(1) STAR WARS PREMIERE. Photographer Al Ortega has posted 105 photos taken at last night’s Hollywood premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Facebook.
And Craig Miller has an account of attending the premiere on Facebook too. Both are public.
(2) ON THE CARPET. CNN has Big Media’s coverage of celebrities’ responses to seeing the movie. I didn’t spot any spoilers, but caveat emptor.
Finally, the most hilarious comment comes from Han Solo himself, Harrison Ford. Talking about how much he possibly enjoys red carpet events, he remarked: “I can’t think of anything better to do! I do these in my backyard on Wednesdays.”
(3) WINDING UP THE REWATCH. Michael J. Martinez completed his Star Wars rewatch in the nick of time — “Star Wars wayback machine: Return of the Jedi”.
I think the Luke/Vader scenes work much better, especially when the Emperor is in the mix. Ian McDiarmid plays Palpatine with relish and Evil and it’s pretty awesome. Luke’s character goes through the wringer, and the performance is pretty damn good. And of course, we see Vader return to the Light. That wasn’t too horribly predictable going into the movie, and it worked. The one thing that the prequels did well (or didn’t mess up) was to show the beginning of Vader’s arc and how he ended up tossing the Emperor down a well and being the good guy he always wanted to be.
Martinez says, “I’ll be seeing the new one Thursday night, and will post a non-spoiler review on Friday. Thanks yet again for having me on File 770!”
(4) TAKE NO CHANCES. Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader claims “This Chrome Extension Will Protect You from Seeing Star Wars Spoilers”.
And that’s why I’m thrilled I found Force Block. This simple Chrome extension saves me from seeing any unwanted spoilers. After it’s installed, any webpage that reveals details about the new Star Wars movie will look like this screenshot from movies.com…
(5) HO HO HO. Reason thinks Star Wars I-VI needs a parody collection of trigger warnings.
(6) MAGNUM OPUS. Whereas The Slipper works for its audience share with a rundown on how the original movies were handled in comics — “Something about that Space Wars thing everyone’s talking about”.
The Slipper knows how to leave them wanting more, as it ends by reproducing a series of Bloom County strips about Star Wars from the late Nineties.
(7) REEPICHEEP’S TAILOR? A Calgary metal artist crafts suits of armor for mice and cats.
Tiny helmets, shields and weapons could (theoretically) protect rodents and felines in battle…
It takes anywhere from 10 to 40 hours for de Boer to complete one suit of mouse armour. Cat armour takes much longer — 50 to 500 hours per piece
The link leads to a photo gallery of his work.
(8) LIVING COLOR. At Harry Bell – Fine Artist you can see glorious work like his oil painting of the London Millennium Bridge.
Harry is a past Hugo nominee (1979), Rotsler Award winner (2004), and two-time FAAn Award winner (1977, 2014).
(9) ADDITIONAL NOTES. Deborah J. Ross tells more about “My Love Affair with the Music of The Lord of the Rings” in today’s installment at Book View Café.
Playing
When The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released, I bought the easy piano/voice version of “The Song of the Lonely Mountain,” from the closing credits of the movie. By this time, I was on my own, without my teacher, but the piece was comfortably within my skill level. I knew how to drill fiddly fingering passages and such like. The key as written was a little low for my voice, but manageable. I even figured out how to use paper clips to grab on to so I could turn the pages without breaking the flow of the song.
Of course, I wanted more. The song was so much fun, how I could I not want more? But I also wanted to challenge myself.
(10) MAKING SPACE. John Dodd’s talks about letting go (how un-collector-like!) in “The Great Collection in the Sky” for Amazing Stories.
But, after wiping away the tears, I moved on. Later, my massive collection of comics and graphic novels had to go – sold at rock bottom price to a comics shop. There had been mint first editions in there, I thought, how dare he insult me with that price? But in the end, I relented. The collection was holding me back from moving on (quite literally – the new place wasn’t big enough for all that paper and cardboard).
So, do I regret the letting go? Actually no, I don’t. I made space for some truly amazing new things in my life…less “things” and more “experiences”.
(11) RAIN OBITUARY. Author David Rain, who wrote sf as Tom Arden, died December 15 reports Locus Online.
