(1) SLOWER THAN EMPIRES AND HALF VAST. It all seems to obvious now. CheatSheet explains: “’Star Wars’: Why Delaying ‘Episode VIII: The Last Jedi’ Was the Right Call”.
From there, the plan was to release Episode VIII (now officially titled The Last Jedi) a quick five months later, with each subsequent sequel and spinoff releasing in May of their respective years. Recent events though have put that schedule in jeopardy, culminating in a massive seven-month delay. Our first hint at this possibility came courtesy of Meet the Movie Press, with host Jeff Sneider reporting on rewrites for Rian Johnson’s script that pushed the beginning of production out to February (initial plans had production scheduled to begin in September 2015). Already under the gun with the minuscule five-month gap between Rogue One and Episode VIII, the call was made official by Lucasfilm: The sequel to The Force Awakens will now release December 17, 2017.
…More than anything, the May release of Episode VIII would have been a nightmare from the marketing side. The Force Awakens released its first teaser almost exactly a year before its premiere. To follow a similar plan, Episode VIII would need a teaser by May of this year, all while Rogue One tries to get itself heard above the din of the main trilogy ahead of its own December release. The end result would have drowned out Rogue One and kept everyone’s eyes fixed on May 2017. With a year of spacing now between the two films, Lucasfilm no longer runs the risk of making people feel inundated by a revived franchise that’s already permeating every facet of our pop culture.
(2) KICKSTARTER SUCCESSS. Matt Godwin’s crowdfunded Latin@ Rising gets favorable notice from a San Antonio news outlet — “Anthology gathers best Latino sci-fi stories” in MySA.com.
Matt Goodwin compares “Latin@ Rising,” the new anthology of science fiction from San Antonio’s Wings Press, to an eclectic literary mix tape or playlist “in which there is an ebb and flow as you move through the loud and the brash, the quiet and the thoughtful.”
The latter might be Carmen Maria Machado’s “Difficult at Parties,” a first-person, present-tense story told as if through a camera lens about a woman struggling to return to some semblance of normal life after a sexual assault. As tension builds, she discovers she has developed a disturbing new psychic power.
On the other hand, Giannina Braschi’s “Death of a Businessman” is the cacophonous opening to a novel titled “The United States of Banana,” which is the author’s response to 9/11: “I saw the wife of the businessman enter the shop of Stanley, the cobbler, with a pink ticket in her hand. The wife had come to claim the shoes of the businessman. After all, they had found the feet, and she wanted to bury the feet with the shoes.”
(3) BOYCOTT WHEN CONVENIENT. Charles Stross says he’s canceling GoH appearance at Fencon XIV and won’t be making any other US appearances after that — “Policy change: future US visits”. However, he’s not cancelling a business trip to New York or attendance at Boskone because that would cost him money.
…Consequently I’m revising my plans for future visits to the United States.
I’ll be in New York and Boston for business meetings and Boskone in mid-February (I unwisely booked non-refundable flights and hotel nights before the election), but I am cancelling all subsequent visits for now. In particular, this means that I will no longer be appearing as guest of honor at Fencon XIV in Texas in September.
…As for why I’m cancelling this appearance … I have two fears.
Firstly, at this point it is clear that things are going to get worse. The Muslim ban is only the start; in view of the Administration’s actions on Holocaust Memorial Day and the anti-semitism of his base, I think it highly likely that Jews and Lefists will be in his sights as well. (As a foreign national of Jewish extraction and a member of a left wing political party, that’s me in that corner.)
Secondly, I don’t want to do anything that might be appear to be an endorsement of any actions the Trump administration might take between now and September. While it’s possible that there won’t be any more bad things between now and then (in which case I will apologize again to the Fencon committee), I find that hard to believe; equally possibly, there might well be a fresh outrage of even larger dimensions right before my trip, in which case my presence would be seen by onlookers as tacit acceptance or even collaboration.
