(1) TO THE MAX. George R.R. Martin’s never-produced Christmas script for Max Headroom finally came to life — at the Jean Cocteau Theatre: “Merry Xmas to All, and to All a Good Max”.
Our week-long M-M-Maxathon concluded on Satuday night at the Jean Cocteau with a staged table reading of “Xmas,” my thirty-year-old unproduced (until now) MAX HEADROOM script. And I have to say, we went out on a high note. We had a sold-out theatre, and the audience seemed to enjoy every moment of the performance, laughing and applauding at all the right places. After thirty years, I was not at all sure how well my old script would hold up… especially with an audience of Max Headroom fanatics, many of whom had just sat through an entire week of Max, watching every one of the produced episodes. MAX HEADROOM was a really smart show, with some fine writing… tough acts to follow. But most of the viewers seemed to think “Xmas” was just as good as what had gone before, which gratified me no end…
Had a great time watching my Max Headroom script come to life! Read my breakdown of the whole night on my blog: #http://ow.ly/4G4Q30bXkLr pic.twitter.com/Jwj84K8taU
— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) May 28, 2017
(2) SUPER SNIT. There was some huffing and puffing at the London Comic Con between a pair of famous actors although no blows were actually struck, no matter the New York Post’s headline — “Flash Gordon and The Hulk fight at Comic Con”.
It was a real-life battle of the superheroes at a comic fest over the weekend — when Hulk actor Lou Ferrigno got into a brawl with “Flash Gordon” star Sam Jones, and fans had to jump in and break them up.
“I don’t know if I was the real superhero, because if there was a clash of the Titans, I would have got squashed,” said Darryn Clements, who stepped in to help separate the musclebound actors at London’s ComicCon on Saturday, according to the Sun.
In fact, the duo were back at their adjoining tables the next day peaceably signing for fans.
(3) TROLL PATROL. A Twitter troll prompted a question during an MSNBC interview: “George Takei shuts down racist criticism of new “Star Trek’ series”.
“People are finding the time to hate on “Star Trek’ for having diversity,” host Joy Reid prompted. “What?”
“Well you know — today, in this society, we have alien life-forms that we call trolls,” Takei replied.
He explained: “And these trolls carry on without knowing what they’re talking about and knowing even less about the history of what they’re talking about. And some of these trolls go on to be presidents of nations.”
(4) URSINE DESIGN. I don’t know why this surprises me. Build-A-Bear offers a whole flock of Star Wars-themed products, including Darth Vader Bear.
Never underestimate the power of the dark side. Our exclusive Darth Vader Bear comes with his signature helmet, cape and control chest panel, permanently attached. Complete your destiny and add Darth Vader’s iconic Breathing Sound, Imperial March Song and his red Lightsaber.
(5) THE (DONUT) HOLE TRUTH. Scott Edelman writes: “Yes, I know, the William F. Nolan episode of Eating the Fantastic was only released Friday — but I couldn’t resist bringing live this donut celebration of Balticon as it was ending, to assuage the sadness of the guests who’d have to wait another year to return — Eating the Fantastic — 13 guests devour 12 donuts and reminisce about 51 years of Balticon.”
Since last July’s Readercon Donut Spectacular episode of Eating the Fantastic has proven to be so popular, I thought I’d try harvesting memories about another long-running con, and so plopped myself down in a high-traffic area of the Balticon hotel with a dozen Diablo Donuts. But first, I shared this photo on social media so the hungry hordes would know to be on the lookout for me.
(6) UNRAVELING THE SLEEVE OF CARE. Camestros Felapton, recognizing the world’s hunger for quality writing advice, nevertheless has decided to let them starve a little longer — “If You Want to Write a Book, Write Every Third 5 Minute Interval in a Period of 15 Minutes, Also Never Sleep”.
Here at Felapton Towers and via our leading Science Fiction/Fantasy/Military History publishing arm Cattimothy House, we meet and train many aspiring authors — people who we’ve turned from mere robotic vacuum cleaners into leading voices in modern fiction. We’ve compiled all our experience and writing advice into this one article that WILL help you turn your dreams into a book!
So you are about to write a book? Remember, on the day you start, millions of others will be starting a book also. Worse, BILLIONS of people live on Earth and many of them are also capable of thinking about starting a novel. Bear in mind that approximately only SIX books are published each year and of those FOUR are guide books to Disneyland. In order for your book to be published, it has to be better than the books those several billion people on Earth might write. Most of those people have more interesting lives than you and also probably nicer personalities.
