(1) INVESTIGATION OF BAEN’S BAR. [Item by rcade.] Jason Sanford has published an investigative report on the disturbing number of right-wing users calling for political violence on Baen’s Bar, the private message board of the SF/F publisher Baen Books. “Baen Books Forum Being Used to Advocate for Political Violence”, a public post on Patreon.
Some of the users advocating violence are even site moderators.
A moderator with the username Theoryman wrote, “As I’ve already pointed out, rendering ANY large city is uninhabitable is quite easy… And the Left lives in cities. The question is just how many of its inhabitants will survive…” Theoryman later in the thread suggested shooting transformers in cities with high-power rifles to make the cities “uninhabitable until restored,” adding in another post that “The point is to kill enough of them that they can not arise for another 50 years… or more.” …
[T]his user is a moderator for Baen’s Bar, meaning the publishing company selected this user to monitor and manage discussions on their forum.
While stating that he does not believe Baen Books endorses the calls for violence hosted on its forum, Sanford has questions he’d like Baen publisher Toni Weisskopf to be asked when she is the guest of honor at Worldcon this year.
During this year’s interview I’d really like Weisskopf to be asked about her company’s private forum being used to advocate for political violence. Does she find this acceptable? Does she condone these types of statements? Why did Baen Books previously ban some topics from their forum but doesn’t currently ban advocacy of political violence?
(2) RESPONSES TO SANFORD’S ARTICLE. There’s been an outpouring of response. Here is just a small sampling.
Marie Brennan:
Christopher Hensley on Facebook:
Well, I guess it’s time to burn this bridge. This is the last of a long chain of harmful behavior by Baen Books, and their Editor Toni Weisskopf. Set aside the political affiliations of the authors being mentioned. Baen’s stable is built around authors with a documented history of harassment. They are what’s known as missing stairs…
Even Publishers Weekly tweeted the link.
Jon Del Arroz tried to add a comment to the discussion on Sanford’s Patreon page – it’s gone now. “Helicopter rides” is a common right-wing reference to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s use of “death flights” to murder opponents.
Jason Sanford tweeted this update:
(3) REDISCOVERING SF BOOK CLUB ART. The second part of Doug Ellis’ series looking at the art of “Things to Come” (the newsletter of The Science Fiction Book Club) has now gone live over at Black Gate. This time he covers 1958-1960, which includes seldom seen work by Virgil Finlay: “The Art of Things to Come, Part 2: 1958-1960”.
The bulletin of the SFBC, Things to Come, which announced the featured selections available and alternates, sometimes just reproduced the dust jacket art for the books in question. However, in many cases the art was created solely for the bulletin, and was not used in the book or anywhere else. Nearly all of the art for the first 20 years of Things to Come is exclusive to that bulletin, and as a result hasn’t been seen by many SF fans. In this series, I’ll reproduce some of that art, chosen by virtue of the art, the story that it illustrates or the author of the story. The first installment featured art from 1957 and earlier, while this installment covers 1958-1960, presented chronologically.
(4) HISTORY-MAKING ASTRONOMY. The latest episode of the Center for Science and the Imagination’s podcast The Imagination Desk features an interview with Katie Bouman, a professor at Caltech who was part of the Event Horizon Telescope team that took the first image of a black hole: The Imagination Desk: Katie Bouman.
Katie Bouman is an assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences, electrical engineering, and astronomy at Caltech in Pasadena, California. In this episode, we talk about scientific collaboration, imagination, and Katie’s work on the Event Horizon Telescope, which produced the first image of a black hole by combining insights and methods from signal processing, computer vision, machine learning, and physics.
The podcast is on the CSI website (which links out to the other services), Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, and Libsyn.
(5) THE MOST IN UNINTENTIONAL HUMOR. The gourmands at ScreenRant serve fans the “10 Silliest 50s Sci-Fi Movies, Ranked”.
There is no shortage of silly science fiction films produced during the 1950s. With the fear and paranoia over the atomic bomb and its potentially monstrous mutations, the subgenre took the opportunity to explore some of the most outlandish stories, plots, and premises in cinematic history during this era….