As for my worst case nightmare scenario? Given the reshuffle on the National Security Council and the prominence of white supremacists and neo-nazis in this Administration I can’t help wondering if the ground isn’t being laid for a Reichstag Fire by way of something like Operation Northwoods. In which case, for me to continue to plan to travel to the United States in eight months time would be as unwise as it would have been to plan in February 1933 to travel to Germany in September of that year: it might be survivable, but it would nevertheless be hazardous….
(4) DICKINSON OBIT. Andrew Porter reports —
Originally from Leeds, England, fan Mike Dickinson, 69, died from cancer on January 20th. He had been in poor health for a year since being hit by a car, and then was diagnosed with lung cancer.
With David Pringle, he co-chaired Yorcon, the 1979 Eastercon, in Leeds, and was toastmaster of Yorcon II in 1981..
Among fanzines he published were the one-off fanzine Adsum in 1978; with Alan Dorey the one-off Sirius; three issues of Bar Trek with Lee Montgomerie; in 1979, the 95-97th issue of Vector for the British SF Association; and, in 1984, Spaghetti Junction.
David Pringle writes, “He was a mainstay of the Leeds SF group which met every Friday evening from some time in 1974 onwards, initially in a pub called The Victoria and later in one called the West Riding. That petered out in the 1980s — after I’d left Leeds in 1982, and after Mike and his partner Jackie went abroad for a couple of years, teaching English as a foreign language in Italy.”
(5) TODAY IN HISTORY
- January 29, 1845 — Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven,” beginning “Once upon a midnight dreary,” is published on this day in the New York Evening Mirror.
- January 29, 1924 — Carl Taylor’s ice cream cone-rolling machine patented.
- January 29, 1964 – Stanley Kubrck’s timeless Dr. Strangelove opens simultaneously in the UK and USA. It was James Earl Jones’ first movie role.
(6) QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ~ George Orwell
(7) ALL THE ROAD RAGE. My daughter liked playing on Wii, but I drove off the road so many times in one of those Mario Bros. games I would never be the kind of customer for this platform that this collector is — “Guy completes entire Wii library, and it’s massive”
Your stack of old Wii games pales in comparison to this guy’s collection. Nintendo Age forum user Aaron Norton, who goes by Nintendo Twizer, has posted pictures of his entire Wii library collection, and it’s ridiculous.
According to Norton, the Wii had 1,262 game releases in North America. His collection doesn’t include variants, like different cover arts, collector’s editions, or Nintendo Selects, which were discounted re-releases of popular games. It also doesn’t include demo discs or games that were released in two-packs later on, like the Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy bundle.
(8) JUST DROPPING IN. What would it be like to actually land on Pluto? NASA’s video “A Colorful ‘Landing’ on Pluto” simulates the ride down.
This movie was made from more than 100 images taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft over six weeks of approach and close flyby in the summer of 2015. The video offers a trip down onto the surface of Pluto — starting with a distant view of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon — and leading up to an eventual ride in for a “landing” on the shoreline of Pluto’s informally named Sputnik Planitia.
To create a movie that makes viewers feel as if they’re diving into Pluto, mission scientists had to interpolate some of the panchromatic (black and white) frames based on what they know Pluto looks like to make it as smooth and seamless as possible. Low-resolution color from the Ralph color camera aboard New Horizons was then draped over the frames to give the best available, actual color simulation of what it would look like to descend from high altitude to Pluto’s surface.
After a 9.5-year voyage covering more than three billion miles, New Horizons flew through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, coming within 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) of Pluto. Carrying powerful telescopic cameras that could spot features smaller than a football field, New Horizons sent back hundreds of images of Pluto and its moons that show how dynamic and fascinating their surfaces are.
(9) RHYME AND REASON. The Science Fiction Poetry Association has started a blog, SPECPO, with a flurry of interesting posts. SFPA President Bryan Thao Worra introduced it on Facebook:
Some of you may have noticed we had a soft-launch of the new blog for the Science Fiction Poetry Association, SPECPO. This will be where we hope to share and archive more member news, interviews, reviews, readings, announcements, and shareable items with one another in a more timely and entertaining way.
