(1) “The Empire Strikes Thomas Kinkade” points to Jeff Bennett’s satirical improvements on “The Artist of Light.”
(2) American wizards have a completely different word for “Muggle” reveals Entertainment Weekly.
Next year’s Harry Potter prequel film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set in 1926 New York, where the wizarding community uses another term entirely for people without magical powers.
In shifting the franchise away from the U.K., author J.K. Rowling — who also wrote the movie’s screenplay — is poised to introduce several new words into the Potterverse lexicon, and the most significant might be what Stateside wizards say instead of Muggle: “No-Maj” (pronounced “no madge,” as in “no magic”).
(3) And here’s a gallery of images from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
In Entertainment Weekly’s new issue, we go on the set and deep inside the chamber of secrets of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Here’s your first look at Katherine Waterston as Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein, Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Alison Sudol and Queenie Goldstein, and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski.
(4) More alleged secrets are spilled by the host of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert:
J.K. Rowling can’t stop revealing “Harry Potter” secrets, even though the last book came out over 8 years ago. It’s time for Stephen to take spoilers into his own hands.
(5) Adam Whitehead, in “A History of Epic Fantasy – Part 25“, courts controversy by asking about the Harry Potter series:
But is it really an epic fantasy?
That question has been asked many times before and has proven slightly controversial. The more obvious answer may be no: the books are set in the “real” world, with some of the action taking place in real locations such as London. Much of the story is set in and around a single location, Hogwarts, whilst epic fantasy is often based around a long journey or series of journeys across a fantastical landscape. Epic fantasy also usually features a large and diverse number of nonhuman races, whilst Harry Potter only has a small number of them, and all of the primary protagonists are human. Epic fantasy also relies on characters with diverse skillsets, whilst in Potter pretty much everyone of note is a wizard.
But there are strong arguments to the counter. The books may touch on the real world but most of the action takes place in original, fantastical locations such as Hogwarts. Also, the books make much of the idea of the world being similar to ours, but one where magic is real (if mostly secret) and the impact that has on government and society, making it arguably an alt-history.
(6) At World Fantasy Con 2015:
When Gene Wolfe interviewed Tom Doherty & we all interviewed them both. @WmReeve @Prittithings @alatalan #WFC2015 pic.twitter.com/JUHgPtJNQr
— Christine M. Cohen (@rileymarie42) November 8, 2015
(7) Also allegedly sighted at WFC by Adam Christopher. No context!
Well I don't know about you, but I love a good SFF street fight… pic.twitter.com/73V0IzGndI
— Adam Christopher (@ghostfinder) November 7, 2015
(8) Ethan Mills continues his celebration of Stoic Week at Examined Worlds.
Friday: Relationships with Other People and Society Stoics, Vulcans, Buddhists, and artificial intelligences alike are often accused of being emotionless and not caring about other people. In all four cases, this is a mistake (although in the case of AIs, it may depend on which AI you’re talking about). See my philosophical tribute to Leonard Nimoy for more on this point. As any sufficiently nerdy Star Trek fan knows, Vulcans actually have emotions, but, in many of the same ways as Stoics, they train themselves to move beyond being controlled by negative emotions and they cultivate positive emotions like compassion. Vulcans like Spock do care about their friends. The deep friendship that Spock feels for his crew mates, especially Kirk and McCoy, is unmistakable, as illustrated most poignantly near the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (whether Spock is a utilitarian or virtue ethicist is hard to say.)
Marcus Aurelius realized that cultivating compassion for everyone is often hard, especially when other people are obnoxious (as they so often are, even more so now that we have internet trolls).
(9) In “Guillermo del Toro’s Guide to Gothic Romance” at Rookie the director lists the Gothic romances that influenced him.
Do you ever wonder what goes on in the wondrous mind of director, producer, and screenwriter Guillermo del Toro? Yes? Same. Well, to chime with the recent release of his creepy, goth thriller Crimson Peak, Guillermo has curated a syllabus of the Gothic and Gothic romance novels, short stories, and engravings that influenced the making of the film. He sent us these recommendations with the following words: “I hope you enjoy some of these as fall or winter reads by the fireplace.” Before you post up beside an actual fire, here’s what Guillermo del Toro has to say about these Gothic essentials.
