(1) TECH IMPROVED, ETHICS STAYED THE SAME. The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne Jr., in “Yes, we should be outraged about Facebook” analyzes The 480, a 1964 near-future sf novel by Eugene Burdick (co-author of Fail-Safe) in which “people who work with slide rules and calculating machines which can remember an almost infinite bits of information” have divided the U.S. into 480 demographic groups in order to manipulate them into supporting a dark-horse Republican presidential candidate. Dionne brings up this novel in the context of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal and notes that Burdick based his novel on efforts by Simulatrics Corp. to support the Kennedy campaign in 1960.
(2) INVOLUNTARY EXPERIMENT. The Guardian says Kim Stanley Robinson told them — “Empty half the Earth of its humans. It’s the only way to save the planet”.
Cities are part of the system we’ve invented to keep people alive on Earth. People tend to like cities, and have been congregating in them ever since the invention of agriculture, 10,000 or so years ago. That’s why we call it civilisation. This origin story underlines how agriculture made cities possible, by providing enough food to feed a settled crowd on a regular basis. Cities can’t work without farms, nor without watersheds that provide their water. So as central as cities are to modern civilisation, they are only one aspect of a system.
There are nearly eight billion humans alive on the planet now, and that’s a big number: more than twice as many as were alive 50 years ago. It’s an accidental experiment with enormous stakes, as it isn’t clear that the Earth’s biosphere can supply that many people’s needs – or absorb that many wastes and poisons – on a renewable and sustainable basis over the long haul. We’ll only find out by trying it.
Right now we are not succeeding. The Global Footprint Network estimates that we use up our annual supply of renewable resources by August every year, after which we are cutting into non-renewable supplies – in effect stealing from future generations. Eating the seed corn, they used to call it. At the same time we’re pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a rate that is changing the climate in dangerous ways and will certainly damage agriculture.
(3) TOLKIEN AND LEWIS AT WAR. As reported here in December, a five-part documentary film series A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War about “the transformative friendship between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien forged amid the trauma of war,” is in production. A new trailer has been posted. The film’s release date is set for November 11, 2018, to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of the end of World War I.
The documentary film series, “A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War,” explores how the experience of two world wars shaped the lives and literary imagination of two internationally famous authors and friends, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Based on Joseph Loconte’s New York Times bestseller, the film examines how Tolkien’s combat experience during the First World War—at the Battle of the Somme—launched him on his literary quest. The film reveals how the conflict reinforced Lewis’s youthful atheism—he was injured in combat—but also stirred his spiritual longings. The film traces the careers of both men at Oxford University, and their deepening friendship as they discover a mutual love of medieval, romantic literature. Facing the threat of another world war, Tolkien and Lewis reach back into their earlier experience of war as they compose their epic works of fantasy, The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.
(4) HOWARD AWARD. The eligibility list for the 2018 Robert E, Howard Foundation Awards has been posted.
This is full list of eligible candidates for the 2018 REH Foundation Awards. Legacy Circle Members will select the top three nominees in each category from this preliminary ballot. From those final nominees all Premium REHF members will vote for the winners. The awards will be given out at a special ceremony at Howard Days in Cross Plains on June 8.
(5) APOLLO STILLS PUT IN MOTION. Mark Hepworth sent a link to these “Very cool Apollo gifs” at Medium — “I looked through all 14,227 Apollo photos… and made GIFs.”
A few days ago Jared Kinsler compiled an excellent selection of the photos of the Apollo missions, which you should check out here…
(6) DINO LUST. They look like horns, but in reality they were babe magnets: “Triceratops may have had horns to attract mates”.
Dinosaurs like the Triceratops may have had horns and frills to attract a mate, a new study suggests.
Ceratopsian, or horned dinosaurs, were previously thought to have developed this ornamentation to distinguish between different species.
This has now been ruled out in a study published in a Royal Society journal.
Instead, the aggressive-looking armour may actually have evolved to signal an animal’s suitability as a partner, known as socio-sexual selection.
“Individuals are advertising their quality or genetic make-up,” explained Andrew Knapp, lead author of the research reported in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
“We see that in peacocks too, with their tail feathers.”
(7) SF OBSCURE. Echo Ishii’s search through TV history leads to “Hard Time on Planet Earth”.
