(1) REMEMBERING HARTWELL. Rudy Rucker has one of the best personal tributes to the late David G. Hartwell that I’ve read.
In 2005, Dave got me invited to give the keynote talk at ICFA, the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, held in a brutally cold motel Florida. One of the organizers quipped, “We don’t come here for the sun, we come here for the air-conditioning.”
Dave told me that a member of the committee had said, “We can’t invite Rucker, he’s a difficult drunk,” and Dave told him, “Not any more.” By then I’d been sober for nearly ten years. I said to Dave, “I wonder if my drinking years had a bad effect on my career.” Dave said, “I don’t think so. Even now, I still talk to people who are very disappointed when they see you at a con and you aren’t swinging from the chandeliers.”
(2) JEMISIN DISCUSSES ROWLING’S NEW WORLD MAGIC. N.K. Jemisin’s verdict on Rowling’s magical North America is: “It could’ve been great.”
…I’m still careful, even with “dead” faiths, because I don’t know how playing with these things might hurt real people. Nations have been built upon and torn down by the concepts I’m playing with. The least I can do is research the hell out of a thing before I put a toe in that ancient water.
It’s even more crucial for religions that are alive, and whose adherents still suffer for misconceptions and misappropriations. But these are easier to research, and it’s often much easier to figure out when you’re about to put a foot right into a morass of discrimination and objectification. All the evidence is there, sometimes still wet with blood. You just need to read. You just need to ask people. You just need to think….
Anyway. This is just to say that there’s a number of ways Rowling could’ve made her Magical North America work without causing real harm to a lot of real people. That would be for her to have treated American peoples — all of us — with the same respect that she did European. Pretty sure she would never have dreamt of reducing all of Europe’s cultures to “European wizarding tradition”; instead she created Durmstrang and Beauxbatons and so on to capture the unique flavor of each of those cultures. It would’ve taken some work for her to research Navajo stories and pick (or request) some elements from that tradition that weren’t stereotypical or sacred — and then for her to do it again with the Paiutes and again with the Iroquois and so on. But that is work she should’ve done — for the sake of her readers who live those traditions, if not for her own edification as a writer. And how much more delightful could Magic in North America have been if she’d put an ancient, still-thriving Macchu Picchu magic school alongside a brash, newer New York school? How much richer could her history have been if she’d mentioned the ruins of a “lost” school at Cahokia, full of dangerous magical artifacts and the signs of mysterious, hasty abandonment? Or a New Orleanian school founded by Marie Laveau, that practiced real vodoun and was open/known to the locals as a temple — and in the old days as a safe place to plan slave rebellions, a la Congo Square? Or what if she’d mentioned that ancient Death Eater-ish wizards deliberately destroyed the magical school of Hawai’i — but native Hawai’ians are rebuilding it now as Liliuokalani Institute, better than before and open to all? …
(3) BAR’S NEW NAME. SF Site News, in its story “Geek Bar Rebrands”, reports that Geek Bar Chicago has changed its name to SFCO.
The rebranding will also bring in an influx of video consoles, late night programming, and new hours, Sunday and Wednesday from 5pm to 10pm, Thursday and Friday from 5pm to Midnight, and Saturday from 3 pm to 2 am. The bar will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. In addition to their game selection, SFCO will continue to offer a rotating menu of geek-themed signature cocktails and a pop culture reference-filled menu items. The news of the rebranding was followed by former CEO David Zoltan announcing that he had resigned from Geek Bar in January.
(4) JULIETTE WADE’S FANCAST. Juliette Wade’s TalkToYoUniverse is a great place to find regular coverage of “linguistics and anthropology, science fiction and fantasy, point of view, [and] grammar geekiness.” Wade is often joined by a guest writer, as in the latest installment, “Andrea Stewart – a Dive into Worldbuilding”.
Something that makes Wade’s project exceptional is that every episode is accompanied by a post fully detailing what was discussed. Here are the first few paragraphs about her visit with Stewart –
We were joined for this hangout by author Andrea Stewart, who told us a bit about her worldbuilding and her work. Her work has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, IGMS, and Galaxy’s Edge.
We started by talking about a piece she had in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Set in a psudo-Chinese culture, it featured an opium den with magical smoke, in a place where the land surrounding the city was dying and this had become the people’s escape. Very cool story! Andrea explained that her mom is a Chinese immigrant, so half her family is Chinese. One of the key differences, she says, is in conversational interaction style.
