(1) KIRK AND WOZ. “Silicon Valley Comic Con: William Shatner holds court on inaugural con’s first night” in the San Jose Mercury News.
Shatner was the big attraction for the first night of the pop culture and technology festival at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. He held court for an hour before hundreds of fans who packed into the convention center’s grand ballroom. And right in the front row was the Comic Con’s No. 1 fan, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Shatner misidentified Woz as the inventor of the iPhone (but for Kirk, we can forgive anything right?), but gave the genius behind Apple proper credit for starting up Silicon Valley Comic Con. “I’m going to embarrass Mr. Wozniak a little, but I want him to ask the first question,” Shatner said from the stage.
Woz obliged, walking up to one of the standing microphones like any fan would. Clearly on the spot, Woz initially asked Shatner to recite some poetry (he didn’t) and that led to a fascinating back-and-forth about the nature of science vs. science fiction.
Woz said when he was a kid he dreamed of being a starship captain like the one Shatner played on “Star Trek,” but his engineering background made him too grounded in reality. Shatner would have none of it. “You have two feet on the ground but your head is in the sky. You’re a pole, an electrical conduit,” Shatner said. “What do you think of that?”
“Humor is the ultimate creativity,” Wozniak said, “and you’ve got it.”
…But he wasn’t the only star in downtown San Jose on Friday. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony right before the doors opened, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Vice Mayor Rose Herrera were flanked by Woz, “Back to the Future” star Christopher Lloyd and comic book legend Stan Lee. Nichelle Nichols, who co-starred with Shatner as Lt. Uhura on “Star Trek,” arrived later for an autograph and photo session with fans.
Other stars expected during the convention — which continues through Sunday — include Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Nathan Fillion, Peter Mayhew, Jeremy Renner and “Deadpool” director Tim Miller.
(2) TIP US A TUNE. And the other day Mark Parisi’s cartoon Off the Mark zapped Shatner’s singing.
(3) NOTHING TO DISAGREE WITH. Crystal Huff said —
I loved @seananmcguire before she Tuckerized me in a book, but let's be clear: now she can practically do no wrong. ????
— Crystal M. Huff, ? ? (they/them) (@crystalvisits) March 18, 2016
(4) WINTER IS HERE. Sarah A. Hoyt shares the view from inside the Sad Puppies 4 control room in “The Gang’ll Know I Died Standing Pat” at According to Hoyt. Then she moves on to explain, as if to a child, how something Brad Torgersen himself labeled a “slate” was not (in addition, mislabels Torgersen’s edition “IV” rather than 3).
Over the last few days, since Kate published the list of Sad Puppies recommends, we’ve been inundated both in email and in social media by people requesting, clamoring and whining to be removed from the list. The eructations from these special snow flakes vary in levels of self-delusion and insanity and at least one was very polite.
The prize MUST go to Damien Walter of Grauniad fame for tweeting that he hopes Kate Paulk has deep pockets, to withstand all the lawsuits resultant from putting people on the list without asking their permission.
…. Speaking of which, all of you, even the polite ones, who send me purple prose about how badly Brad Torgersen ran Sad Puppies IV and how he created an evil slate also make me doubt your mental capacity. Seriously, guys? A slate? If you’d bothered to look at the numbers and had a minimum of arithmetic ability (did you also sleep through it in first grade, while dreaming of little Damien’s slights and grievances? — Seriously, he really should pull his socks up) you’d have realized the only real slate was “no award.” Sad puppies nominations and votes were not only not lockstep but all over the place. Because, you know, they were reading what was suggested and making up their own minds, instead of — like the other side — taking marching orders from their betters who told them to not even read and just vote no-award.
(5) PERSISTENCE OF REVISION. Nicki at The Liberty Zone asserts this is “Why the Puppies are Sad”.
You want to know why the Sad Puppies campaign still exists? Do you want to know why fans continue to nominate authors they consider to be worthy of a Hugo Award even though the elitist Puppy Kickers made damn sure everyone knew that no award would be given to any worthy author or editor if they were nominated by the “wrong” people?
Here’s one reason.
“Speak Easy” by Catherynne M. Valente was submitted for a Sad Puppies 4 nomination in September 2015. Several fans thought it was worthy of the award. Comments included:
“… I liked it a lot and will be nominating it for a Hugo.”
“…There is so much to discover in this little book and it absolutely blew me away”
I would think that any author would be grateful that readers not only bought her work, but read it and enjoyed it enough to recommend it for a prestigious award. I would think the author would be gracious and thank the readers for the honor. One would think that being included in a list of recommendations that this year includes such great and diverse writers as Lois McMaster Bujold, Ann Leckie, Stephen King, Eric Flint, and John Scalzi would be met with gratitude and some dignity.
