(1) EXACTLY.
https://twitter.com/pnh/status/678309964369235968
(2) NO SERVICE. Geek Bar Chicago has posted an announcement that anyone discussing Star Wars spoilers before Christmas will be asked to leave.
The folks at Geek Bar have been extremely stoked about the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” even offering customers a discount if they show their ticket stubs. But that’s also forced the bar to instill a strict no-spoilers policy, so strict that they’ll boot fans out of the bar if they ruin the movie for other customers. They even posted a sign on the bar’s front door as a warning to guests who blab about important plot lines.
(3) TOLKIEN’S LANGUAGES. John Garth observed on Facebook:
Among this quarter’s crop of additions to the Oxford English Dictionary is “waybread” – a coinage by Tolkien, whose first civilian job was as an assistant lexicography at the Dictionary. Never mind inventing Elvish languages: he’s still helping to invent the English one.
Around 500 new words, phrases, and senses have entered the Oxford English Dictionary this quarter, including phablet, waybread, and bank of mom and dad. You can read more about the new and revised words and meanings in this article by Jonathan Dent, Senior Assistant Editor of the OED
(4) FREEDOM. David Brin does threat analysis in “Who Controls the Internet” at Contrarian Brin.
The End of the Internet Dream? Ever since Congress passed Al Gore’s bill, around 1990, setting the Internet free to pervade the world and empower billions, repressive governments have complained, seeing their despotic methods undermined. And yes, democratic governments have often muttered: “Why’d we go and do that?” as their citizens became increasingly rambunctious, knowing and independent-minded!
As we’ll see below, the ruling classes in undemocratic lands have been striving to adapt, and showing real signs of success. So frets Jennifer Granick who was keynote speaker at Black Hat 2015 – a hacker’s conference. “In 20 years, the Web might complete its shift from liberator to oppressor. It’s up to us to prevent that.”
(5) RECOMMENDATIONS. Rocket Stack Rank has published a consolidated list of short-fiction recommendations for the 2016 Hugo Awards.
These are divided by category (Novella, Novelette, and Short Story) and result from combining the recommendations of eight different reviewers.
In email, Gregory N. Hullender answered the obvious question head on:
So is it a slate? I don’t think so. The buckets are alphabetical by title, and none of the top few totals to exactly five. Also, we’ve gone out of our way to show people how to (legally) get copies of all these stories; no one can accuse us of urging anyone to vote without reading.
(6) AUTOMATED CODE WRITING. Platinum Rule, The Code of Conduct builder supplies appropriate language based on the user’s answers to basic questions.
However, I found it would quit working when I reached the question about sponsors, which means it’s more a curiosity than anything else.
(7) BEAR INTERVIEW. Suvudu interviews Elizabeth Bear, co-author of An Apprentice to Elves.
SUVUDU: Elizabeth, it’s a pleasure to have an opportunity to talk with you. You and Sarah Monette wrote one of my favorite short stories, “Boojum”, which I’ve raved about for years. Stumbling upon the Iskryne series was a real treat. How did the two of you meet, and what is it that first got you working together?
Elizabeth Bear: We were introduced by a mutual friend on livejournal because we were both interested in Elizabethan Theatre. I was working on the book that eventually came to be called Ink and Steel, and she was writing her dissertation. We kind of stuck, and we started writing some collaborations to blow off steam from our allegedly real work.
(8) THE BLUE MARBLE REDUX. NASA has released a new high-resolution Earthrise image.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently captured a unique view of Earth from the spacecraft’s vantage point in orbit around the moon.
“The image is simply stunning,” said Noah Petro, Deputy Project Scientist for LRO at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The image of the Earth evokes the famous ‘Blue Marble’ image taken by Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during Apollo 17, 43 years ago, which also showed Africa prominently in the picture.”
(9) LOCAL STAR WARS. The BBC explores the question “Could a war in space really happen?”
In the past the nuclear balance between the US and the USSR helped to prevent war in space. The modern world is more complex and already some 60 countries are active in space. So is a war involving attacks on satellites now becoming more likely?
Millions have been enjoying the Hollywood version of conflict in distant parts of the universe as the new Star Wars film is released. It’s enjoyable escapism – space conflict is, after all, nothing to do with reality. Or is it? According to military analyst Peter Singer of the New America Foundation, “the idea of… fighting in space was once science fiction and now it’s real”.
Space wars may not involve intergalactic empires or spacecraft zapping each other. If they occur they are likely to be focused on things that matter hugely to all of us – satellites.
