Pixel Scroll 12/18/21 It Was Anti-Agathics All Along

I’ve been hammering at the keyboard on one thing and another since this morning’s WSFS business meeting. Thanks to Cat Eldridge, who’s the reason there’s something to read in today’s Scroll!

(1) COVER YOUR EXPANSE. An Expanse-themed ugly sweater (really not a sweater, more of a jersey but anyway) is being raffled off for charity by the authors. Get a $5 ticket here: “The Expanse Ugly Sweater Charity Raffle Ticket”. Tickets will be on sale through December 22, 2021, at 10:00 p.m. US Central Time.

During the most recent Expanse press event in Los Angeles, Wes was given this limited-edition ugly and amazing sweater. In the spirit of the season of giving, Ty and That Guy are raffling it off to give back to the community.

Supporting Families

In honor of the classic Christmas movie Die Hard and the importance it places on family during the holidays, Ty and That Guy are putting all the money raised from this raffle to sponsor a family this year.

Community Brickworks is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization staffed entirely by volunteers that operates a food pantry and library in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia. The Ty & That Guy donation will support one or more families in the area this holiday season.

(2) 2023 WORLDCON DECIDED. Chengdu, China will host the 2023 Worldcon. Kevin Standlee’s photo of their version of Progress Report Zero is below. So is SFW’s congratulatory banner. (Click on either for a larger image.) File 770’s report of the voting and 2023 guests of honor is at the link.  

(3) GETTING READY. Cora Buhlert allowed File 770 to preview the gown she will be wearing as she participates virtually in tonight’s Hugo Awards ceremony as a finalist. Her dad took the photo.

(4) FAN SERVICE. Screen Rant is prepared to tell you “Every Sci-Fi Icon Who Guest Starred On The Big Bang Theory”.

…A good portion of Big Bang Theory‘s millions of fans likely are said geeks, considering just how many sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book icons were brought on to guest star.

This, unsurprisingly, included multiple cast members from both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, generally considered the two champions of mainstream sci-fi. Sadly, Harrison Ford was never among that lot, as seeing him play off his generally grumpy public persona when dealing with Sheldon being annoying would’ve been terrific. Still, the sci-fi icons Big Bang Theory did manage to enlist the services of include some of the biggest genre names ever….

…[Levar] Burton’s Star Trek: The Next Generation colleague Brent Spiner – who played Lieutenant Commander Data – also appeared on Big Bang Theory, in season 5’s “The Russian Rocket Reaction.” Spiner attends a party thrown by another former co-star in Wheaton, and notably, when Sheldon shows up, he and Wheaton finally mend fences. That’s followed by Spiner accidentally putting himself on Sheldon’s enemies list….

(5) SFF AND THE REAL WORLD. Future Tense’s Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club has selected Infomocracy by Malka Older to discuss virtually on February 2, 2022.

Science fiction can have real policy impacts, and comes rife with real-life commentary. For the third gathering of our Science Fiction/Real Policy Book Club, we have selected Malka Older’s Infomocracy. The novel imagines a future where politics has become both simplified and infinitely more complex, thanks to the omniscient Information, which has led the transition from warring nation-states to a seemingly tidy form of corporate-ish global micro-democracy. 

Join Future Tense and Issues in Science and Technology at 6pm ET on February 2nd to discuss the novel and its real-world implications. The book club will feature breakout rooms (they’re fun and stress-free, we promise) where we can all compare notes and share reactions, even if we didn’t finish the book!

(6) MEDIA BIRTHDAY.

1968 [Item by Cat Eldridge.] Fifty three years ago, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang premiered. It was directed by Ken Hughes. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli of James Bond fame.

The screenplay was co-written by Roald Dahl and  Hughes as rather loosely based on Ian Fleming’s Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car novel. (If you want to read it, it is available at the usual suspects at a quite reasonable price.) The novel was published in 1964 after a few months after his death.The book became one of the best selling children’s books of the year. 

Broccoli was initially not enthusiastic about it but changed his mind after the success of Mary Poppins. The film had a cast of Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Benny Hill, James Robertson Justice, Adrian Hall, Heather Ripley, Lionel Jeffries, Robert Helpmann, Barbara Windsor and Gert Fröbe.

The film’s songs were written by the Sherman Brothers, who had previously composed the music for Mary Poppins

Critics loved with Roger Ebert saying that “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang contains about the best two-hour children’s movie you could hope for.” The box office however was an absolute disaster as it only made eight million on the budget of ten million that it cost to produce. Ouch. Audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently give it a rather excellent seventy-one percent rating.

