I have and I think it’s one of the best genre stories ever done.
Robert Culp played our central character, our so-called demon with a glass hand, I think it might well be his best performance of his long career. That Trent believes he is human is beautifully scripted by Ellison and acted out just perfectly by Culp right out to point when his hand is finally whole again. And then…
The production was perfect, the other performers, particularly Arlene Martel as Consuelo Biros, the woman in love with him until she discovers that he’s quite inhuman, is stellar in her role. And that hand? Years ahead of its time indeed!
It was Ellison third genre script, his first being Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea‘s “The Price of Doom” the same year flowed by “Soldier” for here. He’d done some amount of mainstream writing — Burke’s Law, Ripcord and Route 66, but that was it for our end of things. Later on, his genre output did pick up.
A final note. It has long been held by fans and less than reputable media that “Demon with a Glass Hand” was why Ellison received a settlement after it was supposedly plagiarized for The Terminator. Ellison clarified in a 2001 exchange with a fan at his Web site: “Terminator was not stolen from ‘Demon with a Glass Hand,’ it was a ripoff of my OTHER Outer Limits script, ‘Soldier.’”
Pluto and Youtube are streaming it.
(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
- Born October 17, 1913 — Robert Lowery. Batman in 1949’s Batman and Robin. You can see the first episode here. And he popped up in an episode of the Adventures of Superman. (Died 1971.)
- Born October 17, 1914 — Jerry Siegel. His most famous creation was Superman, which he created in collaboration with his friend Joe Shuster. He was inducted (along with the previously deceased Shuster) into the comic book industry’s Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993. (Died 1996.)
- Born October 17, 1921 — Tom Poston. One of his acting first roles was The Alkarian (uncredited at the time ) in “The Mystery of Alkar” episode of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet in 1950. He much later had the recurring role of Mr. Bickley in Mork & Mindy. (Died 2007.)
- Born October 17, 1926 — Julie Adams. Her most famous role no doubt is being in the arms of The Creature from Black Lagoon. She also been on Alfred Hitchcock Presents three times, and once each on The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. The Night Gallery, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Incredible Hulk and Lost. (Died 2019.)
- Born October 17, 1934 — Alan Garner, 88. His best book? That’d be Boneland which technically is the sequel to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath but really isn’t. Oh, and The Owl Service is amazing!
- Born October 17, 1950 — Michael Tolkin, 72. Of genre interest, he directed Deep Impact, he had uncredited writing in the first Punisher film and the same for Dawn of the Dead. Likewise The Haunting. Is that a form of ghostwriting? EoSF notes, “He also wrote and directed the adaptation of Robert A Heinlein’s ‘Jerry Was a Man’ (October 1947 Thrilling Wonder) for the Television Anthology Series Masters of Science Fiction (2007).”
- Born October 17, 1945 — Thomas Kopache, 77. One of those actors who appeared in a lot of Trek — Next Generation twice in different roles followed by the Generations film then Voyager once followed by Deep Space Nine where he appeared twice in a recurring role, and finally twice on Enterprise in different roles.
- Born October 17, 1966 — Mark Gatiss, 56. English actor, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. Writer for Doctor Who; with Steven Moffat, whom Gatiss worked with on Doctor Who and Jekyll, he also co-created and co-produced Sherlock. As an actor, I’ll note he does Vogon voices in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and is Mycroft Holmes in Sherlock.
(12) COMICS SECTION.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal ‘s “Exoplanet” is worried about what alien astronomers are seeing here.
(13) WHAT SMELLS IN MIDDLE-EARTH? [Item by Olav Rokne.] Welp. They did not like that show. And after the finale, I’m inclined to agree. “Now it’s over, let’s come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker”.
…The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power isn’t very good. It quite often isn’t anywhere near good. There are moments in almost every episode where I have found myself sniggering into my sleeve at how inept it is. And all these misgivings were massively underlined by the finale….
(14) IT’S IMPOSSIBLE. No, it’s not Perry Como. IGN unveiled the Something in the Dirt Official Trailer.
