(1) Star Wars is causing a great disturbance in the toy aisles:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and other retailers have loaded up on plastic lightsabers, robotic Yodas and other toys tied to the coming movie, crowding out shelf space and inventory dollars elsewhere in the toy section. The big bets are pushing orders for toy makers, such as Mattel Inc., closer to the holidays and squeezing some smaller competitors in the $22 billion U.S. toy industry.
One property hit hard: “Peanuts.”
Iconix Brand Group Inc., which controls the license to the newest animated Charlie Brown movie, this month cut its sales outlook from “Peanuts” licenses by $24 million for the year largely because it miscalculated how many Snoopy dolls and other “Peanuts” products retailers would buy.
(2) Sean Wallace advised on Facebook:
Authors: always make sure that a year’s best allowance is in your short story contracts. If you need to see an example of what I mean, Tor.com’s contracts are pretty good on this score: “The Author will not, without written permission from the Publisher, publish or permit publication of the Work or any material based upon the Work in any form or medium until one year after the date of first publication of the Work by the Publisher. Anthologies of the year’s best science fiction or fantasy shall be exempted from the one-year restriction set forth in this paragraph.”
(3) Aliette de Bodard’s guest post on Over The Effing Rainbow deals with “Science-fiction, fantasy, and all the things in between”.
I used to be quite rigid about genre separation: in particular, though I read both fantasy and science fiction, I wasn’t very keen on “merging” them together. In recent years, I’ve found myself being more and more elastic with my definition of genre, and in particular with my definition of “science fiction”.
Partly, it’s because expectations are such a double-edged sword: they are a helpful guide, but like any guide, they can become a cage. It’s very easy–and a very slippery slope–to go from “readers expect this” to “I shouldn’t deviate from this”. Much as I like being aware of what is done and why, I grew increasingly uncomfortable with the (over)splitting into genres and subgenres: I found that tropes, used too many times and without the infusion of freshness from an outside source, calcified into books that were…. ok, but not good, or not great. Books that I read to pass the time (and there’s nothing wrong with that!), but that I felt were missing something. Part of the reason why I read is to find new things, new ideas; and I wasn’t finding that in books that adhered too rigidly to expectations. Ie, a little rulebreaking from time to time never hurt anyone! (also, if you’re going to break a rule, break it good and hard. My personal motto *grin*)
The second thing that made me uncomfortable was becoming aware of the way “science fiction” was used to elevate certain works, and dismiss others altogether…
(4) Walter Jon Williams says Taos Toolbox must move its location, but is still on for 2016.
Yes, there will be a Taos Toolbox next year! I’ve had to delay the announcement due to our losing our lodging, and to the fact that there will be massive construction in the Ski Valley next year.
The master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy will be held July 17-30, 2016, at Angel Fire, NM, just a short distance from Taos.
Teaching will be Nancy Kress, Walter Jon Williams, indiepub guru Emily Mah Tippetts, and James S.A. Corey, author of The Expanse.
(5) When his bike was stolen and he was without transportation to his two jobs many miles from home, conrunner Adam Beaton turned to GoFundMe.
That’s why the money will be used for a scooter. I don’t need anything fancy, and I’m not looking for a car because I’d rather not have another bill for insurance on my plate right now. A simple scooter doesn’t require a motorcycle license and also doesn’t require insurance. It’s also far less expensive than buying a car, even a used one, which is why I’ve tried to keep the target goal as low as possible. Honestly I just need simple transportation that I can use to get me to-and-from work so I can continue being a productive member of society and not lose my jobs.
The community came through with the $600 he needed.
Wow. In less than two days, the goal was made. I’m very blessed to have such great friends and family. Especially some of you who I know are also facing some difficult times and still helped me out anyway. Thank you, thank you, thank you. If you’d still like to contribute, it’ll definitely help in getting a scooter that’s say, a bit less used.
(6) Today In History
- November 17, 2008 – Twilight, the movie that launched a global teenage vampire romance phenomenon, premiered in Los Angeles.
(7) “New LEGO Slippers Will Spare Parents The Unique Pain They Know All Too Well” says Huffington Post.
Now the LEGO brand has teamed up with French advertising agency Brand Station to create some slippers with extra padding that will protect parents from this tortuous sensation.