(10) LASERS AT WAR. “US Air Force planes armed with laser guns soon and maybe shields too” asserts Marie Singer at Market Business News.
US Air Force planes could be armed with Star Wars type laser guns by the end of this decade, and maybe shields that protect aircraft from incoming missiles and bullets, says the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), which is scheduled to demonstrate the technology by 2020.
Larger aircraft are already able to carry laser weapons fit for their size. However, developing effective and usable laser technology for the smaller warplanes is more challenging. Apart from being small enough not to undermine the fighter jet’s agility, they need to be accurate and effective when travelling at supersonic speeds.
(11) Today In History
- December 19, 1960 – NASA’s first successful launch of a Mercury Redstone rocket. (Via io9.)
- December 19, 1986 – The Little Shop of Horrors musical remake, was seen for the first time on this date. Both Martin Scorsese and John Landis were attached to direct before the job finally went to Frank Oz. The original had an unknown actor playing in the title role, Jack Nicholson.
(12) Today’s Birthday Boy
- Born December 19, 1975 – Brandon Sanderson
(13) FORWARDING ADDRESS. Jeffrey A. Carver has moved his blog Pushing a Snake Up a Hill. Click the link and you’ll discover where.
(14) BANDERSNATCH REVIEW. Sherwood Smith reviews Diana Pavlac Glyer’s new book in “Bandersnatch—writing and writers’ groups” at Book View Café.
In The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community, (which I talked about here) Diana Pavlac Glyer established herself among the foremost Inklings scholars. It’s one of those rarities, a deeply academic book that is also immensely readable.
That book proved that the Inklings really were a collaborative group, and not a bunch of lone geniuses who got together regularly to read bits then retreated to their man caves for more solitary labor.
In Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings, she shows how they did it. I reviewed the book specifically over at Goodreads, but in this post I’d like to use the book as a springboard to write up some thoughts about writing groups and different meanings of collaboration, as this is a subject (or net of subjects) that I always like discussing.
(15) THE BOOK OF PUPPY. Matthew Foster’s Welcome to the Doomsphere: Sad Puppies, Hugos, and Politics was released in Kindle form on December 17.
After several years of unrest in science fiction fandom, a gang of authors under the banners Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies came to town to change the Hugo awards and perhaps publishing, and to turn over a few tables. Regular fandom responded, with many of the major names in F&SF literature being drawn into the brawl. What followed was cheating, lies, insults, rape and death threats, challenges to duel, letters to the police, harassment, boycotts, racial slurs, accusations of censorship, and according to one major Pup author, sodomy…so much sodomy.
For nearly six months, the best authors of our generation stopped writing books and started arguing. Was it the culture wars entering literary science fiction? Was it mainly White, mainly male fans trying to turn back the clock? Was it an attack on freedom of speech? Was it revenge for past slights or a cunning plan to sell a lot of books?
Foster told his Facebook followers the book has already received the first of what he predicts will be many one-star reviews.
(16) THE DOCTOR. I didn’t know any Antonelli apologists before Dr. Mauser raised his hand in “The Antonelli Affair” at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas.
If one takes the position that Gerrold is merely an internet blowhard, and that he doesn’t actually mean any of it to take place outside of his fevered imagination, then contacting the police over an internet crank was probably taking things too far. And to Lou’s credit, he did what any proper gentleman should have done, he admitted his mistake (such as it was) and apologized.
His apology fit all of the criteria I’ve spelled out before for what makes up a proper apology. He laid out exactly what he had done, owned it, admitted that his actions were inappropriate, made it right by retracting his police complaint, and promised to not do it again. He did not try to justify it by saying anything about what Gerrold had said that concerned him enough to think a police report was necessary. That would be trying to shift blame, and not proper for a true apology.
Mr. Gerrold graciously accepted the apology, and in any civilized society, this would be the end of the issue.
Of course, this is not a civilized society we’re talking about, this is Fandom.
In any case, the SJW side of fandom rose in coordinated furor over this revelation, making all kinds of demands for Lou’s head, literally and figuratively.
Dr. Mauser finds fault with everyone else’s behavior but Antonelli’s, who immediately abandoned the self-imposed penance he announced at the time: “I need to ponder the hurt I have caused. To give me time to think, after Sasquan I am taking a half-year hiatus from attending any conventions and/or submitting any fiction.”
(17) THE LONGEST DAY. Robert Kerr shot this picture at the Hollywood and Highland Metro Red Line station on the way home from seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens yesterday.
Jedis on the subway. Photo by Robert Kerr.
John King Tarpinian’s caption: “After a hard day at Padawan school even Jedi need to take the subway back to Coruscant.”
