(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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@steve My fear is that those who would stand athwart history and yell “Stop” might yet win, especially newly empowered as they are. History sadly does not run in one direction. (a point that, for example, Melinda Snodgrass made in her recent Space Opera novel, with a full return to aristocracy, monarchy and restricted rights for women)
@Paul Weimer
thanks for the Melinda Snodgrass rec. Regarding history … all one can do, I suppose, is try to be a positive force pushing the things you believe in forward. Spending too much time ‘resisting’ or fretting about the negative things that ultimately one cannot really do much about … is not healthy. So go ahead and tear it all down Trumpco … do your worst … because in the end we will either survive as a species or we won’t and either way there will be plenty of blame for all parties.
@Greg – We all seek out books that we enjoy. I have genres that I like and also things I loathe. But it is weird to me that some want to box check as a decision on what to read or as an indication of “quality” or “progress.”
I don’t check the authors age, race, sex, sexual habits, where they live, what vehicle they drive, what they like to eat, etc…….. when choosing a book. If I find an author I like I tend to follow their work and try to pick up their new stuff. My wife actively seeks out light murder mysteries somehow involving archeology.
But there is a big market out there and very low entry barriers. So if box checking is an individual reader’s thing, then let them spend their money to box check.
He’s not just lost this battle in the mainstream press, but he’s also failing to crack the broader SFF market in terms of sales. He’s successfully extracting sales from his little tribe but Castalia House is still not significant as an SFF publisher. Failing Scalzi shifts about 100,000 units in the hardback stage of his releases and you can buy his books in physical stores, but can you say the same about any Castalia House offering, even after all his Hugo ‘victories’?
@airboy
If you want to make an argument about “box check[ing] as a decision on what to read or as an indication of “quality” or “progress”” you should probably start by demonstrating that those elements all exist in the article you’re referencing.
(I’ll give you a hint: people being pleased that the end-point of a process includes something doesn’t mean that they selected for that something at the start of the process)
@airboy
re:checking authors … I agree and try to do the same thing. Unfortunately, in this age of knowing everything about everyone, some things are hard to ignore. As those “things that are hard to ignore” tend to vary depending on ones politics etc thus we have, as you put it, box checking. Example … I very much enjoyed Larry Correia’s Hard Magic. I wish I could continue reading his stuff as by all accounts his work only gets better. But any enjoyment I might take is spoiled by his politics and actions. I’m pretty certain you could name an similar author for yourself. As can we all … so we all ‘box-check’.
airboy: So if box checking is an individual reader’s thing, then let them spend their money to box check.
What you call “box checking” is readers saying, “Finally! I can read a good book with a protagonist I can really identify with!” and librarians saying, “Finally! Good books I can recommend to readers with protagonists they can really identify with!”
I’m sorry that the idea that people might want to read about characters which more closely resemble themselves, or books which are written by authors who have a similar cultural experience to them, seems like such an alien idea to you. But it’s not “box-checking”. That’s just your derogatory term for things that don’t feature straight white men.
You don’t have to like it that other people enjoy different things than you do. But it would be really nice if you would just stop ridiculing them for it. You claim to not be a racist or a sexist, but you sure quack like one. 🙄
Someone did have a physical copy of one of Teddy’s screeds for Scalzi to sign. A pod option?
@ airboy
When Puppies claim the outside world is “box checking,” they are accusing their foes of the very same sins that they are are committing! This is a common American conservative trick (made famous by Karl Rove). They are ranking written works by their outside characteristics without actually examining them for literary virtues.
In the mainstream of speculative fiction, fans judge a work on how well it uses genre tools to examine both new themes and ideas. Now that makes sense to me.
Re Box checking.
I fell for DUNE not only because I am a straight white male who picked it up at the right teenage age, but especially because the protagonist was named Paul. I could really identify with a teenaged Paul (hey we have the same name! BOND!) and sank into the book as a result.
