(1) THE ROARING 20. James Davis Nicoll continues his series of “core” lists with “Twenty Core Trader Speculative Fiction Works Every True SF Fan Should Have On Their Shelves”.
(2) PRIME TIME LE GUIN. Rare video of Ursula K. LeGuin’s Guest of Honor Speech at Aussiecon (1975) has been uploaded to YouTube by Fanac.org.
AussieCon, the 33rd Worldcon, was held in Melbourne, Australia in 1975. Guest of Honor Ursula K. Le Guin gave an insightful and entertaining speech about the state of science fiction, and her part in it. There’s a real sense of community evident here, as well as a delightful sense of humor (look for the propeller beanie). Le Guin’s comments on the place of women in the field are particularly interesting. The bearded gentleman who introduces her is Robin Johnson, chairman of Aussiecon. Thanks to S.C.I.F.I. for digitizing, and to Elayne Pelz for providing us the footage.
(3) I FOUGHT THE LAW. Litigation begins: “Bookseller Suing California Over ‘Autograph Law'”. {Publishers Weekly has the story.
Last year, the California legislature broadened a set of civil code regulations focused on autographed collectibles to include “all autographed items” with a value over $5. Assembly Bill 1570 requires anyone selling autographed books to provide an extremely detailed “certificate of authenticity” with each book, describing the book, identifying the signer, noting witnesses of the book signing, insurance information, and other details. Per the new law, booksellers must keep the certificates for seven years or risk substantial damages, court fees, and a civil penalty if the autographed book gets questioned in court.
These new regulations took effect in January, prompting protests from around the state—including a Change.org petition with over 1,700 signatures urging the state legislature to repeal the bill. Petrocelli’s suit marks the first time a California bookseller has challenged the law in court.
The Pacific Legal Foundation, a non-profit law firm defending “private property rights, individual liberty, free enterprise, [and] limited government,” mounted Petrocelli’s lawsuit free of charge, as it does for all its clients. “We spoke to booksellers up and down the coast,” said Anastasia Boden, one of the PLF attorneys representing Book Passage in the suit. “But Bill was the only one so far brave enough to join a constitutional lawsuit and act as a civil rights plaintiff.”
The lawsuit argues that common bookstore practices like guest author lectures and book signings “are fundamental to First Amendment freedoms.” By that argument, the regulations Assembly Bil 1570 places on booksellers violates a basic freedom accorded to all Americans by the Constitution.
According to the lawsuit, the new paperwork and penalties “significantly burdened and seriously threatened” Petrocelli’s efforts to sell books autographed by their authors. Book Passage hosts around 700 author events every year, as well as a “Signed First Editions Club” for dedicated members. These programs, under the new law, would generate thousands of pages of paperwork, as well as the potential for massive liabilities.
(4) POPCORN V. PROTEIN BARS. Yahoo! Beauty finds “Wonder Woman Fans Angry Over ‘ThinkThin’ Movie Promotion Deal”.
Wonder Woman is viewed as a strong and fearless female character in popular culture — and one would think that the production company about to debut a major feature film based on the character would align its marketing tools with the same profile.
Instead, Warner Bros. has partnered with the protein-focused nutrition company ThinkThin to promote the upcoming flick, and it’s causing quite a stir, as many users believe it sends the wrong message.
“We wanted to celebrate a hero film featuring a woman in the leading role,” Michele Kessler, the president of ThinkThin, said in a press release on the partnership. “We love that Wonder Woman has super strength, and we’re proud to offer delicious products that give women the everyday strength they need to power through their day.”
But despite ThinkThin’s belief that its variety of protein smoothie mixes and bars are fit for powerful women — the primary target the upcoming film is celebrating — fans still have a lot to say about the partnership. Many believe teaming up with the company sends the wrong message from the film.
There have proven to be two sides to the controversy — as this pair of tweets shows:
https://twitter.com/conductorchrist/status/861390049451139072
(5) OPEN DOORS. Bryan Thao Worra, President of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, told Specpo readers — “’Science Fiction is for Everyone’ Panel at LA Harbor College a success”.
On April 25th, the Cultural Equity Workgroup invited five science fiction authors and fans to LA Harbor College to discuss the subject “Science Fiction Is For Everyone,” for a room that was at times standing room only.
Held in Tech 110, I was presenting with Stephanie Brown, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Jaymee Goh, Gregg Castro and Steven Barnes. It was a great line-up with some touching comments that drew on diverse fields of knowledge and experience, from the work and influence of Nnedi Okorafor and Octavia Butler, to the way readers and writers have been brought into the world of science fiction not only in the US but around the world. There was a strong highlight on the appeal of steampunk and afrofuturism.
