(1) DUALING READERS. Rob Dircks delivered an unexpected bonus to those attending his reading at Queens Library Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author Night – it’s titled “Today I Invented Time Travel”.
I was invited to read from my novel Where the Hell is Tesla? at the Queens Library Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author Night, and decided to write a short story for the evening — when an unexpected visitor showed up…
Here’s a clip from the story:
And my phone found me the top five reasons to go back in time:
- Stop George Lucas from making the prequels to Star Wars.
- Bet on the 1969 Mets.
- Talk to that girl you had a secret crush on in elementary school.
- Kill Hitler.
- Meet Jesus.
(2) TEMPORAL THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS. For writers determined to stick with real science there are a lot of details to work out, even when it’s only your imagination traveling to the future. R. A. MacAvoy, co-author of Albatross with Nancy Palmer, tells about those challenges.
This ingenious 25-year leap into the future turned from wiggle-room into a straight-jacket. It helped with the science, but not so much, as each of us kept coming up with new discoveries on the news that needed massive re-write. The Higg’s Boson companion (if it is what it seems to be). Gravitational waves.
And that was just the science!
Sweating, sweating, we began to consider all the other important changes in life which would go along with the advances in the sciences and which would touch the lives of the characters in the story even more than The Theory of Everything. In twenty-five years, we assumed, would people still be driving around in automobiles? Seemed likely – as this was not a Zombie Apocalypse novel. Petrol cars? Self-driving cars? Re-write. Rewrite.
Mobile phones. On the wrist, as part of one’s glasses? People still doggedly carrying things the size of card-decks in their pockets? Hey – at least a person in a self-driving car won’t be guilty of much as they babble or text into whatever form of phone they have as their cars zoom them to their destination. Or get lost in a daily traffic jam caused by the inevitable software problems.
And in a moment of O.C.D. we decided to eliminate all references to the daily habit of tea-time in the British Isles. It suddenly seemed too difficult to decide whether or not the increasingly technical lives we lead would have time for such an old custom. Eliminating all references to tea time was perhaps the silliest rewrite. But it explains, better than anything else, the straight-jacket effect of writing in the near-future.
This is only one aspect of the difficulty we found in writing twenty-five years into the future.
(3) TROPE CONSERVATION. Peter McLean on “Why We Shouldn’t Hunt The Trope To Extinction” at Black Gate.
The poor old trope had had a lot of bad press in recent years. A lot of people seem to want to deconstruct the little critter, or subvert it or discredit it. Basically people seem to want to hunt the trope to extinction, and I think that’s unfortunate.
Now I agree some members of the trope herd have got a bit long in the tooth and are probably due for culling. No one really needs to read another fantasy novel where a simple farmboy turns out to be the Chosen One / Long Lost Heir who is foretold by prophecy and destined to save the world, do they? No, so the “Farmboy” trope is probably due to meet the huntsman, and I think the “Damsel in Distress” has probably had her day too.
You very rarely if ever see these tropes in modern fantasy now, and that’s because everyone got sick of them. An overused trope can eventually outstay its welcome and evolve into a cliché, a completely different critter, and that’s when the huntsmen need to come after it. And that’s fine. The world moves on, as Stephen King would say.
But I don’t think we should tar the whole herd of tropes with the same brush just because some of them get old and go bad. Healthy tropes can be useful little critters. Tropes are what help to stop every novel being 1000 pages long.
(4) A SCALZI FIRST. “On The Wall,” John Scalzi’s first zombie story, co-written with Dave Klecha, appears in Black Tide Rising, the zombie apocalypse anthology edited by John Ringo and Gary Poole. The book is due in stores June 7, however, Baen Books has the eARC on sale right now For $15.
(5) ATTEND ZOMBIE TECH. Amazon is hosting a Zombie Apocalypse Workshop, where you can learn to apply Amazon Web Services technology to recover from the end of civilization. Bring your own laptop and shotgun.
Apocalypse Workshop: Building Serverless Microservices – Washington D.C.
Note: The AWS Lambda Signal Corps has recruited sufficient volunteers for our mission, and all registrants from now until March 10th will be placed on a recruit waitlist. Waitlisted recruits will be admitted if space permits on a first-come, first-serve basis so please arrive early.
Scenario: Zombies have taken over major metropolitan areas. The AWS Lambda Signal Corps has built a communications system to connect the remaining survivors.
Learn how AWS Lambda provides a platform for building event-driven microservices, all without the need to provision, manage, and scale servers. In this workshop, we will introduce the basics of building serverless microservices using AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon S3.
(6) CAN ALTERNATE HISTORY BECOME DATED? Fantasy Literature reviewer Marion Deeds, in “1632: The tale is dated but I love its exuberance”, makes it hard to figure out why there are (by her count) 23 books in this popular series. (And she may not know about the 1632 conventions…)
Flint lets us know in the prologue of 1632 that there’s going to be no discussion of quantum physics, magical portals, of clicking our heels together and going home. The story is an exciting live-action role-playing game with a small force of Americans who completely outgun the competition. The competition are evil mercenaries, so we don’t have to feel sorry for them as they are chopped down like a summer lawn under the blades of a riding mower.
There are also a few other things that are not going to be problems for twentieth-century people dumped into the seventeenth century. Here’s a short list: no one’s going to struggle with a sense of psychic displacement or post-traumatic stress; no one’s going to pine for family or loved ones left behind; no one’s going to question the basic premise that they are stuck in the 1630s. No one is going to turn, irrationally, on another group; no one is going to scapegoat anyone; no one’s going to have a spiritual crisis.