It’s impressive to consider that this one is in effect last on their list. Imagine what must follow? (Plan 9 is number one.)
10. King Dinosaur
… Here’s the kicker. The giant monsters are led by King Dinosaur, which is really just an iguana forced to stand on its hind legs to appear like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The foursome uses atomic power to destroy the iguana in the end.
(6) ROVER COME OVER. The Perseverance rover is set to land on the surface of Mars on February 18, 2021. JPL explains the challenges: “7 Minutes to Mars: NASA’s Perseverance Rover Attempts Most Dangerous Landing Yet”.
All landings on Mars are difficult, but NASA’s Perseverance rover is attempting to touch down in the most challenging terrain on Mars ever targeted. The intense entry, descent, and landing phase, known as EDL, begins when the spacecraft reaches the top of the Martian atmosphere. Engineers have referred to the time it takes to land on Mars as the “seven minutes of terror.” The landing sequence is complex and targeting a location like Jezero Crater on Mars is only possible because of new landing technologies known as Range Trigger and Terrain-Relative Navigation.
(7) MEMORY LANE.
- 1996 – Twenty-five years ago at L.A. Con III, The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson wins the Hugo for Best Novel. Other Nominees fur this Award were The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter, Brightness Reef by David Brin, The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer and Remake by Connie Willis. It would also win the Locus Award for Best SF Novel, and be nominated for the HOMer, Nebula, Prometheus, Campbell Memorial and Clarke Awards.
(8) ALEXANDER OBIT. Wanda June Alexander, a freelance editor for Tor for 22 years (1984-2006), and a high school English teacher in New Mexico, died of cancer on February 14. One of the projects she worked on while with Tor was George R.R. Martin’s The Ice Dragon, a fully-illustrated children’s book.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and John Hertz.]
- Born February 14, 1883 — Sax Rohmer. Though doubtless best remembered for his series of novels featuring the arch-fiend Fu Manchu. I’ll also single out The Romance of Sorcery because he based his mystery-solving magician character Bazarada on Houdini who he was friends with. The Fourth Doctor story, “The Talons of Weng-Chiang” whose lead villain looked a lot like most depictions of Fu Manchu did. (Died 1959.) (CE)
- Born February 15, 1915 – L. Robert Tschirky. Half a dozen covers, two interiors for us. Art director for Encyclopedia Americana; travel articles (particularly Spain) in e.g. the NY Times. Here is The Mislaid Charm. Here is Without Sorcery. Here is The Incomplete Enchanter. Here is Lest Darkness Fall. Here is a piece of bibliographic history. (Died 2003) [JH]
- Born February 15, 1915 – Ian Ballantine. Pioneering publisher. First President of Bantam. Ballantine Books an early publisher of SF paperback originals; first publisher of authorized U.S. edition of Tolkien; a hundred Richard Powers covers. World Fantasy Award, SF Hall of Fame (both with wife Betty Ballantine). (Died 1995) [JH]
- Born February 15, 1935 – Paul Wenzel, age 86. A score of covers. Here is the Nov 58 Galaxy. Here is the Sep 62 If. Here is the Dec 63 Fantastic. Here is the Aug 66 Worlds of Tomorrow. [JH]
- Born February 14, 1945 — Jack Dann, 76. Dreaming Down-Under which he co-edited with Janeen Webb is an amazing anthology of Australian genre fiction. It won a Ditmar Award and was the first Australian fiction book ever to win the World Fantasy Award. If you’ve not read it, go do so. As for his novels, I’m fond of High Steel written with Jack C. Haldeman II, and The Man Who Melted. He’s not that well-stocked digitally speaking though Dreaming Down-Under is available at the usual digital suspects. (CE)
- Born February 14, 1948 — Art Spiegelman, 73. Author and illustrator of Maus which if you’ve not read, you really should. He also wrote MetaMaus which goes into great detail how he created that work. And yes I know he had a long and interesting career in underground comics but I’ll be damn if I can find any that are either genre or genre adjacent. (CE)
