(1) IS THIS MISSING, OR JUST HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT? Ross Douthat tells New York Times readers “We Need a Great American Fantasy” (link bypasses the paywall.)

Any cultural critic can complain, as I did in last weekend’s column, about the lack of creativity in American popular culture right now and the unmet “hunger for a certain kind of popular art” amid so much institutionalized unoriginality. It’s a bit harder to give writers or filmmakers specific marching orders. What exact kind of popular art are we missing? What specific achievement should American creators be aiming for?…

…If I were giving out assignments for would-be invigorators of our stuck culture, I would suggest new experiments in the national fantastic and a quest for the Great American Fantasy story….

… Just as political thinkers like Louis Hartz have argued that America lacks a true conservative tradition, being a liberal nation from the get-go, someone could argue that the Great American Fantasy is actually an impossibility, since the fantasy genre is concerned with the transition from the premodern to the modern, the enchanted to the disenchanted, and America has been disenchanted and commercial and capitalist from Day 1….

… Greer commends the musical “Hadestown” (which I have not seen) for trying to work in this terrain, and there are plenty of other examples of attempts at the American fantastic. I mentioned “Wicked” earlier because L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is probably the most enduringly influential work of American subcreation, but a longer list would encompass pulp magazines and “Weird Tales” and Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “John Carter of Mars” books and then work its way forward to Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series, Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” (an Englishman writing American fantasy) and, of course, Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” saga, with special nods to H.P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury for working in zones where fantasy blurs into horror or science fiction. (You could also argue that space opera, from “Flash Gordon” to “Star Wars,” is actually the key American contribution to the fantasy genre, but that would take a separate essay to unpack; you could argue that superheroes are the American form of fantasy, but you’d be wrong.)…

(2) PAY THE WRITER. The Hollywood Reporter learns “WGA Members Prohibited From Working With Village Roadshow For Now”.

The Writers Guild of America has prohibited its members from working with Village Roadshow for the time being after the company refused to pay numerous writers.

“It has come to the Guild’s attention that over the last few months, Village Roadshow hasn’t paid writers on numerous projects,” the WGAW wrote in a statement on Saturday. “Village Roadshow owes writers compensation, interest and benefit contributions but has refused to pay. As such, the Guild has determined that Village Roadshow is not reliable or financially responsible and requires the posting of a bond to protect writers. Village Roadshow has, to date, refused to do so.”

As a result, the company is on the guild’s strike list until further notice.

“It is crucial that Village Roadshow be prevented from undercutting writers’ standards and conditions,” the statement continued. “Village Roadshow cannot be allowed to benefit from writing services provided by WGA members.”…

(3) ORC REAPPRAISAL. Robin Anne Reid links to “Orcs are People!” at Writing from Ithilien.

A list of sources that show how readers’ perceptions of Orcs have changed over time: first, from The Silmarillion Writers Guild: Orcs are People! The SWG does a fantastic job not only of archiving fanworks (all media), but inspiring them (through prompts and challenges), and curating Themed Collections (which are always acknowledged to be incomplete and request that readers provide additional items to add to the collection.

This collection by Curathol shows how some fans have challenged the all too common stereotypes of Orcs as “instruments of evil,” a view that Tolkien’s own writing challenges:

“Whatever Tolkien’s final thoughts, his works depict Orcs with an undeniable humanity—they sing songs, chafe against Big Bosses, and even seek vengeance for deaths of family or comrades. Whether by intent or no, they were people beyond being mere pawns driven by a Dark Lord’s will.

“Though within Tolkien’s world ‘Evil cannot create,’ it would do to remember that Morgoth was not wholly evil in his beginning. If they exist beyond Morgoth’s will, then by some measure they must also be Children of Eru. Even Finrod argued against the power of Morgoth to so wholly alter The One’s design. While the deepest philosophical questions of Orcs may remain unanswered by the Professor, his fans may, if not restore a lost humanity, firmly bestow one upon them….”

(4) SUPER TEASER. “’Superman Trailer’ Earns 250 Mil Views: Biggest in Warner Bros History” reports Variety. But Deadpool and Wolverine holds the overall record.

The live-action introduction to the new DC Universe got off to a massive start, according to James Gunn. The filmmaker announced on his social media platforms Friday that the “Superman” teaser trailer was viewed over 250 million times in its first day.