Levi has snagged a no-lease apartment sight unseen in the Hollywood Hills to crash at while he ties up loose ends for his exodus from Los Angeles. He quickly strikes up a rapport with his new neighbor John, swapping stories like old friends under the glowing, smoke-filled skies of the city. Soon after meeting, Levi and John witness something impossible in one of their apartments. Terrified at first, they soon realize this could change their lives and give them a purpose. With dollar signs in their eyes, these two eccentric strangers will attempt to prove the supernatural.
(15) AESTHETICS IN SFF. Heath Row looks back 50 years ago: “Book Review: ‘The Light That Never Was’ by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.” at the LASFS.org blog.
Lloyd Biggle, Jr., was a musicologist with a PhD in musicology, a musician, an educator, and an oral historian, so it might not come as a surprise that the arts—and aesthetics—play a major role in this delightful 1972 science fiction novel and in much of his sf writing. Biggle also served in various roles for the Science Fiction Writers of America, founded the Science Fiction Oral History Association, and turned to writing full time in the 1960s. Kelly Freas’s cover painting for this paperback edition captures the themes of the novel well: alien humanoids considering a human sculpture….
(16) LET THOSE WHO HAVE EARS. [Item by Tom Becker.] One time when Joni Mitchell was singing her famous song “Both Sides Now”, she flashed on how it related to Star Trek. “Both Sides Now”.
“Did you ever used to watch that show called Star Trek? (cheers from crowd) Oh… I just had a flash of this show, that I saw while I was singing this tune. It was the only show where Dr. Spock ever got any emotion, right? You remember that one? It was really great because… well, for those of you who never saw it, anyway, the premise is this…”
And Mitchell continues for about 400 words…
(17) ARECIBO WILL NOT BE REBUILT. “Fallen Arecibo Observatory telescope won’t be rebuilt” reports Space.com.
The Arecibo Observatory‘s massive radio dish was an unusual facility because it was a key player in three different fields of science: atmospheric studies, radio astronomy and planetary radar. Opened in 1963, the telescope’s observing equipment hung from a web-like platform strung over a massive dish 1,000 feet (305 meters) wide. But in December 2020, the cables supporting that platform gave out and the equipment crashed down through the delicate dish, destroying the telescope.
Now, the National Science Foundation (NSF), which owns the site, has determined that despite scientists’ pleas, Arecibo Observatory won’t be getting any new telescope to replace the loss. The new education project also doesn’t include any long-term funding for the instruments that remain operational at the observatory, including a 40-foot (12 m) radio dish and a lidar system….
… Instead, the NSF intends to build on the observatory’s legacy as a key educational institution in Puerto Rico by transforming the site into a hub for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, due to open in 2023, according to a statement(opens in new tab). The observatory is also home to the Ángel Ramos Foundation Science and Visitor Center, which opened in 1997….
[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Bill, Kevin Standlee, Lise Andreasen, Olav Rokne, Tom Becker, Mike Kennedy, Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Dan’l Danehy-Oakes.]
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
(16) Cool – which episode did she mean (Amok Time, Naked Time, Paradise Syndrome?).
Mark Gatiss has also narrated histories of horror film and directed gjost stories, most notably M.R. James, for the BBC.
Andrew (not Werdna) says Cool – which episode did she mean (Amok Time, Naked Time, Paradise Syndrome?).
The only one that fits is The Naked Time. Great acting by Nimoy there.
I think Demon with the Glass Hand was the single best episode of genre TV ever made. I have the graphic novel based on Ellison’s original script, and it’s amazing. There was a story going round that Robert Culp wanted to adapt it into a feature film and he wanted to produce it, but of course it never happened. I’d love to see someone take another crack at the story sometime.
He did set more stories in that Universe. According to the “Demon with a Glass Hand” wiki article
In addition to “Demon With A Glass Hand”, Ellison wrote other stories set against the backdrop of the “Earth-Kyba War.” He adapted five of these — “Run For the Stars”, “Life Hutch”, “The Untouchable Adolescents”, “Trojan Hearse”, and “Sleeping Dogs” — into the graphic novel Night and the Enemy (1987), illustrated by Ken Steacy; “Life Hutch” would later be subsequently adapted (by Philip Gelatt) into an episode of the Netflix adult animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots. Also, Ellison’s short story “The Human Operators” — which he co-wrote with A. E. van Vogt and later adapted into an episode of the new Outer Limits — is set in the same universe as this story.