I therefore can imagine books with female protagonists, gay protagonists, trans protagonists, minority protagonists, etc, provide that “unlock” for readers of those types in the same way that DUNE unlocked for me. I may not identify with BINTI as a character as deeply as a young African American woman reader might, not sink into it as deeply as she could, but I can appreciate that Okorafor wrote with that aim–if the book overall works as a book. I can enjoy the book perhaps not on that deep visceral personal level that I did DUNE, but I can enjoy it.
14. Not only does this not look like zero fucks, it suspiciously looks like giving five fucks. In fact, it looks like giving two chapter five fucks.
more box checking … I enjoyed Starship Troopers for more or less the same reasons … coming from a family filled with veterans, it hit the right spots for me as a teen. I remember being startled when, years later, it was pointed out that ‘Johnny Rico’ was Juan Rico and Hispanic. It never occurred to me nor did it change my appreciation for the story in any way. Nowadays, of course, I have to deal with all the baggage that accompanies any discussion of Heinlein and his stories. I wish I didn’t … I didn’t care that Johnny Rico wasn’t “just like me” in heritage and skin color, but he WAS like me in several other ways that I easily identified with.
@Paul Weimar
One of the things that having a daughter has brought home to me is seeing how much she appreciates a relatable character in her media – and how often that tends to be missing.
Hermione Granger is the character that made that series of books so immensely popular IMO. Without her … well I’m not sure we would have ever heard of Harry Potter. I always thought that a spin-off series featuring her would have been very successful.
@Kevin Harkness: Is it possible that some children get a hate-mobile instead of a bookmobile, one stacked with books by Ayn Rand and conspiracy theorists? VD appears to be a case of inheritance, which could mean reading only the books but his father selected.
@JeffWarner: ISTM that the parking brake in my car does not engage when the car is moving (based on bitter experience with a rollaway). I suspect this is uncommon.
@Paul Weimer: (a point that, for example, Melinda Snodgrass made in her recent Space Opera novel, with a full return to aristocracy, monarchy and restricted rights for women) and that Bester made ~60 years ago in The Stars My Destination.
@clif: not just Hispanic but Filipino — possibly a pointed comment by RAH, who served in a US Navy where (IIRC) the only Filipinos were messboys.
I am immensely gratified anytime I see a character who is named Matthew (not “Matt”!), is left-handed, is Canadian, or has a beard, so I can only imagine how people who are genuinely under- or misrepresented can feel when they see themselves reflected in media… or, more often, when they don’t.
Also, for those who haven’t seen it yet, the new World Fantasy Award design has been announced: http://www.arctera.com/wfa/wfadmin-award-announcement.htm
re Johnny Rico … yes I remember that he was Filipino, not sure I remember how that was established since IIRC his family resided in Buenos Aires. And yes it maybe did have something to do with the whole Filipino cooks in the Navy thing. Although I’m not sure of the point he was trying to make.
Is there a Far Side cartoon that goes with today’s title?
@JJ – You claim to not be a bully, but you sure quack like one! @JJ – only in your fevered brain did “straight, white men” come about. I did not mention it and nor do I care. Nor did I “You don’t have to like it that other people enjoy different things than you do.” In fact, I said the exact opposite. JJ – you need to up your game if you want to be an effective bully. Your punching a “straw conservative” is silly.
@clif – I don’t look up author information when selecting a book. I’ve seen or met a few authors at Cons, but who they are usually has no impact on me unless their public utterances irritate me. I don’t know the age, race, sex, sexual orientation, vehicle choice, eating habits etc….. of most of the authors I read. It is irrelevant to me. Correia irritates you to the point you do not want to read him. That is fine and your choice.
If someone cannot try a book without sufficient demographic box-checking, then they have a weird perspective on life. But if it makes them happy, the market is big enough to satisfy their urges.
@clif – I enjoyed Starship Troopers also. A little surprised you missed Rico’s background because the book stated he was from Argentina (if I’m remembering right). When Buenos Aries was destroyed Rico thought he lost both parents. I did not care about Rico’s heritage, but it was a plot element if memory serves.
