(1) MOST READ NOMINEES. Nicholas Whyte blogs the numbers of people who report owning copies of the Hugo nominees in various categories to see if it helps predict who will win: “Hugo finalists – Goodreads/LibraryThing statistics”.
Once again I’m running the statistical ruler over the finalists for the Hugos – this year, more than ever. This has not often been a useful guide to which books will win; however I think it does show the extent to which they ave penetrated popular consciousness, at least to within an order of magnitude.
(2) TAKEN ABACK. Best Fan Artist Hugo nominee Ariela Housman (Geek Calligraphy) apparently is getting some official pushback about which of her items are qualifying work, as explained in “Hugo Eligibility Revisited”.
When we published our eligibility post in December, we included the above two works, plus “Lady Astronaut Nouveau” based on The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. The former two were created earlier in 2018 and shown in art shows at Confluence and ICON. We finished “Lady Astronaut Nouveau” late enough in the year that we didn’t have any more art shows booked in which we could show it. We put it all over the interwebs, though.
This is what the Hugo Awards Website gives as the criteria for the Best Fan Artist category (bolding ours):
The final category is also for people. Again note that the work by which artists should be judged is not limited to material published in fanzines. Material for semiprozines or material on public displays (such as in convention art shows) is also eligible. Fan artists can have work published in professional publications as well. You should not consider such professionally-published works when judging this award.
The internet is about as public as it gets, right? It was even included in Mary Robinette’s Pinterest Gallery for Lady Astronaut Fan Art.
Apparently the Hugo Committee disagrees. Per the email I received from the committee member who contacted me prior to the announcement of the ballot:
The first two pieces clearly qualify, so that is fine. I’m afraid that the rules exclude pieces that have only been displayed online.
This, dear reader, is ridiculous.
Hopefully, Hugo Administrator Nicholas Whyte will reconcile all this for us, especially since some of us are under the impression fan artists’ online work was included in the 2017 Hugo Voter Packet.
(3) THUS ENDETH THE SERIES. Comic Book Resources warns fans that “AMC’s Preacher Is Ending With Season 4”.
Co-creator Seth Rogen announced the news in a video teaser posted to his Twitter page. The simple, yet stylized video prominently displays the Preacher title card, followed by an explosion and the declaration, “The end is now.” Then, the title card returns to confirm that the show’s fourth season will mark the end of the series. The teaser also reveals that Preacher Season 4 will debut on Aug. 4.
(4) LUCKY NUMBER. Next week’s Titan Comics releases include another adventure with the thirteenth Doctor Who. No, it’s not a Prisoner mashup.
DOCTOR WHO: THIRTEENTH DOCTOR #6 – The Thirteenth Doctor’s continue after the season finale, as Eisner nominee Jody Houser brings a fresh new Doctor Who story to fans old and new.
(5) TREK THRU FANHISTORY. The Dana Gould Hour podcast interviews John and Bjo Trimble:
John and Bjo Trimble. For those of you who don’t know John & Bjo, I’m very excited you get to hear their story for the first time. In the late 1960s, they were fans of a little TV show called Star Trek, and when it was announced, during Star Trek’s second season, that the show would not be returning for a third, they sprang into action. John and Bjo knew that TV shows don’t go into syndication unless they have three seasons – that gives you enough episodes strip the show. In other words, you need enough episodes to run five nights a without repeating episodes too quickly. You needed volume. And two seasons was not enough.
In those pre-internet days, John and Bjo started the letter writing campaign that saved Star Trek. Thanks to John and Bjo Trimble, Star Trek had three seasons, which allowed it to be syndicated, which allowed it to catch on, find its audience and become the juggernaut that it is today.
(6) MORE OREO MUTATIONS. Food & Wine’s spies say “Purple Creme Oreos Will Celebrate the Moon Landing, Apparently”.
The weekend is two days long, so of course, we have photos of three new Oreo varieties for you.
