(1) CLARA COMING BACK? In a spoiler-filled post, “This ‘Doctor Who’ Companion Could Be About to Return for the Christmas Special “, Lewis Jeffries speculates about the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas Special.
On Twitter, it has been stated that Eddie’s Diner has been booked by BBC Doctor Who for two days of filming. Hardcore fans know that Eddie’s Diner is in fact Clara and Ashildr’s (Maisie Williams) TARDIS in disguise. So this can only mean one thing, the return of Clara Oswald and Ashildr.
(2) HELP WANTED. James Ciment, PhD, Acquisitions Editor for Popular Culture at ABC-CLIO, has an opening:
ABC-Clio, a reference and academic publisher based in Santa Barbara, California, is looking for an editor (or co-editors) for a reference book on aliens in popular American culture—popular literature, film, television, graphic fiction, and other genres and media. Book length and specific content will be determined by the editor in consultation with the publisher. The deadline for submission of the manuscript is flexible, within a range of 18 to 30 months. The book is intended for the college, public and academic high school library markets. Requirements for the editor are flexible as well but editor must have significant publishing history in the field of literary/film criticism, popular culture studies and/or related fields. Academic affiliation is recommended but not required. Reference editing experience helpful. Editor duties include developing a TOC, soliciting contributing writers, and editor manuscript for content. Publisher will provide administrative support and will be responsible for copy-editing and indexing.
Interested persons should send their CV to acquisitions editor James Ciment at: [email protected]
(3) LET THE APPERTAINMENT BEGIN. Steve Davidson knows that as often as I need to invite people to appertain themselves their favorite beverage (after spotting one of my typos), I probably need to order in bulk. And if I’m doing that, the bottles should have a house label – which he has supplied.
(4) DERRINGER AWARDS. The 2017 Derringer Awards winners, for short mystery fiction, have been announced. Unfortunately, Bruce D. Arthurs’ Derringer-nominated short story, “Beks and the Second Note,” did not get the nod. Here are the stories and authors that did:
2017 Derringer Award Results
BEST FLASH STORY (1 – 1,000 words)
- Herschel Cozine for “The Phone Call” (Flash Bang Mysteries, Summer 2016)
Best Short Story (1,001 – 4,000 words)
- Linda Barnes for “The Way They Do It in Boston” (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2016)
Best Long Story (4,001- 8,000 words)
- Victoria Weisfeld for “Breadcrumbs” (Betty Fedora: Kickass Women In Crime Fiction, Issue 3, September 2016)
Best Novelette (8,000 to 20,000 words)
- Terrie Farley Moran for “Inquiry and Assistance” (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, January/February 2016)
Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer
- Robert Randisi
(5) POD DRAMA. Tor Labs is a newly launched dramatic podcast imprint. Here’s an excerpt from Patty Garcia’s press release.
Tor Books, a leading global publisher of science fiction and fantasy, announced today that it is launching TOR LABS, a new imprint emphasizing experimental approaches to genre publishing, beginning with original dramatic podcasts.
Helmed by Senior Editor Marco Palmieri and Editor Jennifer Gunnels, Tor Labs will debut this summer with Steal the Stars, a science fiction audio drama which will be produced in partnership with Gideon Media and written by Mac Rogers, the award-winning writer of the global hit podcast thrillers, The Message and LifeAfter.
(6) TRAVEL FUNDING SOUGHT. Three Brazilian fans; Andressa Dreka, Mayara Teixeira Dos Santos, and Luis Alessio are crowdfunding to come to the UK for Lazlar Lyricon 3, a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy funcon being run in Stoke on Trent in June.
The trio help run Obrigado Pelos Peixes (“Thanks for All the Fish”) an organization in Brazil that ran its own convention, Don’t PaniCon, last year, and plan another for 2017.
James Bacon notes:
A few special items were auctioned at the recent UK Eastercon to help raise money for the project. These included an official Hitchhiker’s quote towel from the 1980s and a pair of beer glasses with Hitchhiker inspired designs from the 42nd Cambridge Beer Festival. This raised GBP212 for the fund.
The crowdfunding is being carried out on a Catarse site, via https://www.catarse.me/OPPnoLazlarLyricon3.
As File 770 reported over the winter, Lazlar Lyricon 3 will take place June 9-11. Committee members include Stefan Lancaster, Emma J. King, David Haddock and Alan Sullivan.
The first two Lazlar Lyricons were part of a series of conventions in the 1980s, 90s and early 00s colloquially called ‘Fun Cons’, which also included the Incons, Dangercons, and several one-off conventions such as Year of the Wombat and Aliens Stole my Handbag.
