(1) FOR THE RECORD. Odyssey Con co-chair Alex Merrill published an official response to the departure of GoH Monica Valentinelli yesterday – filling the void left by Richard S. Russell’s retracted statement with something more socially acceptable.
We, the Convention Committee of Odyssey Con, deeply regret losing Monica as a Guest of Honor, especially in the way the last twenty-four hours have unfolded. Odyssey Con strives to be a warm and welcoming place for all people to express themselves and engage in fandoms. We took a long and hard look at the issue of having Jim Frenkel continue to be a member of our convention committee when he was banned from WisCon in 2012. Our position at that time was to look at our policy on harassment and ensure that any situation that may take place at our convention would be dealt with professionally. We now have an ombudsman, anonymous reporting procedures, and a very detailed policy. There have been no complaints filed against Mr. Frenkel from attendees of Odyssey Con. However, in light of Monica’s email, the following changes have been made: Mr. Frenkel is no longer a member of our ConCom in any capacity, he has no position of authority in the convention proper, and he is not a panelist or lecturer. He has the right to purchase a badge and attend the convention, but as of this writing, I do not know if he is planning to do that.
I personally wish to apologize for the mishandling of our response to Monica’s concerns. It has never been our intent to minimize any guest’s complaints. Odyssey Con is an all volunteer organization staffed by people who have many strengths, but not all of us are great communicators.
I have already reached out to Monica to personally apologize for the email response she received from one of our ConCom members and for the subsequent posting of email chains publicly. This exchange was not an example of Odyssey Con as a whole, which is run by fans, for fans. I hope to have a continued dialogue with you all.
However, the first comment left on the post identified a number of questions that remained unanswered by the statement.
And after K. Tempest Bradford looked over the new response, she shared her reaction in the comments of her blog.
…No matter how much the Internet is mad at your organization, that does not excuse any implication that the person reporting feeling unsafe because a harasser is involved in running the con is at fault here. That’s immature. That’s not professional. That’s yet another indication that guests would not have been treated professionally by OddCon as an organization.
Also an indication that attendees will not be treated in a professional manner.
And being a volunteer run con is not an excuse for that. Yeah, you’re all volunteers, but you’re running an event. People attending said event as fans or guests have the right to expect a certain level of safety and respectful treatment from those running the event. That was not what happened. Now they’re sorry. Yet I still do not see that behavior addressed in a meaningful way in this Sorry….
(2) MARVEL FIRES SYAF. Marvel pencil artist Ardian Syaf, who inserted anti-Semitic and anti-Christian political references into his work on X-Men Gold has now been officially terminated.
Over the weekend, Marvel released a statement that it had been unaware of the references, and they would remove the artwork from all upcoming versions of the issue.
The company’s follow-up statement, quoted in Paste Magazine, says:
Marvel has terminated Ardian Syaf’s contract effective immediately. X-Men: Gold #2 and #3 featuring his work have already been sent to the printer and will continue to ship bi-weekly.
Issues #4, #5, and #6 will be drawn by R. B. Silva and issues #7, #8, and #9 will be drawn by Ken Lashley. A permanent replacement artist will be assigned to X-Men: Gold in the coming weeks.
Syaf wrote on his Facebook page:
Hello, Worlds…
My career is over now.
It’s the consequence what I did, and I take it.
Please no more mockery, debat, no more hate. I hope all in peace.
In this last chance, I want to tell you the true meaning of the numbers, 212 and QS 5:51. It is number of JUSTICE. It is number of LOVE. My love to Holy Qur’an…my love to the last prophet, the Messenger…my love to ALLAH, The One God.
My apologize for all the noise. Good bye, May God bless you all. I love all of you.
Ardian Syaf
However, Coconuts warns that statement should not be confused with Syaf actually regretting his actions.
…In an interview about the controversy with local newspaper Jawa Pos published today, Ardian explained why he thought that Marvel could not accept his explanation for including the references.
’But Marvel is owned by Disney. When Jews are offended, there is no mercy,” he was quoted as saying.
After making the anti-Semitic remark, Ardian reiterated to the interviewer that he was not anti-Semitic or anti-Christian because, if he was, he wouldn’t have worked for a foreign publisher.
(3) WHITE AWARD DELAYED. The British Science Fiction Association has postponed the date for revealing the winner of the James White Award:
With apologies to those who have entered this year’s competition, we are sorry to announce that the announcement of this year’s James White Award winner has been delayed.
The longlist will announced shortly after Easter and the shortlist shortly after that. We are working to complete the judging as quickly as possible.
We intend to announce the winner by Friday, 19 May at the latest.