But apparently, if you’re the wrong kind of thinker, the wrong kind of reader, who has the wrong kind of social justice and political views, Ms. Valente doesn’t want your business. She doesn’t want your praise or recommendation. She doesn’t want your recognition.
For the record, I was not asked and I do not consent to be on the Sad Puppies List. I am furious.
— Catherynne Valente (@catvalente) March 18, 2016
(6) REMOVAL APPROVAL. Lee at Lee’s Blog has a similar reaction, in“Sad Puppies 4 recommendations”.
“These kind [sic] of tactics” — yes, it’s just dreadful, isn’t it, that they would allow fans of Alastair Reynolds to publicly recommend his works to fans who might never have heard of him otherwise. Imagine! Just allowing his fans to make recommendations without permission! What’s the world coming to!
“staining your name” — yeah, in the good old days, allowing his fans to recommend his works to the world of fandom — even including wrongfen (gasp!) — would be an offence justifying a duel to the death. *Puke*.
Despite reading fantasy and science fiction my whole life, I really hadn’t been reading new works for probably twenty years. There’s a huge backlog of old “classic” science fiction and fantasy for me to enjoy, and there’s always nonfiction (history and science).
But the Sad Puppies controversy and the orchestrated international campaign of defamation introduced me to a whole world of new authors! The Sad Puppies 4 campaign introduced me to Stand Still Stay Silent, which I love. I mean to check out other works on the recommended list, not because of the Hugo Awards (I have never nominated or voted and never will), but because these works are recommended by other fen.
However, Catherynne Valente and Alastair Reynolds demand to be removed from the list because their fans failed to obtain permission before recommending their works to fandom in general. The Sad Puppies are holding firm: their fans thought their works were worth considering and it’s not up to them to contradict their fans.
But I am not holding firm. They don’t want their fans recommending their work to wrongfen: hey, I’m happy to remove them from my Recommendations to Check Out list and put them on my Not One Thin Dime list.
(7) 180 DEGREES. Chris Gerrib’s conclusion about “Sad Puppies 4” is —
In short, so far this is everything Sad Puppies 3 was not, namely open and transparent.
(8) A HAPPY FELLA. Declan Finn may have disqualified himself as a “sad” puppy with his post “Awesome #SadPuppies News”. Just kidding.
So, I am apparently the most awesome Puppy ever, having three award recommendations in the Hugos, Sad Puppies Bite Back being the #1 Best Related work.
I am UNSTOPPABLE, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH….
Aaaannnnnddddd that was me, gloating. I’m done now.
First of all, I am on the recommendation list in three categories. I will happily accept the recommendations, because I’ll take all the help I can get.
(9) NAMES TO BE CALLED. Kamas Kirian “Over inflated much?” at westfargomusings.
So, a certain author is having kittens over the fact her work ended up on the Sad Puppies IV list. How much of a delusional narcissist are you that you don’t want the wrong people liking what you’ve written? I mean really, if you don’t want people to recommend your writing I suppose they can take you up on that offer and review your work in the context that only the right people dare read it. God forbid it end up on a list that you think is a ‘slate’. For a writer, you don’t seem to know definitions very well. Here, let me help you out on that….
(10) SCOTTO OBIT. Cartoonist Augie Scotto (1927-2016) died March 15 reports the Timely-Atlas Comics blog.
As mentioned above, Augie Scotto’s work appeared in Will Eisner’s PS magazine, the exact tenures unknown to me. The note above that Scotto was Wally Wood’s partner is somewhat apocryphal. In the Bhob Stewart edited Against The Grain (TwoMorrows, 2003), Stewart writes about the Wally Wood studio and AugieScotto
“The studio was often like a Grand Central of artists. They came and went. One night Augie Scotto arrived. Scotto had worked on 1949-53 Western and crime comics before settling in as an artist on Eisner’s PS magazine for many years. We were working our way through a pile of Topps’ Travel Posters, and Scotto was there to assist for a few hours. I was in the back room, and Woody appeared at the door with a big grin. “Bhob, come watch this.” Scotto sat down at a board while Woody, Don and I looked on. He clicked the snaps on his briefcase, pulled out a brush and dipped it in the ink. Silence. Then in a single deft stroke, Scotto moved his hand across the paper. He lifted the brush, leaving a 14″ long, perfectly straight line on the paper. It played like a magic trick, but it was for real. Woody then went back to work, still grinning.”