(8) Another inventor has come up with the “Prosthetic Tentacle”.
A student designer has created a prosthetic tentacle as an alternative to artificial human limbs,
Kaylene Kau from Taipei made the remarkable invention as part of a design school project.
The limb would be able to grip many different objects by curling up with the help of a simple motor.
It’s actually a pretty simple invention. The controls on the limb tell the motor to curl or uncurl, and there is no ‘hardwire’ link to the nervous system, as seen in some of the most advanced robotic or artificial limbs in development.
(9) Daniel Dern sends links to the SF-themed comic strips he’s seen so far this week.
(10) Famous Monsters #283 sports a Star Wars-themed “variant newsstand cover” by artist Rob Prior. The issue includes interviews with Mark Hamill on Star Wars, Greg Nicotero on The Walking Dead, and Sam J. Jones on Flash Gordon.
(11) “Yorick: A Unique Life-Size Skull Carved From a Crystallized Gibeon Meteorite” at Junk Culture:
A rare and singular combination of natural history and modern art, Lee Downey’s “Yorick.” is a life-size skull carved from a large Gibeon meteorite that crashed in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia a thousand years ago. An artist who is known for selecting exotic materials with which to work, Downey acid-etched the carving to uncover the Gibeon meteorite’s singular, lattice-like pattern. “A symbol of death, of eternity, of immortality, of demise and rebirth.” he explains, “Of any material I could think of to fashion an accurate human skull out of, this Gibeon meteorite best embodies the ‘mystery’ most acutely.”
The skull will be auctioned by Bonhams on November 24, perhaps for as much as $400,000. The auction webpage explains the origin story of this type of meteorite.
ABOUT GIBEON
- Gibeon is iron-based and one of the rarest forms of meteorite.
- It originated billions of years ago from an unstable planet that existed briefly between Jupiter and Mars.
- When the planet broke apart, a section of its core traveled through space for four billion years.
- Only the vacuum of space – which provides no surrounding molecules through which heat can be conducted away from the meteorite – allows the prolonged period of intense heat necessary for the alloys of iron meteorites to crystallize.
- During its journey, the meteorite’s alloys crystallized to form an octahedral crystalline structure that cannot be recreated on earth.
- When it met the earth’s atmosphere, about 1000 years ago, it exploded over the Kalahari Desert.
- The iron rain formed a meteorite field in Great Namaqualand, Namibia, which was first discovered by the local Nama people.
- A 48,000 gram block was cut out of the heart of a complete, 280 kg iron meteorite, which Downey then painstakingly carved down to the carving’s 21,070 grams.
- Radiometric dating estimates the age of crystallization of Gibeon’s metal at approximately 4 billion years.
(12) The Doc Dave Winiewicz Frazetta Collection will be auctioned by Profiles in History on Friday, December 11 at 11:00 a.m. PST. Catalog and flipbook at the link.
(13) Winiewicz holds forth on “The Essence of Frazetta” in this YouTube video.
(14) The previous pair of news items come from John Holbo’s discussion of fantasy art and “Men wearing a military helmet and nothing else in Western Art” in “Frazetta Auction – and French Academic Art” at Crooked Timber. The post begins with a revelation about Frazetta’s source for images of fallen warriors in two of his works.
(15) Shelf Awareness editor Marilyn Dahl plugs Larry Correia’s latest book tour and adds some career history.
Larry Correia took a somewhat unexpected journey on his way to becoming a bestselling author. He self-published his first book, Monster Hunter International, when he was an accountant and a gun dealer, and discovered how fundamental handselling is, along with a bit of luck. Don Blyly of Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore in Minneapolis, Minn., asked for a copy, read it and finished it in one night. He purchased a large number of POD (print on demand) copies for the store and handsold them. Then fate appeared. The week Uncle Hugo’s began selling the book, Entertainment Weekly ran the store’s bestseller list, with Monster Hunter International at #3. Toni Weisskopf, publisher of Baen Books, speedily signed Larry to a one-book deal, which turned into 16 in less than six years. In addition, while promoting his POD edition, Correia traveled throughout the Mid- and Southwest, becoming a bookseller favorite. He’s launching Son of the Black Sword with a tour that started in New England, continued to the Pacific Northwest, then traveled down the West Coast and across the desert, wrapping up in Scottsdale, Ariz.
