(1) SHE WAS ON WHAT KIND OF TRIP? The Mirror knows we can’t resist looking: “Woman ‘photobombed by alien’ during selfie on passenger jet on business trip”.
A woman has posted a selfie taken on a plane in which she claims she was photobombed – by an alien.
Olesya Podkorytov from the city of Kurgan in south-central Russia’s Kurgan Oblast region said she took the picture during the flight on a whim but when she posted it on social media friends pointed out something strange a few seats behind.
(2) BEFORE THERE WERE FOREHEAD CLOTHS. Movie bracket maven Hampus Eckerman pointed to this LA Times story, “’Young Frankenstein’ has new life on 40th anniversary”.
Director Mel Brooks spent a lot of money on white handkerchiefs while making his 1974 tour de farce, “Young Frankenstein.”
“I gave everybody in the crew a white handkerchief,” said the 88-year-old comedy legend during a recent phone interview. “I said, ‘When you feel like laughing, put this in your mouth.’ Every once in a while, I’d turn around and see a sea of white handkerchiefs, and I said, ‘I got a hit.'”
“Young Frankenstein” was more than a hit. It is a comic masterpiece.
(3) ‘TWAS CHITTY. Joined by Conan O’Brian, Dick Van Dyke and his a capella group, The Vantastix, sing the title song from his 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Van Dyke recently turned 90 but he can still belt out a tune.
(4) THE TRANSOM IS SHUT. Tor.com will no longer consider unsolicited short fiction submissions effective January 7, 2016 reports Locus Online.
(5) C. S. LEWIS. Matthew David Surridge is doing a read-through of C.S. Lewis works at Black Gate. The first two parts are —
“Wandering the Worlds of C.S. Lewis, Part I: Boxen”
I have read some, though far from all, of Lewis’ non-fiction; I intend to talk about it only insofar as I see a bearing on his fiction. I’m interested in seeing what images, tones, ideas, and approaches unite a fairly disparate corpus of writing. I want to see how Lewis’ approach to storytelling developed over his life, and how motifs and themes recurred in his work. I hope that by doing this I’ll better understand his individual books. At any rate, I’ll begin here with a look at Lewis’ published juvenilia…
“Wandering the Worlds of C.S. Lewis, Part II: Spirits in Bondage”
Today, I want to go through Lewis’ first book, a collection of lyric poems called Spirits in Bondage, published in 1919 when Lewis was still an atheist.
Yesterday I quoted Lewis’ judgement in his 1955 autobiography Surprised by Joy that the Boxen tales are novelistic and not poetic. If that’s so, what did the older Lewis think about the poetry he wrote in his youth? Did he find wonder and romance in the verse of Spirits in Bondage and Dymer? Hard to judge. Lewis doesn’t mention either volume in Surprised by Joy. Which strikes me as a little odd.
(6) CAREER GUIDANCE. David Gerrold responded on Facebook to Dr. Mauser (thought not actually by name). Between his very funny lines about being a so-called internet blowhard and his thoroughly serious rebuttal comes good advice for writers about dealing with controversy.
1) Never never never never never get into feuds. Whatever credibility you might have, you are automatically lending it to anyone you feud with because you are implying they are of equal validity, when most of the time they are not. People who enjoy feuds are automatically downgrading their credibility.
2) If you must respond, focus solely on the issue. Do not get into any personal remarks of any kind. Discuss issues only, not personalities. (This is because everyone has issues, not everyone has a personality.)
3) Never vilify a whole class or group of people — this generalization assumes that everyone in that class or group thinks and acts alike, that they are a monolithic army of clones. They are not. (I have stumbled here, more than once, and have now learned this lesson very well.)
And finally,
4) Always demand evidence.
(7) COMICS HUGO. George R.R. Martin has “More Hugo Ruminations” at Not A Blog.
I really don’t think we needed to add a Graphic Story category to the Hugo Awards. Comics have their own awards, the Eisners, they don’t need the Hugo too. Besides, most SF fans do not follow comics closely enough to make informed judgements in this area.
That being said, however, I have to concede that the fans did pretty damned well nominating in this category last year. SAGA was the only one of the finalists that I had actually heard of before Sasquan announced last year’s ballot… but I dutifully read all the others before I voted, and for the most part, I was impressed (okay, not by the Puppy nominee, which was several notches below the other four)… especially by MS. MARVEL, a whole new take on the character (actually a whole new character with an old name), a charming new addition to the Marvel universe, and the eventual winner.