Lesson 1: You have to defeat your rivals. Your book has to be better than your rivals. Looking at that the odds, that implies you’d be best trying to sabotage them from finishing their book. But how? Well, articles like this can help! Find a blog, a writers group or maybe a popular online media organisation and instead of writing a book, write an article full of bad writing advice! BINGO! All those billions of rivals will read it, follow your advice and either write a terrible book or give up in exhaustion…
(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- Born May 29, 1889 — James Whale, who said: “A director must be pretty bad if he can’t get a thrill out of war, murder and robbery.”
(8) COMIC SECTON. Cat Eldridge recommends xkcd’s “Opening crawl”.
(9) HOW THE DRAGON ROLLS. Click to read Declan Finn’s recommendations for the Dragon Awards. Hey, you got to respect the guy’s frankness —
DISCLAIMER: I have not read all of the following. In some cases, I’ve had less and less time to read the more I write. And I’ve submitted to … a lot this year, so I’m a little all over the place. Also, there are some genres I just don’t read, usually. I tend to avoid Horror and Alternate History, even though there are some books that are going to change my mind (Brian Niemeier and Lou Antonelli, for example, for horror and Alt History, respectively). If you have thoughts or suggestions, then by all means, COMMENT. And now, UNLEASH THE DRAGONS
(10) WORDS & PICTURES. Joe Sherry resumes “Reading the Hugos: Graphic Story” at Nerds of a Feather.
We continue our Reading the Hugos series with a look at Graphic Story. I can’t help but compare a bit to the five finalists from last year’s ballot and only Invisible Republic would make the cut here. I was already impressed with Monstress, Saga, and Paper Girls as each collection was on my nominating ballot. Heck, I was impressed enough by Paper Girls to include both of the published collected editions on my ballot – so I was definitely glad to see the first book make the cut. Beyond that, this list is dominated by two publishers with an even split between Marvel and Image. Granting that these are generally some excellent books and were on my ballot, I still would have liked to have seen a wider variety of publisher’s on the list. I just can’t say specifically what because I’m not well read enough in what’s going on in comics today – which I would also guess might be the case of a lot of voters. Or maybe I’m just projecting. Either way, let’s get to this year’s finalists.
(11) FILMMAKER TEASES NEXT PROJECT. Popular Mechanics says “It’s Humans Versus Aliens in Neill Blomkamp’s New Sci-Fi Project” .
Teasing a new sci-fi studio called Oats Studios since April, Neill Blomkamp’s ready to show us what he has in store for his future sci-fi ambitions. A new trailer, released today, for a short film currently named “Volume 1” will stream on Steam “soon.” But while the particulars of the movie are lacking in detail, the trailer is nothing short of a top-notch sci-fi film.
(12) ONLY A MEMORY. Carl Slaughter recalls:
At age 27, Josh Trank became the youngest director to open a film at #1 with Chronicle. He was hired to direct a standalone Star Wars film and assigned to direct the Fantastic 4 reboot. The Fantastic 4 set was plagued with production problems and received a 9% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Lucasfilm fired him when Fantastic 4 controversies spilled onto the Internet. He has not been seen on the speculative front since.
[Thanks to JJ, John King Tarpinian, Scott Edelman, Cat Eldridge, and Carl Slaughter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Rambo.]
Oscar Madison on May 30, 2017 at 4:48 pm said:
That would be more interesting if you understood how the Hugos work, and have worked from the start.
(When the Dragon Awards get to be 50 years old, let us know how they’re doing.)
the Dragons seem to be allowing the fans to make their picks without having to join a clique of snooty elitists
Those must be the sourest grapes ever.
Honestly, the Dragons seem to be allowing the fans to make their picks without having to join a clique of snooty elitists (many right here at File 770) or swearing fealty to a political ideology (Social Justice or Death!!!).
If you are in charge of putting the bell on the SJW credential, you will have to try harder than that.
Missing book is still missing.
My car has an inspection sticker. This was not a foregone conclusion.
Every muscle in my legs hurts, but only the muscles in my legs, so, yay?
I’m reading a very charming fantasy called Evangeline, in the absence of the missing book.
Rob Thornton whines Honestly, the Dragons seem to be allowing the fans to make their picks without having to join a clique of snooty elitists (many right here at File 770) or swearing fealty to a political ideology (Social Justice or Death!!!).