@Rob Thornton – I’m not really interested in “new themes or ideas.” I’m interested in something that is fun to read. I read a book to be entertained (outside of work). I go to movies to be entertained. New themes or ideas are not important to me, unless they are entertaining. Others differ and seek new themes or ideas. Good for them and I hope they find happiness doing so.
@Paul – glad that you enjoyed Dune and Binti. I enjoyed the first Dune book, but the sequels were not as enjoyable for me. Dune is one of those books I’ve read multiple times.
@clif: Johnny mentions speaking Tagalog at home, and refers to Ramon Magsaysay as a hero, both of which point to him being Filipino. His mother was visiting in Buenos Aires – they didn’t live there (that’s why his father didn’t get killed, and why Johnny isn’t upset about friends from his home town dying – B.A. wasn’t his home town).
Quote for S.T. “I was already in bad shape for a personal reason: My mother had been in Buenos Aires when the Bugs smeared it. I found out about it one time when we put in at Sanctuary for more capsules and some mail caught up with us—a note from my aunt”
Later in the paragraph, it is made clear that Buenos Aires isn’t home – Johnny’s aunt thinks that if Juan hadn’t joined the M.I. his mother wouldn’t have travelled to B.A.
“
I’ve been in contact with a WFA member several times over the past few months trying to get that story, and the answer was they’d made a decision, and somebody was working on the press release. It didn’t occur to me that something called a “press release” wasn’t going to be sent to the press.
@airboy
Yeah … although what irritates me more is that I have to care about Correia’s politics. I wish I didn’t.
I didn’t miss it so much as not care I think. That’s why I was startled later in life when it was pointed out .. that I somehow SHOULD have cared but didn’t.
@Andrew
yeah as a teenager growing up in rural Missouri … that likely didn’t immediately register with me as Filipino. Later on .. sure.
Oh, my mistake — now I’m told it was sent out to a list.
Well, I’m perfectly capable of pissing people off. I’m sure there’s some explanation for my not being on it.
That new award looks absolutely gorgeous. That’s something I could see wanting in a trophy cabinet, if I was talented and lucky enough to win one.
airboy –
Your base assumption is that they wouldn’t have tried it without knowing that information, instead of having enjoyed it and also happy to see the success of more people within the field. When the axiom is flawed it’s unsurprising when the results from that are also incorrect.
Typically I pick up a book because I’ve heard it’s good, it’s by an author I like already, the inside flap sounds cool or I dig the cover art. Or it’s like a buck at my used book store. Those are the boxes I check. If I like an author I might read their interviews online and be like hey that’s cool if it’s something I also connect with, like how Corriea owns a gun store and I grew up shooting. If I write ‘Glad to see recognition of work by someone who understands the background of the weapons he writes about!’ I’m not ‘box-checking’. I didn’t pick up the book because I knew he was into guns, I picked it up mostly because I play games called Monster Hunter and I thought they were related somehow (nope).
So when someone says ‘Awesome to see works recognized by people who have these different backgrounds’ the assumption that they’re only reading those books because of the background of the author instead of being happy that good books came out by people who are from those backgrounds that they also identify with is jumping to an unsupported conclusion in order to question their choices.
But like you said whether the reason they buy a book because it fits an internal checklist of what they consider worthy of purchase is who the author is or if there’s spaceships on the cover is fine because those choices are supported by the marketplace. Not sure I see the point then of trying to explain what you believe to be the purchasing decisions of others. Unless there’s a mandatory number of times you’ve got to say box-checking in a week. You’re on that phrase like a kid discovering their first swear word.
The only one of the Best Series nominees I haven’t read ALL of is “October Daye”. Coincidentally, Daughter of Science had just taken vol. 1, “Rosemary and Rue”, out of the library before the Hugo ballot was announced, so now I’ve read it.
