… And that’s the thing : JK Rowling is the public face of the “Wizarding World.” She owns it and exercises complete control over it, and it’s pretty much impossible to talk about Harry Potter or the Fantastic Beasts movies without referencing her. In fact, she’s gone to great lengths to make her art inseparable from herself. Other authors seem to fade into the background a little bit more, especially as their books and adaptations get more and more prominence. I know tons of people who obsess about Murderbot, but who don’t know that much about Martha Wells, for example. JK Rowling made a choice to center herself in the discussion of her work, starting with how her “rags to riches” story was used to market her novels….
… a MarsCon regular guest very mildly voiced a concern, on FB, over whether or not he was the right choice for a con that claimed to want to be inclusive.
This GOH, and others like him, do not respond well to such statements. When they hear “Some people choose not to be around you because they find you unpleasant,” they perceive it as an attack, and they determine that a rabidly vitriolic response is not only warranted but necessary. (Again, DARVO).
The GOH wasted no time, it seems, in calling in his flying monkeys to harass the person who voiced concern, swiftly turning the FB threads into an unqualified shitshow. MarsCon responded by shutting down all comments and, rather than addressing the concerns that had just been proved entirely valid, doubling-down on their support for their aggressive GOH.
A whole choice.
MarsCon then made the choice to post a new “Interim Online Policy” claiming that “MarsCon is as it has always been an apolitical Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. It is the firm stance of MarsCon that personal politics should be left outside of the convention. It will not allow itself to used as a place for anyone to try and forward their personal political views.”
There’s more to the statement and the word “political” is doing some heavy lifting throughout….
(3) PREPPER. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] This is great fun from BBC Radio 4. Be prepared for the end of the world. “Prepper, Series 1, The Kit in Your Head”. Pearl Mackie plays one of the leads.
Trump. ISIS. The Courgette Crisis. Signs of civilisation’s fragility are all around. No wonder the Doomsday Clock just nudged closer to midnight. In this fearscape, more and more ordinary people are wondering how they’d cope if everything we take for granted (law and order, access to healthcare, iceberg lettuces in Sainsburys) was taken away.
…Among that stack of paperbacks is the perfect example of what I mean: Judith Merril’s England Swings SF, a book I’ve spent literal decades looking for. A book I’ve known about, have read about for decades I yesterday finally got to hold in my hands. England Swings SF is an incredibly important book in the history of science fiction. A key work of the New Wave, a defining statement of what New Wave science fiction was all about. It’s Judith Merril’s defining work, the jewel in the crown of her work as an editor. You know how important and controversial it was just from the publisher writing its own introduction washing its hands of the whole thing.
Though it may seem strange now, the New Wave was revolutionary, was controversial because it set out to deliberately undo science fiction’s dogmas, both literally and politically. Worse, as it originated in the UK and its most important early writers were British like Moorcock, Ballard and Aldiss, it also upset the natural order of America as the centre of the SF universe. When England Swings SF was released in 1968, the controversy had been raging for almost half a decade between the upstarts and the SF establishment….
(5) AI: A CREATOR’S TOOL OR RIVAL? Jason Sanford has put together a new column on what AI generated art and writing programs might mean for artists and authors. The column includes some predictions on how all this might play out in the coming years. “Genre Grapevine on What AI Generated Art and Writing Might Mean for Artists and Authors” a public post on Patreon.
… So far OpenAI hasn’t been very open about the works their programs are trained on.
As Lee said, “I never hide how I draw. I teach classes and share *everything*, from my layer structure to my inspirations to Gradient mapping. At Lightbox this year I would show my original files to ppl who come to my table to demonstrate how I do everything. I’m the opposite of a gatekeeper.”
Despite that, Lee was essentially blamed by a number of supporters of AI programs for daring to question the use of their own art in the training of machine learning programs.
Audiobook creation service Findaway Voices has become a popular alternative to Audible’s ACX, especially in the wake of #Audiblegate (the controversy over ACX’s author-penalizing returns policies that has generated at least one lawsuit).
In the past few days, though, authors and narrators have been drawingattention to this paragraph from Findaway’s Digital Distribution Agreement, which grants Apple–a third party–a license to use the rights holder’s audiobook files for “machine learning”, aka AI training…
…Unsurprisingly, there are now multiple lawsuits. Microsoft, Github, and Open AI are being sued for copyright-related issues over Github’s AI-powered coding assistant, Copilot. A group of artists has filed a class action suit against Stability AI (owner of Stable Diffusion), Midjourney, and DeviantArt for copyright violation and unlawful competition. Getty Images is also suing Stability AI, alleging that it scraped millions of copyright-protected images from Getty’s database. On a different side of the issue, computer scientist Steven Thaler is suing to overturn the US Copyright Office’s determination that AI art can’t be copyrighted. There will no doubt be much more legal action to come….