(4) SFWA STORYBUNDLE. Cat Rambo has unveiled The SFWA Science Fiction Storybundle.
The SFWA Science Fiction Bundle is a very special collection full of great sci-fi books that benefit a great cause! If you’re unfamiliar with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, it’s over 50 years old, and has a membership of professional writers and publishing professionals from around the globe. It administers the Nebula Awards each year. This bundle is filled with talented SFWA members and their wonderful works, such as Tech Heaven by Locus-award-winning Linda Nagata and Factoring Humanity by Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell Memorial Award winning Robert J. Sawyer, plus 10 more tremendous reads. You can easily choose to donate part of your purchase to the Science Fiction Fantasy Writers of America to support these fantastic authors. Don’t forget to click here to read much more about the bundle, and make sure to click on each cover for reviews, a preview and a personal note from our curator!
It has another 22 days to run.
(5) DISTRACTIONS. With so much happening in 1962, Galactic Journey’s Victoria Silverwolf finds it hard to concentrate on her reading — “[April 12, 1962] Don’t Bug Me (May 1962 Fantastic)”.
Maybe it’s because it’s almost time to mail in those tax forms to Uncle Sam, or maybe it’s because of the tension between President Kennedy and the steel companies, or maybe it’s because Jack Parr left his television series (which will now be known by the boring, generic title The Tonight Show), or maybe it’s because the constant radio play of the smash hit Johnny Angel by actress Shelley Fabares of The Donna Reed Show is driving me out of my mind, or maybe it’s because of George Schelling’s B movie cover art for the May 1962 issue of Fantastic; but for whatever reason your faithful correspondent approached the contents of the magazine with a leery eye….
(6) TIPTREE. There will be a Tiptree Auction at WisCon 41 on Saturday, May 27.
Can’t get enough Tiptree fun on Facebook? Are you curious about Tiptree auctions? Fan of Sumana Harihareswara? Want to support science fiction that explores and expands gender? Want to roar with laughter? There are dozens of possible reasons to go to the Tiptree Auction at WisCon 41.
(7) APEX REPRINTS EDITOR. Apex Magazine is bringing aboard Maurice Broaddus as reprints editor. The magazine publishes one reprint in each issue, and he will be responsible for finding those reprints beginning with issue 98, July 2017.
Maurice Broaddus and Apex Publications have a long history together going back 10 years. He has been published in several of our anthologies, including most recently in Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling edited by Monica Vallentinelli and Jaym Gates. He has also had several books published through Apex, including Orgy of Souls (co-written by Wrath James White), I Can Transform You, and the anthologies Dark Faith and Dark Faith: Invocations which he co-edited with Jerry Gordon. Most recently, Maurice Broaddus guest edited an issue of Apex Magazine—issue 95 (http://www.apex-magazine.com/issue-95-april-2017/) , which included original fiction by Walter Mosley, Chesya Burke, Sheree Renee Thomas, and Kendra Fortmeyer, poetry by Linda D. Addison and LH Moore, and nonfiction by Tanya C. DePass.
(8) NEW COLUMNIST. Galaxy’s Edge magazine has a new columnist, Robert J. Sawyer. He’ll replace Barry N. Malzberg starting with issue 27.
Robert J. Sawyer, author of the bestselling novel Quantum Night, has agreed to write a regular column for Galaxy’s Edge magazine. Robert is currently one of the foremost science fiction authors in the field and one of Canada’s top writers. He was admitted into The Order of Canada (one of the country’s highest civilian honors) in 2016. His novels have won more awards than any other person in the history of the genre (as per the Locus index for science fiction awards) from countries around the world.
(9) SINISALO. At Europa SF, Cristin Tamas conducts a lengthy interview with 2017 Worldcon GoH Johanna Sinisalo.
Cristian Tamas : “Johanna Sinisalo seems to have emerged, along with Leena Krohn and Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen, as a central figure in the ‘‘Finnish Weird’’, which like many such movements may be a coincidence, a plot, or even, as Sinisalo herself said in her introduction to last year’s Finnish Weird anthology, simply a ‘‘brand.’’ In any case, it seems to carry with it a celebratory feeling of having just rediscovered the possibilities of nonrealistic fiction, even as some of its major works come with pretty grim premises.” – Gary K.Wolfe ; Please comment !
Johanna Sinisalo : Finnish Weird is basically a term invented for commercial uses, based on the fact that most of the Finnish Weird writers do not want to be pigeonholed as fantasy or sf or horror writers. Words like “nonrealistic” or “speculative fiction” are relatively strange to the wider audiences, so we came up with this kind of definition that could perhaps be compared to the commercial term “Nordic Noir”. Analogically, the Scandinavian crime writers have not “rediscovered the possibilities of crime fiction”, but the term Nordic Noir tells the reader that those books are a part of a certain literary tradition (and in many cases it is also considered as a sign of high quality).
