(0) APOLOGY TENDERED. Greg van Eekhout is quite right to be displeased —
https://twitter.com/gregvaneekhout/status/683387224281362434
I was so struck with the association sparked between two posts about not having a book out in 2016 that I quite insensitively plowed over the real life causes he was relating. I apologize for making light of his situation.
(1) HOW TO IMPROVE. Sherwood Smith’s post “Beginning Writer Errors” at Book View Café shares the distilled wisdom she found in an old set of notes taken during a Loscon panel by that name.
I think these lists interesting mostly because they reveal writerly process at least as much as they do beginner errors. Some of the best discussion arose out of what some considered no error at all, and others considered advice for revision, not for first draft errors, and what the difference was.
For pants writers (those who sit down and let the tale spin out through their fingers before going back to see what they have) one set of rules might be helpful and another useless; for plotters and planners, a completely different set….
Panelist’s Three’s list suggests to me that that writer works by a completely different process:
- Ending every chapter on a transition.
- Letting the narrative voice tell readers what to think.
- Long, clumsy sentences.
To number one, half the panelists disagreed. Note: “transitions are natural chapter breaks.” The writer defended it: “this pattern reads artificial.”
(2) HELP HELPS. “Joe Hill Calls Bullshit On The Crazy Artist Cliché” by Hayley Campbell at Buzzfeed.
“I was just really paranoid and really depressed and really unhappy and full of really nutty ideas. I would call my dad with my latest crazy ideas and he would patiently listen. He was the only person who could listen to me. And he’d talk me through and explain why my latest idea about being pursued and prosecuted and persecuted was irrational.”
Hill wouldn’t go into what he calls his “terrible, lunatic notions”, because he doesn’t like revisiting them. But eventually his dad suggested that seeing someone professionally could help him out – an idea Hill had resisted because he was convinced the paranoia and “lunatic ideas” were connected to his creativity. “I thought if I got help, I wouldn’t be able to write any more.”
It all goes back to another cliché: the crazy artist. But as a crazy artist, he got no actual work done. The three novels he couldn’t finish are testament to that cliché being bullshit.
“I got into therapy and I got on a pill, and what I discovered was getting help didn’t make me less creative. What was making me less creative was being a depressed crazy person. Figuring out how to be happy and have fun with the kids again, how to have fun with my life and work, actually made me a better writer, not a worse writer.”
(3) BEST SF FILMS OF 2015. JJ says Brian Merchant’s “The 11 Sci-Fi Films That Defined 2015”at Motherboard is “A ‘Best SF Films’ list that isn’t just a re-hash of other lists.” Part of the proof – The Martian ranks ahead of The Force Awakens – and three other movies rank above them.
The major themes that bubbled up in the year’s science fictional slipstream included income inequality, artificial intelligence, transgender rights, and the power and necessity of the scientific endeavor itself. Young adult dystopias showed signs of flagging, while classic-mold sci-fi mega franchises boomed (with one exception). There were not one but two great feminist-leaning SF films; one a bona fide blockbuster hit, another a powerful, slow-burning indie. There was an already-beloved animated short about our possible futures.
(4) THE HEISENBERG CERTAINTY PRINCPLE. Jonathan M is right, however, it is equally clear that when no one was paying attention to them, they were not starved out of existence for lack of it.
https://twitter.com/ApeInWinter/status/683318231004766208
(5) STEAMING PILE. Just one person’s opinion, but I think this logo (first posted last April) isn’t that different from the real 1988 Hugo Award base.
O sequestro do Hugo Awards https://t.co/CI4tH7KvyT pic.twitter.com/ef1BdN4W4P
— Lady Sybylla ? (@Sybylla_) January 2, 2016
1988 Hugo Award base by Ned Dameron
(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- BORN January 2, 1920 – Isaac Asimov
(7) JASON WINGREEN OBIT. Yahoo! News reports actor Jason Wingreen passed away January 1.