My favourite book growing up I devoured The Colour of Magic and at least 20 other Terry Pratchett novels as a child and consequently have never got over the feeling that there’s something pretty fundamental missing from nearly all “grown-up” fiction (ie jokes).
The book that changed me as a teenager We perhaps expect novelists to feel a reverent fascination with human consciousness, how miraculous it is, sacred, ineffable, unique etc. But if you read too much Greg Egan at an impressionable age, all of that gets absolutely napalmed. A book like Permutation City is dangerous (and mind-expanding) stuff.
(8) EUGENE LEE OBITUARY. The New York Times profiles a stage and TV figure whose work you may have been seeing for years: “Eugene Lee, Set Designer for Broadway and ‘S.N.L.,’ Dies at 83”. “He won Tony Awards for Wicked and other shows while also overseeing the sets for the late-night franchise’s fast-paced sketch comedy.”
For decades it was possible for Saturday night theatergoers in New York to get a double dose of Eugene Lee’s work, though it’s likely that few would have realized they were doing so. They might have taken in “Sweeney Todd,” “Ragtime,” “Wicked” or other Broadway shows whose striking sets were designed by Mr. Lee, then could arrive home in time to tune into “Saturday Night Live” — a show for which he served as production designer when it began in 1975, and on which he was still working this season….
(9) MEMORY LANE.
1971 – [Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
I’m very, very fond of SF genre short stories as I like them because they are often distilled versions of longer takes. Larry Niven I think in his prime wrote some of the best genre short stories ever done.
He won Hugos for them — “Neutron Star”, “Inconstant Moon” and “The Hole Man” to be precise. A collection, Convergent Series, one of my favorite collections to read, won a Locus Award. Not bad at all.
Not so with this story, Niven’s “For A Foggy Night” which was first published in the All the Myriad Ways collection published by Ballantine Books in 1971.
Niven like the idea of alternative worlds and I believe wrote more than ones of these stories with another story I really like being “All Myriad Ways”. It’s wonderfully done story that I won’t spoil as I suppose it’s possible that someone here hasn’t read it yet but to say that it has a great narration, fascinating story and a conclusion that makes perfect sense.
And now the Beginning…
The bar was selling a lot of Irish coffee that night. I’d bought two myself. It was warm inside, almost too warm, except when someone pushed through the door. Then a puff of chill, damp fog would roll in.
Beyond the window was grey chaos. The fog picked up all the various city lights: yellow light leaking from inside the bar, passing automobile headlights, white light from1971 frosted street globes, and the rainbow colors of neon signs. The fog stirred all the lights together into a cold grey-white paste and leaked it back through the windows.
Bright spots drifted past at a pedestrian’s pace. Cars. I felt sorry for the drivers. Rolling through a grey formless limbo, running from street globe to invisible street globe, alert for the abrupt, dangerous red dot of a traffic light: an intersection; you couldn’t tell otherwise . . . I had friends in San Francisco; there were other places I could be. But it wasn’t my city, and I was damned if I’d drive tonight.
A lost night. I’d finished my drink. One more, and I’d cross the street to my hotel.
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
Born February 11, 1908 — Tevis Clyde Smith. He’s a curious story indeed as he collaborated on three short stories with Robert E. Howard. Those stories are “Red Blades of Black Cathay”, “Diogenes of today” and “Eighttoes makes a play”. ISFDB suggests that he might have written other short stories and poetry. Anyone encounter these? (Died 1984.)
Born February 11, 1910 — L. T. C. Rolt. English writer whose enthusiasm for heritage railways is writ large in his 1948 Sleep No More collection of supernatural horror stories which tend to be set in rural railways. (Simon R. Green may be influenced by him in his Ghost Finders series which often uses these railways as a setting.) Some of these stories were adapted as radio dramas. Sleep No More is available from the usual digital suspects. (Died 1974.)
Born February 11, 1926 — Leslie Nielsen. I know the comic, bumbling fool who delighted generations of film goers. But his first starring role was as Commander John J. Adams in one of the finest SF films of all time Forbidden Planet. I am most decidedly not a fan of his later films but I think he’s brilliant here. (Died 2010.)