Scotto’s comic book career appeared as two brief spurts. He broke in in 1949 at Eastern Color’s New Heroic Comics, Hillman and Cross Publications, on crime and western stories. He also was at Lev Gleason in 1950, Atlas in early 1951 and Charlton in 1953. This early work is completely serviceable and at home in the earthy, gritty crime comics of the era. He then vanishes from the industry and re-emerges in 1968 at Tower Comics penciling Dynamo and then as an inker at DC Comics in the late 1970’s, inking several titles including a post-Jack Kirby story of The New Gods in Adventure Comics in 1978.
(11) TODAY IN HISTORY
- March 20, 1972 — Tarkovsky’s influential Solaris opens in the Soviet Union.
(12) SLINGING MUD FROM ANOTHER WORLD. Two politicians traded insults couched in sci-fi terms reports Boston.com.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren doesn’t understand why a congressman would call her Darth Vader—she’s always seen herself as more of a Princess Leia.
After Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Missouri republican, called Warren “the Darth Vader of the financial services world” and said they should “find a way to neuter her” during a panel hosted at the American Bankers Association conference, the senator responded with a statement on her campaign site Thursday.
“My first thought was: Really?” Warren wrote. “I’ve always seen myself more as a Princess Leia-type (a senator and Resistance general who, unlike the guys, is never even remotely tempted by the dark side). Clearly the Force is not strong with Congressman Luetkemeyer (maybe he’s a Trekkie).”
(13) HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY. Gregory N. Hullender issued a report on “Rocket Stack Rank at Six Months”. (That’s been long enough for me to change my mind – File 770 is a worse name for a site…)
Original Goals
Our original goal was to read and review all the short fiction in the six major publications in 2015. We accomplished that and also included all the original fiction from ten anthologies.
We hoped that would amount to 50% coverage of the stories in the Locus Recommended Reading List, but it actually came to about 65%.
We set out to offer advice on where to buy copies of back issues of the big three print magazines. We ended up with detailed instructions for several different ways to get electronic copies of back issues, and we even discovered several (legal) ways to borrow back issues without having to buy them.
(14) PEE-WEE INTERVIEW. “Paul Reubens on Pee-wee Herman’s Comeback” at Vogue.
The last time you did this it wasn’t the Internet age. I know in the past you’ve skirted publicity and you’ve valued your privacy, and now we’re in this era when things happen so quickly, in such a big way. How does it feel?
Part of that feels bogus to me, to be honest with you. Gigantic superstars still get married and no one knows about it. I was at a hotel recently, where people were complaining, “Oh, my God, there’s paparazzi every second out here in front!” Then I went, “Can I go out the back door?” And they were like, “Sure.” It’s not impossible. None of it is. I get that there are certain people that get such a high profile that they can’t do anything. I just think almost everything’s possible, really.
Including getting another Pee-wee movie made after 30 years.
Yeah, that’s true!
(15) BUT NOT IF YOU HAVE ANY FRIENDS WHO ARE ENTS. A home styled for a wizard. The Chive has a big photo gallery of the exquisite and artistic woodwork. Asking price? $8.2 million. Hm, come to think of it, a lot of trees got chopped down to make that….
(16) BLACK PANTHER. “An Exclusive Look at ‘Black Panther #1’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates” at The Atlantic.
Despite the difference in style and practice of storytelling, my approach to comic books ultimately differs little from my approach to journalism. In both forms, I am trying to answer a question. In my work for The Atlantic I have, for some time, been asking a particular question: Can a society part with, and triumph over, the very plunder that made it possible? In Black Panther there is a simpler question: Can a good man be a king, and would an advanced society tolerate a monarch? Research is crucial in both cases. The Black Panther I offer pulls from the archives of Marvel and the character’s own long history. But it also pulls from the very real history of society—from the pre-colonial era of Africa, the peasant rebellions that wracked Europe toward the end of the Middle Ages, the American Civil War, the Arab Spring, and the rise of isis.
And this, too, is the fulfillment of the 9-year-old in me. Reading The Amazing Spider-Man comic books as a kid, I didn’t just take in the hero’s latest amazing feat; I wrestled seriously with his celebrated tagline—“With great power comes great responsibility.” Chris Claremont’s The Uncanny X?Men wasn’t just about an ultracool band of rebels. That series sought to grapple with the role of minorities in society—both the inner power and the outward persecution that come with that status. And so it is (I hope) with Black Panther. The questions are what motivate the action. The questions, ultimately, are more necessary than the answers.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, David K.M. Klaus, Will R., and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Chris S.]
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
I see the Puppies have decided that that decade of good behavior necessary to rehabilitate the Puppy brand in the minds of non-Puppies is not going to start this year.
I would ask if anyone was surprised but it would be a waste of pixels.