First on the list –
Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu This book defines the link between fairy tales and gothic romance. Uncle Silas is a convoluted, highly perverse mystery-thriller about innocence in danger, written by the master of ghost stories, J. Sheridan Le Fanu. It’s a dense but rewarding read, and it was crucial to Crimson Peak.
(10) Superman will make a (blurry) appearance on the next episode of Supergirl.
Consequently, Josh Wilding at We Got This Covered is a little bit crabby.
While it makes some sense that Superman would come and save the inexperienced Supergirl, the series really needs to find a way to take him off the board so he’s not continuously used as a plot device in future. If that’s not going to happen, then he should make an actual appearance instead of all these endless teases.
(11) Cedar Sanderson, “The Slow, Dark Eclipse of the Soul”, at Mad Genius Club.
It’s been a discouraging week, overall. First there was the article about SF writers coming into the genre without reading the classics of the genre. Then, when I started working on a list of classics available free (or very cheap) online to suggest to potential readers, I got a comment to the effect of ‘classics suck, they should die in a fire, and why should anyone read them?’
In the aftermath of that, which left me wondering why I was trying to make this list… I don’t make the lists to force anyone to read anything. I can’t – who am I? I’m not the teacher, or the… anything. I’m just someone who likes to create these lists of recommendations with input from others, and then they generate even more suggestions in the comments. I make lists to be beginnings, not endings. The hope is that someone will see a title they had never read, or had forgotten, and that strikes mental sparks in folks who have favorites they want to share, and so on. It’s about building up the genre, not tearing it down. I’d never say ‘you must read these books, and only these books, all others are anathema.’
As I was saying, I was still mentally mulling the whole ‘classics suck!’ thing over in my head, when a minor controversy erupted over writing book reviews. When, if ever, is it ok to be critical in a review? Should we put ourselves in a position where we say ‘well, that author is on my side, ergo I must never say a bad word about his work?’ Well, no, I don’t think so. Nor do I think that the occasional critical review is a bad thing – as long as the review is analyzing the work, not the author, and leavened with the good along with the bad. That’s how I do it. But it’s discouraging to be told that we can’t present a critical view of a work, simply because of who the author is.
(12) Fans are so smitten by the idea of an illuminated toy lightsaber that’s sturdy enough to bash around that they have fully funded Calimacil’s Kickstarter and then some – raising $46,889, well beyond the $38,259 goal.
The challenge was to build a lightsaber made of foam for safe play. To integrate light, we had to enhance the foam formula we normally use to build our products. Moreover, we had to develop a new technology into the handle to enable both light and sound. Thus our journey began, and we successfully achieved the creation of a fully immersive foam LEDsaber!….
The LEDsaber can communicate with a smartphone through Bluetooth. With that communication enabled, you will be able to customize the light effects of the blade. Multiple choices of colors are available: red, blue, green, orange and more. Even more, you can create various visual plasma effects on the blade….
Calimacil has no intention to commercialize the product using any kind of trademark associated to Disney. For the purpose of the kickstarter campaign we use the term LEDsaber.
(13) A lot of people post about their pets passing away, and I empathize with their sadness and loss.
It’s rare that someone can communicate what it was like to be in relationship with that animal, as John Scalzi has in “Lopsided Cat, 2000-2015”.
(14) And I therefore place next a BBC video in which an “Astronaut plays bagpipes on International Space Station” –
A US astronaut has played a set of Scottish-made bagpipes on the International Space Station to pay tribute to a colleague who died.
Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace on the pipes after recording a message about research scientist Victor Hurst, who was involved in astronaut training.
It is thought to be the first time that bagpipes have been played in space.
(15) Internet English – the language in which “honest” means “brutal”!
The Force is awakening soon – and we have an honest look at the trailer for the movie that everyone’s already going to see anyway.
[Thanks to Mark-kitteh, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Hampus Eckerman.]