The episode is This Side of Paradise, where Spock goes done to a planet and finds a colony that should be dead is instead alive and disturbingly healthy. Then he gets attacked by spores from a plant and falls in love with botanist Leila Kalomi.
Lis Carey says The episode is This Side of Paradise, where Spock goes done to a planet and finds a colony that should be dead is instead alive and disturbingly healthy. Then he gets attacked by spores from a plant and falls in love with botanist Leila Kalomi.
Thanks, I was thinking it The Naked Timewhere he got all mushy. One sec.. actually he does there too when he gets infected.
(13) Well, I don’t think The Rings of Power was quite that bad. Elrond and Durin were the two best parts of the show.
But House of the Dragon is better.
@Cat Eldridge–Yes, he does, but Joni Mitchell includes enough detail that it’s clear she’s talking about This Side of Paradise, not The Naked Time.
I’ve looked at scrolls from both sides now,
From F and SF and still, somehow,
It’s scroll’s pixels I recall–
I really don’t know scrolls at all.
16) I’m just happy that in 1974 Joni’s enough of a fan that she gets all of the major plot points right, even if she gets some names wrong.
One of Us!
One of Us!…
10)
A gentle and polite request that you stop doing this. You do not need to be so mocking about spoiler alerts. Either acknowledge them or don’t, it’s your choice. It’s like adding pronouns to your emails, you can either do it or not.
I prefer you simply say “spoiler alert” each and every time and move on. Two words, very simple. Lots of other reviewers do this without the need to joke about it, which feels to me like you are devaluing those of us who politely have asked in the past. A spoiler alert lets the reader decide if they care enough to want to watch it first, or if they’d rather just read your synopsis (spoiler alert: most are just going to read what you wrote).
That’s all. It takes far less words and shows you value the readers and put them first.
13) I thought the show was decent enough. Not great, but a heck of a spectacle at times and worthy of some popcorn. And I thought the finale was actually one of the best episodes of the season. I look forward to season 2. I mean, hell, it’s better than slogging through another brutal rape scene on that Other Fantasy Series Going on at the Same Time on Yet Another Streaming Service Which I Don’t Have.
Lloyd Biggle Jr. is a fave, especially his novel Monument.
That story could be fairly easily adapted to film and has a built-in pro-ecology/anti-consumerism message…no need for retconning.
(Although it is a bit white savory, though in this case very pale, freckly white)
3) Some great SF coming out of Australia at the moment. Clare G Coleman has written 3 very interesting and varied novels (Terra Nullius, The Old Lie Enclave) and , whilst Elizabeth Tan’s short story collection(Smart Ovens for Lonely People) and her first novel Rubik are brilliant. Not to mention Sheley Parker-Chan’s work.
We don’t need no Pixelation
We Just want some Scroll Control
Curently reading ‘The Once and Furure Witches’ (great). Finished Gareth Powell’s new Space Opera ‘Stars and Bones’, which was OK but suffered from overpowering the deadly threat to humanity, then having to dial it back to escape the plot hole.
Better was David Mitchell’s ‘Utopia Avenue’, which must be genre because it is about an imaginary psychedelic band formed in London of 1967 which made but 2 wonderful albums.
Do not try and pixel the scroll, that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth… there is no scroll.
It’s a beautiful day in the pixel scroll, a beautiful day for some pixels…would you read files?
To continue the kinda-sorta theme of the latest titles:
I Can Scroll Clearly Now, the Files Are Gone
Jeff Reynolds: For the record, when I summarize clips from Honest Trailers and the Screen Junkies I put in a spoiler alert if they do and don’t if they don’t.
@Lis: Thanks. This Side of Paradise not “Paradise Syndrome”
I was apparently tired enough last night that when I opened the link at (16) and saw the lyrics to “Both Sides Now” I assumed that the link had nothing but the lyrics. If I had read further I would have found her Star Trek introduction, right there.