Some thoughts on (4), (5), and (6):
The ineptness of the Puppy response to the requests to be removed from their “recommendation list” is actually quite breathtaking. All they had to do to look good (and both make those requesting to be removed from their list look unreasonable and make their detractors reconsider their assessment of the Pups) was to respond to the removal requests with something like “We are sorry you don’t want to be on our list, but will will respect your wishes and remove you”. That would have made the Pups look like the mature adults in the situation, and would have defused a lot of criticism leveled at them.
Instead they responded with frothing at the mouth outrage over the “insult” to the fans who recommended the works of those authors and conservatives in general. The only thing the unhinged responses from Paulk, Hoyt, Nicki, et al have shown is that Valente, Reynolds, and anyone else who asked to be removed from the SP4 list was entirely justified in doing so (note that Hoyt says they have been “inundated” with such requests). Instead of saying behaving in a reasonable manner, the Pups have erupted in a hissy-fit that shows exactly why no one wants to be associated with them.
As far as “insulting the fans” goes, Hoyt and her compadres make it seem like there is some teeming mass of fans who clamored for Valente and Reynolds to be on the SP4 “recommendation list”. But when one counts up the number of actual recommendations, one finds a different story: Valente got 2, Reynolds got 4. Given that we know that some people were recommending stuff just to test the bona fides of the Pups claims concerning how they would construct their list, there is a fairly strong probability that at least a couple of those recommendations came from non-Pups who probably don’t particularly care whether Valente and Reynolds are actually on the SP4 list or not. Even if every vote was by a Puppy, the result would be that Valente and Reynolds would be “insulting” 2 and 4 fans respectively. I think their careers will survive.
But the funny thing is that this concern for whether or not insulting fans seems pretty new to the Pups. After all, last year none of them seemed to care that by claiming many previous Hugo winners only got their awards because of “affirmative action” votes they were actually insulting fans. They didn’t seem to care at all that attacking Worldcon voters as being out of touch, engaged in a conspiracy of collusion to rig the Hugo Awards, sheep controlled by an evil cabal, and all of the other things the Pups hurled at them was insulting fans, and a lot more fans than 2 and 4 add up to.
But then again, rewriting history seems to be the current Puppy obsession. They keep pushing their party line that their SP3 slate, which was called a slate, was not actually a slate. They keep trying to claim that the fans who voted “no award” were voting for a slate (and thus revealing that they may not actually know what a “slate” actually is). The current party line from the Pups appears to be that there is “not a shred of evidence that any Pups are misogynistic, homophobic, or racist” with an ancillary argument that all homophobia, racism, and sexism is on Beale’s head. The problem for the Pups is that all of these claims are manifestly untrue, and are easily shown to be untrue. As long as they keep dishonestly pushing their party line, they will never be able to rehabilitate their brand, and people will continue to ask not to be associated with them.
There was a way for the Pups to prove they weren’t the same culture-war driven rage machine drenched in conspiranoia that we’ve seen in previous years. Instead, they’ve merely confirmed to everyone that nothing of substance has really changed.
@MikeGlyer – I sit corrected 🙂
I don’t read many graphic stories (webcomics or paper), but I was really really impressed with Stand Still Stay Silent last year, so I plan to nominate it. The question is, how do I do that properly? Could someone else who is nominating it give me some pointers to effective nomination? Do I nominate the year, a chapter, a set of chapters, or what?
@Dex:
Reynolds who as near as I can tell had his first novel published in 2000 (which depending on what day of the week it is sits quite comfortably in the timeline for when Puppies think SJWs secretly took over)? Reynolds who has previously had a novella nominated for a Hugo award as recently as 2011? Reynolds who has been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award no fewer than three times?
James May never fails to amaze me with his incredible lack of research skills.
@Cally
I have Stand Still Stay Silent Volume 1 on my list. With the slight handwave that I’ve never actually seen a copy of the printed volume 1 , which did come out last yera, but I have read all the comics in there.
I’d like to hope that the Admins are up to combining all the volume 1 nominations with a generic ‘Stand Still Stay Silent’ vote.
*sigh*
Just wandered back from Alistair Reynolds’ blog. I think we’ve now moved on to extensive “pupsplaining” by James May, as to why straight white men can’t get published. Seems to be news to Al. Who seems to be pretty stoic in the face of all the venom spewed his way.
As for Hoyt, not sure calling authors special snowflakes or whiners really helps your patform. Hint: it probably doesn’t.
I think SPIV/RP2 will be a tempest in a teacup, but the puppies really don’t help themselves.
NickPheas: Thank you. I’ll add “Volume One” to my nom; it’s not like I hadn’t read them all….
File title: They SPIV.
