Pixel Scroll 3/14/16 Pixels Gather And Now My Scroll Begins

Posted on by

(1) WHAT A SAVINGS. Get your Grabthar’s hammer t-shirt from TeeChip. These babies are going for $22.99, while they last!

Grabthars hammer t fruit-of-the-loom-cotton-t-131313

(2) WOODEN IT BE LUVERLY. It took over a year to carve, and “This Beautiful Millennium Falcon Was Made With Over 3,000 Pieces of Wood”.

(3) HISTORY OF A MYSTERY. Memorabilia of the 1955 Cleveland and 1956 NYC World Science Fiction Conventions  is up for auction on eBay. There are publications, etc., but the most interesting part to fanhistorians would be the Cleveland committee’s file copies of correspondence, like the letter sent in advance of the con to its “mystery guest of honor” Sam Moskowitz (lower right). The seller is looking for a starting bid of $499.99, and the auction has six days to run.

clevention correspondence

(4) CORNELL’S SHERLOCK. Paul Cornell’s episode of Elementary will be broadcast in the US this week. You can view the trailer on his blog.

On this coming Sunday, the 20th March, at 10pm, my episode of Elementary, ‘You’ve Got Me, Who’s Got You?’ will be broadcast on CBS.  Those in the Central and East Coast time zones should note that the NCAA March Madness second round (I assume that’s something to do with sport) will be taking place that day, so there’s a chance the episode might be delayed.  At any rate, I’ll be up at 3am my time to live tweet along with the show.  So that’ll be fun.  And possibly quite weird.  If you haven’t already found me on Twitter, I’m @paul_cornell.

As the official synopsis says: ‘when a man who secretly fought crime dressed as a popular comic book superhero is murdered, Holmes and Watson must discover his real identity before they can find his killer.  Also, Morland makes a surprise donation to Watson’s favorite charity, in order to compel her to do him a business-related favor.’

Which is spot on, really!

(5) THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOOKING-GLASS. Fantasy-Faction’s Nicola Alter tries to ease fantasy fans into the idea of reading sf – “Trying Out Science Fiction: A Guide For Fantasy Purists”. I’ve always had to listen to sf fans who talk about their dislike of fantasy (and, oh, the howls of rage when a Harry Potter book won the Hugo), but it never occurred to me there might be fantasy fans who had to be convinced to read sf. Now I know.

I picked up a trashy sci-fi novel in my teens and immediately encountered a confusing story full of alien languages and weird words, with unappealing characters and an empty, lacklustre world. I couldn’t make any sense of it and it made me vaguely depressed, so I put it down. I decided science fiction wasn’t for me.

Over a decade later, I finally gave it another go. I had often heard science fiction works mentioned by fellow fantasy fans and seen the genres placed side-by-side at conventions, in bookstores, and online. I thought: I really ought to explore this “other side of the coin” and see what all the fuss is about.

So, I started reading sci-fi. And found books I loved – even books I adored. I added several science fiction works to my all-time favourites list. In the process, I learned a few things that might be helpful to any fantasy lovers wanting to embark on a similar exploration of this sister genre:

Don’t Start With The Classics

There are many online forums where people ask, “I’ve never read any science fiction but I want to try it out, what should I read first?” and get a stream of comments recommending classic works like Dune and Stranger in a Strange Land and Foundation. These are indeed important works that have been enjoyed by many, but they’re probably not the best ones to start with. It’s like telling someone who’s never read fantasy to begin with Lord of the Rings or Elric of Melniboné. Yes, these are important stories and forerunners of the genre but they’re not exactly accessible or easy reads for a newcomer. (The exception here would be Ender’s Game, as it’s very accessible and easy to read despite its “classic” status).

You’re better off tackling the classics later, after you’ve cut your teeth on a modern, accessible read and worked up a taste for more….

(6) THEY PEEKED. Spy pics show off Star Wars’ new cool aliens and vehicles in “Meet Your New Favorite Alien From Star Wars Episode VIII” at Birth. Movies. Death.