So… I still don’t love Graphic Novel as a Hugo category, but it exists, and those who follow the field more closely than me should nominate Good Stuff here again, and maybe I’ll have more comic books to discover and delight in when the final ballot comes out.
Meanwhile, I do have one truly outstanding graphic novel to suggest… I am not totally disconnected from the world of comics, y’see… and that’s a book called THE SCULPTOR, by Scott McCloud….
(8) TOWERING TRAILER. The movie High-Rise is based on a J.G. Ballard novel.
(9) Today In History
- December 21, 1963 – This is the annual International Dalek Remembrance Day, in honor of the first day that Daleks appeared on Doctor Who in 1963.
Doctor Who fans may not be surprised to discover that those forceful characters the Daleks appear to be the only one of the Doctor’s enemies to have been given their own celebratory day. Dalek Day is held on 21st December each year. This date was chosen to commemorate the anniversary of the Daleks because they made their first TV appearance in Doctor Who on 21st December 1963. The official title of Dalek Day is the International Dalek Remembrance Day. There does not appear to be any regular organised celebrations each year to commemorate Dalek Day and it is unclear whether Dalek supporters meet or actually even dress up in Dalek costumes. Many of their fans appear to celebrate Dalek Day at home by having a Doctor Who marathon and watching again their favourite episodes with the Daleks battling against the Doctor.
- December 21, 1937 — Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated feature film, opened in Los Angeles.
- December 21, 1984 – Don’t Open ‘Till Christmas opens slightly before Christmas.
(10) NO ROOM IN THE FUTURE FOR RANDY GARRETT. The Traveler at Galactic Journey reviews the January 1961 Analog in a manner that makes a reader wonder if this blog theme is a good fit for somebody who hates a prolific author for the most popular prozine of its time. Not because The Traveler ought to like something he doesn’t, but who’s going to want to hear about it every month?
Thus, it is too early to tell whether or not Analog is ever going to pull itself out of its literary doldrums. I had such high hopes after December’s issue; January’s has dashed them.
It doesn’t help that Randall Garrett is still one of Campbell’s favorite writers. I’m not sure if Garrett’s stories are lousy because Campbell tells Garrett what he should write, or if they’re lousy because Garrett writes what he knows Campbell will take. Or maybe Garrett and Campbell independently share awful taste. In any event, the long long lead novella, The Highest Treason, is a one-star drek-fest if ever there was one.
(11) TIX FOR RADIO PERFORMANCE OF WYNDHAM. Tickets are available to attend a live recording of John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes by BBC4 with the BBC Philharmonic. The event will be Friday, January 8, 2016 at MediaCityUK in Salford. Ticket applications are open until December 27.
Join the BBC Philharmonic and BBC Radio 4 for radio drama, The Kraken Wakes. This modern retelling of John Wyndham’s 1953 apocalyptic novel, is adapted by crime writer and dramatist Val McDermid and stars Tamsin Greig, Paul Higgins and Richard Harrington.
This is a rare chance to see a radio drama recorded for Radio 4 with a live orchestral accompaniment from the BBC Philharmonic.
Composer Alan Edward Williams has created a brand new orchestral score that will ‘play the part’ of the great sea monster during the performance.
The Kraken Wakes will be recorded as a live performance in two parts. The drama will then be broadcast later in the year on BBC Radio 4.
(12) CLASSIC RADIO SF. Open Culture helps you “Hear 6 Classic Philip K. Dick Stories Adapted as Vintage Radio Plays”.
As you can probably tell if you’ve interacted with any of his hard-core fans, the science fiction of Philip K. Dick has a way of getting into readers’ heads. What better way to adapt it, then, than in the medium of radio drama, with its direct route into the head through the ears? Science fiction in general provided radio drama with a good deal of bread-and-butter subject matter since pretty much its inception, and suitably so: its producers didn’t have to bother designing distant worlds, alien races and elaborately futuristic technologies when, with the right sound design, the listeners would design it all themselves in their imaginations.
From the series Mind Webs, which ran on Wisconsin public radio, “The Preserving Machine,” “Impostor,” and “The Builder.” From X Minus One, “Colony” and “The Defenders.”From Sci-Fi Radio, “Sales Pitch.”
