Pixel Scroll 10/5/21 Once Again My Friends

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What should be in today’s Scroll? Thanks for keeping this going. I expect to be home tonight.

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38 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 10/5/21 Once Again My Friends”

  1. Here’s the Birthday list for this Scroll.

    Paul “Princejvstin” Weimer, born 1971, aged fifty years (Name rhymes with “dreamer”) 2 Time Best Fan Writer Finalist, roleplayer, podcaster, photographer, member of the File 770 community The Skiffy and Fanty Show since 2013. SFF Audio since 2014 Hundreds of reviews and articles for SF Signal 2011-2015. Tor Website reviews. Reviews and Interviews at Nerds of a Feather. 2017 DUFF (Down Under Fan Fund) delegate; trip report What I Did on My Summer Vacation.

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    Rich Horton, born 1959, aged sixty two years

    Editor of three anthology series — Fantasy: Best of The Year and Science Fiction: Best of The Year both now longer being published, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy which is ongoing since 2009. He has been a reviewer for Locus for over a decade.

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    Jeff Conaway, 1950-2011

    Babylon 5 has seen a lot of actors die young and he was one of them. He played Zack Allan, a security officer promoted to Chief of Security upon the resignation of Michael Garibaldi. Other genre roles including being in Pete’s Dragon as Willie Gogan, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark as Travis, Alien Intruder as Borman and the Wizards and Warriors series asPrince Erik Greystone.

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    Clive Barker, born 1952, aged sixty nine years

    Horror writer, series include the Hellraiser and the Book of Art which is not to overlook The Abarat Quintet which is quite superb. Though not recent, The Essential Clive Barker: Selected Fiction published some twenty years contains more than seventy excerpts from novels and plays and four full-length short stories. His Imaginer series collects his decidedly strange and often disturbing art. There has been a multitude of comic books, both by him and by others based on his his ideas. My personal fav work by him is the Weaveworld novel.

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    Peter Ackroyd, born 1949, aged seventy two yearsHis best known genre work is likely Hawksmoor which tells the tale of a London architect building a church and a contemporary detective investigating horrific murderers involving that church. Highly recommended. The House of Doctor Dee is genre fiction as is The Limehouse Golem and The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein. I thought Hawksmoor had been turned into a film but it has not but he has a credit for The Limehouse Golem which is his sole film work to date.

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    Karen Allen, born 1952, aged sixty seven years

    She’s best known for being Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark, a role she reprised for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. She also co-starred in Starman and Scrooged. She shows on Alfred Hitchcock Presents As Jackie in “The Creeper” episode.

  5. That Hugo Book Club piece bothers me as it uses language that is far yoo vague when discussing importance issues such as when talking about host country travel restrictions (“ Difficulty of getting tourist visa for some fans from the West”.) I have Muslim friends who go back and forth to Canada all the time without ever getting hassled in any way, so I’d like know how they came up with the idea that there was a problem here. Who has had a problem and why?

  8. Cat Eldridge on October 5, 2021 at 3:11 pm said:
    That Hugo Book Club piece bothers me as it uses language that is far yoo vague when discussing importance issues such as when talking about host country travel restrictions (“ Difficulty of getting tourist visa for some fans from the West”.) I have Muslim friends who go back and forth to Canada all the time without ever getting hassled in any way, so I’d like know how they came up with the idea that there was a problem here. Who has had a problem and why?

    Well, after Yudhanjaya Wijeratne tweeted about the barriers he’d faced in visiting Canada, I looked into it.

    In some instances (such as in South Africa) people wanting to apply for a Canadian visa can only do so in-person at the consular offices (can’t be done by mail, even if the applicant lives in Durban seven hours drive from the nearest consulate) and should expect at least a 30-day wait for approval.

    Now, these kinds of barriers only exist for travelers in certain countries. But it’s a factor for some people making the decision on which bid to vote for, so it would be remiss of us to neglect to mention it. ¯_(?)_/¯

  9. Olaf Rokne says Now, these kinds of barriers only exist for travelers in certain countries. But it’s a factor for some people making the decision on which bid to vote for, so it would be remiss of us to neglect to mention it.

    Ok, I’ll buy that. However that’s not really what you said. You were suggesting that Canada discriminated against people from certain countries on the basis of whatever (race, religion, you pick it) and what is really going on is a matter of the usual governmental red tape.

    Please note that you cannot get a passport to leave the USA by mail either. And that means that there places in this country that could be many hours away from the nearest place where you get one. Most countries like to check in person whose getting such documents.

  10. Miyazaki moment: depending on where you live, there may be a 20th anniversary showing of Spirited Away near you on Wednesday. Check local listings or the Fathom Events site.

  11. You were suggesting that Canada discriminated against people from certain countries on the basis of whatever

    Canada has policies that make it easier for people from some countries to visit Canada than for people from other countries to visit Canada.

    That’s not a suggestion, just a statement of fact.

    It is red tape. It’s red tape that affects some people more than others.

    I’m not suggesting the motivations behind these differing standards for travelers from different countries. But it is a fact that travelers from some countries (mostly in the global South) have a more difficult time getting to visit Canada.