(7) READING ALOUD. Cat Rambo says, “A lot of us have listened to SFWA’s Executive Director Kate Baker narrating podcasts over the years, but here’s someone narrating one of Kate’s pieces” — “Old Teacups and Kitchen Witches by Kate Baker” on Cast of Wonders.
This time the narrator is –
Karen Bovenmyer earned an MFA in Creative Writing: Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine. She teaches and mentors students at Iowa State University and serves as the Nonfiction Assistant Editor of Escape Artists’ Mothership Zeta Magazine. She is the 2016 recipient of the Horror Writers Association Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Scholarship. Her short stories and poems appear in more than 40 publications and her first novel, Swift for the Sun, will be available Spring 2017. Follow her online and on Twitter.
(8) EPISODE ONE. At the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, Meghan Ball and Kelly Anderson recap “American Gods Episode One: ‘The Bone Orchard'”.
Our reactions
Kelly: Welp. This show knows how to make an entrance! Pilots are all about being memorable, and I think I can say from the get-go this one certainly succeeded on that level. They went for a combo of stark, Tarantino-esque visuals, husky-voiced, gritty storytelling, and a grimy ‘70s vibe, and it all blends together to create the perfect mood for this story. It’s surrealist noir, if such a genre exists—everything is slightly off-kilter, and even the scenery makes you look twice (that alligator bar! I gotta get me one of those!). It’s as if somebody went back in time and gave Magritte computer graphics and possibly some acid, and I love it.
Meghan: That was an astonishing trippy-as-hell hour of television. I never thought I’d see the day someone actually followed through with bringing this book to life, and certainly not in a way so savagely, monstrously beautiful. I especially loved the use of music. Whoever chose it deserves a raise. “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” playing while Shadow stares mournfully at Laura’s grave? Absolute perfection. They also used “Iko Iko” by the Dixie Cups in the bar scene, which is also mentioned in the novel. That was especially cool. Everything about the premiere felt lush and organic, and utterly real as it was surreal. I’m a fan of Tarantino movies, and even I was gasping in shock during the opening Viking scenes, which completely set the tone.
(9) THE LONG HAUL. At Vox, there’s an overview by someone who’s seen the first four episodes.
If you’re like me and haven’t read Gaiman’s iconic source material, the TV series doesn’t spend a whole lot of time trying to catch you up. There will inevitably come a point when — as blood rains from the sky and some god or another intones an ominous missive about death — you’ll squint and realize you have no idea what’s happening.
But that’s okay by American Gods. Having seen four episodes, I think it’s safe to say that the mysteries being explored by the show’s first season are intricate, and that Fuller and Green are in no rush to give away their secrets. This will be frustrating for people watching from week to week, but American Gods is making the bet that you’ll be intrigued enough by what it teases to stick with it — and on that front, it’s probably right.
(10) INDEPENDENTS’ DAY. The Seattle Review of Books covers #independentbookstoreday celebration: “Our Independent Bookstore Day, in photos”.
(11) GLOWING GOO YOU CAN CHEW. Where to find it? Cat Rambo has a clue.
My most recent newsletter is up and includes class news and a link to a recipe for edible glow in the dark gel: “News and More Stuff from Chez Rambo”
(12) SAX AND VIOLENCE. Echo Ishii watches old TV: “SF Obscure: Night Man “.
What do you get when you cross light jazz, Taylor Dayne, and questionable costume choices? And then you throw in special guest appearances by Jerry Springer and Donald Trump? Why you get Night Man, a show that surprisingly stayed on air for two seasons.
Night Man(1997-1999) is the story of Johnny Domino, a professional saxophonist, who is struck by lightning and earns a telepathic ability to see evil. It’s loosely based on an original comic. He also teams up with some scientists on the run who provide him with a special suit that allows him to deflect bullets and fly. It actually took a few episodes to figure out exactly what the suit does vs. Johnny Domino’s own ability- and I have the sneaking suspicion it was not entirely developed well by the writers.
(13) BAD MIKE.
Appear to have angered Mike Glyer of File 770 by not yet reading the entire Hugo shortlist – oopsie!
— Runalong Womble (@runalongwomble) May 1, 2017
So the rest of you better hurry and get that reading done or I’ll take a bite out of you, too.
(Or – and this was the point — you could wait to fling poo at the Hugo shortlist ‘til you’ve read it, something that never occurred to C. and Matt.)
(14) PURITY OF ESSENCE. Can penguins be forced to bark? Jay Maynard wants to “Make Penguincon Great Again” — by kicking out everything he doesn’t like.