Cristian Tamas : Isn’it weird that the oldest (beginning of the 13th century) known document in any Finnic language, the Birch Bark Letter no.292 is written in Cyrillic alphabet in the Karelian dialect of the archaic Finnish (or Finnic language) and it was found in 1957 by a Soviet expedition led by Artemiy Artsikhovsky in the Nerevsky excavation on the left coast side of Novgorod, Russia ? Is this an avant-la-lettre sample of Finnish Weird ?
Johanna Sinisalo: It is an interesting document. As far as I know the only words in that letter that the scholars totally agree upon are “God” and “arrow”, and the most popular theory is that the the text is a spell or prayer protecting from lightnings, saying “Jumaliennuoli on nimezhi”, roughly ”You are / will be called as the Arrow of Gods”. Perhaps it forecasts that we Finnish Weird writers are lightnings of the literary gods?
(10) TODAY’S DAY
Bookmobile Day
Bookmobile Day is an opportunity to celebrate one of the many services offered through public libraries. Originating in the nineteenth century, the earliest bookmobiles were horse-drawn wagons filled with boxes of books. In the 1920s, Sarah Byrd Askew, a New Jersey librarian, thought reading and literacy so important that she delivered books to rural readers in her own Ford Model T. And today, Kenya still uses camels to deliver materials to fans of reading in rural areas.
(11) TODAY IN HISTORY
- April 12, 1981 — Space shuttle Columbia first launched.
(12) COMIC SECTION. A horrible pun and a funny gag – John King Tarpinian recommends today’s Brevity.
(13) HATERS. John Scalzi, the midst of his annual Reader Request Week, takes up the subject of “Haters and How I Deal With Them”. This section of his post is from a list of “things I know about haters, and how they relate to me.”
Fourth, I’ve come to realize that some people are using hating me primarily as a transactional enterprise; they see some personal business advantage to holding me up as someone to be hated, and doing so allows them to, say, peddle to the gullible and strident wares that they might not otherwise be able to profitably market. To this respect the hating isn’t actually about me — if I didn’t exist, they’d just pick someone else who suited their needs. That being the case, why get worked up about it? Especially if it’s not having any noticeable effect on my own personal or professional fortunes.
(14) MEANWHILE BACK AT THE RANCH. Quite coincidentally, Vox Day put up a post titled “This is what ‘Zero Fucks’ looks like” that’s all about….would you like to guess?
(15) LIBRARIANS LIKE IT. Library Journal gives its take on the 2017 Hugo ballot in “Quality and Diversity”
After a contentious two years owing to the Sad/Rapid Puppies dispute, last week’s announcement of the 2017 Hugo Award nominees was received with acclaim. Library Journal sf columnist Megan McArdle, noting that the puppies appeared to have lost their fangs, was thrilled by the lists. “The fact that so many women are represented (and trans women! and women of color!), just shows that diversity is actually valued by the majority of SFF fans, which is great to see after so much drama in past years.” She was also excited to see a couple of her favorites—Charlie Jane Anders’s All the Birds in the Sky and Becky Chambers’s A Closed and Common Orbit—make the list.
Co-columnist Kristi Chadwick was equally excited by the nominations, which are voted on by attendees of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and paying members of the World Science Fiction Society. “I am a big squeeing girlfan of Seanan McGuire, and I think Every Heart a Doorway has given fantastical tropes a way to bend sideways. Then I see N.K. Jesmin, Charlie Jane Anders, and [Lois McMaster] Bujold? Amazing stories that never cross our desks? The editors, movies and everything else that makes this genre amazing? I am so thrilled with the wealth of knowledge and imagination available to readers today.”
(16) A VISIT TO DYSTOPIA. Nerds of a Feather continues its series on Dystopian Visions. Here are excerpts from two of the major critical essays. And the link will also lead you to innumerable posts about individual books and films with dystopian themes.
What marked Utopia out from these fantasies of plenty was that it could be reached, and reached in two ways. Reached physically: there was a long, arduous but supposedly practicable journey that could get you from here to there. It was a journey beyond the abilities and wishes of most people, but the idea was established that perfection did not exist only in dreams or upon death, but here in the everyday world we all inhabited. And it could be reached structurally: this perfection was not the province of god or of fairies or some supernatural inversion of the natural world, this perfection was achieved by rational men. If a safe, secure, happy existence could be achieved by sensible human organisation in Utopia, then sensible, rational men could achieve the same here.
