(1) Nothing says the holiday season like this Kurt Adler 28” Star Wars Stormtrooper Light-Up Tinsel Lawn Decor…
Holding a small, neatly-wrapped present for a festive twist, this soldier of the Galactic Empire is wearing his all-white uniform and armor.
(2) “Sir David Attenborough and giant hedgehog launch new TV show Natural Curiosities”.
If Sonic is the first name that pops into your head when hearing the word “hedgehog,” British naturalist Sir David Attenborough wants to change your perceptions about the prickly creature.
A life-like hedgehog statue, measuring 7 feet tall and 12 feet long, covered in coconut fiber and over 2,000 wood spikes, was unveiled on Clapham Common in London to launch Attenborough’s new nature series, “Natural Curiosities” on UKTV this week….
A recent survey of 2,000 British adults revealed that because the “average Briton takes only 16 walks in the countryside each year, dramatically limiting their exposure to wildlife, a quarter of Britons say they have never seen a wild hedgehog, rabbit or fox, while 26 per cent claim never to have spotted a grey squirrel or frog, and 36 per cent say wild deer have eluded them,” according to the Daily Mail.
(3) Richard Davies discusses “Fragile Treasures: The World’ Most Valuable Paperbacks” at AbeBooks.
In terms of sheer numbers, collectible softcovers are vastly outnumbered by collectible hardcovers. However, many paperbacks – books with soft, not rigid, paper-based covers – sell for high prices. The reasons vary – authors self-publish, publishers lack the necessary budget or the desire to invest in a particular author (think of poets particularly) or simply softcover is the format of choice for the genre….
Published in German, Kafka’s Metamorphosis is the king of the collectible softcovers. Its famous front cover, designed by Ottomar Starke, shows a man recoiling in horror. Probably no more than a thousand copies of this novella were printed. It wasn’t printed in English until 1937. Today, this story of a salesman transformed into an insect is studied around the world.
(4) Ethan Mills is observing Stoic Week at Examined Worlds. The second post in his series considers the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
Tuesday: What is in Our Control and the Reserve Clause Tuesday’s morning text is one of my favorite parts of the Meditations from Marcus Aurelius, one that has helped me get out of bed on more than one occasion!
Early in the morning, when you are finding it hard to wake up, hold this thought in your mind: ‘I am getting up to do the work of a human being. Do I still resent it, if I am going out to do what I was born for and for which I was brought into the world? Or was I framed for this, to lie under the bedclothes and keep myself warm?’ ‘But this is more pleasant’. So were you born for pleasure: in general were you born for feeling or for affection? Don’t you see the plants, the little sparrows, the ants, the spiders, the bees doing their own work, and playing their part in making up an ordered world. And then are you unwilling to do the work of a human being? Won’t you run to do what is in line with your nature?
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.1
Thinking about this through a science fiction lens invites questions about the work of a human being. What are we like as a species? Marcus compares humans with other terrestrial animals, but science fiction might extend the comparison to extraterrestrials as well.
Is it our nature, as Star Trek tells us, to “seek out new life and new civilizations”? Is this what gets us out of bed in the morning? Consider the theme of exploration in the recent book/movie, The Martian. Is it inevitable that we long to leave our terrestrial bed? Is our species at the beginning of a dawn of space exploration? Or should we be wary of over-indulging this exploration drive, as Kim Stanley Robinson’s amazing novel, Aurora, seems to imply?
(5) This video has been reported in a comment on File 770, however, I may not have linked it in a Scroll.
Sasquan Guest of Honor Dr. Kjell Lindgren sends welcome from the International Space Station to members of the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention.
(6) Today In History
- November 4, 1922 — The entrance to King Tut’s tomb was discovered. On November 26, 1922, Carter and fellow archaeologist Lord Carnarvon entered the interior chambers of the tomb, finding them miraculously intact.
(7) This is billed as a Dalek relaxation tape by Devour.com.
(8) Lawrence Railey is skeptical about “The rise of the Self-Insertion fic” at According To Hoyt.
Diversity isn’t the goal. At best, it’s a side-effect. Good story-telling is the only purpose, and the Puppies believe that nothing should get in the way of that.
And, quite simply, this notion that one must share essential attributes with the main character in order to enjoy a story is patronizing, narcissistic, and stupid. A black man can enjoy a story about a white woman. And, in the case of the story I just finished reading a couple days ago, a conservative white man can enjoy a story about a transsexual robot named Merlin living on distant planet.