Still, I’d promised this year’s con chair that she’d get a fair chance to address my concerns, so I came back one more time. Guess what? More hard-left GoHs — the odious Coraline Ada Ehmke, she of the Contributor Covenant that prohibits project members from being politically incorrect any time, anywhere, in any venue, on pain of expulsion (who had to cancel due to an emergency); Sumana Harihareswara, who I found out the hard way was a hard-core feminist as well; and Cory Doctorow, well-known left-wing author — more politically correct panels, 15 of them on such topics as “Queering Your Fiction” and “Let’s Get the Taste of 2016 Out of Our Mouths” and “Exploring Themes in Zen Cho’s Work” (with “Intersectionality, diaspora and immigration, the culture of British education, and queer relationships also appear in Cho’s stories over and over” in the description). When I was asked to submit lists of panel topics, I was instructed not to be controversial, but it seems the Left has no such admonition.
This was further borne out by the very first thing that happened at Opening Ceremonies: right after the con chair took the mic, she introduced one member of the convention committee, who proceeded to name 8 or 9 American Indian tribes that had lived in Southeast Michigan in the past and said that “we are their guests here”. That bit of virtue signaling came straight out of the political correctness playbook.
The con’s expanded harassment policy is also of the same stripe; it basically allows anyone to complain that they are being harassed on the flimsiest of excuses, and the con can then eject the subject of the complaint summarily with no recourse and no refund. This is the kind of policy that has routinely been used against those who are merely politically incorrect at other cons, most notably the Worldcon in Kansas City.
There were exactly two panels on topics that the Left would not approve of, both relating to firearms. In fairness, I will also point out that the con did, for the first time, officially sponsor and pay for the Geeks with Guns event. Still, the overall feel is that of overpowering political correctness.
All of this adds up to one inescapable conclusion, for me: those who oppose the politically correct orthodoxy are not Penguicon’s kind of people. Oh, sure, they’ll happily take our money, but we’re not “one of them”.
I go to cons to escape the culture wars, not to get hit over the head with how much of a nasty, eeeeevil person I am for being a white male. We are all, first and foremost, SF fans and computer geeks. People should leave their politics at the door and celebrate SF and open source computing for their own sakes. For the first decade, at least, Penguicon did. It doesn’t any more.
Jer Lance disagrees with the diagnosis: “On the Need to Make Great Things Great Again”
Among my plans for the day, today, was to put together a quick writeup congratulating the staff of Penguincon for throwing an undeniably successful convention—the 15th in a series! Instead, I’d like to take a moment to respond to a long-time attendee’s paen to modern divisive politics; a blog post with the snappy title “Make Penguincon Great Again.” In his post, Jay “Tron Guy” Maynard makes the assertion that Penguincon has fallen to the “leftists” and resulting event is no longer one that is comfortable for people like him.
…Instead, I would like to focus on Jay’s proposed solution. Tron Guy—an attendee since the very first event—would “return the con explicitly to being nonpolitical.” Maynard yearns for the days when we focused on apolitical topics like Geeks with Guns – Societal & Political (year 1), Hidden Totalitarian Assumptions in ‘I, Robot’ (year 3), Don’t Be Evil: The Google Books Settlement (year 9), Technology as Legislation (year 5), and of course the keynote address from the very first Penguincon by Eric S. Raymond (on whose blog this Make Penguincon Great Again concept was born) which discussed “open source, the hacker culture, and the second amendment.” As Archie Bunker sang, those were the days!
In case my point was too subtle, Penguicon has never been any more apolitical than science fiction itself, despite claims to the contrary.
….I came to my first Penguincon in 2006 during its 4th year. I came for the tech conference side of the house and actively disdained the “comicon, nerd shit.” Over the ensuing 11 years, I have attributed a tremendous amount of my personal growth to my having been repeatedly and relentlessly exposed to things outside of my comfort zone through the convention. My hardline libertarian stance has softened to that of a moderate conservative through immersion in concepts that were foreign to me until such time as it was easier to understand them than repel them.
In that understanding, I’ve earned empathy….
(15) IT’S A THEORY. K.B. Wagers argues the change is happening: “The Rise of the Unlikable Woman”
There have always been unlikable characters in fiction, though the idea of the anti-hero?—?brooding, self-centered, wholly unredeemable?—?has long been considered a man’s territory. From crotchety but lovable Han Solo to the downright dangerous Riddick, no one complains that these characters aren’t people you’d trust to watch your house, let alone have a cup of tea with.
Women in fiction, by contrast, can only be unlikable if they are redeemable in some fashion or another?—?or if they’re ultimately punished. Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is struggling for redemption (and turned into a nursemaid for the Big Guy as a result). Were she still unrepentant about the death she’s dealt?—?as Loki is?—?she would find less compassion from the audience. Emma Bovary, in Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, receives her punishment (in the form of her death) at the end of the novel as a result of her sexual desires.