When I see those Awards noted on genre fiction like LOCUS, SFRevue and yes my corner of the metaverse, then and only then will I say they’ve arrived. So far not a single email I’ve gotten from a publicist mentioned these Awards. Hugos on the other hand have a fifty year history which means lots of Awards that are there for publicists to use.
Oh and would anyone like to review for GMR the newest book from Tolkien? It’s called Beren and Luthen, the romance a mortal man and an immortal. It’s illustrated with full color plates by Alan Lee. If interested, email me here.
@Cat Eldridge
I cannot take credit for that whine. The poster under the nym Oscar Madison is responsible for that particular screed. Beg pardon to all for lack of proper attribution (to be truthful, I didn’t realize that I’d be the first on the next page).
More Hugo-related reviews. Today it is a review of Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze
@Jon Del Arroz: well if you do happen to get in touch with the leading Hispanic voice in science fiction, do tell him or her to pop over and let us know what their award recs are 🙂
As for Declan making his recommendations: it’s extremely difficult to recommend something to someone, sight unseen. Remember that the Dragons are meant to be a prestigious award, not just little trinkets to gift to people you personally like. “He’ll be at Dragon Con” is just about the lamest reason to want him to win the award.
Just finished reading: Medusa’s Web by Tim Powers. Somehow, I missed this one when it came out a couple years ago, but now I’ve found it, and am happy to recommend it. It doesn’t quite have the scope of some of Powers’ work–I might describe it as a cozy secret history–but it’s chock full of all the odd (and sometimes disturbing) details that Powers does so well. The details that make you say this may seem ridiculous, but surely nobody could make this stuff up! 🙂
Set in modern-day Los Angeles, with a connection to the Golden Age of Hollywood (Rudolph Valentino has a minor role), the book starts out sounding a lot like it’s going to be a haunted-house story. Brother and sister returning to the family mansion after a death, to find strange goings-on. But it quickly becomes clear it’s nothing so simple. Addictive spider-aliens and time-traveling movie stars are only a few of the bizarre elements Powers throws at us.
Overall, I thought it was lighter-weight than a lot of Powers’ stuff, but that’s not at all a bad thing. It was still a page turner, and that’s what counts. I think this would be a great introduction for people who aren’t familiar with Powers’
eggoeuvre.@Oscar Madison: Outside of the Sad and Rabid Puppies Hugo nomination slates, I’m not aware of anyone recommending that people nominate works that they haven’t actually read. Given that most Hugo finalists also show up on various best of lists and as finalists of other awards, I’m not sure how that makes the Worldcon members snooty elitists. I know that when I started attending them, nobody asked me for my credentials. Perhaps that was an oversight, I’ve nominated several works published by Baen, although one of them was not a finalist because even though it was on the Sad Puppies slate it was not on the Rabid Puppies slate.
Maybe I just don’t understand how awards are supposed to work, I thought they were supposed to be awarded on the specific work. I must admit, though, I’ve often heard people suggest that some nominations have been attempts to give awards to lesser works of older well-liked authors who have not yet received an award. Still, even in those cases, I never heard suggestions that there were campaigns to nominate them by people who hadn’t read the works.
I don’t begrudge Puppies getting Dragon awards, but I think they need to be careful about their campaigns to get items on the ballot if they want to be taken seriously about the award being prestigious.
Are y’all really that hateful that no matter what someone posts, if they’re the “wrong” person, you have to go hit them on it?
I haven’t seen anyone “hitting” Finn on his awards recommendations because he’s the wrong person. I’ve seen people pointing out that he’s recommending works without reading them and people pointing out that he’s engaging in a bit of pretty shameless self-promotion. Maybe you could point out the comments where people are attacking him for being the “wrong” person. Be specific.
Bruce A: Omigod! You were allowed to vote on the Hugos without signing the special “Hate All White Men” pledge? Someone is slipping up! (Probably Scalzi–he’s been so busy crying over those meanies who call him cuck that he’s been getting sloppy with his cabal duties.)
@Bruce A: Ah sorry that must have been an oversight. You’ll need to send your registration form to 123 Hugo Lane, Worldcon Town, Elitist County, Snootifornia.
We’ll be in touch once we’ve evaluated your membership.
I don’t have a problem with Declan Finn’s self-promotion on his website. Heck, John Scalzi not only shamelessly self-promotes his works (except for that year when he didn’t want to be nominated for anything), but he invites other authors to self-promote their own nomination-eligible works on his website at least once or twice a year.