During my portion of the panel, I focused on a discussion of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association, and had the honor of previous SFPA president Deborah Kolodji in attendance as well as fellow SFPA member and community builder Denise Dumars facilitating the conversation. Overall, our audience was very engaged with our varied approaches to the speculative arts. I demonstrated that speculative poetry draws on a very extensive tradition back to the very roots of poetry itself. The work of Edgar Allan Poe was cited as one of the key efforts to develop a distinctive American voice in poetry that was distinct from what was found in Europe at the time.
(6) PROMETHEUS ONLINE. The Libertarian Futurist Society has launched a new blog devoted to science fiction, Prometheus Blog which replaces the society newsletter.
The new blog complements our main mission of awarding annual literary awards, the Prometheus Award and the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, along with periodic special awards and Hall of Fame awards for notable authors.
..We will be offering news about our organization’s awards and actions, and we’ll be publishing reviews of science fiction books and other artistic works of genre interest, and essays on science fiction.
The blog’s introductory post is “Freedom in the Future Tense: A Political History of SF” by Eric S. Raymond, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar and a longtime SF fan.
One: people whose basic political philosophy is flatly incompatible with libertarianism will continue to find the SF mainstream an uncomfortable place to be. Therefore, sporadic ideological revolts against the Campbellian model of SF will continue, probably about the established rate of one per decade. The Futurians, the New Wave, the cyberpunks, and “Radical Hard SF” were not the end of that story, because the larger political questions that motivated those insurrections are not yet resolved.
Two: all these revolts will fail in pretty much the same way. The genre will absorb or routinize their literary features and discard their political agendas. And SF will continue to puzzle observers who mistake its anti-political DNA for conservatism while missing its underlying radicalism.
And the blog’s coming attractions:
In the next few weeks, we will publish book reviews of all of the current nominees for the 2017 Prometheus Award. A survey of the works of Jack Vance will soon by published. Many other articles are in the pipeline.
(9) STATION INFESTATION. Here’s a rare opportunity to watch a monster movie within a stone’s throw of the locale they terrorized — “Off-Ramp Recommendation: Scientists needed! Giant ants invade Union Station Friday night!”
Let’s face it. Ants are nobody’s favorite. They ruin summer picnics, sneak under the door to steal your crumbs, and are… HUGE?! In 1954 sci-fi film “Them!” ants are gigantic, radioactive, flesh-eating, and coming directly for you!
Friday night, as part of the Metro Art series, Union Station is screening the second film in its “Sci-Fi at Union Station” series. It’s the 1954 sci-fi classic “Them!” LA Times entertainment reporter and classic Hollywood expert Susan King will provide a background on the film and its historical significance to both the sci-fi genre and LA.
Director Gordon Douglas helped created the nuclear monster genre with “Them!” and due to its campy horror, the movie has become a cult-classic. “Them!” follows the creation and subsequent terror of carnivorous insects and their pursuit of film stars James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, and Joan Weldon. The film culminates in a battle scene set in our very own city, featuring shots of beautiful Union Station, LA’s neighborhoods, and storm drains.
And if that’s not enough – young Leonard Nimoy appears in the film (in a very minor role)!
(10) MORE FROM WJW. Flyover Fandom has Part 2 of its interview with Walter Jon Williams.
DAF: The Praxis is a very stratified society. What did you look at for inspiration, because at times you will have Peers engaged in almost comedy of manners escapades. At other times they engage in white collar crime. What did you pull from?
WJW: There are almost too many to mention. But certainly the books reflect class and class resentment in the 19th century British empire. Which became more class-based as the century went on, but in addition to the diehard imperialists out to conquer the world, they also produced Bertie Wooster and Oscar Wilde.
The social setting is based on Republican Rome, as that experience came down through Spain and the colonial experience in New Mexico where I live. There are certain practices common in Rome that are still common in New Mexico, such as the patron-client relationship exercised by the leading Spanish families and their descendants.
The underground movements of World War II are another great inspiration. At one point Sula is leading the an underground movement against an occupying army, and I gave her an alias taken from a real-life French resistance heroine, Lucie Aubrac.
(11) TODAY’S DAY
Twilight Zone Day
The Twilight Zone was created by acclaimed television producer Rod Serling in 1959, with the first episode premiering on October 2nd. At the time of its release, it was vastly different from anything else on TV, and it struggled a bit to carve out a niche for itself at the very beginning. In fact, Serling himself, though respected and adored by many, was famous for being one of Hollywood’s most controversial characters and was often call the “angry young man” of Hollywood for his numerous clashes with television executives and sponsors over issues such as censorship, racism, and war. However, his show soon gained a large, devoted audience. Terry Turner of the Chicago Daily News gave it a rave review, saying, “Twilight Zone is about the only show on the air that I actually look forward to seeing. It’s the one series that I will let interfere with other plans.” The Twilight Zone ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964.
(12) EXOPLANET STUDY. James Davis Nicoll calls this “more evidence we live in a Hal Clement universe” — “Primitive atmosphere discovered around ‘Warm Neptune'”.