But now, women characters are rising up from the ashes of these expectations….
(16) SIGNS OF THE TIMES. On Planetary Post, March for Science participants joined host Robert Picardo in support of space science and exploration in Washington, D.C.
(17) CLARKE CENTER. Episode 7 of Into the Impossible, the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination’s podcast, takes you to ”New Spaces”.
We’re looking at new spaces in space, speaking with Drs. Yvonne Cagle (astronaut and physician) and Adam Burgasser (astrophysicist). We talk about why we send humans into space, the discovery of potentially habitable worlds at TRAPPIST-1 and how we imagine them, the role of interstellar art, the evolution of human physiology in zero-g, why the scariest thing about being an astronaut might be finding yourself on stage at the Oscars with Dr. Katherine Johnson, subject of the film Hidden Figures, and how important it is that we remain vigilant in our embrace of diversity across disciplines.
(18) BAT EXCLUSIVITY. ScreenRant claims there are “15 Things Batman Can Do (That No One Else Can)”.
Given his intensive combat training and genius-level sleuthing skills, the Dark Knight Detective is one of the most formidable heroes in the DCU (or the world of comics in general), giving him a skill-set that dwarfs many of his superpowered peers.
- He Has Contingency Plans to Take Down Enemies…and His Friends
As we stated earlier, Batman prepares for everything. And we mean everything. In addition to strategizing on how to take down all of his arch-enemies and other deadly threats, he does what some might see as a betrayal–he creates contingency plans against every one of his fellow Justice League team members (in Grant Morrison’s 2000 Justice League: Tower of Babel storyline).
Using his genius intellect, he develops brutally efficient ways to neutralize his teammates’ powers: he binds Green Lantern with his own power ring, makes Aquaman terrified of water, uses fire against Martian Manhunter, liquid nitrogen to subdue Plastic Man, virtual reality against Wonder Woman, and he even creates a weapon to give The Flash seizures.
His strategizing backfires, however, when Ra’s al Ghul steals his plans and takes down his allies. Needless to say, his fellow Justice League members were none too pleased with this, and they subsequently had his membership revoked. It’s not easy for Batman to have friends.
(19) BATMAN & BILL. Hulu is releasing Batman & Bill on May 6, which is a documentary about Bill Finger’s contributions to the Batman mythos. FirstShowing.net explains the “Official Trailer for Hulu Doc ‘Batman & Bill’ About a Batman Creator”
“The most mysterious man in Gotham City wasn’t in a mask and cape.” Hulu has released an official trailer for a documentary titled Batman & Bill, which will premiere exclusively on Hulu starting early May. The documentary “unmasks” one of the greatest secrets in the comic industry – that Batman wasn’t created by Bob Kane alone, it was primarily Bill Finger who created the iconic superhero. This seems like a fascinating doc with plenty to offer for comic book fans, including inside stories and excellent art from the early days of Batman. It’s cool to see a doc like this that actually looks worth watching on Hulu.
(20) BATMAN & BOB. Offered on eBay and now marked down from $1,500 to $1,050, a signed first edition of Bob Kane’s autobiography Batman & Me with original signed ink Batman drawing by Kane.
Batman & Me. Forestville: Eclipse Books, 1989. First Edition. Copy number 144 of 1000 numbered copies signed by Bob Kane with an original ink drawing of Batman by Kane. The autobiography of the artist who created the immortal comic book character Batman in 1939. Extensively illustrated. Fine in slipcase.
(21) THE FIRST HALF OF HISTORY. Fanac.org has posted a recording of a 1968 Worldcon comics panel with Marv Wolfman and Harry Harrison. I guess a few things have happened since then:
Baycon, the 26th WorldCon, was held in Oakland, California in 1968. This very entertaining panel features a discussion about contemporary comics by the then relative newcomer, Marvin Wolfman, and a plethora of engaging stories by Harry Harrision. Harry talks about Bill Gaines (EC Comics) and working with Wally Wood. The stories are funny, the context and history of the field are priceless. Moderated by Paul Moslander, this excellent recording is courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archives.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, JJ, Carl Slaughter, Cat Eldridge, Steven H Silver, Martin Morse Wooster, Cat Rambo, James Bacon, and Bruce D. Arthurs for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day rcade.]
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ticky
Fifth minus two.
(14) Uses both “Penguincon” and “Penguicon.” I believe the latter is only there as part of quotations, so maybe nothing really needs to be done here. Or else put in some [sic] tags here and there.