The Brooklyn native appeared in three episodes of The Twilight Zone, most notably portraying the real train conductor in the 1960 episode in “A Stop at Willoughby.” …[He] died a memorable death as Dr. Linke on the 1968 Star Trek episode “The Empath.”
… On The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Wingreen auditioned for the part of Yoda. He didn’t get that role (Frank Oz did), but he was given four lines of dialogue spoken by the masked Boba Fett, the feared bounty hunter who captures Han Solo (Harrison Ford).
“I think the actual work, aside from the hellos and goodbyes and all that, could have been no more than 10 minutes,” he said. He received no credit for his work (it didn’t become publicly known that the voice was his until about 2000)…
(8) MEADOWLARK LEMON OBIT. Meadowlark Lemon, who passed away December 27, starred in a few Saturday morning outings (animated, and otherwise) as James H. Burns recalls in an appreciation written for the NY local CBS affiliate website.
In 1979, there was yet another Globetrotters cartoon, The Super Globetrotters, in which they became super heroes, but Lemon was not part of that mix. That same year, though, he co-starred in the fantasy comedy theatrical feature film, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (along with Julius Erving (Doctor J!), Debbie Allen and Stockard Channing). According to some sources, the movie–about a failing professional basketball team, saved by stocking its roster according to the players’ astrological signs–has developed something of a cult following….
(9) FIFTH! “Indiana Jones 5 Confirmed By Disney” is the headline. Tarpinian’s suggestion for the movie title is “Indiana Jones and the Rocking Chair of Gold.”
Speaking to Yahoo earlier in 2015, Spielberg said he’ll likely work on the film and that it would star Harrison Ford. Bradley Cooper and Chris Pratt were rumoured to play a younger version of the archeologist.
He said: “Now I’ll probably do an Indy 5 with Harrison, [so] it’ll be five for Harrison, four for Tom [Hanks].”
In a separate interview with French radio RTL, Spielberg said: “I am hoping one day to make it to an Indiana Jones V. I would hope to make it before Harrison Ford is 80 and I get much older.”
Spielberg’s quotes suggests that both he and Harrison Ford are on board for the sequel, though neither has officially said as much.
(10) FIRST! While you’re waiting for the new Indy film, Open Culture recommends you click on “Great ‘Filmumentaries’ Take You Inside the Making of Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark & Jaws“.
Even casual filmgoers will recognize these movies, and they’ll feel, shortly after pressing play on [Jamie] Benning’s Inside Jaws and Raiding the Lost Ark, as if they’ve just settled in to watch them again, though they’ll see them as they never have before. Serious film fans will, as the form of the filmumentary emerges, recognize the basis of the concept. Described as “visual commentaries,” these productions take the concept of the commentary track and step it up considerably, overlaying the original film’s soundtrack with the words of a veritable chorus of those who worked on it — actors (even some not ultimately cast), crew members, designers, producers, hangers-around — sourced and sometimes even recorded by Benning.
(11) LOGAN’S RUN AND AUTHOR APPEARANCE. William F. Nolan, co-author of Logan’s Run, will be on hand when the Portland Geek Council presents the film Logan’s Run on January 17.
(12) TWU WUV. “Jared Weissman Made Harry Potter Fictional Wizard’s Broomstick For Girlfriend”. With DIY photos taken as he made a copy of the Nimbus 2000.
“Shelby has been obsessed with Harry Potter for a long time now and about a year ago decided she wanted to start collecting prop replicas,” Weissman told Mashable in an email. “We went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this past summer where she bought the Sorcerer’s Stone, Tom Riddle’s diary, and a plaster scroll that says Dumbledoor’s Army with 6 wands mounted on it (Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Luna, Neville, and Ginny).”
From that point on, it was pretty clear to Weissman what the perfect Christmas gift for Shelby would be.
(13) FROSTY PERSONALITY. The Game of Thrones parody “Winter Is Not Coming” is a French commercial from Greenpeace about climate change.