- Born February 15, 1951 – Lisanne Norman, age 70. Nine novels, a dozen shorter stories. Some activity with U.K. fandom. Interviewed in Interzone. “I trained as a teacher so I’m interested in everything…. used to read a minimum of 8 books a week…. it’s so easy now to be influenced while I’m writing that I don’t read nearly as much as before. [Yet] it’s mostly SF I read.” [JH]
- Born February 14, 1958 — Cat Eldridge, 63. Cat Eldridge is the publisher of Green Man Review and Sleeping Hedgehog. Cat, who’s had some severe health problems, likes to remind people, “Technically I died in 2017 and was revived in the same year. Repeatedly.” (CE)
- Born February 14, 1971 — Renee O’Connor, 50. Gabrielle on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. I’m reasonably sure that I watched every damn episode of both series when they aired originally. Quite fun stuff. Her first genre role was first as a waitress in Tales from the Crypt andshe’s had some genre film work such as Monster Ark and Alien Apocalypse. She’s also played Lady Macbeth in the Shakespeare by the Sea’s production of Macbeth. (CE)
- Born February 15, 1959 – Elizabeth Knox, age 62. Ten novels, two shorter stories for us; eight other novels; essays. Co-founded the New Zealand literary journal Sport. Prime Minister’s Award. Companion of the NZ Order of Merit. Interviewed in SFRA (SF Research Ass’n) Review. Here she is on The Master and Margarita. [JH]
- Born February 15, 1975 – Erick Setiawan, age 46. So far one novel, Of Bees and Mist (2009), about which there have been many yeas and nays – although I see little among us. In April 2013 he said “I am feverishly finishing another book – my plan is to get it done by end of year.” No blame, it’s hard work. [JH]
(10) COMICS SECTION.
- The Argyle Sweater has a wonderful joke about a band name.
- Candorville has a Star Trek: Discovery nonspoiler.
(11) I HEART PLUTO. [Item by Steven H Silver.] Lowell Observatory is running the on-line I Heart Pluto this week. It started yesterday and runs through Thursday, which is the 91st anniversary of the discovery of Pluto. A full schedule can be found here including links to the talks already given.
Ron Miller will be speaking on Imagining Pluto on Wednesday and I’ll note that on his bio page, he is sitting with his Hugo Award.
(12) BOUND FOR THE ISS. “Russian cargo ship launched to International Space Station” – ABC News carried the update.
An unmanned Russian cargo ship launched successfully Monday with a load of supplies for the International Space Station.
The Progress MS-16 cargo ship blasted off as scheduled at 9:45 a.m. (0445 GMT) from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan and reached a designated orbit en route to the station.
It is carrying water, propellant and other supplies and is set to dock at the space outpost on Wednesday….
(13) WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? “Scientists accidentally found life under 3,000 feet of ice in Antarctica. ‘Never in a million years’ would they have expected it, the lead scientist said.” – Yahoo! has the story.
… The video reveals two types of unidentified animals, shown here in a video from the British Antarctic Survey. The animals in red seem to have long stalks, whereas another type of animal, highlighted in white, looks more like a round sponge-like animal.,,,
The scientists say these animals are about 160 miles from the open sea.
“Our discovery raises so many more questions than it answers, such as how did they get there?” Griffith said in a press release. “What are they eating? How long have they been there?”
The scientists said their next step was to understand whether the animals were from a previously unknown species.
“To answer our questions we will have to find a way of getting up close with these animals and their environment,” Griffiths said.
(14) THE BRITCHES OF TOKO-RI. Jon Del Arroz continues to make his brand known everywhere.
(15) I’VE HEARD THAT VOICE BEFORE. There’s an app called PRAY where James Earl Jones reads The Bible. I’m wondering — if you don’t log in often enough, does he say “I find your lack of faith disturbing”?
(16) KAIJU-SIZED CREDENTIAL. Yahoo! is quite right – the “Godzilla Vs. Kong Trailer Is Even Better with a Cat”.
… A YouTuber that goes by JKK Films put his cat, Wayne, into the trailer, and it’s incredible. There’s something so special about a giant super-imposed kitty yawning in the background while the big monster boys fight….