A few more things no one in the new America is going to have to worry about: sufficient food, clean water, sanitation, electrical power, medicine, radios or even TV, except they do have to create their own programming. That’s because all that stuff came with them. They have their own coal vein, and Grantsville landed next to a river in Europe, so they have water and fuel for steam power. The area had its own power plant and three machine shops, several doctors and a jewelry store, so that as the various couples hook up, they can all get wedding-ring sets. It’s nice. Knowing they can’t maintain their current level of technology for too long, the Americans decide to “gear down,” and convert to steam power, settling at late-eighteenth/early nineteenth century tech. This is smart. All of this clears away survival-level problems so that Flint can get on with what’s important; those battles.
(7) RICHARD DAVALOS OBIT. Best known for roles in East of Eden and Cool Hand Luke, actor Richard Davalos died March 8 at the age of 85. He also was in genre films The Cabinet of Caligari (1962) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983). And he was the grandfather of actress Alexa Davalos, who stars in Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle.
(8) MICHAEL WHITE OBIT. Rocky Horror and Monty Python producer Michael White died March 9.
His theatre production credits included the West End premieres of The Rocky Horror Show, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and A Chorus Line.
Born in Glasgow, White began his theatrical career in London’s West End producing plays such as Annie and The Rocky Horror Show.
He later went on to produce films, including The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1978, and those which have achieved cult status such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is still regularly screened in cinemas.
(9) TODAY IN HISTORY
- March 10, 1876 — Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first telephone message to his assistant in the next room: “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.” (It is not true that the second telephone message was, “Do you have Prince Albert in a can…?”)
- March 10, 1997 — The CW premiered Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There is an oral tradition that Buffy inspired the creation of the Best Dramatic Presentation (Short) Hugo category, and it did receive a couple of nominations before it went off the air.
(10) RABID PUPPIES. After a brief hiatus, Vox Day resumed announcing his slate with “Rabid Puppies 2016: Best Novelette”.
The preliminary recommendations for the Best Novelette category.
- “Flashpoint: Titan”, Kai Wai Cheah
- “Folding Beijing”, Hao Jingfang
- “What Price Humanity?”, David VanDyke
- “Space Raptor Butt Invasion”, Chuck Tingle
- “Obits”, Stephen King
We have been repeatedly informed that homophobia and the lack of diversity is a serious problem in science fiction, and speaking as the leader of Rabid Puppies, I could not agree more. The decades of discrimination against gay dinosaur love in space by the science fiction community stops now, and it stops here!
Let’s face it, there are just three words to describe the only event that might happen in 2016 that I can imagine would be more spectacularly awesome than “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” winning a Hugo Award this year, and those three words are “President-elect Donald Trump”.
(11) HUGO LOVE. Joe Sherry at Nerds of a Feather: “My Favorite Stories Don’t Get Nominated: A Hugo Love Story”.
I love the Hugo Awards because in becoming part of the WSFS I get to add one small voice to the multitude and help pick the nominees for the five best novels / stories / whatevers. In 2014, artist Joey Hi-Fi was one nominating vote from making the final ballot for Best Professional Artist and becoming an official Hugo Award Nominee….
Collectively, a bunch of people who love science fiction and fantasy come together and say that these, these novels and stories and artists and fans – this is the best of what I read and watched last year. These are some of the best of what the genre has produced.
Then, when the nominations come out and also after the awards are given, we can all sit back and think…what the hell is everyone else thinking? Why are they so wrong? That book is terrible and this book that I loved is so much better.
Of course my opinions are right and everyone else is wrong. Of course this is true. Unfortunately, a whole bunch of people who are just like me except that their taste in great fiction isn’t quite the same disagreed. Or, maybe what I loved was their sixth favorite story and they can only nominate five. Or maybe they just never read it because holy crap there is a lot of stuff published every year. I read a LOT and I don’t even scratch the surface of what’s out there. What the Hugo Awards allows me to do is be part of a group where everyone looks at what they read and tries to figure out what the best of that is – and then collectively, the numbers come together and a ballot is produced.
I love the Hugo Awards even when everyone else obviously gets it wrong because at its heart, the Hugo Award nominees are selected by a group of fans who are passionate about science fiction and fantasy. It’s a group of fans who, ideally with no agenda beyond love of genre, point to something they love and say “this, this is awesome.”
(12) LOOSELY WRAPPED. Kate Paulk has a small update on what Puppies can expect at MidAmeriCon II at Mad Genius Club.
Planning for the Puppy Presence at Worldcon continues under wraps until we have things sufficiently stable to make an announcement. The goal there is to be at the convention, have fun (lots of fun), and meet friends face to face. If I can arrange it there will be a PuppyGate in honor of the Jeopardy question and visitors will have to cross the PuppyGate to enter the fun zone.
(13) TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND THAT OTHER THING. Attorney-at-Work blogger Jared Correia finds an excuse to write about a favorite show – “The Truth Is in Here: Lawyer Lessons Buried in ‘The X-Files’”:
The point is that Duchovny did not again discover wide popularity until he made it back to TV, for his turn as debauched author Hank Moody, on Showtime’s “Californication.” Now “Californication” has wrapped, and he’s back on “The X-Files.” Accepting that Mulder was the best role that he’s had, and coming back around to it, feeling at home in it, is the best end for his story.
Sometimes, you can take the circuitous route back to where you belong — but, there’s something to be said for recognizing that you should never have left in the first place.
I don’t think Jared Correia is any relation to Larry, although the click-through ad over Jared’s column “The way attorneys get paid” is very Larry-esque.