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born December 18, 1913 Alfred Bester. He’s best remembered perhaps for The Demolished Man, which won the very first Hugo Award. I remember experiencing it as an audiobook — a very spooky affair! The Stars My Destination is equally impressive with Foyle both likeable and unlikable at the same time. Psychoshop which Zelazny finished is in my library but has escaped reading so far. I’ve run across references to Golem100 but I’ve never seen a copy anywhere. Has anyone read It?  (Died 1987.)
  • Born December 18, 1939 Michael Moorcock, 82. Summing up the career of Moorcock isn’t possible so I won’t. His Elric of Melniboné series is just plain awesome and I’m quite fond of the Dorian Hawkmoon series of novels as well.  Particular books that I’d like to note as enjoyable for me include The Metatemporal Detective collection and Mother London. Interestingly he was a nominated a number of times for a Hugo for Best Professional Magazine for New Worlds SF, his other Hugo nomination was at IguanaCon II for Gloriana, or, The Unfulfill’d Queen.
  • Born December 18, 1941 Jack C. Haldeman II. He’d get Birthday Honors if only for On the Planet of Zombie Vampires, book five of the adventures of Bill the Galactic Hero, co-written with Harry Harrison. He’d also get these honors for chairing Disclave 10 through Disclave 17, and a Worldcon as well, Discon II. He was a prolific short story writer, penning at least seventy-five such tales, but alas none of these, nor his novels, are available in digital form. His only Award is a Phoenix Award which is a lifetime achievement award for a SF professional who has done a great deal for Southern Fandom, quite a honor indeed.  (Died 2002.)
  • Born December 18, 1946 Steven Spielberg, 75. Are we counting Jaws as genre? I believe we are per an earlier discussion here. If so, that’s his first such genre work followed immediately by Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Between 1981 and 1984, he put out Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Twilight Zone: The Movie and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He’d repeate that amazing feat between ‘89 and ‘93 when he put out Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Hook (YEA!) which I both love followed by Jurassic Park which I don’t. The Lost World: Jurassic Park followed starting a string of so-so films,  A.I. Artificial IntelligenceMinority ReportWar of the Worlds and one decided stinker, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.   The BFG is simply wonderful. And I want one of the better Iron Giant figures on the market! 
  • Born December 18, 1953 Jeff Kober, 68. Actor who’s been in myriad genre series and films including VThe Twilight ZoneAlien Nation, the Poltergeist series,The X-Files series, Tank Girl as one of the kangaroos naturally, SupernaturalStar Trek: VoyagerStar Trek: Enterprise, Kindred: The Embraced and The Walking Dead. 
  • Born December 18, 1954 Ray Liotta, 67. We could just stop at him being Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams, don’t you think of it as being an exemplary genre cred? Well I do. On a much sillier note, he’s in two Muppet films, Muppets from Space and Muppets Most Wanted. On a very not silly note, he was Joey in Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.
  • Born December 18, 1968 Casper Van Dien, 53. Yes, Johnny Rico in that Starship Troopers. Not learning his lesson, he’d go on to film Starship Troopers 3: Marauder and the animated Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars. Do not go read the descriptions of these films!  (Hint: the former has a nineteen percent rating among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes.) He’d also star as Tarzan in Tarzan and the Lost City, show up as Brom Van Brunt In Sleepy Hollow, be Captain Abraham Van Helsing In Dracula 3000, James K. Polk in, oh really CasperAbraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter sequels, Rumpelstiltskin in Avengers Grimm and Saber Raine In Star Raiders: The Adventures of Saber Raine.

(8) SIGNING ON. Paul Weimer admired the good taste of people in line for Martha Wells’ autograph.

(9) BIGGEST FAN. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] In the Washington Post, David Betancourt interviews Tom Holland about Spider-Man:  No Way Home. He notes that Holland will play Fred Astaire in an upcoming film, “a role he thinks he convinced producer Amy Pascal that he was right for when he would tap-dance on the Spider-Man set to stay warm between takes,” “Tom Holland is still a Spider-Man fan at heart”.

… Back then, when the highly anticipated trailer for “Captain America: Civil War” debuted to celebrate Spider-Man’s arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Holland figured nothing would surprise him. Then Spider-Man blinked.