(16) Stuart Starosta of Fantasy Literature scored an interview with Cixin Liu.
What was it like when The Three-Body Problem won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best SF novel and was nominated for the 2014 Nebula Award? Is it exciting to discover so much interest in your works overseas? When you first wrote the series, was it intended mainly for Chinese readers or did you imagine there would be English readers as well?
I was in Chicago for the Nebula Awards in June but was too busy to attend the Hugo Awards ceremony. Yet The Three-Body Problem was awarded the Hugo Award so I was disappointed that I missed this opportunity. But I am delighted that the translator, Ken Liu, was able to receive the award. His excellent translation played a very important role in earning the award so I have always believed that we won the award together. I am of course very happy that my own work is so successful outside China. The genre of science fiction was introduced to China during the end of the Qing Dynasty by Westerners. One century later, China’s science fiction work is finally being published and recognized in the West. But from another perspective, science fiction novels are the most global type of literature compared to other translated works. These works often involve many aspects of Chinese culture that may be foreign to Westerners so science fiction in translation should be easier for a Western audience to understand.
(17) And Sasquan, in the interests of promoting peace and world brotherhood… no, cancel that story. David D’Antonio, 2015 Hugo Ceremony Director, is still chasing after people to give them souvenir asterisks.
The 2015 Hugo Ceremony is over, and we’re reminded that not every nominee could be present. During the Pre-Hugo Reception we offered all present their own 2015 Hugo Asterisk to commemorate an extraordinary year and signify the several records set (including the record number of Hugo voters). Should any of those nominees who couldn’t be present desire one, we do have extras and will be happy to send one along. Please contact us at hugoceremony@sasquan.org at your earliest convenience. Unfortunately, that email list will be closed after two (2) months so we regret that we will not be able to fulfill requests after that time.
Sasquan attendees could get their own asterisk during the convention for a suggested donation to Sir Terry Pratchett’s* favorite charity, The Orangutan Foundation. $2800 was raised and has been sent to help orangutans at Leakey Center.
(18) A photographer imagines the daily, mundane life of Darth Vader at Mashable.
[Thanks to Andrew Porter, Daniel Dern, JJ, Alan T. Baumler, Michael J. Walsh, John King Tarpinian, and Paul Weimer for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]
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I disagree- my partner has an idea for a Katamari LARP that would involve a rented sports stadium, a weather-balloon sized ball, and a group playing the Prince’s cousins. And a guy up in the stands with the right attitude to play the King of All Cosmos.
Also, this shows why you want to keep tort katamari symmetrical.
Algorithmic recommendation software is just horrible. My Youtube recs frequently feature vile misogyny because I occasionally watch feminist videos.
I’m unclear on what tone you would want the Sasquan people to adopt. They offered the asterisks without malicious intent, per David Gerrold and others involved. They have some extras and would like to make them available to nominees who still want one.
I didn’t like the asterisks — as a baseball fan, to me the symbol conveys illegitimacy — but I don’t see why Sasquan should be obliged to buy into the framing of other people when they know their own intent. That’s like saying GRRM shouldn’t talk about the Alfies any more because Lou Antonelli claims they were an insult to nominees like him.
Gah!!! I’m so far behind (had a bad night and involuntarily checked out of communication with the world). There are almost 250 email notifications in my in box!?!
Onward to disjointed, out-of-sync conversations. Please ignore the 16 hour timeslips. At least it’s 2015.
I think the assumption is that they there dropped a clanger and should allow it to fade out of memory. The asterisk thing makes very little sense to me, as much as it’s a thing in the UK it’s a sign that the award in question is extra special, but it obviously pisses off some people, who use it to gin up their febrile followers. And that’s something that does no-one any favours.
On algorithmic recommendation software:
In the summer I bought The Long Utopia (Pratchett & Baxter). Next time I checked my recommendations, Amazon had decided what I really wanted was twenty or so varieties of spray paint for the car I haven’t owned for about 12 years.
NickPheas, everything passes off the Puppies. There is no point in refraining from normal behavior on the grounds that it might offend them. If SAS quantity apologized for the existence of the asterisks, the Puppies would also find a way to be offended at that.