(14) GREEN PLANET. CBBC answers the question “Could vegetables grow on Mars?”
The team wanted to find out what could we grown if humans try to live on Mars in the future.
Although they didn’t have real Martian soil, they used dirt supplied by Nasa, which was taken from a Hawaiian volcano that’s thought to be very similar….
But there’s still a long way to go – no one ate the experimental vegetables, because substances in the soil including arsenic and mercury might have made them poisonous.
Now the team are trying to find a way to grow vegetables that are safe to eat.
Wait a minute. So there would have been arsenic in Watney’s potatoes…?
(15) MAD SNACKS. An aeropress is a thing for making coffee. The 2016 Australian AeroPress Championship will be held March 17 —
On the night, Australia’s best brewers will be stirring, steeping and pressing coffee generously supplied by Condesa and roasted by the punks at PMC.
Inspired by the Thunderdome of Mad Max, there’ll be beers, industrial disco balls, heaps of food (unlike the Thunderdome), a DJ in full Mad Max dress (not conformed) and, no doubt, some crazy revellers (confirmed), but weirdly the original Mad Max, Mel Gibson, declined the offer to MC.
(16) PUPPY IN ORBIT. Galactic Journey’s time traveler has the latest (really late) space program news in “[Mar. 10, 1961] Dog and Puppy Show (Sputnik 9)”.
We are definitely not far away from a person in space. The Soviets launched another of their five-ton spaceships into orbit. We’re calling it Sputnik 9; who knows what they call it? On board was just one dog this time, name of Chernushka, who was recovered successfully after an unknown number of orbits. It is pretty clear that the vessel that carried Chernushka is the equivalent of our Mercury capsule, and once the Russians have gotten the bugs out of the ship, you can bet there will be a human at the controls.
This is not to say that the American program is standing still—one of our astronauts may go up on a suborbital jaunt as early as next month. But the Atlas booster, the big one that can put a man in orbit, won’t be ready until the end of the year, at the earliest.
(17) A WRITER WHO WELDS. No, it’s not the Emergency Backup Hugo – it’s Nancy Jane Moore’s “Post-Apocalyptic Spaceship”, at Book View Café .
(18) THE ROCKET’S BLUE GLARE. The New York Times has a story on Amazon owner Jeff Bezos’ private space program — “Jeff Bezos Lifts Veil on His Rocket Company, Blue Origin”.
Blue Origin is part of a shift of the space business from NASA and aerospace behemoths like Lockheed Martin toward private industry, especially smaller entrepreneurial companies. Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, founded by another Internet entrepreneur, Elon Musk, has been the most visible and most successful of the new generation of rocket companies. Last Friday, it launched another satellite to orbit, but an attempt to land the booster on a floating platform again ended in an explosion.
Much more quietly, Blue Origin has also had big space dreams, but until now did not give outsiders a look at what it was doing.
For almost four hours, Mr. Bezos, who only occasionally talks to the press, led 11 reporters on a tour of the factory and answered a litany of questions over lunch. He talked garrulously, his speech punctured by loud laughs. “It’s my total pleasure. I hope you can sense that I like this,” he said.
He described an image on a wall in the company’s central area, which showed two tortoises holding an hourglass and gazing upward at a stylized image of the planets and cosmos. Below is Blue Origin’s motto: “Gradatim ferociter,” Latin for “step by step, ferociously” — no cutting of corners, but no dillydallying, either. “You can do the steps quickly, but you can’t skip any steps,” Mr. Bezos said.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Cat Rambo, Cat Eldridge, Mark-kitteh, Seth Gordon, Will R., and Tom Galloway for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day RedWombat.]
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Lenora Rose: I found this one — https://file770.com/?p=26270&cpage=1#comment-371625
@Eli:
Occasionally, when it means a lot to me, I will attempt to engage a troll in good faith. And apparently, when it really means a lot to me, I will attempt once more upon doubling-down. Now I’m good 😉
I would bother arguing with trolly. Using slurs then doubling down on them is an important virtue signal amongst his people.
Tasha writes:
“Very few authors get any say in the book cover.”
Maybe so, but John must have known what kind of cover art – and the kind of stories -Ringo and Baen would be using to appeal to their audience. And if Scalzi didn’t get a lot of money for his contribution and doesn’t need it or the exposure, doesn’t that actually make being part of this even worse?
I hope John at the very least condemns the cover.
In Canada, those are called United Empire Loyalists and quite a lot of them moved north after the American Revolution.
Some of the UELs are actually distantly related to me. But a lot of them were like my several-times-great-grandfather Evans, who stayed and (AFAIK) didn’t have a problem with the way things turned out. (Guessing, because there are a couple of tax rolls from the war years where he and his brother are listed as ‘non-jures’ and paying whopping fines of 5 and 10 pounds.)
Mike: that’s the one. Google gave me a link to File770, but searching on the page didn’t find “seed”. You rock.
@ TheYoungPretender:
Fair point, and I wonder if this puts alternate history closer to the SF end of the speculative fiction spectrum than the fantasy end where I’ve hitherto put it. Alternate history isn’t falsifiable, but its plausibility can be weighed against known facts and historiography, and advances in knowledge can affect our judgment of its plausibility. Internally consistent world-building isn’t enough for good AH, as it is for fantasy.
I wonder if there’s room for an Old Venus-style treatment of dated AH – Old Roma Aeterna, with twentieth century gladiators and modern archaeology be damned?
@The Phantom
I’m reminded of a story (almost certainly apocryphal). I probably won’t tell it well but bear with me.