Arden is best known for the five-book Orokon epic fantasy series, beginning with The Harlequin’s Dance (1997). He also wrote standalone novels Shadow Black (2002) and The Translation of Bastian Test (2005), as well as Doctor Who novella Nightdreamers (2002), and numerous stories, reviews, and critical articles. As David Rains he published The Heat of the Sun (2012)….
(12) 3…2…1…BOOM! On December 15, 1960 The Traveler at Galactic Journey witnessed the nadir of America’s space program, a fourth consecutive disaster — “Booby Prize (Pioneer Atlas Able #4)”.
Today, NASA made a record–just not one it wanted to.
For the first time, a space program has been a complete failure. Sure, we’ve had explosions and flopniks and rockets that veered too high or too low. We’ve had capsules that popped their tops and capsules that got lost in the snow. But never has there been a clean streak of bad missions.
(13) APPENDIX N. Jeffro Johnson closes out his series with “Appendix N Matters”, a summary of his views about fantasy and its readers.
The retiring of Lovecraft’s bust from the World Fantasy Awards is therefore not so much reminiscent of statues of Stalin being pulled down in post-Soviet Russia. It’s more a reflection of the Berlin wall… going up. It used to be that reading centuries old books was almost universally considered to be a very good thing, to the point of being the very definition of an education. Now, looking into works that are merely decades old are increasingly beyond the pale. People with this attitude will even go so far as to object to having to read Ovid at university– and college administrators– far from standing up to this– seem instead to be on the lookout to accommodate this sort of thing.
In the not too distant past, though, the “dangerous visions” of the day could be enjoyed side by side with classic fiction by Lord Dunsany and A. Merritt. Professionals with highly divergent views on politics and religion could coexist within the pages of the same magazines. And people that were keen on challenging every imaginable taboo could get on within the same market where more traditional approaches to science fiction and fantasy were still practiced. People were free then in a way that’s hard to even imagine now. Political correctness and its legions of freelance thought police were only just beginning to gain a foothold, and remnants old ways and attitudes could be taken for granted.
The Appendix N list preserves therefore not just a list of books that are of especial interests to fans of classic Dungeons & Dragons. It’s also a snapshot of what fantasy fandom was into in the seventies. And don’t let anyone tell you different. While the list is not without its idiosyncrasies, it is nevertheless a representative sample of the authors that would have been translated into foreign languages when other countries finally got around to importing the fantasy and science fiction phenomenon for themselves.
(14) ABIGAIL ON ANCILLARY. Abigail Nussbaum’s review “Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie” does a lot of what used to be called “praising with faint damns.”
For example:
That Ancillary Justice is as much fun as it is feels all the more remarkable when you consider that it is, essentially, a book-long infodump.
Or:
…By this point, we’ve learned enough about the Radch and its stratified, class-conscious society to view the popularity of these kinds of stories with distrust–their narrative of virtue triumphing over social convention is intended to paper over the real issues of class prejudice that hinder most capable lower class citizens from climbing the social ladder (or the pitfalls that trip them up even once they’ve achieved a higher status, as in the case of Lieutenant Awn). It’s less clear whether we’re meant to notice that Ancillary Justice is also one of these stories–Breq isn’t just lower class, by the standards of the Radchaai she isn’t even human, and yet by the end of the novel her courage and devotion to Lieutenant Awn have not only gained her the respect of several high-ranking Radch officials, but she has been granted citizenship and the command of her own ship. All that’s missing is the love story with a high-born Radchaai (and I’m betting rather heavily on that for the sequels). Is it even possible to question the very idea of empire through what is essentially a Horatio Hornblower story?
(15) CORREIA. Don’t just ask any professional, “Ask Correia #18: Creating ‘Offensive’ Characters” at Monster Hunter Nation.
That whole Bechdel Test thing? Where they ask are there two females in a scene who talk about something other than a man? Okay, first off, you shouldn’t have to “test” your story for anything beyond is it readable and entertaining enough to sell it to somebody, but second WHO CARES? (well, a legion of Twitter feminists and gender studies professors obviously) Right off the bat most of the mega-selling romance genre fails the test, and most of those books are written by female authors for a female audience (and the romance genre makes serious bank compared to the rest of us).
There isn’t some arbitrary test that if you pass you’re good, and if you fail you’re sexist. Because you see what they call me, and I wrote Grimnoir, where the single most important, pivotal, critical, essential dialog scene in the entire trilogy was two young women talking about origami on top of a blimp. Test passed, and I’m the International Lord of Hate.
