(1) NEW DOCTOR WHO COMPANION. ScreenRant reports the “Doctor Who Season 10 Companion To Be Revealed This Weekend” – in the middle of the BBC One Match of the Day Live soccer broadcast.
[A] new companion has now been cast, the big reveal of exactly who that companion is, will be made this Saturday, April 23rd, on BBC1.
The announcement will be made during half-time of the soccer match between Everton and Manchester United, at approximately 6pm GMT. The news will be posted on all Doctor Who social media sites as it’s announced, enabling viewers across the world to all find out who has been cast at the same time.
(2) VIRTUOUS SIGNALING. Rob Boffard at Medium says “You can talk to the International Space Station right now. Here’s how to do it”. Do you have what it takes?
Of all the things that shouldn’t be possible but are, talking to the International Space Station ranks right up there with Steph Curry’s basketball skills and the existence of Donald Trump.
Think about it. How weird is it that NASA can put a $150bn space station into orbit, which can then be contacted by anybody on Earth? Even you? It’s one of those things that gives you pause?—?the kind of thing you’re vaguely certain is against the law, somewhere.
It’s not something you’re going to be doing tonight?—?not unless you have the relevant equipment already to hand. It takes a little bit of work. But it’s entirely possible, even for those of us who aren’t geeks….
(3) BLOWN AWAY. James Bacon highly recommends The Great British Graphic Novel Comic art exhibition at the Cartoon Museum on the Forbidden Planet blog.
This is a phenomenal experience, it exceeded my expectations and I was blown away by the calibre of the artwork on display. The Cartoon Museum has amassed the finest examples of comic art, an incredible mix of exemplary work, providing a beautiful tapestry of the history and breadth of the greatest works from Britain for public consideration….
Soon I was looking at lovely pieces, starting with Hogarths ‘A Harlots Progress’ from 1732, ‘The Bottle’ from 1847 by George Cruikshank, ‘Ally Sopers; A Moral Lesson’ from 1873, Ronald Searle’s Capsulyssese from 1955, written by Richard Osborne. All giving one a real sense of history, showing that illustrated stories are nothing new in Britain.
Then as I rounded a corner I saw a grouping of Commando Comics placed next to a full colour cover of Charley’s War, and four pages of this seminal work of the First World War. Undoubtedly Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun’s masterpiece is indeed a crucial addition here, but I had a feeling of true appreciation of the comic form when I saw this colour cover and four original pages lined up. Juxtaposed with this was My Life in Pieces, The Falklands War by Will Kevans from 2014. Original art, cover and concept sketch made for a great grouping….
(4) CHABON AND HASBRO? Birth.Movies.Death almost cannot be believed this time — “Michael Chabon And Brian K. Vaughan To Make Hasbro Cinematic Universe Worth Taking Seriously”. Is there a way to get G.I. Joe taken seriously?
Last December, word came out that Hasbro was going to try their hand a making a cinematic universe based on their various toy properties, namely G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionaries, M.A.S.K. and ROM. I was a little flip about it.
But now Hasbro, lead by Akiva Goldsman, has assembled its writers room and it’s no laughing matter. The big stars of the list are The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay’s Michael Chabon (who also worked on Spider-Man 2), Brian K. Vaughan, who you should know from comics like Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Saga, Runaways and a bunch of other impressive titles, and Nicole Perlman, co-writer of Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel.
(5) SPACE MARINES. If you remember Space: Above and Beyond, you may be ready for the Space: Above and Beyond 20th Anniversary celebration on Saturday, August 6 at the Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel.
In 1996, Fox Studios produced the TV series: Space: Above And Beyond (aka S:AAB). The show had Drama, action, mystery and followed the lives of a diverse group of U.S. Marine Space Aviators while fighting against a powerful alien force on the ground, in the air and in outer space. It was part Top Gun, part James Cameron’s Aliens, and all exciting!
This short lived show (1995 to 1996), which fell victim to scheduling conflicts like Joss Whedon’s Firefly, is considered one of the best of Military Science Fiction series to air and is deserving of a convention of its own….
VIP tickets and Premium tickets are both on sale NOW at early-bird prices, and general admission tickets will go on sale starting May 1st.
(6) BEFORE THEY WERE BOTTLED. Syfy may order a pilot for David S. Goyer’s Superman prequel series Krypton.
The series, set two generations before the destruction of Superman’s titular home planet, would tell the story of the man of steel’s grandfather as he fights to restore the family honor of the House of El after it has been shamed.