A pioneering new study uncovering the ‘primitive atmosphere’ surrounding a distant world could provide a pivotal breakthrough in the search to how planets form and develop in far-flung galaxies.
A team of international researchers, co-lead by Hannah Wakeford from NASA and Professor David Sing from the University of Exeter, has carried out one of the most detailed studies to date of a ‘Warm Neptune’ – a planet that is similar in size to our own Neptune, but which orbits its sun more closely.
The study revealed that the exoplanet – found around 430 light years from Earth – has an atmosphere that composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with a relatively cloudless sky.
This primitive atmosphere suggests the planet most likely formed closer to its host star or later in its solar system development, or both, compared to the Ice Giants Neptune or Uranus.
Crucially, the discovery could also have wide implications for how scientists think about the birth and development of planetary systems in distant galaxies.
(13) CRY ME A RIVER. Break out your tissues – ScreenRant is ready to show you “Doctor Who: 15 Most Heartbreaking Moments”. (Boo Who!)
- River is saved in The Library
Entire books could be written on The Doctor and River Song and how their relationship is a mess of mixed up timelines. The Doctor’s first moment with her is River’s last with him and wrapping your head around that is a sadder thing than most. As the audience, our relationship with their story begins from The Doctor’s perspective and it’s not until later seasons do we realize just how lovely it really is.
River’s first appearance coincides with her death and it’s tough for us to watch, let alone for The Doctor to experience. She knows his true name, has his screwdriver, and is aware of every moment of their future together but–for the sake of spoilers–knows she can’t divulge too much.
In her dying moments, she talks about her last night with him and how beautiful it was before saying goodbye to the man she’s loved for years, knowing that he’s only just met her.
In a final and also first act of love–The Doctor realizes his future self had a plan and is able to restore River’s mind (saved in the sonic screwdriver) to a computer where she can, in a way, live on for eternity.
(14) MY VOTE. Is it too late to pick Hayley Atwell as the next Doctor Who? ScreenRant sells the idea.
If the series does decide to go for a female Doctor in season eleven, we’re looking pointedly in the direction of Marvel star Hayley Atwell. The British actress shot to fame as Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger, a role that eventually led to her own spin-off series, Marvel’s Agent Carter. Agent Carter was cancelled after two seasons, to the disappointment of its huge fan base, and Atwell went on to work on Conviction, which was cancelled after only a single season. Although we would have loved to see Atwell find success with the show, this leaves her in need of a new project – and what better than Doctor Who?
Atwell has everything that we are looking for in a new Doctor. She’s British, which is something of a requirement (it’s easier to envision a female Doctor than an American one, for most fans!), and she’s very used to dealing with a major role in a huge franchise, thanks to Marvel. Her role as Agent Carter also proved her ability to work with a sci-fi/fantasy role, and to get physical with a part. Peggy Carter is not afraid to do things her own way, or to get her hands dirty; and while the doctor isn’t as violent as Peggy has been, he certainly does his fair share of physical adventuring. She’s got a genius for comedy, which is a vital part of the show, and she’s mature enough and experienced enough to handle a character as complicated as the Doctor. She’s also much younger than Capaldi – and we’ve seen from past Doctors that the current fandom seems to connect more with younger regenerations. Although longtime fans loved Capaldi’s take on the character, there is no denying that some viewers did find him less appealing than the more boyishly charming Smith and David Tennant.
In addition to all of this, Atwell herself has said that she would like to take on the role. In a Twitter Q&A, the actress said “I’d like to BE Doctor Who”, setting the fandom alight when it happened in 2015. At the time, she was busy with Agent Carter, but now that she’s looking for a new project, we would be surprised if she doesn’t throw her hat in the ring with the BBC. Having a longtime fan join the franchise is always a good thing, as it means that the new star is approaching the role with an in-depth understanding of who, exactly, the Doctor really is.
(15) SCI-FI ORIGINS. This is as exciting as paleontologists finding a record-setting homonid fossil. Yesterday in comments, Bill pointed to a 2014 post by Fred Shapiro claiming an earlier origin for the term “sci-fi” than previously known:
There has been a fair amount of attention given to the question of what is the earliest use of the term “sci-fi.” The OED’s first use is dated 1955. The OED web site of science fiction citations has a December 1954 usage by Forrest J. Ackerman, who is often said to be the coiner. A supposed usage by Robert A. Heinlein in 1949 has been shown to be erroneous. The term looks very much like a Varietyism, and in fact I have now found an earlier occurrence in Variety:
1954 _Variety_ 17 Feb. 38 (ProQuest) New Telepix Shows … The commercial possibilities are there as well since “Junior Science,” aside from its positive qualities, is a rewarding change of pace from the more thunderous sci-fi and spaceship packages.
(16) GRAPHIC STORY. Deadline: Hollywood displays the new SyFy logo.