Star Wars Episode VIII has committed the cardinal sin of filming outside, which means people with cameras have had a chance to snap pictures of the set. Most of the pics that have turned up have been kinda dull, but a whole slew appeared recently that have me beyond excited.

 

(7) DON’T DRINK AND TIME TRAVEL. That’s the lesson of this review of Version Control at Mashable.

Now comes Version Control, the trippy second novel by Dexter Palmer and the first pick for our new series — science fiction novel of the week. It’s easily one of the smartest, most unusual time-travel stories you’ll ever read — and one you don’t need a PhD. to understand, because it’s focused entirely on some very fascinating and flawed characters.

If time travel ever happened in the real world, it would probably look something like this: a bunch of obsessive scientists blandly insisting that what they’ve built is a serious-sounding “causality-violation device” (CVD), rather than a super-cliched “time machine.” And like many of our greatest technological advances, it would come with a whole bundle of unintended consequences

(8) KEN ADAM OBIT. Production designer Ken Adam, whose work included the war room in Dr. Strangelove and some of the sets in Dr. No, died March 10 reports the New York Times.

With “You Only Live Twice,” the fifth Bond film, Mr. Adam had more than half the total budget at his disposal. He spent $1 million of it building a volcano that contained a secret military base operated by the international terrorist organization Spectre.

“He was a brilliant visualizer of worlds we will never be able to visit ourselves,” Christopher Frayling, the author of two books on Mr. Adam, told the BBC in an article posted on Friday . “The war room under the Pentagon in ‘Dr. Strangelove,’ the interior of Fort Knox in ‘Goldfinger’ — all sorts of interiors which, as members of the public, we are never going to get to see, but he created an image of them that was more real than real itself.”

(9) TODAY IN HISTORY

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS

  • Born March 14, 1879 – Albert Einstein

Mental Floss has “10 Inventive Myths About Einstein Debunked”:

10. THE MYTH: HE WAS ONE OF ONLY 10 OR 12 WHO COULD UNDERSTAND THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY.

Tired of being questioned about this idea, Einstein told the Chicago Daily Tribune in May 1921, “It is absurd. Anyone who has had sufficient training in science can readily understand the theory. There is nothing amazing or mysterious about it. It is very simple to minds trained along that line, and there are many such in the United States.” Today, a number of experts have taken on the challenge of decoding the complex theory and succeeded.

 

  • Born March 14, 1957 – Tad Williams

(11) THE SEMI-COMPLEAT RABID PUPPY. Vox Day reaches the finale of his slate: Rabid Puppies 2016: Best Novel.

The preliminary recommendations for the Best Novel category.

  • Seveneves: A Novel, Neal Stephenson
  • Golden Son, Pierce Brown 
  • Somewhither: A Tale of the Unwithering Realm, John C. Wright
  • The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass, Jim Butcher
  • Agent of the Imperium, Marc Miller

(12) FOR THE RECORD. In a comment on the above post, John C. Wright summarized his experience at Sasquan last year.

Instead of criticizing me for bring unenthused and indifferent to World Con, which was the case and would have been a legitimate criticism, the Morlock here invents the idea out of nothing that I expected a warm welcome from the hags and termagants who have been sedulously ruining science fiction for twenty years, and that I was foolish for having such foolish expectations. Actually, I was treated quite warmly by the people I met there, the fans and other professionals. It was only David Gerrold and Patrick Hayden who were rude.

(13) AXANAR SUIT AMENDED. Trek Today presents as a list of bullet points all the newly specified copyright infringements performed by Axanar.

The Hollywood Reporter headlined a particular one: “Paramount Claims Crowdfunded ‘Star Trek’ Film Infringes Copyright To Klingon Language”.

After the Star Trek rights-holders sued producers, led by Alec Peters, who put out a short film and solicited donations with the aim of making a studio-quality feature set in the year 2245 — before Captain James T. Kirk took command, when the war with the Klingon Empire almost tore the Federation apart — the defendants brought a dismissal motion that faulted Paramount and CBS with not providing enough specificity about which of the “thousands” of copyrights relating to Star Trek episodes and films are being infringed — and how.