(17) UP, UP, AND AWAY. Film Theory answers a serious scientific question: “Pixar’s Up, How Many Balloons Does It Take To Lift A House?”
Have you ever wondered if the house in Up could really float away on balloons? So have I but that is not the most INTERESTING question! You see, people have tried to figure that out before. What I aim to do today, Loyal Theorists, is figure out the actual COST of making a balloon powered flying house WORK! That’s right, we are not stopping until this house would really fly!
(18) VIDEO OF THE DAY. In “Prometheus Pitch Meeting” on ScreenRant, Ryan George says the characters in this Alien prequel are “the worst scientists you can imagine” because they take their helmets off in an alien cave because there’s breathable oxygen and try to escape a giant rolling spacecraft by trying to outrun it instead of leaping to one side.
[Thanks to Hampus Eckerman, James Davis Nicoll, John Hertz, JJ, Mike Kennedy, John King Tarpinian, Martin Morse Wooster, Jason Sanford, Joey Eschrich, Michael Toman, Kit Harding, Cat Eldridge, Danny Sichel, rcade, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
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First!
I’m having a pretty good week which means the new med regime is finally working for the most part.
(1) and (2) As someone who used to seek out Baen books on the bookstore shelves, this whole thing is depressing. Once, I desperately wanted to publish my fantasy novel through them (and they had a better line of fantasy books then). I’ve gone from a fan who used to visit Baen’s Bar all the time to somebody who gave up on it. Also, I pretty much stopped buying their books.
I’m sure that I’m not the only reader who noped away from Baen. But if you believe the comments from some of today’s Baen’s Bar regulars, we’re all “Commies” or crazies or liars or something. Just the brilliant level of discourse we need.
(2) That was not a “slighting” comment by JDA, it was a death threat, and I don’t think it wise or appropriate to trivialize it. I know it’s frightening to acknowledge the violence of that comment, but looking away is how we got here.
Lydia Nickerson: I’ll take your advice. JDA was, after all, the guy who got an alt-right crew to demonstrate on the doorstep of the 2018 Worldcon.
I gave up recommending the Vorkosigan books to people years ago. Too many assume too much based on the publisher. It’s just not worth having to go though the whole song and dance explaining that yes, they are a Baen space opera. No, they’re not one of those books.
Thanks, Mike.
And, yeah, I do remember that.
I have to say, death threats really don’t refute accusations of fomenting violence.
1 + 2) There are prominent authors attached to Baen who probably won’t condone this; I’m curious whether and what they’ll say about it. The dispatches from the culture war get more and more terrifying.
14) DragonCon does seem to be moving away from being associated with the far right, yes. Given its size that makes sense; it is likely impractical to keep the numbers up and also accommodate the Rabid Puppies.
(9) By the way, Black Gate has published some very informative posts (by William Patrick Maynard) about Sax Rohmer, particularly Fu Manchu. They changed my perspective on the character. Especially the post about “The Island of Fo Manchu.”
https://www.blackgate.com/blogging-sax-rohmers-the-island-of-fu-manchu-part-one/
Kit Harding says DragonCon does seem to be moving away from being associated with the far right, yes. Given its size that makes sense; it is likely impractical to keep the numbers up and also accommodate the Rabid Puppies.
Rabid Puppies are a very, very small slice of fandom. DragonCon going mainstream and appealing to a general readership pretty much guarantees that they’ll never be a factor in the voting process for DragonCon again. Now mind you I don’t think DragonCon ever intentionally accommodated Rabid Puppies anyways.
@Ryan H,
You can now get your Vorkosigan fix from Simon & Schuster:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/series/Vorkosigan-Saga
Soon Lee: You can now get your Vorkosigan fix from Simon & Schuster
Those are the Baen works. S&S is a distributor for Baen.
@ Soon Lee
Those are the Baen books. Even has a big Baen logo on the covers. And they are such Baen covers. Anyone who is into the genre could tell you who published them from across the room.
It’s just too much of a hassle explaining around the Baen reputation.