(13) FRANCHISE SF. The Documentary, on BBC’s World Service, has posted its 56-minute feature “Homer, Hagrid and the Incredible Hulk”.
Ben Hammersley meets creators and fans to investigate how extended fictional universes, from Star Wars and Harry Potter to Game of Thrones, took over global culture. He examines the huge financial success of the world’s biggest franchises, and argues that their stories – the identity of Luke Skywalker’s father, for example – have become common cultural touchstones around the world.
To understand how these expansive fictional universes are created and maintained, Ben visits professor Dumbledore’s office to talk to Stuart Craig, production designer on the Harry Potter films. He goes to Los Angeles to meet Lauren Faust, creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And, he travels to San Diego Comic Con where he discusses a number of different universes with Marc Zicree, writer on numerous film and TV series, including Star Trek.
Ben also speaks to authors Robin Hobb and Warren Ellis, and to Axel Alonso and Ryan Penagos from Marvel. He hears from numerous fans, including Game of Thrones super-fans Linda Antonsson and Elio Garcia about the joys of fandom.
(14) NON-REALISTIC SF ART. Joachim Boaz’ “Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Jack Gaughan’s Covers For Walker & Co. (1969-1970)” revisits covers of books I remember borrowing from the library when I was in high school.
Some famous novels are graced by his covers: James Blish’s A Case of Conscience (1958), Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris (1961), Silverberg’s Nightwings (1968), Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), and Norman Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron (1969).
Titles in this art sequence without suitable images online: A Gift from Earth (1968), Re-Birth (1955), All Judgement Fled (1968), Trouble with Lichen (1960), The Midwich Cuckoos (1957).
(15) MAGIC NUMBER. Obviously I must mention something titled “Five for 2015: 5 TV Characters of the Year”, Jon Morgan’s post on Pornokitsch. Under discussion are Agent Carter, Phyrne Fisher, Jessica Jones, Kimmy Schmidt and Cat Grant.
(16) HE SLEIGHS ME. At Whatever, John Scalzi has an “Interview With Santa’s Reindeer Wrangler”.
Q: We could talk about that. I mean, the general violation of physics that goes on around the whole Santa’s sleigh thing.
A: Look, I don’t pretend to know the science of the flying sleigh thing, okay? That’s not my job. You can ask Santa’s physicists about it if you want.
Q: Santa has physicists on staff?
A: Of course he does. He’s one of the largest recruiters of physicists outside of NASA. What, you thought all this happened because of magic?
Q: Well, now that you mention it, yes. Yes, I did.
(17) MALCONTENT WARNING. Darth Santa…. Great production values for a video whose humor may leave you a little ill. Or laughing your ass off, depending on what meds you’ve taken today.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Nigel, Martin Morse Wooster, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day redheadedfemme.]
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Firfth!
Depends if he is entertaining in his wrath and if the review has other utility.
17) At the worldcon we can build a scroll, man.
A heads-up:
A new and delightful T. Kingfisher story can be found at:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2015/20151221/kingfisherbees-f.shtml
Three fifths!
John Wyndham! Yes!
So basically, he’s saying that 1960s Analog was almost as bad as 1990s Analog?
(7) GRRM:
I’ve no idea whatsoever whether this is true. It is true of me, but that’s because I don’t like graphic novels, so I’m not a relevant example. I dutifully try the graphic novel samples in my Hugo packet in years when I’m a W’Con member… and I always wind up abstaining, because it’s just not a format that I appreciate. (In a similar vein, I almost always abstain from the long-and-short dramatic forms, since I’ve usually seen very few of the TV shows or movies and am not interested in sitting through the ones I have not seen.)
(12) Classic Radio: I’m not a Dick fan, but I am a huge fan of radio plays. I have big collection of radio plays, mostly from the BBC. So I’d give these a try.
That “alien” in (1) looks like a pretty obvious cello case to me.
Note that Randall Garrett hated to be called “Randy”. Not that it really matters much at this point, but I still feel obliged to point it out.
(6) CAREER: because everyone has issues, not everyone has a personality
Hee. I was going to dispute this, and then I remembered this one girl of whom it was rightly said “When she walks into a room, everyone thinks somebody’s left.” Luckily for her, she was the only child of a rich family and thus her lack of brains, good looks, talent, work ethic, and charm didn’t matter. So he’s correct (Although not giving to the Salvation Army doesn’t make an openly gay man a bad guy).