Hard Time on Planet Earth was an American series broadcast for 13 episodes in 1989 starring Martin Kove. An elite alien military officer is sentenced to earth as his penalty for rebellion. He is given human form-much weaker than his older form-and sent to Earth to improve his violent behavior. (Or maybe curb his violent instincts or learn about goodness, it all gets a bit murky.) Anyway, he’s banished to Earth with an AI system called Control to monitor him. He’s given the name Jesse. Control is a giant, floating mechanical eye. Jesse has to help people in need to get back into the Ruling Council’s favor.
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY CAPTAIN
- Born March 22, 1931 – William Shatner
(9) HE’S FEELING BETTER. An ad was gaining clicks by falsely reporting Shatner’s death, and the actor teed off on Facebook: “William Shatner Rails at Facebook After Being Told That He’s Dead”.
“Hey @facebook isn’t this your messenger app? What’s up with you allowing this Acocet Retail Sales ad to pass your muster? Thought you were doing something about this?” Shatner wrote.
A Facebook employee later responded with the assurance that the ad and the page had been removed from Facebook. Still, news of Shatner’s demise couldn’t come at a worse time for the actor, as he is expected to turn 87 on Thursday.
It also couldn’t come at a worse time for Facebook, which has been reeling recently over news that 50 million Facebook users unknowingly had their information lifted by data firm Cambridge Analytica.
(10) MEMEWHILE. Elsewhere on the internet, #AddShatnerToAnything was the order of the day. For example…
Gorn with the Wind#AddShatnerToAnything pic.twitter.com/gxK02RNZDF
— Meanwhile in Canada (@MeanwhileinCana) March 22, 2018
(11) COMICS SECTION.
- John King Tarpinian tuned into Broomhilda just as she was about to take gas.
(12) CONS AS PUBLIC UTILITY. Will Shetterly considered himself to have nothing in common with Jon Del Arroz apart from also having been banned from a convention. Well, now that Shetterly has cast shade on Jim C. Hines’ post about JDA’s track record of harassment, in “Two privileges of attending science fiction conventions, and a little about Jon Del Arroz’s law suit”, they have that in common, too. However, this passage struck me as the most interesting part of the post:
Before conventions began banning people, the fundamental privilege of attending science conventions wasn’t discussed because, by capitalist standards, the privilege was fair: anyone who had money could go, and anyone who didn’t, well, capitalist fairness is never about people who don’t have money.
But now that conventions have begun banning people, it’s time to acknowledge the second privilege. Though the genre has grown enormously, it’s still a small community at the top. If you hope to become a professional, it can be enormously helpful to attend WorldCon, the World Fantasy Convention, and literary conventions like ReaderCon, WisCon, and Fourth Street Fantasy. Once your career has begun, you need to be able to attend the Nebulas Awards too. Obviously, only the very privileged can go to most of those conventions regularly, but anyone who wants to make a career in this field should, every year, pick one from from Column A (WorldCon, World Fantasy, Nebula Awards), one from Column B (ReaderCon, WisCon, Fourth Street Fantasy), and one from Column C (local convention, regional convention, major commercial convention like DragonCon).
Being banned from any convention is an enormous blow to a writer’s ability to be a writer, and especially to a new writer’s ability to last in the field. It keeps you from meeting fellow professionals and getting useful tips, and it keeps you from making new fans.
(13) HIMTOO. Shetterly’s post prompted this recollection from Bruce Arthurs:
Not "banned" from 1978 Worldcon, but I wasn't allowed to enter the registration area for my membership packet. I just had Hilde pick it up and bring it out to me. (I'd called out people, in print, for their reprehensible behavior, especially the forced firing of Rusty Hevelin.)
— Bruce Arthurs (@BruceArthursAZ) March 22, 2018
(14) BRANDED. The logical companion volume to Gene Wolfe’s The Death of Doctor Island and Other Stories and Other Stories, eh John?
I want to write a novel titled "Collected Short Stories" just to mess with everyone.
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) March 22, 2018
(15) NEVER TOO LATE. Kim Wilde is making a comeback, with added science fiction: “Kim Wilde says aliens inspired her pop comeback”.
As a keen sci-fi fan (Arrival and ET are her favourite films), Wilde is fully embracing the theme of her new album – from the sleeve’s terrific B-movie artwork, to the stage show for her upcoming tour.
“I’ve got this little wardrobe set up, of fantastic capes and cloaks,” says the singer, who previously bought her outfits at jumble sales.
“We’re going to go a bit sci-fi and we’re going to a bit glam rock. It’ll be sexy and fun and something to put a big smile on people’s faces. I’m really excited about it.”
(16) A CLOCKWORK COD. Do Asimov’s Laws apply here? “Researchers create robotic fish that can swim underwater on its own”.