No, I don’t think science fiction’s exploration of dystopian presents and futures has been instrumental in bringing on twenty-first century dystopia, but the genre as a whole does bear some small responsibility for our comfort with what we should be deeply uncomfortable with…
Three science fiction novels spring to mind as examples, published in 2011, 2013 and 2014. One was by a highly-regarded genre writer, who has spent the last twenty years writing fiction not actually published as science fiction. Another was written by a successful British author of space operas. The earliest of the three is also a space opera, the first in a series of, to date, six novels, which was adapted for television in 2014.
…The three books are: The Peripheral by William Gibson, published in 2014, Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey, published in 2011, and Marauder by Gary Gibson, published in 2013.
Since its beginnings, science fiction has exhibited a blithe disregard for the characters who people its stories, outside those of the central cast of heroes, anti-heroes, villains, love interests, etc. Frank Herbert’s Dune from 1965, for instance, describes how Paul Muad’Dib launches a jihad across the galaxy which kills billions. EE ‘Doc’ Smith’s Second Stage Lensman, originally serialised in 1941, opens with a space battle between a fleet of over one million giant warships and an equal number of “mobile planets”… Manipulating scale to evoke sense of wonder is one thing, but the lack of affect with which science fiction stories and novels massacre vast numbers of people, for whatever narrative reason, is more astonishing.
(17) DO YOU? I had to answer “No.”
https://twitter.com/sigridellis/statuses/852241336141000710
(18) EXOTIC GAME. Review of Simon Stålenhags RPG Tales from The Loop at Geek & Sundry — “Tales from the Loop Invites You to Roleplay in the ‘80s That Never Was”.
Tales from the Loop takes place in a retro-futuristic version of the 80’s where Cold War Era science brought us hover-vehicles, robots, and other advancements that pepper this light sci-fi landscape. It’s an idyllic time. Kids are free to roam after dark. The same children who have grown up around robots and Magnetrine Vehicles geek out over Dungeons & Dragons and Atari systems. There are problems, but the future is hopeful.
If this whole setting sounds like a sci-fi version of Stranger Things you wouldn’t be far off. If that’s what it takes to get you to crack into this portal into a future past then by all means: it’s a sci-fi version of Stranger Things. But in reality it captures more of the feeling of E.T. or The Goonies. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas were able to get help from Joyce and Sheriff Hopper. In Tales from the Loop the focus is squarely on the trials, challenges, and successes of the kids. One of the 6 Principles of the game right in the book is that “Adults Are Out of Reach and Out of Touch”, and if your character ever turns 16 years old, they age out of the campaign
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Hampus Eckerman, Cat Eldridge, JJ, and Marc Criley for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kip W, who will be awarded a Nobel Prize for his discovery of the basic Scroll title DNA.]
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Ticky.
Oh, boy! My first Nobel! (The angels did say.)
Man, that post by VD just screams desperation and flop sweat.
“First of all, SJWs always lie!!!” Ok Teddy. You tell us about it.
“Second of all, The Collapsing Empire is TOTALLY a flop!”
TCE on Amazon, 3 weeks after release:
#15 Kindle Space Opera
#17 Kindle MilSF
#20 Bestseller MilSF Books
17. My contingency plan is to panic.
14 – is hilarious.
Which is great since he quoted a chunk of Scalzi’s blog and anything that might be related to him on Twitter he responds to, even things that aren’t that he speculates might be him, and then followed with:
How did an editor miss such a huge continuity error?
It’s a parody! I’m glad that there’s an admission that the book is only a joke, though the writing style should give that away.
Over 115 posts (I gave up after that there’s a lot more) directed towards one Scalzi, most of which are attempts at comparing VD to Scalzi, also makes me question why he’s so desperate for his attention now?
It must be interesting to be Scalzi where someone can attempt to build their body of work by specifically being anti-him. I mean it’d be better to do it on talent but you gotta work with what you’ve got to work with. The whole thing is like the opening of Lego Batman where the Joker can’t believes he doesn’t mean more to Batman and will destroy Gotham just to prove how much Batman needs him as a villain.
Only it’s condiment man
“And while it’s nice every now and again to raise lots of money for charitable causes off his obsession with me …”
Nearly Easter, time to bust out the Gamma Rabbit shirt.
14. I don’t read his blogs. I don’t read his books.
But, of course, Beale is certain that Scalzi writes terrible science fiction. Without having read his work. Because that’s the way to know.
Of course, it is relatively obvious that Beale barely reads anything, so this revelation isn’t particularly noteworthy.
Mine too, with copious amounts of screaming.