For the first time since the NBCUniversal cable network changed its name from Sci Fi to Syfy in 2009, it is changing its logo, introducing a new identity brand refresh ahead of the channel’s 25th anniversary in September.
(17) SYFY REBOOT. io9 says the logo is a minor change in comparison to what will be happening to Syfy programming: “Syfy’s Plan to Save Itself: Harry Potter, Comic Books, and George R.R. Martin”.
Of course, all of that is window dressing compared what Syfy will actually put up on screens. McCumber said the goal was to go back to high-end, scripted television, with four focuses: space and scifi, fantasy, paranormal and supernatural, and superheroes and comics.
The Expanse and The Magicians are clearly the network’s flagship returning shows, mentioned many times and with pictures all over the presentations. For new projects, it was announced Tuesday night that Happy!, the adaptation of a Grant Morrison comic starring Christopher Meloni that was announced last year, will get a full season. Similarly, the Superman prequel Krypton has a full series order.
The only new project announced was the development of George R.R. Martin’s Nightflyers, a scifi-horror novella he wrote in 1980, which was actually adapted into a movie in 1987.
(18) NEW GRRM TV PROJECT. The Hollywood Reporter says “George R.R. Martin Novella ‘Nightflyers’ Headed for TV on Syfy”.
The ‘Game of Thrones’ creator is teaming with writer Jeff Buhler to develop the drama for the small screen.
Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin is expanding his TV footprint.
The author and exec producer of HBO’s fantasy drama is teaming with Syfy to adapt his 1980 novella Nightflyers for the small screen, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Set in the future on the eve of Earth’s destruction, a crew of explorers journey on the most advanced ship in the galaxy, The Nightflyer, to intercept a mysterious alien spacecraft that might hold the key to their survival. As the crew nears their destination, they discover that the ship’s artificial intelligence and never-seen captain may be steering them into deadly and unspeakable horrors deep in the dark reaches of space.
(19) DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS. The editor of Rabid Puppy Hugo nominee Cirsova apparently is getting it from both sides.
I know a lot of you guys hate the Hugo Awards, but I've gotten way more snark for good-faith promoting our nom from 'our side' than "theirs"
— Cirsova – JD Cowan's Star Wanderers Coming Soon! (@cirsova) May 11, 2017
Here’s an example from “his side.”
https://twitter.com/ScribesShade/status/862739997077544960
And I guess this is what provoked Cirsova’s comment. (Waves hello!)
https://twitter.com/ScribesShade/status/862741643660730368
(20) NODDING OFF. Did any SF writers think getting a good night’s sleep in space would be this difficult? “The quest to help astronauts sleep better”.
But getting a good night’s sleep in space is not easy. There are no beds or pillows – astronauts sleep strapped to the wall in sleeping bags. And that’s not all. “There’re probably several reasons they don’t sleep properly,” says Elmenhorst. “Isolation, a sunrise every 90 minutes and [with the ventilation system] it’s quite noisy in the ISS.” Often, astronauts have to work shifts to monitor experiments or capture visiting supply ships.
To investigate how this lack of sleep affects astronauts’ performance, Elmenhorst’s team has been subjecting groups of paid volunteers to sleep deprivation experiments. “We want to show how sleep loss affects cognitive function,” she says, “and how some people cope better than others.”
(21) SEE-THRU. “Scientists 3D-print transparent glass” – a video report. Chip Hitchcock sent the link with a comment, “It will be interesting to see whether they ever make their goal of printing photographic lenses, which would require very fine control.”
(22) BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE. How did the religion gain its reputation for being less incompatible with science than many others? At NPR: “Buddhism, Science And The Western World”.
Of course, by its very nature religion, all religions, are changed by their encounters with new cultures. This is particularly true of Buddhism and its steady march eastward from its birth in India 2,500 years ago. Religions always have a way of outgrowing their own scriptural and ritual basis, while simultaneously holding on to them. As author Karen Armstrong has shown, practitioners in any age are always selecting out those parts of their religions that are meaningful to them while ignoring the parts that seem dated. She called the process “creative misreading.”
[Robert] Sharf has no problem with the creative misreading that allows Buddhist Modernism to share space with scientific worldviews. “My concern,” he told Tricycle, “is not with the selectivity of those who read Buddhism as a rationalist and scientific religion — it is perfectly understandable given the world in which we live. It is really not a question of misreading. It is a question of what gets lost in the process.”
(23) SITH REALITY. Cédric Delsaux has put an interesting spin on Star Wars by incorporating its imagery into real photos.
“Over the years, many artists have interpreted Star Wars in ways that extend well beyond anything we saw in the films. One of the most unique and intriguing interpretations that I have seen is in the work of Cedric Delsaux, who has cleverly integrated Star Wars characters and vehicles into stark urban, industrial – but unmistakably earthbound – environments. As novel and disruptive as his images are, they are also completely plausible.”