The level of resentment to the Puppies, the resentment and insecurity that seems to drive everything they do, means if David Gerrold had presented each and everyone of the great-storytellers-by-virtue-of-being-friends-of-Brad a Hugo on bended knee – the Puppies would be complaining about how condescending it was.
If any type of meteorite were the inspiration for kryptonite, it would ost likely be the pallisites, which are a mix of nickle/iron and green/yellow olivine crystals, believed to have formed at the core-mantle boundaries of differentiated asteroids or planetestimals. (“Differentiated” meaning big enough to have fored a sphere, melted due to the decay of short-lived radioisotopes cooked up in nearby supernovas, and sorted into a metallic core and a stony mantle.)
There are some factual errors in that list on Gibeon. for example, the crystal pattern (which are formed by the interdigitation of crystals that are slightly more nickel rich with crystals that are slightly more nickel poor, and then made visible by etching the meteorite with strongish acid–the two types of crystal are etched away at different rates–I’ve etched iron meteorite slices myself) is because the iron cooled very slowly (on the order of one degree every million years) in the core of a parent asteroid or planetestimal (if there is even a meaningful difference between those terms.) The parent body is then smashed to bits over billions of years of collisions so that the core material is exposed to the surface. And there isn’t just one parent body for iron meteorites–variations in crystal size and isotope ratios indicate that there were dozens (at the moment over 70 IIRC) of smashed parent bodies that have deposited iron and stony/iron meteorites on Earth. Vesta, Ceres, and possibly Juno and Pallas (confusingly, not the source body for Pallasites) are the only remaining intact differentiated bodies in the asteroid belt out of possibly hundreds of originals.
(I have a modest collection of a few hundred small meteorite samples, but nothing like that skull–which I kinda have ethical issues with wasting that meteorite on in the first place.)
@Lis
I fear you may be right, but that still doesn’t make me wish you weren’t. Ultimately the hounds have just as much right to consider themselves part of fandom as thee or me. Sooner or later they need to calm down and the rest of us need to not lord it over them.
I never really noticed until recently rereading all the Calvin and Hobbes strips back to back what an angry, bitter misanthrope Watterson is.
In a recent post on Lou Antonelli’s Dang Ol’ Blog, he mentions how Amizon had just reccomeded to him nine books–by David Gerrod. 🙂
True. Just look at the reaction when Tom Doherty threw Irene Gallo under the bus with his public apology. This didn’t placate the puppies. They used it to stoke their sense of aggrievement.
I like the autocorrect typo in your comment. If anyone is looking for sass in quantity, they’ve come to the right blog.
I’ve been pondering that issue all morning. That meteorite was a work of art — and then Lee Downey cut it up.
I’m always going to Amazon to look up information on books I have no interest in reading and somehow convincing Amazon that’s the sort of thing I like. It pays to have a browser handy that is set to private/incognito browsing just so you don’t get recommendations for the VD books that Amazon thinks you likes because you went to look at John Scalzi Is Not a Very Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular.
Lorcan Nagle on November 18, 2015 at 7:20 am said: Algorithmic recommendation software is just horrible. My Youtube recs frequently feature vile misogyny because I occasionally watch feminist videos.
This can be used for good as well as evil. Some media literacy folk I know managed to get their deconstruction of Bratz dolls a recommended video for actual Bratz ads.
Yeah, I think the results of the final Hugo voting speaks for itself. The majority of people are not going to be offended by the existence of the asterisks, and many of them will want one. The fact that a few crazies who are going to be offended no matter what may take offense seems like a pretty minor consideration compared to “we can promote this charity and give people something they want.”
Offering the asterisks to people who might want them seems like a far better option than throwing them away just because a few already-disgruntled people might continue to lack gruntlement.
—
Meteorites aren’t exactly rare, so I don’t have a big problem with turning one into a sculpture. If you check “meteorites for sale” on Google, you’ll find that jewelry made from meteorites are quite popular, as are the raw lumps themselves.
—
I definitely have mixed feelings about the tentacle. I’m most curious though about the price-performance ratio compared to other forms of artificial limbs. If it’s a really cost-effective solution, then it has my full support.
Anyone in NY area get to see this Afro-futurist exhibit at the NYPL? I got to see one of the other exhibits (In the Public Eye) there on my trip, but couldn’t get to that, and it looks so good, and totally science fictional too. I know you can’t see everything, but sometimes I just really want to try.