“Krypto really did take us home: With over 250 million views and a million social posts, ‘Superman’ is officially the most viewed and the most talked about trailer in the history of both DC and Warner Bros,” Gunn wrote. “This is because of all of you: thank you! We’re incredibly grateful and, most of all, excited to share this movie with you in July. Happy Holidays!”

According to Gunn, the Superman teaser views blew many of this year’s studio tentpoles out of the water. The first “Joker: Folie à Deux” trailer launched with 167 million views in its first 24 hours, for instance, while “Inside Out 2,” the highest-grossing movie of the year with $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office, launched its trailer to 157 million views. Marvel’s “Deadpool and Wolverine” trailer still holds the record for biggest trailer launch of all time with 365 million views….

(5) YULE BE GLAD YOU DID. [Item by Steven French.] The Guardian’s TV ‘Watcher’ previews this year’s traditional ghost story for Christmas from the BBC: “A Ghost Story for Christmas: Woman of Stone – far too good to only exist as festive TV”.

Heavens! Oh, it’s you, Doctor Blathery: forgive me, you gave me an awful fright. You see it’s the queerest thing: this little stone statue I inherited with the cottage when I moved to this sleepy village from London (where everybody hates me because I’m from London), well, it seems to me … Oh, you shall call me half-mad! It seems to be moving around from room to room when I’m not looking. I swear it to you: last night, while I was reading by the fire and holding a handkerchief – which I do every night because it’s Victorian times and they haven’t invented telly yet – it was over on the dressing table, and now … why, it’s on the dining room chair! Doctor, you look shaken. Take a seat, I shall fetch you some brandy. Doctor: what happened to the charming young couple who lived here afore me all those years ago? You … you knew her, didn’t you?

Sorry, sorry. I slip into “Victorian voice” a lot at Christmas. Christmas, as you know, is the best time of the year – Coke adverts! Quality Street! One binbag for the recyclable wrapping paper and another, much plumper bag for the glossy stuff! – but it’s also a weirdly spooky one, and is arguably a better time to consume a ghost story than Halloween is. Thankfully. the BBC knows this, and so has been on-and-off commissioning a ghost story to marken the yule – no, I’ve gone Victorian again. Anyway, they started in 1971, did it until 1978, stopped until 2005, have been doing it sporadically since then, and a few years ago someone had the good sense to just hand the whole thing over to Mark Gatiss and go: “Mark, please Gatiss this as hard as you possibly can.” This is his seventh year doing just that.’…

(6) OBAMA’S YEAR’S BEST LIST. “Barack Obama just revealed his 10 favorite books of 2024 and here’s a quick description for all of them” – The Mary Sue has the entire list. Two are sff – Booker winner Orbital by Samantha Harvey, and Clarke Award winner In Ascension by Martin Macinnes.

(7) WHEATON READY FOR THE LAST TIME. “Paramount Reportedly Cancels Wil Wheaton’s ‘Ready Room’ Star Trek Show” says Cord Cutters News.

After a five-year voyage alongside the resurgence of the Star Trek universe, Wil Wheaton’s tenure as host of The Ready Room has come to an end. The Star Trek aftershow, which premiered alongside Star Trek: Picard in early 2020, seemingly aired its final episode today, coinciding with the finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks. According to a report from Trek Core.

The 16-minute concluding episode focused on the animated series’ final chapter, featuring interviews with series leads Tawny Newsome (Mariner), Jack Quaid (Boimler), Noel Wells (Tendi), and Eugene Cordero (Rutherford). The cast reflected on the finale and the overall legacy of Lower Decks….

(8) AI REPLACING HUMANS IN MUSIC. [Item by John A Arkansawyer.] You get two free articles from Harper’s, and this one is worth using one of those. I hadn’t realized things were this far advanced. I feel like I should have guessed: “The Ghosts in the Machine, by Liz Pelly”. “Spotify’s plot against musicians.”

…Before the year [2017] was out, the music writer David Turner had used analytics data to illustrate how Spotify’s “Ambient Chill” playlist had largely been wiped of well-known artists like Brian Eno, Bibio, and Jon Hopkins, whose music was replaced by tracks from Epidemic Sound, a Swedish company that offers a subscription-based library of production music—the kind of stock material often used in the background of advertisements, TV programs, and assorted video content.

For years, I referred to the names that would pop up on these playlists simply as “mystery viral artists.” Such artists often had millions of streams on Spotify and pride of place on the company’s own mood-themed playlists, which were compiled by a team of in-house curators. And they often had Spotify’s verified-artist badge. But they were clearly fake. Their “labels” were frequently listed as stock-music companies like Epidemic, and their profiles included generic, possibly AI-generated imagery, often with no artist biographies or links to websites. Google searches came up empty….