Edit: JJ beat me to it. I type too slow
Wait, I thought Bujold got a bunch of new covers made so she could sell them herself? Are they the new Kindle editions?
Someone will probably tell me I’m wrong about that too…
The new Bujold covers are on the Kindle editions.
Hugo-eligible (I think) novel A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik is on sale at Amazon UK for 99p today. 🙂
(I think this one’s been a bit marmitey based on comments I’ve seen around these parts!)
@Soon Lee & @Rob Barrett: Just to give a specific example of the ones from Bujold you’re talking about — this Kindle edition of Shards of Honor, where the publisher listed is Spectrum Literary Agency (her agent works there, I presume).
Autocorrect keeps telling me I must mean “Been” or “Bane” when I type “Baen.” It especially like “Bane,” LOL.
Happy birthday, Cat!
(2) When reading Jason Sanford’s article, I thought the people he exposed on Baen’s Bar were probably masturbatory violent fantasists who are scared of their own shadows in real life. I’ve changed my mind. Now that he’s receiving death threats, I think they’re dangerous sociopaths about whom the FBI should be alerted.
(13)
Gives me chills! And thrills!
(14) JDA is still around? I thought he would have dissolved into some sort of toxic sludge by now.
Thanks Meredith, I would not have spotted that one, since it’s not showing on the deal page I check.
2) You have to love their thought processes, there. “Hey, this guy says we’re using an online forum to advocate political violence! Let’s prove him right!”
My gods. I skimmed some of the Bar after reading (1-2) and … I literally learned new acronyms for LGBTQ folk that are so vile even Urban Dictionary couldn’t help me with them.
This is a hell of a place.
I’ve never visited Baen’s Bar. I’ve assumed for years that people join it to “meet” Baen authors, to talk with other fans about books published by Baen, perhaps to learn about getting published, etc.
Yes, I’d heard many participants were very right-wing. I vaguely supposed that meant they recycled Puppy talking points about the Hugos every year and pontificated regularly about Heinlein.
So this really IS my shocked face.
Wow, that has more than 4,000 ratings on Amazon. I know it might not be a reliable indicator, but that appears to be 10 times as popular as some respectable Hugo contenders.
(I’m not saying she’s not respectable, I rate her work, but that’s a different league in terms of popularity).
rob_matic: I know it might not be a reliable indicator, but that appears to be 10 times as popular as some respectable Hugo contenders.
It’s full of angsty teenaged angst, which I find really annoying, but I found the worldbuilding pretty interesting, with the creaky, broken-down school complex still trying to do what it was supposed to do, despite numerous severe functional failures. It’s on my Lodestar ballot.
(9) Happy Birthday Cat.
Jon Del Arroz, stay classy.
Happy birthday Cat!
I unwisely looked at JDA’s feed. He is now complaining that there is no evidence of death threats against Jason.
Even more unwisely in response, I showed him his own deleted Patreon comment.
Paul Weimer says Jon Del Arroz, stay classy.
Not a chance. He’s now calling himself “The Tom Brady of Science Fiction”. He’s not even fit to wipe Brady’s ass.
I had pretty much the exact opposite reaction in both respects — I found the characters extremely relatable and interesting, and the worldbuilding so poorly conceived and executed that suspending my disbelief was a constant problem.
And if I submitted a ballot for the Hugos, it would also be on my Lodestar ballot.
Means that most of the world will blink and ask “Who?” Which is fairly accurate characterisation I guess.
Cat Eldridge said:
Speaking as a long-time fan of the New York Jets (and thus someone with a very finely-honed hatred for Tom Brady), I find I must agree with this statement.
(14) I inadvertently ran into JDA Tweets from an hour ago trying to justify this by saying, “I don’t own helicopters”.
I reported the tweets and ones he had advocating for overthrowing the “Democratic government that stole the election”.
9) [Renee O’Connor] also played Lady Macbeth in the Shakespeare by the Sea’s production of Macbeth.
That is an unexpected bit of casting, but I like it! And now I’m imagining Lucy Lawless opposite her as Macbeth. Happy b’day, Ms. Eldridge!