Also, too: I think tumblr &/or AO3 will go “OMG eeeeee” about that prosthetic arm. (Sorry if I’m repeating something someone else has already said, but if a noob like me goes “eeee” well….)
(7) Those slippers look about worthless – uncomfortable to wear, squared toes will catch on everything, soles inadequate to protect against hard objects and ugly (but not cute-ugly).
(8) Would love the tentacle. Did anyone else think “Katsu”? I’d want mine in bronzed metal or at least black plastic. Besides being a cool thing, it might be very helpful for other disabilities, too, as Bruce Baugh mentioned.
(11) That skull is magnificent and gorgeous, but…the meteorite must have been huge. Did anyone show it to a scientific institution to determine if there was any knowledge potential in it?
The puppies complain a lot about people who take offense at everything. It’s astonishing that they don’t see that that’s what they themselves have become. Maybe it’s a natural (if unhelpful) reaction from people who feel powerless.
The Sasquan people have largely taken the high road and ignored the puppies. I applaud them for that, and I think it’s fine that that’s how they’re finishing up.
Meteorites are vastly ore rare than gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, and almost every other substance used in jewelry. The only reason meteorites are cheap at the moment is because for the last 15 years or so the meteorites of the Sahara desert have been being gathered by the local nomads and sold to meteorite dealers (and directly to collectors) for a pittance. But those Saharan meteorites represent 10,000 or more years of falls, and when they are gone, they are gone.
The Sahara meteorites (most commonly termed the NWA, or North-West Africa, meteorites) are cheap for two reasons–first, because they were all dumped on the market at once (no giant cartel controlling release rate like DeBeers) made the bottom fall out of the market, and second, because many collectors like to collect specific locations and witnessed falls. A meteorite of the exact same type and quality found in Algeria may draw 1/10th of the price as one found in the US or Europe. Make it a witnessed fall in the US or Europe, and you add another order of magnitude or two to the price disparity. (Make it a lunar or a Martian and you can reach tens of thousands of dollars per gram.) Years ago, I was able to buy NWAs for as little as 5 cents per gram because of these factors. But this is a very short-term bubble, and saying that meteorites aren’t rare because they are for sale on the internet is like saying rhinos aren’t endangered because you can buy their horns in Chinese apothecaries.
Also of note is that small meteorites are much more common than large ones. That is my issue with the Gibeon–such a large piece turned into “art.” Believe me, I’ve spent more than a few minutes thinking about meteorites.
It’s impossible to make the Puppies happy so you might as well not try. The whole thing started because Larry Correia thought only being nominated for a Campbell was an insult, remember?
Regarding the meteorite-skull there’s a part of me that says “want!” and a part that says “that meteorite was a museum-quality item before it was chopped up like that.” The meteorites for sale on google tend to be small common ones, which bothers me less. So yeah, I think two opposite things pretty strongly at the moment.
Regarding the tentacle, my reaction is just “cool!” If it’s easier to make a prosthetic useful if you don’t try to make it look like a human body part, good on her for thinking outside the box. Furthermore trying to make something look like a human body part can give rise to the “uncanny valley” issue; something that looks almost, but not quite, human is more disturbing to many people than something that’s obviously not human.
I wonder if a tentacle replacement for a missing leg would be feasible.
That skull is magnificent and gorgeous, but…the meteorite must have been huge. Did anyone show it to a scientific institution to determine if there was any knowledge potential in it?
Meteorites tend to explode from stress while 10s of miles above the Earth, then rain down over an elliptical area known as a “strewn field.” This particular meteorite is from one of the largest strewn fields known, with around 26 tons of fragments recovered (which is plenty for science to not be losing out on missing a few pieces, but not a lot–that number is roughly equal to the amount of diamonds mined in a single year, and a fraction on the amount of synthetic diamonds made in a year.)
Here’s a brief summary of Gibeon (including a photo of an intact piece far more attractive than the skull):
http://www.meteoritemarket.com/GNinfo.htm
I also wondered about the scientific value of the raw meteorite. As for the artistic value of the finished product (a term I used deliberately): While the execution is clearly skillful and the item pleasant to look at, the surrounding promotional language about it strikes me as conceptual art, which to me always comes across as an attempt to substitute talk-about-arty-stuff for the primary experience of encountering-the-object. The art-history textbook (or the gallery catalogue or book review or PBS documentary) is, um, ancillary to to the art itself. Telling me how arty the art is strikes me in this case as marketing. But maybe for some audiences, ownership of a pedigreed, commented-on, price-tagged and curated object is the experience they’re looking for.