Observing fish in their natural ocean habitats goes a long way toward understanding their behaviors and interactions with the surrounding environment. But doing so isn’t easy. Using underwater vehicles to get a look at these species is one option, but they often come with a slew of limitations. Some are loud and use propellers or jet-propulsion that disturb fish and their surroundings. And many are designed in a way that doesn’t allow them to blend in with the marine environment. Controlling such vehicles is also a challenge and in many cases, they have to be tethered to a boat. But researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have come up with a potential solution — a soft robot that can swim on its own underwater.
(17) SEE FOOD. Apparently no fish were harmed in the making of this food? “3D-printed sushi looks like the perfect 8-bit meal” at Cnet.
At this year’s SXSW, Japanese technology company Open Meals revealed its Pixel Food Printer, which 3D-prints edible sushi, and other food, that looks like it was meant for a retro video game.
The pixelated food, including sushi and burgers, is printed first by using the Food Base digital platform that stores data on the exact flavor, shape, texture, color and nutrients of foods.
Then the actual Pixel Food Printer uses a robotic arm that prints out small pixel cubes made of edible gel with the corresponding flavors, colors and nutrients of the type of food being printed out.
(17) SEA PLASTIC. Printing seafood may be necessary at this rate: “Plastic patch in Pacific Ocean growing rapidly, study shows”.
Predictions suggest a build-up of about 80,000 tonnes of plastic in the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” between California and Hawaii.
This figure is up to sixteen times higher than previously reported, say international researchers.
One trawl in the centre of the patch had the highest concentration of plastic ever recorded.
“Plastic concentration is increasing – I think the situation is getting worse,” said Laurent Lebreton of The Ocean Cleanup Foundation in Delft, Netherlands, which led the study.
“This really highlights the urgency to take action in stopping the in-flow of plastic into the ocean and also taking measures to clean up the existing mess.”
Waste accumulates in five ocean areas, the largest being the patch located between Hawaii and California.
(18) KGB. Ellen Datlow shared her photos taken at Fantastic Fiction at KGB on March 21.
Despite our blizzard, people did indeed show up for our reading. They were rewarded by hearing wonderful work by Kelly Robson and Chandler Klang Smith.
(19) SCI-FI SAVES DOG. David Gerrold’s “Jasmine and Friends Book Sale” at GoFundMe is raising money to pay a vet bill and assist a couple of friends. Donate to it and you get some of David’s books.
Our little Jasmine is sixteen years old. She specializes in naps and laps. A few weeks ago, she stopped eating and appeared to be in serious decline.
The vet determined that she had developed a serious abscess in her mouth and needed immediate surgery before she weakened further. She ended up having seven teeth extracted as well.
The good news is that she survived the operation, her mouth is healing, and she’s eating again. She’s out of pain and she’s acting like her old self.
The bad news is that the vet bill was high. Very high. We thought we’d be able to cover it, but despite the vet helping us with a payment plan, we’re still falling short.
Add to that, we have a couple friends who could use a serious financial infusion. Several people on Facebook asked if they could help, so we decided to do it this way.
We’re holding a book sale.
Any donation at all will get you a link to download a set of three stories: “The Bag Lady,” “The Great Milo,” and “Chester” (which was inspired by Jasmine’s best buddy of fifteen years.)
Any donation of $20 or more gets you a link to download a copy of “Jacob”, my vampire novel, plus all the previous.
Any donation of $40 or more gets you a link to download a copy of “thirteen, fourteen, fifteen o’clock” plus all the previous.
Any donation of $60 or more gets you a link to download a copy of “Entanglements and Terrors” (my short story collection) plus all the previous.
Any donation of $80 or more gets you a link to download a copy of “A Promise O f Stars” (another short story collection) plus all the previous.
Any donation of $100 or more gets you all of the above, plus a copy of the Megapack, a flash drive with a half million words of stories, scripts, and stuff. (You’ll have to include a shipping address.)
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Meredith, JJ, Chip Hitchcock, Andrew Porter, Martin Morse Wooster, Mike Kennedy, and Carl Slaughter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Dann.]
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So we scroll on, Filers against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the pixels…
And on that note, what’s the story about Rusty Hevelin being “fired” from the 1978 Worldcon? Inquiring old pharts would like to know.
(Line edited in to visually separate the two quotes.)
–Neil Gaiman.