(14) IMPERIAL TRAILER PARK. If you’re not burnt out on Star Wars stuff, Mark-kitteh recommends a fan-made trailer for Empire Strikes Back, deliberately aiming for a modern trailer style. Mark adds,
For reference, I found a vid of the 1979 original as well. It’s an interesting contrast – the original has a fun high-energy vide, but is a bit too breathless (and spoiler-filled!) for modern tastes.
[Thanks to Mark-kitteh, Will R., JJ, Nigel, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day JJ.]
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@JJ:
So then which of you is a cabal?
Jim Henley: So then which of you is a cabal?
I am the poor, oppressed JJ fighting the Evil Kyriarchy. 😉
(You saw her repressing me! Didn’t you?!!)
(3) BEST SF FILMS OF 2015
I think my prize for “most damn fun” movie is a race between Star Wars and Fury Road, and “most interesting SF” is between The Martian and Ex-Machina. I’m not sure which criteria wins, either.
It’s a nice problem to have – 2015 was a good year at the movies.
—
I read the Fifth Season* a few weeks ago, and really liked it, but the unrelenting misery of the situations really hammered into me. My kindle managed to place an early revelation perfectly at the start of a new page, and I had to stop for a while.
*Only one Fifth? Inconceivable!
Apropos of nothing in particular, I just binge-watched Orphan Black season 3 – after doing likewise with the first two seasons at the beginning of the week.
My head hurts. In a good way. I want to nominate the whole season in Dramatic/Long.
Maslany does an amazing job of bringing each clone to life, and she, her doubles, and the crew deserve several awards for making the multi-clone scenes work so seamlessly. There’s at least one featurette in each season set that shows the process at work, and it just blows my mind. There’s a nine-person scene that looks like any other scene from whatever drama comes to mind, something that can normally be captured in a couple of hours with two or three cameras to catch all the angles – but this took two days to shoot, because there are four clones in it. That means shooting coverage to replace the doubles with Maslany in technically fascinating ways. The finished scene is seamless, totally selling the illusion that all of these people are sitting together and interacting in real-time. That’s a real testament to the skills of all the actors involved, plus the editors and techies who splice the layers together.
Then there’s the “one clone disguised as another” shtick, which is a whole additional layer of acting that leaves me stunned. The tightrope between being a good enough impersonation of a character you normally portray to fool the other characters and being flawed enough to let the “real” character shine through in subtle ways is astounding – especially in the cases where the two personalities are very different and/or the underlying clone is supposed to be an unskilled actor.
I’m definitely interested in finding out what season 4 has in store, but I don’t think I’ll watch it as it airs. I really like the all-at-once experience; this show really benefits from being able to watch it as a seven-plus-hour movie. I feel the same way about Dexter and The Walking Dead, FWIW.
In case it wasn’t obvious: very highly recommended. It’s twisty and turny and makes your head hurt in all the right ways.
If I ever get the chance to get one of my season sets signed, I would be sorely tempted to ask Maslany to sign it multiple times – one for each clone on the cover. 🙂
(14) IMPERIAL TRAILER PARK
Er.
I am reading this on a browser which has JavaScript disabled and does not show the videos but allows a link to YouTube to watch them there —
For some reason the first video link takes me to “Star Trek Unaired Version 2nd Pilot Intro” rather than to a fan trailer for “The Empire Strikes Back”.
(14) IMPERIAL TRAILER PARK
Okay, never mind. It works now.
I have no idea why that happened.
Clicky.
I am The Fifth Cabal.
My rankings would be:
The Martian – Rather good translation of a good book. I saw this one four times in the theater.
Ex Machina – My friends and I just sat there silent as the credits rolled, taking it all in. For some of my friends, this is a miracle.
Fury Road – While I joked that it should be called “Mad Max: Fury of Teal and Orange”, this was deep in world building.
He Never Died – What can I say? I’ve seen Rollins from Black Flag to his spoken word tours and I’m a sucker for Noir-esque plots. To butcher an old stage quote, It says the lines and doesn’t run into the furniture.
TFA doesn’t need my vote and will not get one from me. I have had enough arguments with friends that I do not wish to rehash here.