To keep it clear: From an organization standpoint, SPECPO does NOT replace Star*Line as the official newsletter of the SFPA for more formal matters that require members atte…ntion, such as voting or other issues outlined in our bylaws and constitution. But SPECPO can serve as a space to post reminders and clarifying commentary and frequently unofficial viewpoints, particularly from guest posters (which will be clearly marked as such when appropriate).
The hope is that this will facilitate conversations on speculative poetry for those who aren’t actively on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media, and to provide diverse content that’s reasonably easy to search back for, given the often overwhelming flurry of items that can come up on our list-serv and other forums. This is a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy what we’re putting together and that many of you will volunteer to be guest contributors! 🙂
Keep inspired and keep creating!
(10) DEFINE SPECULATIVE. Just like defining science fiction gives rise to controversies, so does the effort to define speculative poetry. SFPA’s Shannon Connor Winward asked people what is and isn’t “speculative” in a poll on her website. Now the results are in.
In November 2016, the SFPA officers published an informal online survey entitled “What Is Speculative Poetry”. The main purpose of this survey was to determine whether there is an overall consensus among the membership regarding what genres or sub-genres of poetry belong under the heading “speculative”, assuming no other genre elements are present. The results are posted below.
Survey Results
As indicated in the graph and table below, the results of the “What Is Speculative Poetry” survey represent a wide spectrum of opinion regarding what counts as “speculative”. On the upper end of consensus, we find categories that are understood across the literary landscape as falling within the speculative umbrella, including Science Fiction, Space science & exploration, Fantasy, Magic, Supernatural Horror, Myth and Folklore, Fairy Tales, Alternative History, SF&F pop culture, Superheroes, Surrealism, Slipstream, Fabulism, and Weird and “What If”.
Genres that fell more towards the middle of the spectrum—that is, those receiving support by 40-65% of responders, included Science (physics, chemistry, biology, etc), Domestic Fabulism, Dinosaurs, “Interstitial” works, biographies of speculative poets, and poems in which traditional SF&F tropes as literary device (analogy, simile).
On the lower end of the spectrum—those genres that are most controversial, according to responders—we find Bizzaro, SF&F tropes as metaphor (bit of inconsistency there), biographies of scientists and (non-speculative) poets, Mundane Horror, Nature, Religion, Gender, Real history, Cowboy & Western, and Romance.
… Based on the results, the answer to that question is clear as mud–yes, there is consensus, and no, there really isn’t. Are we surprised? Not really!
Nevertheless, it is the consensus of the SFPA executive committee that this survey was, at least, an interesting experiment. We feel that you, our members and colleagues, will also find it interesting, and that, in regards to eligibility for our awards and publications, this survey can also be a useful tool to future SFPA editors and award Chairs, who are tasked with answering the practical question, “What is speculative poetry?”
(11) HOUSE DIVIDED. Shannon Connor Winward has also released the results of a poll about a more specific question – “SFPA ‘Rhysling Maximum Length’ Survey Report” . Despite the narrower question, there was even sharper division.
One such discussion pertained to the Rhysling award “Long Poem” category – specifically, what, if anything, should be done with especially long poems that are nominated for the award. Several members voiced concerns that poems above a certain length might strain the budget for the Rhysling anthology by adding in extra pages and printing costs. Others expressed the idea that particularly long poems might be better considered as a distinct genre, rather than competing against poems of a more easily-consumed length.
In response to these concerns, the SFPA officers published an online survey entitled “Rhysling Maximum Length”, in November 2016.
Question #1: Should there be an upper line limit to long length Rhysling nominated poems?
While not every participant responded to all six questions; this fundamental question received exactly 100 responses, revealing a pure 50/50 split in member opinion:
No – 50 (50%)
Yes – 50 (50%)
Question #2: If yes, what should the upper limit be?
Assuming the membership voted in favor of an upper line limit for poems in the “Long Poem” Rhysling category, it would be necessary to define said limit.
The first option, “9 pages / 5K words / 500 lines” was designed to dovetail upper length limit for Rhysling “Long Poems” with the minimum length requirements for the SFPA’s Elgin Award for book-length works. Out of 51 responses, this option received a majority vote.