What do I think should happen to people who punch people for what they say, be they Nazis punching liberals or liberals punching Nazis? Assault charges and jail. Legal fees, loss of time and money, general screwing up their lives for a while. Teach them that violence against speech isn’t acceptable behavior.
You do realize that “punch a Nazi if you don’t like their stance” and “drive a car into protesters if you don’t like their stance” are the same justification, don’t you?
You continue to not differentiate between “Don’t like their stance” and “Actually wants to kill people”
@Contrarius – My sure sign of winter is Dark Eyed Juncoes. Once I realize I haven’t seen them for awhile, it’s spring.
@NickPheas – I’m going to Dublin, nomination or not! Any excuse to go to Ireland…
@Lenora —
I’m with Darren on the advocacy of violence. Just Don’t Do It.
Yes, it’s reprehensible that some folks actually want to kill people. I’m all for sanctioning incitement to violence. And that means incitement to violence by ANY side.
If somebody advocates killing people, throw the legal book at them. But don’t throw your fist unless they’ve already sent one at your face.
@Wombat —
Two birds I’m sad to not often have on my property: mourning doves and juncos. Both of them are in the area, but somehow they don’t like my particular piece of land. 🙁
OTOH, I do have a lot of great birds — like Eastern bluebirds and indigo buntings and summer tanagers and prairie warblers and a bazillion others — so I can’t complain too much! 🙂
@Darren Garrison – I agree that people should face assault charges for punching Nazis. I also think they should do it anyway, because Nazis. Some things are worth standing in front of a judge and going “Yep, I did it. Do what you need to do.”
Is this the sort of thing people luuuv to make slippery slope arguments about? Sure they do. But you know, on some slopes, I’m remarkably confident about my footing, and this is one.
I agree that the man who punched Richard Spencer, if identified and arrested, should be legally prosecuted. However, I do think the fact that Richard Spencer is a fucking NAZI, thus an advocate of freakin’ GENOCIDE, should quite legally account for extenuating factors in his favor in judgement and sentencing, as is properly allowed for in our legal system – extenuating factors I wouldn’t consider present if someone had punched a generic Trump voter who did NOT advocate genocide.
ETA: Or in other words, what RedWombat said.
ETA: “If somebody advocates killing people, throw the legal book at them.”
But what if one merely advocates it in theoretical form, praises past genocides and denies wanting practical killing? There is no legal book to throw.
Sooooooo slippery.
Look at it this way: Second Amendment nuts sincerely believe that if you favor gun control you actively want to kill them — because, in their view, you want to leave them defenseless out in the Big Bad World.
You probably think it’s nuts; I certainly think it’s nuts. But they sincerely believe that.
So — they sincerely believe that you want to kill them. Does that give them the right to punch you?
@jayn —
That depends on how “incitement to violence” gets interpreted by our court system. IMHO, US courts have been much too restrictive in their interpretations lately — I firmly believe that they should widen that interpretation. Other countries interpret differently.
Nazism isn’t a stance. It isn’t part of the political spectrum. It is the advocacy for mass violence. Same as white supremacy, radical antisemitism and any other position that advocates the murder and destruction of a specific other. To frame it as a liberal or conservative position is a false equivalency. ‘Jews or blacks should be systematically exterminated’ is not a differing opinion between people who happen to have different political stances.
Punching a self-proclaimed Nazi is always the right and moral thing to do. Like any moral and right act that is illegal, you should not be exempt from the legal repercussions that arise afterwards, because a society of laws is essential. But consider where morally siding against a person who strikes someone who openly advocates for genocide puts you.
@Contrarius
In Florida and other states with Stand Your Ground law, it gives them the legal right to shoot and kill you under that exact rationale.
But, conflating even the wackiest readings of the 2A with supporting an ideology that is based around the extermination of entire groups is disingenuous at best.
My response to every slippery slope on this is “because Nazis.”
I mean, it really is that simple for me. Does anybody have the right to punch me because they think I think X? No. Unless I’m a Nazi. Then punch away. Because Nazis.
I will be nuanced and empathetic on any other topic you like, but not this one.
If they advocate and praise genocide, then that’s what they would do themselves. The rest is just a convenient lie. The legality of hate speech that threatens so-called protected groups rests on the logic that if it isn’t directly inciting violence it’s legal. But as we’re seeing in cases like Dylan Roof, this may be a distinction without a difference.
Those advocating NAZISM are not just promulgating their views – they want to perpetuate an actual act of genocide. Perpetuate as in CONTINUE, not just start.
For me “punching a NAZI” is A: insufficient to shut them up and B: self-defense each and every time. The ideology ALREADY has millions of deaths on its hands.