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When I went to Austria (my first trip overseas) back in 2006, I honestly wasn’t too impressed with most of the food — lots of boiled beef or pork in heavy sauces. One of the better meals was a couple of nicely zippy Hungarian(?) sausages from a street vendor in Salzburg.
I was, however, quite taken with the idea of kuchen — most days, for lunch we’d just go to a little café and get some kind of cake or pastry or something similar, and a nice cup of coffee or espresso.
That’s spelled “gyros” in this neck of the woods. Pronounced the same, though.
After yesterday’s lively discussion on whether “hard SF” was a meaningful category, the article about whether Harry Potter is “heroic fantasy” seems like a cautionary tale on the pointlessness of subgeneric hairsplitting.
Also, ticky.
As the title of this scroll is all about manliness, I can’t resist sharing this image, which appeared in a post to the BSFA Facebook group:
http://40.media.tumblr.com/8a35fe484c3dc97ce3189fc3561cf81e/tumblr_nfacdnAvKq1rxd645o1_1280.jpg
Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Dan Dare – cissy names all. And he may be eligible for a retro Hugo, as he appeared in the comic Planet Stories in 1940 (if there is a retro Hugo for comics/graphic novels).
Throne of Glass got a lot of positive attention for its supposedly kickbutt assassin heroine. The book said she was an assassin, the book said she was a prisoner, but she seemed completely unaffected by any of it and a lot more preoccupied by the many male characters in the running for love interest. If you want books with female assassins and romantic subplots, try Robin LaFevers’ books instead.
(11) some other Filer must have already said this, but isn’t part of the issue in “why aren’t people reading XXXXX anymore?” the usual winnowing process that comes with time? The works that survive their immediate context are those agreed to be classics; of course, the merit of the work is not always the sole factor in this process.
Re: Americans who don’t like/have access to sausages. By sausages, I assume you mean the “emulsified-fat-filled offal tubes”* enjoyed by the British?
* yes, stolen from “Yes, Prime Minister”.
(5) I wouldn’t say the lack of a fully-formed secondary world setting prevents Harry Potter being an epic fantasy, but it didn’t start out trying to be one. Possibly Rowling was trying to move it into Epic territory by the end though.
In re Cedar Sanderson, what I want to know is this: who are these people who are forcing other people to read books, and how do I get on their good side? Because if I could make people read my stuff, I reckon I’d have it made.
Seriously. Unless you’ve got a set reading list for an academic course, or you have to read manuals and stuff for a job… apart from those exceptions, reading is an entirely voluntary process, isn’t it? Which would mean, wouldn’t it, that if people aren’t reading “the classics”, and are reading stuff with “strong female protagonists”… it can only be because they want to. As far as I can see.
(Closest anyone’s come to making me read something I didn’t want to was earlier this year, when I felt honour bound to read everything that was nominated for the Hugos, and a lot of tat had been shoved onto the list by… Oh.)
Honestly, my first response to anything from MGC tends to be “What fresh Hell is this?”
This one was tepid, really. CS had a ‘point’ to make (not always what happens at MGC) and I’m not sure it matters if there was an angry response or kerfuffle to the contrary. Where it falls apart for me is when she props up the now-ragged strawman of some people (wink) don’t want certain writers critizised for a new round of target practice.
So close to a pont, but CS drops the ball because she has to take a jab at bogeymen.
Hypnosotov: Contrary to some examples you may have seen, a fisk is about providing fuller and more accurate information, not just quoting a post with frequent interruptions for capering like a jackass. You’re embarrassing yourself. (And there’s a strong possibility I am misspelling “embarrass” again — Muphry’s Law in action.)
The Arboreal American Cedar makes some valid points, but
betrays the perverse us and them thinking that cripples the puppies thinking.
I feel obliged to register a small yip of disagreement here, I’m afraid, because Kinkade is clearly setting out to be a realistic painter (and an expert in lighting effects to boot), so I think it’s legitimate to assess how well, technically, he succeeds in that.