9 pages / 5K words / 500 lines – 30 (59%)
Other – 21 (41%)
(12) TRADING PRICES. If you already ordered this Gauntlet Press at the original $150 price you saved $50. Maybe more
When we priced the lettered edition of John Russo’s Night of the Living Dead we were told that George Romero would not be signing the lettered edition (even though we had a preface he wrote). Now Romero has agreed to sign that edition. His signing makes this an event book, therefore we are increasing the price of the lettered edition to $200. The only reason we would increase the price of a book is if we had someone sign our lettered edition we hadn’t expected; someone truly collectible. The good news is that anyone who has already purchased the lettered edition for $150 won’t have to pay a penny more. We don’t believe we should make those who pre-ordered a book pay more if we increase its price. Those who pre-ordered get the same lettered edition, signed by Russo and Romero, as anyone who orders now. And, a word to the wise…we are trying to get other major names to sign the book so the price might increase again. Order now and you get the book for $200 regardless whomever else we get to sign.
(13) MARTIAN CHRONICLER. In 2009, Ray Bradbury made his last visit to JPL to celebrate the success of the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Andew Porter, and Mark-kitteh for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
Nevermore
Look Back in Amber
Clicky
(13) As a reminder here is the drivers license NASA issued to Ray on that day.
https://file770.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/marsdl.jpg\
3) He’s far from the only one. A lot of people, including some Americans living abroad, have decided no longer to travel to the US as long as Trump is power, though most of them are less noisy about it than Stross.
Plus, this isn’t a first for Stross. I vaguely recall that he also announced he would no longer do any appearances in the US during George W. Bush’s presidency.
@Cora: oh yes. An Asian-Canadian fan who has been coming to Boston for some time now said at Arisia that he wouldn’t be coming back to the US under Trump. I don’t think his fears of rendition were plausible — yet.
edit: 2nd 5th!
ticky
Cora: Stross can’t wait to set a strong example, just as soon as he’s finished making money over here. What a blowhard.
@Mike
There’s a reason I said, most are less noisy about it than Stross.
And yes, I found it a bit strange that he’d cancel one con, where he has a GoH gig, but not the other, just because he can’t get the tickets refunded. I know that if I was scared of travelling somewhere, I wouldn’t care if I couldn’t get a refund, I wouldn’t go.
Not sure about the business, which I presume is with his publisher, but there is very little business which absolutely has to be done in person these days. Also, Tor/Pan Macmillan/Holtzbrinck has offices in the UK.
Meanwhile, pretty much everybody has a personal list of countries they wouldn’t visit no matter what or they would only visit, if absolutely unavoidable. For a lot of people, the US has recently added itself to that list.
1) They wouldn’t have this problem if they’d quit doing prequel stuff and just focus on moving the ball forward. (I haven’t seen the prequel yet and it may be great but I just don’t really like the idea of it.)
3) Does seem to be a case of “convenient ethics” or dramatic “fear.”
5) “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here. This is the war room!” One of my favorite movies.
“Fluoride!”
I have no strong feelings about Stross’s statement, except that this part is a bit silly: “…in which case my presence would be seen by onlookers as tacit acceptance or even collaboration.” I mean, I’m sure some onlooker would think that, because there’s always someone out there with any opinion you can imagine, but come on. The US is a huge place, and my government has frequently been doing all kinds of things that I hate, and I’ve never for a second thought that every foreign person who decides to visit here is thereby a “collaborator” with those things. It’s not like he’d be making an appearance at the White House.
It’d be a different story if there were a general international consensus to boycott and shun the US (as there was with say South Africa in the past) which Stross was ostentatiously ignoring, but that’s not the case (yet).
@Cora Plus, this isn’t a first for Stross. I vaguely recall that he also announced he would no longer do any appearances in the US during George W. Bush’s presidency.
I believe he did make it to (at least) ConJose in 2002, Noreascon in Boston in 2004 and Denvention in Denver in 2008. Maybe more.