The real test for every scene should be asking yourself, is this scene good? Is this entertaining? Does this advance the story? Does this scene expand the characters or the universe? But that should be every scene, not just the one with two female characters in it.
(16) EMPATHY. I wonder if Larry knows the subject in the neverbeenmad comic ”2015 Voight Kampff Empathy Test”?
(17) Today In History
- December 15, 1974 – Young Frankenstein was released.
- December 15, 1978 — Superman with Christopher Reeve premiered.
(18) BRIN REMEMBERS CLARKE. Coinciding with the Syfy show’s premiere, David Brin has penned a tribute “Childhood’s End and Remembering Arthur C. Clarke”.
And yet, what most intrigues me about Arthur’s work is something else – his ongoing fascination with human destiny – a term seemingly at odds with the scientific worldview.
True, a great many of his stories have focused on problem-solving, in the face of some intractable riddle. His characters, confronted with something mysterious, aren’t daunted. They gather resources, pool knowledge, argue, experiment, and then – often – transform the enigmatic into something that’s wondrously known. This part of the human adventure has always shown us at our best. Peeling away layers. Penetrating darkness. Looking back at the wizard, standing behind the curtain.
(19) WHAT WILL BE IN TWO YEAR’S BEST COLLECTIONS . Through SF Signal I found
“Table of Contents: The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 1 Edited by Neil Clarke” (31 stories)
and
“Table of Contents: The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 Edited by Rich Horton” (30 stories).
Somebody with more time than I have just now should see if there is any overlap…
(20) WALK ON THE WILD SIDE. James Bacon took “A Superhero Stroll Around New York City” when he was in town, and wrote it up on Forbidden Planet. Lots of photos too!
Paul Lepelletier is our guide for this superhero walk around New York City, and at two pm he gathers us all outside. This is a friendly group, and soon we all know where everyone is from, four from England, four from Boston, two locals from Manhattan, two from Scotland, two from New Jersey, and four other New Yorkers, it is a decent crowd..
Paul has worked for DC comics; he drew comics at one stage of his varied career, worked in the licensing division, and indeed, is an award winning graphic designer and marketer, but his love of comics, and his appreciation for having been involved with them, is quite clear.
His knowledge is strong, and soon we are hearing about Fleicher’s Rotoscope technique and additions they made to the Superman ouevre, such as the famous Phone Booth as we stand outside their offices.
Soon we are on Park Avenue, looking at a building that housed Will Eisner’s studio, and hearing about the relationship between Will Eisner and Bob Kane, about how Batman was sold, and how Bob Kane’s own career developed and again looking at the building that housed his studio back in the day.
Paul’s knowledge of comic characters and their history, especially on TV and Radio, is new ground to me. As well as Batman, he talks about the rise of marvel in the 1960s, the old movie serials and the germination of TV series.
(21) HWA LA SIGNING. On January 16, 2016 members of the Horror Writers Association LA will sign Winter Horror Days edited by David Lucarelli at a Burbank bookstore.
Join us Sunday January 10th 2-4 pm as members of HWA LA sign Winter Horror Days at Dark Delicacies, 3512 W Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, CA 91505
[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, James Bacon, Hampus Eckerman, Will R., Brian Z., and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jonathan Edelstein.]
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Peace Is My Middle Name: Ah, I skimmed those bits. Sorry.
I don’t know why you’re apologizing. The piece you liked didn’t say those things; I liked it, too. It’s the newer piece on P*rnokitsch to which both Soon Lee and I linked with which I really disagreed. And even if you did agree with it (something I have no reason to believe), you still would not have cause for apology; you are entitled to your own opinion. 🙂
Landon’s 2014 piece I agree with, but his 2015 piece? Not so much.
His 2015 piece was published on April 7, just three days after the finalists were announced (seems like an age ago now). Let’s not forget that a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then, and the suggestions he (and others) proposed to fix the Hugos have been discussed at length in various places.
Since that piece was published, a bunch of Puppy finalists failed to win Hugos, EPH passed at the Business meeting (and awaits ratification next year), a number of creators made it clear that they don’t want anything to do with slates, a number of WSFS members are making more effort to read & nominate in next year’s Hugo awards, Sad Puppies 4 was launched. Change is happening, just not from the top-down as Landon proposes.