Books do not have to be self-insertion fics, and they do not need to push a socio-political agenda.
The fact that the Puppy Kickers don’t know any better is disappointing to say the least.
(9) Steven Harper Piziks advises writers show equine intestinal fortitude in “Writing Nowadays: The Anti-Waiting Game” at Book View Café.
How things have changed. Now you’re as likely to get a giant email dump with a PDF in it and a frantic note from someone in the editorial food chain: “I know this is short notice, but we need you to go through these changes by Friday morning!”
Every author I know has gone through this. Demands that manuscripts be rewritten within two days, or over Christmas, or when the author is on vacation. There’s an idea out there that because email allows instant delivery, instant writing must follow.
Horse manure.
Just say no. Politely and firmly.
(10) An appreciation of the late French sf author Yan Ayerdhal by Jean-Daniel Breque at Europa SF.
French science fiction writer Yan Ayerdhal died Tuesday, October 27, 2015, after an intense bout with lung cancer.
Born Marc Soulier on January 26, 1959, in Lyons, he thrived on SF from an early age, since his father, Jacky Soulier, was a big-time fan and collector—he co-authored a few children and young adult SF books in the 1980s. Ayerdhal worked in several trades before becoming a full-time writer: he was a ski instructor, a professional soccer player, a teacher, he worked in marketing for L’Oréal, and so on….
Most notable among his novels are Demain, une oasis (“Tomorrow, an Oasis”, 1991), L’Histrion (“The Minstrel”, 1993), Parleur ou les Chroniques d’un rêve enclavé (“Speaker, or Chronicles of an Enclosed Dream”, 1997), Étoiles mourantes (“Dying Stars”, in collaboration with Jean-Claude Dunyach, 1999), and Transparences (“Transparencies”, 2004). Most of them were illustrated by Gilles Francescano. He was the recipient of several SF awards: the Tour Eiffel award, the Rosny aîné award (three times), the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (twice) and many more. He had one story published in Interzone, “Flickerings” (May 2001 issue, original title: “Scintillements”, 1998, translated by Sheryl Curtis).
(11) Jesse at Speculiction rejects 100 Year Starship and its new award, in “Awards Like Stars In The Sky: The Canopus”.
What’s interesting to see on the Canopus award slate is Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora, a cautionary tale that seems to draw focus away from space and back to Earth, and not Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves, a masturbatory exercise in space gadgetry if ever there were. One would have almost expected Stephenson’s novel to be a shoo-in given the novel’s theme, but I’m not the award’s organizer.
Looking through the Science Fiction Awards Database, a person finds many a defunct award. The group were able to hold the ship together for a few years, sometimes even a decade or more, before the strings let loose (probably the purse strings) and the award slipped into the night of genre awareness (that vast space comprising the majority of material older than ten years). I’m not pronouncing the Canopus’ doom, but with so many crises at hand on Earth, I think I’m in Aurora’s boat, not Seveneves. Shouldn’t we be solving Earth’s problems before tackling the riddle of space????
(12) A patent has been granted for a space elevator.
Patent granted to space elevator brings science fiction one step closer to reality
Canada-based Thoth Technology was recently granted U.S. and U.K. patents for a space elevator reaching 12.5 miles into the sky. The ThothX Tower is a proposed freestanding piece of futuristic, pneumatically pressurized architecture, designed to propel astronauts into the stratosphere. Then they can then be launched into space. The tower would also likely be used to generate wind energy, host communications technology and will be open to space tourists.
(13) And in the biological sciences the news is –
Never too late to be who you are: Britain's oldest tree appears to be undergoing a sex change after 3,000 years – https://t.co/KOcVJ1ZVhW
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) November 4, 2015
(14) Never bet against Einstein when general relativity is on the line!
Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity has been proven right again — and this time, physicists have pinned down just how precise it is: Any deviations from his theory of general relativity are so small that they would change calculations by just one part in 10,000 to one part in 100,000.
(15) Though not a genre film, Christmas Eve has Patrick Stewart in it.
[Thanks to rcade, Daniel Dern, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]
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(8) As a white male I’m uniquely qualified to tell you how women and minorities should feel about their representation in fiction, and because I don’t feel underrepresented they shouldn’t feel that way either.