I don’t know Mike, I think he is making some sense. I’ve travelled to some dodgy places and I don’t regard visiting a place as necessarily endorsing the leadership of that place. However, *stability* is a key element in my decisions around visiting places. Now the rule of law isn’t going to vanish overnight in the US nor is it likely to descend into a civil war in the immediate future and the US has a strong civil society and culture of liberty and accountability…
…but
…we pretty much saw over the weekend the chaotic use of arbitrary power in US airports. In any nation, if you are on the airplane side of the customs/immigration barriers you are in a potential legal limbo. You are easily isolated from legal support and other forms of support. You are easily detained because you are already in a secured place where all exits are guarded and policed.
What makes travel safe, despite this, is knowing that many governments are not usually *erratic* about such things (some obvious locales excepted). In DnD terms they may be lawful good, lawful neutral or maybe lawful evil but basically they are following rules that you know about in advance.
Arriving in the US now? There may or may not be some arbitrary set of rules applied when you land that weren’t there when you set off. Worse, again as was seen this weekend, the people enforcing the rules might not even be sure what the rules are. Those are all good reasons to reduce visits to the US or avoid it altogether for the time being.
Camestros Felapton: Sure, Stross is so distressed that he’s letting his nonrefundable airline tickets dictate his decision to travel here anyway. Who doesn’t want to line up behind that kind of firm consistency?
I agrre that not coming on principle is undermined by his inconsistency on the issue but…
Not coming because of RISK isn’t. Doing a risky thing less is a rational response to a percieved increase in risk.
Camestros Felapton: What, you think I don’t know that Stross will make a rational response to avoid risk? That’s not what he wants credit for, he wants credit for punishing the U.S. by depriving us of his presence — but not before he’s finished with these business trips to our shores. If you want to know what someone believes, watch what they do, not what they say.
(3) BOYCOTT WHEN CONVENIENT
The idea that someone must cut off their nose to spite their face when opposing something is a fallacy. For example, I have various causes I support but I don’t donate my entire salary away and live in sackcloth and ashes. Quite a few people went out and attended a protest this weekend but will be going to work on Monday morning instead of camping out in the town square for the next month.
Equally Stross is allowed to take his stand without endangering his livelihood by dropping planned business meetings, and is entitled to decide where the line is between not causing Boskone problems (and annoying fans with plans to see him) by dropping out of programming at very short notice vs dropping out of the next convention at several months notice.
(I believe there’s a relevant story about Harlan Ellison staying in a camper van at a con because he wanted to balance his protest about the state it was held in vs not annoying the fans expecting him there. Did anyone call Ellison out for threading that particular needle?)
Personally what I thought was more interesting about this was that US cons could well start to see disruption due to non-US attendees worrying about making advance plans when they don’t know what travel restrictions might be in place at the time.
Just read “The Plague” by Ken Liu. Tiny (clocks in at 3 pages) and incredibly powerful. It packs a remarkable amount of information in that space through duelling PoVs. Wow.
If you transfer Kindle files to Calibre, you might want to turn off automatic updates for the Kindle for PC App.
Teleread: Latest Kindle for PC no longer uses Calibre-compatible AZW files
(3) BOYCOTT WHEN CONVENIENT
Maybe it’s a Yorkshire thing, but I absolutely wouldn’t waste already-purchased airline tickets. I think it’s entirely reasonable to have concerns and at the same time not be daft with your own money.
And I’m entitled to be unimpressed by how his trumpeted decision about the U.S. now being too risky to visit doesn’t require him to forego the trips that immediately follow this announcement. Because that would take money out of his pocket.
George Washington left behind many letters in which he indicated being troubled by slavery. Although he never freed any during his lifetime, I assume you are still impressed, because you would not have required him to “cut off his nose to spite his face.”
Re Stross: The timing of visits has a clear impact on both reasons given, especially the first. Regarding ‘claiming credit’, at a minimum, the withdrawal of GoH should be announced ASAP (waiting for a replacement to be found first is unreasonable), and giving reasons is also reasonable IMO.
If I was to put myself in the position of talking to an US official, in the current climate I’d be concerned that I’d get extra grilling (and a small risk of irrational refusal, with the ongoing consequences), and I’m just a white dude with a ‘Turkish’ name.