I asked her about her series, the Changeling Wars. She told me that it had begun as a writing exercise, where every person in a group picks a word, and then each member has to write a piece that uses all the words chosen by the group. She describes this series as being part of a move from dark fantasy to a bit lighter fantasy. The first book begins when a woman walks in on her cheating husband, and her emotion is so powerful in that moment that it awakens magic in her. It turns out she’s a changeling, and not just adopted, as she believed.
Andrea has very warm words for writing exercises, which she says can spark ideas you might not otherwise come up with.
There are 101 Worldbuilding hangouts in the index, 25 featuring special guests, including Aliette de Bodard, N.K. Jemisin, Ken Liu, Myke Cole, Usman T. Malik, Cat Rambo, Sofia Samatar and Isabel Yap.
(5) IN FOR A DIME. Sonia Orin Lyris tells how she “Will Build Worlds for Spare Change” at The Fictorians.
The next week my inbox was filled with indignant treasures, among them this: “No, no, no! This is NOT a D&D game. Coins have names! Coins have histories!”
I instantly knew how right she was. Knew it like the contents of my own pocket.
Pennies. Nickels. Dimes. Not “coppers.” Not “large silvers.”
I dove back into my research and emerged soaked in currency-related facts, from minting to metals, from Greece to China. The facts went on and on, as did the likeness of people and horses and birds and insects, of ships and buildings, of angels and flowers, of myths and monarchs.
So many coins, each symbolizing their culture’s prosperity and priorities. Its very self-image.
I now understood that not only did coins have names and histories, but they were keys to wealth and power, to trade and politics. Coins affected everyone, from rulers to merchants to the poorest of the poor. Coins mattered, and mattered quite a bit.
Coins had names and histories. They had faces. Coins traveled.
That’s when it hit me: Coins are stories.
(6) EVEN MORE WORLDBUILDING ADVICE. Coining words is the focus of “This Kind of World Building :: An Interview with Sofia Samatar” at Weird Sister.
Kati Heng: One thing that always amazes me is when a writer is able to make up not just a story, but also an entire language behind it. Like all creative writing, there must be rules you set for its creation. Can you tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind Olondrian, and especially how the names of characters were created?
Sofia Samatar: Making up the languages was one of my favorite parts of creating the world of Olondria. The biggest influence on the Olondrian language is Arabic, which I had studied before writing A Stranger in Olondria, and was speaking daily while writing the book in South Sudan. I was inspired by Arabic plurals, for example, to devise a complicated system of plural patterns for Olondrian. Olondrian pronouns resemble Arabic pronouns as well. And, like Arabic, Olondrian has no P sound (any word with a P in it has been imported from another language).
The creation of the language was closely tied to the development of names. I don’t have anything close to a complete Olondrian vocabulary, but I do know what the names mean. “Vain” means forest, for example, so there are a bunch of “vains” on my map — Kelevain, Fanlevain, and so on. “Kele” means hunting. “Fanle” means apple.
To invent the names, I chose small chunks of sound that seemed pretty to me and played with combining them. Few activities can be more self-indulgent. It was wonderful
(7) VALLEY FORGE SHARES CoC DRAFT. The Valley Forge in 2017 NASFiC bid’s “Progress Update 2” links to its draft Code of Conduct and other policies. (They also unveiled their mascot, Proxie the Celestial Raccoon.)
Next, we have had a number of queries about what our code of conduct will look like if and when we win the bid. Like I mentioned in the last progress update, we’ve been working on a draft of the CoC for a while now, and it has been a whole heck of a lot of work for the entire team. After many, many hours of sweat and toil by all of us, we’re happy to be able to share version 1.0 of the Valley Forge 2017 Code of Conduct (html version) with you.
Now obviously, calling it “version 1.0” implies that we expect updates, and we do. The convention is a long way (and a successful vote) away and there are some details that we just can’t get in place until we have more structure, like phone numbers and room locations and websites. A lot can change in a year and a half, so what you see here may not be exactly the same thing you see if and when you show up at our door – but substantively, we are happy with what we have and are proud to put our names behind it. If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it.
We’re also elbow-deep in the guts of an internal procedures manual for how to deal with a variety of scenarios, including what to do if we receive a report of a code of conduct violation. That’s not quite ready for prime time yet, and may not be ready until we have a more formal concom structure in place of our current bidcom (in other words, until and unless we win the bid). If we can whip something into releasable shape before then, we will publish that as well.