Ask and ye shall receive.

On Friday, Paramount and CBS filed an amended complaint that responded in a few ways.

To the argument that because the crowdfunded film hasn’t actually been made yet, the lawsuit is “premature, unripe and would constitute an impermissible prior restraint on speech,” the plaintiffs point to defendant’s Facebook post that mentioned a “locked script.” They also note a press interview that Peters gave on Feb. 1 where he said, “We violate CBS copyright less than any other fan film,” as an admission he indeed is violating copyright.

Click to read the amended lawsuit in full.

(13) WESTERCON 70 PR. Dee Astell, Chair of Westercon 70 (a.k.a. ConAlope 2017/LepreCo43) announced the con’s Progress Report #0 and #1 are available for download.

(14) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER. Vanity Fair Hollywood says “Xena Reboot Series to Turn Implied Homoerotic Undertones into Glorious Homoerotic Overtones”.

NBC has ordered a new Xena pilot from writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach, architect behind the CW’s cult hit The 100, and he plans to be a little more forthcoming about the undeniable chemistry between Xena and Gabrielle with this updated iteration. During a Q&A session on Tumblr, Grillo-Marxuach confirmed that the two women would be lovers, no bones about it:

i am a very different person with a very different world view than my employer on the 100 – and my work on the 100 was to use my skills to bring that vision to life. xena will be a very different show made for very different reasons. there is no reason to bring back xena if it is not there for the purpose of fully exploring a relationship that could only be shown subtextually in first-run syndication in the 1990s. it will also express my view of the world – which is only further informed by what is happening right now – and is not too difficult to know what that is if you do some digging.

His passing reference to differing worldviews alludes to a minor kerfuffle among devotees of The 100 following the death of fan-favorite character Lexa, who was in a relationship with the also-female Clarke prior to her untimely demise. Fans cried foul and the choice to extinguish one of the small lights of hope for LGBTQ viewers on television, and Grillo-Marxuach has evidently heard their pleas loud and clear. This new series—the fate of which is still something of question mark, considering that NBC is still far from ordering it to series—will right past wrongs and placate the fans in one fell swoop. And best of all, it’ll provide young viewers with a hero with whom they can identify.

(15) DESPERATELY SEEKING MARVIN. Yahoo! News has the story: “Europe-Russia mission blasts off on hunt for life on Mars”.

One key goal of the Trace Gas Orbiter is to analyse methane, a gas which on Earth is created in large part by living microbes, and traces of which were observed by previous Mars missions.

“TGO will be like a big nose in space,” said Jorge Vago, ExoMars project scientist.

Methane, the ESA said, is normally destroyed by ultraviolet radiation within a few hundred years, which implied that in Mars’ case “it must still be produced today”.

TGO will analyse Mars’ methane in more detail than any previous mission, said ESA, in order to try to determine its likely origin.

(16) MARS ATTACKS GAME. Here’s a video demonstration of how to play Mars Attacks: The Dice Game by Steve Jackson Games. (If this really turns you on, there are four more videos about the game at the SJG site.)

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Mark-kitteh, Will R., Tom Galloway, Andrew Porter, and Michael J. Walsh for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Iphinome.]

Discover more from File 770

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

206 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 3/14/16 Pixels Gather And Now My Scroll Begins”

  3. Buy Grabthar’s Hammer? Thirdatory.

    (12) “Patrick Hayden” was rude? Was that before or after you started purposely calling him by the wrong name, Wright?

  4. 12) John C. Wright still can’t spell Patrick Neilsen Hayden’s name correctly, can he?

  8. Cassy:

    12) John C. Wright still can’t spell Patrick Neilsen Hayden’s name correctly, can he?

    Err, it’s Nielsen Hayden. Mneumonic: IEEE!

  10. the Morlock here invents the idea out of nothing that I expected a warm welcome from the hags and termagants who have been sedulously ruining science fiction for twenty years

    It seems that JCW is jealous that he can’t write fiction as well as the people he derides as “Morlocks”.