@JDA: Serious question for you…
As a writer, do those phrases actually mean anything to you? Because they look rather closer to gibberish than anything else from where I sit. I’m not talking about the opinions, but the words and phrasing itself.
@Oneiros name one who isn’t me and without using your google machine. 🙂
Jon Del Arroz on May 30, 2017 at 4:50 pm said:
In last weeks episode of Mis-Interpretation Theater Jon took not invited to be part of a panel as dis-invited. In this weeks episode commenting on the recommendations made on works a person hasn’t read is hating on someone for being the ‘wrong’ type of person. What will he not understand next week? Stay tuned, same mistaken time, same martyr channel.
*wank off motion* I’m glad you agree with his recommendation for your tie in novel. I’m more amazed White Wizard as a small games press deals with this.
Fixed that for accuracy. Always amusing to see someone who touts their reading comprehension and ability to use words manage not to demonstrate either ability so often.
Always do! Finished Sins of the Empire and Relics. The first was awesome, but I’m a big fan of the Gunpower Mage series. The latter managed to be boring. Next book up is Borne!
Until next time keep stepping on rakes Sideshow Bob.
Jon Del Arroz: if you want the leading Hispanic voice in Science Ficton’s based recommendations, as I hear he’s an extremely well-read and well-versed person in the field
As a matter of fact, Ty Franck, the leading Hispanic voice in Science Ficton, is indeed extremely well-read and well-versed, and he gave out several recommendations this past weekend at Baycon.
name one who isn’t me and without using your google machine.
Phillip Jose Farmer. Junot Diaz. Ty Franck. Daniel Jose Older.
Did Jon Del Arroz attend Baycon? I was wondering if they refused to accept a paid membership from him.
We already did, Jon, both in the other thread and here. In addition to those Hispanic authors Aaron has listed, there’s also Ann Aguirre, Carmen Maria Machado, Malka Older, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Marta Acosta, Mario Acevedo, Michael J. Martinez, Caridad Pineiro and that’s just off the top of my head.
Um, putting Phil Farmer in a list of Hispanic writers is a joke, right? His middle name (without an accent) was in honor of an aunt, if I recall correctly.
Matt Y: In last weeks episode of Mis-Interpretation Theater Jon took not invited to be part of a panel as dis-invited. In this weeks episode commenting on the recommendations made on works a person hasn’t read is hating on someone for being the ‘wrong’ type of person. What will he not understand next week?
I don’t think it’s “misunderstanding”; I think it’s deliberate. It’s as though he is unable to type on the keyboard without having lies come out the other end.
Currently on Twitter he is claiming the following quote:
“As bad as Vox Day.” – File 770.
The actual quote:
“The painful thing about [Del Arroz] is that as bad as Vox Day is, it’s almost worse to see someone consciously trying to emulate his style.”
🙄
Yeah, you are 100% correct. Declan not reading all of the books he merely listed as being ELIGIBLE is just as bad as shitting on writers and their books without having read a single word they’ve written first – something that seems to be the norm for you folks here. Not.
Really, it isn’t even fun to mock you anymore, you’ve all become that pathetically sad.
When you can read sci-fi/fantasy for the fun and the wonder of the stories again, with an open mind, give me a call. Your strict allegiance to “RightThink” might make Stalin proud, but it really has no place in our fandom.
I think I’ll check out of commenting here ever again. I don’t want to catch your disease.
Oscar Madison: shitting on writers and their books without having read a single word they’ve written first – something that seems to be the norm for you folks here.
Please provide links to examples of this to support your claim. When writers are disparaged here, it’s pretty much always for one of two things: 1) poor writing, 2) bad behavior.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a great many Puppies have committed both of those.
Oscar Madison on May 30, 2017 at 9:36 pm said:
I think you’re typing comments into the wrong universe.
JJ – Well those are some pretty big clown shoes to fill!
@Jon Del Arroz: Philip Jose Farmer, Daniel Jose Older, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. There’s three 🙂
“When yu iss villing to adopt ze values I approve of, only zen will I allowse yu into ‘our’ vandom! Yu mosst agree vis me, or you is preatchink wrungtink!”
Have a good one, until your inevitable return under a different pseudonym.
Oh hey, aren’t we forgetting about Sarah Hoyt and “Sad” Larry too? Haven’t people bleated about their being Hispanic at various points throughout this whole debacle? I mean, no offense JDA, but they are vastly higher profile than you.