2. Did that show ever come to the US? We could always use more Sir David, with or without Spiny Norman (Diiiinsdaaaale…).
8. Sure, he can enjoy stories about people not like him, but would he like ’em as much if NONE of them were about people like him, instead of just an occasional fun option? This is what Puppies don’t understand. I suspect he wouldn’t enjoy it as much if he was forced to take the Tempest Bradford challenge for his childhood and entire life, because that’s all there was. (ticks off “whitesplaining”, “mansplaining”, and “straightsplaining” bingo squares.)
(8)
Based on the works they slated, this apparently also includes skill.
Almost fifth?
12.5 miles is high, but it’s not what I’d call space.
Eeee. Fifth.
8. And not seeing anyone I can recognize as me in the future does bad things for my suspension of disbelief.
(8) I tried reading it & bounced off. Anyone care to summarize?
[And then I tried reading the comments for a hint. That was a mistake.]
ETA: Ummm, Fifth?
My experience should be universal.
Chuck Wendig is shit.
Tokenism shows racism is dead.
Misuse of the term ‘Mary Sue’.
Women, blacks and gays are like children if they need protagonists to be like themselves. So liberals are the real racists here.
Puppy kickers! SJWs! socialism! yada yada…
Puppies represent real diversity
Maybe you didn’t bounce off, maybe it just doesn’t make much sense 😉
Rule of thumb: Any article talking about Puppy-Kickers can be safely set aside.
Well, Lawrence Railey just blinded me with his white maleness. Send help!
Actually, who the hell is he that we should be concerned with his opinion on storytelling and diversity? I’ve tried Google: the first result is that piece of crap, then dead playwright* and just Facebook profiles of random people with same or similar names. Quick Goodreads search gets nothing.
*Hopefully Puppies haven’t started on necromancy or somebody will have to ask Phil Sandifer for help.
But what if it’s Nanny Ogg?
OK, fair enough on the wild deer but you can see foxes and grey squirrels in London suburbs. I can’t recall seeing a hedgehog in London but it wouldn’t surprise me (and there are deer in Richmond). It would have to be worse that not taking walks in the countryside and have to be ‘never looking in my garden at nightime’.
Since the clock change I’ve been a bit late putting hedgie food out in the evening.
I keep finding them sitting there, waiting for me…
In earlier years (on Facebook)
Hedgehogs are nocturnal, so unless you’re in the habit of taking countryside walks at night you’re more likely to see a hedgehog in town.
It’s over 20 years since I saw a hedgehog; snuffling around in the middle of the road at 2am in Leeds 6. (I scooped her up and popped her on to what seemed a somewhat less vulnerable patch).
In brighter news, I have recently seen red squirrels in Kielder (the decline has been reversed very recently up there) and a vixen raised four cubs in my garden in Tufnell Park this year (once dropping into my room to investigate a chicken sandwich.)
But hedgehogs seem to be in trouble…
It’s quite hard to go out into the country without seeing a flattened hedgehog.
I’ve also seen roadkill hares, rabbits, rats, squirrels, badgers, foxes and deer this year. I’ve seen most of them alive as well.
I had no idea that there was an epidemic of visual impairment in England. I can’t think of any other plausible explanation for 26% never having seen a grey squirrel. They’re as common as dirt, and you don’t need to go for a walk in the countryside to see one.
OK, I see why Puppies can’t understand diversity culturally because of their backgrounds. But with all that “good storytelling” nonsense they should be able to see it at least as storytelling tool with infinite potential to do new (relatively) and exiting things. Isn’t that what science fiction is about?
I should go breathe and look for some hedgehogs. They’ll understand.
The dalek relaxation tape is a few years old
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJSQFzw1pEE
Peter Serafinowicz also did the excellent Look Around You, shorts in the style of school science videos
if you google “Lawrence Railey science fiction” you’ll find he’s…
…someone who wrote a blog post about wrongfans on another Puppy site.
oh and “I am also an aspiring author. I’ve written my share of SciFi short stories, and have a novel that, irritatingly, I cannot seem to finish to my satisfaction”
There is an alarming decline in the number of hedgehogs in the UK – it’s years since I last saw one snuffling about in the back garden. (On the other hand, it’s… about eighteen hours… since I last saw a grey squirrel. And that’s only because I haven’t looked in the back garden yet this morning.)