My own opinion is that technical ability matters rather more than you’d think, even in art forms that don’t show it – painters, writers, creators in general who “break the rules” do it best when they know what rules they’re breaking and how to break them to best effect. (The best abstract and conceptual artists are also very good conventional artists. When you look at, say, a Picasso, you know damn well that every line and every spot of paint is placed exactly where Picasso wanted it placed, and he had his reasons for it.)
For whatever it might be worth, I rather agree with your subjective assessment of Kinkade’s art… but it is a subjective assessment, and what you and I find twee and saccharine, might resonate to the very depths of someone else’s soul. (As for Kinkade himself being a horrible person… unfortunately, great art can be made by horrible people. I don’t think Kinkade is an example of that, but there certainly are examples.)
IMO Harry Potter makes more sense if you read it as being not in the tradition of Tolkien but of Roald Dahl.
The puppies have generally tried to deny that they were promoting authors for their politics, so I thought this was an interesting admission. Given the source, “our side,” in this case, must refer to right-wing politics.
I agree with @Nickpheas that the puppies appear to be the only ones doing this overtly, and so there really are not two “sides” in this conflict, within fandom. No one else is trying to make the Hugo awards a battleground for mainstream politics.
I now note Brad conflating the abridged Illustrated Encyclopaedia Of Science Fiction with the full Nicholls and Clute (in its various editions), and complaining about the omission of fantasy authors without considering that there may well have been a companion Encyclopaedia of Fantasy (which of course there was, in the shape of Clute and Grant).
Both were important volumes for me in my education in SFF, and I have all the editions (including the Illustrated on my shelves). I even have the CD-ROM, which I reviewed for SFX back in the day: http://sbisson.tumblr.com/post/9130378460/science-fiction-the-multimedia-encyclopedia-of
Sean O’Hara on November 7, 2015 at 11:51 pm said:
. Most of what fans call “classics” are actually quite terrible and are only fondly remembered because SF fans tend to start reading adult fiction before they have a fully functional sense of taste
You mean like:
The Martian Chronicles
Caves of Steel
Red Planet
The Humanoids
The Wanderer
Lord of Light
The Dying Earth
Way Station
Forever War
More Than Human
Downbelow Station
The Space Merchants
That’s 12 classics off the top of my head that are excellent. If I worked at it for a couple of hours, I could come up with a list of 50 or 100.
Current reading: Tom Doyle American Craftsmen. An interesting take on the “magic in the modern world”. Starts as a military fantasy (wizard black ops) then the wheels come off and it becomes a wild ride through a secret history of the roots of americana. Political conspiracy thriller meets urban fantasy.
Really enjoying it, and there’s already a sequel…
I am sorry to say that here in the financial heart of the City of London we do not have good, honest heart attack inducing breakfasts; about the most you can hope for is scrambled eggs with smoked salmon accompanied by freshly squeezed orange juice.
Gone are the days when you could amble up Whitecross St, crossing into Islington, and take your pick of four or five real cafes with the full English and proper mugs of tea. It’s gone upmarket; even the chippy is no longer a chippy. It’s a fish restaurant.
Admittedly, if you are prepared to walk up to Smithfield market you could probably find one of the pubs which will provide you with beer, eggs, bacon, sausages, black pudding, baked beans, tomatoes, and a fried slice, from 2am onwards, excluding Saturday’s, Sundays, and Bank Holidays, but you will be surrounded by guys smelling strongly of dead animals.
This means that you will end up smelling strongly of dead animals, which is not an asset in today’s career market, unless it’s in the wholesale meat market itself, in which case you will be fine.
@Stevie What, the chop houses are gone? Noooooooo!
@Hypnotosov: I liked your take on Cedar (BTW, who’s forcing whom to read message fic?! sigh), whether it’s truly a “fisk” (nod to Mike Glyer) or not.
And I feel like presence of comments, articles, etc. she’s supposedly reacting to does matter (sorry, I forget who said it doesn’t). It just feels like more bad-faith tiltling at windmills, I mean, strawmen, when they don’t link and there’s no evidence of whatever they’re claiming to rail against.
@Sausage Rolls: All this talk is making me hungry. Please send sausage rolls, which I had in London and would like more of (I’m not known for my healthy eating).