Are we scrolling pixels yet?
Fifth!
Kip W: You’re right — let the appertainment begin, in the brand new bottles!
I am surprised to discover the fellow quoted here who loves Penguincon so much misspelled its name about eight times!
(13) BAD MIKE.
Well, they’re both whining and complaining on Twitter about Mike saying something he didn’t actually say, and ignoring what he actually said, so I guess those are two blogs I won’t need to check out again.
Pro tip, C. and Matt: a brief mea culpa and learning from the lesson will make you look a whole lot better than deliberately misstating someone else’s words and playing the victim to the strawman you just constructed.
@(15) IT’S A THEORY. K.B. Wagers argues the change is happening: “The Rise of the Unlikable Woman”
I read her entire post and was left thinking Huh???? Most protagonists are portrayed positively. Most antagonists are portrayed negatively – regardless of the sex of the character. Really good characters are complicated and have aspects of both good and evil. Or are mostly evil yet have positive qualities (beyond loving their family).
I can think back to books published at the turn of the century to books published very recently that have positive and negative female characters.
@3: like the label, but implementing the beverage-of-your-choice would be a little more complicated; should the contents of each bottle be a molecular assembler or a matter transmitter? (to support each person getting their choice).
C. and Matt from the Middle Shelf haven’t done anything in the blog post that requires a mea culpa. They wrote a Hugo rundown based on what they had read and admitted what they hadn’t read. There’s nothing wrong with doing it that way.
One thing experienced Hugo voters tell overwhelmed newbies all the time is that you don’t have to read everything to participate. The same principle applies here.
Rcade, them not having read all the works is not the problem. Did you not actually read Mike’s piece on this yesterday?
The issue is the parts where they said:
So when I say I looked at this year’s list with a sigh, I’m being pretty literal. I’m quite resigned to the fact that the Hugo isn’t the best award for my tastes…
So, let’s face it: both of some of the most popular novels on the list aren’t novels that, to me, bring something new to the genre. They are certainly crowd pleasers but I really wonder at their future legacy.
Someone who has read only half the shortlist is hardly in a position to say:
1) the list doesn’t reflect their tastes
2) the works on it don’t bring anything new to the genre
3) the works on it aren’t works which will have a long-term legacy
Also, complaining that an award which reflects what is popular with Worldcon voters “is a popularity contest” just seems like kind of a “Duh”.
@rcade:
I take that to mean you don’t have to read everything to nominate, and you don’t have to vote in all categories. (I sure ain’t.) But I thought it was expected to at least attempt to read every finalist in the categories you’re voting in.
Finishing “Penric and the Shaman” right now and I don’t think it’s spoily to say that I love how the characters in the World of the Five Gods actually communicate and share information.
Aaaaaand that’s all novella finalists! Though I’m doing a reread of the four I read during the year to finalize their spots on my list.
Now onto A Closed and Common Orbit.
Participating in the nominations by voting for what you’ve read is not the same as publishing a post rendering pompous, uninformed generalizations about things they haven’t read.
Really, it’s quite fannish to tease the pompous.
Well, I expect the way this is really going to work is that each person will print out this label and affix it to their own appertainment. Unless what they’re drinking doesn’t come in a bottle, in which case they can stick it wherever seems best.
::ticky::
Falling behind on my Hugo reading because a certain someone here mentioned the game FTL, which then led to me rediscovering my Steam account and checking that out, as well as remembering the addictive game Darwinia that I played a few years ago, back when I had time to play games.
@kathodus For the love of the gods don’t go near Stardew Valley or we won’t see you here for a month. Also I’ve never played portal 2 co-op but… *digs toe in the dirt and makes puppy dog eyes*
10) The first Narwhal and Jelly book is hilarious. I’ve seen kids pick it up off the shelf, start to read, quote lines from it to anyone and everyone nearby, and sometimes even walk around the library while reading it and finishing it before they even get to the point of checking it out. That’s how caught up in the humor they get.
I can’t wait to get my hands on the second one.
@kathodus – save yourself from FTL, or you’ll find yourself spending 10 hours trying to win with the goddamn Slug B piece of crap in order to get victories with all A & B layouts to get the hidden ship…
No, I don’t have a problem, why do you ask?
Chris
You offer a valid critique of their criticism, but that still doesn’t mean they have to apologize for not reading all the works on the ballot before having a conversation about it. They disclosed what they read and didn’t read and people can judge their opinions accordingly.
I think what they did and how Mike responded is completely harmless. Maybe they said something on Twitter that escalates the disagreement, but I ain’t searching that out tonight.
rcade: but that still doesn’t mean they have to apologize for not reading all the works on the ballot before having a conversation about it
Did I miss something? Who said that?