Heisenberg Certainty:
Ignoring bullies doesn’t work; they get plenty of feedback from each other to keep then interested. This is the same thing. Pups get enough feedback from each other that attention from us makes no difference. And silence will be read as agreement, not disagreement, so ignoring them not only doesn’t help anything, it actively makes the situation worse.
Steaming Pile:
The 1988 base looks to me like the exhaust of rocket taking off–the curls/bubbles at the bottom seem solid because that’s the problem you run into trying to model a moving gaseous/vaporous subject in a static solid material. But overall I think it is quite well done; I seem to hear a distant rocket roar when I look at it.
(14) IMPERIAL TRAILER PARK
I’ve now watched the two trailers for “The Empire Strikes Back”.
I don’t think I’ve ever been fond of the older style of trailer, for all that it gets the point across.
I enjoyed the fan-made modern trailer, all the while being aware of how it manipulates feelings through music (which is the same music used for the final trailer for “The Force Awakens”) and pacing.
The music from the “Force Awakens” trailer seems well designed, with the soft teasing piano at the start and the swelling orchestra, with some emotional chords I think I recognize from Beethoven — certainly they brought me near tears in a similar way — building up to a slow crescendo, only to trail off with promise and beckoning.
I don’t know if this is a current fashion in soundtracks or if there is a vocabulary for it. Nodoubt people actually trained in music might be able to explain it.
I don’t think the fan-made trailer is *quite* a shot-for-shot imitation of the “Force Awakens” trailer, but it certainly parallels it in many aspects, pairing the same music with similar scenes: Kylo Ren and Darth Vader are seen from behind at the same point in the soundtrack, and the glorious flight of the Millennium Falcon, and the terrified Fin and Luke bringing up their laser swords facing us looking over the shoulder of the approaching dark ones.
I wonder if it’s the music that makes it so affecting. It’s certainly glorious music, rich, accomplished, and complex. That was always a strength of the franchise.
@JJ: Ah, yes. The Kyra-archy. You are certainly correct. I call them CHORKs.
Second, which books in his back catalogue are worth reading?
If you like hilariously stupid, clichéd ‘hard’ SF as written by the scientifically illiterate, try Gradisil.
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13) While in North Carolina over xmas dealing with 70F temps, I happened upon a chalked sign outside a clothing store; at the top “Winter is…” followed by a Stark symbol direwolf head, followed by “Never mind”. Then in smaller writing “But you’ve gotta wear something, so come on in”.
@James David Nicoll: Ouch.
Let’s say that Bête makes no pretence to be hard SF…
Re: the Kyra-archy —
We prefer SKW.
@Ian: I enjoyed By Light Alone. I generally just like the way he writes though – I’m not particularly bothered about the accuracy or otherwise of the science in my sci-fi, so YMMV.
Edit: I particularly like the way in which he never seems to write in the same sub-genre twice (at least as far as I’m aware)
@Oneiros: I’m very variable as to whether scientific accuracy throws me out of a book or not; I don’t remember it being the accuracy that caused trouble with his earlier books.
The times that I remember accuracy really getting to me is more when a throwaway remark is used to say: “Hey! I’m writing real SF here, not wish-fulfilment fantasy in space!”. But even then I can let it slide mostly (although the gravitational wave detector at the end of Dark Forest was another one that pushed a big “nope” button).
#3 is a good list, and since I seem to agree with a lot of it, I really need to check out both Self/Less and Advantageous, both of which I’ve heard good things about. As it is, for BDP Long, I’ve pretty much crystallised around:
Fury Road
The Martian
Inside Out
Predestination
Either Ex Machina or The Force Awakens
Honourable mention to Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. The Hugo’s are not geared towards games (and nor should they be), but if it was, this would be the thing to run away with the award. Major production, excellent storytelling and acting, and good sales numbers. As it is, I expect it to run away with quite a few gaming awards.