George Lucas
(24) WRITE A BIG CHECK. An early visualization of the idea for Disneyland will be auctioned soon, and it won’t go cheap — “Original Disneyland concept art shows park origins, growth”.
Tomorrowland was originally going to be called World of Tomorrow. Frontierland was Frontier Country. Lilliputian Land never became a reality at Disneyland. And no one could have foreseen a “Star Wars” land opening in 2019.
Walt Disney spent a marathon weekend in 1953 brainstorming ideas for the new family amusement park he envisioned called Disneyland. There would be a train station and an old-fashioned Main Street square. The park would have a princess castle and a pirate ship, maybe even a rocket. Disney wanted to get investors on board, so he described the various elements he imagined to artist Herb Ryman, who translated them into a hand-drawn map — Disneyland’s first.
That original concept art could fetch as much as $1 million when it goes up for auction next month, auctioneer Mike Van Eaton said.
(25) ANIMATION ROUNDUP. Financial Times writer James Mottram, in “Are animation movies growing up?”, gives an overview of current arthouse animation projects, including Tehran Taboo, Your Name, and the Oscar-nominated film which is My Life As A Zucchini in the US and My Life As A Courgette in the Uk. He includes an interview with Michael Dudok de Wit, director of the Oscar-nomnated, Studio Ghibli-backedThe Red Turtle. (The link is to the Google cache file, which worked for me – I hope it will work for you!)
[Thanks to JJ, Chip Hitchcock, Martin Morse Wooster, James Davis Nicoll, rcade, Eli, Bill, Cat Eldridge, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Robert Whitaker Sirignano.]
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(1) I don’t think I would have included The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. The characters are engineers, not traders.
Pride of Chanur… valid, but I’d have picked Merchanters Luck
(6) Ugh. That essay is not only deeply flawed by its very narrow view of science fiction (unfortunate but overlookable if the writer is aware of it and admits it), but by the simple lack of knowledge about the genre and its history. Eg, by the Futurians were much earlier than he posits, and predated the social transformation as science fiction trend that Pohl was part of in the 1950s. And I believe that the Great Exclusion Act of 1939 included specific references to communist (for some values of communist) writings.
And he totally misses feminism in the 1970s. If I continue to read it, I fear I might just reinforce my existant prejudice that if you scratch on a libertarian, you often find a fascist.
(7) There is no eight!
(15) This is why I believe linguists will find fanzines to be a treasure trove on slang etymology or how informal oral usage is transformed to formal written usage.
A friend of the family who did a project on old French radical newspapers (of the 1920s I believe, though it might be earlier) said that he got a huge side benefit from it by being able to give much earlier first documented use of lots of French and Parisien slang. With the Internet, you can of course do this “in real time”, but being able to compare with earlier mechanisms where we can see the full result will also be very valuable.
Hampus:
I honestly couldn’t tell you which kind of Think Thin bars I usually get–I don’t track which sub-catagory of product I buy from them. My strategy is to read the nutritional information for each bar and get the ones which have the protien/carb amounts recommended by the nutritionist at my doctor’s office.
I don’t bother with sodium levels etc, because this is something I might be eating for about four meals out of the year–it’s not enough of an effect for me to care. If I was a regular eater of meal bars (heaven preserve me from such a fate) I’d probably be more picky.
(1) at least one work here is fantasy, not SF: The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker. She had two novels set in this universe and told me that she disappointed that she wouldn’t have the time to do more.
I’m still pissed at Eric Raymond from the time my new bride spent a good evening of our honeymoon singing Kinks songs with him rather than going to the Perl Porters 5.7 release party with me. It’s the sort of wound that never heals, because I really like The Kinks.
Speaking of music, I found this very interesting: Is Poptimism Now As Blinkered As The Rockism It Replaced? I’ve been on the fringes of music criticism for decades, having mostly stopped writing about music and no longer working in a record store, so I was only vaguely familiar with the concepts of “rockism” and “poptimism” (though they were evocative enough terms that I got the gist of it close enough). I’m also enough on the fringes of current SF that I’m unable to tell whether it has any relevance to the field today.
So I offer it up as
chum for trollingfood for discussion.@Karl-Johan Norén And he totally misses feminism in the 1970s.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? Lots of fannish histories of SF manage to overlook 70s feminism – it’s a curiously specific blind spot. (Or not so curious, I guess.)
No mention of Cambell’s notorious racism either, I notice, or that his “higher standards of scientific plausibility” included psychic powers, Dianetics, the Heieronymous machine, and gyroscope-based anti-gravity…
1) of the list, I only have one, and it’s THE GOBLIN MARKET, which is poetry.
It’s too easy to make lists: it requires virtually no research.
I hope I can use File 770’s good offices to convey to NASA that they need not spend money on sleep deprivation experiments. Just send a rep to my house…
One Cyberpunk fan history, by Stirling, maybe? erased women’s SF of the 1960s and 1970s, presumably because the ‘punks look better the less interesting the 1970s were.