(8) THE KESSEL RUNS. It is alleged the full title of Kitbashed’s “Complete History of the Millennium Falcon” is “The Complete Conceptual History of The Millennium Falcon or How I Started Worrying and Lost My Mind Completely Over a Fictional Spaceship Someone Please Do Something Send Help Why Are You Still Reading Someone Do Something.”
The Pork Burger
The ILM model shop built the new Pirate Ship model, and quickly found a way to distinguish it from the old one in conversation, namely by adopting Grant McCune’s nickname for it: The Pork Burger.
And if you want my theory, that’s where the myth of the design being based off of a burger Lucas was eating got started.
(9) FURRY CUSTOMS. The Independent learned from Twitter that “Syrian refugees in Canada got housed in same hotel as VancouFur furry convention and the children loved it”.
The fifth annual VancouFur convention, in which people dress up as fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics, was held at the same hotel where a number of Syrian refugees are currently being housed.
A message was given to all attendees at the convention that the hotel had been chosen as one of the temporary housing locations for the Syrian refugees in Canada, and that “a major concern that VancouFur has is ensuring that each and every one of the refugees (and attendees) feels welcome and safe and the fact that this is likely to be a major shock to them”.
“Keep in mind that they likely will not want to interact with you and consent is important to everyone,” the message added.
But luckily for everyone involved, the refugees – especially the children – loved it.
@pathhyena @VancouFUR @expressfur
Done we made there day <3 pic.twitter.com/upwmwQEvQf— ????spring lynx ???? fully vaccinated???? (@Jinxthelynx) March 8, 2016
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRL
- Born March 9, 1911 — Clara Rockmore.
Rockmore was a master of the theremin, the world’s first electronic music instrument and first instrument that could be played without being touched.
On what would have been her 105th birthday, Rockmore has been commemorated with a Google Doodle. The interactive game teaches you to play the theremin by hovering your mouse over the notes to play a melody.
(11) PROPHET IN HIS OWN LAND. Even George R.R. Martin won’t be allowed a hometown premiere of Game of Thrones Season 6.
And yes, it’s true. After last year’s unfortunate leak, HBO is not sending out any press screeners this year, to try and cut down on the piracy.
They have also eliminated all the regional premieres, including (sob) the one we had scheduled at my own Jean Cocteau Cinema. This year the only premiere will be the big one in LA at Grauman’s Chinese.
The Jean Cocteau will, however, go ahead with our season 5 marathon. Admission is free, so watch our website and newsletter for show times.
(12) LESSER OF TWO WEEVILS. Joe Hill brings his skills as a professional horror writer to bear on the Presidential race in his latest “Perspective”.
I asked my three sons and a cousin what would be scarier: 8 years of a Trump presidency, or two kaiju attacks, one on Washington D.C. and one on L.A., separated by 8 years. Assume standard kaiju size (20 stories, 80,000 tons), atomic breath, acid blood, probably the ability to produce subsonic blasts with one whap of the tail. Immune to conventional nuclear weapons. Highly aggressive.
By a vote of 3 – 1, they agreed two kaiju attacks would be much worse for the nation than if Trump were to become President of the United States. So if you feel depressed by Trump’s toxic mix of misogyny, xenophobia, and bullying, look to this for a cheer-up. It could be worse. You could be jellied beneath the trampling scaly feet of a salamander the size of a skyscraper.
Admit it. You feel better all ready.
(13) THIS JUST IN. “New Survey Finds 92% Of Evangelicals Would Have Supported Genghis Khan” reports Babylon Bee.
Genghis Khan, the genocidal warlord who conquered most of Central and Northeast Asia during the first part of the thirteenth century, enjoys widespread support from twenty-first century evangelicals, a new CNN poll revealed Tuesday.
“The level of support for the Supreme Khan of the Mongols is off the charts,” explained Malcom Johnstone, the pollster who conducted the survey for CNN. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Clearly, there is a strong correlation between being pro-God and pro-Genghis.”
Still, many Christians question the accuracy of the new findings.
Like Buddy Buchanan of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “I’ve been in a Bible church my whole life, and I’ve never met anyone who likes this Genghis fellow,” Buchanan revealed to sources. “I just don’t get it. I can’t think of a single person who supports him. I remember there was a cool-looking Khan in one of those Star Trek movies, but I don’t think that’s the same guy.”