For BDP Short:
Person of Interest, “If-Then-Else”
Jessica Jones, “Smile”
Sense8, “I Can’t Leave Her”
Daredevil, “Cut Man”
Game of Thrones, “Hardhome”
Honourable mention to the finale and penultimate episodes of bothThe Man in the High Castle and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
One thing I’ve learned from hanging around this site is that *everyone’s* taste is idiosyncratic, which is one of the (many) reasons that learning why someone likes or dislikes something tends to be more interesting than the mere fact that they do.
There’s at least one person on this site that I almost always agree with, and we seem to share a number of favorite books. There’s also at least one person I almost always disagree with, and react in almost the completely opposite way to … except that second person and I are both HUGE FANS of a particular, less-well-known book that had a lot of other people going, “eh.”
Doing the brackets, I found that for those that won or went far, I personally veered wildly between thinking “yes that is the perfect choice”, “OK not my first choice but a reasonable compromise”, and “say what now?” (I suspect that was true of everyone, though.)
I’ve been thinking a bit today about what, exactly, characterizes my particular tastes, and I’m finding it really hard to pin down. For every parameter I can think of, I can think of so many exceptions that it can’t be called a rule. The only thing I’ve been able to say with any confidence is that I seem to like Lit SFF as much as Genre SFF, which seems to be a little unusual among a lot of genre fans.
Kyra: I’ve been thinking a bit today about what, exactly, characterizes my particular tastes, and I’m finding it really hard to pin down.
I’ve given up trying to define that, and have finally just defaulted to “I’ll know it when I read it”. 😉
How did you feel about Uprooted? I put off reading it for the longest time, because the synopsis had me fearing that it was totally not going to be My Thing — but I LOVED it. It’s got a rock-hard place on my Hugo shortlist.
@ Amoxtli
Me, too. Both were so enthralling that I forgot to get off the bus on the way to work. Few books have grabbed me so hard or pulled me in so deep.
> “How did you feel about Uprooted?”
I actually haven’t read it yet — although it’s been on my TBR list for ages! I’ve been waiting for the price to come down a little (for some reason, it has been hella expensive here in the UK), and it looks like it just did … a little. I’m almost certainly going to get it during my next set of book orders, which will take place on January 7, i.e. “City Of Blades release day”.
I haven’t flipped over Novik’s previous books the way some have — I thought Temeraire was fine, but nothing to get fussed about — but pretty much everyone this year, both those I usually agree with and those I usually don’t, have been saying Uprooted is A Whole ‘Nother Level for her and The One To Read In 2015.
Of course, sometimes I agree with Everyone on that kind of thing (Ancillary Justice! Woooo!), and sometimes I end up looking at Everyone a little funny (The Goblin Emperor … I mean, it was good, yeah, I enjoyed it, but, um, OK then?), so we’ll see. 🙂
I am downright shocked that Maslany hasn’t just been given all the awards because the work she does is phenomenal.
Can you get it over the counter or do you need a prescription?
I just paid out don’t-want-to-say-how-much for the French complete edition of Les épées de verre because the English equivalent (The Swords of Glass) ought to be a Hugo contender but reviews say there are problems with the translation. To judge from samples, the pictures ought to carry it on their own.
Currently reading The Infinite Loop in English; the translation is decidedly clunky but I’m loving it anyway. Complete report later.
My BDP Long list is currently:
Mad Max: Fury Road
Inside Out
What We Do in the Shadows
Ex Machina
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Although obviously change is still possible.
My BDP Short list is still being worked out, but it may very well end up including quite a lot of Jessica Jones.
My tastes aren’t idiosyncratic, clearly everyone else is Doing it Wrong! 😉
And I think that is the Puppy vs non-Puppy split – the non-puppies tend to shrug and go “Ok, so what else did you like” and the puppies mount a crusade to persuade that their favourite is “Teh greatest thing ever written (including JCW) !11!!!!eleventy!!!!” and can’t understand other points of view.
I actually agree with Kyra on TGE – I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t OMG the best ever.