Free speech? No. Preaching insanity that really ought to be getting them locked up for their own safety. When mentally impaired individuals stand in the middle of the street and spout nonsense while seeming to threaten physical harm to others, the police arrest them and place them in a 72 hour psychiatric evaluation.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO difference between that and what NAZI advocates are doing: they are insane (temporarily or permanently) and a constant threat to the public.
@Dex —
Ohhhhh, don’t EVEN get me started on the idiocy that is “Stand Your Ground”. LOL.
But you see what I mean about slippery slopes? They lead to stuff like Stand Your Ground.
It’s not disingenuous. It’s just an illustration of that slippery slope.
Throw em in jail. Don’t punch em.
@Dex
No, an empowered gun lobby and an openly compromised and racist state government led to stand your ground. Which illustrates pretty clearly that ‘punching Nazis’ and ‘punching people who disagree with me’ are not on the same slope. ‘Punching Nazis’ and ‘running over protesters with a car to try and kill as many of them as possible’ are not on the same slope. And trying to put them together is a way of trying to normalize Nazi ideology as one extreme of a normal scale, as opposed to a dangerous outlier.
Does Jim Hines deciding not to bother with WS require a relitigation of someone punching Richard Spencer?
@contrarius
So you’re advocating making expressing their genocidal point of view illegal, as it is in most of Europe? IANAL, but it seems like that might require modification of the First Amendment, which isn’t being as irrationally and rabidly treated as holy in the US as the Second one currently is, but still would probably require a huge amount of dispute and shifting of perspective in the general population to become acceptable, and the change would likely never take place.
Until and if it does happen, I feel ethically comfortable with sympathizing with Nazi-punchers and considering that the fact that it was a Nazi they were punching should legally be an extenuating circumstance.
@Dex —
No, it isn’t.
It’s a way of sticking to the principle that Violence Is A Bad Thing, And Should Only Be Used in Defense of Self or Others Who Are Being Physically Attacked.
@jayn —
Maybe.
At the very least, I think this is a slippery slope that’s more constructive and less damaging to deal with than the slippery slope of physical violence.
We are the pixel scrollers,
And we are the posters of posts.
Yay! A title credit!
/me tips hat to OGH.
(2) Predictably, the further one wanders towards the extremes of political opinion, the more likely one is to exhibit authoritarian tendencies. The last time people were forced into cities, a couple million Kampucheans ended up dead.
————
Regarding cities vs. country, there are trade-offs for everything. Our little third of an acre has a septic tank and we use a well. So there is far less infrastructure construction required for our benefit. How might that offset the efficiency of heating an apartment building crammed with a couple hundred people? (That isn’t the only tradeoff. I’m just suggesting that thermal efficiency isn’t the be-all/end-all for this issue.)
And then there is the rather pleasant experience of sitting in our backyard with a fire crackling in the pit, the dogs snoring lustily beside our chairs, sandhill cranes (or other critters) flying overhead against an evening sky dusted with stars, and not hearing a single mechanical sound. It’s a sort of peace that refreshes the mind…and the soul for those so inclined.
I’m glad that there are folks that enjoy living in densely packed cities. I’ve done some of it and understand the attractions. At the end of the day, I’d prefer to have a little more elbow room for my primary mode of living.
Regards,
Dann
‘There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running around with lit matches.’ Ray Bradbury
It changes the conversation from WS, which is all to the good, so far as I’m concerned.
7Contrarius: I tend not to commit actual physical agts of violence at all so the chances of me being the one punching a Nazi who hasn’t punched someone, actively, right in front of my eyes, first is pretty close to nil. What I have done is join a counter-protest against a fascist march knowing some people within it may take the stance of punch first, and physically and mentally preparing myself for which factors in that situation would lead to which reaction from me, from none at all to sit down to call out the injuring party to help the injured parties to create more injured parties. (The original fascist protest fizzled and vanished with even the black masked antifa fringe needing to do nothing worse than loom menacingly over a tiny number of holdouts.)
I basically had to decide: do I agree to stand with people who may or may not do physical harm to others in the name of something I believe in, or do I decide the risk of “my own” being violent is too much for me and merely wave vaguely and probably ineffectually from the sidelines? And my decision was, if everyone waves from the sidelines, these Nazis will keep showing up. Better to take the chance and make sure they go away as a force now. If force of numbers is enough that’s all to the good but let’s not assume it is or fail to add to the numbers in case it isn’t.