Actually, I think both Sarah Hoyt and Larry Correia are of Portuguese origin, but if they want to define themselves as Hispanic, who am I to stop them?
Still, quite a few Hispanic SFF writers out there, including several who are higher profile than JDA, which should settle that.
Let’s not forget Borges and del Toro. 🙂
Cough cough cough Sergio Aragones (special guest at SDCC this year).
Thanks Mike!
@Oscar Madison: Declan Finn didn’t just list books eligible for nomination, he urged people to nominate Lou’s book because Lou’s a great guy and going to his first DragonCon, and then wrote that he needed to buy and read it.
Last time I checked, SF/F is not required reading, so that means we’re all reading for the fun of it. That’s why I try to avoid reading stuff with lame Christian messages and stuff that basically says that unless you’re an ultra-competent right thinking conservative, you’re an idiot. But hey, if that’s what you like go for it. Just don’t expect me to vote to give it awards.
@Cora: Yep they are, but that didn’t stop Paulk referring to them both as Hispanic early on. Portugal and Spain are famous for getting along really well, after all 😉
Oscar Madison:
o.O
I think the Dragons would have a better reputation if they did two things:
1. Promote it themselves instead of leaving it to others.
2. Limit the nominations to one vote per person, as opposed to one vote per email address, which means most any small group could throw the vote. Heck, one motivated (or paid) teenager with nothing better to do but come up with throwaway email addresses could run the whole thing.
If “He’ll be at the ceremony” is a sufficient reason to give an award, then Robert Silverberg would have at least 61 Hugos instead of only 4.
Oh, looks like Jonny of the Rice is still using that “leading Hispanic voice” lie! Still completely immune to facts. I thought he might have a link to an actual good Hispanic author’s idea. Maybe I’ll forward this claim to my new pal Ty Franck and find out what humorous expression it produces on his face this time.
@Bruce A: Jon did not attend Baycon. Apparently if he isn’t being comped, he won’t show up at your con. They’d have taken his money.
Also, Hispanic and Latino are not the same thing. The Sads who outta nowhere claimed to be PoC are NOT Hispanic. Latino, maybe.
Also more prominent and well-known in SF: Ricardo Montalban. Okay, so he’s no longer with us, but he was KHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!
@Aaron
Thanks for the Black Panther review. I found it very difficult to get a handle on when I first read it, but on a re-read it made a bit more sense and the themes really started to shine through. I think it has got too many messy elements to go very high up my ballot, but as you say in your review its ambition should be applauded.
I’ve nearly finished the graphic novels, and they’ve all been at least good. I suspect Ms Marvel is going to be my front runner.
@lurkertype:
Ricardo Montalban may no longer be with us, but Diego Luna is. I seem to recall him being involved in some little SF film last year…
@lurkertype + @rev bob
If we’re talking actors, there’s also Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada who’s in another couple of little seen Sci Fi films of the last couple of years.
Guillermo del Toro certainly sounds like an Hispanic name.
Is Hispanic supposed to mean something other than that you come from a Spanish-speaking region?
I think the Dragons could be a valuable addition to the SFF awards spectrum. An award specifically for popular crowdpleasers that the Hugos/Nebulas/Clarkes/World Fantasy Awards/Locus Awards overlook would be useful. Having categories for different subgenres is a good idea as well and something other genre awards don’t do, though the actual subgenre breakdown needs some work, e.g. epic and urban fantasy are jammed into the same broad fantasy category, but a small subgenre like alternate history gets its own category. There is a category for military SFF and post-apocalyptic fiction, but none for dystopian fiction or space opera, etc…
However, in practice the Dragons didn’t award popular crowdpleasers last year (with the exceptions of Terry Pratchett, Naomi Novik and Larry Correia) and quite a few books won in subcategories where they don’t belong, the most blatant being Brian Niemeier’s space opera in horror. And as @lurkertype said, the voting system needs to be limited to one vote per person (which other popular vote awards like Goodreads Choice, the Gemmell Legend Awards and the Locus Awards manage without problems) and the awards need to be better promoted.
BTW, JDA does have one good recommendation on his list, Breath of Earth by Beth Cato in alternate history. The rest is not to my taste, to put it mildly.
Yeah, you are 100% correct. Declan not reading all of the books he merely listed as being ELIGIBLE is just as bad as shitting on writers and their books without having read a single word they’ve written first – something that seems to be the norm for you folks here. Not.