So it’s World War 2, it’s the South Pacific, there’s a fighter pilot. He’s tinkering with his plane. He gets to a point where he needs a wrench he doesn’t have. Now the mechanic’s tent is a good long ways away but they’ll have the wrench. So he sets off on a walk. And a massive monsoon blows in. And he’s getting soaked and his boots are squelching in the mud. He’s miserable. And then the thought hits: I bet after all this they won’t even let me have the wrench. And he gets angry. And his boots squelch. And he gets angrier. And the wind howls. And he flames more and more. So he finally gets to the mechanic’s tent, flings open the door, shakes his fist in the head mechanic’s face, screams “I didn’t want your god damned wrench anyways!”, and stalks back into the storm…
Have you considered you might be doing the same here?
TheYoungPretender on March 11, 2016 at 3:07 pm said: @The Phantom Did this happen outside or inside your own head?
It happened at Bookview Cafe, follow the link.
Do I think that SJWs would attack -me- if I attended Worldcon? I very much doubt it. Would they want to? Don’t care, but I expect so given behavior on display here.
Good enough reason to save my money that week.
@Tasha — Having been gallbladder-free for about 30 years, I can vouch that never having gallbladder issues again is definitely worth the inconvenience. Also, I can still handle most of the gallbladder avoidance foods and beverages (infrequently, and in small quantities, but hey). Since mine was pre-laparoscopy it left a big scar, so I got a tattoo over it. Wishing you a smooth recovery.
Mike Glyer on March 11, 2016 at 4:58 pm said: The Phantom: Of course you’re not going. How would you be able to remain an anonymous troll?
This from the man who scours other people’s comments sections.
But, it’s a fair question. The answer is I take my glasses off when I’m The Phantom.
@Phantom
And really, what else does one call a presumably educated and successful individual who gets up in your face over a hat badge/shoulder patch/t-shirt or what have you?
Oh, for frak’s sake. Don’t you have a thesaurus?
Why don’t you try this?
imbecile, changeling, half-wit, simple, simpleton, stupid, silly, dolt, blind, dull, idiotic, shallow, short-sighted, stolid, undiscerning, unintelligent.
Etc etc etc.
This took all of five seconds of Duck Duck Go-ing. But no, you use a word that you know, or you should have known, to be a slur.
Way to go, hoss.
Stoic Cynic on March 11, 2016 at 6:08 pm said: @The Phantom I’m reminded of a story (almost certainly apocryphal).
Hey, I just reported the facts. Fact is, Ms. McIntyre wrote that post. Fact is, she was sufficiently ‘concerned’ to at least talk about personal security arrangements because there might be violent Puppies at Sasquan last year. (They’re racists, y’know. No telling what them racists might do.)
So is it hilarious that Kate Paulk might want to reserve some rooms for a Puppy friendly gathering in the midst of WorldCon? Doubt it.
Oh, for frak’s sake. Don’t you have a thesaurus?
We have the evidence of hundreds of posts to demonstrate that Phantom is only semi-literate. I don’t really expect anything else from them at this point. Given that they are spouting pure fantasies about Puppy persecution, I don’t see any reason to expect that this time they will respond in any kind of rational or coherent manner. What Phantom doesn’t understand is that the reason they are treated dismissively by posters here isn’t because they are a Puppy, or because they are a conservative, but rather because they are an idiot.
Phantom’s comments in this thread certainly aren’t doing anything to dispel the fact that the “fun” Paulk is insisting that the Puppy zone will be is a desperate and plaintive cry rather than any kind of accurate assessment.
Bonnie McDaniel on March 11, 2016 at 6:36 pm said: @Phantom Oh, for frak’s sake. Don’t you have a thesaurus?
I do have a thesaurus.
I also have a rather extensive education in among other things the history of medical terminology. “Retard”, short for ‘retarded development’, is a circumlocution that replaced words like “imbecile”, “moron”, “idiot” and “cretin” in the medical literature. Those words were earlier circumlocutions as well.
In turn, “retard” has been replaced by even more ridiculous phrases recently. Among those, we have “mentally challenged” which has fallen from favor only since the 1990’s, to be replaced by the more current “differently abled”, a meaningless noise which is not even English.
I’m told that “mentally challenged” is now considered a slur in super-hip SJW circles. The very idea that one person might be smarter than another is “problematic”, apparently.
This concludes tonight’s lesson on the march of the perpetually offended through our medical organizations, and the damage they continue to do to the English Language.
You’re welcome.
I’m getting sad at how often it seems like any complaint goes like this:
“Don’t do that.”
“Why are you screaming at me and overreacting? Jeez, your kind are always so violent and oversensitive.”
Aaron on March 11, 2016 at 7:04 pm said: Phantom’s comments in this thread certainly aren’t doing anything to dispel the fact that the “fun” Paulk is insisting that the Puppy zone will be is a desperate and plaintive cry rather than any kind of accurate assessment.
I think it’s more that she doesn’t want to meet you, Aaron. You seem like one of those scoldy people who can suck the fun out of anything just by showing up.
Incidentally, you don’t treat Puppies dismissively here. On the contrary, we are pretty nearly all you people ever talk about. Larry Correia says “I never heard of Subject X” in his comments, File 770 is plastered with it for a week.
Best $40 I ever spent, joining Worldcon last year. One little ballot yielded endless results.
Camestros Felapton on March 11, 2016 at 11:14 am said:
A few years ago I went on an extended walk in the Blue Mountains* (just West of Sydney
…
*[not mountains even by English standards]
The bit you went might not have been high, but the highest point is 1,213m, and the English ‘standard’ for ‘mountain’ is 1,000ft, isn’t it?