(18) POINT AND SHOOT. Grim humor from Cheezburger – a comic “That Wouldn’t Be a Long Movie – Sean Bean as 007 in….“
[Thanks to Will R., Iphinome, Michael J. Walsh, Soon Lee, Steven H Silver, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
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First.
One for my pixel and one more for the scroll.
(3) God bless Tolkien and his inventive soul
Really? I wonder who he has in mind as the ‘best authors of our generation’; the authors I’m aware of spent hardly any time on it at all, certainly not enough to interfere with their contracts.
Winners for the fourth heat of the Science Fiction Movie Bracket can be found here. The first heat of round two is open for voting here.
Fifth!
Fifth-ish!
(1) But I thought the first one was the fourth one!
Some number greater than fifth.
(2) NO SERVICE. There’s a Geek Bar? Aw, why do I always live in the wrong cities? 😉
(15) THE BOOK OF PUPPY. I looked at this earlier (Foster posted to his blog about it) and it already had two one-star reviews that sounded very Puppyish. One of those “reviews” had two comments – the first (by an SF author) was downvoted enough when I read it that it didn’t show by default. (eyeroll) It’s showing now, but I don’t know if that’s related to me upvoting it or not. Anyway. Foster’s written some good posts on his blog about the Hugos, Puppies, etc. I’m surprised he wrote? collected them into? a book. (Is it a fix-up? I’m guessing some of the content comes from his blog posts.) I feel Puppy’d out in some ways, but Foster’s been eloquent and passionate about this, so I’m kinda tempted.
(18) POINT AND SHOOT. LOL!
I’m not going to go see the new Star Wars film. It’ll be full of spoilers.
Double fifth?
Reality has been restored (or the time machine is down for maintenance).
Wishing everyone a Cool Yule tomorrow.
The Book of Puppy does not impress me in any way. It starts with using the acronym “SJW” in the introduction without explaining what it means. It goes into polemics directly, talking about “the lead pup”. It has got sentences that starts with “It in, he stated that…”.
This is a book we could have lived without.
NelC, re 15 the book of puppy:
George Martin is the only author I can think of who might qualify as a “best authors of our generation” and who can be said to have spent considerable time on this. But he hardly put everything else aside – and he’s someone who would have spent time on reading the Hugo package and pondering on his voting anyway. I can imagine both Scalzi and Leckie was distracted by the focus on them and their books, but as far as I can remember they kept wisely out of the online debates.
—
16 The Doctor/ Antonelli: Antonelli’s self-imposed penance was “a half-year hiatus from attending any conventions and/or submitting any fiction”. I don’t think he has abandoned that. The problem is that he said nothing about social media, and a hiatus from that would probably have been more useful.
—
8 Blue marble: Beautiful picture!
RE: Foster’s book: The fact that the Puppies are one-starring it without reading it, with an apparent complete lack of recognition that they are just proving Foster’s point by doing so, is just priceless.
(8) THE BLUE MARBLE REDUX
Gorgeous!
(14) BANDERSNATCH REVIEW
Nice! Congratulations to Diana Pavlac Glyer.
Can’t beat that Blue Marble. If you aren’t stirred when seeing that, you have no soul, in my book.
Going to have to check out Diana’s book. Sadly, my late friend Scott (a big time Tolkien fan) would have loved to read it, I think. That new Art of the Lord of the Rings book is something that would have been another obvious gift for him, too.
The original had an unknown actor playing in the title role, Jack Nicholson.
Jack Nicholson played the shop? Sounds like the Mercury Theater. (From Houseman’s autobiography: -“We have to use a boy [as the corpse in Julius Caesar! We can’t afford a dummy!”-)
Actually, he had a bit part as the masochistic dental patient (played by Bill Murray in the movie of the musical).
The puppies: Been privileged so long that equality feels like oppression.
Also: 3 fifths + 3
Foster’s “best authors” line may be a nod to Alan Ginsberg’s HOWL: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness…”
(16) The Pups really can’t write anything that isn’t full of half-truths, evasions, and outright lies, can they?
The last shall be fifth.
My condolences. It’s so hard when something arises that they would have appreciated.
(1) EXACTLY
A great tweet that encompasses my feelings exactly. Though I feel they made a second Star Wars movie in some ways.
(2) NO SERVICE
That raises the question, how long is the Spoiler Embargo here at File770 ? I have resisted talking about it in any place other than the dedicated thread.