    Also “hags” and “termagants” are both gendered insults. And he wonders why people call him a misogynist.

  11. (12) FOR THE RECORD.

    JCW: I was treated quite warmly by the people I met there, the fans and other professionals. It was only David Gerrold and Patrick Hayden who were rude…

    … and those 3,500 Hugo voters who deprived me of the 5 Hugos I rightfully deserved.

  12. JJ on March 14, 2016 at 7:46 pm said:

    … and those 3,500 Hugo voters who deprived me of the 5 Hugos I rightfully deserved.

    But they did so politely! 😀

  13. I’d buy Grabthar’s Hammer, too, though I suspect that one would require even more explanation than some of the other geeky t-shirts I own.

  14. Cally, ARGHHHH!! And I doublechecked I had the “sen” right and everything!

    (Muphrey’s Law is an insidious thing….)

  15. First?? Oops, apparently not.

    @Iphinome: Sorry, I’m clueless about what this Scroll title means….

    I think Mr Wright refuses to call Patrick “Nielsen” Hayden because he will not accept a husband taking his wife’s name.

  16. One sigh at Wright, and pass along.

    Seveneves, huh. The one he’s on record for deriding. Day isn’t even trying. Pass along.

    (5) THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOOKING-GLASS. I’m almost one. I never needed to be convinced to read SF, as such, but I have around 3 shelves of the stuff, probably 3 1/2 (My eclectic shelving orders make it hard to be exact), and probably closer to 11/12 of fantasy NOT counting the YA and Children’s. (And most of the YA and children’s is fantasy). I can think of many times I have not read an author’s SF but read their fantasy, or read the SF only after the fantasy had hooked me (Bujold is the big exception, but most of her fantasy wasn’t written when i got into her). And I still tend to prefer the science fantasy and space opera sides.

  19. (11) *blink blink* um, the “finale”? … but he never did Best Professional Artist …

    I shall take y’alls advice and not tell him. Probably it was supposed to be fifth … *sage nod*

  20. (7) DON’T DRINK AND TIME TRAVEL
    Just finished this last week and loved it: It’s very character-driven for an SF novel, but the writing was so smart and witty (with some great, wry observations about social media), that I wasn’t much bothered by the relatively uneventful first half or so of the book. The latter half does bring together the different threads into something resembling a plot, but it felt more like a reward than it did a rush to tie up loose ends. Very much recommended.

  23. Yay, more Xena! I was a major Xena fan, although not so much for the romance but for the competence porn. Surgery, strategy, tactics, wilderness survival, spending an entire day lining up the perfect ricochet shot, bar fights, beating up demigods — Xena always delivered. Plus the entire series had that Army of Darkness sense of humor all over it.

    By the way, that’s some nice looking legal typesetting on the Star Trek complaint. Much nicer than that novel-plagiarism complaint. Pictures lined up in columns and everything.

  25. (5) LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER (clearly a second fifth, in the grand tradition)

    Call me cynical, but I’ll believe it when they’ve run through the full set of seasons and the characters have come out the other side, clearly in a romantic relationship, and both still alive. There’s no better way to generate double the buzz than to promise the Xena fans an actual lesbian relationship, tantalize them through a few seasons of will-they-won’t-they, and then grab the football away at the last minute.

  26. Hags *AND* termagants. The latter may be less gendered than it appears given Mr Wright’s predulous predilections for middle-ages medievalisms, making it Islamophobic rather than misogynistic, but who knows, he is a talented writer of a kind and may have been aiming for both.

  28. I didn’t have any pie today. Yesterday I had a pizza.

    (4) He should have announced he was going to live Tweet the West Coast feed. It doesn’t get screwed up by sports and it would have been 6 AM his time.

    (5) alien languages and weird words That NEVER happens in fantasy.

    (12) He’s still getting that Morlock/Eloi thing backwards, isn’t he? And I’m pretty sure there was nobody at Sasquan named “Patrick Hayden”. Also, it’s kind of confusing that he’s using insults against women to rant against people named David and Patrick, or is it against Worldcon as a whole, which is over half male?