I find it amazing that Tron Guy got his undies in a bunch over the con organizer who named the Native American tribes of the area and said “we are their guests here.”
Why is this controversial to anyone? Is there a right-wing position on Native Americans that insists no one recognize they were here first?
Any time someone objects to the Redskins name, right wingers claim that it isn’t offensive because it was chosen to honor Native Americans.
This organizer made a remark to honor Native Americans, but that’s objectionable.
Right wing sensibilities are incredibly complex.
FYI, one of the bloggers responded in yesterday’s thread but their comment seems to have appeared with a delay and people may have missed it. I’m just gonna re-post it here:
Bartimaeus: FYI, one of the bloggers responded in yesterday’s thread
Yes, and today both bloggers are on Twitter whining and complaining that Mike said something he didn’t actually say, and ignoring what he actually said.
(12) It kind of looks like Night Man might have had the same costume designer as Bibleman, or is that the other way around?
@JJ: Yes, but in the Twitter thread they also mention that the comment they left yesterday didn’t appear – https://twitter.com/TheMiddleShelf1/status/859045742652141568. I didn’t notice the comment yesterday, but after seeing the tweet I checked back and it was there, so thought I’d add it here for others like me who may also have missed it.
Also maybe it’s just me but when there’s an attempt at a de-escalation I prefer to follow it, especially over a 140-character snarky tweet which may have been made in the heat of the moment.
As an attendee of (and panelist at) Mr. Maynard’s much-maligned PenguiCon, I would like to draw your attention to a GoH he entirely overlooked: Ada Palmer, author of Too Like the Lightning, among other works.
If you ever have the chance to invite her to your con or to see her speak, seize it. She is a fascinating & compelling speaker, whether on the history of information dissemination & suppression, atheism through the ages, or her own world building. She & Cory Doctrow did a great panel comparing censorship in the middle ages & the digital era. Also, she loves to talk. She decided she wanted to do an extra panel, just rambling about history and asked for a room for Saturday night. Reliable sources inform me that panel went on for 3 hours, and was great. She brought a variety of very old books for a show & tell, passing around a sample of papyrus,15th century texts, & 13th century vellum sheets through the room, while talking about the history of books. When time ran out & the audience was still interested, she packed up & found an overflow room, and continued on for another hour. She is incredibly generous with her time & expertise.
Some info about the Terra Ignota series: There will be a second duology of books to follow, which will be rather different in tone. Mycroft will not be the sole narrator, as I understand it, and rather than being told as an after the fact history like TLtL and Seven Surrenders, the second duology will be a chronicle of events as they occur. The third book is finished, the fourth book is not, but all four were outlined in great detail prior to any being published.
She did a reading from the the first chapter of the third book as part of her 3-hour extra panel, but not only was I unable to attend, she warned people that due to the intricate world building, even if one had finished the first book, the opening to the third would be gibberish without having finished the second. So no spoilers from me!
If anyone is curious, I can try to recall & relate further details.
Bartimaeus: Also maybe it’s just me but when there’s an attempt at a de-escalation I prefer to follow it, especially over a 140-character snarky tweet which may have been made in the heat of the moment.
If they were genuinely interested in de-escalation, it’s hard to see why they would have engaged in a lengthy tweetstorm today pretending that Mike said things he didn’t say, and painting themselves as victims of “gatekeepers”.
What I see is these two behaving exactly the way Puppies do: claiming that someone said something completely different from what was actually said and portraying themselves as being persecuted, when in fact what was actually said was a legitimate criticism which they completely ignore.
I don’t see why this behavior is defensible, no matter who it’s coming from.
Hi Chad! Long time no see! 🙂
@LunarG: Oooh, thanks for the writeup! I was looking forward to hearing from you about that 🙂 Really glad to hear you enjoyed.
And now I’m looking forward to WorldCon even more…
::ticky::
Re # 14, I don’t remember anyone getting kicked out of Kansas City Worldcon based on an unvestigated claim of sexual harassment. What is Maynard referencing there?
When he claimed the harassment policy was used to kick someone out at Worldcon for political incorrectness, Maynard likely was making a reference to Dave Truesdale.
@JJ: I suspect this is one of those cases where the golden rule is Linus Pauling’s “Do unto others 20% better than you would expect them to do unto you, to correct for subjective error.”
It’s just so easy to have gotten here:
* Two bloggers discuss their take on the shortlist; fannishly and without pausing to consider the image they’re projecting. One is enthusiastic, one is annoyed.
* OGH reads post; is annoyed.
* OGH shares post; more people get annoyed.