Will Native Americans ever get un-erased? Having a Fairy Court hundreds of years old in the Bay Area that’s apparently Celtic (names, plant choices, etc.) does not sit well with me, she understated.
Unless these things are going to be central to later volumes, I’ve seen enough to make my Hugo-voting decision.
14. Personally, I can’t help but wonder what happens when most of the Beale cultists wake up and realize they’ve been following a whiny trust fund baby on quixotic stunts that accomplish nothing instead of doing something even vaguely constructive with their time and money.
Sadly, I suspect that most of them will go on to find worse things to follow…
Well, they all seem to be immensely credulous and believe that the Hugos have been destroyed, VD is a successful game designer, Scalzi doesn’t sell any books etc.
Cognitive dissonance must be a powerful thing.
(2) Good thing. Interesting benchmark as well: Normally Puppies would shout “Censorship” and “Free speech” and “PC” and “SJW (because they always shout the latter, because hey dont know it means they blame Batman). They did it with Milo Yiannopoulos (even if they often didnt say his name), but protecting a muslim seems a bidge too far for them?
VD: Oh, there is nothing like unrequited hate. VD is realizing that he doesnt even qualifies as a villain and that his stunts actually dont hurt Scalzi. What could his purepose in life be now?
@Doctor Science
Oh no, seriously? I was looking forward to trying this but have just discovered how low my tolerance is for Celtic shenanigans inexplicably located in the USA (through reading all 400+ pages of the Raven Boys to see if I could discover what makes it so beloved in certain circles, with no luck) and I’m disappointed to hear this is in the same vein. I’ll still give it a go but am feeling less bad about waiting to see what comes with the packet rather than hunting them down to get a headstart.
I’ve had a lot of free time this week and have been able to get through a fair bit of Hugo-stuff, including the 3 novelettes and 1 short story I had left (no I won’t be reading any puppies in those categories), plus Season 1 and Book 2 of the Expanse and 2 more Craft Sequence novels. Almost entirely enjoyable overall but the final Expanse episode (i.e. the nominated one) was really heavy on body horror (which I expected) and graphic depictions of radiation sickness (which I forgot and have a very specific fear of), and I think that’s going to stop it ranking highly for me. Also both the Craft Sequence and the Expanse are really h*cking dark and now I’m looking through the other things I’ve got to get through and feeling like I need to orient myself towards more Fun!
All of which I think points to a Temeraire reread.
I really like the new World Fantasy sculpture. My instant impression was that the tree has the moon caught in its branches, although that’s not how it’s actually described in the press release.
Arifel:
Yes, I bailed on the Raven series after Book 2 for precisely this reason (offspring informed me Book 3 wasn’t going to fix the problem). I’m SO glad to hear it’s not just me.
*looks around, lowers voice* So, how do you feel about “American Gods”?
In space, no one can hear your pixel scroll.
Celtic shenanigans (and Celtic-based fantasy worlds in general) are one of my criteria for deciding what to read: I figure I’ve got about 3500 books left, and I don’t see the point of reading derivative or mediocre fantasy when there’s so much else out there. And the Raven Boys was definitely in those categories for me (I got the first volume as a freebie at some WFC, read the first couple of chapters, and decided it wasn’t worth giving luggage space to)
It’s been quite a while since I’ve read it, but didn’t the various gods come over with their respective immigrant groups?
When the Puppies foisted works onto the Hugo ballot, they had a chance to prove they judged a book solely on its merit and placed no importance on the author’s politics or demographics.
Instead, the bulk of their selections have been themselves, their friends and business associates or people who share their politics.
@Doctor Science
Since AG is explicitly about the importing, creation and altering of gods from different locations and backgrounds into new ones I personally think it rather side-steps the issue.
Coupled with unpleasant pranks and inept hostage taking.
Sure, and plenty of them are going to stay on-board Beale’s Shitty Cruise to Hell(tm) as it clunks its way down Acheron, but others are inevitably going to realize ‘Wait, I’m… wasting my life!’, and jump off.