(14) SHARKNADO FOUR. “Syfy and The Asylum announce Sharknado 4 casting” – Sci-Fi Storm has the story.
Syfy and The Asylum announced today that Ian Ziering will slay again in Sharknado 4 (working title), reprising his role as shark-fighting hero Fin Shepard, while Tara Reid is set to return as April Wexler to reveal the outcome of the fan-voted #AprilLives or #AprilDies social campaign. The fourth addition to the hit global franchise also sees the return of David Hasselhoff as Gil Shepard and Ryan Newman as Claudia Shepard.
(15) FOREVER FANS. Future War Stories presents the case for picking Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War as the best military sf work.
In 1974, Joe Haldeman, armed with his bachelors in Physics and Astronomy along with his experiences in the Vietnam War, would craft a military science fiction tale of UNEF soldier William Mendella. This book, The Forever War, would go on to win every major award and prize, rocketing Joe Haldeman into the realm of sci-fi literature. Since its original publication, The Forever War would be re-edited, translated into every major language, and be adapted into various forms, including an major studio film has been in the works since 2008 and the effort seems to be active. The book’s legacy is being hailed has the best military science fiction book of all time and it has been a source of inspiration for decades. In this installment of the continuing Masterworks series, we will explore and explain why Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War is the best literary military science fiction work. A word of caution: this blog article contains spoilers on key moments of the book. Read at your own risk!
(16) STROSS INTERVIEW. Charles Stross, in an interview at SFF World, thinks magic might be a better metaphor for one of sf’s typical tropes.
And what of newer authors? Are there any personal favourites?
In the past year, I’ve read and been incredibly impressed by Seth Dickinson’s “The Traitor” (US: “The Traitor Baru Cormorant”); grim, harrowing, and deeply interesting for his use of secondary world fantasy as a tool for interrogating kyriarchy. I’ve also been impressed by Alyx Dellamonica’s “Child of a Hidden Sea” (and sequel “A Daughter of No Nation”), V. E. Schwab’s “A Darker Shade of Magic”, and Naomi Novik’s “Uprooted”—secondary world/portal fantasies for the most part. SF … I find myself having a knee-jerk reaction against most of what comes to me as highly-recommended or highly popular SF these days; I think this is partly because—for me, these days—magic works better as a metaphor for depicting alienating technology than actual ham-fisted attempts at describing the thing in itself. (And also because so much of the exotic tech in SF is basically warmed-over magic wands.)
(17) VINESPLAINING. In this GEICO commercial, Tarzan and Jane get into an argument about asking for directions. (I may have linked this before, but I can’t find it…)
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, James H. Burns, Will R., and Michael J. Walsh for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
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Zenu said:
Religious beliefs are often fantastical, but religion itself is a real thing that exists in our world and has power. No amen here either, sorry.
@GSLamb – yikes! May you have a swift recovery!
Uh…I could send you mine, if you’re bored out of your skull (though “not my thing, sorry!” is totally cool and I will take no offense!)
Otherwise, try Smashwords and the PDF version, then email it to yourself? PDF support isn’t great, but the Paperwhite should read them at least.
I think about Stargate: SG1. They were willing to make Egyptian gods snakey aliens, Norse gods greys, and various other ancient gods and conquerors also snakey aliens. But when it came to the last seasons, after the snakey aliens were defeated and they needed a new enemy, their new bad guys the Ori were bloody obviously supposed to be Catholic crusaders, but the producers were waaaaaay too chicken to outright say it and retcon Jesus to have been an alien.
With modern sf/fantasy series, the taboo is starting to crack–look at how negatively Supernatural is willing to depict Christian tradition–angels are (to quote Dean) dicks, and while Jesus hasn’t showed up yet, God’s evil sister (or possibly God’s sister angry at being betrayed by her selfish brother) has, and it is implied that God himself is slumming it as a hack fantasy writer.
(Also, hasn’t been too long that TV shows would be able to get away with portraying “the devil” as an at least semi-sympathetic character, as on Fox’s Lucifer.)
Mike Glyer:
Isn’t that a little hypocritical, given that you’ve just made a Pixel Scroll entry mocking Evangelical Christians?
If Charles Stross thinks current efforts to project out technological change are failing badly, we’re definitely in science fiction trouble.
GSLamb: That’s a scary disease. Get well soon! And do take up the Wombat on her offer; the books may not cure what ails you, but they’re excellent, and should at least distract you from your troubles for a bit.