    (13A) The cork should be put in.

    (Second 5) Will believe it when I see it, and I’m not going to see it on US network television.

    (16) Noooose in spaaaaaaaace!

  29. (4) CORNELL’S SHERLOCK. – Love Elementary (for my money, the best recent adaptation of Sherlock Holmes), and loved Cornell’s MI13 comics. Looking forward to this

    (6) THEY PEEKED. – ::closes eyes, scrolls down::

    (13) AXANAR SUIT AMENDED. – Is the Klingon translation out yet?

  31. (2) WOODEN IT BE LUVERLY. Cool!

    @lurkertype re. #5: I know, right? I was thinking this was the fantasy pot calling the SF kettle black or something.

    @Various re. #5 (Xena): I, too, will believe it when I see it. Proposing or writing is one thing; filming is another; and airing unequivocal lesbian love is another. I didn’t see much “Xena” (or “Hercules”) back in the day, but I really enjoyed a couple of the goofy episodes they did, like the “Xena” one where the day kept repeating, or the one that starts out “Gabrielle awoke with a jerk” and Joxer’s next to her. 😉

    But what about ebook sales in some U.S. stores, you say? I’m glad you asked:

    1. Love it, hate it, or just wonder what all the fuss is about, the first books in the first two Stephen R. Donaldson “Thomas Covenant” trilogies are on sale for $1.99 each: both Lord Foul’s Bane and The Wounded Land.

    2. Dragon Wing (Death Gate Cycle #1) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is on sale for $1.99. My other half (who loved their Dragonlance books back in the day) and I played a computer game based on this, years ago, but we don’t own the books. The computer game was fun and the cosmos was weird and interesting. Are the books any good?

    ObReadingUpdate: I realized on checking that the web site for A Crown for Cold Silver had a longer sample than I had – 7 chapters! After reading the rest of that, I was even more interested, so despite mixed reviews, I bought it (it was still on sale; not sure if it still is now). 🙂 ‘Cuz, you know, I need another 2015 book (not).

  32. Kendall: : I realized on checking that the web site for A Crown for Cold Silver had a longer sample than I had – 7 chapters!

    Thanks for mentioning that. I don’t know if I’ll get to it before March 31st, but I’ll get to it at some point. 🙂

  33. Inspired by The Bard, to whom no blame accrues:

    There is nothing Pixel good or bad but Scrolling makes it so.

    Scroll is empty and all the pixels are here.

    That which we call a pixel by any other name would scroll as sweet.

    Life is as tedious as quintuple-told tale, Voxing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

    There’s not a pixel of mine that’s worth the scrolling.

  34. “… and those 3,500 Hugo voters who deprived me of the 5 Hugos I rightfully deserved.”

    But how many five Hugos?

  37. @Bonnie McDaniel The Night’s Watch oath from A Song of Ice and Fire.

    Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.

  38. @Kendall

    I read Deathsgate back when they came out, but I was very Golden Age of Science Fiction at the time. It was really good, didn’t quite stick the ending (though Weis and Hickman rarely do). The Suck Fairy may have camped there by now though.

  41. Ray Radlein: Jumping Jetpack Christ, but JCW is a terminal boor.

    boor  bore

    bore  boor

    💡
    Ah, what the hell:
    JCW is a terminal boor and a terminal bore.

  43. As a vehement non-Christian, and therefore completely un-tethered to the concepts of charity or empathy, I feel I am safe in mocking our Morlock fearing foe… Will J.C. Wright-Lamplighter ever develop a smidgeon of self-awareness?