Lisa Yaszek mentions in a number of places that one of the … reforms… Campbell instituted was eliminating the women writers who had been selling to Astounding before he took over. It’s the same basic process we saw in the 1980s, where people just wrote women SF authors out of the history.
Animation grows up: Obviously, someone has not seen any number of Japanese films, like BAREFOOT GEN, which are not children’s films.
That makes me think of Northwest Smith, which in turn makes me wonder if I can come up with a list of 20 books with protagonists you really, really don’t want to be rescued by.
@James Davis Nicoll, heh. Given some thought I could come up with a few. Starting with the Thomas Covenant books…
6: I wish I had the strength to write up a point by point refutation of this hooey. Everything is so cherrypicked, I’m hiding my marachinos.
@James Davis Nicoll One Cyberpunk fan history, by Stirling, maybe? erased women’s SF of the 1960s and 1970s, presumably because the ‘punks look better the less interesting the 1970s were.
I think that erasure was already happening – at least among “true SF fans” – or I wouldn’t have absorbed the idea that the 1970s were boring as part of the standard folk-history of SF. (I still tend to instinctively think of 70s feminist SF as mainly Women’s Press/Kitchen Sink/Virago and not in conversation with genre SF, even though neither of those assumptions is true if I take a moment to think.) But it’s dangerous to generalise from just my own experience, of course.
I used the term “Speculative Fiction” for a reason….
More Ursula K Le Guin news: http://variety.com/t/ursula-k-le-guin/
I’m praying it will be good and terrified it won’t be. Also wondering just HOW they plan to do the backstory of the planet?
“Is animation growing up?” is one of those perennials that depend on an ignorance of the field, like “sf: no longer the exclusively male domain it was before The Hunger Games!” and “flying cars are at hand (please don’t mention the SEC thing)!”
@Karl-Johan Norén: If I continue to read it, I fear I might just reinforce my existant prejudice that if you scratch on a libertarian, you often find a fascist.
Sometimes if you just sneeze by one.
May I invite the people who feel an urge to comment on Eric Raymond’s essay to do so on Prometheus Blog? We have a comments field for just that purpose. We moderate comments, and will filter out spam, personal abuse, and ad hominem, but actual discussion is welcome.
William H. Stoddard (President, Libertarian Futurist Society)
Way too harsh on libertarians. Most of the ones I’ve known who didn’t have money were rabidly anti-war.
25) What next? An article that tells us “Zap! Pow! Comics not just for kids!”? Honestly, the appearance of articles like this are somewhat cyclical. They pop up whenever some animated movie gets some extra attention. You could argue that animated movies have always been grown up and that only people with a shallow knowledge of the subject think they are or were just for children.
We’ll scroll him cheesy pixels, the worst we can file (la-la-la)
@John A Arkansawyer:
Thanks for that poptimism article. It was really interesting and I have no idea what else to say about it 😉
Ghostbird
But, but, (6) says that “SF’s insistent individualism also led it to reject racism and feature strong female characters decades before the rise of political correctness ritualized these behaviors in other forms of art.”
I’m shocked! Shocked!
@Cassy B on protagonists you don’t want to be rescued by:
I’ll see your Thomas Covenant, and raise with Elric by Melniboné.
I reviewed four of the five Prometheus nominees this year. I thought two were interesting, one was terrible and one was an L. Neil Smith novel.
@Cora
Raymond published it on his blog, like, a decade ago and it might even be older than that (would explain why his history ends about 15 years ago), so you’re not imagining things.
I always find his writing on the genre interesting, if not entirely convincing.
Yeah, there isn’t just one type of libertarian–there is a couple of dozen.
Gee, Thomas Covenant? That rotten hero?
I’ll see you one Master Norman Bates.
@Darren: (24 types)
Neat and fun, but it’s a padded list. There’s so much overlap between some of the “types” that I don’t think anyone would notice if they were merged. The gun guy and the ammo hoarder, for instance, or both tax-cuts-über-alles guys.
(4) Just as it is possible to be unhealthily underweight, there is such as thing as being unhealthily overweight. I’ve been there. Glad I’m not anymore.
We do those that are obese a disservice if we excuse that condition. There are obviously differences between positively encouraging a healthy weight and being insulting/rude about it.
The folks that read that last sentence as “fat shaming” are part of the problem.
————-
(19) I’m working on a review of Cirsova #2. P. Alexander has been most cooperative and cordial behind the scenes when I asked questions about him and his publication. I hope to have the review done in time to help Hugo voters.
The stories were mostly decent, but the novella was delightfully subversive with a pro-feminist underlying message.
I’m in a Facebook group with some conservative/libertarian leaning folks. Their problems mirror problems* here.
*problems being defined as people that pass beyond disagreement (at times passionate disagreement) to being rudely intolerant.