Born February 11, 1939 — Jane Yolen, 84. She loves dark chocolate. That I know as I just sent her some a few weeks ago. She wrote me into a novel as a character, an ethnomusicologist in One-Armed Queen to be precise in exchange for finding her a fairytale collection she wanted. Don’t remember now what it was other than it was very old and very rare. My favorite book by her is The Wild Hunt, and I love that she financed the production of Boiled in Lead’s Antler Dance which her son Adam Stemple was lead vocalist on. And yes she’s on the chocolate gifting list as well.
Born February 11, 1948 — Robert Reginald. He’s here because of two Phantom Detective novels he wrote late in his career which are mostly popcorn literature. (The Phantom Detective series started in 1936 so he used the Robert Wallace house name.) He has two series of some length, the Nova Europa Fantasy Saga and War of Two Worlds. Much of what he wrote is available from the usual digital sources. (Died 2013.)
Born February 11, 1950 — Alain Bergeron, 73. He received an Aurora Award for Best Short Story for “Les Crabes de Vénus regardent le ciel” published In Solaris number 73, and a Sideways Award for Alternate History for “Le huitième registre” (translated in English as “The Eighth Register” by Howard Scott).
Born February 11, 1953 — Wayne Hammond, 70. He’s married to fellow Tolkien scholar Christina Scull. Together they’ve done some of the finest work on him that’s been done including J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator, The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book and The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide.
(11) COMICS SECTION.
Eek!imagines what would happen if Skywalker Sr. was analyzed by Ancestry.com.
The Argyle Sweater mines Harry Potter for a horrible pun. Which of course I had to share.
(12) INSCRIBED TO THE DEDICATEE. Macmillan and HBG just raised starting salaries to $45,000. So you could say eBay is asking a year’s salary for this dedication copy of Rocket Ship Galileo signed by Heinlein. (Well, two Heinleins, actually.)
The dedication copy of the author’s first published novel, signed and inscribed by Robert A. Heinlein in the year of publication “with best wishes to my nephew Lawrence Lewis ‘Buddy’ Heinlein [signed] Robert Heinlein Nov. 1947” with an arrow pointing to Buddy’s printed name on the dedication page. Additionally signed by Lawrence Lewis Heinlein as “L. L. Heinlein” on the front free endpaper. Lawrence was the son of Robert’s brother.
(13) IT’S A WRAP! [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] This week’s Nature cover story has nothing on Boris Karloff. “How to make a mummy”.
The cover shows sarcophagi used to house the mummified remains of Ancient Egyptians in the Saqqara region of Egypt. Although the existence of mummies is well known, the details of how ancient embalmers practised their art have remained largely obscure. In this week’s issue, Maxime Rageot, Philipp Stockhammer and their colleagues draw on finds from an embalming workshop in Saqqara that dates to around 664–525 BC to reveal many of the details of the process. The researchers analysed 31 ceramic vessels found in the workshop. By combining biochemical analyses of the residues in the vessels with the inscriptions, such as “to be put on his head”, featured on many of them, they were able to establish which chemicals were used and how they were mixed, named and applied. The researchers also note that some of the embalming substances were imported from the Levant or even from south or southeast Asia, indicating that mummification might have helped to promote long-distance trade.
Who you gonna call… to eat?! Featuring more than 50 recipes inspired by the beloved Ghostbusters 1984 film and continuing into present day with Ghostbusters: Afterlife, this cookbook celebrates the bold personalities of Egon, Venkman, Zeddemore, and Stantz, along with the spooks, spectres, and ghosts that tried to transform New York City to a Babylonian dystopia.
But they’re not alone — they’ve got company with a new generation of Ghostbusters like Phoebe, Trevor, Podcast, and Lucky that saved Summerville, Oklahoma from the second coming of Gozer! In fact, it’s Podcast’s, well, podcast that inspires this book! Now he and Ray are combing through the Ghostbusters archives and recording new episodes to bring the group’s favorite new and old foods to delicious life.
With luscious full-color photography and packed with the fun and spirit of the films, Ghostbusters: The Official Cookbook is a must-have for foodies and paranormal investigative fans alike.
A long time ago (in every sense of the phrase), a Mars-sized celestial object named “Theia” smacked into Earth and formed our moon. Now, 4.5 billion years later, scientists want to put that moon back to work by using its dust to cool down its fever-induced planetary neighbor.
Scientists from the University of Utah suggest that “ballistically eject[ing]” millions of pounds of lunar dust around Earth could help deflect the sun’s rays and cool down the planet. The idea follows similar solar geoengineering concepts like ejecting reflected sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the stratosphere to gain the same sun-reflecting benefits (but with less potential health concerns).