That subtle CGI movement of the eyes on his mask looked like a camera lens zooming in and out.It was inspired by the character’s original look in the comic books — and was designed to show the film was sprinkling the character with a bit of MCU magic. Holland, a lifelong Spider-Man fan who also happened to be Spider-Man, was caught up in the hype….

(10) ANOTHER BRIDGE TO CROSS. Comicbook.com has the photo: “The Orville Season 3 First Look Released”.

Hulu has provided The Orville fans with the first look at the show’s return as The Orville: New Dawn. That new subtitle comes as The Orville becomes a streaming original on Hulu, leaving its broadcast home, FOX, behind. It’s been a long wait, but The Orville fans can finally start counting down the weeks. The new image shows several returning characters: Capt. Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane, series creator), Cmdr. Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), and Lt. Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes), and Isaac (Marc Jackson) at their posts on the ship’s bridge. Recurring guest star Admiral Halsey (Victor Garber) is also present.

(11) FUZZY MEMORY. MeTV asks if you “Ever wonder why the women on ‘Star Trek’ appear out of focus?” Learn more about Classic Trek’s cinematographer at the link.

… The soft focus was often paired with romantic, swooning music. While the crew members were shot heroically in blazing light and sharp focus, love interests, on the other hand, looked more like watercolors. To achieve the effect, thin layers of plastic, or diffusion filters, were placed before the lens for those shots. No, as far as we know, Vaseline was not smeared on the lens. The technique came to be known as “The Gaussian Girl,” named for the Gaussian blur. …

[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, John King Tarpinian, Kevin Standlee, Sheila Addison, Andrew Porter, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern, who says the key is in this YouTube video.]

101 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 12/18/21 It Was Anti-Agathics All Along

  1. Cally: Now if we’d nominated that Lodestar winning book for Best Novel, we could look forward to a third installment!!

  2. “I want to thank scientists for the tests that kept me from being with you tonight.” — Sarah Pinsker, accepting Best Novelette

  3. Best Novel:

    oh great they’re stopping for a stupid bit. Don’t make the nominees wait to find out; that’s just cruel

  4. And two hours, nearly on the nose (given the slightly late start). Not perfect, but not bad

  5. 3) Shiny!

    6) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a childhood staple. I’m not entirely sure how well it’s held up (if nothing else, it could probably stand to be about 30 minutes shorter), and I’ve only in recent years realized that the Child Catcher is playing to some VERY unfortunate ethnic stereotypes, but I do still like it. The Child Catcher is genuinely scary, and “Me Old Bamboo” is an all-time great musical number.

    7) As far as Moorcock, I love all of the Eternal Champion stuff, but I think Corum is my particular favorite.

    Congrats! to all the Hugo winners and nominees. I’m especially happy about Empress of Salt & Fortune.

  6. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a childhood staple. I’m not entirely sure how well it’s held up …

    My college-age sons and I gave this movie a rewatch recently after I couldn’t shut up about my dream career being to invent oddball things all day in a garage like Caractacus Potts. In my 1970s childhood, I loved this movie and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory above all others.

    Chitty Chitty Bang Bang didn’t hold up at all. There are some charming moments and songs but it all became relentless and annoying. We bailed halfway through.

    However I still want the toy car.

  7. When somebody finds where the internet is hiding the 2021 Hugo voting stats, please let me know!

  8. Calls says oh great they’re stopping for a stupid bit. Don’t make the nominees wait to find out; that’s just cruel.

    If they took out the unnecessary kibbles and bits and I include the musical bit to passed on in that list, the entire Award ceremony would’ve clocked in at about one hour and thirty minutes.

    The other thing that annoyed me was explaining each Award. Surely given who was there it’s unnecessary to explain what a novella or novel is! Just give the Award for the Best Novel please!

  9. oh great they’re stopping for a stupid bit. Don’t make the nominees wait to find out; that’s just cruel

    I enjoyed the bit there. The ceremony sailed along at such a nice pace that I could accept a short and silly life-in-the-Beltway joke told twice.

    The awards tonight were nicely done and put the focus on the winners and nominees where it belonged. When things got rolling with that epic drumline I was fired up and ready to go.

    I loved the voiceover describing facts about the winners and their number of past nominations just like Peter Coyote did for years at the Oscars. There was a lot of professionalism in this production and I was impressed.

    The only things I didn’t like were the vertigo-inducing presentation of the In Memoriam and the choice to read aloud the title of one Best Related Work.