(7) LEARNING A LOT. Cat Rambo posted highlights from Catherine Lundoff’s online class, “So You Want To Put Together An Anthology”. For more information about Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers Classes, see the website at academy.catrambo.com
(8) POP YOU CAN HEAR IN SPACE. Star Trek Nitpickers didn’t find it hard to choose ten, for obvious reasons:
Top 10 funniest uses of pop music in The Orville. There were only 11, so I threw in a runner up. Also–lots of song factoids. This video serves as a loose recap for season one as well. I hope you’ll check out other songs by these great musicians!
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
- Born April 8, 1887 — Hope Mirrlees. She is best known for the 1926 Lud-in-the-Mist, a fantasy novel apparently beloved by many. (I’m not one of them.) In 1970 an American reprint was published without the author’s permission, as part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. (Died 1978.)
- Born April 8, 1939 — Trina Schart Hyman. An illustrator of children’s books. She illustrated over 150 books, including fairy tales and Arthurian legends. She won the 1985 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration, recognizing Saint George and the Dragon, retold by Margaret Hodges. Among the genre works she’s illustrated are Lloyd Alexander’s The Fortune-Tellers, Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. (Died 2004.)
- Born April 8, 1942 — Douglas Trumbull, 77. Let’s call him a film genius and leave it at that. He contributed to, or was fully responsible for, the special photographic effects of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Blade Runner, and directed the movies Silent Running and Brainstorm. And Trumbull was executive producer for Starlost.
- Born April 8, 1943 — James Herbert. Writer whose work erased the boundaries between horror and sf and the supernatural in a manner that made for mighty fine popcorn reading. None of his work from his first two books, The Rats and The Fog, to his latter work such as Nobody True would be considered Hugo worthy in my opinion (you may of course disagree) but he’s always entertaining. I will note that in 2010 Herbert was greatly honored by receiving the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award which was presented to him by Stephen King. (Died 2013.)
- Born April 8, 1966 — Robin Wright, 53. Buttercup! Need I say more? I think not. She next pops in in Robin William’s Toys as Gwen Tyler and I see she was in M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable as Audrey Dunn. The animated Neil Gaiman Beowulf has her voicing Queen Wealtheow. Blade Runner 2049 is next for her where she has the role of Lieutenant Joshi. The DC Universe is where we finish off with her playing General Antiope in three films, to wit Justice League, Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984.
- Born April 8, 1967 — Cecilia Tan, 52. Editor, writer and founder of Circlet Press, which she says is the first press devoted primarily to erotic science fiction and fantasy. It has published well over a hundred digital book to date with such titles as Telepaths Don’t Need Safewords and Other Stories from the Erotic Edge of SF/Fantasy. (Wouldn’t Bester be surprised to learn that. I digress), Sex in the System: Stories of Erotic Futures, Technological Stimulation, and the Sensual Life of Machines and Genderflex: Sexy Stories on the Edge and In-Between. She was two series, Magic University and The Prince’s Boy.
- Born April 8, 1968 — Patricia Arquette, 51. She made her genre debut as Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. That and the horror film Nightwatch in which she was Katherine are, I think, her only genre gigs other than a Tales from the Crypt episode called “Four-Sided Triangle” episode in which she was Mary Jo.
- Born April 8, 1974 — Nnedi Okorafor, 45. Who Fears Death won the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Lagoon which is an Afrofututurist novel was followed by her amazing Binti trilogy. Binti which led it off that trilogy won both the 2016 Nebula Award and 2016 Hugo Award for best novella. Several of her works are being adapted for video, both in Africa and in North America.
- Born April 8, 1980 — Katee Sackhoff, 39. Being noted here for playing Lieutenant Kara “Starbuck” Thrace on the rebooted Battlestar Galactica though I must confess I’ve only seen in her role as Deputy Sheriff Victoria “Vic” Moretti on Longmire. She also played Amunet Black, a recurring character who showed up on the fourth season of The Flash. To my pleasant surprise, I see her on Star Wars: The Clone Wars In a recurring role of voicing Bo-Katan Kryze.