Also agree with RedWombat and others since re: a willingness to see that person who punches, including myself, face the legal system if it’s absolutely necessary.
But I also worry that wringing hands over punching Nazis because violence will lead to Nazis killing again.
@Lenora —
Right. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I attended both the Shelbyville and Murfreesboro counterprotests here in TN, both of which had a noticeable Antifa presence (and I mean in the specific sense of a black-clad organized group, not in the general sense of anyone opposed to fascism).
In my case, I am willing to stand in front of a fascist and risk being punched myself; I am not willing to be complicit in his or her violent fantasies by being the first one to throw that punch. I think it is a very bad idea, both ethically and politically, to be the one throwing that first punch.
I think it’s getting pretty borderline on an anti-violence judgment against punching Nazis if you’re* willing to stand next to someone who you know will do it and just not do it yourself. Unless you think you’re there to prevent Nazis getting punched. I mean, my own stance is not to be the first or the instigator, but if I’m standing literally beside someone who has said aloud in my presence that they would totally do that (In my case, one of my siblings), I can’t really feel I’m being consistent if I then go and advocate against punching Nazis as a principle, just because it isn’t my own exact preference.
* Generic “you” which probably includes both Contrarius and I.
@Lenora —
No.
First, I don’t *know* that they will do it — I only know that they will advocate doing it. And they have just as much right to advocate as the Nazis do. Shut down one advocate, shut down the other.
I stand by the Antifa at the protest not because I agree with their belief that a Nazi should be punched, but because I agree with their belief that Nazism is a very bad thing. At the counterprotest we are both engaged in peaceful protest; if an Antifa decides to actually throw a first punch, then I will be happy to both report them to the police and testify against them in a court of law.
14) I always wanted to start a band, just so I can name my debut album “Greatest Hits 2”
The File, the Gorn and the clickbox
My personal feelings: violence is always a bad thing.
Sometimes, the world being in the state it’s in, it is necessary to do a bad thing in order to stop a worse one from happening. (Example: World War II.)
But I’d like to be quite sure I’ve exhausted every possible good option before I start going for the bad ones.
IMHO, YMMV, and all that.
Contrarius: I’m starting to feel like we’re quibbling over whether the sentence is “I disagree with you, though you are my brother” and “You are my brother, though I disagree with you.”
Because it sounds like you and I would be taking very similar *actions* in the same circumstances.
Meredith Moment:
An omnibus of six Diving Universe novellas by Kristine Katherine Rusch are on sale at Kobo ( https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-diving-bundle ) for 40% off (of $19.99, so for a total of $11.99) if you put in the promo code 40DEAL. Other boxed sets are also available at the same 40% off deal.
I remember Filers gushing about this series, so I, erm, just impulse-bought. Is there a novel I should read first? If so, which one….?
@Lenora —
The essential difference is that I will never advocate punching first, I will never punch first, I will never agree with those who say it’s okay to punch first, and I will be happy to bring the full force of the law on anyone I know to have punched first.
As I’ve said before: IMHO it is both wrong ethically/morally and dumb politically/strategically to be the one punching first.
@Steve —
Right. Note that in the case of WWII, the Allies were defending people who had been physically attacked. I have no moral qualms about that kind of war. Or to create an example more parallel with our current discussion of protests and counterprotests: I would have no moral qualms if one Antifa got punched by a Nazi and then other Antifas jumped in to punch his attacker.
Just please don’t be the one to throw that first punch. Doing so only damages your own cause.
I consider anyone professing to be a Nazi to have already punched first. Never Again.
Contrarius: Yes. And the two sentences I proferred are not the same sentence. But I did want you to look at the construction of the sentence and think about it.
So Poland must be invaded to know there must be a war. And we both feel the invaders are reprehensible and we both feel badly for the Poles, and neither of us is advocating sitting back and making a Separate Peace at *that* point, though others do and have done.
I am saying that based on history, we don’t always need to wait for Poland to be overrun. And that based on experience, being the first to throw an actual punch doesn’t always make the person who did so wrong*, or in fact damage their cause. How much damage to the cause did Richard Spencer’s assailant do? Nobody suddenly decided that Nazis were okay, and the people who tried to make “But both sides!” equivocations were A) already doing so, and B) seemed ready to outright manufacture one if nobody happened to give them an excuse, and C) flat wrong that a punch is equal to looking at one of the worst genocides out there and saying “Let’s have a second helping of THAT, please!”