The pilot will be produced by Warner Horizon Television. Goyer — who penned the screenplays for “Batman Begins,” “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” — will write the pilot with Ian Goldberg. He will executive produce through his company Phantom Four with Damian Kindler, who will serve as showrunner. Colm McCarthy is set to direct the pilot.
(7) KIT WEST OBIT. British special effects artist Kit West (1936 – 17 April 2016), known for his work in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi, died April 17.
(8) BOND FILM EDITOR HAMILTON OBIT. From the BBC:
Guy Hamilton, who directed four James Bond films, has died aged 93.
Former 007 actor Sir Roger Moore tweeted that he was “incredibly, incredibly saddened to hear the wonderful director Guy Hamilton has gone to the great cutting room in the sky. 2016 is horrid”.
Hamilton directed Sir Roger in Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun.
He also directed Sir Sean Connery in Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever.
…Speaking about his style of directing he said he wanted value for money.
“In the making of Bond films we are some of the meanest toughest film makers. If we spend a million dollars it had better be up there on the screen.”
(9) TODAY IN HISTORY.
- April 21, 1997 — Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, journeyed into space.
(10) CAN YOU SAY “CANONICALIZATION”? Will Frank discusses “The Duties of the Hugo Administrative Team” in a MidAmeriCon II blog post.
Once nominations close at the end of March, we go through the data and process it. There are a few steps to this, the biggest one being canonicalization. We review the data to make sure that votes for, for example, “The Three-Body Problem” and “The 3-Body Problem” and “Three Body Problem” and “ The There Body Problem ” —which would all appear separately in our database—are all set up to be recognized as nominations for the same book. And if you think that’s bad, imagine what it’s like when episodes of television get nominated in Best Dramatic Presentation, where there are series title, episode title, and season and episode number, and a thousand different ways to put those together…
Once that’s done, we have our preliminary finalists. That’s when we start reaching out to nominees, letting them know they’ve been nominated, and a bit about the awards. That can be surprisingly difficult if we don’t know people’s email addresses. Sometimes, they’re public…but fairly often they’re not. There’s a certain amount of Googling, guessing, or asking people with impressive Rolodexes just to figure out a valid email address sometimes.
(11) SELECTIVE QUOTE OF THE DAY. Kate Paulk says Sad Puppies have a future, in “Miscellany” at Mad Genius Club.
In other news, this of the Puppy-related kind, I’ve heard rumors from several sources (but nothing official, alas) that more than 4000 Hugo nomination ballots were cast. I’ve also heard there are some saying that Sad Puppies 4 is a nonentity, that it’s run out of steam, it’s dead, pining for the fjords, gone to a better place… (erm, sorry?). Well, no.
Sad Puppies 4 is waiting to hear who the nominees (*ahem*. The Hugo Site says they aren’t being called nominees any more. They’re ‘finalists’ from a shortlist. Whatever) are before congratulating them for their recognition, whoever they are, and starting the next round of campaigning to boost involvement in the Hugos process.
(12) CAT PITCHER. He’s mad as a wet you-know-what! “Timothy Under Attack by SJW Warrior Feminist Filers” at Camestros Felapton.
A certain “website” which I shall not name because I shall not provide it with anymore publicity because I am sure nobody but a tiny number of far left Bernie Sanders supporters in a gated community ever read, as they sip champagne frappucinos in their la-di-da literati bookclub but whose name rhymes with smileearnestbevinbeventy, has SELECTIVELY QUOTED ME in a truly monstrous way to suggest that I am nothing but a poo-poo head! The calumny! The outrage!
(13) A MULTIPLE-CHUS PANEL. This program idea was dropped in the MidAmeriCon II suggestion box….
So, @MidAmeriCon2, I'd like to propose the Chu panel for Worldcon this year, featuring @john_chu, @arthur_affect, and @kyliu99
— Wesley Chu (@wes_chu) April 21, 2016
https://twitter.com/kyliu99/status/722967958054666241
(14) IN FACT IT’S COLD AS HELL. Science Alert reports “An abandoned probe just discovered something weird about the atmosphere of Venus”.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Venus Express probe spent eight years collecting information on Venus before plunging down to the surface and out of range back in November 2014. But now we finally have the last batch of data it transmitted back to Earth before going offline, and there are some big surprises in all those recordings.