- Born April 8, 1981 — Taylor Kitsch, 38. The lead in John Carter, a film I’ll be damn if I can figure out how anything can have such great digital effects and such truly bad acting. No mind you he went on next to be Lt. Alex Hopper In Battleship, a film based on, yes, the board game. Earlier in his career is did play Gambit (Remy Etienne LeBeau) in X-Men Origins: Wolverine which, errr, wasn’t received well either.
(10) COMICS SECTION.
- Frazz is all about coffee science.
(11) JANSSON LEGACY. The Guardian’s Lisa Allardice profiles the Moomins, subject of a new TV adaptation, in “‘It is a religion’: how the world went mad for Moomins”.
It is striking how much fear shadows the novels: for all the sunshine and picnics, menace lurks behind every bush: like a skater on ice, Jansson is always aware of the murky darkness just inches below. Of her success Jansson wrote: “Daydreams, monsters and all the horrible symbols of the subconscious that stimulate me … I wonder if the nursery and the chamber of horrors are as far apart as people think.” As Huckerby observes, the novels “go to some very dark places” and they have tried to reflect this in their adaptation. “It is being billed as prime time drama for all the family,” Ostler says. “It’s not a kids’ show.”
(12) YOU’RE THE TOP! To mix a metaphor, John Scalzi scaled Amazon’s Mt. Everest yesterday.
He also wrote a Twitter thread explaining that this good thing could not be improved by knocking other writers. Thread starts here.
(13) WELCOME OUR ROBOT UNDERLORDS. NPR announces “The Robots Are Here: At George Mason University, They Deliver Food To Students”.
George Mason University looks like any other big college campus with its tall buildings, student housing, and manicured green lawns – except for the robots.
…”We were amazed by the volume of orders that we had when we turned the service on,” Starship Technologies executive Ryan Tuohy says. “But what’s really touching is how the students on the campus have embraced the robots.”
(14) TURN OUT THE LIGHTS. A study shows “Big Cities, Bright Lights And Up To 1 Billion Bird Collisions” – NPR has the story.
Up to 1 billion birds die from building collisions each year in the United States, and according to a new study, bright lights in big cities are making the problem worse.
The study, published this month in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, examined two-decades of satellite data and weather radar technology to determine which cities are the most dangerous for birds. The study focused on light pollution levels, because wherever birds can become attracted to and disoriented by lights, the more likely they are to crash into buildings.
The study found that the most fatal bird strikes are happening in Chicago. Houston and Dallas are the next cities to top the list as the most lethal. One of the study’s authors, Kyle Horton, a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University, called the cities a “hotspot of migratory action,” adding, “they are sitting in this primary central corridor that most birds are moving through spring and fall.”
(15) RUBBER WEAPONS CHECK. Somebody thinks Voyager’s photon torpedo account was overdrawn. Because they counted. (A 2011 post.)
(16) VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE FOOD CHAIN. In comments, Darren Garrison figured out what the contents of Ursula Vernon’s next Hugo acceptance speech will be: “Unsettling Video Shows What Happens to a Dead Alligator at the Bottom of the Sea” at Gizmodo.
The enthusiasm of these scavengers is totally understandable. Deep-sea bottom feeders are immensely dependent upon “food falls,” in which deceased aquatic animals from above settle on the ocean floor. This typically involves whales, dolphins, sea lions, and large fish like tuna, sharks, and rays, but it can also involve stuff from the land, such as plant material, wood, and, as the new video shows, alligators dropped by scientists.
(17) ALL ABOARD! The Points Guy tells you how to catch a ride on this celebrity train: “Calling All Muggles: The Real Hogwarts Express Train Is Back in Action”.
Accio tickets to the Scottish Highlands!
After a seasonal break, the Jacobite steam train (a.k.a. the train used as a stand-in for the actual Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films) is back in business, People reports. And no, you won’t have to pass through Platform 9 3/4 to get there.