Instead of WSFS convening a committee to review the constitution or unilaterally decreasing the price of a Supporting Membership, Worldcon members (and others) are working from a grass-roots level: a few of the positive changes happening include more people making an effort to read works from the 2015 calendar year to increase the works they find nomination-worthy, the compilation of Hugo eligible works here and here, and as mentioned above, creators publicly announcing “No Slate” policies.
As to how it will go in 2016? Thanks to the File770 Time Machine, it’s all faded history as I type this in the year 9089, but I can’t tell you what happened. “Spoilers”, darlings.
Justin Landon 2015 piece on the final ballot His 2014 piece showed such promise. The 2015 piece – nominators with an agenda is why so many women and POC are getting nominations and winning Hugos? Really? It can’t possibly be that nominators are finding more stuff available and liking the non-SWM stuff better. Nope it’s because we have an agenda. And decreasing associate membership cost & more voters will fix all the problems while keeping the prestige. Because so many publishers are rushing to put Goodreads Choice Winner on books. Even if they are it would be irrelevant. As long as publishers are still putting Hugo Winner on books the award has prestige so not broken.
EPH will hopefully fill in enough of the loophole for slates that we can all go back to new/old and different Worldcon yearly scandals like we used to. Series Award? YA award? Lifetime achievement? Should we stop using Rocket ships because more and more fantasy is winning*? When oh when is site selection going to be done online instead of mail-in? Associate members should get to vote online (during) the business meeting. People attending Worldcon who can’t attend the business meeting for various reasons should get to vote. We have way more important stuff to focus on (or not) than puppies.
*I am available if needed to drum up silly items for business meeting or new scandals based on nothing
I can bring the BEST 19th century bread pudding. It was even popular here in 1659.
From here in 2559, I can bring a fine 19th-century poundcake.
@Lurkertype but now that one or two of us radical lesbian scum and villainy has suggested it, they can’t do it. It’s got SJW cooties on it. Much more fun for them to whine and moan about it rather than do actual work, too.
Well they were whining and moaning before the suggestion. As an occasional optimist I hope some suggestions are just so good they’ll pass through like a game of telephone and eventually happen because they’ll forget who suggested it. I’ve been quoted and had stuff stolen enough times to know the ‘net can work this way.
I do have to mention I’m an associate member of the radical lesbian cult following the Alpennia* scripture and participating in Fantasy of Manners. I’ll be making a variety of hot chocolates for everyone here in 2715.
*I hope Heather Rose Jones is willing to put out a coda for the cult 😉 There is that all gals house party in book 2 which I adored.
I think I need to reread the Alpennia books….
As to the discussion of drinking, from my experience, I agree that for the most part there is less heavy convention drinking now than there was in the past. Almost certainly part of that is that there is a lot less general social approval for getting falling-down drunk than there used to be.
I also remember a conversation with a friend of mine from London, Ontario, where he was commenting on a new con starting up in New York by people he knew, and he mentioned his worry that the people there seemed to equate ‘convention’ with ‘party’ and ‘drinking’, that there was a lot more to organizing a convention than just that, and he wasn’t sure if they were entirely ready for what they were getting into.
I just sort of looked at him, without saying a word, because the convention he had helped run for the previous few years had started as a set of fairly wild room parties at other nearby conventions before he and his local friends decided to actually run their own.
He turned back to me, saw my look, and said, “And I should know, right?”
On reflection I find I am increasingly baffled at the idea that the Hugos, which only *became* highly respected and a force to be reckoned with because their smallish pool of informed voters have shown, on average, over the years, generally decent judgement and taste, should somehow change how they work because it somehow isn’t right that *this* smallish pool of informed voters should have that capability.
It is as if the respect the Hugo Awards have earned over the decades were not a wholly organic result of the voters’ wise choices but rather some free-floating prize that apparently the voters do not deserve which can be taken away from them and controlled by some more worthy group.
@ Camestros
re: which drug?
I sincerely prefer the Dark Force, Ubik gives me hives (or maybe I’m just hallucinating the hives? Or someone else actually has the hives?). [shudder]
@ULTRAGOTHA
@Vicki Rosenzweig
Given that Mother of Souls is turning into a hotbed of radical bisexual women (and at least one lonely and open-minded straight one), it would be inappropriate of me to restrict membership in my cult too strictly.