Turns out, the polar atmosphere of Venus is a whole lot colder and a lot less dense than we previously thought, and these regions are dominated by strong atmospheric waves that have never been measured on Venus before.
Maddie Stone from Gizmodo reports that the Venus Express probe found polar areas of Venus to have an average temperature of -157 degrees Celsius, which is colder than any spot on Earth, and about 70 degrees lower than was previously thought.
This is rather surprising, considering Venus’s position as the hottest planet in the Solar System overall.
Not only is Venus much closer to the Sun than we are, it also has a thick, dense cloud layer that traps heat. However, Venus Express also found that the planet’s atmosphere was 22 to 40 percent less dense than expected at the polar regions.
(15) FAMOUS FURNITURE. Heritage Auctions now calls it “The Chair Heard ‘Round the World”.
The online and print publicity pieces for J. K. Rowling’s chair reached over 90 countries, plus all 50 states and all news aggregator sites. It saw total media coverage nationwide, with special interest in New York, Silicon Valley, and major cities in the Midwest, as well as the nation’s capital. The chair also garnered attention with 4,428 mainstream media hits, a number that is still rapidly growing. Print media circulated to 291.7+ million, while 15.6+ billion unique viewers visited websites carrying the article.
(16) THE TRUTH MAY NOT BE OUT THERE. Rachel Swirsky conducts a “Silly Interview with Effie Seiberg, Liar”. (Effie needs an introduction Camestros Felapton’s cat.)
4) Wait, how do I know you aren’t sneakily telling the truth?
The answer to question 3 is a lie.
5) All right, I’ll let it go. Just know that I’m aware that at any point you could be LYING. So. You studied philosophy and logic. Do you use that in your fiction?
Absolutely! There’s a long tradition of slipping philosophy into speculative fiction, especially since they’re both about exploring ideas and taking them to their logical conclusions. Some of my favorites are Italo Calvino’s “All at One Point” and Asimov’s “The Last Question” for metaphysical cosmology, Ken Liu’s “Mono No Aware” for ethics, and Roald Dahl’s “William and Mary” for epistemology, and the movies Labyrinth and Monty Python’s Holy Grail for classic logic. Also the entire Discworld series for all the philosophy ever.
(17) FARE LADY. Ann Leckie wrote about her GoH stint at Japan’s Hal-Con, including a special souvenir —
I don’t tend to take a lot of pictures, unless I’m explicitly doing research on something and think I need pics for future reference, but I did take one or two of the view out my hotel window in Numazu:… And one of some lovely fish-shaped cakes a reader gave me as a gift:…
Okay, those aren’t really cakes. The two in the middle are pancakes with bean paste inside, and the top and bottom ones are a kind of wafer-cookie sandwich, also filled with bean paste. Still. Close enough….
And I learned from her post that when cooked a coelacanth, like every other exotic creature, reportedly “tastes like chicken.”
(18) RUN A LINE THROUGH IT. “SFWA Contracts Committee Alert” at the SFWA Blog.
The SFWA Contracts Committee believes there are serious problems for writers with the non-compete and option clauses in many science fiction and fantasy publishers’ contracts. The non-compete language in these contracts often overreaches and limits authors’ career options in unacceptable ways. Writers may choose to bring out a range of books from different publishers — science fiction from one publisher and fantasy from another publisher, for example — and may have to do so in order to earn anything like a living wage. The problem becomes even worse for hybrid authors who self-publish works in parallel with their traditional publications. Several contracts that we have seen include overlapping restrictions that could keep the author from publishing another book for more than a year….
Our recommendations:
Any limitation on the author’s ability to write new works at any time is unacceptable and should be deleted.
“Competing work” should be defined in the contract as clearly and narrowly as possible, and preferably limited to a work in the same series (whether one is planned or not). The burden should be on the publisher to prove that another work published elsewhere by the author would reduce their sales.
(19) THRONES RETROSPECTIVE. BBC devoted a long post to “Game of Thrones at 20: How the saga became a TV hit”.
Still, HBO wavered over whether to make a fantasy show that would be so drastically different from their trademark series, which tended toward the grittily realistic. And even after HBO tentatively signed on, Benioff and Weiss’s original pilot episode had to be completely reshot before the show finally debuted in 2011 – another six years after the producers had first acquired the rights from Martin. But there was hope from another perspective: the rise of prestige television had paralleled the rise of cult fandoms. The passionate online exchanges among fans of books like Martin’s made them desirable targets for marketing. Suddenly, HBO had proof that a Game of Thrones series would have an intensely engaged audience from the start, and the network’s marketers knew exactly how to reach those fans – right on those websites and message boards where they gathered to discuss the minutiae of the books. If the network got particularly lucky, those fans would become ambassadors to a wider audience.