The Jacobite steam train has been in operation for over 100 years. Known originally for its scenic views of the Scottish Highlands, the old rail line only got attached the Harry Potter-verse after it was featured as the Hogwarts Express in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and every other Potter film going forward.
(18) TOOTLE, PLUNK AND BOOM. In “Game of Thrones Turned Its Composer Into a Rock Star” in The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber profiles Ramin Djawadi, composer of the music for Game of Thrones.
The arsenal of instruments Ramin Djawadi has used to score Game of Thrones includes mournful strings, mighty horns, and the Armenian double-reed woodwind known as a duduk. During the series’ first five seasons, however, he left one common weapon untouched: the piano. Early on, the showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, decided that the ivories were too delicate for the show;s brutal realms, where even weddings tend to involve some stabbing. They also banned the flute, for fear that Thrones would sound like a Renaissance fair.
(19) LIVE FROM NEW YORK. Kit Harington Saturday Night Live monologue is full of Game of Thrones jokes, and the sketch “Graphics Department” makes D and D jokes.
[Thanks to JJ, John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, Chip Hitchcock, Daniel Dern, Martin Morse Wooster, Carl Slaughter, Mike Kennedy, Darren Garrison, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Rob Thornton.]
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And I think I finally fixed the layout of Item 2 — on the fourth try since this post went live!
12) But, but it MUST be fake news! LC sells ten times as many books as any SJW author does and Scalzi who has three cats is definitely a SJW therefore this is fake news. Really fake news.
First?
(2) TAKEN ABACK.
Well, I guess that someone’s going to have to go to Vesa Lehtimäki and Ninni Aalto, tell them that they were not really Hugo Fan Artist finalists, and ask for their little rocket pins back. 🙄
(16)
It reminded me more of Stross. (Yes, I saw the story elseweb – with pictures.)
(2) TAKEN ABACK
If internet-published work isn’t eligible for Fan Artist I’m going to have to rethink my approach to nominating in that category, and possibly give up nominating for it entirely. Also, I really, really don’t think it would be a good idea to exclude most fanartists from the fanart category. Concerned, to say the least.
While the ROUTE of the Jacobite steam train is 100 years old, the train itself was created in the early 1990s. It’s run by the company that runs the Royal Scotsman.
(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
Patricia Arquette: and 7 years of Medium, which was very much fantasy.
JJ says Patricia Arquette: and 7 years of Medium, which was very much fantasy.
Good catch, I missed that one. I saw a handful of the episodes of that series. Pretty damn bland scripts.
9) I used read a lot of James Herbert. The Fog, The Dark, Domain and Shrine were all great works of horror. I did skip out on his last four books as the concept had grown a bit stale. The main character was always the same, even when he tried to make changes it was still the same thought processes and behaviour.
But The Fog was absolutely the perfect book for the teenage me.
(2) I watched the Business Meeting video from Sunday’s session at Worldcon 76 San Jose 2018 and was quite surprised by the narrow definition of Fan Artist that many people had. If I understood the thrust of their argument correctly, these people felt that Fan Artist was restricted to artists who either donated or gave a significant discount for the use of their work in fanzines or as part of the convention booklet, t-shirt, banners, etc. To me it seemed they considered the category to be more ‘Service to Fandom through Art Work’ rather than the plain understanding of the rule as currently written.
This is not at all how I approach the category and I don’t feel the wording of the rule supports that reading. It feels very exclusionary to me.
Clearly, that’s the approach Dublin is taking, which is a bit of a surprise to me. Can anyone speak to how other Worldcons approached this category?
Here’s the link to the Business Meeting video for anyone interested.
(9) Arquette was also in Ed Wood, which is at least as genre as Robin Hood.
Lorien Gray on April 8, 2019 at 10:32 pm said:
Gotta be honest: I would consider posting your art online for people to enjoy to be “Service to Fandom through Art Work”. So even that excuse wouldn’t fly with me. 🙂
Lorien Gray: (2) I watched the Business Meeting video from Sunday’s session at Worldcon 76… To me it seemed they considered the category to be more ‘Service to Fandom through Art Work’ rather than the plain understanding of the rule as currently written.