————-
Hugo reading:
Ninefox Gambit: Decent story. Not terribly interested in the characters. The mathematics as calendar/religion comes off as fantasy. Math doesn’t work that way. Erg.
Slightly below Noah…still thinking about it.
Too Like The Lightning: Would have flown across the room if it were a physical book. A poster child for using the phrase “message fiction”* as a pejorative.
All The Birds In The Sky: Still reading. Totally engaged. Characters I care about. Fun story. (and yes there are messages included, but the author has wisely given them a soft presentation so the reader can either dive deep or ignore them as needed.)
*There are non-pejorative uses.
Regards,
Dann
Or the world’s oddest Bond Girl.
“Careful, Snowflake. We wouldn’t want to Trigger anything.”
“Oh, James!”
I do not see what that has to do with unhealthy chocolate bars sold by a supermodel.
JJ – Your ability to read my mind is seriously flawed. I would suggest that you stop, but it makes me smile every time you attempt to do so.
Guardians of the Galaxy has ties to
Doritos: https://www.doritoschooseyourguardian.com/agegate
Dairy Queen: http://www.brandeating.com/2017/04/dairy-queen-introduces-new-guardians-of-the-galaxy-blizzard.html
and who knows what other types of junk food. But some are offended by Protein Bars with WW and are trying to make some weird political point about it?
As a diabetic, the bars are not that bad as a long lasting protein & calorie without a lot of carbs. Fats give you the long lasting calories without the carb hit. I’ll use straight roasted peanuts as a high fat/protein and low carb travel food. Glucerna bars are much more pricey.
Glibertarians.
“Thin” is not a health standard, it’s an aesthetic standard.
@Dr Abernathy
It’s not a political standard, to me, its a long standing problem with body shaming, thinness and other issues for women in our society. Its a mess that has been in our society for quite a while.
Having a female role model shilling for these bars IS, intended or not, omes across as a message to women that “Hey, you need to lose weight. Here, eat these bars instead of a big meal.”. The intent might be “be healthy!”, the message that comes across to many women instead seen is “You’re fat!”
If Starlord was shilling for these bars, or any man, really, it wouldn’t be seen this way, because there isn’t a societal bias and perception that men need to lose weight to be successful.
William H. Stoddard (President, Libertarian Futurist Society): Or you could join the discussion here, where it’s already in progress.
@ TooManyJens
Robert Heinlein would agree. One of his collections of short stories includes one from the 40s (I think) where a young woman starves herself to achieve the form that she thinks her boyfriend wants because all the other girls are suitably thin. He ends up telling her he is into how she was (i.e. curvy) and now the thin version to which she aspires.
There are obviously some differences in time/era that might impact a more modern telling of the same tale. But it was pretty predictive of the later problems with anorexia.
I agree with you as well, FWIW.
Curves are great! But there comes a point where it stops being curvy and starts being unhealthy in that direction.
@Hampus
Americans consume a lot of really bad foods. By comparison, these protein bars are a healthier option. Especially if one of those bars and a piece of fruit replaces a normal meal. Lots of protein and less sugar are good things.
We have an obesity (and diabetes) problem due largely to cheap (and increasingly sweetened) food. It is a problem that is spreading around the world.
If a little WW tie-in marketing will help someone eat a little healthier, then I think it is worthwhile.
Regards,
Dann
Karl-Johan: It’s not clear to me that Eric misplaces the \influence/ of the Futurians; they weren’t active as such in the 1950’s, but they were connected enough to call on each other for the change Eric notes (even if he misclaims that it was subsumed). Pohl’s autobiography specifically mentions him going to Kornbluth (who Pohl says had essentially quit the field) to say “It’s raining soup and you’re standing there with your mouth closed.” (i.e., Galaxy and F&SF had opened up a market for what P, K, et al were interested in.) IIRC Eric does misdate the crash of the short-fiction market; in the mid-1960’s there were still at least 6 magazines (although not all of them were monthly), 4 of which failed in the early-to-mid-1970’s — and that was probably affected by Elwood’s original anthologies paying more for the available work.
@steve davidson: I hope I can use File 770’s good offices to convey to NASA that they need not spend money on sleep deprivation experiments. Just send a rep to my house… Unfortunately, they’re looking to deal with specific causes; unless you want to have them add a bank of floodlights to simulate a 90-minute day, you probably don’t want them on top of your current issues.
@Dann
A random person attempting to “encourage a healthy weight” is being, at least, excessively personal; anyone doing so without being the object’s personal physician is insufficiently knowledgeable — and even personal physicians can be blinkered (e.g., my practice still reports my BMI despite its inadequacy as a measurement).
“Heroes” I wouldn’t want to be rescued by: Hannibal Lecter is also on the list.
I’d much rather wrangle about Raymond’s vision of SF history (first version: 2002) here than on the libertarian site.