Cat’s no-spoiler-needed comment is playful irony. She provided a SPOILER warning while claiming one wasn’t needed. I think you’re raining on her parade.
Jeff Reynolds says I prefer you simply say “spoiler alert” each and every time and move on.
Good for you. Since I’m doing these, I will now continue to them exactly as I like to do them. Wait ‘til I do one that emulates Molly Bloom’s soliloquy. Complete with appropriate noise effects.
Out of curiosity, would you tell Mike how to do a Scroll title and how long that should be?
RE: Spoiler alert
Jeff: I agree with you but apparently we are in the minority, and the majority find it humorous and/or charming enough to enjoy. It appears it will continue and we’ll just have to skip over it or keep our requests to ourselves, no matter how gentle or polite. To each their own, everyone has different tastes, etc. etc. And to be clear, this is not sarcasm. It’s often difficult to read tone in written comments, so Cat’s reaction seemed more hostile than necessary, a bit of an overreaction, but maybe I’m misinterpreting things. It wouldn’t be the first time.
I personally expect that a 60 year old episode of the Outer Limits can stand to have a piece about it that contains spoilers and doesn’t need the words “spoiler alert”. The episode is part of the genre conversation and has been for a long time.
Were it last week’s Rings of Power finale, I’d feel differently.
If there’s anything wrong with Cat’s spoiler warning, it’s the assumption that of course you’ve seen it, and how it is exclusive of those who haven’t. But in general, I agree with Paul Weimer — a sixty year old story doesn’t need spoiler warnings.
@Paul Weimer
I was young enough at the time that I didn’t see it, so for me the spoiler was necessary to understand the references.
She included a spoiler warning. Making an issue out of how she worded it is neither gentle nor polite. It’s unfriendly.
Contributing blog content here is not as fun as it should be. Commenters are quick to nitpick but dole out compliments like they were a finite resource that was running out.
I enjoyed the look back at that famous Harlan Ellison script. I miss the era when writing an episode of a TV show could be a big honking deal.
Writer Tom Maddox has passed away at the age of 77.
https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/1582461584739545088?t=3_RtLmxcmdTKR1feSXwuKg&s=03
(11) Tom Poston also starred in two very sub-par William Castle films, Zotz! and The Old Dark House, which bears no resemblance to the Boris Karloff 1932 film of the same title. (Sufficiently sub-par that if not for IMDB I never would have remembered either title.)
@John Lorentz: sad but sadly not unexpected.
PhilRM: Ohmigosh — how could I forget Zotz!
Copies of the Zotz! hardback were a traditional gag gift in the LASFS Winter Holiday Gift Exchange for a number of years. Until it was outlawed!
@Mike
I have a copy, in one of my boxes-o-books. It had been my father’s…inherited, like his subscription to Analog (which went back to some time before 1960).
See, that’s how I felt about the way spoiler alerts have been presented. Unfriendly. Mocking, as Jeff said. Condescending. I thought so long before Jeff made his request. But that’s my opinion. Just as you have yours. I don’t have anything against Cat. I only commented when I felt her reaction to Jeff’s request was a bit much. Maybe I should have stayed out of it. I’m fairly new to this blog, but science fiction has been my favorite reading and viewing material for decades. Mike puts in a lot of work here, and I’ve tried to be helpful behind the scenes. Maybe it’s best I limit myself to that. Peace to you.
I’d just like to point out for those who aren’t aware that Cat is a man, and that gendering him properly would be a kindness.
With regard to spoiler alerts in the Scroll:
You know what, there’s stuff that has long been common knowledge to other fen — about which I didn’t have a clue — in recent years. And I’ve appreciated being given the opportunity to explore those things without being spoiled, even though many years have elapsed since they were first published / broadcast / shown in theatres.
I remember my reaction when I first went out and found “Time Enough at Last” on YouTube. I cried. That episode hit home for me in so many different ways.
I’d prefer to have spoiler alerts on any surprise twists or endings no matter how long ago they occurred, because of course if I know what they are, I can skip past them, and it’s absolutely no skin off my nose to do so — but I think that those who don’t know what they are, should be given the opportunity for discovery without being spoiled.