… Then, in 2022, an investigation by the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter revived the allegations. By comparing streaming data against documents retrieved from the Swedish copyright collection society STIM, the newspaper revealed that around twenty songwriters were behind the work of more than five hundred “artists,” and that thousands of their tracks were on Spotify and had been streamed millions of times.

Around this time, I decided to dig into the story of Spotify’s ghost artists in earnest, and the following summer, I made a visit to the DN offices in Sweden. The paper’s technology editor, Linus Larsson, showed me the Spotify page of an artist called Ekfat. Since 2019, a handful of tracks had been released under this moniker, mostly via the stock-music company Firefly Entertainment, and appeared on official Spotify playlists like “Lo-Fi House” and “Chill Instrumental Beats.” One of the tracks had more than three million streams; at the time of this writing, the number has surpassed four million. Larsson was amused by the elaborate artist bio, which he read aloud. It described Ekfat as a classically trained Icelandic beat maker who graduated from the “Reykjavik music conservatory,” joined the “legendary Smekkleysa Lo-Fi Rockers crew” in 2017, and released music only on limited-edition cassettes until 2019. “Completely made up,” Larsson said. “This is probably the most absurd example, because they really tried to make him into the coolest music producer that you can find.”

Besides the journalists at DN, no one in Sweden wanted to talk about the fake artists….

(9) GEORGE ZEBROWSKI (1945-2024). Writer and editor George Zebrowski died December 20. His partner, Pamela Sargent, wrote on Facebook:

“On December 20, 2024, George Zebrowski, my beloved companion of almost sixty years, died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 78. George had been ailing for a while. On the day before his death, I visited him for the last time at the nursing home where he had been since late August, never imagining that it would be for the last time. Right now I have no more words.”

His first three published sff stories appeared in 1970, two co-authored with Jack Dann. His first published novel, Omega Point, came out in 1972. His book Brutal Orbits won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1999.

Three of his short stories, “Heathen God,” “The Eichmann Variations,” and “Wound the Wind,” were Nebula Award nominees. 

He and Pamela Sargent produced three books in the Star Trek:TOS universe, and two books in the Star Trek:TNG universe.

His work as an anthology editor included three volumes of SFWA’s Nebula Awards series, and five volumes of Synergy: New Science Fiction.

He served on the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award jury from 2005-2013.

He was a past editor of the SFWA Bulletin. Zebrowski and Pamela Sargent jointly won the Service to SFWA Award in 2000.

(10) JENNIFER STEVENSON’S STAY HOME EGG NOG FLUFF. [Item by Jennifer Stevenson.] This eggnog was introduced to my Irish friends in a modest way, sort of, I know we’re only Yanks and so we’re amateur drinkers at best, and here you are trapped in Ohio for the holidays, so why not enjoy an American tradition? This was me, setting them up for the one-two punch. Here was punch number one:

1 fifth high-quality dark rum

1 fifth high-quality bourbon
1 dozen eggs, separated
1 to 2 quarts whipping cream
1 lb powdered sugar
Nugmeg, cinnamon, star anise, and allspice to taste

Beat the sugar into the egg yolks. Add the alcohol slowly, then add the spices and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate at least an hour to “cure.” Two to five hours isn’t a bad thing.

When you’re half an hour from serving, pour the nog into a giant serving bowl.

Beat the whipping cream to stiff peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the nog.

Beat the egg whites until they’re stiff and fluffy. Fold them into the whipped cream + nog.

Serve in small cups and offer spoons. Garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

You sort of eat this nog, rather than drink it. Stir it throughout your party to keep the nog mixed with the fluffy stuff.

If you have leftovers, i.e., if your friends are not hardened drunks who aren’t used to sticky Starbucks beverages, you can use the leftover nog (beaten well) as the egg+milk+sugar portion of a crepe recipe to feed any survivors in the morning.

We did this for our Irish friends, who got us up at an unconscionable hour on New Year’s Day to attend Mass. Seriously? So I gave them the hair of the dog, in the form of highly alcoholic crepes wrapped around hunks of ham. Worked pretty well.