    But overall the night was about joy and adding more seats to the table of SFF for marginalized pros and fans. I’ll take it.

  10. We had a chance to not hear John W. Campbell’s name during the Hugo Awards ceremony for the first time in 48 years.

    I know why the hosts said it, but I must sad trombone.

  11. Congrats to all the winners of Best Hugos, the Amazing Award and the Lodestar Award! And a heartfelt thank you to all the finalists for giving the world such amazing work, especially because it was such a difficult year for the world. Every one of you deserved an award tonight.

  12. @rcade – “When was the last time a dramatic presentation winner made an acceptance speech?”

    The Good Place had a prerecorded acceptance speech they played in at least once before. 2018?

  13. I debated on whether to mention this, but I was really hoping last year’s justifiable upset over the mispronunciation of names would result in this year getting the names right. I think they did a much better job than last year, but I was still bothered by how many mispronunciations there were. What is the fix for this?

  14. I wasn’t watching, so I don’t know how good or bad a job was done on name pronunciation. However, I doubt perfection is possible, because humans are involved. “A much better job than last year” sounds as if they made a serious, respectable effort to do better. If that’s correct, that should be praised–and next year’s Hugo presentation team should be encouraged to note both the successes and the failures, learn from them, and do still better next year. And likewise the Chengdu team, learn from DisCon and Chicago. Etc.

    Perfection won’t happen. Consistent improvement can.

    Note again that I’m not commenting on actual performance at DisCon III, because I didn’t see it.

  15. @Lorien Gray

    I was still bothered by how many mispronunciations there were. What is the fix for this?

    Pre-record them, possibly.
    Once I introduced a performer at a local variety show. He had written out his preferred introduction (always appreciated), and 30 seconds before he went on stage, I checked to make sure I was pronouncing his name right. He told me the correct pronunciation, and I went out and promptly did it the wrong way.
    People gonna mess stuff up sometimes, no matter what you do.

  16. From being there, I thought it went very well with few glitches and no obvious assholetry. And we learned a lot about slime molds.

  17. I get that mistakes happen and some were the effect of tiredness and/or being tongue-tied. But there really needs to be a stronger effort to get the names of finalists right. I’m sure ‘Shannon’ McGuire would appreciate it. I can’t even begin to describe what happened with Vina Jie-Min Prasad’s name. It was mangled, mangled again and then a third time. And frankly, I expected the hosts to get the name of the Con Chair right. I know people mispronounce Mary Robinette Kowal’s name all the time, but come on, she’s the chair. I applaud the improvements made, but there’s still work to be done.

    Maybe I’m too sensitive on this topic as my name is most always mispronounced or misspelled. But after a lifetime of being a good sport about it, I have to wonder how hard it is to make the effort to get it right.

  18. If I was in charge of things, I’d deploy mispronunciation countermeasures that included teaching the International Phonetic Alphabet to everyone involved. This is probably one of the reasons I will never be put in charge of things.

  19. Whenever I tell someone my name, I spell both first name and last, because otherwise, it will be misspelled. And really, it’s a fairly simple name, with exactly one tricky bit if you’re not paying attention.

    I spent eight of the happiest years of my working life at a company where a significant minority of my coworkers couldn’t pronounce “Elisabeth” properly, because they were German and with one notable exception just could not get the “th” at the end of Elisabeth. They would patiently try to help me get their and other German names correct, and some names i could learn to get right, other times I couldn’t but could hear what I wasn’t getting right, but could only get better, not 100% correct. And sometimes, no, sorry, I could see on their faces I wasn’t getting it right, but I literally could not hear the difference between what they were saying and what I was saying. Seriously. This happens with some phonemes; if you don’t grow up with it, you can’t even hear it, so good luck pronouncing it.

    Which is what I suspected was happening with “Elisabeth.” The “th” just doesn’t exist in most of Germany, and the one German coworker who said it correctly was from a different part of Germany than the others.

    But overall, we all did the best we could, and accepted other people’s best efforts.

    But it sounds like there were some mistakes, at least, that just shouldn’t have happened. That is really disappointing.

  20. (3) GETTING READY. @Cora Buhlert: Lovely gown & accessories; you look stunning!

    (8) SIGNING ON. I got the audiobooks, so I had nothing to sign. I should’ve thought to stop by anyway to gush, though!

    @Cat Eldridge: The tirade came in 4th. Too high, IMHO.