    I just bought the Thomas Covenant books. Ugh. They thoroughly disgusted me as a teenager, but I was convinced to re-read them by someone here, some months ago, so there you go…

    Reading-wise, I’m still firmly embedded in “A Succession of Bad Days.” I can’t tell if this is exactly what the Puppies hate, or if it is something amazing that we could both love. On the one hand, it’s very military and manly. On the other hand, the plot…
    Fghqragf bs fbeprel ohvyq n ubhfr.
    – Gurl qevyy sbhaqngvbaf
    – Gurl perngr n frcgvp cbaq
    – Gurl perngr na nznmvat ongugho
    – Gurl qb nyy gur cyhzovat gurzfryirf
    Fnvq fghqragf zbir ba gb qbvat fbzr jrrqvat.
    Arkg hc – svther bhg ubj gb znxr nezbe sbe gur gebbcf.
    Ng fbzr cbvag, qvfphff gur oveqf naq gur orrf nf gurl eryngr gb tbqyvxr fbepreref.
    Nsgre gung, qrfvta naq ohvyq fbzr cerggl shpxvat avpr pnabrf.
    Bbcf, anfgl shathf bhgoernx! Svk gung erny dhvpx-yvxr.
    Tb jrrqvat ntnva.
    (gung’f nf sne nf V’ir tbg fb sne)

    I’m pretty sure this is my favorite book I’ve read all year. It’s taking me forever to read, but it’s so much fun… I don’t normally enjoy sentences I have to read twice to parse, but I’m in love with this horrifying world and these creepy-ass characters, and the whole idea of “what if people with the magical powers of gods were roped into being productive members of an egalitarian society?”

  44. @Camestros Felapton: He’s a skilled insulter; one of the finest insulting people today.

    Unrelated: I repeatedly misread “Xena reboot” as “Xena robot” and now I want a future-cyborg-Xena show.

  45. @kathodus: Uh-oh. I know I’ve recommended the Thomas Covenant series here before. It could have been me!

    @Kendall: Ignore the previous comment. I remember the Death Gate series fondly, though Snowcrash could be correct. There are elements of it I sort of dislike (e.g. it’s a fantasy series that takes place in the future; I believe there are some dated references to pop culture as well as a holy fool-type character), but I would recommend giving it a shot. I enjoyed the characters and the world.

    re: #5–I’m not sure why, but while I thought of myself primarily as a fantasy in middle school, not much fantasy really stuck with me and now I read much more sci-fi. Which isn’t really the point of the article–which gives some good advice at trying any new genre–but whatever.

  46. I’m always surprised that JCW is so hung up on conventional western naming conventions while his wife continues a career under her maiden name.
    Then again, I’m always surprised that he can be such a committed Christian without having ever read the beatitudes.

  47. @kathodus: I can’t tell if this is exactly what the Puppies hate, or if it is something amazing that we could both love.

    I’d certainly hope so – lots of engineering competence porn, and there’s always a chance they’ll mistake the communism for Spartan-style barracks(*). The March North might go down better, though – it has comforting echoes of Glen Cook, and I suspect it was written in part as an easy way in to the world.

    More seriously, I think the real barrier for any reader is going to be the tight-coupled first person perspective. People’s responses to C J Cherryh suggest there’s a sharp divide between those who love deducing the way the world works from hints in the text and those who find it all a bit of a confusing drain on their energy.

    (*) I’ll never cease to be amused by the admiration for Sparta – a society of aristocrats with compulsory homosexuality and a ruthless secret police – on the American right. I guess the love of discipline blinds them to the rest.

  48. re: 12

    Because you had to be a Morlock, didn’t you
    You had to open up your mouth
    You had to be a Morlock, didn’t you
    All your friends were so knocked out
    You had to have the last word, last night
    You know what everything’s about
    You and to have a white hot spotlight
    You had to be a Morlock last night

    With apologies to Billy Joel

  49. Well you went downtown slating with your Puppy friends
    With your hate-laden bigoted prose
    You had the open carry misogyny in your hand
    And the homophobic spoon up your nose
    And when you wake up in the morning
    With your book No Awarded
    And your spite there for all to see
    Go on and cry in your kennel
    But don’t come whinin’ to me

    < chorus, see above >

  50. (4) CORNELL’S SHERLOCK

    Also, the next Shadow Police book will be called “Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?”

    (After the famous author cameo from the last book, my money’s on David Tennant)

Comments are closed.