However, this research is decidedly more sci-fi as it would likely require lunar infrastructure, electromagnetic cannons, and even orbital space platforms. The results of the study were published in the journal PLOS Climate….
[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Andrew Porter, Steven French, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Jason Sanford, Michael J. Walsh, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day by Cat Eldridge.]
And in the Midwest, It’s Scroll Pop, not scroll Soda
1) I have been buying the deluxe editions of the Harry Potter series for the past decade because I think they are great and entertaining works of young adult literature. One or more of my grandchildren will end up with them after I’m gone.
There are three volumes to go (The Half-Blood Prince and presumably, the Deathly Hallows in two parts). After my purchase of those volumes, my financial relationship with J.K. Rowling will officially end.
In the meantime, I will continue oppose and speak out against her transphobic beliefs…
Paul Weimer says Any in the Midwest, It’s Scroll Pop, not scroll Soda
Scroll Soda sounded more fitting coming out of my mind than Scroll Pop did.
(2) Separating politics… so, nothing on libertarianism, and, of course, let’s not forget who was kept out of the first worldcon because of politics.
(5) As I’ve said before, the big media companies really want AI (even though they’re actually expert systems running on a neural network, and not actual intelligence), because they can use it to produce “product”.
I assume everyone’s noticed that people aren’t “artists”, or “writers”, etc, but we’re all “content creators”.
Birthdays, Jane Yolen. Damn, not sure if she’ll be a guest at Balticon virtually or in person; if the latter, I should buy some dark chocolate.
mark says Birthdays, Jane Yolen. Damn, not sure if she’ll be a guest at Balticon virtually or in person; if the latter, I should buy some dark chocolate.
Not dark, just sixty percent for her please.
Scrolling is giving me a headache, so I’ll stop.
10) Tevis Clyde Smith has written several other stories and poems, including:
Frontier’s Generation (1931) – History of Brown County, TX; re-released in 1980 enlarged and expanded with a reminiscence of Robert E. Howard
Pecan Valley Days (1956) – History of Brown County, TX
Images Out of the Sky (1966) – A collection of poetry
The Cardboard God (1970) – A collection of short fiction
Don’t Blame The Python (1975) – A collection of short fiction
Report on a Writing Man & other reminiscences of Robert E. Howard (1991)
“So Far The Poet…” & Other Writings (2010)
Forgot, Tevis Clyde Smith also did: From the Memory of Men (1954) – More frontier history
(9) That story comes to mind every very-foggy-morning. But you really need a tule fog, with its density set to “too short to see anything” to appreciate it. (They happen when colder drier air crosses warmer wetter ground. And if you’re looking from outside at the edge of one, it’s like a solid wall of fog. Inside one, you can’t see the other side of a sixty-five-foot wide street with a street lamp on that far side.)
I see the mention of Tevis Clyde Smith has summoned Bobby Derie, who answers the question much better than I could.
(2) It’d be really unfortunate if the MarsCon GoH had just released and would be promoting a non-fiction book directly endorsing a political stance. That would make this policy instantly incoherent.
Chris M. Barkley, sooooo your protest doesn’t include anything meaningful like mildly inconveniencing yourself by not actually giving JKR money? Brave.
Thanks for starting today’s scroll with 2 such thoughtful and well written pieces. The second includes a number of jewels, but this, about the heavy lifting done by “political”, is my favorite:
“The only people who want to pretend [that speculative fiction isn’t political] are those who have the privilege and luxury of pretending that politics don’t matter, because their own lives are sufficiently insulated from its effects, and whose feelings get hurt when you point that out.”
I asked Open Ai to come up with a Title for a Scroll.
Scrolling Through the Pages of Fandom: The Latest News on File 770
I then ask to play on a a quoute from fandom.
Where No News Has Gone Before: Exploring the Galaxy of Fandom on File 770
I then ask for a witty one based on Ray Bradburys work:
Fahrenheit 451° of Fandom: Igniting the Latest News on File 770
The editor of the day wont be assigned to an AI in the near future, I assume
I then asked for a summary of Wolrd Con 2050, because Why not?
“Worldcon 2050, held from August 14th to 18th in New Tokyo, Japan, was a landmark event in the world of science fiction and fantasy. The convention brought together thousands of fans from all over the world to celebrate the latest and greatest in the genre.