*nearly sporfles coffee*
Good one, Nigel.
@Aaron: You’re pretty much dead on, there. It’s the strangest thing, isn’t it? If the Puppies wanted to take the wind out of everyone’s sails and possibly even imperil the actual passage of those anti-slate measures on the ballot again this year, all they would have had to do was dial it way back and act like little angels.
But the Puppies couldn’t change their spots. The campaign began in an antagonistic way, with all the talk of making SJWs’ heads explode, and it continues along in the same vein. The Puppies seem intent on finding newer and more colorful ways to troll their opposition.
It’s a real pity, as many of them are really the nicest people in person. We’re all science fiction fans here; shouldn’t that be enough? But it seems that someone is wrong on the Internet…
The thing I don’t follow isn’t why right wingers want to say something, it’s what’s the appeal in trying to rehabilitate the Puppy brand? Especially as long as Teddy continues to use it to smear shit about.
Saying that you’re a Puppy immediately makes your views repulsive. End of.
There’s an anime for that. (Well, she’s a coffee bearmaid, but close enough.)
@Aaron: conspiranoia
I am so stealing that.
I don’t think it will even be a teacup. The participation in SPIV was pretty low. I wouldn’t be surprised if their only candidates who register turn out to be what overlaps with this years RP campaign or their most mainstream selections.
I am so stealing that.
The word isn’t original to me. The first time I saw it was as the title of Devon Jackson’s book Conspiranoia: The Mother of All Conspiracy Theories.
@Sean O’Hara:
Because you gave me a pretext, and because it’s delightful, I give you “Llama-san No Llama Mambo”. 🙂
To which we can add: Reynolds, who (like Scalzi) has a ten-book deal with a major SF publisher?
@Seth Gordon
I took that to mean that she didn’t want to be associated with “white nationalist” Vox Day.
(5-9)
As someone who read the New York Times, at least the news section, while I was in school in the 80s and 90s (I was on the debate team at points while doing this, shocker) I realized that I had run into something before that reminded me of the Puppies; it occasionally gets referenced on the Internet as well.
I’m talking about the full page adds the North Korean government used to pay to have run in the Times. They were always a little eye-catching, as encomiums to the Dear Leader in good, but kind of spooky unnatural English tend to be. Always a page of thick text about the achievements of the North Korean regime designed to make it look like Wakanda and not the desolate little gulag it actually is.
The comparison to the Puppies should be obvious; while I know that neither Reynolds nor Valente have ascended to the heights of Amazon self-published erotica, nor the privilege of having every typo they’ve made communicated to the printed page by Baen’s editors, I assume they’re doing just fine writing excellent, critically lauded fiction with genre-bending or breaking premises without being hailed as the Great Guides of The True Fan People’s Rising of Virtue And Proper Thought(*) by the Puppies.
Who the pups are to think they matter this much is always kind of stunning. But while it’s been 4073 years and a day between the present of 5251 and 1178 when I posted that I’d wait until the pups did something stupid enough to prove that for all the protestations, they’re just another round of the same crap, it feels like it took them less of a day to prove it.
(*) That’s actually a riff on Gaddafi’s own loony bin, but if I stick to North Korea, there aren’t fruit loops personality cults for the rest of the puppies…
Aaron on March 21, 2016 at 6:20 am said:The ineptness of the Puppy response to the requests to be removed from their “recommendation list” is actually quite breathtaking.
Wow. The nerve of those fans listing somebody’s work on their list of stuff they like, eh? What bastards!
Incidentally, for those “outraged” and “incredulous” authors (oh ghod, the drama of it all), the recommendations you’re whinging about have been up for MONTHS!!! Cat Valente and etc. have had MONTHS to go on Sad Puppies and tell all and sundry to piss off and stop liking their work. I find it interesting that they have waited until now, reaping the benefits of added exposure while posing as virtuously as possible for the cameras. “Why, I just can’t imagine why those terrible, horrible puppy people put me on their racist/bigot/homophobe slate!”
Personally, I will be nominating the straight list. With one exception, Scalzi. That guy gets nothing, I don’t care if the sun shines out of that book.
Because my mere participation in and of itself is such an affront, the joy of watching Cat Valente and company get No Awarded in the Noah Ward Slate voting will be extra sweet. The Sad Puppy kiss of death.
As you were, ye tolerant masses.
Regarding Nimona, are we sure it’s not eligible? I thought that revisions between the original version and the first book version, could make the book eligible.
In Nimona (the book), the early chapters were entirely redrawn, there were new pages added to the story here and there, and there’s a new ending (the epilogue). (Reference) Anyone know if that’s enough to make it Hugo-eligible?