(15) THE BOOK OF PUPPY
Hmm, I don’t know if I want to read this … a historical recap is not particularly compelling. Something with a higher level of analysis or linking to subjects outside the kerfuffle – like Sandifer’s essay, Guided by the Beauty of Their Weapons, would be more interesting to me. If any one reads this can they report back ?
(16) THE DOCTOR
Waves at folks over there who’s entertainment will be the reaction over here. I think Dr Mauser got banned here a bit back if I recall correctly.
Its a nonsense article that ignores Lou’s actions, ignores the conversation that occurred in places here like about whether the apology was sufficient, ignores that the publisher was within their own right to revoke Lou’s story, ignores Lou’s action in publicly putting that publisher ‘on notice’ that resulted in threatening behavior towards them, ignores the fact that David Gerrold cleaned up some of the comments to his posts to reflect more decorum especially as he was now to be MC alongside Tananarive Due.
Bah.
@Shambles
There’s always ROT13.
Yrg zr thrff. Vg gheaf bhg Yhxr vf uvf bja tenaqcnj!
#15 – Reading the sample. Really quite amusing thus far, though I note that it seems to use RH/ BS’s allegedly real name. Was there ever any sort of valid confirmation, or was it just that weird doxxing thing from a few months back?
Is there anywhere I can get an epub/ non-Kindle elctronic version of this?
#16 – Full marks for the tortured attempt to qualify CUL’s apology as “good” while at the same time scoping out Irene Gallo’s. The fact that neither apology is quoted or linked to certainly makes the attempt easier.
@Paul
That was thoughtful of you to think of your departed friend.
Its an odd combination of happy / sad at the same time. I am happy that I still think of them, and saddened they are no longer here. To move past it, I also mentally perform my action and then picture the joy it would bring and that usually brings a smile to my face.
@Greg
I just ROT13 that, thanks ! Perhaps ! Its all timey-wimey 😉
Shambles — Clearly, the embargo should last at least until I get to see the movie. I’ll let you know when I can arrange that.
#16 – Full marks for the tortured attempt to qualify CUL’s apology as “good” while at the same time scoping out Irene Gallo’s.
There’s also the excuse given that no one was “hurt” by CUL’s letter. No one usually gets hurt by an unsuccessful conspiracy to commit a crime either, and a half-assed self-serving apology doesn’t excuse the conspirators in that case.
The discussion of #16 on the author’s Facebook begins with a comment that “the number of writers of stellar talent who have publicly said they wouldn’t accept a Hugo nom has continued to grow.”
I don’t recall seeing authors of any level of talent making such a statement, other than Correia. What, or rather who, have I missed?
Must we point out again that Antonelli’s prior use of this sort of harassment technique renders the sincerity of his apology somewhat suspect? An apology is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
John Scalzi and Mary Robinette Kowal.
PLEASE KEEP UP THE SPOILER EMBARGO!
… Thank you.
@Nicholas:
1. Some years ago, Pratchett. Betcha they count him if pressed?
2. Well, a flat line ________________ is increasing, just not strictly. Ha, take that hard science in your fiction…
(9) LOCAL STAR WARS
Not really in space, but the issue of jamming or restricting GPS, Glonass etc. is definitely possible on some scale. Any experts around?
Annie Bellet in addition to Scalzi & Kowal. I feel like I’m forgetting a couple more.
I intend to nominate File 770 for Best Fanzine because I think OGH’s superlative strength is curation and breadth of coverage, and hey, I live here! I’ll probably pick someone who is more strictly an essayist for Best Fan Writer.
At the very least keeping spoilers out of most threads until the moderator has seen it seems sensible, but since we have a perfectly good spoiler thread I see no reason to risk spoiling other people until the comments are closed over there. And even then I plan on Rot13ing everything until further notice.
Re (15)
I assume from the blurb, it’s already met the Puppy Test for false and malicious attacks and it has in fact quoted words various puppies published on the internet.
I’m a little leery of any book that uses SJW as a real phrase. On the other other hand, even though my own beliefs are “the puppies were wrong, and deserved the No Award votes for stuffing the ballot box in the service to their friends, and of an agenda redolent of barely concealed sexism and racism and overt homophobia and religious bigotry,” I’m okay with a book going that says “the puppies were wrong, and deserved the No Award votes for stuffing the ballot in box in service to their friends.”
The second quote may not be as accurate, may not drill down to the proper depths, but communicates the gist of what actually happened, and is accessible to people who instinctively dismiss any talk of -isms as people being over sensitive. And the more people who get the message that the Puppy’s behavior is unacceptable, the better.
Re: Eligibility.