The Guests of Honor, who were at the forefront of the science fiction and fantasy scene, were a huge draw for attendees. Notable author and futurist, Y.T. Kim, discussed the latest advancements in science and technology and how they might impact the genre in the future. Artist and animator, M.S. Nguyen, showcased their stunning virtual reality creations, giving fans a glimpse into a new era of immersive storytelling. And, editor and anthologist, Z.R. Ali, moderated a panel of industry leaders who discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the science fiction and fantasy industry in the next 30 years.
In addition to the guests of honor, Worldcon 2050 featured a wide range of events, from cosplay contests and film screenings, to discussions on the latest trends and theories in the genre. Attendees also had the chance to connect with each other and with the industry, forming new relationships and exchanging ideas.
But perhaps the most exciting part of Worldcon 2050 was the unveiling of the first ever interplanetary science fiction and fantasy convention, set to take place in 2053 on Mars. This announcement set the stage for a new era of science fiction and fantasy exploration, both in terms of the genre and in terms of humanity’s reach into the cosmos.
Overall, Worldcon 2050 was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for fans of science fiction and fantasy. And with the announcement of the first interplanetary convention, it’s clear that the genre is only going to keep growing and pushing boundaries in the years to come.”
I mean not too originaly, but I liked the authors names.
After the discussion the other day I read Rupert. Also, reread Prisoner of Zenda after many years. It’s amazing how well these books have held up after a century and are very readable.
The books make an effort to be non political. They say things like ‘a good policy was enacted’ without mentioning what the policy was. But you can’t get away from the basic idea that being the rightful king doesn’t mean the guy is a good king and the country is better off without him. Which is a pretty significant political statement.
I know I’ve never read any of the Zenda books, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen any of the film adaptations, but by coincidence I’m currently reading the short story “The sin of the Bishop of Modenstein”, originally from The Heart of Princess Osra, in Lawrence Ellsworth’s Big Book of Swashbuckling Adventure, and it’s making me think I need to add the novels to my TBR pile.
@Joe Having read the first one recently-ish, I think they are worth going on the TBR pile, and as noted above, there are audiobooks too.
(1) All art is political. In these days of connectedness, it is easy enough to know if an artist is a garbage human, and then it becomes a personal choice whether you choose to continue to support them or their works. Their choice to be a garbage human has consequences, just as your choice to continue to support them does. The consequences may not be material: my not buying any more J.K. Rowling product has no significant effect on their life, so wealthy they are. But it is still important to me.
re ChatGPT and “New Tokyo”: this is why, much as we all love Godzilla, inviting him as GOH is just a bad idea.
“Beowulf Shaeffer, when the Core blew” – Darmok phrase indicating extreme surprise
“Miles, when Ekaterin fled” – phrase indicating despair.
“Nikki, with the Emperor’s phone number” – similar to “Gondor calls for aid”, but with more Impsec.
“Falcon, on the Captain’s left” – sudden unexpected hope.
(4) it was decades before I realized “swings” is a transitive verb in England Swings SF. On the model of the song “England Swings,” I took it to be intransitive and SF to be adverbial, meaning “through sf” or some such. Merril, of a generation before mine, was thinking of the meaning “to jazzify (a melody).” I find it ironic that she would use an obsolescent idiom to characterize the New Wave.
“Nikki with the Emperor’s phone number” — I like that.
@Patrick McGuire
“England Swings” was also a hit song in the mid-60s, by Roger Miller. It wasn’t obsolescent.
@OGH: Glad you liked it
P J Evans – Not the song. Using “swing” to mean to turn a melody to jazz. Reread my post.
@Patrick McGuire – I’m pointing out that “swing” was in use at the time and doesn’t require getting into “obsolescent.” meaning. (IIRC, the line in the song was “England swings like a pendulum do”)
@P J Evans–
(IIRC, the line in the song was “England swings like a pendulum do”)
“Bobbies on bicycles, two by two…”
*Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben,
The rosy red cheeks of the little children”
Judith Merril and Roger Miller were both referring to this: Swinging Sixties
‘Swing’ in the technical sense of placement of notes in a bar is still in use. Just yesterday I received a critique of my rhythm playing about my lack of swing.