Chip Hitchcock sent the link together with these comments, “They do mention the proper title at one point, although it seems a lost cause generally. OTOH, the night before my cruise got to Dubrovnik two weeks ago, the tour manager specifically called out A Song of Ice and Fire — so some people actually know the original collective.”
(20) HEAD OF THE CLASS. Entertainment Weekly explains what went down.
On Wednesday’s episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden, host James Corden and some high-wattage Game of Thrones cast members spoofed House of Black and White’s Hall of Faces (a prominent part of the show’s season 6 marketing campaign), with a segment imagining what an obnoxious disembodied head might do to the larger group.
The sketch featured recent guests Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Alfie Allen, and Iwan Rheon…
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Rachel Swirsky, Will R., Chip Hitchcock, Andrew Porter, and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day, the Top Level Poster. On his head be it!]
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Head full of purple, and slightly groggy, but… First?
Sleepy. Ticky.
Quoth Paulk:
“but nothing official”
“nothing official”
Really?
Define “official.”
Thirfth?
True fifth
Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little: Define “official.”
Official: /o’fiSHal/ adj. published on a Puppy blog
(4) CHABON AND HASBRO? – That… sounds impressive.
(5) SPACE MARINES. – Maaan. I loved that show. Dunno how bad the Suck Fairy has been at it, but it greatly impressed me back when it was first airing.
(11) SELECTIVE QUOTE OF THE DAY. – (i) This is a Daysian level of victory-claiming. (ii) The 4k noms was an official announcement from a few days back (as someone has noted in the comments there as well) (iii) the nominee vs finalist thing has been going on for a while now hasn’t it?
(16) THE TRUTH MAY NOT BE OUT THERE. – An introduction? So there would be the possibility of a…Lying Cat?
(1) NEW DOCTOR WHO COMPANION.
Part of a cunning plan to lure Whovians to football?
(12) CAT PITCHER.
Go home Timothy, you’re drunk.
Found another one for the list of all-male societies: the novella “The New People”, which its author Alex Jeffers describes as “Science fiction, an exploration of the society evolved on an isolated colony world three hundred years after all the women died. And a love story. And a fan letter to Israeli singer-songwriter Ivri Lider.” Jeffers has an entertaining story in this month’s GigaNotoSaurus which he says was largely inspired by Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique.
Second fifth!
Now I can read the Scroll.
How can any Hugo announcements be official if they’re not sent first for approval by TB and Kate Paulk, leaders of the two main Puppy office?
As for the nominees/finalists thing, I doubt she noticed before this year’s fuss about Kevin Stand Lee and others pointing out the problem of people announcing themselves as “Hugo nominees” when there is not yet a shortlist.
Lis Carey: As for the nominees/finalists thing, I doubt she noticed before this year’s fuss about Kevin Stand Lee and others pointing out the problem of people announcing themselves as “Hugo nominees” when there is not yet a shortlist.
I am most certainly looking forward to the announcement of the shortlist — for the usual obvious reasons, but also because those authors who have been touting themselves as a “2015 Hugo Nominee” are now going to have to explain to family and friends why — oops! — they’re not on that list of Hugo Finalists.
“(Effie needs an introduction Camestros Felapton’s cat.”
I think there’s a “to” missing in this.
“those authors who have been touting themselves as a “2015 Hugo Nominee””
There are more of them? Miss a few days of file770…
Today’s scroll title is perfect!
Jamoche: There are more of them?
I’ve seen 3 authors doing it. I’m sure that there are more.
The Pulitzers have had similar problems. Becoming a “nominee” means someone (possibly you) paid the $50 submission fee. Becoming a finalist means people actually read and liked your work.
I’m surprised more of these people aren’t both Hugo and Pulitzer nominees! Maybe $50 is more than they’re willing to invest in ridiculous self-promotion?
Anyone we know? My willingness to outrage depends a lot on the tone – I’ve a friend who has been known to say that his blog has been nominated for Hugo award, and I’m sure all his readers, or at least all those that care, know that this means he voted for himself, and probably no-one else even considered it. A bit of a joke.
Claiming nominee status:
First ran across this from someone’s fan/pro-artist recommendation, so it’s not just authors trying it out.