What you saw was the discussion of the proposed changes to the Artist categories which came out of the Hugo Category Committee’s discussion during the summer.
The current definition of Fan Artist is very different from that — and the proposed changes did not pass. The Hugo Admins don’t get to start enforcing category rules which are not part of the WSFS Constitution yet — which appears to be exactly what they are trying to do this year.
They are going to be hearing about this abuse of the Hugo Rules from a lot of WSFS members at the Business Meeting this year.
(1) MOST READ NOMINEES.
Going on the GR stats, most of the YA outsells most of the best novel finalists, spectacularly so in a couple of cases.
Also interesting that the tor.com novellas are doing numbers comparable to novels – they seem to have managed to break the format out into a more general audience
@JJ
I get that the proposed changes didn’t pass. But what bothered me about the discussion was that it was clear that some people who have been administering the award have held that attitude all along. And may have been interpreting the current rules through that lens. Clearly it seems that is the case for this year.
And I agree with you. It’s infuriating. Is there a process in place that this year’s finalists can go through to dispute that determination prior to Worldcon? It’ll be too late by then.
Pixel get ready. there’s a Scroll a-coming
You don’t need to comment, just read it online.
(2) I never have the first clue who to nominate for the art categories anyway. The Best Cover award is difficult because four times out of five cover artists don’t get credited, and Fan Artist, the field is so broad.
I do hate the idea that the only art worth considering is that seen at previous conventions: It makes the field narrow and incestuous, which is a trap to avoid, not a strategy to embrace.
(2) So how did Randall Munroe get two nominations for Best Fan Artist?
Why be threatened by artists that use the Internet as a sole venue anyway? I’m not saying anything new here by calling this misguided, but for all the efforts to make the Hugos less exclusionary this seems hypocritical to boot.
(2) Considering that the rules clearly allow works published in fanzines, and web-only publications qualify as fanzines, it’s quite a stretch to argue that works only published online doesn’t qualify.
I have to some extent approached the category as “service to fandom through art” myself when ranking nominees – but I don’t think this excludes people who publish stuff on their own blog.
But there’s another point here, besides the issue of online publishing of artworks: The Hugo committe is enforcing a non-existent rule when they apply the rules about eligibility to packet submissions. The rules in the constitution only define minimum eligibility. The constitution says nothing about the voter’s packet, and it doesn’t give any guidelines for what the voters should consider when judging “the best”.
I think this is a weakness, and I think it would be a good idea to add language to the constitution that says something like “Voters are encouraged to only consider an artist’s eligible works when ranking nominees. Voters should disregard works that where published in previous years, or that falls outside of the category the person is nominated for.” Most voters probably follow this already as a guideline when ranking, so it shouldn’t be a controversial change, but I think it would be a useful clarification.
(7) Oh, hey, I attended that one!
Anthology-building isn’t a topic I have a lot of opportunity to hear about. So when I saw Cat Rambo had an online class, I signed right up, even though the class started five minutes before Shabbat came out…
It was a nice class! Good mix of general observations and hard practicalities. Seems like a lot of work, but… doable.
And it’s something I’d very much enjoy doing, if’n I figure out how to do it well.
The class was certainly helpful for this, with pointers on finding submissions to begin with, and readers later on — some of the hardest points, I think, in today’s attention economy. I’m… not entirely in the best position here, as not-a-writer, not-a-pro, and not-near-US/UK. So, no credentials and limited networking 😛 (Just a lottttt of beta reading, and wanting to try editing on for size…)
But it does seem to me like a modest, small-scale anthology is doable. So I think I’m going to start noodling about the idea of, well, doing one. I’m not sure this the project I want to try next, but… it might be.
Not following logical discussion right now. Back to sleep!