I don’t watch enough TV for BDP – I’ve watched the pilot of Man in the High Castle, and the S1 Ep1 of Orphan Black, but my wife isn’t that into heavy drama, so we don’t watch much episodic TV.
Careful. Mess with the Kyra-archy (Kyriarchy?) and she’ll send the BRACKETS to eat your most beloved book or film.
YOU DON’T WANT THE BRACKETS.
Last…well, about two weeks ago read, as I read nearly all of it on a cross-country plane trip: Lawrence M. Schoen’s Barsk: the Elephants’ Graveyard.
The novel’s set in a far, far future universe, where humans are long extinct but uplifted animals from Earth live on. The Fants, elephant-people, were exiled centuries ago by quasi-mutual agreement to the swampy, tree-filled world of Barsk, and the rest of the species that form the galactic federation they’re a part of have an irrational dislike-to-hatred for them. But, Barsk produces a cornucopia of pharmaceuticals for that federation, most especially “koph,” a psychedelic that allows the taker to commune with the dead. The events are concerned with the discovery of an exponentially more powerful version of koph, which threatens the balance between the Fants and the rest of the federation—and leads back to the species’ long-forgotten histories.
I really liked much of Barsk; I’m an admitted furry fan, and this is arguably a furry novel—but one that’s executed at the caliber of a Nebula-nominated author. (Full disclosure: many years ago I put out a furry magazine, hovering somewhere between fanzine and “semi-prozine,” and the first stories of the Fants appeared in it.) I didn’t expect it to be as much science fantasy as it turned out to be, and even with that I have a quibble or two about the science—and I found a couple of the side characters to be possibly more engaging than the protagonist. There’s also a bit of an unexpected tonal shift at points; this may be a talking animal story in some sense, but it’s not a children’s story by any stretch, even though one of those engaging side characters is a six-year-old Fant. Even with those mild caveats it’s still a great read, a bittersweet exploration of the meaning of memory and history.
My Daredevil nominee for BDP-S is “The Path of the Righteous,” a.k.a. the Deborah Ann Woll spotlight episode.
I’ll nominate individual episodes of Jessica Jones and The Man in the High Castle (probably the pilot), plus nominate each series for BDP-L along with Fury Road. The S1 finale of The Flash also gets a short-form nom, which leaves room for an episode from the current season of either Agents of SHIELD or Arrow. This is Arrow’s best season yet, and SHIELD is also very good this year.
I realize JJ and High Castle are very dark horses as long-form noms, but I don’t care. Each of their first seasons constitute a long-form dramatic presentation and each is among the best of those I saw this year. I would probably even give Jessica Jones the nod over Fury Road for top honors in my heart of hearts.
I haven’t watched a single episode of TV or movie this year except I’m very glad someone dragged me to Fury Road. Had to read the wiki afterwards to figure out most of what actually was going on in the movie, but the main themes came through clear enough (and the action and the visuals, natch). Did anyone else have difficulty comprehending the worldbuilding or finer plot details the first time they saw it? Still thought it was great and will nominate. That community of old women stays n my mind.
I liked but did not love Uprooted. I thought the plotting and characters were really well done, but was unpersuaded by the story.
Because of my book buying moratorium (okay, yes, I did add Interior Life to my wishlist, because it looks like something I’d really like and would never remember in April), I’ve had to think strategically about what I wanted to buy and read this month for Hugo nominations. That meant determining what is most likely to appeal to me, so The Library at Mount Char is right out, because no matter how well written it is, it will pass my personal threshold for character suffering.
What I tend to like is a narrative that is infused with kindness (hence my unbounded love for both The Goblin Emperor and Never Let Me Go), spaciousness (Raymond Carver and Ivan Doig) and tight plotting (traditional mysteries).
For BDP short form I’m looking at some of the more brilliant episodes of “The Flash”, particularly season 1, episode 15′ “Out of Time”, where the whole show is amazing but actors Carlos Valdes and Thomas Cavanaugh have a particularly stunning, unforgettable scene.
@Jim Henley: Oh, the finale is excellent too.