@Kurt B: Delightful as always. Someone should tell the main character that there is, however, an astronomical feature called “The Beehive Cluster” (M44). She’d like that.
17) “Luke, [DEEP BREATH] You Will Be Getting Sweaters For Christmas!”
“NOOOOOO! How can you possibly know that?”
“I Have Felt Your Presents.”
Clicky. Not awake. Check later.
::ticky::
(7) COMICS HUGO
GRRM:
Right… the prototypical comic is still Superman, the other category is printed in newspapers, and innovative movies are shown at cinemas, only.
I like David Gerrold’s mantra,
We all have a jerk inside but that doesn’t mean we have to be a jerk to others.
Winners for the second heat of the second round of the Science Fiction Movie Bracket can be found here. Third round is open for voting here.
Sorry, what I meant: if GRRM’s word choice and experience is representative he may be right. His line of reasoning ‘they have their own award, why this one?’ is a little rich, isn’t it, looking at Emmy/Grammy/and so on.
For some nice new and old comics, Webcomics Worth Wreading is a good start. The link goes to the review of Wilde Life, a ‘rural fantasy’.
11) I haven’t that much memory of The Kraken Awakens more than it was full of irritating cold war snides and never got that interesting.
OK, I think I’m ready to start getting this out there: my own recommendations for the Hugo nominations (so far).
All works I highly, highly recommend. Pieces I found unusual and outstanding. I’d love to discuss them further, and as always – to hear MOAR RECOMMENDATIONS!
7) I have to graphic novels on my short list for now. One is The Sculptor, as GRRM mentions. While I won’t praise it as much as him, I have a problem with the simplistic drawings, it is good. And would be a fantastic movie.
The other comic on my list is the webcomic Stay Still, Stay Silent. Usually I have a hard time following webcomics, I don’t want to wait one page at a time. But I can’t stop reading this one. A little slow in the introduction, but then it turns fantastic.
Laura Resnick, have you ever come across The Man Born to be King? I really like the script and would love to hear it some day.
Hampus
Oh yes, that one is great, “best Scandinavian apocalypse ever” (me). Minna’s ‘Redtail’s Dream’ ended up with 500 pages, completely bilingual Finnish and English. Apparently, it was meant as a warm-up practice…
With the help of RSS, I ended up with the waiting issue in both ways: I’ve got a small number I read as soon as possible, and a growing list I need to get back to some day, finding the last page I read.
There it is:
Count me as another fan of Stand Still, Stay Silent. It’s easily the most fun you can have in the troll-haunted ruins of post-apocalyptic Scandinavia.
That won’t be a new thought but between (audio)books and (web)comics the novels are the short, quick form for me, while a single comic arc can be a matter of several years.
Saint for Rent… well, imagine the TARDIS as a bed & breakfast, and the paradoxes (and rules) matter after each episode. I started it again last week and got more confused than the first time. It’d win my award for ‘best use of GIF in a comic’.
A favorite new “Is it science-fiction, is it fantasy? Is it earth? Does it matter?” comic of mine is Alice Grove (link to first page, the numbers run backwards). The first pages are rather slow.
Re 4)
From what I understand, every short fiction venue has a massive slushpile and seem to be buried in submissions. I suppose Tor finally decided it was too much to handle., or the return wasn’t worth the investment? They have enough previously published authors they can turn to and get pieces from in perpetuity.
Just not any untested voices.
Gresham’s Law strikes again
Check out this guys’ work:
http://simonstalenhag.tumblr.com/
An alternate Sweden, where the mundane is mixed with dystopian sci fi trappings.
I am just (last night) caught up on SSSS and it will be on my list. Hopefully Minna will be at Worldcon 75.
Speaking of Scandinavia, I just heard the story that some Norwegians wanna give 20 meters of mountain range to Finland as a centennial present, to get the peak of its highest altitude.
It’s not the access to the Arctic Ocean but still: guys, that’s what wars are for. Let’s you and them fight it out!
Telegraph story: “Oslo would lose only 0.015 square kilometres of its country if it gave Finland the peak of Halti mountain, say campaigners”
The article itself is in true, yard-and-inch English.
Ed: Simon Ståhlenhag is definitely on my shortlist.