Tasha
Glad that you have the date, even if it’s far from ideal, sorry that you’re feeling lousy when you were hoping to enjoy your birthday treat: I hope it clears up quickly.
Dawn
My younger brother has cerebral palsy; I grew up loathing the word spastic. I think there is a more general point, though; the majority of people who come to know people who are not an identi-kit replica of themselves, tend to change their attitudes.
I think that this is precisely the reason that people who hate the other desperately try to enforce apartheid in a variety of forms; they are driven by the fear that if you get to know, say, the gay couple who live next door, you will realise that they are actually human beings.. They may irritate you in all sorts of ways, as next-door neighbours frequently do, but they are not the Devil incarnate.
Same sex marriage is a good example of this effect; the more the law changed, and the more people took advantage of it to finally be able to marry those they loved, then the population as a whole in that society saw this happening and became more accepting of it.
Apartheid and segregation are the tools of choice amongst those trying to keep us in fear, precisely because they know that once we meet each other the game is up. One of the reasons why I vehemently reject the Puppy Agenda is because they want to enforce literary apartheid on me; they want to tell me what books I should read. I read across a wide spectrum, including many authors, but in Puppidum’s worldview I must only read those deemed worthy.
And now Puppidum has announced its intention to bring formal segregation of people into Worlcon; gosh, what a surprise.
Red wombat
Bat Guano rocks.
I’m not a gardener, but Amelia Peabody awaked my interest in this; clearly some re-reads are needed.
Mike
I increasingly think of you as Boswell to SF’s Johnson; I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to be a philosopher, but, like Johnson’s old school mate Edwards, cheerfulness always seems to keep breaking in.
(4) I do hope Scalzi later joins a mocking pose reproduction of that cover, because it is TERRIBLE, as Baen almost always is. Sexist and badly designed.
(10) Puppies had BETTER hope this year’s Hugo data isn’t released with personally identifiable data. Because having the whole internet know you nominated/voted for “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” is going to be embarrassing. And saying “Teddy made me do it!” isn’t going to help AT ALL.
Unless of course there’s a Sooper Seekrit email to the Dead Elk that only contains a slate of works published by Teddy and
dupesfriends, and some non-reactionary-racist-sexist movies and TV just for the “hurr, durr, they’ll have to vote against this, it’s on our slate!” crap.(12) The Puppy Zone doesn’t sound like the fun zone — it sounds like a dull room party where everyone pats everyone else on the back and congratulates each other on being in lockstep with their ideas. And it is VERY MUCH a safe space, where their poor fragile psyches won’t be triggered by gays, atheists, PoC, and people voting for Bernie or Hillary. But since I think safe spaces are a fine idea, I wish them well and hope they enjoy The Puppy Safe Space. (Will they let Rabid Pups in? Will they allow concealed carry guns? Someone let us know how it goes.)
I kinda don’t see the point in going to a Worldcon and then only clustering with people I already know who think exactly the same as me — seems a waste of money and a lost chance to widen the horizons and blow the mind.
But she does seem to be trying to convince herself and others that it will be FUN! Say it enough and everyone will believe it? Three times in one paragraph!
For $240 a night, not counting food, drink, comfy furniture, food prep tools, signage, plates/cups/utensils, someone’s going to be putting up an awful lot of money for 3-5 hours of party per night. That better be super-FUN.
(Aside: boy, this is going to SUCK SO MUCH compared to regular Worldcon room parties, with non-Aramark food, booze allowed, starting/closing hours flexible, music, lighting/decor, etc.)
Rowling: Well, she’s gone the whole time without even MENTIONING black people. There’s one wand-maker who might be black, but just as easily could be Cajun. She skips over almost all of the history of the USA up to that point (going from 1790 to 1920) so she doesn’t have to mention the Civil War or slavery, or indeed the entire 19th Century. Which was kinda important — from the 13 original states to all the states we have today (even if some were still territories). However, since she might have had the black people singing Zip A Dee Doo Dah and not knowin’ ’bout birthin’ no babies, it could be for the best. Feh.
The title should be: “A History of Anglo-American Magic in the United States”.
@amk: Thanks for the movie mini-reviews. I might look at “Black Friday” and “Dr. Cyclops”; I’d like to have something besides “Fantasia” on my list.
@Tasha: you won’t miss that evil little thing a bit. But you keep surviving Passover, so obviously the Angel of Death has gone by without you having to smear lamb blood on your door, which I’m sure the neighbors appreciate.
X-Files: never made sense, but I don’t care. I love me some Mulder and Scully. Often their evidence got stolen by CSM and cronies, even when they found some.
I would totally buy a retro-style Rome Never Fell anthology. Make it so.
I shall contemplate a mechanized armadillo in honor of Mr. Emerson tonight.
@Rev. Bob: @Tasha: “I have a date for my gallbladder surgery!”
Doesn’t sound like my idea of a romantic outing, but you do you… ?
I’ve never liked conventional dates. Always raising the bar on my poor husband. LOL
@Lurkertype
We have 6-8 guests for both nights this year. 4 sleeping over. But I have help and a detailed plan.