[Reprinted from the archives of Sleeping Hedgehog. Jennifer Stevenson’s Trash Home Sex was shortlisted for the Locus First Fantasy Novel Award and longlisted for the Nebula two years running. Try her romantic fantasy series Hinky Chicago, which is up to five novels, her paranormal romances Slacker Demons, which are about retired deities who find work as incubi, or her paranormal women’s fiction series Coed Demon Sluts, about women solving life’s ordinary problems by becoming succubi. She has published more than 20 short stories.]

(11) COMICS SECTION.

• Candorville appreciates a new genre production.
• Free Range hears from space.
• Strange Brew no longer has a blank page.

(12) ‘TIS SOME SEASON. CBR.com nominates its candidates for “The Best The Far Side Holiday Comics”.

…Some of the best Far Side holiday strips reflected Gary Larson’s poignant and irreverent attitudes toward the traditions surrounding the holidays….

The list begins with Thanksgiving.

10. A Blacksmith Puts Olives on His Fingers During the First Thanksgiving

Comedian Zach Mander said in a viral TikTok that Jerry Seinfeld’s observational humor wouldn’t work today because anyone can quickly Google the answer to his questions, causing the joke to fall apart. The opposite can sometimes be true for the absurdist humor of The Far Side. While explaining a joke can often make it less funny, if what’s being described is background information you didn’t have or forgot about, Googling something after reading a Far Side comic strip can make it funnier on the second reading.

That said, sometimes a Far Side gag is exactly what it seems, and no Googling is needed, like in this Thanksgiving strip. There’s no hidden meaning behind blacksmith Thomas Sullivan putting five olives on the tips of his fingers. It’s a silly act that jokesters do in everyday life. It stands to reason that someone might’ve done it during a historical event that’s looked upon with reverence centuries later. While this is one of the better Far Side holiday strips, it’s lower tier among the best. Several other strips are sharper in their commentary and more amusing in their imagery.

(13) WOULD YOU LIKE THE GOOD NEWS OR THE BAD NEWS FIRST? “Ukraine’s All-Robot Assault Force Just Won Its First Battle” — Forbes has the story.

A Ukrainian national guard brigade just orchestrated an all-robot combined-arms operation, mixing crawling and flying drones for an assault on Russian positions in Kharkiv Oblast in northern Ukraine.

“We are talking about dozens of units of robotic and unmanned equipment simultaneously on a small section of the front,” a spokesperson for the 13th National Guard Brigade explained.

It was an impressive technological feat—and a worrying sign of weakness on the part of overstretched Ukrainian forces. Unmanned ground vehicles in particular suffer profound limitations, and still can’t fully replace human infantry.

That the 13th National Guard Brigade even needed to replace all of the human beings in a ground assault speaks to how few people the brigade has compared to the Russian units it’s fighting. The 13th National Guard Brigade defends a five-mile stretch of the front line around the town of Hlyboke, just south of the Ukraine-Russia border. It’s holding back a force of no fewer than four Russian regiments.

That’s no more than 2,000 Ukrainians versus 6,000 or so Russians. The manpower ratio is roughly the same all along the 800-mile front line of Russia’s 34-month wider war on Ukraine. Russian troops still greatly outnumber Ukrainian troops, despite the Russians suffering around twice as many casualties as the Ukrainians since February 2022….

… In what amounted to a smaller-scale proof of concept for the recent combined-arms robot assault, a Ukrainian ground robot cleared a Russian trench in Kursk Oblast in western Russian back in September. Russia has attempted small-scale ground ’bot assaults of its own, but less successfully.

The problem, of course, is that while robots are adept at surveilling and attacking, they’re terrible at holding. To hold ground, armies put infantry in trenches. They sit, watch, wait and call for reinforcements when the enemy attacks. It’s tedious, taxing duty that requires constant vigilance.

Constant vigilance is difficult when a human operator is remotely observing the battlefield through the sensors of a maintenance-hungry ground robot.

Machines break down. And their radio datalinks are highly susceptible to enemy jamming, as the California think-tank RAND discovered when it gamed out a clash between hypothetical U.S. (“Blue”) and Russian (“Red”) army battalions partially equipped with armed ground drones. “Blue’s ability to operate was degraded significantly by Red’s jammers,” RAND concluded….

(14) CLAIM TO FAME. “The Oldest Xmas Light Display in the WORLD! Live from the real Christmas Tree Lane in Altadena”.

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Apparently “Hanging with Doctor Z” is a thing. Here’s an example with the word Christmas in the title, but not in the dialog, which is mainly sexual innuendo. (Yeah, tell me you won’t be able to click on it fast enough…)

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Jennifer Stevenson, John A Arkansawyer, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jayn.]