I’m worried that, whatever Nanny Ogg might say, the hedgehogs of the UK are, in fact… um, never mind.
Do you really want to know? If so go here: http://thedeclination.com/author/dystopic/
@Hypnotosov,
Well that was a truly horrible read.
This bit really stuck out:
You know, I used to think that Vox Day was, perhaps, a bit too hasty in referring to N.K. Jemisin as a “half-savage.” I’m starting to reasses this. Only a moron would believe that the Hugos are a battle for the “future of the future.”
Unbelievable. Possibly the flimsiest reason for excusing racism that I’ve ever come across.
I’m having difficulty processing just how unpleasant these people are.
Trust the Daily Fail to spout bollocks even on such neutral subjects.
a. 16 walks in the countryside a year is an incredibly high average. I’d like to know how many people living in Chipping Norton their sample is made up of.
b. Which doesn’t much matter because you are far, far more likely to see an hedgehog, fox or squirrel in central London than in the countryside. In fact, I would be really, really surprised if they can find somebody, let alone a quarter of Londoners, who has never seen a fox or a grey squirrel. You’d have to have lived under a rock. Rabbits used to live in great numbers in the roundabout before Stansted Airport, but they have disappeared lately, sadly.
c. Also, plenty of deer in Richmond park, and a few other enclaves; not so many in “the countryside”, as “the countryside” in this country is farmed or pastured and deer are shy creatures.
Which it is. When I hear “hedgehog” my first thought is “Nanny Ogg” and my second is “Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle”.
I live well within the boundaries of a major US city. In my own yard I have seen raccoons, opossums, and rabbits (grey squirrels are rather less remarkable). In my neighborhood I have seen more raccoons and opossums, snakes, pheasants, herons, and hawks. A friend saw a fox (I haven’t, though). Elsewhere in the city I have seen a wild beaver. I have of seen wild turkeys and many deer wandering the suburbs, although not yet in the city.
I wonder how it is that UK wildlife does not cross paths with urban dwellers so often.
… Or, as Anna Feruglia Dal Dan says, perhaps the source of the claim is to be mistrusted.
Camestros:
I have. They are nocturnal, much more than foxes, and a bit cranky, and unfortunately there aren’t as many around as they used to be, but they are there.
(2) It’s the Daily Hate – think of New York Post (only more xenophobic).
I live in the suburbs of Leeds, and most weeks see molehills (not moles, as they are furtive little beggars), foxes, hedgehogs, grey squirrels, red kites, and the occasional deer in nearby Adel Woods.
(8) Jeez, what a dick; a perfect example of “white straight male privilege” (and you can’t get much whiter than me, a Scot of Irish descent – I get sunburnt at a fireworks display…).
(8)
The experience of a tourist is not the same as that of a refugee.
Plenty of hedgehogs and squirrels round my way, in various parks and woodland areas of South Yorkshire.
And also, this just popped up in my Facebook feed:
https://www.facebook.com/FifthMcr/
Seems like the ideal place for Filers to let their hair down (and conveniently placed for anyone attending Eastercon next year).
It occurs to me I responded to this Railey fellow months ago in my blogpost on competence porn as self-insertion fiction, which was responding to Ken Burnside’s post-Hugo retrospective. Burnside basically agreed with my point, and IIRC Mike linked it in a roundup/scroll. So my work here is done.
(8) Is that what the Puppies believe this week? Their goalposts are currently in orbit around Jupiter.
So now the Pups are all about story first. Didn’t Paul say in her non-response essay that the Pups were about getting overlooked works (such as books by apparently unknown authors like Jim Butcher and Kevin J. Anderson) on the Hugo ballot and “nothing more, nothing less”. Which is it?
Of course, the “good storytelling” mantra of the Pups would carry more weight if they hadn’t nominated so many pieces of badly written message fiction, or so many things that weren’t stories, or so many stories that were so bland that reading them was akin to eating stale white bread.
The long tail, with people like me who might manage 80 countryside walks a year, will raise the average.
People with dogs (and there are many in the UK) will raise the average even more.
So 8) gives us another helping of “fiction is all about empathizing with people different from you” by someone who thinks it’s a problem that people might want more protagonists different from him. Got it.
Actual puppies are a lot more accepting of diversity, and a lot more able to empathize with people different from them, or at least with anyone who has a ball or a dog treat or offers to take them for a walk. I like real puppies.