Re: the Chu panel. A few years back I proposed San Diego Comic-Con do “The Neil Show” with Neils Gaiman, deGrasse Tyson, and Patrick Harris put up on stage with mics and told to talk amongst themselves for an hour (yes, there were all there that year). Alas, the idea was too late and it couldn’t be scheduled.
And at the last Noreascon, I was moderator of a panel about AI on which all other panelists were Daves or Davids. Of course I started it out by noting the names and saying “OK, so let’s get it over with. All together now…’I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that'”
(13) A MULTIPLE-CHUS PANEL.
When the stars are right, we will get our Chu-lu Panel.
13 So if they were to pursue this idea and have to argue for it in court, would that be a Chu-bacca Defense?
I hope I’m not in the claiming to be a nominee bracket, as all I actually said was ‘at least one person is mad enough to consider nominating me’ which is double qualified, and doesn’t say being nominated = finalist. However if the list thinks such a claim *too strong* I’ll go and edit it. For the record the mad person was Andrew Hickey of this parish.
Simon — I think “at least one” and “consider” put you out of danger territory.
The really weird thing is when it’s offered as a credential, like if you put it in a bio, or a cover letter.
When not satire then I think it often comes down to ignorance. For some prizes, the Man-Booker comes to mind, even getting considered for the longlist is an acheivement. We’ve certainly seen people who’ve no idea how the Hugos work thinking that because they’ve been nominated then they should rush out to buy a plane ticket and a tux right now.
@Rachel Swirsky – Or get the book medallion tattooed on your chest.
@19 — I should have added (for the benefit of anyone as disconnected from TV foofaraw as I was) that Dubrovnik is used as King’s Landing. IIRC there were GoT tours offered, but the town wasn’t exactly drowning in GoT merchandise; what I mostly saw was variations on a T-shirt showing the emblems of ~9 of the major houses (with names and mottoes in almost-illegible type).
(11) SELECTIVE QUOTE OF THE DAY
Nothing to add, just want to admire the title.
I think I shall start describing myself as an aspiring Hugo nominee.
Ain’t no genre award I’m more compatible with / Now it’s ballot time I just want your / List
#3: The Cartoon Museum exhibitions are almost always exceptional, so I’m not surprised this one is too. (It’s just round the corner from the British Museum; as a Londoner I try to make time to go to both of them regularly.)
#8: The BBC radio programme More or Less (iPlayer link) did a good piece the other week about whether or not 2016 was exceptional in terms of “celebrity” deaths – but, leaving aside people who are over 90(!), the general conclusion was that as the whole notion of celebrity took a massive upswing post-WW2, things are probably likely to get worse rather than better.
Hasbro: ROM was one of the first comic series (that wasn’t published by Harvey) that I ever read. I still remember seeing the ROM toy in stores, though I never had it. (I had pretty much every damn M.A.S.K. toy though. I cringe to think about how much of my mother’s limited income went into massive numbers of media tie-in toys during my childhood. Star Wars, G.I. Joe, He-Man, Transformers, Crystar, AD&D (looking back some of the nicest figures, wish I still had them), etc, etc.)
Superman prequel Krypton: sounds like they are attempting to recapture the massive success of the BSG prequel Caprica.
Speaking of manga (okay, there was a little speaking of manga yesterday) here are a couple I’ve been reading recently.
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou by Hitoshi Ashinano has been recommended before by me and others (it is still one of my favorite series from any medium.) Ashinano has a new series currently running called Kotonoba Drive. It revolves around a girl named Suu (not to be confused with A Boy Named Sue) who experiences unusual things that everyone around her is unaware of. It is more episodic and a little more hectic and dialogy than Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, but shares much of the atmospheric feel and simply-drawn rural scenery-porn. Call it a “slice-of-pretty-weird-life” story. It is the evolutionary descendant of the oneshot Kumabachi no Koto and the very short series PositioN. If you sample only one chapter from the Kotonoba Drive/Kumabachi no Koto/PositioN trilogy, make it chapter 3 of Kotonoba Drive, which is (IMHO) enjoyably creepy.
Yuru Yuru by Takamichi. This is another nicely-illustrated (and full-color!) slice-of-life series, this time a light comedy. It features three high-school girls (with guest appearances by a green pigeon, a golden hamster, an alpaca, and a capybara) having adventures in their small coastal town. The style of humor reminds me a bit of Azumanga Daioh or Ichigo Mashimaro. For a sample, try chapter 12. This one runs far too short, only 46 four or eight-page chapters. Takamichi’s Ritou no Umi is worth checking out, too.