I don’t have a Kindle, and don’t know how they engage with the outer world, but Kobo and Google Books are two other places where one can theoretically buy ebooks.
@Darren Garrison: I think there’s a difference between lazily shitting on the tradition and culture of a minority group and a bit of obvious satire poking fun at a very strongly represented religion (in the west).
@Peace Is My Middle Name
All of that, not to mention that different legal jurisdictions may have different rules as to what is and isn’t OK in a code of conduct. If you ever have to implement one yourself, I highly recommend going over it with your lawyer.
For what it’s worth, we used a lot of the GeekFeminism model CoC as a basis for substantial portions of our doc.
– Mike VanHelder
Chair, Valley Forge 2017
I think it’s somewhat appropriate that we’re talking about Worldbuilding and Codes of Conduct at the same time – they seem to be related. Part of me thinks that every concom member or long time volunteer who is faced with the task of implementing a code of conduct has their mind run through every long running feud, every example of two people with a history of friction, and wonders “how will deal with the inevitable when x accuses y, and y accuses x.”
There seem to be two guarantees with a Code of Conduct. One is that some long time “good people” are going to be discovered to have been shits who were heavily enabled by knowing the right people. The second is that someone will cast their own feud or vendetta where not enough people took their side as an example of the first thing.
Dealing with the first will always trump the second. However, human nature and the inertia of organizations means that people will try to minimize that fact, deny their’s a problem, etc.
It’s what reminds me of the world building. They’re all just a band of incorrect primitives anyway, so I’ll use their legends in whatever form I damn well please. Or if we care too much about it being problematic, we may have to reexamine our own beloved works of literatures, etc.
[checkin the box, checkin the box]
My complaint about Rowling mangling Native American beliefs into stereotypical paste is not so much that it is disrespectful to current believers (who can look after their own objections, assuming they have any), it is that the result is less complex, less interesting and less believable than doing a proper job.
And given that her English magic stays studiously away from God, prayer, priests, demons Heaven, Hell, temples, churches and so on, why does American magic have to go straight for local religion?
Although you could argue that her English magic is as religious as the Church of England…[I kid! I kid!]
Petréa Mitchell said: “Religious beliefs are often fantastical, but religion itself is a real thing that exists in our world and has power. No amen here either, sorry.”
Yes. Religion and fantasy are both real things. Pretty much the same thing.
Darren Garrison said: “(Also, hasn’t been too long that TV shows would be able to get away with portraying “the devil” as an at least semi-sympathetic character, as on Fox’s Lucifer.)”
I really like that show. Supernatural with all the angel stuff wore me out, however.
Oneiros said: “I think there’s a difference between lazily shitting on the tradition and culture of a minority group and a bit of obvious satire poking fun at a very strongly represented religion (in the west).”
If there is it is a small difference. People are all pretty much the same and wired for these peculiar belief systems. I don’t see a lot of reason to say one has to really understand one and not the other. I don’t think we should pretend reverence for any of them.
I can speak of mine. I was a fully dunked evangelical christian. The dunking part is critical here. You guys that just got sprinkled, well you are just fooling yourself. You guys are going to figure it out when Satan turns up the heat. My church had a wonderful dunking chamber with lots chlorine so when you came back up, you were really cleansed.
It takes a bit to shake off that nonsense. As Petréa Mitchell reminds us, it is a very real thing. But once you do, life becomes a bit sweeter. Pretending reverence makes it harder for the next guy. Especially kids who have this stuff drilled into them. We have the internet now, so promoting a “good to be irreverent attitude” can be helpful.
I am pleased to see that 20% of the country has now become “Nones”. It is the fastest growing segment. Gotta love that. We can all do our part by cleaning up a little bit of the mental pollution. Maybe one day a non believer can be elected.
But let’s get closer to topic. Being fully dunked and washed in the blood, I didn’t realize one of my favorite writers was very irreverent. I was an adult before I found out he discussed my Holy Book thus:
“It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.”
Of course, it was censored. Now we can give it an “AMEN”.
Oh BTW, his one SFF book was pretty good too. Seems he had a keen interest in science as he got older.
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/03/09/episode-0-luke-skywaker-and-the-return-of-the-rainbow-gaysaber/
I’ve said it before, but damn, Chuck Wendig, tell us what you really think.