____________
*ETA: it so happens that in my *own* life, the couple of times I swung first I *was* in the wrong, so it’s not like I’m saying punching first is always right either, but neither case was against a Nazi…
Jumping in on the punching Nazis debate… when the Nazis are operating in the fringes of society, I advocate mockery; when they gain power and influence over national policy, I advocate stopping them by any means necessary. The problem comes when there’s a gray area, which still seems to be the case to me. On the one hand, some local police (ie, Portland) accept help from neo-nazis at protests, on the other hand, violent neo-nazi groups have not (yet) been endorsed or supported by the Federal government – except for one statement by Trump, and in his case… he’s a walking contradiction who couldn’t rein in his verbal diarrhea without a strong dose of sedatives.
I can see the conclusion some people have drawn that we’ve reached the punching point, with a President who openly supports and hires white supremacists, and who can’t bring himself to admit there are no good neo-confederates, neo-nazis, and white supremacists. I’m not entirely sure that we can pull out of this nosedive, but I am generally over-optimistic. For my part, I’ve decided the best action right now is to attend protests as a legal observer and help the National Lawyers Guild defend people who are charged with punching Nazis.
“Diving Into the Wreck” was actually the first story in the sequence, and makes up part of the novel of the same same, so that’s a good place to start. Kris has more on the suggested reading order at
https://kriswrites.com/15104-2/
I’ve liked the stories (both the novels and the shorter pieces)–although I think I’m behind in reading all of them. She slowly builds up quite an intricate universe in a very organic manner.
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” — Salvor Hardin
@David —
That’s specious. We already had a war and a surrender over those Nazis.
And I’m completely with you on “Never Again”. But we don’t need to go around punching people to keep that from happening — and, in fact, I strongly believe that initiating violence is counterproductive.
For those of you who believe in punching a Nazi: in what way do you believe that initiating violence has any sort of benefit that legal means of opposition do not? In what way do you believe that initiating violence benefits the fabric of our society? In what way does initiating violence not hand moral and strategic ammunition to our enemies? In what way do you believe that initiating violence makes us look like the good guys?
@Lenora —
Refusing to initiate violence and sitting around waiting are not at all the same thing.
A belief that it’s okay to initiate violence leads eventually (that slippery slope) to Trump’s advocacy of preemptive nuclear strikes. Is that really where we want to go?
A great deal, relative to the number of anti-Nazis who have actually punched first. Punching first only gives the Nazis an actual rationale — both legal and moral — to play the victim card. It gives them a rallying point and an ego boost. And it increases sympathy for their side.
Personally, I think it’s really dumb to hand them that kind of ammunition.
@Kathodus —
At some point or other I’ve mentioned this previously, but it might bear repeating here: I’m literally a card-carrying member of the ACLU, and I strongly support ACLU and other lawyers in defending both anti-Nazis and Nazis in court.
Possibly relevant to the discussuion – including that the majority of successful-to-date tactics have been non-violent.
Only after they allowed the Nazis to march over various lines, their passivity making the marching ‘not physical attacks’. Hey, the Rhineland doesn’t have any problem with being re-occupied, so that’s not an attack…and hey, Austria greeted Germany’s army with cheers and Nazi salutes, so THAT wasn’t really an attack either – and hell, Czechoslovakia didn’t fight back when they came in, so it was really just like consent…yes, well, maybe a few minorities were unhappy with the Nazis taking over, but THEY didn’t count when the Allies were making self-serving excuses for NOT reacting to Nazi threats.
It’s in light of that memory, IMO, and in light of the fact that our current government was recently proposing changing the name of the Department of Homeland Security’s Countering Violent Extremism Task Force
to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” (http://www.newsweek.com/us-turning-back-muslim-community-fight-against-extremism-644758), and our POTUS himself was making excuses that there were ‘good people on both sides’ when torch parades marched through Charlottesville chanting “Blood and Soil” and “Jew will not replace us” instead of forcefully condemning them, that gives me sympathy when someone DOES react more forcefully than they lawfully ought, and consider the provocation an extenuating circumstance (not an EXONERATING one, mind).
I wrote about this a while back on my blog, and it fits into the conversation fairly well. It was put together about a half a year ago, but things haven’t substantially changed.
@Contrarius – My opinion about the ACLU defending Nazis has shifted in the past year. I would have been with you 100% two years ago, but I’m not sure we’re still in the more-than-nominal democracy we were in even then. I’m happy with the NLG’s refusal to defend fascists who are arrested at protests. To even be a legal observer at some of these rallies you need additional training – in the past, you mostly had to worry about violence from the police, now you have to worry about violence from both police and fashy protesters. On top of that, even neutral LOs have to worry about being doxxed by fascists and the potential violence that entails, particularly since this isn’t just a doxxing of internet personalities who may be hundreds or thousands of miles distant, but rather exposing locals who can be found and harassed or beaten as they go about their regular lives.