@Aaron: I’m still stealing it, but thanks for the attribution.
White guys who have won Nebula Awards for fiction writing since Reynolds’ career started in 2000:
Peter S. Beagle, Greg Bear, Terry Bisson, Michael Chabon, Richard Chwedyk, Andy Duncan, Harlan Ellison, Jeffrey Ford, Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel, Jack McDevitt, Kim Stanley Robinson, Geoff Ryman, Eric James Stone, Jeff VanderMeer, Walter John Williams, and Jack Williamson.
(Plus E.C. Myers and Terry Pratchett with Andre Norton Awards)
White guys who have won Hugo Awards for fiction since Reynolds’ career started in 2000:
Peter S. Beagle, Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, Thomas Olde Heuveldt, James Patrick Kelly, David Langford, Geoffrey A. Landis, David D. Levine, Ian McDonald, Will McIntosh, China Mieville, Tim Pratt, Robert Reed, Mike Resnick, Brandon Sanderson, Robert J. Sawyer, John Scalzi, Allen M. Steele, Charles Stross, Michael Swanwick, Vernor Vinge, Peter Watts, Robert Charles Wilson, and Jack Williamson.
Seems like the science fiction “establishment” that dear old Fail Burton is whining about has been doing a pretty poor job of keeping white guys from having careers in science fiction writing or winning the two biggest science fiction awards over the last decade and a half. One might almost think that Fail doesn’t actually have any idea what he is talking about.
@Kendall
It meant we spent two days trying to come up with a better name that wasn’t already taken, at the end of which time “Rocket Stack Rank” had started to sound pretty good. 🙂
“Stack ranking” is a system used during our time at Microsoft and Amazon to rank the performance of employees by combining the input from different managers across the division. It’s a way to try to get a fair distribution of ratings across the division. It doesn’t really work for computing story reviews, but we did retain the idea of getting feedback from multiple sources and of at least considering changing the review scores whenever something seemed out of whack.
For example, if I gave a story 2 stars but two other reviewers recommended it highly, I’d read their arguments carefully and even reread the story to see if I’d missed something. Five times, at least, I’ve changed the ratings based on feedback. Four times up, one time down. Other times I just refined the explanation. Either way, this sort of flexibility is characteristic of a stack rank, even if we’re not really trying to fit a curve.
Barry Deutsch: Didn’t know about the changes! No idea, but seems worth a try.
You know, its just so sad and predictable. The puppies put together what looks like a real open recommendations list this year; with input from anyone; good on them. And predictably some authors still leery of the brand from last year said “hey, don’t put me anywhere near your crap.” And several pups respond by losing their minds crying “Foul! Evil SJWs!” Or whatever. And five minutes from now we’re back in arms on the internet. It’s not like you can’t see it coming.
Barry Deutsch: I’ve had that question about both Nimona and LumberJanes. I definitely want to nominate one or both, but I keep seeing comments that suggest the issues/webcomics were actually published before 2015, though all 3 relevant collections (Nimona, Lumberjanes Vol 1 and 2) are themselves 2105 releases.
At least I now know I like Noelle Stevenson…
Re: Stand Still, Stay Silent, I’ve seen people both suggest Vol. 1 (Which ends somewhere in June 2015) or all 2015 chapters as posted online. I’m sticking with volume 1 as easier to identify, even if it means you technically don’t meet one of my favourite characters until right after the volume ends (outside a couple of passing spirit-walks)
Dawn Incognito, I have no idea what was going on in that llama video, but I agree it was delightful!
@Barry Deutsch
I don’t know for sure, but what that article describes sounds good enough for me, especially the redrawing of parts. I’m happy to roll the dice and let the poor admins make a decision.
Or not. Anyway, Vox Day has posted his final version of Rabid Puppies 2016. As far as short fiction goes, he moved two stories into the correct categories and as a side-effect he ended up replacing the short story “Tuesday’s with Molokesh the Destroyer” with the novella “Perfect State” from the Sad Puppies list.
On Puppies: I think the Puppy solution of noting who asked to be removed from their list without actually removing them is a good idea. The problem, like with a lot of puppy stuff, is the commentary accompanying the action and the amount of hyperbole used. Hoyt sounds like she is actually surprised that some people asked to be removed from the list, which is so incredible it just leaves me speechless.
On books, I’m still looking for an additional title for 2015 novella. Read Sharon Joss’s Stars That Make Dark Heaven Light yesterday, and was disappointed. Its an interesting premise, but it failed to deliver the emotional intensity needed to make the story work.