“Doctor Who” was a mixed bag this year. Peter Capaldi turned in a brilliant one-man performance in “Heaven Sent”.
I realize JJ and High Castle are very dark horses as long-form noms, but I don’t care. Each of their first seasons constitute a long-form dramatic presentation and each is among the best of those I saw this year.
Andrew Plotkin has a proposal which I think has a lot to be said for it, to modify the categories so that one is primarily for films, and the other for TV series. I’ve always felt that having to settle on an episode to represent the series is rather odd.
What about The Expanse S1E1 for BDP? (not just because I’m reading the books right now). Was a good ensemble cast, set up the world well, set up the story, established a couple of the main characters well, and just plain looked good.
Loved the weightless effects with Julie Mao’s hair — turns out the actress was suspended on wires (an old trick) and wearing a skull cap. Her hair floating weightlessly was CG. This may be an old trick to you SKWs, but it impressed me.
Also, unlike Killjoys, Gotham, Supergirl, Agents of Shield…, I have not stopped watching the show after a couple of episodes. Don’t know why, but those shows didn’t grab me and hold me.
@The Other Nigel: Specifically in the case of Agents of SHIELD, the first half of the first season wasn’t any good. That may be why it didn’t grab you. 🙂
That’s got me thinking about the paucity of reviews of Hugo finalists by Puppies during the 2015 kerfuffle:
– There was probably a percentage who didn’t bother reading the finalists & voted according to slate, mostly likely to have been Rabid Puppies.
– There was also probably a percentage who read the finalists from the Puppy slates, liked & voted for them, which is how the system is meant to work.
– But I wonder how many eventually got round to reading the Puppy works after the finalists were announced, and didn’t like them at all.
If I don’t like something others have raved about, I would say so, as many fans have done since fandom began. I mean, just look at the differences in opinion about various SFF here, and yet, we can agree that me liking something you don’t doesn’t make me a bad person.
I wonder if the political dimension of the Puppy movements, the “if you’re not with us, you’re against us”, prevented those who identify themselves as Puppies from posting their indifferent or negative reviews of Puppy works. I also wonder how many Puppies, on comparing the slated finalists with the non-slated ones found the slated works lacking. Given the politics, I’m not surprised if those voters chose to stay quiet.
BDP Long
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Inside Out
It Follows
I have yet to see Mad Max, but trust – when I do – it will make my nom ballot.
I run hot and cold with Agents of SHIELD. Didn’t like it at first. Then I liked it a lot. Now I’m sort of up in the air about it. A lot depends which characters they choose to focus on.
I might have preferred an Agent Carter regular series. The mini-series was good, but all over the map like they were trying to fit too much into the limited run. I’m looking forward to what they do with the second mini-series in California.
What about The Expanse S1E1 for BDP?
Stages so poorly lit even the characters were complaining about it. And I am astounded how much of your average ship is corridor.
BDP (Long). My longlist currently has:
The Martian
Mad Max: Fury Road
Predestination
What We Do In The Shadows
Inside Out
Ex Machina
Jupiter Ascending
Chappie
I think it’s been a good year, with a few more that I enjoyed enough to be considered (Tomorrowland, Avengers: Age of Ultron). I was tempted to include the whole of Orphan Black Season 3 too, but it’ll go in my BDP(Short); I just have to decide on which episode(s).
We watched Predestination last night, and enjoyed it a lot. It’s not a 2015 movie by copyright date, but its eligibility was extended last year by the WFSS Business meeting (it had a very limited released in 2014), so it’s a 2015 film as far as the Hugos go.
It’s certainly worth a consideration for the Hugo ballot.
We’ll have a chance to see Fury Road next week, when it shows up on HBO. (And What We Do In Shadows is in my hold queue at the library.)
Of what we did actually see in the theaters in 2015, The Martian and Inside Out were great, and The Force Awakens was a lot of fun. (Avengers 2 was also fun, but definitely not in same level as those.)