(My headcanon is that Luke is asexual and was caught up in the adventure of it all. He was fascinated with Leia immediately not because she was a beautiful princess, but because she was a beautiful princess who was in danger.)
Butcher does this too. Harry Dresden is an agnostic, whose best friend is a Knight of the Cross. The Knights of the cross have swords made of nails salvaged from the crucifixion. Mainly the Knights principle job is to fight the Denarians. The Denarians are fallen angels who use one of the thirty pieces of silver to attack a human host.
I say Rowling should give her religious plot device about as much attention as Butcher gave his and I have no criticism of Butcher. I like the plot device even if it doesn’t have anything to do with the Religion it borrows from.
@Niall McAuley
I’m totally seeing a potential crossover series there. The only question is titling:
The Vicar of Hogwarts
Or
The Wizard of Dibley
?
Your local religion is someone else’s folklore.
Huh? How the hell many nails were used in the crucifixion? It was an execution, not a voodoo doll. Must be homeopathic swords, so that the more dilute the nail-remnants in the sword, the more powerful it is.
My headcannon (invented just now!) is that Luke “targeted a few womp-rats” in his time, ifyaknowhatImean.
Each sword has one nail embedded in it. Three nails in all, for faith, hope, and charity.
@Zenu
Plus, of course, Butcher also used a skinwalker in one of his Dresden Files books.
@Darren
Three nails = three swords. Each sword has one nail as part of the iron used to forge it.
Years ago, I was fairly new at Training Union (a sort of Wednesday version of Sunday School) at Northside Baptist, and was exploring up and down the halls. Jerome Nunnally must have been on hand, because I asked him what one door was that was pretty close to the next one, indicating not much room inside. “That’s the upstairs-downstairs room,” he said. I opened it, and there were indeed steps. I ascended into darkness that my tiny flashlight barely affected, and suddenly fell into the baptismal tank.
Of course I was hopping mad. I went looking for Jerome, who said, “I told you it was the upstairs-downstairs room.” Well. He was right, I guess, so I didn’t pursue the matter further.
Mark Twain wrote eloquently of the True Cross in The Innocents Abroad, stating that he had seen kegs of nails from it, and enough fragments of wood to indicate that the original was at least sixty feet high. Similarly, he saw enough bones of any given saint to reconstruct the fellow in his entires and have enough left over for extras. Eventually, he came to scorn any church he visited that didn’t have at least some of the True Cross in it.
By the way, I keep getting failure screens when I try to access search engines. Google, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Bing… at various times, they are all out (fortunately, one of them will sometimes work after all). Someone suggested that this was a DNS problem, but since I don’t know what that means, I don’t know how I should alleviate the problem. I’ve searched, when the engines work, but I can’t understand the discussion of this problem. Usually, the answers I find online are simple enough for me to comprehend, but not this time. Help?
ETA: I see that the swords are made with nails from the True Cross, not of them. Big diff. It’s like, “Lucky Charms is a superfluous part of this complete nutritious breakfast! A bowl of Lucky Charms with milk, plus bacon and eggs, gives you all the nutrition of bacon, eggs, and milk!”
“True Cross Nails are a spiritual part of this complete bodacious snickersnee!”
re: JK
I think it’s time to have a little talk about a concept called “intersectionality”, to whit, the idea that various forms of discrimination do not exist in a vacuum. We could all benefit from it.
It’s pretty undeniable that non-belief is discriminated against in modern American society. Little debate there, outside of the parts of the right where are friends like Correia and Wright live, with their absurd view that as members of the dominant religious and ethnic group, they are a persecuted minority. (Remember that last line)
This persecution exists besides an awful lot of other persecution though. It’s certainly easier to be white than not; it’s certainly easier to be a professional than not; it’s certainly easier to be a man than not, when it comes to the level of crap you will get in the good old day to day. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
Where this intersects with what we’ve been talking about is quite simple. Looking to the divine right of secular science fiction writers to use any old tradition in any old way they please, which do I choose to see? Do I see a member of a less popular class (atheists/agnostics) striking against all the mental pollution provided by a larger group (the religious)? Or do I look at generally white, generally comfortably off, generally well educated people pillaging the traditions of generally not white, generally not well off, generally less educated people for fodder?
Saying its all good because some of the same sci-fi writers will take a look at more dominant doesn’t quite cut it. A group of generally white, generally professional, generally educated people justifying nasty crap against a group that may be lacking these advantages based on how persecuted they are, or some concept of being the equal opportunity offender, while ignoring the very real advantages they have over this group. Or saying how its really at the end of the day good for the people being shat on, because it’ll learn them some reason!