The ACLU is defending the Constitution, whereas the NLG is defending the good guys in a conflict between authoritarians/fascists and anti-fascists. While Nazis need a strong legal defense per the Constitution, I wouldn’t support the NLG if they defended Nazis. At this point, I think it’s important to do something, however small, to try to stem the rising tide of white supremacist terror.
That doesn’t negate the danger that a revival of Nazism poses to those groups deemed racially impure. We know how it ends when Nazis take power already, and those Nazis marching in Charlottesville knew it too. They’ve identified with Nazis because their goal is the same as Hitler’s. White power, Aryan purity, and… Holocaust. This isn’t merely a battle of ideas, not when the other side has explicitly rejected the very humanity of those they demonize.
@jayn —
Sorry, Jayn, but I have no responsibility to defend any foot-dragging on the part of the Allies, and I’m not going to try to do so.
@Lenora —
From the article you linked:
Notably, Matthew Heimbach, who was the attacker referred to in this quote, was also accused of punching a white woman whom he (and a bunch of his friends) saw eating supper with a black man on his way home from the Shelbyville/Murfreesboro protests.
Also from the article:
THIS is what we need to keep doing. Show up. Protest. Disrupt.
Don’t punch first.
That’s a good article, and it’s only a couple of days old. Everyone should read it.
@Kathodus —
We can’t defend our democracy by ignoring its principles.
I do too. See above, see my earlier comments, and see the article that Lenora linked to.
@David —
I agree with you. But that danger does not mean that initiating violence is either justified or productive.
@Contrarious – I’m not interested in defending Nazis’ constitutional freedoms. I’m not opposed to someone doing so, and agree that it’s important for someone to do it.
I also recommend reading Robert Wood’s essay (he linked to it up-thread) where he discusses the essentially violent nature of neo-nazis and neo-nazi organization.
I’m a “don’t punch first” advocate, as well, but where there’s nazis, there will be punching.
(14) Okay, I know Gene Wolfe wrote “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories” (I first came across it in a paperback anthology) and that he then included it in his collection The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories. But is it not the case that the collection also includes both “The Death of Doctor Island” and “The Doctor of Death Island” ? The earlier comment repeats one of these two latter titles instead of mentioning both.
Using quotation marks for individual stories versus italics for whole books can be very helpful in discussions of this sort.
John O’Hara’s last story collection while he was alive, circa 1968, is titled And Other Stories.
Danny:
You do mean out of cities?
(12)
What makes a writing career is writing and publishing steadily, not attending cons. I know successful writers who rarely (or never) attend cons. I know fanatic con-goers who, though self-describing as “writers,” seldom (or never) write and publish.
Writers who enjoy cons sometimes claim they are professionally “necessary.” Maybe it makes them feel better about spending the time and money to attend?
And writers who want to claim they’ve been damaged/injured by being banned from a con no doubt find that “this is necessary to my career” excuse particularly appealing.
I don’t intend to say that con-going is a “waste of time,” but it’s just silly to pretend (especially in this era of constant connectivity where so much communication and networking is online) a writer “needs” to attend cons. Yes, claiming that being banned from a con damages your career might sound a lot weightier to some people than saying you feel hurt, embarrassed, socially ostracized, humiliated, angry, offended, targeted, and/or whatever other emotion banning might engender; but whereas someone’s personal/emotional reaction to being banned from a con is real, professional/career injury is not.
Realistically, there are many ways to hurt your own writing career much more than not attending cons hurts it. One very obvious example (and this is just one of numerous possibilities): making your own name better known bad behavior, feuding, and/or trolling than for writing and publishing good fiction.
It’s unclear to me why this person was banned from 4th St; my assumption is that there’s backstory there which has not been publicly related, incidents or factors included in the long history this group of people have or which this person has with that con. I don’t have an opinion about the banning, mostly because I believe there’s probably relevant information below the level of discourse that’s visible to me. But as a career writer, I do have an opinion about claims that not attending any given con hurts a writing career, or claims that a writer “needs” to attend cons to have a career; such claims are silly.
On a lighter note, if it hasn’t been mentioned here yet, a fellow filer is possibly getting him one of them there teevee shows.