It occurs to me that, given the incipient Radical Alpennian Lesbian Cult that seems to be forming, my running gag about “however long it takes to get to the revolution” is taking on even more sinister overtones than it began with.
My family’s motto for some time now has been “That’s not sinister at all.”
Hey, I’m sinister! I’m a left-handed identical twin with eyes of two different colors! That’s enough to get me accused of witchcraft thrice over!
…But I guess I’m the token straight in this cabal. So there’s that….
But I have chocolate!
I’m down for a cult of radicalized bisexual women. That totally works for me.
@Cassy B.:
Left-handed? I knew there was something sinister about you… 😉
(FTR, I’m straight and my mother’s an identical twin. At least I can claim “desires women” in common with the RALC, though, so maybe I wouldn’t be a total pariah…)
About 50% of my extended family is left-handed.
Jenora Feuer: In 1987 I was one of two Los Angeles fans dispatched to the British Eastercon to promote a Worldcon bid. A couple of my fanzine publishing acquaintances, upon discovering my reason for being in Birmingham, seemed to think it was an absurd idea that anyone should expect them to leave the bar to attend our party. (Of course, it may have been absurd for more than one reason — almost everyone in Britain was voting for the Dutch.)
But I also remember around the same time going to throw a party at a Disclave in Washington DC with no booze, at the same time Somtow Sucharitkul was throwing a California-themed party and serving out brand-name California wine coolers. So it was a little ironic to have people drop by my party after they’d visited Somtow’s, carrying their California bottles to my dry LA party….
There is a lot less drinking now. I agree the main reason is that fashion has changed. But a not insignificant second reason is liability, as it became a new thing for people who served alcohol to be sued if the imbiber had an auto accident later, or caused some other problem.
@ P J Evans
From here in 2559, I can bring a fine 19th-century poundcake.
Wasn’t it a bit hard and stale by then?
Here in 9800 science has progressed to the point where we can reconstitute the stalest foods, but hasn’t yet been able to solve the problem of beer going flat.
@ Peace
re: left-handedness
Isn’t there some statistical correlation between left-handedness and artistic bent? Or is that an old wives tale?
Only marginally related, my paternal grandmother believed that being left-handed was connected to being a criminal. When I was a baby/toddler she used to do things to prevent me using my left hand (I’m told). Turns out I did use my left more than usual because, although right-handed, I’m semi-ambidextrous.
Fifth! (And also left-handed.)
Ironically I’ve been prescribed the phenergan to cure a rash – it maybe curing travel sickness at the same time but it is hard to tell because I’m standing still. Definitely curing sleeplessness. I usually have this condition where I’m awake during daytime and asleep at night – definitely cured of that now, just keep nodding off 24 hours a day 🙂
I had given up all hope of finding a cult of radical bisexual women!
Nthing the less drinking now — not only in fandom, but in academia.
I sometimes think back to childhood/adolescence where basic social drinking often consisted (for the adults around me!) of a beer at lunch, a cocktail after Dad got home from work, wine at dinner, and that was just a normal day, not the social drinking that went on weekends at events such as dances and bridge games. Smoking too.
And yep, when I was in fandom, I wasn’t drinking all that much (had a bad period after parental divorce, way too much drinking, had given it up when I went back to college then got involved in fandom), but there was a lot going on at the cons.
@robinareid: Yes, that was a normal day, and people who drank that much weren’t considered to have any problem at all. AND they had the concept of “one for the road”! Nowadays we’d be looking horrified and suggesting anonymous meetings.
I’m left-footed and left-eyed (and left-handed for a couple of things), will this help me with the radical bisexual cult?
@Peace: Unusual reactions to carbonation? I prefer flat beverages myself, but I have the usual reaction of belching loud enough to wake the dead (or at least scare the cat).
Here in 4490 we’re still trying to find the anti-hangover drug. No luck yet, so we keep to moderation and sleeping late.
@junego:
I don’t know. I’m right-handed, as are or were most of the artists in my family, so far as I know. The lefties have tended to be lawyers and mathematicians.
@lurkertype:
It burns my mouth. I assumed for years that other people enjoyed the harshness.