I liked Tomorrowland, and I really liked Predestination. Didn’t like Fury Road as much, for the world they built, which left me saying, “meh.” I bounce off the various television shows, none of them catch my interest, and some (Orphan Black) irk the living … well, it’s not written for me.
Of course, Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) needn’t be an episode of a continuing series… it could be a short one-off.
In which context, I recommend Kung Fury. If Hampus Eckermann can nominate Oglaf for Graphic Story (and why not? It’s certainly graphic), then I can suggest this half-hour of fun for DP(SF). It is the very distilled quintessence of “released direct to VHS”, so it is. Oh yes.
I notice that Barnes and Noble has the print version of Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and Dragons on sale for 50% off. Some have spoken kindly of it around these parts.
@Soon Lee
I think I’ve seen Ken Burnside admit that some of the Puppy nominations were pretty bad. I just reread his lengthy account of what happened at the Hugos ceremony (in particular his thoughts about the future) and it’s quite thoughtful.
http://madgeniusclub.com/2015/08/30/guest-post-by-ken-burnside/
I don’t agree with all that he says by any stretch, but it’s clear that he’s trying to be reasonable and rational. The puppies aren’t all jerks.
Of course, Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) needn’t be an episode of a continuing series… it could be a short one-off.
For example, the animated Justice League: Gods and Monsters would qualify in the category. I would also like to put in some support for the Doubleclicks album President Snakes and the Five Year Mission album Spock’s Brain, both of which also qualify.
(0) Now that’s how an apology is given. Mike was sincerely sorry. He explained his thought process, but did not use that as an excuse for insensitivity. Greg accepted the apology without reservation or opprobrium, in true gentlemanly fashion. Neither one of them specifically called out the other or used nasty names. I suspect that if they’re in the same place at the same time in future, they’ll be perfectly civil to each other. It’s a pleasure to share an internet with you gents.
(3) Wow, he’s really into being a contrarian, isn’t he? A few of his choices, I was “WTF srsly? Hahahaha NO.”
@RedWombat: Well of course tannins go up or to the right, don’t be silly. 🙂 I think a lot of people mistake their common responses (see kiki vs. bouba or Monty Python’s “woody/tinny” sketch) for actual synesthesia. And then they brag on it to be all kewl. Since everyone who is actually synesthetic has different associations, a sentence isn’t going to be better if it’s blue — most people aren’t going to think it’s blue. Maybe it’s orange. Maybe it’s B-flat. Maybe it’s clunky prose.
@Peace: I have no artistic talent and no depth perception, and yet I can see how talented artists could draw things in perspective without mechanical help. Because, you know, that’s how things look in real life. You think of them, you draw them so they look real. Even I can almost manage perspective if given a vanishing point, a straight edge, and sufficiently simple shapes. I know that stuff which is farther away looks smaller and dimmer, and that light hits flat and curved things differently. Just because Hockney can’t do it doesn’t make it impossible.
@techgrrl1972: Cool! I clicked through to the Flickr page and people are popping in identifying themselves or people they knew. Gosh, they were so young. I knew/know a few of those guys in their old age and it’s like looking at baby pictures. And we finally have good photographic proof of where Dave Kyle says you can’t sit!
@Red Wombat: “Bryony and Roses” is still on my Hugo list. And there’s nowt wrong with copying as long as you’re not passing it off as the real thing. I mean, we can’t all afford a real masterpiece but we could maybe scrape up the money for a Wombatpiece. But if you do get to be in a caper with Eddie Izzard, do it!
I came across the Jacobin calendar at about age 8 (on a Gregorian calendar, hee) and was fascinated. Can’t afford to buy one but thanks for the Twitter rec!
Re Jemisin: I just don’t care for her work. I recognize she’s a terrific writer and a swell person, but it doesn’t click for me. I don’t go around disparaging it, though. I can see why she deserves awards and accolades — me not liking it is on me. I’ll give the new one a shot; maybe the fact that everyone says it’s so different from her earlier work means I’ll like it. And if not, she’ll get on fine without me.