(2) Geek Calligraphy end their post with “And in the meanwhile, please do not consider “Lady Astronaut Nouveau” when you fill out your ballot.”
As the rules clearly do not exclude works which have only been published online (and as Johan P. points out, fanzines and semiprozines are specifically permitted within the constitution to be online only, and are specifically mentioned as eligible venues for Fan Artist works to be published), I am sorely tempted to ignore this and consider “Lady Astronaut Nouveau” anyway.
I’m not sure how I feel about voting on the basis of a work which the author has specifically asked not to be considered, but I am leaning towards this being okay (especially as Geek Calligraphy don’t appear to actually believe that LAN is not eligible under the rules…)
And I would be very interested to hear the Hugo admins elaborate on their basis for this ruling…
Lorien Gray: Is there a process in place that this year’s finalists can go through to dispute that determination prior to Worldcon? It’ll be too late by then.
Objections can be e-mailed to the Hugo Admins, and Hugo voters can try to talk them around, but unless they realize that they’ve just retroactively disqualified a bunch of past Fan Artist finalists and walk the decision back, there’s really nothing to do but show up at the WSFS Business Meeting (or send a written statement with someone who’s going) and express one’s displeasure.
I suspect that there will be a great many someones expressing displeasure at the Business Meeting this year, including me — and rightly so.
In past years, Hugo Admins who have taken it upon themselves to make decisions which do not align with the written WSFS Hugo rules have experienced lingering disapproval and disdain from a lot of Hugo voters. I suspect that this will be another such case.
Joe: As the rules clearly do not exclude works which have only been published online (and as Johan P. points out, fanzines and semiprozines are specifically permitted within the constitution to be online only, and are specifically mentioned as eligible venues for Fan Artist works to be published), I am sorely tempted to ignore this and consider “Lady Astronaut Nouveau” anyway.
That’s what I’m going to do. According to the rules as they currently exist, that work is eligible, and I’m going to include it in my consideration of that finalist.
6) That’s no moon…
7) Robin Wright also plays a version of herself in THE CONGRESS. That was a…weird movie that I have a weird compulsion to rewatch
12) Cue Beale saying that it doesn’t really count somehow.
2) If I understand (need caffeine perhaps so forgive me if I am wrong). if its in a fanzine it’s all right, and if its physically produced it’s all right, but if it is “just” on the internet, it is not.
So if I exhibit photos from Hobbiton at an art show at a con, that’s qualifying, but if I do not, they are not, and I am not?
7) The general played by Robin Wright is called Antiope. Antipope is another, more Strossian character.
11) I haven’t been this excited about a new show for years.
Godstalk!
2) I wonder what this mean for the two jewellery designers on the ballot this year. Does the fact that they may have been selling jewellery (and I have no idea if they did. They might be selling online only) at a convention count as public display?
Not to mention that there have been several fan artist finalists in years past whose work was only online and did not appear in fanzines, so are we going to disqualify them retroactively now?
Wow, do I disagree with Nicholas Whyte on this fan art ruling. Especially in light of past fan art finalists. The plain reading of the Constitution does not exclude on-line art IMO.
I really, really liked Nicholas’s post-Hugo analysis after Worldcon 75 so this is a double disappointment.
Here is a blog post Geek Calligraphy did of the Lady Astronaut piece, with a photo of it not quite done yet.
https://geekcalligraphy.com/blog/2018/9/21/lady-astronaut-fanart
And here’s the finished piece:
https://geekcalligraphy.com/blog/2018/10/8/finished-lady-astronaut-fanart
If Nicholas stands by his ruling and Geek Calligraphy takes that piece to a convention this year, it’s my firm opinion they would be eligible for next year’s Hugos with this piece.
Lorien Gray on April 8, 2019 at 11:20 pm said:
There was definitely a split in Business Meeting attendees between “Fan art is zines/program books/con art” and “Fan art is art about fannish things regardless”.
A committee was supposed to go off and chew on that and come back this year to report. I have no idea what’s going on with that.