::tick::
(2) I’ve been blocked writing your 2016 battle hymn however this item resulted in the line:
Onward, Puppy kickers, scrolling as to war, / With a giant hedgehog going on before
… I’d better keep working and get back to you.
Re (8): He’s right, you know, reading characters that are not you is great. Which is why I’d hate for the poor downtrodden white men of the First World to miss out on the experience.
Re Hedgehogs: Heck, I’ve seen hedgehogs in London (in Brixton, no less), and I’ve spent maybe a month there in total.
Peace:
I think it does, in London, at least, from my limited experience and hear-tell. But, more generally, American cities are not like many other cities in the world: here in Lisbon, as an example, urban density over time makes wildlife much less probable (or varied) than over there. We get migrating birds, sure, and, lately, some feral parrots (escapees? who knows) and the odd bird of prey going by. Other than that, it’s pigeons and rats (I have a hard time differentiating the two) and the occasional (and very welcome) gecko.
I really miss that about Austin, the deer, the bats, even the pesky squirrels that stole peoples food right out of their hands. But not so much the fire-ants.
Those aren’t the Daily Mail‘s numbers, they are just reporting on the survey sponsored by the Natural Curiosities show. The Telegraph has a more full report, but still doesn’t say where to find the actual paper. Sample size, at least for the walking, was 2000 people. I would have liked to have seen some distribution information. I would guess there are a few who walk most days, but maybe not enough to show up in the sample, and a bunch who walk about 50 times a year.
And I’m a bit surprised that more British have seen foxes than deer. Here in New Jersey, I see deer frequently, but maybe two foxes in my life. Perhaps North American foxes are more shy.
In the UK foxes are an urban pest, while deer are a shy rural creature. I’m cycling through the country almost every weekend and see deer rarely, people living in cities will likely see a fox most weeks.
[ticky]
Think of the fox as the more colorful cousin of the coyote. I’m told coyotes have gotten to New York. Soon they will be ubiquitous.
I’m currently reading the much-raved-about THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS by Aliette de Bodard.
I’m almost finished now, but I’ve found it a bit of a slog. I like the concept and the setting, but I don’t find any of the characters particularly engaging. Am I alone in this?
I think the key thing was that it was walking in the countryside. I live in a small city and can easily access the country, so do the bulk of my dog owning friends. People living in the centre of London though will walk their dogs in parks and only sometimes make it out of the city.
(8) Books do not have to be self-insertion fics, and they do not need to push a socio-political agenda.
How many of the great works of science fiction have not pushed a socio-political agenda? I’m guessing the number is pretty small.
@ Rob_matic re: House of Shattered Wings.
No, I did as well. I’d rather have had a tale of pre-war Paris and the angels, or the war myself. As it was, it was well crafted but not to my taste.
As Putney is a relatively green part of London, we do get our fair share of wildlife. This morning I looked out the kitchen window to see a squirrel staring at me, and while Drunk Parrot is a thing, we also get plenty of native species at the bottom of the garden: jays, woodpeckers, several species of tit, woodpigeons, rooks, the returning ravens, and back by popular demand, sparrows.
Animal life comes courtesy of the railway cutting we back on to, with several families of foxes, plenty of small rodents, and even the odd badger. Oh, and hedgehogs. You may not see them, but you certainly can hear them: a neighbour once called the police over what appeared to be a particularly gruesome and loud murder, only to discover it was a pair of hedgehogs mating…
Listening to hedgehog and fox sex at 3am isn’t something you’d expect from a city, but there you go. I fully expect their screams to replace Wilhelm’s eventually…
@Ed
Oh, they’re even worse than you think. Eric Raymond, an OSS advocate, just posted this supposed warning from a ‘source’ that there is a targeted initiative by women in tech to get male programmers alone and then call rape and sexual assault on them: http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=6907
Take a look in the comments and you’ll find lots of familiar faces: Jay Maynard, James May, J.C Soloman, the Honey Badgers, etc. And many positive references back to Beale’s ‘SJWs always lie’.
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21677188-it-rare-new-animal-species-emerge-front-scientists-eyes
interesting piece on coyote-related animals in eastern North America.
Dex:
And the lunatics at Breitbart picked it up.
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2015/11/04/feminists-are-trying-to-frame-linus-torvalds-for-sexual-assault-claims-open-source-industry-veteran/