I had my car’s brakes go out on me once. I had no prior contingency plan, but luckily it had a manual transmission, and with judicious application of the gearshift and hand brake I got it to a service station. It was a good car: it only broke down in my driveway or near a place where the problem could be fixed.
Yikes. That latest rant of VD’s reaches new depths of embarrassing pathos, even for him.
I’ve urged Scalzi to have pity and just KISS the boy, for goodness sake! But he refused. Did he even think of his stalker’s feelings? Noooooo.
(10) I have strong memories of the bookmobile coming to my elementary school in Sarnia, Ontario. It was shiny and tiny, and very hot inside, but I found books by, among others, Zelazny and Asimov. I remember it fondly. I think it took me out of a small, very dull town (mentally) and made me a better person.
(14) Despite the ‘don’t do it!’ screaming in the back of my head, I looked at Vox’s blog post and as many of the comments as I could bear. Is it possible that some children get a hate-mobile instead of a bookmobile, one stacked with books by Ayn Rand and conspiracy theorists?
@10 – The bookmobile was something I looked forward to as a child when I lived in a rural area.
@15 – The librarian is a very happy box checker. Perhaps she investigates the race, sexual orientation, religion, location, mode of transportation, type of pet, favorite food, etc….. of all of the potential authors she has to choose from. But I’m glad she is happy.
But I concur with: “I am so thrilled with the wealth of knowledge and imagination available to readers today.” With ebooks and the internet a wealth of knowledge is out there. A family member alerted me to a free ebook that is an English translation of the memoirs of a major central powers military leader in World War 1. The 1920s source material you can easily pick up for Call of Cthulhu is astounding. Probably everyone who enjoys reading and learning has similar “look at what I found on the internet!”
Here’s the review I wrote of the Hugo finalist graphic story Ms. Marvel: Super Famous.
I’m starting to get mad at Beale’s fans for their soft bigotry of low expectations. When they give him the usual attaboys and hardy har hars in response to a blog post where he states both “I don’t read his books” and “the book sucks,” they aren’t giving Beale any incentive to improve.
I think most of us would find it tough to become a better writer when everything we crapped onto the page was regarded as spun gold.
Just once I’d like to see one of his fans offer him constructive criticism like this: “You know, I believe Scalzi stinks, SJWs always lie and Psykosonik belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but gol’ dern it you just can’t say his book sucks if you didn’t read it.”
Only one fifth point; Teddy’s slipping. Also isn’t it funny how his blog post turns up just a few hours after Scalzi’s, despite the fact that Ted constantly claims he doesn’t pay attention to anything Scalzi does, and how nothing Scalzi does rattles him or gets under his skin, which is totes why he literally just wrote that ridiculous screed, and wrote and/or “edited” and published a “parody” of TCE just a few weeks ago, and constantly writes about how crap Scalzi is, and thinks Scalzi is sub-tweeting him when nothing could be further from the truth…
@Matt Y:
A huggo-moominated editor no less!
Oneiros: He’s only been nominated for the Huge award as an editor four times, but if you count his two writing nominations, then he’s already reached his second fifth.
Congratulations, Kip W. and I hope you’ll remember all us little Filers when you make your speech in Sweden.
(1) Still doesn’t explain much of their behavior, like claiming they never heard anything bad about Frenkel EVAR! or the victim-blaming plus gaslighting. Also, if Tempest ever quits writing (I hope not), she could make a career of getting hired to give the hairy eyeball, clapback, and mike drop to them what deserves it.
(2) Well, now this dickwad can go back to the obscurity he so richly deserves.
(7) Ooh, Broaddus is gooood.
(10) I fondly remember Bookmobile Day as a kid. It was Tuesday every other week.
(12) I actually LOL at this!
(13) Rarely do you see the phrase “het up” used so properly. And living up to the title of the blog perfectly. I kinda miss him using the term “silly little man-crush” to describe you know who. But ya know, he’s got all that money to spend, no time for haters.
(14) “SENPAI REFUSES TO NOTICE MEEEEEEE!” is all that says. You can see the flop sweat through the Internet. Heh. Staking your identity and “career” on one other person, whom you’ve never met, is just so damn odd and pathetic.
(15) If the librarians are happy, it is unambiguously Good.
(17) Um, no? My general idea is that I will scream many four-letter words, stomp the emergency brake while getting out of traffic, and then turn the ignition off. Then there will be many more rude words screamed. Every time I have been involved in a car “incident”, the screaming of rude words happens auto(heh)matically.
@airboy–
Yeah, it’s obviously silly to be interested stories told by and about women, and especially to be interested in people that are different from oneself in any significant way whatever.