I’m in Camp Regardless. And if nothing else comes out of the BM on fan art this year, I hope we at least pass an amendment that clearly states that fan art that’s only on line is totally eligible, given that we’ve had finalists whose art is mostly, if not exclusively, on line in the past.
@Cora: I know that Spring Schoenhuth displays her jewelry at conventions, at least.
(I’ve often thought it’s a bit odd that a sales exhibition at a convention counts as fan activity, but I can only assume that this rule is the result of long wrangling in business meetings.)
JJ:
That’s an easy choice for voters, and I don’t think Ariela Housman’s chances of winning will be significantly hindered by the actions of the committee. But it just struck me that there may be other artists who have been disqualified entirely because the Hugo Committee have disqualified online work. And I really hope that’s not the case.
Born April 8, 1887 — Hope Mirrlees. She is best known for the 1926 Lud-in-the-Mist, a fantasy novel apparently beloved by many. (I’m not one of them.) In 1970 an American reprint was published without the author’s permission, as part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. (Died 1978.)
And here’s an explanation:
“The “unauthorised” nature of the 1970 reprint is explained by the fact that, as Carter indicated in his introduction, he and the publishing company could not even ascertain whether the author was alive or dead, “since our efforts to trace this lady [Mirrlees] have so far been unsuccessful.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Mirrlees
I’m a bit confused by this one:
When looking at the eligibility post, the eligible examples are linked to a store where art prints are sold for 55 dollar. What does this non-professional mean any way? Profit from the works is okay, but not if you make a living out of it?
Hampus Eckerman on April 9, 2019 at 7:14 am said:
That is a huge can of worms that the Hugo Committee is supposed to be discussing and reporting on this year. Huge. No, even more huge than that.
The line is messy, and getting messier and I honestly don’t think there’s any way of drawing a bright line between “fan” and “pro”. Whatever the Business Meeting comes up with is going to have a ton of edge cases.
Michael J. Walsh says And here’s an explanation:
“The “unauthorised” nature of the 1970 reprint is explained by the fact that, as Carter indicated in his introduction, he and the publishing company could not even ascertain whether the author was alive or dead, “since our efforts to trace this lady [Mirrlees] have so far been unsuccessful.”
So I assume this means that she did indeed receive compensation for her work? And who were they going have sign off on publishing rights if she was in fact actually dead as I’m assuming they didn’t find any heirs in their search?
I think I’ll go with harsh interpretations of the rules for my nominations and lenient for my voting.
Katee Sackhoff was also in Riddick.
I count Longmire as science fiction. It obviously takes place in a dystopian world where backwoods Wyoming counties have murder rates that make the south-side of Chicago look like Mayberry.
@9: I liked Lud-in-the-Mist, but it does seem on recollection to be somewhat of its time.
@9 ctd.: IMO, Trumbull was much better at effects than at direction; Silent Running reminds of the worst-hippies-in-ST discussion a Scroll or two back. As always, YMMV.
@18: lots of interesting detail — and I love that final line; will “more pyro” replace “more cowbell”?
@0. Westin: good catch re “Antiope” — that didn’t look right to me but I couldn’t figure out what was off. Note, however, that “Antipope” goes beyond Stross;
The discussion about what constitutes fan art is dismaying but hardly surprising; I’m way past old enough to remember various jackasses claiming that fanpubbing was the only fanac worth major recognition, as a slam on fan GoHs who had made major contributions to (e.g.) convention running. I don’t know whether the new claims come from the same sources or a whole new crowd of jackasses.
@Michael J. Walsh: I have a degree of sympathy for that statement, having had no luck in trying to find who owned the rights to Wyndham when I hoped to publish a Ballantine festschrift for their Worldcon GoH appearance (1989). OTOH, Carter then was already much more involved in publishing than I ever was; I grant that resources for tracing people were much weaker half a century ago, but after some of Carter’s performances (e.g., not even showing up to present a SAGA award) I find his excuse reflecting as much on him as on the difficulty.