There was at least one apparent Puppy sympathizer at the Business Meeting who was deeply opposed to EPH and tried some procedural maneuvers to kill it like moving adjournment sine die (kills all pending questions and closes the entire series of meetings for the year) before we’d actually brought up some of the remaining new business for a vote. I ended up not putting the question on adjournment when the Parliamentarian pointed out that the motion was out of order because of the way in which we’d scheduled the votes on EPH and 4/6. (I hadn’t noticed. I may have written a substantial portion of the WSFS Standing Rules, but I’m not infallible, which is why I try to recruit good staff people to save me from myself.) In any event, the guy lost every one of his votes, and stormed out of the meeting in a huff.
I think some of the speculation that MAC2 will be overrun with Puppy Sympathizers amounts to, “Spokane is a hick town in the back end of beyond and might as well be in Australia or on the Moon. Kansas City is a Real City in the middle of Real America, and easy to get to, so Real Fans will actually attend.” [Note that I do not disdain Spokane that way. I live in a city of about 20,000 people east of Reno, which vyes with Spokane for the title of smallest city that has ever hosted a Worldcon.] How right this supposition is remains to be seen. I know the Business Meeting team is aiming for a room about the size of the one we had in Spokane, which was larger than any room we’ve ever used in my experience but only filled up a bit over half full. Business Meeting is IMO the only program item at a Worldcon where you’re not allowed to turn away any attending member who wants to be there. (Even the Hugo Awards Ceremony can and sometimes has turned people away.) Now turning people away from the Business Meeting has never been an issue, but if more people try to attend than the room capacity, it could get tricky. I was having nightmares about it last year in Spokane. I had visions of having to try and hold the meeting outside on the big patio area near the floating stage, and what with the heavy smoke from the fires, that would have been problematic. I was certainly relieved that we did not overflow the room we used.
Regarding relocating works nominated in the wrong category: Administrators have a limited ability to do this, but only if it wouldn’t result in the member’s nominating ballot having more than five works nominated in a given category. In other works, if you nominate five short stories, and then a 5000-word work in novelette, that last nomination won’t count because there’s no room on your ballot to relocate the nomination.
KC is in the middle of the country and thus within driving distance for more people; airfare is probably cheaper than to Spokane as well. That will probably increase the attendance of everyone, including Puppies. Whether there are more “Real Americans”, who knows?
@lurkertype: “I kinda don’t see the point in going to a Worldcon and then only clustering with people I already know who think exactly the same as me — seems a waste of money and a lost chance to widen the horizons and blow the mind.”
I can see it. I’m not sure a lot of people go to SFF cons to find people who think differently*, and certainly a lot of people go to do the particular activities they like (e.g., some people spend most time in the gaming room ‘cuz they’re big gamers, or hanging with filkers ‘cuz they love filk, or whatever; lots of people play the field, though, like I do – I do some of almost everything).
* By this I mean, as a specific purpose; I’m not saying people go to find their mental clones, either. 😉
What I don’t get is, if one thinks Worldcon isn’t fun and they have to make the fun zone, and if they have such disdain for Worldcon and most folks who go to it, then why waste time, money, and energy. I mean, there’s an obvious answer of going to disrupt the con, or fight EPH, or just spend your whole time snarking about the evil 95% of the con who’s not your in crowd, or whatever, but wow, I’ve got better things to do.
Be a part of something, instead of going in order to not participate. Anyway, interesting idea @Mike Glyer mentioned. I’d thought Paulk was going to set up something off-site or in her room or whatever. Getting official party space makes more sense (but still seems odd to me, obviously). I doubt I would** stop by; I know too much about the Sad & Rabid Puppies already.
** Edited; I typed “I’ll” instead of “I would,” forgetting (duh) that I won’t be there this year. ;-(
Wow. That didn’t take long.
Rev. Bob :
“Hey, babe, I’m going to show you parts of me no other man has seen before.”
“Hehe. That sounds pretty kinky, why do- OH MY GOD PLEASE PUT THAT AWAY!!!!”
Phantom, you are the very picture of Zen, clearly immune to offense yourself. Please tell me more about this noble way of life. I do thank you for the history, some of which I was coming here to share myself. It’s a good reminder that today’s words aren’t necessarily tomorrow’s words (it’s funny how words take on meanings, isn’t it, depending on how and by whom they’re used?).
I would note, meanwhile, that a Filer recently slung having a learning disability as an insult, without even the protective shroud of making a supposed point, so there’s that.
As a general rule of thumb, any attempt to casually insult someone by using terms used for people who are mentally handicapped is instantly going to be regarded as an ugly, cruel, bullying slur in most circles that aren’t full of ugly cruel bullying assholes. A major reason for this is that any term used to refer to people with mental handicaps becomes synonymous with an insult, meaning there are fewer ways of referring to them without being conscious of the insulting subtext. I’m so sorry of this is inconvenient for you. Really, the sheer unfairness of you being unable to use such terms without being called out on them is an injustice to make the world weep.
Rehashing poorly-thought-out arguments that appeared in snooty, indignant, self-righteous newspaper columns in the 1980s because they were outraged by efforts to find objective descriptors for people that weren’t synonymous with insults seems about your level, yes.
New Puppy Point – SJWS THREATEN TO EXPOSE TINGLE VOTERS!
BrianZ is concerned.
Puppy Safe Space: let them. I agree it seems odd go all the way to MidAmeriCon II to make their own little party where nobody else is welcome, but the convention center is big enough to spare the space, right? I do hope they will engage in more careful research and planning than has been their habit to this point, or they’ll be disappointed when they try to bring in alcohol or non-approved food items and so on. Hopefully one of their scouts that hangs out here will go back and mention to the organizers (whoever that will be; it’s starting to feel like Kate Paulk has made more commitments than she can easily keep up with) that they need to be aware of the con’s unusual party arrangements and the hotel rules. Like writing poetry; sometimes constraints end up jolting you out of “the usual” so that you come up with something really special–perhaps the Puppy Safe Space Party will be something really fun and memorable.