Mike, he thinks there is a significant chance that the risk to him will increase with time. As you quote
Appears rational (and consistent) to me.
Errol Cavit: Then there’s nothing stopping you from being impressed with his principled stand.
You already know what’s stopping me.
@Mike
I think there’s a slight difference between “money out of his pocket” and risking his relationship with e.g. his US publisher, who he is committed to a trilogy with, the first book of which just launched, and the failure of which could cost him his US career, which probably constitutes enough of his income to be a disaster. (Admittedly I’m speculating that the “business” includes visiting his publisher here but I think it’s a fair guess).
I’m afraid I don’t know enough about the ins and outs of Washington’s actions to say whether I’d be impressed, although I’d note that I haven’t said I’m impressed by Stross, I’ve said the pragmatic details of what he’s decided are reasonable.
(3) Mike, please step back from your blinders just for one moment, please.
First, Stross cancelling the February business trip won’t cost him money – the money is already lost to him, whether he goes or not: it’s a sunk cost.
Second, I have seen no mention of boycott or principles from Stross, much less asking other to follow his example. He is worried about his safety by going to the USA, and of the long-term development, and thus cancelling all the trips he can cancel in good conscience. In a later comment, he does mention that he is ready to cancel the February trip, if he sees things getting worse.
Stross hasn’t said he will never visit the USA again during the Trump presidency either. What he said is that he will keep the situation under review.
I usually find your presentation of news, persons, or issues to be excellent, sometimes fair or at least defensible. This was sadly an exception to your usually examplary presentations.
@Errol Cavit
Yes, that kindle thing is worrying, especially the effect on titles that are supposed to be DRM free. I haven’t seen any word on whether calibre will be able to deal with this change.
While I’m a frequent buyer from Amazon I’ve always been aware of the possibility of shenanigans like this to lock users in and kept a calibre library. Although we can still use older versions of kindle to get backups of purchases right now, if they turn that off then I’ll have to seriously reconsider what to do.
(Incidentally, I recommend Weightless as a good non-amazon source for magazines; I already moved all my subs over last year as their “send to kindle” facility works well)
3) Boycott
I read Stross’ announcement not as a principled stand, but explaining his rational self interest in dealing carefully with considering future trips to the U.S. I read much more into his point one (fear) than point two (refusal to endorse).
In happier news, today is the birthday of Judith Tarr.
This. I will absolutely avoid travelling to US unless I’m backed up by my work (a US firm).
This is not a decision of boycott because of Trump, I’ve been in much worse countries (North-Korea, Myanmar, Syria, Cuba, US during the Iraq war, etc). But I am not going to risk going to US where I might be stuck in bureaucracy hell where people are going to demand access to my social media accounts with the risk of people being outed for being part of sexual minorities.
I can absolutely understand people who now wants to avoid US unless their benefits far exceeds their risks.
Have a look at the wonderful pop-up book of The Raven. It is truly beautiful, a lot of thoughts has gone into how to really make the artwork stand out.
From CNN:
Charlie’s point of it getting worse before it gets better may well be right. I’d have to declare visiting this wretched hive for a start.
IanP: I’d have to declare visiting this wretched hive for a start.
Well, that would land your ass in the slammer for sure. 😛
[godstalk]
I had to disclose my social media usernames to Border Control when I entered the US last year, so this wouldn’t be entirely new.
I was chatting about issues at the US border with some American journalists a few weeks ago. They generally get a hard time because they have been to Iraq and Syria etc., and even as a US citizen you effectively have very few rights at the border. They advised turning off the fingerprint security lock on your phone before crossing the border. If it’s activated, you can be made to unlock your phone so that they can go through it, but with a PIN number you can ‘accidentally’ get the number wrong a few times.
Thanks Errol.
Many thanks and much sincere gratitude to Errol Cavit for the Kindle/Calibre warning. I have a Kobo, and if I can’t convert my Amazon ebooks to .epub format I can’t read them on my reader. Which means that if they discontinue support for the older version of the Kindle PC ap (I checked; I have v1.17.1, and I just unchecked the automatic update button… caught in the nick of time!) then I’ll stop buying ebooks from Amazon because I won’t be able to take them with me.