2) I’m glad Marvel has taken decisive action against this idiot and hope it doesn’t prevent other Indonesian and Muslim artists from advancing their careers in future, although inevitably it will end up placing an unfair burden of proof on future artists to show they aren’t going to pull the same shit.
This whole thing does bring to light how complicated conversations about diversity become when big US-based cultural entities collide with national debates elsewhere – especially when the kind of international voices who get promoted are likely to be elites within their own country with their own privilege and, in this case, bigotry, but also a claim to an underrepresented minority voice in international context (see also Zen Cho’s recent post on BS/RH for a related example).
In Syed’s case he obviously thought the gap between the two worlds was large enough that nobody would question the references he was making – it’s heartening to see him proved so comprehensively wrong by the Indonesian fans who called him out and brought the entire thing to Marvel’s attention. But what do they do next time they are hiring an artist from outside their narrow area of cultural understanding? What dimensions and extent of bigotry is OK for a foreign artist from a culture your staff have zero experience with? How do you even begin to judge that, and what’s the likely backlash if your criteria are questioned? Is hiring from the elite of global south countries a win for promoting diverse voices, or a reinforcement of existing power structures and biases in those countries and, if the latter, what can anyone be expected to do about it?
To make clear, I have no good answers to any of that and dont expect anyone else to either, least of all Marvel… sleep-deprived international development student ramble over…
13) and 14)The difference between Vox’s comments and Scalzi’s are also pretty telling- I think the most common response on the latter’s post was “wait, you have a weirdly specific hater? I’ve got no idea who that is but cool blog as always!” Because, say it with me, Scalzi’s success has absolutely nothing to do with Vox in any way whatsoever 😮
Meanwhile, the funniest lump in Vox’s turd soup was the one guy who was all “I just come here for the white supremacist politics, your obsession with this dude is indeed a bit weird”. Which was immediately shot down by the other nuggets because, as rcade points out, V doesn’t pick ’em for their critical thinking skills.
Laura Resnick: I’ve urged Scalzi to have pity and just KISS the boy, for goodness sake! But he refused. Did he even think of his stalker’s feelings? Noooooo.
I just had this image of VD standing in the rain, holding a boombox over his head with a cover version of “In your eyes” by some terrible Finnish death-metal group blaring out of it…
@Lis Carey: It’s extra-silly when you’re buying books for a library which will serve people of all races, sexual orientations, religions, etc. who might like to read stories featuring people like them. Or, gosh, even people unlike them!
(1) A response to KTB said exactly what I’ve been thinking: If OddConCom treated a GOH this shabbily, why on earth would a mere attendee expect a fair hearing?
(13) Scalzi’s post makes sense to me. I’m sure he has concerned fans giving him well-intentioned heads-up messages whenever Beale pulls some new stunt. Saying “not necessary, because I don’t care” is a polite way of saying “please don’t do that.” It’s what someone who truly wants no part of this would say.
(14) By contrast, Beale’s response sends a quite different message. It’s also understandable, but it’s an attempt to rile up his VFMs and perpetuate the increasingly-one-sided feud. It’s also rather fact-free; exactly what Scalzi provocation was The Corroding Empire stunt a response to?
I was about to point out the howling discrepancy between Beale’s second and fourth points, but I see Matt Y’s already done so. Whatever “Zero Fucks” looks like, I’m dead certain it bears no resemblance to Beale’s tired tirade.
The difference between the two people is quite stark. One has class, and the other is frothing at the mouth like… well, like a desperate puppy with late-stage hydrophobia.
(17) I remember the last time my brakes failed. No accident, but it was an intense situation.
And now, some personal news…
My grandfather died in late 1986, without a will. Ever since then, the old homestead – a bit over three acres – has been in legal limbo, with each of his children inheriting a theoretical fourth of the property but not able to do anything with it. At the time, one of the siblings promised to buy out the other shares so he could develop the land himself, but it never happened; he died about a year and a half ago.
I got word earlier this week that his widow and the other co-owner are finally ready to list the property; they only needed my consent, as the remaining owner. (My mother transferred her share to me some time back.) The lot right next to ours is currently in the closing process, and the agency that listed it is willing to handle our lot’s sale at what look to me like excellent terms. As a matter of perspective, my mother’s asking price when her brother wanted to buy her share for was less than a tenth of what we’ll get at the terms I’ve seen – assuming the other lot sold at its listed price and ours will do likewise. Given how close the two listed prices are, I have reasonable confidence in that assumption.
I understand that it can take up to a year between listing the land and getting the money, what with legal hoops, but I’m cautiously optimistic. After more than thirty years, things are finally moving forward.
Gaah. Naturally I see the error in “buy her share for was” right AFTER the edit window closes. Well, while I’m castigating myself, I’ll clear up the other point that could cause confusion: the brother did buy out one sibling’s share years ago, which is why there are now three owners and not four.