The nature of swing is an active area of research for physicists
Ah yes the late Leslie Nielsen. As well as being in the wonderful “Forbidden Planet” (whose uniforms were then used in the Zza Zza Gabor turkey “Queen Of Outer Space”), Leslie was of course in the very short lived TV show “Police Squad” and in the movies derived from that. And although some the gags in those comedies are considered by some, now, to be non PC, I always still guffaw at a few of them. One especially: after a robbery, Lt Drebin (Nielsen), holds out a cigarette to a witness and says “cigarette?” She replies”” Yes I know!”… He was also (as a Secret Agent) in the very Prisoner-esque episode of “Colombo” (with Patrick McGoohan) called “Identity Crisis”. That particular episode has overt No 6 references therein…
(1)>>>> All art is political. In these days of connectedness, it is easy enough to know if an artist is a garbage human, and then it becomes a personal choice whether you choose to continue to support them or their works.
NOBODY has a monopoly on truth, and NOBODY has a monopoly on error. Calling anybody a "garbage" human being eventually leads to purges, witch hunts, lynchings, and other forms of political murder. Either side of an issue can do this (look up "The Horseshoe Theory of the Political Spectrum"), and the result throughout history has always been the same. The political or religious zealot/fanatic/issue-purist-fundamentalist ideologue is incapable of seeing irony or paradox in human character. Historically, human beings can be altruistic do-gooders and saints on one or more issues, and shockingly oblivious to nasty behavior or beliefs on others. This fanatic demonization is the real problem of our times, and polls show that an overwhelming majority of people believe it is so, despite the protestations and often violence of the extremists in our midst....
2) “Don’t say that he’s hypocritical,
Say rather that he’s APOLITICAL…”
As ever, the great Tom Lehrer (for all that his work had a few issues of its own) has an excellent lyric about folks who claim the mantle of “apolitical” to try to dodge criticism, in this case from his ballad of Wernher von Braun, the Nazi rocket scientist who was embraced by the US after the war.
@K, Ah, yes, the “both sides/slippery slope” argument. I put it to you that (for an extreme example) a person who rapes children and dumps poison in the water supply, however nice he might be to his mother, is a garbage human being.
It’s a spectrum. And some folks are very much pinning the “garbage human being” side of that spectrum. I have no problem calling the hypothetical child rapist above a garbage human being. If were to do such a thing, then I, too, would be a garbage human being.
It’s not about who a person is. It’s about what a person DOES. Actions have consequences, and actions that substantially harm innocents are unconscionable.
You seem to be saying that we should not hold people accountable for their actions, for fear that will lead to pograms or witch hunts. I disagree. Pograms and witch hunts are about demonizing identity, not actions.
Different people have differing ideas about what actions are sufficiently harmful for them to consider a person a terrible human being, of course. But I put it to you that as long as one is judging that person by their actions rather than by circumstances beyond their control (their sexual identity, the color of their skin, the place they were born) then there is no “slippery slope”. I put it to you that actions MUST have consequences, for good or ill. Heroes should get recognition and parades. Murderers should get a different kind of recognition and prison.
Peer: let me note that my partner and I are co-chairs, bidding for the out-of-this-world Worldcon in Tycho, on the Moon, for 2069.
Dave lally wrote: although some the gags in those comedies are considered by some, now, to be non PC
Those jokes are offensive. They were offensive then. That’s why they played those gags. For laffs. “Owning the libs” is newfangledspeak for an old concept.
Police Squad is a funny show. Like Max Headroom, its existence is miraculous. But some of it was ill-advised.
Have people seen Ted Chiang’s article on ChatGPT?https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web/amp
YEs, it’s a good piece I think, Andrew.
And in the Midwest, It’s Scroll Pop, not scroll Soda
1) I have been buying the deluxe editions of the Harry Potter series for the past decade because I think they are great and entertaining works of young adult literature. One or more of my grandchildren will end up with them after I’m gone.
There are three volumes to go (The Half-Blood Prince and presumably, the Deathly Hallows in two parts). After my purchase of those volumes, my financial relationship with J.K. Rowling will officially end.
In the meantime, I will continue oppose and speak out against her transphobic beliefs…
Paul Weimer says Any in the Midwest, It’s Scroll Pop, not scroll Soda
Scroll Soda sounded more fitting coming out of my mind than Scroll Pop did.
(2) Separating politics… so, nothing on libertarianism, and, of course, let’s not forget who was kept out of the first worldcon because of politics.
(5) As I’ve said before, the big media companies really want AI (even though they’re actually expert systems running on a neural network, and not actual intelligence), because they can use it to produce “product”.
I assume everyone’s noticed that people aren’t “artists”, or “writers”, etc, but we’re all “content creators”.
Birthdays, Jane Yolen. Damn, not sure if she’ll be a guest at Balticon virtually or in person; if the latter, I should buy some dark chocolate.
mark says Birthdays, Jane Yolen. Damn, not sure if she’ll be a guest at Balticon virtually or in person; if the latter, I should buy some dark chocolate.