* Bloggers get annoyed at people getting annoyed at them.
* People don’t discuss things well when they’re annoyed.
And so on, and so forth.
This is futile. The inciting offense is “fannish discussion came across as pretentious and bitter,” which I think you’ll agree is (a) subjective, (b) a pretty easy mistake to make on the internet. Personally, I have a really hard time assuming ill-intent in the original post, because oh my goodness Matt’s comments are overflowing with enthusiasm and excitement and joy.
Everything beyond that is bog-standard internet outrage escalation, and it really pains me to see that happening for sincere, fannish discussion of the Hugo shortlist. It could have been done better, sure. That’s no reason to jump down people’s throats — much as internet outrage cycles encourage us to :-/
@Bartimaeus , thank you for spotlighting C.’s comment — I hadn’t seen that yesterday, and I’m glad to see it.
@Bartimaeus – I didn’t notice the comment yesterday, but after seeing the tweet I checked back and it was there, so thought I’d add it here for others like me who may also have missed it.
Ah, the old “your first comment goes to moderation” problem is causing a problem. It doesn’t much matter, I suppose, but it appears that In this case an incorrect inference was drawn.
Standback: The inciting offense is “fannish discussion came across as pretentious and bitter”
I thought it was “people presume to pass judgment on the Hugo shortlist without having read most of the works”.
I guess what bothers me just as much is their repeated dishonesty about that on Twitter today (and I’m not talking about the post in moderation). But I’ve said what I want to say, and I’ll drop it.
(3) LET THE APPERTAINMENT BEGIN. Appertainment Tonight! Well done, @Steve Davidson.
(10) INDEPENDENTS’ DAY. The Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea excerpt I just skimmed was very cute. 🙂 I love narwhals.
(12) SAX AND VIOLENCE. I saw some weird superhero shows on WGN back in the day, but somehow I missed this one. And I’m okay with that.
(13) BAD MIKE. I’m reading as fast as I can, guv’nor!
@K8: THERE ARE TWO NARWHAL BOOKS?! Of course, I have to wonder how it compares with my narwhal playset, complete with interchangeable “horns” (one of which sucks out blood, another of which allows world domination through telepathy, etc.) and critters for it to spear with said “horns.” 😉
I appreciate the repeat of the post as well. PSA to lurkers or newcomers: your first post will go into moderation, and when it’s approved it will show in the initial position even if the conversation has moved on. That means a lot of people might miss it.
What is Maynard referencing there?
I’m aware of two incidents at MidAmericon II, neither of which fit Maynard’s claims, but then again, Puppy-adjacent conservatives have a fairly well-established pattern of bending the truth to fit their claims of oppression by the evil forces of “political correctness”.
In the first, and most likely to be what Maynard is referencing, Truesdale hijacked a panel he was on in order to launch a lengthy screed denouncing “pearl clutching” and claiming that “special snowflakes” were ruining science fiction. He was later ejected from the convention for violating the convention’s code of conduct, but it was not specifically for sexual harassment, and it appears to have been fairly thoroughly investigated. It was certainly the talk of the internet for several days, and dissected in numerous fora.
The other was an incident in which two reporters for the online magazine Bull Spec harassed Alyssa Wong, after having previously harassed her at at least one other convention, and having been involved in another incident at yet another convention where they were harassing someone. The ensuing report and investigation led to the pair being expelled from MidAmericon II and Bull Spec announced it would sever ties with them. Once again, this was not an “uninvestigated claim of sexual harassment”, and was clearly part of a pattern – the two had been issued a “no contact” order by WisCon that told them to stay away from Wong.
Basically, Maynard is playing the victim and probably referencing incidents in a way that has little to no relationship with reality. Maynard has been tromping around the internet for the last couple of years, mostly complaining about how Penguicon is horribly unfriendly to conservatives like him while being entirely clueless about how conventions actually work. He even proposed a “conservative” award that had a convoluted voting system designed to keep the “wrong” people from voting in the award, but ran off when it became apparent that implementing such a system would be almost impossible and running an award would be a lot of work.
I like the use of Postel’s Law for the same kind of sentiment. It’s by Internet architect Jon Postel and is supposed to be about software communicating with other software: “Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send”
@Iphinome – I hadn’t heard of Stardew Valley. I’ll look into it. I’ve also never even played Portal 2. I bought it, but that was right around when all my free time disappeared into other non-gaming activities, so it’ sitting in my Steam account, uninstalled. I’m also using a laptop – my extended break from games came because I switched back to a unix-like OS from Windows (which I’d installed to play Oblivion. now that I think about it). I did just buy a new laptop, since mine is just about completely fallen apart now. Should be here any day. I will need to get a mouse for it if I intend to do any gaming – playing Darwinia with a trackpad is extremely frustrating. Anyway… long-winded way of saying I’m not sure when I’ll have time to dig further into games.