I think it’s petty to take snide shots at people who haven’t seen something. Hell, I didn’t know what Moomins are until 2017.
And I’m a big believer in people being One Of Today’s Lucky 10,000.
I took my cue from the fact that @rcade referred to Cat as SHE, and Cat didn’t correct them when posting after that. I apologize for any misgendering.
Thank you for the correction. I apologize for misgendering you in this discussion, Cat. I hope I haven’t been doing that in previous comments as well.
I’m sorry our disagreement makes you feel that way, but as others will be able to say more persuasively than me at this moment, welcome to the community. It’s nice to have new fans show up.
I have been here since the Sad Puppies Debarkle and it’s the most interesting place to talk about science fiction and all matters fandom.
I’ve got a hardcover of Zotz! – it was on display on a bookcase at a going-out-of-business furniture store, and they gave it to me when I asked (I had seen the movie when I was a kid and wanted the book – not that I’ve found the time to read it yet).
Cat’s spoiler warnings tend to make it clear that I’m not a Real Fan, because I haven’t seen that N-year old TV show or movie and I have no interest in changing that. I read them anyway because the summaries are informative and I don’t expect him to change.
Nancy Sauer says Cat’s spoiler warnings tend to make it clear that I’m not a Real Fan, because I haven’t seen that N-year old TV show or movie and I have no interest in changing that. I read them anyway because the summaries are informative and I don’t expect him to change.
My personal feeling is that everyone is a true fan. And I really do mean everyone.
(Don’t assume I’ve everything I write up, the internet is a wonderful place to find write-up on such series. Though a lot of these are now popping up the streaming services these days.)
The SPOILERS, no matter how silly I might make them, pumpkin spice lattes anyone?, are my recognition that despite that fact some of the older Filers may have read and seen everything, most of us haven’t.
I spent more time in my early years reading mysteries than I did SF. Nero Wolfe! Agatha Christie! Ngaio Marsh! Robert Parker! Ymmmm! So I’m making sure you can skip my notes if you’ve not encounter that work yet.
So that’s why the SPOILERS exist. I can’t do SPOILERS in the essays as they’re really too detailed for them. But we can comfortably live with them here. But I’ll be dammed if I’m going to simply say SPOILERS HERE.
Cat Eldridge on October 19, 2022 at 6:32 pm said:
And I’ve been around here long enough to know that you feel that way. But even so, I have to admit that I also occasionally find the whole “everyone has seen X” thing a little off-putting. I know it’s just enthusiasm, but it still sometimes leaves me muttering snarkily under my breath.
Now I’m an arrogant SOB who thinks far too highly of himself to be really bothered by such things even if I did think they were intentional. Which, I reiterate, I don’t. But it does leave me determined to be careful about how I phrase such things myself.
Xtifr says And I’ve been around here long enough to know that you feel that way. But even so, I have to admit that I also occasionally find the whole “everyone has seen X” thing a little off-putting. I know it’s just enthusiasm, but it still sometimes leaves me muttering snarkily under my breath.
I’ve never said that. Indeed my assumption is that a lot of us haven’t. Hence the SPOILERS.
Now I’m an arrogant SOB who thinks far too highly of himself to be really bothered by such things even if I did think they were intentional. Which, I reiterate, I don’t. But it does leave me determined to be careful about how I phrase such things myself.
I’m a writer, I play with language, and that includes these SPOILERS. I refused to be boring. Or bored or annoyed by writing these. The day that happens I will walk away.
@Cat Eldridge
I think you do it more than you realize:
“Really I don’t need SPOILER warnings here, do I? Surely you’ve seen it by now.” (from this Scroll) or “Just in case there’s a soul here who’s not seen it yet though I find that extremely unlikely,” (from 9/24) and “Surely everyone here knows the story of a strange, intoxicating infection, which lowers the crew’s inhibitions, spreads throughout the Enterprise. As the madness spreads, the entire ship is endangered. Really you have not watched it? ” (from 9/30) and “Look I need no SPOILER ALERTS here as y’all know the characters, the setting and the story. I bet everyone here has seen some or all of it. ” (from 9/27)