    @rcade: I agree! The ceremony was very well done (except the “in memoriam” part). Comedic bits were few, short, and not over-done, IMHO.

    @Lorien Gray: I agree with @Lis Carey; consistent improvement. Even pre-recording may not get perfection, @bill, and I’d rather not have tedious pre-recorded segments, which usually seem flatter and less natural to me.

    That said, I admit I was disappointed they mispronounced the Vice President’s name (Kamala)! Le sigh. That one surprised me they got wrong!

    They used the first pronunciation in the ad shown in this video instead of the correct one. Oh well.

  21. @Kendall: the rant also came in 2nd in terms of first-place votes, and stayed close to the winner until pass 6… that’s a sizeable support base.

  22. Bartimaeus: the rant also came in 2nd in terms of first-place votes, and stayed close to the winner until pass 6… that’s a sizeable support base.

    The rant had the second-most first-place votes, on 21% of ballots, but neither it nor the winner had wide support among the voters who did not place them first. Each time the votes were redistributed, they mostly went to other finalists, which is why the top two were close for so many eliminations – until the last elimination, when most of the votes for the Butler work went to the Beowulf work. The rant ended up in 4th place because of its lack of secondary support; in other words, it was not a strong consensus choice.

  23. I must say that I think the Hugo Awards Ceremony being sponsored by war profiteer and Human Rights offender Raytheon is a much, much larger scandal than names being mispronounced (which are bad enough).

    Thank god there’s some pushback.

  24. Speaking from someone there. The Drumline was unexpected, the DC bit was a bit tired the second time.

    I did like the Oscar style recap of nominees past in the category and I think the explanation of each category was meant for a wider audiences. We know what a novella length is, but T.C. PITS (The celebrated Person on the Street) or even casual fans, do not

  25. I was sitting in row 2, audience left. The photos from the @TheHugoAwards Twitter were taken by me.

    I like the announcement of each category’s definition. I’ve learned that even people who should have a deep level knowledge of WSFS, Worldcon, and the Hugo Awards (in this case, long time regular attendees of the WSFS Business Meeting) often don’t really know the definitions. Thus it’s surely the case that the thousands watching the event at the convention including many who don’t know what the categories cover, and that probably goes doubly for people watching online, many of whom may never have even attended a Worldcon.

    I also like the recaps, although the Voice of Ghod should perhaps wait for the applause to subside slightly before starting because I couldn’t hear the first part of each recap on account of it being drowned out by the applause. This might have been different for those watching online.

    The “motorcade” joke I thought was funny, and I wasn’t troubled by the second use, and I might have even tolerated a third one if it had been timed well. The second appearance appeared to me last only about one minute, maybe two at most, and was shorter than the first one that had established the running gag. (Oh, and incidentally, we did have an actual motorcade that I noticed go by the hotel earlier in the convention. We’ve also had helicopters fly overhead that Lisa says look like something from the Presidential fleet, and that others speculated might have been VP Harris, based on where we are in the DC area.)

    If speed is the only thing we care about, why bother having a ceremony at all? Just post the results on a sign outside the convention office.

  26. I think the pacing went pretty well, especially compared with previous years where the MCs were authors taking fiendish pleasure in teasing the nominees with delays. (Other that the one-hour delay in starting.)

    Though I wonder if there will be push back about not reading the co-editors list for Strange Horizons.

  27. Paul Weimer says I did like the Oscar style recap of nominees past in the category and I think the explanation of each category was meant for a wider audiences. We know what a novella length is, but T.C. PITS (The celebrated Person on the Street) or even casual fans, do not.

    What causal fans? There were only several hundred online viewers the entire times as noted by the counter, almost all of which I assume were folks like me that bought supporting memberships. This was an insiders event and explaining categories served no purpose.

    The only place I can see an explanation being a good idea are the auxiliary Awards.

  28. @Cat it was recorded; there was press present as well
    I can see an argument for streamlining the show by leaving all that out. I however do not see it as an active harm to the ceremony and presentation.

  29. Though I wonder if there will be push back about not reading the co-editors list for Strange Horizons.

    I didn’t have a problem with it not being read because of the length of the list. I just wish the slide had been onscreen a little longer in the broadcast. There wasn’t much time to take it in.

  30. The rant had the second-most first-place votes, on 21% of ballots, but neither it nor the winner had wide support among the voters who did not place them first.

    The lack of wide support is true until the Octavia Butler book A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky was eliminated in pass 5. Out of 327 votes that shifted, 283 went to Beowulf (87.5%) and 44 went to the rant (13.5%).