I just suspect they’ll then go for… oh, goldbuggery, or survivalism.
14) For me the hint of hee-hee homophobia that sometimes accompanies the suggestions that Beale is trying to dip Scalzi’s pigtails in the inkwell makes me a little uneasy.
It’s evident that Beale is totally fucking unhinged when it comes to Scalzi to the point where his usual I-am-built-of-steel-and-Aristotelian-jazzhands act breaks down and therefore he becomes incapable of the somewhat logical behavior he occasionally exhibits elsewhere. He is, perhaps, rationalizing it all to himself as a clever marketing strategy. On that last, maybe. I’d be curious to find out how the numbers line up with that or not.
Having minions show up at Scalzi’s readings is a way of trying to intimidate not just Scalzi, but anyone who might challenge the dudebros.
Re the WFC award — really well done! I’m sorry they left File 770 off the press list, though I would suspect error rather than malevolence.
Beale’s act breaks down with… well, I’d say ‘startling regularity’, but it’s so regular that it’s missing the ‘startling’ part. Scalzi simply gets under his skin enough to make the breakdowns especially loud and comical.
The WFC award looks really nice, although (as noted by N K Jemison) the nominees still get a pin with the iconic Lovecraft face on. Tiny Gurning Lovecraft all round!
(I suspect this is one of those Compromises That Please Nobody)
re Johnny Rico
His name was Juan. His friend was Carmencita. I made no notice of their ethnicity because I grew up on the Mexican border, and everyone was named Juan! 🙂 But for 1959, it was pretty progressive. That and the woman ship Captains.
One cool thing was in the Avalon Hill game for Starship Troopers (1976) they had a bunch of pictures they’d faked up for the manual. Juan was definitely hispanic in it!
(that wargame, and the abridged treatment therein of the book, was what led me to read the novel)
Entirely possible. However, my thought that I may have aggravated someone was not random. I have written many posts about the controversy over the Lovecraft statuette, the award redesign, and the secondary controversy about whether the new designer would be paid. I have written emails to people involved in the story seeking information, some have been kind enough to answer, others did not. By comparison, most sf news sites have kept a low profile — one would be hard-pressed to find any Locus Online report about the WFA that didn’t some out of a World Fantasy press release, and if you only read SF Site News you would know the trophy was being redesigned, but remain in the dark as to why, So I think it’s at least possible that it was not a mistake.
However, I have now been emailed a copy of the press release. So there’s that.
Galactic Journey: Has anyone mentioned that your site is awesome? But how do you know about a game from 1976? 😉
All this discussion of Juan Rico and not once is “Johnnie” spelled correctly… I’m not a pedant, just an editor.
Person A: Look at all the beautiful spring flowers! Pansies, tulips, daffodils, forsythia, cherry blossom, even violets!
Person B: You botanical box checker.
And the new World Fantasy trophy is really lovely.
(1) FOR THE RECORD
The con have now lost Tad Williams.
(h/t Jim Hines on twitter)
If they’re not careful this’ll reach a tipping point and the withdrawals will cascade.
Mike: Your site is awesomer! And people from the future occasionally visit and leave presents…
I was at Shakey’s Pizza today, and the total came out to $19.55. I said, “That was a good year. I remember it well.”
The cashier looked at me disbelievingly.
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…
And you just KNOW it would be Finnish death-metal.
Finalists for the 2017 Eugie Foster Memorial Award for Short Fiction have been announced:
“The City Born Great” by N.K. Jemisin (Tor.com, September 2016)
“The Limitless Perspective of Master Peek, or, the Luminescence of Debauchery” by Catherynne M. Valente (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, May 2016)
“Seasons of Glass and Iron” by Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales)
“Ten Poems for the Mossums, One for the Man” by Suzanne Palmer (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, July 2016)
“You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay” by Alyssa Wong (Uncanny Magazine, May 2016)