No one here has been “shitting on writers” without having read a single word they’ve written first. No one has even done that with Declan – we’ve all read several of his words, which is why people are pointing out his propensity to promote works he hasn’t read yet. I think you’ll find that the only group with a tendency to “shit on writers” they have not read are Pups. Numerous Pups have shown up here (and elsewhere) to declare that all of the Hugo finalists over the last decade are terrible. They just know this, although they are often quite happy to tell everyone that they haven’t read them.
On the other hand, I think if you were to actually pay attention, you’ll find that Filers (and most non-Pups of note) actually read before offering opinions up about what a writer has written. The problem for most Puppyish authors isn’t that people form opinions without reading their work, the problem is that people have read their work, and found it wanting. In many cases when a Puppy-proponent has shown up here, it has turned out that not only are Filers better read in the works that Puppyish people hate, but also better read in the works that Puppyish people claim to love.
Really, it isn’t even fun to mock you anymore, you’ve all become that pathetically sad.
I’m not sure you understand what the word “mock” means, because thus far, you really haven’t been doing it. Screaming insults at someone isn’t “mocking” them, it is just screaming insults.
When you can read sci-fi/fantasy for the fun and the wonder of the stories again, with an open mind, give me a call. Your strict allegiance to “RightThink” might make Stalin proud, but it really has no place in our fandom.
There is profound irony in your statement that I’m pretty sure you didn’t notice. When you are telling people that they have to think like you to be worth talking to, the only person promoting “rightthink” is you. No one here has said you have to like particular books or dislike others.
Anyone who paid attention might note that there is considerable disagreement among the people who frequent this locale. I like Cora a lot, but she likes some fiction that I don’t particularly care for, and dislikes some of the things that I rate quite highly. The same holds true for JJ – she loves some things that I don’t, and I love some things that I am sure she simply does not enjoy at all. And so on. For every Filer who loves something, you can bet there will be another who loathes it. When you guys roll in here claiming everyone is engaged in “rightthink”, all that you are really doing is exposing that you have no idea what you are talking about.
I think I’ll check out of commenting here ever again. I don’t want to catch your disease.
You mean the “disease” of reading lots of books and then having opinions on them? That disease?
re better-known Hispanic authors out of memory: Catherine Asaro? (xchecked with Wikipedia: Californian, hence more likely Hispanic than Portuguese or Italian.) Interesting discovery (today I’m one of the 10,000?): father Frank (originally Francesco) Asaro was the discoverer of the iridium anomaly that the Alvarezes (and he) used to postulate the Chicxulub asteroid crash.
Speaking of Catherine, she’ll be the GOH at next year’s Balticon (Balticon 52). At last weekend’s Balticon, she did a number of events (science panels, “Using SF for education” talks, and a concert).
@IanP: (Hispanic SF actors)
Can we count Danny Trejo yet, on the basis of Machete in Space? Or Cheech Marin, for his memorable bit parts in Ghostbusters and From Dusk Till Dawn? 😀
More seriously, I wish this was a longer list. Seeing a homogenized white future all the damn time just gets old, especially when one factors in the lack of gender diversity (good luck finding pretty much anyone not cis male, and the vast majority of those are cis women) and the corresponding lack of non-straight romantic relationships. (I’m not forgetting about aros, but I’m pretty sure there are more movies without big romantic plots than with non-het romances.)
That, in turn, reminds me of two things I found jarring in the book I’m currently reading – on consecutive pages, no less! The first was a bit of trans-exclusion (or cissexism, or one of several other terms) in a reference to the “gender” of a fetus. No, gender is a function of mind; the body parts are the kid’s sex. Use the right word!
The second was a reference to watching video messages so often they began to get distorted. Video messages, I should add, that are stored on chips and appear to involve no moving parts to create wear. Where’s the degradation coming from? Yes, I know that info stored on digital media like SD cards will eventually degrade, but that’s usually a consequence of electronic leakage from lack of use – which is decidedly not the case here.
They’re little details, perhaps, but significant ones. Especially once one learns to see them.
The more closely you look at it, the more elusive the cultural meaning becomes. However, the U.S. Census Bureau defines the ethnonym Hispanic or Latino to refer to “a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.” So in the U.S., the term is an attempt at coining a collective word for people who trace their ancestry to places in the Western Hemisphere once colonized by Spain, which, of course, includes much of the southwestern U.S.