Not dark, just sixty percent for her please.
Scrolling is giving me a headache, so I’ll stop.
10) Tevis Clyde Smith has written several other stories and poems, including:
Frontier’s Generation (1931) – History of Brown County, TX; re-released in 1980 enlarged and expanded with a reminiscence of Robert E. Howard
Pecan Valley Days (1956) – History of Brown County, TX
Images Out of the Sky (1966) – A collection of poetry
The Cardboard God (1970) – A collection of short fiction
Don’t Blame The Python (1975) – A collection of short fiction
Report on a Writing Man & other reminiscences of Robert E. Howard (1991)
“So Far The Poet…” & Other Writings (2010)
Forgot, Tevis Clyde Smith also did: From the Memory of Men (1954) – More frontier history
(9) That story comes to mind every very-foggy-morning. But you really need a tule fog, with its density set to “too short to see anything” to appreciate it. (They happen when colder drier air crosses warmer wetter ground. And if you’re looking from outside at the edge of one, it’s like a solid wall of fog. Inside one, you can’t see the other side of a sixty-five-foot wide street with a street lamp on that far side.)
I see the mention of Tevis Clyde Smith has summoned Bobby Derie, who answers the question much better than I could.
(2) It’d be really unfortunate if the MarsCon GoH had just released and would be promoting a non-fiction book directly endorsing a political stance. That would make this policy instantly incoherent.
Chris M. Barkley, sooooo your protest doesn’t include anything meaningful like mildly inconveniencing yourself by not actually giving JKR money? Brave.
Thanks for starting today’s scroll with 2 such thoughtful and well written pieces. The second includes a number of jewels, but this, about the heavy lifting done by “political”, is my favorite:
“The only people who want to pretend [that speculative fiction isn’t political] are those who have the privilege and luxury of pretending that politics don’t matter, because their own lives are sufficiently insulated from its effects, and whose feelings get hurt when you point that out.”
I asked Open Ai to come up with a Title for a Scroll.
I then ask to play on a a quoute from fandom.
I then ask for a witty one based on Ray Bradburys work:
The editor of the day wont be assigned to an AI in the near future, I assume
I then asked for a summary of Wolrd Con 2050, because Why not?
I mean not too originaly, but I liked the authors names.
After the discussion the other day I read Rupert. Also, reread Prisoner of Zenda after many years. It’s amazing how well these books have held up after a century and are very readable.
The books make an effort to be non political. They say things like ‘a good policy was enacted’ without mentioning what the policy was. But you can’t get away from the basic idea that being the rightful king doesn’t mean the guy is a good king and the country is better off without him. Which is a pretty significant political statement.
I know I’ve never read any of the Zenda books, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen any of the film adaptations, but by coincidence I’m currently reading the short story “The sin of the Bishop of Modenstein”, originally from The Heart of Princess Osra, in Lawrence Ellsworth’s Big Book of Swashbuckling Adventure, and it’s making me think I need to add the novels to my TBR pile.
@Joe Having read the first one recently-ish, I think they are worth going on the TBR pile, and as noted above, there are audiobooks too.
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(1) All art is political. In these days of connectedness, it is easy enough to know if an artist is a garbage human, and then it becomes a personal choice whether you choose to continue to support them or their works. Their choice to be a garbage human has consequences, just as your choice to continue to support them does. The consequences may not be material: my not buying any more J.K. Rowling product has no significant effect on their life, so wealthy they are. But it is still important to me.
In other news, it’s WFH for the next two days while we hunker down as Cyclone Gabrielle hits New Zealand. (I’m ok, the house is in a good spot, emergency supplies have been refreshed & so far still have power.) https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-185.63,-35.52,1545
re ChatGPT and “New Tokyo”: this is why, much as we all love Godzilla, inviting him as GOH is just a bad idea.
“Beowulf Shaeffer, when the Core blew” – Darmok phrase indicating extreme surprise
“Miles, when Ekaterin fled” – phrase indicating despair.
“Nikki, with the Emperor’s phone number” – similar to “Gondor calls for aid”, but with more Impsec.
“Falcon, on the Captain’s left” – sudden unexpected hope.
(4) it was decades before I realized “swings” is a transitive verb in England Swings SF. On the model of the song “England Swings,” I took it to be intransitive and SF to be adverbial, meaning “through sf” or some such. Merril, of a generation before mine, was thinking of the meaning “to jazzify (a melody).” I find it ironic that she would use an obsolescent idiom to characterize the New Wave.