Steve Wright on November 8, 2015 at 2:43 am said:
Peace Is My Middle Name on November 8, 2015 at 6:32 am said:
I find his lack of craft closely related to his lack of content. His paintings give a distinct sense of not taking place anywhere — and I don’t mean they take place in a gorgeous fantasy world (like Maxfield Parrish or the Hildebrandt brothers). I mean they take place somewhere with all the WHEREness taken out of it. Light with no shadows, nature with no weather, landscapes with no depth, cottages with no life, surfaces with no texture, fantasies with no imagination. When rich people in the suburbs daydream about moving out to the country when they retire, this is what they dream about: a purely idealized countryside without dirt or decay, without struggle, without neighbors, without darkness, without distance.
The improbable light sources and flattened perspectives aren’t really supposed to tell us anything about the world they depict — in fact, we’re not even supposed to notice them consciously. They are an artifact of the paintings being constructed in order to push a certain set of emotional buttons, rather than to invite us into a truly convincing fantasy world. I mean, Edward Gorey is not a realistic artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I always believe in his worlds. Thomas Kinkade, I don’t believe in at all.
Sanderson’s Hugo packet stuff had an essay trying to make a very similar point. Apparently SF readers (in droves!) are getting so traumatized by “message fiction” involving “strong female characters” that they are, in what must be regarded as a perfectly understandable manifestation of literary PTSD, avoiding anything that looks like it might possibly contain a strong female character.
It’s very peculiar and I have no idea how somebody would form such an impression.
(14) And I therefore place next a BBC video in which an “Astronaut plays bagpipes on International Space Station” –
A US astronaut has played a set of Scottish-made bagpipes on the International Space Station to pay tribute to a colleague who died.
Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace on the pipes after recording a message about research scientist Victor Hurst, who was involved in astronaut training.
It is thought to be the first time that bagpipes have been played in space.
I thought that in space no one can hear you scream.
Or play the bagpipes.
I’m so disillusioned now.
I met sausage rolls in London in 1968.
Love at first bite.
It took a little hunting in 2008 to find some (and horrified my vegetarian daughter), but I tracked some down out by Kew Gardens.
Nom, nom, nom
(And, nope, these are not pigs in blankets, not sauced thingies on toothpicks, not stuff wrapped in a bun.
Just a perfect portable savory snack, flaky crust and no drips.)
@Meredith
Actually Winter is the last book in the series. Fairest was a short story prequel to the series and IMO was very poorly thought out and totally undermines the character of the Lunar Queen. I am pretending it never happened.
@Lauwolf
Isn’t there something about cruel and unusual punishment in US law?
Wait, I thought was the point?
Sorry sir, won’t happen again sir…
(14) Well, we’ve now had pipes and flute played up there, a drum kit is out of he question, as is a string bass, but fiddle and bodhran ought to be possible so you could get a folk band into low earth orbit with a bit of careful planning.
Some people have learned that certain cues in books will result in… bad things. Having been forced to read message fiction, they start reacting to any fiction that contains those ‘bells’ the same way. Strong female character who is oppressed by the patriarchy? Yip! There’s another reader running with tail tucked in fear.
Who are these readers who are running in fear from books? Exactly how fragile are the Pups that a strong female character can send them running away with their tail tucked between their legs?
Just read an interesting article “Crossovers and Team-ups in Fairy Land” looking at modern mashups of fairy tale characters (Once Upon a Time, Fable, etc) and connecting it to superhero team-ups.
What was particularly interesting though (to me, at least) is that the author is David Allen Green, a fairly well-known British barrister (for example, the “Twitter Joke” trial), who blogs as Jack of Kent and for the FT with trenchant views on serious subjects like Human Rights and Legal Aid. In short, geeks are everywhere!
Simon
I’m sorry to say that the chophouses were subject to the inexorable process of history; nowadays a cooked steak and kidney pudding is not to be found for love or money. This isn’t all bad; when I first worked in the City it was the domain of guys educated at public schools, who therefore assumed that cabbage had to be boiled for three hours in order for it to be cooked. So it was.