    This looks like a victory for those of us who like books to win Best Related Work.

  31. Fitting that Murderbot won two awards at the convention that’s sponsored by the company who is actually making murder robots.

  32. Cat Eldridge wrote:

    What causal fans? There were only several hundred online viewers the entire times as noted by the counter, almost all of which I assume were folks like me that bought supporting memberships. This was an insiders event and explaining categories served no purpose.

    It depends on how you define “casual fan.” I’ve been reading SFF since dinosaurs walked the earth (OK, since I read books like Star Ka’at and The City Underground). But I haven’t been part of many conventions (except PulpFest, and only since they moved near Pittsburgh). While I read prozines and wandered onto semiprozines, I was outside of a lot of fan culture, including fanzines. (*) I also go through periods where I read more in other genres and many where I don’t read a lot of shorter SFF. I also dare to count myself a fan of romance and horror as well. So many would call me a “casual fan.”

    (*) Then I got online. Coming across File 770 has been an education! 🙂

  33. Anne Marble says It depends on how you define “casual fan.” I’ve been reading SFF since dinosaurs walked the earth (OK, since I read books like Star Ka’at and The City Underground). But I haven’t been part of many conventions (except PulpFest, and only since they moved near Pittsburgh). While I read prozines and wandered onto semiprozines, I was outside of a lot of fan culture, including fanzines. (*) I also go through periods where I read more in other genres and many where I don’t read a lot of shorter SFF. I also dare to count myself a fan of romance and horror as well. So many would call me a “casual fan.”

    (*) Then I got online. Coming across File 770 has been an education! ?

    If you participate at File 770, I’d hardly call you a casual fan. I see your name in the comments regularly and your comments are always quite interesting and well thought out, the hallmark of a true fan.

  34. I kind of still think of myself as a casual fan. Not really fond of titles like “true fan”. But for the purposes, it’s not like I need an introduction to the Hugo categories.

  35. Hampus Eckerman says I kind of still think of myself as a casual fan. Not really fond of titles like “true fan”. But for the purposes, it’s not like I need an introduction to the Hugo categories.

    I am not using it like Eric Hoffer did in The True Believer by any means. I just mean that any individual that comments here is anything but a casual fan and that includes you.

    A casual fan goes into their local Book-A-Million, scans the the SFF section and buys what ever tickles their heart at that moment. They do do know what the Hugos are, they certainly haven’t heard of the Sad Puppies and they most most definitely aren’t hanging out here.

  36. Hampus Eckerman: I think “fan” is sufficient, too. Eighty years ago there were only a couple hundred people who were active as part of fandom, and even then (especially then!) there were squabbles about somebody or other not being a trufan. It’s always been a tribal term, pleasant if you’re defined into the tribe, but purposed to mark a boundary. It’s appearance in conversation is usually a sign that gatekeeping is going on.

  37. Mike Glyer says Hampus Eckerman: I think “fan” is sufficient, too. Eighty years ago there were only a couple hundred people who were active as part of fandom, and even then (especially then!) there were squabbles about somebody or other not being a trufan. It’s always been a tribal term, pleasant if you’re defined into the tribe, but purposed to mark a boundary. It’s appearance in conversation is usually a sign that gatekeeping is going on.

    And I can most decidedly live with too. I just used true fan because I think that everyone is really within the community here. Certainly File 770 doesn’t have any rigid definitions of whose a fan and who isn’t.

  38. Mike Glyer:

    I kind of dislike it for that, but also am not found of terms that hints at an obligation. Like, to keep on being a “true fan” I need to continue commenting here, be up to date on current gossip, visit conventions, and so on.

    I kind of like “casual” just to avoid those kind of obligations/demands. Otherwise it removes lots of the fun from my reading. That’s why I stopped reading for the Hugo’s, it took away part of the fun.

  39. Regardless of who is a true fan or not, or whether the term should be used, the explanations during the ceremony were useful to some fraction of people who heard them, whether they watched streaming, or were first time attendees.

  40. “You have the right to remain Soylent. If you give up that right, anything you Scroll may be Filed Against the Fall of Night”

  41. I consider myself to be an “ardent SFF fan”

    It would be interesting to have Filers take a survey on their fannish and genre interests and show the resulting Venn diagram. Or more likely, one of those big tinker toy diagrams.

    coughcamestrosfelaptoncough

Comments are closed.