I’m new to a lot of the nominating process. Can a cluster of blog posts be nominated? I was thinking of Colonel Upjohn, USMC (aspired) and his reviews of children stories. Is Alex Erin nominated as the writer, and those reviews and example of the work?
I was also thinking Phil Sandifer’s post. For fanzine though OGH, certainly. Having links to all that was said for the whole fiasco did a wonderful service in making sure no side could go full Orwell whenever they were caught either lying, or not knowing what they were talking about. Giving Juliette Ward the space to tell her side of the story, and observe the reaction to that, was particularly enlightening about all things puppy.
It wasn’t, it was a Puppy quote in a summary of Puppy claims.
EXACTLY – Hopefully this will encourage someone to eventually create a Matrix sequel.
DOCTOR – That guy should spend more time in the higher end products section in the marketplace of ideas, though it’s probably easier to shoplift the clearance and damaged goods since they put security tags on all of the good stuff.
Dr. Mauser: And to Lou’s credit, he did what any proper gentleman should have done, he admitted his mistake (such as it was) and apologized… He did not try to justify it by saying anything about what Gerrold had said that concerned him enough to think a police report was necessary. That would be trying to shift blame, and not proper for a true apology.
Aaron: The Pups really can’t write anything that isn’t full of half-truths, evasions, and outright lies, can they?
Mauser is engaging in the worst sort of revisionist history here. The only reason Antonelli apologized was because, after he bragged on a Puppy podcast about attempting to cause problems for Gerrold and Sasquan with his letter to the Spokane PD, there was such a huge public outrage at his actions that he was forced to back down. It wasn’t as if he actually realized he’d done wrong and apologized of his own volition. And as I recall, Antonelli did quite a bit of attempting to claim that Gerrold was indeed responsible for his actions.
And of course, the apology only lasted for what, maybe 3 weeks? before Antonelli recanted and launched right back into abusive, hostile behavior, and claiming that he was the victim in all of this.
This attempt to rewrite what actually happened and make Antonelli into a sympathetic victim is pathetic.
Oh, and then Mauser castigates the editor who rescinded a publication offer to Antonelli, saying she had no right to do so because she was “an uninvolved party” (because of course, those of us who were endangered by Antonelli’s attempt to heighten police anxiety and presence at Sasquan were “uninvolved”), but he completely fails to mention that Antonelli then published a private e-mail from this editor, adding her contact information, knowing full well what sort of abusive harassment she would receive for it.
I seriously have to wonder how any of these people can possibly manage to look at themselves in the mirror every morning with a clear conscience.
@TheYoungPretender:”I’m new to a lot of the nominating process. Can a cluster of blog posts be nominated? ”
Why not? It’s really up to the nominator. The Hugo admins have a hands-off approach, only stepping in when they have to, and even then, their powers are limited by the constitution.
The Young Pretender: While a cluster of blog posts certainly can be nominated, it has the disadvantage that it wouldn’t get on the shortlist unless a lot of people nominated exactly the same cluster. I feel it’s more in the spirit of the rules to nominate the author for Best Fan Writer.
::Tick:: Don’t have time to read the scroll now, but want email responses.
For the record, the person who made the comment that “the number of writers of stellar talent who have publicly said they wouldn’t accept a Hugo nom has continued to grow” has now conceded that they can’t actually think of a specific example, so there’s no need to pursue that issue further.
@snowcrash: I can’t find #15 (Foster’s book) elsewhere, which kinda hurts the odds of me buying it. I don’t buy Amazon ebooks.
@Mike Glyer: Fifth’ing the “keep up the spoiler embargo” plea. 😉 And @Meredith’s excellent point that there’s a thread for this anyway.
@TheYoungPretender: If you’re nominating for Best Fan Writer, you don’t provide examples, so it’s all good. If nominate a set of blog posts as Best Related Work, however: IMHO technically that’s several works (they weren’t published as a set; or were they?). The Hugo Admins would likely let it ride (defaulting to nominators’ wills) – and one could argue it’s a work-in-parts (ugh) – but I’m with Andrew M: I feel it’s throwing away a nomination slot since people don’t tend to nominate BRW like that. All this IMHO, of course.
Kendall:
The blog posts in question (unless I’ve lost track and you guys are talking about something else than I think) is published as a “category” and can be found under a single url: http://www.alexandraerin.com/category/sprb/
I’d say a collection of blog posts like that can be considered a “work” in the same sense as an anthology is a work. But I can see that there’s other opinions.
(I’m also a bit unsure of whether I think those particular blog posts is a good fit for Best Related Work, but that’s really another question.)
Fifthieth!