I get that they’re trying to stop piracy…. but they’re also stopping people like me, who DON’T have a parrot and an eypatch.
3) Stoss is right. Its obvious that Trump is a raging anti-semite. The way he excommunicated his daughter from the family after she married a jew is very telling. As is the way he fired all the members of his administration who attending thier shabbat dinner recently.
I confess, I would feel astonishingly little guilt about buying an ebook from Amazon and then torrenting it if I found that they’d prevented me from reading it.
c4c
well this is embarrassing….
Can they really be that stupid and blind to history, though, to not realize that increasing restrictions creates more pirates?
I think a lot of Americans are not aware what a dreadful experience crossing the US border is for non-Americans even under normal circumstances. American immigrations officers have been rude and unpleasant for as long as I remember (going back to 1988 – I can’t remember what 1978 was like, because I was five) and I am a white woman from a visa waiver country and used to have a permanent residential visa, i.e. I’m not the likeliest person to be harrassed and discriminated against. So yes, I can absolutely understand everybody who chooses not to travel to the US, because entering the US has never been a pleasant experience and will probably be much worse now.
Also, a lot of companies and individuals do business in countries they wouldn’t particularly want to visit.
I see what you did there.
@Darren Garrison
Welp, so far the movie, tv, music, and video games industries haven’t understood it, so this is just par for the course I’m afraid.
@Mark
One of the stories that got me this weekend was the mention that some arriving passengers got charged with “immigration violations” due to their presence violating an executive order that went into effect while they were in the air en route to the US.
Under the circumstances, I can understand that Stross would potentially be concerned about his personal safety. It seems to me that OGH, who usually frowns at excessive snark, is taking an overly uncharitable view of Stross’ motives. In particular, I doubt that Stross is making the kind of mad SF author money that would allow him to easily write off thousands of dollars for a planned trip.
Charlie’s “worst-case nightmare scenario” is not likely to happen. It’s a worst-case nightmare scenario, not a prediction. But right now, President Trump is issuing flurries of executive orders about immigration policy. Some of them are getting overruled immediately because they are obviously illegal and unconstitutional. We have no idea how it is going to end up. Some of Trump’s orders that are illegal now may become legal if Congress passes legislation. It is confusing and unpredictable.
Other writers and fans who frequently traveled to the US have run afoul of our fabulous immigration bureaucracy, even though they posed no threat to our country and broke no laws. They can never visit the US again. And that was before President Trump started changing the rules.
There is an upside to all this, which is the hit the US tourist industry took back in the aughts when the post-9/11 measures came into effect will look comparatively small compared to the hit it will take as the US turns into a hermit kingdom over the next few years. And there should be benefits to the Canadian tourism industry (Visit PEI! It has a bridge! See Newfoundland! It’s less desolate than Labrador) until the US decides to wipe us from the map.
@Cora – sorry that US Immigration officers were rude. Not an excuse, but we don’t have enough officers when huge planes come into international airports – especially when >1 arrive in close proximity.
For US citizens, the global entry program is excellent in getting through border customs quickly. You have to get fingerprinted, have a face-to-face interview, and pay a fee. But there are kiosks at border crossings where you get your fingerprint scanned, they scan your passport, and you zip right through.
They’re rude at land border crossings too. Treated me like shite and I’m a US citizen who committed the unspeakable crime of spending a night at a friend’s place in Toronto.
Riiight. Citizens of a free country should totally submit themselves to that if they don’t want their own government to treat them like crap. Canadian, Japanese, and Thai customs people were polite and helpful to me–a white woman–but employees of mine own government, not so much.
Folks, don’t come to the US. Go somewhere your money and your person is appreciated.
@OGH: Among your other missing nuances is that Stross is coming to a convention in Boston (where Trump’s order has been blocked and where there was a major demonstration, on almost no notice, against the order) and declining to go to a convention in Texas.