The Phantom, why do you assume Cat Valente will be No Awarded? Her work is actually of Hugo quality, unlike the drek that the puppies pushed last year, as witness the fact that she’s been previously nominated for the Hugo without puppy “assistance”, and the fact that she’s won multiple awards for her writing. And Valente has publicly declined affiliation with the Puppies, so the toxicity they’ve earned with their prior slating behavior and vitriol against Hugo-voting fandom shouldn’t stick to her.
Do you think that Hugo voters are robots?
My favourite Stay Still, Stay Silent character is kitteh.
On books, I’m still looking for an additional title for 2015 novella.
Four I have read that I found pretty good:
Defender of Worms by Richard A. Lovett, found in Analog Science Fiction and Fact: Vol. CXXXV, Nos. 1 & 2 (January/February 2015)
Inhuman Garbage by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, found in Asimov’s Science Fiction: Vol. 39, No. 3 (March 2015)
Johnny Rev by Rachel Pollack, found in Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume 129, Nos. 1 & 2 (July/August 2015)
On the Night of the Robo-Bulls and Zombie Dancers by Nick Wolven, found in Asimov’s Science Fiction: Vol. 39, No. 2 (February 2015)
I’ve also read Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds, which was okay, but not great, and The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson, which I thought was very good, but has probably been recommended to you already.
@Lenora Rose
Darn, you’re right about Lumberjanes. There’s no 2015 issues in a collection until Vol 3, and that collection wasn’t published until this year.
The nerve of those fans listing somebody’s work on their list of stuff they like, eh? What bastards!
And you demonstrate that you really don’t read very well. My comment was about the ineptness of the Puppy response to the requests for removal, not the recommendations to begin with. And you have just done the exact same thing that Paulk, Hoyt, and all the other Pups have done: Reacted with outrage and anger at someone not wanting to be associated with your little band.
Incidentally, for those “outraged” and “incredulous” authors (oh ghod, the drama of it all), the recommendations you’re whinging about have been up for MONTHS!!! Cat Valente and etc. have had MONTHS to go on Sad Puppies and tell all and sundry to piss off and stop liking their work.
The reason for this is quite simple, and runs counter to your conspiranoid fantasies: Most people weren’t paying any attention to the SP4 process, because most people don’t really care about the Pups nearly as much as the Pups think they do. Valente, Reynolds and so on didn’t know they were being recommended until the Puppy list was put out and someone saw it and told them. Spinning a bizarre conspiracy theory just makes you look stupid, but looking stupid is nothing new for you (or Hoyt, or Paulk, or pretty much all of the Pups).
Personally, I will be nominating the straight list. With one exception, Scalzi. That guy gets nothing, I don’t care if the sun shines out of that book.
That really doesn’t do much to support the Puppy party line that this isn’t about politics, but is about recognizing good works. Then again, keeping your story straight isn’t really a strong point for you Pups, is it?
Because my mere participation in and of itself is such an affront, the joy of watching Cat Valente and company get No Awarded in the Noah Ward Slate voting will be extra sweet. The Sad Puppy kiss of death.
You really don’t understand people at all.
If someone had gone around lots of sf blogs and picked up everything that a blogger recommended or reviewed well and counted that as a recommendation from that person, and then added up how many recommendations each work received and then divided them up by Hugo category, then that would have produced a very interesting recommendations list.
And I don’t think that many people would think it reasonable to ask for your name / work to be removed from that sort of thing, which is just an aggregated reporting of what other people have written.
I think that SP4 people feel that this is pretty much the same what they did, and that’s why they are reacting the way they are to people wanting to be dropped off. I think they’re wrong, because the Sad Puppies brand is associated with a bunch of things that authors, quite reasonably, don’t want to be associated with. If they’d chosen to step away from what happened before and run articles saying “Brad got it wrong. We’re doing it right this year”, then without changing the substance of how the list happened many more people would have found the list acceptable.
If they just had the sense to explain that they’d changed, that they understood why people had a problem with SP1-3 and that they were trying to fix that, then they’d shift a lot of attitudes. People who have been following the detail (like Camestros) have been much more sympathetic to SP4 than to the previous ones. But you have to be following the detail for this to convince; if, like most people, you haven’t been following the detail, then the not unreasonable assumption is that this is a slate much like SP3. And, the cries of “not a slate” don’t convince anyone when you’re still claiming that a post with the title: “SAD PUPPIES 3: the 2015 Hugo slate” wasn’t a slate.
So: SP4’s problem isn’t with the actual recs list; it’s with the PR. The problem isn’t the process (unlike last year), it’s the fact that Kate Paulk, Sarah Hoyt and Amanda Green have fixed their actual process, but failed to convince anyone outside of a small number of close observers that they have done so. That’s on them, and the perceived insults are the result of their crap PR.