    Please note that you cannot get a passport to leave the USA by mail either.

    Right. But once you have a passport, you can get into Canada. And by the same token, Canadians don’t need a visa to get to the USA.

    Someone from Sri Lanka has to get a passport from their own government. Then they have to apply to get a visa from Canada. It’s an additional step.

    AFAIK, someone from Sri Lanka will have an easier time getting a U.S. visa than they would a Canadian visa. So I could understand why someone from that country would vote against a Winnipeg Worldcon. And I think that’s fair to flag as something people might consider when debating which potential host they might vote for.

  13. Olaf Rokne says AFAIK, someone from Sri Lanka will have an easier time getting a U.S. visa than they would a Canadian visa. So I could understand why someone from that country would vote against a Winnipeg Worldcon. And I think that’s fair to flag as something people might consider when debating which potential host they might vote for.

    Huh. Canada has a prohibition of the transfer of funds from the Sri Lankan government to Canadian banks in place as it has been justifiably accused of war crimes (I was there during the active war against the Tamil minority) but citizens there unless they’re on the watch list won’t have any problem at all getting a visa.

    Again I’m concerned that you are describing a situation which needs a great deal more nuance than is being granted by your brief wordage. I’m not saying the Canadian government is perfect but they are hardly as bad as you are describing either.

  14. All right. I’m home and happy to be here!

    Thank you all for the kind wishes for getting well. I’ll continue to do so as quick as I can.

  15. Cat Eldridge: I’m concerned that you are describing a situation which needs a great deal more nuance than is being granted by your brief wordage. I’m not saying the Canadian government is perfect but they are hardly as bad as you are describing either.

    I think Olav’s writeup is pretty fair and evenhanded. It’s not dire, but it’s realistic. He has likewise pointed out similar issues with the other 2 locations. Canada is somewhat less restrictive than the U.S. when it comes to entry, but as he’s rightly noted, there is non-trivial list of countries whose citizens would find getting into either country difficult.

  16. Mike Glyer: I’m home and happy to be here!

    I’m so glad to hear that. Make sure that you follow your doctor’s instructions, and please take good care of yourself. Sending healing vibes your way. 🙂

  18. @Justin E.A. Busch
    I’m amused by a system only 1300 light years away being described as “distant”.

  21. It’s not just a matter of being difficult to apply. In 2018, 30% of applications for visitor visa to Canada were rejected, 34% for USA, 12% for China. The variation in rejection rate by country is huge, with the top country at 90% rejection.
    There isn’t any perfect place to hold world con to allow for universal access. IMO, the best option would be to have it at various places around the globe and accept that attendance at each place will be different. But I don’t see that happening, there are too many want to go personally to Worldcon every year voters. And perhaps that’s for the best for the financial stability of World con.

  24. I see that one of the SMOFs is busy on Twitter repaying that free vacation they got from the Chinese government. 🙄

  28. Having taken a free trip to China myself a few years back, this is totally suspect, but SF in China is one of the few places where writers can say political things without getting cracked down on, so it gets used that way. SF is also huge in China – when I sat next to Cixin Liu at a signing, there were young fans literally – and as a writer, I’m using that word correctly – shaking with excitement at meeting him. It was adorable.

    I don’t approve of the government and its actions, but there’s some pretty hardcore SF fans there, and some great writers, and having the con outside America helps put the World in Worldcon. So … when I think about that bid, I’m definitely considering the negatives, but I also am noting the few positives should it end up there. And while here in America we may hide our fascism a little better, our walls, particularly the ones Trump built, do have a certain glassy appearance to them as well.

  29. Belated welcome home, @Mike Glyer!

    Happy Birthday, @Paul Weimer, @Rich Horton, etc.!

  30. @ Cat Rambo

    So … when I think about that bid, I’m definitely considering the negatives, but I also am noting the few positives should it end up there. And while here in America we may hide our fascism a little better, our walls, particularly the ones Trump built, do have a certain glassy appearance to them as well.

    We have authoritarian aspects but I don’t think even comparing the US to China is reasonable in any shape or form. Ever heard of the Great Firewall of China?

  31. I won’t say that access to the country from abroad is a non issue, because clearly for many fans from those place it is THE issue. However, if it’s a very similar or identical issue for all three places, it isn’t likely to be a deciding issue for more than a few.

  33. @Mike Glyer–Welcome back!

    @Cat Rambo–

    So … when I think about that bid, I’m definitely considering the negatives, but I also am noting the few positives should it end up there. And while here in America we may hide our fascism a little better, our walls, particularly the ones Trump built, do have a certain glassy appearance to them as well.

    Trump got about a hundred miles of “wall” built, which can be climbed, cut through, and blown over by a high wind.

    And not only were we able to vote him out, his determined efforts to overturn that failed. Badly.

    We are not the country we want to be, but no, we are not remotely like China. Not that everything’s looking happy and wonderful, but no, we are not China.

    You want to say we’re worse than Canada, or most of Europe, sure, yes. China, though, is much worse than the US.

  37. In terms of ranking of location for 2023, I have a tentative list (it MAY be changed, based on further information).

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