Cadbury Moose
If they tried hard enough they could get some Morris Dancers up there as well; it’s a priceless part of our heritage which should be immortalised.
Stevie on November 8, 2015 at 11:58 am said:
… Cadbury Moose
If they tried hard enough they could get some Morris Dancers up there as well; it’s a priceless part of our heritage which should be immortalised.
I am totally behind this idea.
They could set it up for Mayday, and follow or chase the dawn around the globe, jingling all the way.
Adapted for zero-gee as needed.
Aaron
I know your question was rhetorical, but it does make one wonder whether the fleeing people may have more to worry about than their tastes in fiction.
At the very least, their education may be somewhat lacking on the anatomy front…
@Mark. Yes, David is a well known comics fan.
Am visualizing morris dancing in zero gee. Am visualizing the reaction-spin from striking sticks together and flailing hankies. Am thinking this has serious possibilities.
Quaddie morris dancers?
Per various people on twitter, Lovecraft is definitely being “retired” from the World Fantasy Award statuette after this year. I predict some kerflufflage to come.
Also, some fine stuff on the ballot this year.
@Taral: re “mainstreaming of SFF” via Colbert (who is simply a huge geeky fanboy): We need to find something else to prove that we’re hip and avant guarde now.
I prefer to see it more as proof that our Cunning Plan to take over the world, the solar system, and eventually the universe is working as planned. *heh heh heh*
I rather agree with your subjective assessment of Kinkade’s art
Let me broaden that a bit: more examples of his work, translated into a different medium. I think his stuff is more problematic, the more recent it is. (He seems to have stopped doing paintings, and started doing ‘Thomas Kinkade paintings’.)
For maximum kerflufflage, replace him with Marion Zimmer Bradley.
(And I withdraw that suggestion immediately.)
@Peace is My Middle Name: I dislike Kinkade’s paintings because they are thin, empty, saccharine, syrupy, sappy, sugary, sentimental, safe visions of gated communities for lonely souls, as empty of content and nourishment as a candy bar, made by someone who was to all reports a terrible, manipulative, cynical person.
Excellent way to point to the major problem! Didn’t he (don’t they still) run sort of an assembly line/factory production, or am I thinking about something else?
@Steve Wright
Yeah, maybe not.
That said, rotating through a set of classic authors for the next few years could be a classy solution while keeping the “portrait” theme.
Mark: You heard it here fifth! World Fantasy Award To Abandon Lovecraft Bust.
@Steve Wright: re forcing people to read books. Unless you’ve got a set reading list for an academic course…
Not even that works.
I can say that as a student there were books I skipped in my English courses, even in my doctoral program (or, well stopped reading, like _Lady Chatterly’s Lover_ and _Ulysses_ [Joyce’s not the other dude’s]). And I know that students have skipped reading books in my classes (in many cases because they will tell me flat out–astounding but true!).
People who think teachers can “force” students to do anything have never been teachers (yes, there’s the threat of the GRADE but amazingly enough it doesn’t mean everyone will do everything you say).
(11)
Compare and contrast the comments & discussion in the thread about James Nicoll’s request for canonical SF for young readers to read with Cedar Sanderson’s article about classic SF.
There was a whole lot of nastiness going on with the Kinkade gallery franchising. They reeled in a lot of people by appealing to their Christianity–this was “spreading the light” and whatnot–and a bunch of people who invested in franchises lost their shirts when Kinkade tried to drive the stock price down so he could buy the company back from investors. It was not good.
He’s dead, incidentally. We can go to past-tense.
@Mike
I’ll let you type up the winners shall I?
Unfortunately Red Wombat will have to console herself with merely winning some Hollywood cash this week, rather than one of The Last Lovecrafts.
Mark: Good plan! 2015 World Fantasy Award Winners.
Oops, didn’t see you appear in the thread there RW, otherwise that wouldn’t have been all third person.
Has it stopped him working? I remember that L. Ron Hubbard managed to edit a surpassing number of anthologies even after his death, which it is said might have occurred some years before his acolytes told anyone.