@Aaron: And the really funny thing is, Scalzi wants nothing. He’s already requested no nominations whatsoever for any awards for his 2015 work. If his work does get nominated, he’ll just decline it. So in not voting for Scalzi, The Phantom is just giving him what he wants. 🙂
Between the Puppies and the comics post, have we had “The Incredible Sulk” as title yet?
So in not voting for Scalzi, The Phantom is just giving him what he wants. 🙂
There’s also the fact that when Phantom says “Personally, I will be nominating the straight list“, he’s essentially saying that he’s voting in lockstep with the list, treating it as a political slate. That kind of makes all of those wails and cries from the Pups about how they didn’t really just vote a straight party line seem a little bit disingenuous now, doesn’t it?
The Phantom:
Of course you will. It has been quite obvious for some time that you don’t read SFF, aren’t here to discuss books and movies. You are only interested in LARPing cultural war in you own made-up world.
@Cassy B
It is one of the character based ending themes for Shirokuma Cafe(Polar Bear Cafe). The show is about the regulars and staff of Shirokuma Cafe most of whom are intelligent animals. A lot of the cast work at the Zoo in one way or another, which leads to some of the more surreal moments. Such as Panda going in to work in the morning, punching his time card and then going into the panda enclosure to act like a panda for the patrons many of which are intelligent animals themselves.
I really liked it and it made quite a splash in Japan. They opened up stores just to sell it’s merchandise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirokuma_Cafe
Last night on Elementary, which is now on Sundays, they had a case involving people who were trying to be costumed super-heroes. The victim du jour seemed to be dressed as a variation on Batman, but the comic publisher involved (Superlative Comics) was a bit more like Marvel.
Bonus moment when Joan Watson, who has previously been shown to have an inherited knowledge of schlock movies, also knew the origins of the most popular Superlative Comics heroes.
Sarah’s post sounds as if it is in response to some of the emails that they have received for works to be pulled from the list. She references one polite email and implies that the rest were less than courteous.
If that were the case, then it would interesting to read what inspires her response. At least, it would lend a little perspective, IMHO
—
Regards,
Dann
Oh noes! By not nominating Scalzi, he is doing exactly as Scalzi desires! It’s like Scalzi wins by not winning!
Like some kind of gambit.
Oh, if only there was a name for such…
(I am at the airport. I have always been at the airport. There is only the airport, on and on, terminal without end.)
@Magewolf: That sounds like it might be a reference to Miyazaki/Takahata’s “Panda Kopanda” which also involved a panda who has a day-job pandaing at the zoo.
If that were the case, then it would interesting to read what inspires her response.
It really doesn’t matter what they said. By reacting with wrath and outrage, the Pups lose the argument.
@RedWombat
…Until you reach the Interminable Runway
Loved The Ravem and the Reindeer, BTW. That has long been one of my favourite fairytales.
I think the only way to “celebrate” The Phantom’s return is with a book review. And what a one I have for him (and the rest of you)! In this case, Lovecraft Country, by Matt Ruff. I feel like I should start off with the fact that this book is very accessible even if you are a Lovecraft agnostic, or actively despise the racist old coot; personally, I think it benefited from the non-standard use of the Mythos, as more of a general Vast And Terrible Secrets type of thing than a specific chapter and verse invocation of the Mythos.
Because really, this is just a spectacularly written, well plotted and charactered book with both noir and horror elements. The characters breathe, there actions seem quite believable, and it’s often very funny. World building is quite decent, and is revealed at a pace that leaves the unknowns unknown for enough time to be tantalizing but not enough to drive one crazy. There are a lot of name-checks of some of the great old pulp writers of the middle and early 20th. And when it brings the terror and the fear, it brings it.
That last sentence being said, well, it may not be lauded by our usually lauders of the pulps of that period, because of the capstone that knits together the books themes of corrupting power, terror, and mystery: segregation. It’s inaccurately been reviewed as about Jim Crow, and it isn’t , because all of the narrative takes places under the de facto segregation of the North, and not the de jure segregation regime of the South. The characters are lingering under the effects of powers they cannot influence, who view them with a complete lack of humanity, long before the first otherworldly thing enters.
Bluntly, whether you will find this book accessible will be partly determined by your ability to cope. Cope with a setting out of reality – of grinding discrimination that people were usually quite unashamed to openly practice. Cope with the fact that for many of us fans, the characters will not look like us. Cope with the fact that the book doesn’t flatter your privilege with all that many “good” white people, or continually say “they all aren’t like that”, aside from some rare, rare exceptions who stood against the brutality of their time.
But if you’re enough of an adult to do that, this book is excellent.