“See what happened to Ardian Syaf? Don’t do anything like that, because if you embarrass us and we find out about it after the fact, we’ll fire you too.”
But said more politely.
Marvel page rates add up to really good money by Indonesian standards. People aren’t eager to blow that kind of income off just to make a background gag — unless they’re dumb enough not to realize what’ll happen, as Syaf was.
Now they have an example to point to. It’s not about their area of cultural understanding being narrow — it’s about the readership encompassing a much larger spectrum of cultural understanding, so if an artist wants to risk it, he can be assured: You Will Get Caught.
And getting caught when it’s already in print and making news will mean your career at Marvel is over for years, and possibly forever.
Either it’s a very retro version of the 80s, or my neighborhood was ahead of its time. (I kind of suspect the latter.)
@Mike: a belated cheers to Ted for his 2nd 5th nomination, then! 🙂 poor guy. He’ll get an award some day. Maybe a Dragon this year, in fact. He probably still has time to crap out a book to nominate for it.
@Kurt Busiek: And who else would want to hire an unprofessional artist who sneaks his hatred and political message (local or global, who cares?) into the artwork? I’m sure that’s not what he was hired to do. Bleah. 🙁 I’d be surprised if any major company (not just Marvel or DC) would want to hire him. They’d have to scrutinize his pages extra carefully (once bitten, twice shy). No trust, no hiring.
@Rev. Bob: Congrats, and wow, a 31-years-in-the-making story there.
Meredith Moments! A.k.a. ebook sales! At participating U.S. ebook sellers!
R.A. MacAvoy is appreciated hereabouts, so FYI, The Grey Horse is 99 cents at Amazon.com (was 99 cents at Kobo, but no longer; not sure about iBooks or other locations). I know zero about this fantasy novel, but since I’ve seen her work mentioned (and she’d commented here), I figured I should pass this along.
Jeffrey A. Carver’s SF Dragon Rigger (sequel to Dragons in the Stars) is free at Kobo and Apple. It’s via Book View Cafe, so it’s also DRM-free. I’m unfamiliar with this pair of books, but I’m familiar with the author (and met him at a Worldcon; plus he’s related to a past friend of my parents). Anyway, it’s in the Star Rigger universe. It’s unusual to have book 2 in a sub-series be the free one.
Tony Ballantyne’s Dream London is only 99 cents. It sounds a little surreal; time to check out the sample, eh? 🙂
ETA: Ballantyne’s book is on my list of books to look into; I just don’t know much about it – just the description at Ye Ebooke Sellere.
ObReading: Around the same time I started listening to the first Peter Grant book this week, my other half (who likes mysteries, shows like “Law & Order,” and other things in that vein – along with fantasy, of course!) started listening to it. But I have a lot less listening time available per day, so I’m way behind him now! 😛 #NotJealous
@Oneiros I think his latest fantasy thing was published second half of 2016 so he could try to manoeuvre himself onto the Best Series ballot? Alas, that particular fifth didn’t work out as planned and the ballot got filled with what, to the puppies, are Total Unknowns such as James S. A. Corey.
Of course, as we all know, the Dragons are endorsed by all 70,000 DragonCon attendees who are definitely more likely to recognise Ted’s Thing than The Expanse. Don’t let the sales numbers tell you otherwise!
The Wonderella fella has a tweet with a photo Filers may recognize from a past post here. The Ballpit From Heck:
https://twitter.com/wonderella/status/852384108978286593
I checked a box today.
Inside was Brings The Lightning by Ada Palmer, newly smuggled into Australia! I may check other boxes from time to time.
(13) & (14) sigh. What immature behavior. Parody books and hoping people will read them just because they dislike somebody?
On an unrelated topic, did I mention that you can STILL get There Will Be Walrus Second Volume Five from Smashwords at a low low price of zero dollars? https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/636378
(14) Thanks to those people who took the hit, reported back and saved me from having to do so. Your service is appreciated.
@Camestros
Second Volume Five?
2) Good. But I do hope, as noted above, that it doesn’t stop Marvel reaching out to foreign and marginal artists in the future.
4) A fantastic looking storybundle.
14) Thanks for those who went to where I’ve vowed to myself not to visit. The ancedote about the Beale commenter who finds Beale’s obsession a bit worrying is, well, funny.
17) Sigrid and I live in Minnesota, the Great White North. I’ve been in situations when the ice means your brakes are worse than useless. Its a rather frightening experience to hit a patch of black ice, let me tell you…
lurkertype on April 12, 2017 at 10:28 pm said:
(17) Um, no? My general idea is that I will scream many four-letter words, stomp the emergency brake while getting out of traffic, and then turn the ignition off.