Dilution with milk almost eliminates the effect, which means I can still enjoy root beer egg creams. And for some reason fizzy mineral water and sparkling cider are just fine.
But on the whole I like my drinks unsparkly.
YAY! Heather Rose Jones is down with our Radical bi, trans (I’m assuming), lesbian cult/cabal with associate open-minded straight members who use Alpennia books as scripture and follow Fantasy of Manners ways. Revolution TBD. Meetings may happen at file770 con get togethers. Party ideas can be found in book 2.
Self-publish or short supplements:
1. How to Party in Alpennia
2. Costumes and food in Alpennia
3. Tips on horses, swords, and dancing in Fantasy of Manners
4. How I accidentally created a radical lesbian cult
@lurkertype re anti-hangover drug: the best thing I’ve found for hangovers is Pocari Sweat. It tastes like unusually thick water, but once you’re past that it’s not an entirely unpleasant drink.
re left-handedness: I’m left handed, but with some cross-dominance that makes me play guitar, use a sword, swing a golf club, etc. right handed.
Re: Female characters and imperfections
I do think that many people are often more judgmental towards female characters and their personalities and traits than those same people would be towards an otherwise identical but male character. Partly this is because things that humanise male characters are seen as annoying or whiny in female characters, partly because people tend to protest if a female character is seen as too perfect and competent and skilled even if those skills would be seen as normal in a male character, partly because of the obsessive focus on the Strong Female Character (often without much nuance or understanding of how that should be executed), and partly because there are comparatively fewer female characters and so those female characters carry a lot more weight of expectation than a male character; Black Widow couldn’t just be another Avenger in the first Avengers film, she was The Girl.
This is not, however, something particular to feminists, nor from what I have observed is it more prevalent amongst feminists than it is amongst anyone else. I suspect this may be a case of taking [opinion disagreed with] and assigning it to [group of people disagreed with] without worrying too much about whether that matches up with reality.
Re: Long List and Puppy Anthologies
Not sure if anyone already mentioned this, but I just had a look and Goodnight Stars by Annie Bellet is in the Long List anthology. So, one Puppy story, but not one that got No Awarded, since it was withdrawn from contention.
Re: Drinking culture and changes over time
A cousin of mine who used to work in finance in London (he’s retired now, and I’m always vaguely hopeful that Stevie’s never met him) speaks with great longing for the days when Manly Men drank like fishes throughout the working day, the way it should be.
I imagine that a lot of men working in that atmosphere ended up thoroughly pickling their livers. More moderation in drinking is just sensible, the same way fewer people smoking is a good thing.
—
This seems like the sort of thread where people might appreciate these as much as I do:
Court Refuses To Fine Woman In Mans Attire
Esther Quek Looking, As Always, Fabulous In Suits
For our token also-or-only-attracted-to-men people:
(Minor sexual humour)
Mountain Lodge Candle Legend
For the record, I refuse to join any radical lesbian cults, mainly because I’m quite sure they contribute to bisexual invisibility somehow. 😉
—
@Stevie
😀
@Peace
Hmm. I think you’ve persuaded me that the Novella category could be tweaked upwards. (Not that it matters especially since I’m unlikely to be at either of the next two Worldcon’s – recent events have rather put a stop to saving up to go to Helsinki.) I’ll add that to the list of other things I’m now quite sure I know how they ought to be changed despite being a total noob in these parts. 🙂 (Sometimes I worry I’m getting too Puppy-like… Then I remember that I haven’t tried to get a bunch of political types to sign up to flood the business meeting in the name of virtue signalling/voting hate/defeating fictional conspiracies, and I feel better.)
That being said, for all the potential category tweaks I like discussing with people, I dislike solutions that boil down to “and if we changed everything about the award it would be so much better!” The Hugo’s are the Hugo’s because of who votes on them and how they work. If the wish is to change all of that, then creating a new award or finding one more in keeping with your preferences seems more sensible.
Alcohol at cons: I’ve been a door ID checker. It’s surprising how angry some people get when you require they show ID. I’ve had hotel security confirming I really was checking everyone’s ID. That was a bit freaky. I’m pretty strict because if security catches you not checking the party is over, liability issues, and it’s the right thing to do. If I’m making exceptions what else will I slide on or will someone think I’ll let them get away with?