After a couple of years off, I caught up on Girl Genius today. (I remember Agatha and company boarding the train, so I started at the beginning of that volume.) Perhaps Schlock Mercenary will be next.
COMICS HUGO
Recent Hugo eligible graphic novels I’ve read:
Descender Vol 1 – very nicely illustrated space opera.
Trees Vol 1 – I mostly enjoyed this but at one point it includes a big lecture about sexuality and trans acceptance which threw me right out of the story.
Lazarus Vol 3 – I really got into this series and basically inhaled it all in very short order. It feels very cinematic to me.
Low Vol 1 – I was unimpressed by the writing in this one. I also had mixed feelings about the art – it looks impressive but I found that at times it didn’t help the narrative.
The Wicked + The Divine Vol 2 and The Autumnlands Vol 1 are still both ahead of the pack for me.
When I check in on David Gerrold’s postings on FB, I often see he is often in agreement with a lot of things I view , and his language choice is as he describes. I often tell the trolls that if your resort to name calling you’ve lost the argument. Gerrold just defriends them.
4) Well, that’s discouraging.
Graphic Story:
Books that I will probably nominate:
Bitch Planet, Volume One: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine DeLandro
Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten Holy and Lumberjanes: Friendship to the Max by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, and Brooke Allen.
Ms. Marvel: Generation Why by G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona, and Jake Wyatt
Rat Queens, Volume Two: The Far-Reaching Tentacles of N’Rygoth by Kurtis Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, and Stjepan Sejic
Saga, Volume 5 by Brian Vaughn and Fiona Staples
Books that might knock one of the volumes listed above off my nomination list once I think about it more:
ODY-C, Volume One: Off to Far Ithicaa by Matt Fraction and Christian Ward
Sex Criminals, Volume Two: Two Worlds, One Cop by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
Books that I haven’t read but own and have heard good things about and might get me to reconsider my nomination choices once I have read them:
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Books that I’ve read that I will not be nominating:
All-New Invaders, Volume Three: The Martians Are Coming by James Robinson, Steve Pugh, and Mark Laming
Chestnuts Roasting on a Pixel Scroll.
Man, I submit just ONE friggin’ short story to tor.com, and they shut down the whole open submission thing.
I’ll make a guess future stories there will be obtained via a combination of agented submissions, stories from authors they’ve published previously, and solicitations from established writers and up-and-comers who’ve been published in other markets.
Considering how many of the short story writers published there were new-to-me, though, I’m a bit sad about this.
@Bruce
Yeah, I’m beginning to feel like a jinx too. Two submissions to Tor.com, and they close the door. The very day I’m preparing to send something to Crossed Genres, they announce that they’re shutting down entirely.
Eh. No one said this was going to be easy.
Aaron
It’s pretty good, but I read it as a serial and I guess the tension isn’t that high when you know the conclusions are a matter of minutes.
Well, only one way to find out…
@Rev. Bob: I’m a big fan of Girl Genius, but I can definitely understand taking a break – they’re really really fun, but somehow they also seem to be managing to get slower and slower all the time!
When they announced that the train bit was “the beginning of Act II”, I was floored – if Act I was, what, 13 years, and now they’re in Act II…
…not that I’m complaining. It’s still so much fun. But I do miss the rapid sense of progression and plot advancement that the series had up until Mechanicsberg.
“All I want for Christmas is the two first posts”
Is that one eligible?
Is Nimona eligible?
My short list currently has Bitch Planet and Ms. Marvel: Generation Why. Lumberjanes Vol 1 was also great, and I look forward to reading Vol 2 during the holiday.
(17) MALCONTENT WARNING.
Egads, that’s hilarious.
Is that one [Nimona] eligible?
Yes. I picked up the first volume at the library. (My library has a really poor collection of graphic novels; I feel lucky to have found that.)
I’ll second The Wicked + The Divine recommendation, it’s really good stuff.
Is Nimona eligible?
I think it may be. The graphic novel version was published in May 2015. The webcomic, of course, ran earlier, but taking it as a series, the “final installment” should be the compiled version published this year. I figure if it is good enough, I’ll nominate it and let the Hugo chair figure it out.
I thought Nimona was ineligible. The book may have been printed in 2015, but the content was previously published online and finished in 2014.
Thats what I thought.
(14) That’s the edition of The Left Hand of Darkness I own!