“Not until the late 1970s did any of the participants admit that many of the key Futurians had histories as ideological Communists or fellow travellers, and that fact remained relatively unknown in the field well into the 1990s.”
A stroll through the Fancyclopedia site suggests otherwise. (Search on “communism” and “Michelism” and track who was saying what about who and when.) Supplement with the following:
Knight, The Futurians (1977)
Pohl, The Way the Future Was (1978)
Asimov, In Memory Yet Green (1979)
I haven’t looked at any of these for quite a while, nor at Sam Moskowitz’ The Immortal Storm (1954, but begun in the mid-1940s) for decades, but I’ll wager that they all indicate the political content of those early fannish conflicts–and most of us within the SF subculture had read them well before the 1990s.
The “early 1950s” anti-Campellian reaction that Raymond connects to Fred Pohl and associated Futurian youngsters (many of whom at that point were WW2 vets and cultural contemporaries of Heinlein) seems more appropriately centered on the founding of F&SF (1949) and Galaxy (1950) than on former Futurians (or even Hydra Club members) who were among those magazines’ contributors. (Nor do adventure/space-opera magazines such as Startling or Thrilling Wonder get a mention.)
BTW, I read plenty of lefty Mack Reynolds’ stories in Campbell’s Analog in the 1960s.
@Dann:
That has nothing at all to do with marketing food on the basis that it will help you be more conventionally attractive (i.e, thin).
@Joe H.:
What do you have against a happy ending? 😉
Dann:
Here is the thing: If you are unhealthily overweight, your mission should be to loose enough weight to not be unhealthy. Not to reach the state of a supermodel which you most likely can’t anyhow. Unreachable goals is not the way to loose weight. Only a way to be ashamed. Your goal is not to be thin, it is to be healthy.
Second, yes, the bars are healthier than total crap. But not eating the bars and not eating the total crap is even healthier. Even eating other bars with more fibers, less carbs and necessary minerals and vitamins would be better.
I also eat bars sometimes instead of food when I want to loose weight. But then I choose a product that actually can work as a
meal replacement. Not going from crap to mostly crap.
If Starlord was shilling for these bars, or any man, really, it wouldn’t be seen this way, because there isn’t a societal bias and perception that men need to lose weight to be successful.
Also, the characters are positioned differently within their own narrative. Starlord is the central character of Guardians of the Galaxy, but he’s a misfit drenched in Boomer culture raised by pirates who has grown into a kind of dopey guy with dubious moral values. For the most part, he only seems like a good guy when considered in contrast to the more morally suspect characters around him.
Wonder Woman, on the other hand, is supposed to be a paragon, both morally and physically. She literally represents the best that one can aspire to be. Starlord is a goofball who does stupid and irresponsible things (as do the rest of the Guardians). Marketing ice cream associated with them is markedly different than marketing diet bars associated with what is supposed to be the apex of goodness and female power.
This is only my opinion, but I do not think obese people are the target group for “think thin”-bars sold by a supermodel. And that is part of why I am not happy with this ad.
On a higher level, I do not think supermodels, with a naturally thin body structure, are the people to tell others to think thin. Especially one that has said that she used to have a problem with being too thin and is happy that this movie has helped her do something about it.
Worth noting that Libertarianism actually started out as a lefty/socialist movement. When I was much younger, I used to describe myself as a “libertarian socialist” just to discombobulate people who mistakenly thought that would be a contradiction in terms–and even I was surprised to discover that not only was it not a contradiction in terms, but it was the original form of libertarianism.
But if you factor that in, then maybe the list of winners of the Prometheus Awards make a little more sense. Maybe. 😀
To me libertarianism has always been a dimension, which has to be combined with other things to make up a complete political position; it has right-wing forms and left-wing forms, and some people, both on the right and on the left, are more libertarian than others (but you can also be more libertarian in some ways and less libertarian in others). I think that this is quite a common way of seeing things in Europe; libertarianism as an identity, from which one can work out someone’s political views in a fairly specific way, seems to me to be largely an American thing.
I think the Prometheus awards do fit the basic concept of libertarianism fairly well; they are for works that promote freedom, in one way or another. If they don’t cohere very well with the normal outlook of American libertarians, the fault may not lie with the awards.
I think all comments I might have intended to make have been made by someone else. So, clickity clickity.
“Marketing ice cream associated with them is markedly different than marketing diet bars associated with what is supposed to be the apex of goodness and female power.”
Some of you are taking product tie-ins way to seriously.
@Hampus – Part of your body shape is how big your frame is. You can assess this by the thickness of your wrist (unless morbidly obese). Some people have thick bone structures, other thin. That partly determines your normal healthy weight.
@Dann – cheap food is a benefit to all – it is not a problem. It is necessary for life and everyone has a higher standard of living if food is inexpensive. Food is much less expensive in the USA than in much of the world due to a lot of reasons.
@Everyone – I don’t want the food police deciding what people can and cannot eat. Let them choose with their own money.