Hmm.
On the one hand, I got more of a sense of wonder from them.
On the other, some folks have looked at me as if I were nuts when I point out that Calvin’s father was abusive and emotionally manipulative and his mother self-absorbed and neglectful.
Lis Carey: My personal reaction to the asterisk was that they denigrated the nominees, so a Worldcon committee should not have used them. They reflect badly on Sasquan and undermined its intent to have a ceremony that honored all nominees. Which was the right choice for them because the Puppy nominees broke no rules. (Just as it was right for me to vote No Award if I chose.) In that context the asterisks could not be an innocent gesture. It’s about doing the right thing, not only avoiding upsetting the Puppies, although they were right to be upset.
So I read “Witches of Lychford” by Paul Cornell, a novella that’s been the subject of comments by Filers. I liked it, but I thought it stuffed too many characters into too small a space — there’s Judith, an older woman with some knowledge of witchcraft who is usually dismissed as a crank, Lizzie, a vicar whose husband died in a terrible accident and who is losing her faith, and Autumn, who once had dealings with a prince of faerie but couldn’t bring herself to believe in the reality of the experience. And all of these women end up fighting against… a megastore that wants to move into the village. It seems a bit overkill.
I’d have liked it more if it had been either smaller — concentrating just on Judith, for example — or larger — expanding on what happened to Autumn in faerie and other things. Though there is a wonderful twist concerning Judith that I never saw coming.
If you’re saying that you believe it wasn’t innocent in intent, I disagree. I think the people who had the idea for the asterisks did not consider it a sly insult or belittlement. If they had, they would’ve done something else.
@Joe H. Yes. The Norm 4.0 http://www.gocomics.com/the-norm-4-0
… must … not … spend … entire … day … reading … The Norm …
The asterisks were blatantly insulting. It’s hard to believe the people who decided to create them hadn’t heard all the talk about 2015 being the year of the asterisk before okaying them – hard to believe that the reasons behind the asterisks really had anything to do with the explanation Gerrold gave during the awards ceremony. That explanation reminded me of when I’m trying to get out of trouble for something I did to someone that I felt was deserved and I don’t care enough to come up with a decent excuse. I felt bad for the innocent Puppy nominees about the asterisk, but the rest – from the barely-kept-their-ass-covered innocents like Weisskopf to the “seriously, you’re letting this dude into the con” nominees like Antonelli – eh. I can’t imagine how hard it was for the con organizers to stay polite while being accused of throwing out votes, misappropriating money, and all the rest of the nonsense the puppies were spewing.
I also don’t agree that Gallo was thrown under the bus – she made an intemperate remark while promoting a Tor release, Doherty apologized, Gallo apologized. She wasn’t fired, the puppies continued to whine because they’d tasted no blood, then they ultimately got swatted with a rolled up newspaper* at the awards. It seems hyperbolic to claim she was thrown under the bus.
On the reading front, I just finished Jingo (Pratchett), which was remarkably appropriate given the current atmosphere in the US. Love how well he lands the endings. Or maybe they’re just sentimental claptrap. I dunno, they always feel perfect to me. One problem I have with Discworld novels (I’m reading them in publication order) is that I’m never interested in the subject of the new novel when I start it – I want to revisit the previous one. It takes me about 1/4 way through the book to settle in and enjoy the ride.
Now I’m reading Ligotti’s “The Conspiracy Against the Human Race”, and also finishing “Grimscribe” with that reading in mind. TCAtHR is very interesting. Not entirely different from the way the universe seems to me, but way less fun.
I also need some lighter reading for when I can’t handle Ligotti. Tried the second installment in the God Stalk series, but wasn’t in the mood. May go for “Sunshine” next, as I keep seeing good things about it here.