@Chris S – it just crashed on my machine (I’ve got some DIMM slot issues), so that is at least put off for several days.
@LunarG
Now I am inspired to shut down my computer and take to bed with my copy of TLTL. That talk sounds wonderful.
@rcade:“Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send.”
Oooh. I like it. 🙂
(13) What’s his name says “the Hugos are a popularity contest, so I don’t like what wins except for LMB” — who is, like, probably the most widely popular author who wins? Her books are “certainly crowd-pleasers”. And much as I love her, it’s not like she’s doing a lot of stuff that’s “going to bring something new to the genre”.
So, y’know, opining pompously, while being uninformed, AND contradicting their own opinions? That is most certainly worth poking fun at. Twitter whining about things that weren’t said and ignoring things that were on top of that is just the icing on the douchecake. These are self-important boys. Oh, dear, I suppose I’ve hurt their widdle pompous fee-fees now too.
(14) Tron Guy continues to prove over and over again how completely out of touch with reality, logic, and facts he is. Also spelling. Poor boy, forced to acknowledge that women don’t deserve to be abused and that all the land in the US used to belong to Native American tribes. Such extreme PC ideas! And those leftists were so repressive that they only paid to sponsor the gun event!
Can we use the label on drinks we don’t get for spotting errors here? Or at least at the next File 770 event, like if there’s parks to sponsor again?
Sure — if only those boys had skipped reading the shortlist altogether, then we would have given them a medal.
@kathodus: I managed to complete Bastion using a laptop trackpad. Dark times, and I’m amazed I didn’t give myself RSI or something with it. I missed some of the special missions though (they just got way too difficult to manage with a trackpad), so I’m thinking now that I have a decent setup (including a Roost stand) I might tackle it again and go for 100% completion.
@kathodus Stardew Valley is the best. Watch a review or three on youtube. Revel in the simplicity, way up, water your parsnips, chop a couple trees because your first chest of items is filling up and you need another, and get on with your day in the valley. It’ cute, it’ calming, it’s fun.
Then before you know it, you’re sucked in to the personal lives of all the villiagers, a witch cursed one of your chicken eggs and now you wonder if it’ll hatch an eldritch abomination and George is asking you for a squid to rub on his sore knee. A squid!
40 play hours later you find yourself with a spouse, 2 kids and some forest spirits harvesting your crops for you.
I saw #13s post in the thread yesterday, so I don’t know why he didn’t. If he really wanted to de-escalate, he wouldn’t have whined on Twitter.
@Aaron: A Puppy pal claiming things that didn’t happen, in order to paint himself as some sort of martyr to PC? Well, I never. And I forgot all about his “circle of trust” so that wrongfans having wrongfun couldn’t vote on his award — and how fast he dropped the idea when a lady person started making legit helpful suggestions on how to make it work. I only remembered he’d done something else dumb.
I’m sure he voted for the Dragons plenty of times… although no one will ever know how many votes were cast there. I bet even Larry’s mysterious friend who ran the thing couldn’t tell you how many votes were cast at this point. Wonder if that’s why they never bothered? I’d sooner believe incompetence than malice there.
Video games: This is why I stick to feeding Japanese cartoon cats. You literally can’t play it for more than a few minutes at a time, and eventually you will run out of objectives.
@Iphinome – That sounds excellent. I’m sure it doesn’t at all delve as deep into it as our resident Wombat would, but your description reminds me a bit of her stories.
(14) I miss the days when I only knew of Maynard as Tron Guy and thought of him as an ego-less, courageous fella who was willing to go way further in his pursuit of Tron fandom than I possibly could in any of mine.
And now I really am going to hit the sack with TLTL (and, if I get lucky, a squeaky lady with pointy ears and a blue tuxedo).
As a side note, a propos of the recent discussions here on gendering, it’s my impression that “C.” is female — which may or may not be correct — and I’m uncomfortable about anyone here referring to them by any gender when we don’t know how they consider themselves.
kthxbai
Greg has made some great comments about why the word “queer” is still controversial, but I do not really think those are the same reasons Maynard are thinking or.
I guess he’s just vice signaling his homophobia.
Interesting. I just homed in on what sounded to me like a note of serene privilege in C.’s dispensing of these opinions that made me think I was looking in a mirror, so I made a corresponding assumption about gender.
Looking through some of C.’s other posts didn’t lead me to a clear answer, but after reading this post I am more than willing to listen to your case.