[Checkbox selected]
Have you looked here yet? (Warning: time-suck vortex.)
Simon Bucher-Jones: I hope I’m not in the claiming to be a nominee bracket, as all I actually said was ‘at least one person is mad enough to consider nominating me’ which is double qualified, and doesn’t say being nominated = finalist. However if the list thinks such a claim *too strong* I’ll go and edit it.
Oh, for heaven’s sake, no, Simon, you’re fine — the authors to whom I’m referring are trumpeting it as if it means they are Finalists, two of them on the internet, one on Facebook. And at least one of them is well aware that they’re making a deceptive claim, and they’re persisting with it anyway.
I hope they have to deal with some seriously awkward questions from friends and family members, after the Finalists are announced.
Oevna Cnbar, Zbetna Fzvgu, Natryvdhr F. Naqrefba
@Brian Z: Nicely filked.
Many of you might be interested in a discussion going on at Language Log right now, about conversations conducted in more than one language — including switching from one language to another mid-sentence.
4) The original GI Joe relaunch was written by Larry Hama and before they got into the whole Sgt. Slaughter nonsense, was pretty detailed and largely based on existing military roles. If they can avoid the sillier aspects, there’s absolutely fodder in there for a good film.
@JJ Oevna Cnbar, Zbetna Fzvgu, Natryvdhr F. Naqrefba
I have never even heard of any of those authors. I guess the only nominations they received were from friends and family (and themselves of course).
Now that you point them out, Natryvdhr F. Naqrefba would make an excellent pen name. Seems very Eastern European.
(4) If there’s going to be a new G. I. Joe TV series, we can always hope for an updated version of that time the Joes went to Worldcon.
(14) IN FACT IT’S COLD AS HELL
I foresee a new flurry of fictional Venus colonies carefully located in the habitable-temperature zone that presumably exists somewhere south of the polar zone. (Yes I know how silly that last phrase is.) This could be amusing if that zone is, say, twenty feet wide.
And for those still tracking reviews of 2016 works, thoughts on anime season premieres numbers 19 and 20 are up now. The roundup will now switch into commentary mode for the rest of the season.
Oevna Cnbar was the one who was contacted by the chairman of the Hugo Nominating Committee and told that he was on the shortlist, but then put straight by Kevin Standlee. Not even heard of the other two. Searches here come up with nothing, which suggests they’re not on any (public) Puppy slates.
Venus already has a habitable temperature zone–it is around 30 miles above the surface.
Doctor Science on April 22, 2016 at 6:09 am said:
I used to have a workmate in the next cube who was fluent in English, Arabic and French. When speaking to relatives, he would often switch languages in mid sentence.
I do not speak any Arabic or French. At all. I am very good at tuning out people talking on the phone. But *every single time* he switched languages, my attention was yanked back to the conversation, and I had to tune him out again.
This was fascinating to me.
I could see paying attention when he switched to or from English. That made some sense. But why, oh why, would my attention be yanked back when he switched back and forth from Arabic to French? I can’t understand those languages. I can’t be following the conversation even on a subconscious level. And yet, it happened every time.
The brain. It is intriguing.
Today’s Read — All Our Pretty Songs, by Sarah McCarry
After a long series of somewhat disappointing reads, I am thrilled to have gotten to this short Greek myth-tinged fantasy novel about the limits of love. Lyrically written, and exactly as long as it needs to be, I was riveted by it even though it had (mild spoiler) n gbgnyyl ohzzre raqvat.
Definitely gets a thumbs up.
(13) A MULTIPLE-CHUS PANEL
Surely it should be titled “A Chu-Chu train.”
I’ll show myself out now.
@Darren G.: I know that TV Tropes page but Alex Jeffers isn’t on it and all-male societies are few enough to make a comprehensive list doable and interesting.
In the kidlit book The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex (the very loose basis for the CG animated movie Home) there is an “alien invaders have their own alien enemies” situation (that probably has its own trope) where the enemy of our enemy (which isn’t our friend) is a species of alien that is so violent that it wiped itself out to the last man. That last man (or male, at least)–thanks to replicator technology–has repopulated his species with millions of clones of himself. Does that count for your list?
@Fugue:
This is SF, so rather it should be a Chu-Chu Rocket!