@Joe H, even better the uncompleted Norm graphic novel Knocked Out Loaded is now finished, and an e-book should be available soon…
I lost confidence in Amazon’s recommendations years ago, when I ordered a Sibelius CD from them, and found myself with a recommendation for Alice Cooper’s Raped and Freezin’. (Curiously, despite having John Scalzi is not etc. and a bunch of mil-SF stuff on my Kindle, I’m still not getting any recommendations for the clear-quill Puppy stuff. And I still think that demonstrates that the Puppies are a teeny-tiny clique who make a point of not letting their own reading tastes splash outside their own little circle.)
“Pallisite” sounds like a meteorite that’s been written by Anthony Trollope, and if it isn’t, it should be.
@Hampus Eckerman
To me, tentacles (pace Mieville’s Kraken) are not very typical for what I think of as fantasy. Maybe if the tentacle does its writhing inside a tavern in a snow storm?
rcade: The asterisks are supposedly meant to acknowledge that this was an extraordinary year — but no, I don’t believe anyone would have bothered if the voting records were the only extraordinary events. There was a “mentioning the elephant in the room” purpose being served that can only be translated as “something wrong has happened.” And that’s why I say it undermined their mission to have a ceremony that honored everyone.
On the reading front I am a bit more than half way through The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman which I think is the kind of light reading that a lot of filers would enjoy. A girl’s boarding school story with a twist.
For those who have read The Mysteries Of The Diogenes Club will recognise the first quarter of the novel, and the title. The novel is an expansion of Kentish Glory: The Secret Of Drearcliff Grange School a short story that appeared in that collection.
I think that a ceremony that never mentioned the elephant in the room would have felt incredibly fake, myself. Which I guess means it just goes to show that not only can you not please everyone, you can’t even please all filers.
When your top boss writes a blog post calling you out by name, apologizing for your behavior and stating that it does not reflect the opinion of the company, I think that’s a textbook example of throwing someone under the bus.
The phrase doesn’t mean to fire someone. It means to distance yourself from them after they become unpopular or controversial.
Gallo’s remark on her personal social media account (not a Tor promotional channel) was sat on for a month and released by Theodore Beale during the weekend of the Nebulas as a manipulative stunt to embarrass Tor Books. What she said was obviously her personal opinion — no one needed Doherty to clarify that — and it was made at a time when many other pros and fans were making similarly hyperbolic remarks.
Neither she nor Tor had done anything that required an apology.
@Kathodus
Gallo was on her personal Facebook page. She gets to say stuff on the Internet, like the rest of us.
Also, well, isn’t the truth a defense? We’re talking about Theodore Beale. In the time since (and before) Gallo made her comments, we’ve had various other people on the Sad Puppy slate wax metaphorical about various immigrants as un-integratable parts of the body politic, who are internal threats to the “real” nations. We’ve had other supporters of the Puppy slate say how wise this is, and if I dig into Wright’s blog, I can find a ton of other ruminations of what is and is not the real, volkish, purity of “real” America, or the “real” West.
There all on record as to their views of our LGBT brethren; Beale and Correia have said enough about masculinity that while they may not be saying it in the name of the MRAs, their blogs all repeat it.
I’ll admit I’ve reached my break point on this in the last little while, but it’s pretty clear right now that Gallo was being pretty damned accurate. And to see her subjected to a combing through of every little statement for accuracy, often by the people who have changed their reasons for their ballot-stuffing a literal half a dozen times, with a wild disregard for the truth is troubling.
Something by Samuel Beckett, maybe?
Andyl: I’m reading The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman as well and enjoying it quite a bit. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but I’m liking it much better as it goes on.
@rcade
The Tor apology – or maybe, clarification – seems very mild to me, though. It doesn’t say she did anything wrong, except in not saying she was speaking her own opinion, and not Tor’s. It reads to me like it was carefully worded to avoid any hint that she was factually wrong or that the Puppies were not bad actors. It does go out of its way to correct some of the mistaken impressions the media were giving about the Puppy makeup, though that could be read as saying Gallo was wrong. Anyway, okay.
I try not to give my opinion about the thrown under the bus thing, or about the asterisks, because deep down inside, and also very close to the surface, and definitely right at the surface, I think the Puppies have been treated far more politely than they deserved by pretty much everyone (including Gallo, and GRR Martin, and OGH, and Gerrold, and especially the rest of the con organizers, and etc., etc.). If I were in Gallo’s position, I highly doubt I could have kept my mouth shut and my profanities in enough to retain my job.