Ah, JDA, JDA, JDA. Way to stay classy by providing evidence of the bad behavior.
Not that I’m surprised by any of it. Some of the most toxic folks I’ve met in various forums (even some who proclaim their liberalness) also identify as Barflies.
I’m going to be watching those so-called liberal folks very carefully.
Happy birthday, Cat!
Weisskopf’s dismissive attitude toward this doesn’t bode well for future developments.
@Eric R. Franklin–Tom Brady is genuinely one of the football greats, and he doesn’t shove his politics down our throats, or make death threats. As for the Jets, remind me again how many Super Bowl appearances the Jets have had over the course of Brady’s, not just career, but his lifetime. Tom Brady is not their problem.
@NickPheas–I’ll care what international soccer fans think about American football when I’ve forgotten the 2002 World Cup, where after the US did relatively well in the early rounds, the international coverage went, without missing a beat, from “How dare the Americans not love our game” to “How dare the Americans do well at our game“.
Of course, the US team’s early success didn’t last, and if the asswipes who sneer at the American relative lack of enthusiasm for the game had kept their lips zipped, they could have avoided encouraging us to continue not caring about the game.
So, sure, most of the world doesn’t care about American football, and why should we care? We mostly don’t care about soccer, and they’re both just games. JDA still isn’t fit to wipe Tom Brady’s ass.
happy b’day, Cat!
(from 6792!)
My reaction was
1) Probably someone from the Brady bunch
2) No, that doesn’t make any sense
3) probably someone only known in the US like Ayn Rand.
4) Oh wait! Was that a football player…?
The comments here indicate he was the latter. Well, never mind, I’m sure JdA doesn’t know that there is a places outside the US.
1/14 Well, Leading Voice is selling Franco tshirts, wonder if he’ll add a Pinochet?
@Anne Marble: One of those Blackgate articles ends with this 2nd-to-last sentence: “It is ironic that Sax Rohmer’s Fu-Manchu stories, long-derided as racist and jingoistic, actually represent a more enlightened view of the East” and it’s got to have been at least a week since I’ve seen a take that spicy
I’ve got to say, we seem to be living in a golden age of pixel scroll titles at the moment.
1) and 2) Jon isn’t Tom Brady, he’s Jan Brady. N. K. Jemisin wins the Hugo three times, and Jan Arroz Brady whines, “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!”
Uh, I don’t understand the basis for Jon’s comparison. Jon isn’t old in a younger person’s pursuit, he isn’t a multiple award winner, he doesn’t have a lucrative contract, or a massive fan base, he isn’t a specimen of physical health attainment…does he deflate balls? I mean, I’m confused. In what way is he like Tom Brady?
Happy birthday, Cat! 🐱
Kyra: I had pretty much the exact opposite reaction in both respects — I found the characters extremely relatable and interesting, and the worldbuilding so poorly conceived and executed that suspending my disbelief was a constant problem.
I found the kids so annoying that if I hadn’t been reading it with Cassy’s Forumania SFF Reading Group, I’d have thrown it against the wall and DNFed it. My willingness to read the sequel is probably going to be based on how available it is in my library and my mood if/when it becomes available.
@Cliff: “The Golden Age of Scrollish Titles is Fifth”
Happy Birthday, Cat!
I am relieved to see I was not the only person tossed into “should I know that name” land by the Tom Brady reference.
Current events sure make those Barflies speculations about violence more chilling than they would have been four years ago. That was a thing I could have lived without. (Since it’s happening, I’d rather know; I just wish… well, you know.)
Hipy Papy Bthuthdy, Cat!
Uh, I don’t understand the basis for Jon’s comparison. Jon isn’t old in a younger person’s pursuit, he isn’t a multiple award winner, he doesn’t have a lucrative contract, or a massive fan base, he isn’t a specimen of physical health attainment…does he deflate balls? I mean, I’m confused. In what way is he like Tom Brady?
Actually, for those among us who aren’t science adverse the last doesn’t apply either. There’s a reason we never heard about the results of the NFL’s much-trumpeted campaign to measure ball pressure during games during the season after deflategate.