Michael Swanwick has written a book about Hope Mirrlees and is a big fan of Lud-in-the-Mist: http://www.avramdavidson.org/hope-in-the-mist.html
Four, m’lord. (Zeus, Sugar and Spice, and Smudge.)
In the comments the filers come and go Scrolling Pixelangelo
Jack Lint says Four, m’lord. (Zeus, Sugar and Spice, and Smudge.)
I knew it was at least three. And it wasn’t worth my time to figure out where on his site that he actually lists them. Smudge is the only one that he’s paying any attention to right now.
@Cat: Sugar and Spice have their own Twitter account (@scamperbeasts), so Scalzi may figure they don’t need screen time on Whatever too.
Michael J. Walsh says And here’s an explanation:
“The “unauthorised” nature of the 1970 reprint is explained by the fact that, as Carter indicated in his introduction, he and the publishing company could not even ascertain whether the author was alive or dead, “since our efforts to trace this lady [Mirrlees] have so far been unsuccessful.”
Cat Eldridge on April 9, 2019 at 7:36 am said:
So I assume this means that she did indeed receive compensation for her work? And who were they going have sign off on publishing rights if she was in fact actually dead as I’m assuming they didn’t find any heirs in their search?
Good question. Since the 1970 publication by Ballantine, both Ballantines and Lin Carter have died. Ballantine Books was acquired by Random House in 1973 and then acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998. So not only is there undoubtedly no one there from 1970 but I also suspect the corporate papers from that time might be iffy.
The 2008 Millennium (UK) edition just notes her 1926 copyright, no mention of an estate.
The 2013 Prologue (US) also just notes for 1926 copyright, and no mention of an estate.
Tracking down heirs has always been a problem. I can recall some anthologies in the past that noted “every effort has been made to locate the rights owners. If you’re the rights owner we have money for you.”
Cat Eldridge on April 9, 2019 at 7:36 am said:
Since the book was originally published in the UK in 1926, there’s a very good chance it didn’t have a valid US copyright at the time. (The US didn’t sign onto the Berne Convention till the ’80s.)
A few years earlier, Ace Books had published an unauthorized version of Lord of the Rings, which was perfectly legal at the time, because Tolkien had neglected to secure a separate US copyright. When Ballantine learned of this, they made a deal to pay Tolkien anyway, and released a version with a message from Tolkien on the cover asking readers to boycott “unauthorized editions”, which resulted in a great deal of positive publicity for them among writers and readers (and pretty effectively killed sales of the Ace edition).
This is why it would have been a big deal for them to release an unauthorized edition of another book, even if it were perfectly legal for them to do so.
Xtifr says This is why it would have been a big deal for them to release an unauthorized edition of another book, even if it were perfectly legal for them to do so.
Which begs the question as to why did they do it? Why publish a book In which it wasn’t clear what the legal status was of it? What was to be gained by not waiting and seeing if just maybe more research would turn the author up?
I’m guessing that the answer, unsatisfying as it is, is that Lin Carter read the book, was really enthusiastic about including it in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series (with good reason, IMHO), they did some (possibly fairly minimal) due diligence, and when they were unable to make any kind of contact with Hope Mirrlees or any representative, they just pulled the trigger and went with it.
(Wouldn’t have been the first time that Lin Carter let enthusiasm triumph over good sense.)
(5) At one point I watched a SF TV show. Then I received my first Lincoln Enterprises newsletter. From that point on, I was an SF fan. That first newsletter was a life-changing experience.
Joe H. says Wouldn’t have been the first time that Lin Carter let enthusiasm triumph over good sense
Oh that I’ve heard more than once. It’s not the sort of behaviour that would tolerated these days.
No, it would not. I don’t want to drag on Carter too much, though — the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series and some of the other anthologies he edited were incredibly important in terms of rescuing older authors from then-obscurity, or at least in terms of introducing me to the likes of William Morris, James Branch Cabell and H. Rider Haggard.