“Nikki with the Emperor’s phone number” — I like that.
@Patrick McGuire
“England Swings” was also a hit song in the mid-60s, by Roger Miller. It wasn’t obsolescent.
@OGH: Glad you liked it
P J Evans – Not the song. Using “swing” to mean to turn a melody to jazz. Reread my post.
@Patrick McGuire – I’m pointing out that “swing” was in use at the time and doesn’t require getting into “obsolescent.” meaning. (IIRC, the line in the song was “England swings like a pendulum do”)
@P J Evans–
“Bobbies on bicycles, two by two…”
*Westminster Abbey, the tower of Big Ben,
The rosy red cheeks of the little children”
Judith Merril and Roger Miller were both referring to this: Swinging Sixties
‘Swing’ in the technical sense of placement of notes in a bar is still in use. Just yesterday I received a critique of my rhythm playing about my lack of swing.
The nature of swing is an active area of research for physicists
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/01/18/1139783203/what-makes-songs-swing-physicists-unravel-jazz-mystery
Ah yes the late Leslie Nielsen. As well as being in the wonderful “Forbidden Planet” (whose uniforms were then used in the Zza Zza Gabor turkey “Queen Of Outer Space”), Leslie was of course in the very short lived TV show “Police Squad” and in the movies derived from that. And although some the gags in those comedies are considered by some, now, to be non PC, I always still guffaw at a few of them. One especially: after a robbery, Lt Drebin (Nielsen), holds out a cigarette to a witness and says “cigarette?” She replies”” Yes I know!”… He was also (as a Secret Agent) in the very Prisoner-esque episode of “Colombo” (with Patrick McGoohan) called “Identity Crisis”. That particular episode has overt No 6 references therein…
(1)>>>> All art is political. In these days of connectedness, it is easy enough to know if an artist is a garbage human, and then it becomes a personal choice whether you choose to continue to support them or their works.
NOBODY has a monopoly on truth, and NOBODY has a monopoly on error. Calling anybody a "garbage" human being eventually leads to purges, witch hunts, lynchings, and other forms of political murder. Either side of an issue can do this (look up "The Horseshoe Theory of the Political Spectrum"), and the result throughout history has always been the same. The political or religious zealot/fanatic/issue-purist-fundamentalist ideologue is incapable of seeing irony or paradox in human character. Historically, human beings can be altruistic do-gooders and saints on one or more issues, and shockingly oblivious to nasty behavior or beliefs on others. This fanatic demonization is the real problem of our times, and polls show that an overwhelming majority of people believe it is so, despite the protestations and often violence of the extremists in our midst....
2) “Don’t say that he’s hypocritical,
Say rather that he’s APOLITICAL…”
As ever, the great Tom Lehrer (for all that his work had a few issues of its own) has an excellent lyric about folks who claim the mantle of “apolitical” to try to dodge criticism, in this case from his ballad of Wernher von Braun, the Nazi rocket scientist who was embraced by the US after the war.
@K, Ah, yes, the “both sides/slippery slope” argument. I put it to you that (for an extreme example) a person who rapes children and dumps poison in the water supply, however nice he might be to his mother, is a garbage human being.
It’s a spectrum. And some folks are very much pinning the “garbage human being” side of that spectrum. I have no problem calling the hypothetical child rapist above a garbage human being. If were to do such a thing, then I, too, would be a garbage human being.
It’s not about who a person is. It’s about what a person DOES. Actions have consequences, and actions that substantially harm innocents are unconscionable.
You seem to be saying that we should not hold people accountable for their actions, for fear that will lead to pograms or witch hunts. I disagree. Pograms and witch hunts are about demonizing identity, not actions.
Different people have differing ideas about what actions are sufficiently harmful for them to consider a person a terrible human being, of course. But I put it to you that as long as one is judging that person by their actions rather than by circumstances beyond their control (their sexual identity, the color of their skin, the place they were born) then there is no “slippery slope”. I put it to you that actions MUST have consequences, for good or ill. Heroes should get recognition and parades. Murderers should get a different kind of recognition and prison.
Peer: let me note that my partner and I are co-chairs, bidding for the out-of-this-world Worldcon in Tycho, on the Moon, for 2069.
Those jokes are offensive. They were offensive then. That’s why they played those gags. For laffs. “Owning the libs” is newfangledspeak for an old concept.
Police Squad is a funny show. Like Max Headroom, its existence is miraculous. But some of it was ill-advised.