Are we reminded of Wright and Correia’s justification for their actions yet? You should be. It’s the ” oppressed” members (of often dominant groups) justifying their actions against (often less dominant groups), because they disagree with something that group did, or were made uncomfortable by it, or thought it would look cool.
@Andyl
Yes, but Butcher did place the skin walker in much closer to its actual place in its parent mythology, as serious bad news.
@Kip W
Start with the basics: you’ve probably already done it but restart the computer.
(DNS is like an index for websites. It cross references the website name with its address. Depending on make of computer there are a variety of ways to change what DNS server you point at)
@YP – nice post.
As to JK Rowling, she was actually criticized by the dominant for promoting witchcraft in violation of the Christian tradition.
@andyl – Good point. I forgot the Skinwalker. There is also Odin.And Santa Claus. And Gruff, one of the 3 Billy Goats. That was one of my favorites. Butcher just mixes all the mythologies together along with all the horror legends. It is pretty much equal footing which means somewhat irreverent. It’s a nice urban universe though.
@Oneiros: There were previously Campbell-anthology recommendation discussions here and here. My summarized list of anthology authors who are at least worth checking out, in my personal opinion, would be:
Charlotte Ashley (try “Eleusinian Mysteries” too)
Jonathan Edelstein
Jaymee Goh
Nin Harris
S. L. Huang
L. S. Johnson
Rachael K. Jones
S. Lynn
Arkady Martine (also “How the God Auzh-Aravik Brought Order to the World Outside the World”)
Lia Swope Mitchell
Megan E. O’Keefe
Andrea Phillips
Kelly Robson
Iona Sharma (also “Nine Thousand Hours”)
Naru Dames Sundar
Natalia Theodoridou
Tamara Vardomskaya (also “Polyglossia”)
Thomas M. Waldroon
Alyssa Wong
JY Yang
Isabel Yap
Jon F. Zeigler
Non-anthologized authors I might recommend include Chikodili Emelumadu and A. E. Ash (to mention only ones with work online).
Until I listed them all together I didn’t realize just how many interesting new writers that was… and the stories are quite a varied lot. Have fun!
@Zenu:
Butcher’s work sounds rather like the standard jumble of homebrewed roleplaying games.
Not to mention all the places with Jesus’s foreskin..
(That URL really should end with “Batman.”)
My favorite story of a holy artifact is that of Peter Bartholomew. During the Crusades, he had a vision of where the lance used to pierce Christ’s side was buried. So some people dug there and found nothing. Then Peter jumps down in the hole and low and behold, he “finds” an iron spearhead. In spite of swallowing that, a year later, Peter is being called out on another claim that he made and insists on proving himself in a trial by fire. He was badly burned, but insisted that he came through the trial just fine, but was injured by the crowd around him afterwards. He died from his injuries less than 2 weeks later.
@RedWombat – I would never turn down an offer of books (you can ask Colin & Heathyr).
Thanks to everyone for well-wishes and help in figuring out the eReader situation.
Stoic Cynic
I feel like I tried that, but what the heck. I rebooted again (and zapped the PRAM for good measure), and the problem still manifests, though I did get two out of the five search engines I tried. Then I remembered Dogpile, which I haven’t used in years, and that came up as well, so I batted .500 for the one attempt. Progress? Dunno.
@GSLamb, may you recover easily and completely, if possible and agreeable. Meanwhile, enjoy the books! I have a Nook, so i don’t have much advice on Kindle acquisitions, but it sounds like others have that covered.
@Young Pretender, well said.
@Zenu, Rowling was criticized by a small minority of Christians. The rest of us were in line at midnight to buy her books for our children. (Okay, I don’t have children, and I actually bought them online at amazon.co.uk so I could get the non-bowdlerized editions, but poetic license, right?) I am a Christian agnostic, in case you’re counting.
BTW, on the subject or relics, there is a nice Secrets of the Dead episode about what might actually be bits of Buddha.
https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=yn3lk6xTF24
(To follow the URL, take out the space. I put it there so that the video wouldn’t imbed.)
Hi Peace,
You know … I don’t know how Butcher does it. He has a plan because I have heard him talk about how many books and how he wraps it up. Somehow it all works in Harry Dresden land.