Ding, Ding, Ding, We Have a Winner! The correct answer is “Engage The Parking Brake.”
1) Been There, Done That (long ago in one of my crappier cars…).
2) Try it for yourself sometime in an empty parking lot, just so you know how it’ll feel if you need to do it.
As well as the story bundle above, there’s a new Humble Bundle of interest to some, also, of annoyance to some I expect.
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/brandon-sanderson-book-bundle
Brandon Sanderson books. Sadly the basic tier is largely only available in the US.
(17) I don’t know about cars, but based on past experience my contingency plan for when the brakes on my bike fail is “fall off and break my arm.”
I’m working on coming up with something better though.
@Rev. Bob: I see that things are proceeding very entishly. Suitably deliberate good wishes from here.
Not that it’s an original thought, but Syaf and Beale have a lot in common. That “how dare you take offense when I say that you’re dangerous and evil and should be squashed” thing, it never gets old. I mean never gets new, or good.
@airboy
When I review fiction, I don’t give “diversity points”–not even to gay writers. My goal is to actually do what the puppies only claimed to do: to recognize a good story, well-told. One can always tabulate race, sex, orientation, aspect, religion, etc. separately.
However, on the rare occasions that I do run across a realistic gay story, it’s very hard for me not to inflate the rating, simply because I appreciate it more. I usually add a disclaimer in cases like that. Gay-themed stories are so rare, though, I think I’ve only had to do that three times in over two years worth of stories.
So I can understand how a woman reading SFF would be ecstatic about seeing not just a lot of stories by women, but a lot of quality stories by women. It’s been the other way around for so many years, you should allow people their moment to be happy.
And these are some of the best stories written all year–not just in my opinion, but in the opinions of other (mostly male) SFF reviewers. Of the nine Hugo finalists I recommended, seven are women and two are men. Of the four I recommended against, two are women and two are men. In no case, however, did the gender of the writer matter to me. The recommended ones genuinely are among the best stories of the year. There’s no need to invoke reverse discrimination to explain their place on the ballot.
Nor do we have a large enough sample to make any statistical claims; I suspect the real ratio is 50:50 but the women just happened to have a really good year this year, and the data do not rule out that interpretation.
In that case, you got a counterfeit version, cause the title is “Too Like the Lightning”. 😉 At any rate, I’m glad you finally got a copy. Have fun reading.
[godstalk]
[yes really, godstalk]
[i mean it!]
@Laura Resnick
I’m afraid this is one of those cases when you really can get VD just from kissing.
A Meredith moment: A bunch of Michael Chabon books are on a Kindle Daily Deal today:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=pe_170810_234175730_pe_button/?node=7533915011
This. It looks like this.
Yeah, get a big enough audience and somebody is sure to know what “mulch” means. (And know what knowing what “mulch” means means.)
BTW, in the earlier thread with the X-Men Gold discussion, someone mentioned a couple of frames where it looked like German Nightcrawler hit Jewish Kitty Pride in the face with a baseball bat. Without the context of the other insertions and the artist’s claims, I would have thought that interpretation was reading too much into it. In context, though? I kinda agree.
It’s also rather fact-free; exactly what Scalzi provocation was The Corroding Empire stunt a response to?
Oh, that’s easy: Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire exists. Just existing as science fiction Beale dislikes is sufficient “provocation”.
That Kitty Pryde baseball panel is vile.
When Syaf is still saying things in the press like “When Jews are offended, there is no mercy,” I think it’s a safe bet he won’t be getting work at major American publishers.
Has anyone mentioned he’s a two-time Hugo nominee in best graphic story?
2009: The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle. Written by Jim Butcher, art by Ardian Syaf (Del Rey/Dabel Brothers Publishing)
2010: Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State. Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
Beale’s protestations may be more over a recognition that, at least in the mainstream press, he has lost this battle that it is over one of his targets of choice. (Lets not forget that he has a handful.)
The library notes certainly suggest that librarians recognize that the Hugo Awards are back to doing what they have always striven to do; this is the inevitable conclusion, as mainstream press – even tho a bit wishy washy over whether or not the Hugos would survive the attacks, all pretty much managed to identify the temper tantrum for what it was.
Funny how the US goes ultra conservative-wacky-doodle with its politicians (an alt-rt dream as it were) while on the cultural front things continue to progress largely in the proper direction.
We’re witnessing the beginning of the end of a culture war, and the good guys are winning.
maybe … but the ‘winnings’ may not be all that worthwhile after the ultraconservative etc folks get done with it.