Look, Phantom, let me see if I can say this in a way you’ll understand. Mentally disabled people, or mentally ill people, don’t deserve to be compared to me. I’m a vile Filer: a thoroughly unpleasant person with an unrealistic view of the world and a desire to make innocent conservatives suffer for the sheer joy of watching them hurt, or possibly for my own financial or social gain. Mentally disabled / mentally ill people are just living their own lives and getting along as best they can and they don’t deserve the hate that should right-wise be directed at me and my foul SJW ilk.
See how that works?
And something reminds me: does anybody know if guano has a particular bacterial profile that makes it such a good soil amendment? Or is it more just the concentrated nitrogen involved or what? Is it good for the soil in the same way chicken manure is good? I remember there being much rejoicing about chicken manure at one point.
@Kevin Standlee – Thanks for the clarification on nominations in the wrong category.
BTW, I didn’t think to mention this yesterday, but here’s a book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520272900/
I can’t actually recommend it, because it has been sitting on my reader unread for probably well over a year, but sounds right up your research ally.
Rowling: Well, she’s gone the whole time without even MENTIONING black people.
That’s a good thing–it might have ended up something like this
(The case, FWIW.)
.
So far as I know, it is primarily the nitrogen content, and the various trace minerals–the commercial stuff is heated to dry it, and presumably to kill off a few of the nastier things sometimes present in poop.
Bat guano also has the advantage that it comes from…ah…free range donors, as it were. Chicken manure is awesome for a high nitrogen fertilizer, but I hate using the commercial stuff, both for ethical reasons and because I happen to be deathly allergic to erythromycin, which is literally applied to commercial livestock feed and water in 55-gallon drums.
Among my many awesome readers is a person who does testing in a USDA lab on samples sent by feedlot cattle ranchers. They say that the amounts of my allergen are trace, but present–they’re supposed to stop dosing seven days before slaughter, to let it cycle out, but there’s always downer cows and whatnot. It’s all minuscule amounts, of course, probably it’s not doing much of anything to me, but I figure that I get so much in my system from eating regularly, I try to limit exposure everywhere else.
@Phantom
This concludes tonight’s lesson on the march of the perpetually offended through our medical organizations, and the damage they continue to do to the English Language.
Shorter Phantom:
I don’t care in the least if I hurt people who have done nothing to me, because I have no consideration and feeling towards my fellow human beings.
In other news, water is wet, the sky is blue and I am an asshole.
Good to know, hoss.
Bonnie, you forgot the side helping of “it’s everyone else’s fault for being offended”.
I believe that some people have trouble seeing others as fully realized humans with their own rich inner life. Something else I and my solipsistic tendencies struggle with. It’s really hard putting yourself into other peoples’ shoes. My shoes are uncomfortable enough, dammit!
I read the Vonda McIntyre exchange when it first came out. Someone expressed worry about attending the con because of the rampant expression of racist and misogynist expressions on the internet by puppies might mean they would be willing to express them in person as well.
McIntyre offered to walk with this person at the con, although she did clarify that as a older woman who walked with a cane, she felt the main support she could offer would be moral, in that racists or misogynists would have shame enough not to proffer verbal abuse in the presence of an elder like her. This is Vonda McIntyre giving the benefit of the doubt to people she considers potentially racist and misogynous.
She also offered to extend the same service to any Puppy who also felt anxious about possibly being verbally abused by non-Puppies.
Phantom calling Vonda’s offer of accompaniment by a respected senior citizen with a cane “personal security arrangements because there might be violent Puppies” is, therefore (of course) inferior-grade bullshit.
And of course, during the original exchange an outraged Puppy charged in, and IIRC, showered McIntyre with invective (pseudonymously, of course) for implying that Puppies might be rude and verbally abusive at the con. McIntyre shut him down with freezing politeness, and he slunk off with muttered half-apologies.
McIntyre was magnificent throughout.
@Dawn
It’s really hard putting yourself into other peoples’ shoes.
For those who have never grown up, apparently so. (Not referring to you.)
I was searching for the quote you alluded to, and found this really nice article about developing empathy. Something our resident troll needs to read.
@Red Wombat
The Phantom seems to have plenty and a willingness to share.
@IanP
I’ve been spreading bat guano.
The Phantom seems to have plenty and a willingness to share.
Heh. *snort* I imagine he could start his own small business. “Get your Guano here! 25 cents per pound, discount on purchases of 100 lbs or more! Free for ruddy marsupial gardeners and other denizens of File 770! Puppy outrage worms extra!”
@Bonnie:
That’s an excellent article about empathy, thanks for sharing!
There’s a cognitive distortion that can often get in the way of empathy:
If you (general you!) assume that you know what someone is thinking and feeling and what their motivations are, without checking the facts and accepting that you are neither precognitive or telepathic, you will rarely if ever react appropriately. And if you take it upon yourself to tell other people how they think and feel (and why they’re wrong!), they will probably not be terribly compassionate or patient.
IIRC, in one of his earlier posts here, The Phantom self-identified as having Asperger’s, so this may literally be true in his case.
Attempting to quell snarky comment about how Aspergers is no longer a recognized disorder in the DSM V (due to Phantom’s “education” about medical terminology).
…attempt failed. Shit.
Even though I empathize! Dude, trying to figure other people out is uncomfortable at best and fucking terrifying at worst. (Sartre wasn’t wrong; hell is other people.) (…but heaven is too. Dammit.)