I can’t drink soda/carbonated drinks. They bother my mouth and my stomach. Doesn’t exactly burn as @Peace describes – irritates kinda like ants biting (yes I’ve had that at an outward bound experience). My stomach fizzes (snap, crackle, pop) & then I throw up. I can drink hard cider and champagne. Well I used to be able to. Now it depends on where I am on my health scale. But cider and champagne don’t bother my mouth or my stomach in the way soda does.
Tasha Turner on December 17, 2015 at 6:53 pm said:
Alcohol at cons: I’ve been a door ID checker. It’s surprising how angry some people get when you require they show ID.
I believe you just lobbied for trans inclusion in the radical bisexual woman’s cult and you can’t figure out why some people would be unhappy with ID checks?
@iphinome Point.
@Meredith
Didn’t mention it. But I had crossed her name off my SP3 Anthology as she had withdrawn and has asked not to be nominated this year.
But the bisexuals were invited to join. I’ve even used Bi In the formal name. Radical Bi, Transexual, Lesbian Cult. RBTLC but you don’t have to join if you don’t want to. We’re cool like that.
I believe some filers spent a fair amount of time putting together ideas to help
New Award Proposal at Black Gate both there and here
An entirely optional cult, with homemade food. Delightful.
I don’t think any door checker bothers with “does the gender match?” The way people dress at cons, you can’t tell who’s cis, trans, or even what species. They’re just checking age and as long as the picture looks like it could be you, and the ID isn’t obviously fake, it’s good. Fandom wants everyone to have bheer.
@Tasha Turner
Yup, I saw that – but I think the Puppy complaint was just that the Long List didn’t include their choices? Since a Puppy pick did make the anthology and most of the other wouldn’t have been eligible because they were on the final shortlist (and weren’t withdrawn), I think they probably should have fact-checked instead of indulging their victim complex. 🙂 I agree that their time would be better spent making an anthology.
Well, I still won’t join, but that’s better!
Including me! But I think Maynard just gave up in the end, in large part, I think, because the Puppy’s provided him with little to no support or engagement – especially the Puppy leaders. There were more of us over there than there were Pups, and most of us only commented here. I felt rather bad for him about it, and it did confirm some of our more cynical assumptions about whether the Puppies wanted to create something positive within the fannish community (as they’ve often claimed) or whether they just wanted an enemy to drum up support against in order to raise their own profiles. A little disappointing that they rarely stick their effort where their mouth is.
I wonder how Valente’s award is coming along? I hope it hasn’t stalled, I liked her idea.
I’d be all for the Radical Bi-Lesbian-Trans cult thing (Being one of the invisible Bi* types), but I already know what will cause the first schism. Someone here will invite everyone to a Barbecue.
* Married mainly-monogamous stay at home mom being the invisible part.
Cassey B:
Well, let’s be fair – some starfish are radical separatists, but reproduction by autotomy probably doesn’t count as “lesbianism”.
Lurkertype
I can understand someone transgender being concerned. We know parts of fandom have not always been welcoming to non-able-bodied-SWM. While I know I’m only checking valid ID and age someone who doesn’t know me can’t be sure how I’ll react. As a straight white woman it’s never occurred to me that someone would worry about this. I need to talk to some friends to figure out how I can handle ID checking better. I’m glad iphinome brought it up.
I’m not, you’re going to twist yourself worrying about something you can’t fix, though it is one of the few places where I as a gender abolitionist and they who think gender is something innate have common cause. There’s no reason why sex should be put on people’s IDs to begin with. Then common cause falls apart because they’ll say gender is on IDs and I scream because why the hell would anyone record that?
Talking of cults, I just found out that NZ has recently licenced its first Pastafarian celebrant.
Amused as I am at how quickly the radical lesbian feminist sff cult has transformed into a schismatic Alpennian sect, I hope the joke has served to amuse and not to make anyone feel excluded. Community is very important to me, and I would never seriously embark on any project that said, “You don’t belong here” to anyone I consider part of that community. I’ve been on the receiving end of that too often myself.
By way of passing interest, the assorted Alpennian protagonists don’t really think of themselves in terms of specific sexual orientations (although Serafina Talarico has been known to refer to her first female lover as “the most notorious sapphist in Rome”). They have inclinations, they have specific attachments, they have pragmatic reasons for acting or not acting on particular attractions, but what they don’t do is categorize themselves or other people (at least according to the definitions we use). I discussed this in greater detail in a blog post.