@TheYoungPretender
Well, that’s why I said “intemperate.” Maybe “angry” would have been better, as, yeah, intemperate is a little over-the-top. She was promoting a book for Tor, though, on her personal FB page. It’s one of the dangers of the era of social media – our work and personal lives are in danger of being inextricably linked. I don’t like that. I’m lucky to work for a company where I’d pretty much have to say something online that I’d find repulsive to get in trouble.
The only reason at all that I can imagine Gallo or Doherty would apologize would be for diplomacy/public relations. The only part of Gallo’s statement I would quibble with factually is the “neo-nazi” comment, though maybe I’m wrong – I don’t know if neo-nazi is appropriate as a stand-in for general far-right neo/pseudo-fascists. If so, yeah, works fine. But like I said, that’s a quibble.
Re: Musical Snoopy’s.
There seem to be plenty of them around that do play the Vince Guaraldi theme.around with the new Christmas toys. There’s also one I saw at CVS that plays Feliz Navidad on a trumpet. Here’s a link http://www.amazon.com/Animated-Mexican-Musical-Christmas-Trumpet/dp/B00OSK1UB6
And there’s a few Youtube videos up as well.
And, as a child of the 60’s, I still have a soft spot for the comic, especially since I share a birthday with Snoopy (Aug 10th).
If I was a 2015 Hugo Nominee who hadn’t been able to make it to the ceremony, I’d sure want my asterisk.
So I’m glad they’re making an effort to reach out to people like that. If there are people who don’t want one (and I’m sure there are), they don’t have to respond and ask for one.
But “Hey, if you’re entitled to one and still want one, speak up now because we’re closing things down in a little bit” seems like a responsible way to do things, rather than “Those guys who don’t like anything about us except for the award they want don’t like this, so we’re not going to try to make sure anyone else gets it either.”
I’m with the defenders of Sasquan on this. Their award ceremony, their rules. If the Puppies were offended by the asterisks and felt they indicated disrespect or disapproval, well, I think the organisers of Sasquan can somehow bear to live with the burden of responsibility for that.
IMHO, there are no treadmarks on Ms. Gallo.
“Throwing someone under the bus” means sacrificing someone (usually a small fish) and letting them take the most or all of the blame (unjustly) for some fiasco.
Gallo’s post was on her personal page, but it was promoting a Tor book (The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley) that she apparently worked on; the post was explicitly about tweaking the Puppies, because her caption was “Making Sad puppies sadder… Proud to have a tiny part in this.” When asked what a Sad Puppy was in the comments, she gave her spiel about far-right wingers and neo-nazis.
She was not “thrown under the bus”; it was her mess, which she recognized. She apologized (I think sincerely) for oversimplifying and for not being clear that she was speaking personally. Her boss’s statement echoed that and simply said that Tor employees should be clear about company vs. personal opinions (and, since some Puppies are Tor authors, that hers weren’t Tor’s).
Arguing about how “correct” her statements were is beside the point.
ETA @Kathodus: Jinx.
I wonder if a tentacle replacement for a missing leg would be feasible.
Might depend, obviously. If it could be made to quickly, easily and reliably switch between rigid support and supple grasping, it might be interesting. There are those specialized prosthetics that have been made for running, so if there was an advantage or increased functionality that could be achieved, someone might try it.
Sculptures seem to be one of my things today. Whether tentacle prosthetics that are functional works of art, or the sculptures in this post by John Picacio re: what he thinks are the right questions for the WFA revamp. H/t N.K. Jemisin on Twitter or I would not have seen this to rave about.
When you read Doherty’s blog post, it seems clear to me that Gallo had no choice about whether to apologize. Once your top boss decides to issue a public apology for your actions, you’re going to make a show of contrition. To do otherwise would put your job in jeopardy.
So using her apology to show that she feels like she made her own mess — and thus was not thrown under the bus — doesn’t reflect how this kind of situation plays out inside a company. Gallo’s personal feelings were irrelevant once Doherty decided to issue a statement.
Current reading: Clementine, another of Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century steampunk novels (thought this one is less known as it was from Subterranean). Real people in a very different world, as a Pinkerton agent who was once a Confederate spy tracks down a sky pirate. Except she’s a woman and he’s an escaped slave, and there’s something going on with his stolen airship.