Oh! That makes me think of a movie recommendation. I think this is pretty obscure–in the US, at least.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_and_Max
I am reminded of a conversation at another blog where a man vociferously defended his right to insult women he deemed insultworthy with the B word because, he said, it’s not misogynist, it’s just handy to have a feminine form of the insult “asshole.”
He was informed that, as the body part isn’t gender-linked, the feminine of “asshole” is in fact “asshole.”
For some reason, the guy who insisted on using the feminist slur thought that adding “plus, she’s a woman” was a useful intensifier to the insult “she’s an asshole”, but wouldn’t admit that “woman” only works as an insult if you despise women. The Phantom’s case is similar. He’s insisting that it’s only logical, totally harmless, and not ablest at all to say, “They’re as stupid and despicable as a developmentally disabled/delayed person.”
Using factual descriptors of whole blameless segments of the human race as insults clearly conveys an underlying assumption that the speaker finds that segment of the human race insult-worthy, despicable, or otherwise lesser by virtue of merely meeting that description. See also the use of “gay” and “womanish” as insults.
I’m not sure The Phantom is capable of understanding this, however, as he seems to deny that anyone other than his own holy self has dignity and human worth.
I was under the impression that animal poop in general is a great fertilizer simply because it’s all concentrated and nitrogenous (So is people poo, but that way lies many many more diseases). I think I’d lean towards vegetarian beasties, but bats and chickens are insectivores, so maybe not? Maybe the insects being little concentrated bundles o’protein then lead to chicken/bat/etc. poo being extra-good? But thanks to RedWombat for the antibiotic info! Yikes. Someone could do a good business in artisanal antibiotic-free chicken (cow, etc.) manure.
One wonders why the Puppies don’t throw their own party instead of spending all that time and hassle to go somewhere chock-full of SJWs? I.e. a relaxicon. For that kind of money, they could entirely take over a small hotel/motel somewhere, use all the function space instead of just a small bit with SO MANY restrictions, and have more FUN for less money? Why have the Sad Puppy Safe Space (with no booze and crap food) for only a few hours a day at a gathering where you hate everyone else, when you could have 3 days of all-day, all-night partying with your friends?
(Maybe we need FilerCon! With parties decorated with copies of GodStalk, and many kinds of sausage.)
@Darren: Oh good LORD. It’s 2016, and people are still using lynching photos for laughs. ANY execution is not suitable for funny ha-ha restaurant decor.
It is often said on these here intarwebs that there’s Asperger’s and Assburger’s, and that many claim to be the former to cover up the fact that they’re the latter.
People don’t have a problem stating that some people have a greater intellect than others. The issue is following this basic fact with the assumption that a greater intellect is a marker for a superior human being.
There are so many other possible axes of comparison where a less intelligent person may match or indeed improve upon someone more intelligent than they.Here are a few: creative, generous, empathetic, enthusiastic, energetic, strong, supportive, busy, active, willing to learn, willing to ask, talented, graceful, gracious, fast, focused, social, socially adept, well-spoken, pithy.
Being aware of that, and thus preferring not to default to slurs on the mentally disabled to mock people with whom you disagree politically, does not make one politically correct or easily offended. It just makes one aware of other human beings.
Full disclosure; I used to work in the office of a place that sent therapists out to work with kids and train school assistants to work with kids with physical and mental disabilities. I’ve heard stories about how amazing and rewarding these kids can be, I’ve read reports. And my elder son, while probably otherwise of typical or high intelligence, is autistic. I’ve been looking at the world of differences in ability from a non-theoretical perspective.
Darren Garrison:
I see nothing in the below description which indicates an inability to see others as fully human. Problems in social situations yes. But not because they see others as less than human. Nor does it indicate more likely to behave like troll or jerk online.
What Is Asperger Syndrome? https://www.autismspeaks.org/
Asperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) considered to be on the “high functioning” end of the spectrum. Affected children and adults have difficulty with social interactions and exhibit a restricted range of interests and/or repetitive behaviors. Motor development may be delayed, leading to clumsiness or uncoordinated motor movements. Compared with those affected by other forms of ASD, however, those with Asperger syndrome do not have significant delays or difficulties in language or cognitive development. Some even demonstrate precocious vocabulary – often in a highly specialized field of interest.
The following behaviors are often associated with Asperger syndrome. However, they are seldom all present in any one individual and vary widely in degree:
• limited or inappropriate social interactions
• “robotic” or repetitive speech
• challenges with nonverbal communication (gestures, facial expression, etc.) coupled with average to above average verbal skills
• tendency to discuss self rather than others
• inability to understand social/emotional issues or nonliteral phrases
• lack of eye contact or reciprocal conversation
• obsession with specific, often unusual, topics
• one-sided conversations
• awkward movements and/or mannerisms
@Lenora Rose: you could also add “good-looking”, which is as randomly distributed and considerably more genetic than lower IQ scores. And kind, which is important; Vonnegut said it was the only thing babies needed to remember.
@Nicole: did the asshole in question perhaps think that women didn’t have that particular orifice? 🙂 Nah, probably just a misogynist.
I read a Tweet by someone having much schadenfreude that the anti-women, anti-LGBTQ assholes on R*dd*t’s Red Pill have named and defined their entire philosophy of existence and self-worth after a concept invented by two trans women! I hope The Wachowski Sisters are also amused by it.
@Tasha: yep, high-functioning autistic people have enough trouble without assholes on the internet claiming to have the same syndrome and therefore making them look bad.