I think what I liked in the beginning were the rules of magic, how it worked and why it worked. Then the backstory of how Harry came to be the only wizard in the yellow pages. And then the introduction of all the characters.
Butcher gets better with subsequent books. Some say one can start with book 3 or book 4. But then I think one risk losing some of what made me like the series.
#5: I’m not sure that “coins are stories” but I know one eminently rereadable story that’s centered around gold coins: “Compounded Interest” (1956) by Mack Reynolds. It’s in (among other places) Judith Merril’s mid-1960s SF: The Best of the Best anthology, which I daresay everyone here ought to acquire if they haven’t already.
Zenu – I liked the first few Dresden novels, but eventually it felt like too many mythologies were being jumbled together without much rhyme or reason so I dropped it after book 4.
I submit the following for inclusion on tonight’s Scroll: 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. (Has “The Scrolling Dead” been used as a title yet?)
Regarding (5), I am writing a novel set in an alternate-universe-New-England, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what to call the national currency (dollars? pounds? shillings? wampum?) or how to convert prices in US dollars to prices in that currency. I am bravely running away from this question by writing things like “A handed B a stack of bills” without mentioning their denomination. #firstdraftproblems
@Vasha:
That is a goodly list of authors to read! I’ve had a chance to read the Huang, Wong and Yap entries in the anthology (and also on the strength of Wong’s stories bought her Tor.com novella – even though I know I could read it for free). So far my favourite is still Wong, but there are plenty more authors to go! (I’ve been neglecting my reading recently – too much work, too much travel and not enough time to settle into a good routine just yet)
@Kip W
OK one down. Next step is to try rebooting your modem, router, or whatever you get your Internet access through.
If that makes no difference I’d try calling your Internet provider. Assuming it is a DNS issue, your DNS servers are probably automatically set by your ISP. There are ways to change that but I wouldn’t be comfortable trying to walk someone through it across the Web. Too much chance of substantially messing your computer up though if I was there it’s like a 5 second thing.
I’m assuming too it’s actually a DNS problem. What’s the web page error message though?
Rats, I left David Jón Fuller off the list of interesting anthology authors.
@Zenu:
I couldn’t get into the Dresden books because the version of Chicago he was using was so unrecognizable as to be really distracting. He was writing about my old college stomping grounds — well, allegedly, anyway — and there was just too much gettin’ it Wrong.
I’m not sure he was even working from an actual Chicago street map.
My five cents:
I feel that when writers are knowledgeable about a religion/culture (as is the case with most writers and majority religions) they can play with those religions/cultures more effectively and in more specific ways. You can do some weird shit with skinwalkers (on the level of Christianity portrayals in modern urban fantasy) without seeming insensitive as long as it’s based on what skinwalkers actually are.
@Seth Gordon:
Have you looked into numismatics and the fascinating history of New World monies?
Oneiros, I hear you on seeing the deadline looming and not thinking you can read as much as you want to. I’m still trying to catch up on novels and related works. No matter. I’m still having lots of fun, that’s what counts.
@PIMNN: Have you read Radiant by Karina Sumner-Smith? It takes place in a future magic-infused city on the remains of an unnamed modern one, and I kept thinking the modern one could be Chicago.
@Peace: I probably should, shouldn’t I?
/me googles “new world currencies”
…OK, that did not return the kind of results I was expecting.
Kip W said:
The Bodacious Snickersnee sounds like a fun fantasy weapon, actually…
@Seth Gordon:
Gah, I see what you mean. Perhaps try “americas currencies history”
Here seems a place to start: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/a-short-history-of-american-money-from-fur-to-fiat/252620/
@Seth Gordon:
(sorry, no “edit” function in this browser)
Another one: https://www.mint.com/guide-to-the-history-of-us-coinage
Apparently “dollar” is short for “leeuwendaler”
@Peace: Sweet! Thanks!
You have to think about what makes your New England different from the real New England. Our coin didn’t end up being the dollar by (heh) flipping a coin. It ended up being the dollar because the Spanish dollar was a major international currency at the time. For the fictional New England to have a different currency, you might need to have a different country being the major economic power in the backstory. If you can deal with cheese-eating victory-monkeys, then the Ecu would be the major world coin, for instance.
Or you could go with something less familiar and have money be made from a consumable–you could have bricks of tobacco money in analogy to tea money.
Or something in a non-round form, like Aztec hoe money or Chinese spade or knife money.