And for those keeping track, one of the minor characters is a trans man, although none of the protagonists are aware of this until book 3.
@Heather, I like your thoughts on identity. There’s an interesting set of contemporary examples from horror writer Laird Barron. In most of his stories, characters don’t have orientations, or at least none are assigned to them – they just have their relationships. There’s one prominent exception, but it’s two male couples running into gaybashers and the encounter super-charged by a not-yet-suspected corrupting force. Other than that, nope.
It took me a while to identify this; I was aware while reading his first two short story collections that something felt distinctive about how he was writing characters’ loves and desires, and finally it clicked.
@lurkertype–
But I won’t! And you can’t make me!!!!*
*Family history making me very skittish around it. The part of the family that had the alcoholics was also the part that liked beer. The non-alcoholics on the other side drank wine and mixed drinks. Purely a personal issue, and I try to avoid letting it affect anything–except that I won’t drink anything alcoholic
But I’m fine around people drinking wine, because I didn’t grow up experiencing wine drinkers as scary. Beer drunks, though? I’ll just go hide in this corner over here, behind the sofa…
@iphinome being sensitive to people is not twisting myself into a pretzel of worry. Having a conversation or two over handling my job is not unreasonable. I think we spend way too much time trying to put people into boxes instead of taking each individual as they are which is why we need sex on ID. I have no problem removing sex from forms and ID.
@Heather Rose Jones I hope no one feels excluded from the RBTLC+. I apologize if I’ve done anything to make anyone feel unwelcome or make you uncomfortable. Sometimes I’m too enthusiastic or pushy.
@Iphinome,
I’m lefthanded, and so’s my wife! #Spartacus
@Tintinaus,
Pastafarian marriage in New Zealand. And it’s a proper religion, not a cult. Honest! (Another reason to love my country.)
@Tasha Turner If it is the system (ID checks and related anxieties) that causes the problem what can you as part of the system do about it? Announce ahead of time that you’re cool with it? Doesn’t help if they don’t want people to notice at all.
It occurs to me that I spent all of November writing a transsexual protagonist, getting all the way into her head. So while I can’t and wouldn’t speak for trans people (huge political differences,) I can speak for a fictional one. She’d just avoid a place that checks IDs.
@Meredith:
Yes. THIS.
That’s why representation is so important; it’s a self-reinforcing cycle. That’s why the Bechdel test, on the aggregate rather than the particular, is so significant.
If you’re trying to understand “how do society and the media view women,” and you try to look out how they’re represented, then first you discover that they’re represented only infrequently to begin with; then you discover that the vast bulk of the representations are only interested in very specific niches and stereotypes.
So even if you’ve passed those hurdles, suddenly you’re pretty much the only source “representing women.” AGGGH THE PRESSURE AGGGH I’D BETTER GET THIS RIGHT AGGGGH.
And the best remedy is to have a variety of female characters, so no one of them is representing “the female”; they’re each just themselves. “Lots of different people, each just themselves” is pretty much the best portrayal of women I could wish for.
(This is one of the reasons I’m really loving Orange is the New Black, which I’m watching sporadically with my wife. They did such a good job making use of a setting where we get to see huge groups of black people, Hispanic people, queer people, Christian people. Most of the groups form tight communities, but those communities are also in conversation and constant friction. Everybody is their own person, and at the same time, identity markers are a large part of who each person is – each in his own way.)
Tasha Turner:
On parties I have organized, we have had trans people who does not want to buy tickets beforehand, because that will have them be checked at the door against a name they don’t identify with.
So removing sex from the ID is one thing, but it doesn’t solve all problems. As Iphinome says, some people avoid places that needs ID for that reason.
@ Peace
I guess I was as mistaken about lefties as Grandma, huh? :-}
But 50% in one family is huge. I always thought the trait was fairly evenly distributed in the population at less than 10%.
::googling::
Hmmmm, it seems the latest hypothesis is that there are a number of genes plus environmental factors that determine handedness and humans are the only species that isn’t split 50/50. They think the preference for the right hand is related to the evolution of language.
Why Are Some People Left-handed?
I bet the people who wrote the paper mentioned in this article would like to meet your family!