(1) JEOPARDY! Funny how fandom has gone from being the contestants to being the answers…. On the May 3 episode of Jeopardy! one of the answers was —
In A Storm of Swords, he acknowledged “Phyllis, who made me put the dragons in it.”
The correct question would be “Who is George R.R. Martin?” But the clue is Phyllis Eisenstein.
Martin discussed this on a panel at Chicon 7 in 2012.
The dragons were one aspect that I did consider not including. Very early in the process, I was debating, should I do this just as like historical fiction about fake history, and have no actually overt magic or magical elements, but — my friend Phyllis Eisenstein, a wonderful fantasy writer who lives here in Chicago, I happened to be talking to her at very early stage in the process. Phyllis has written some great fantasies herself. She said, “Nah, you have to have dragons. It’s a fantasy, you know!” And I dedicated A Storm of Swords to Phyllis, who made me put the dragons in, and I think that was the right thing to do.
(2) TERMS OF UNDEARMENT. Kukuruyo’s image of Ms. Marvel has been pulled from DeviantArt. And on his own site, the Project Wonderful ads have been pulled on the page that displays the image. Did he violate the Terms Of Service?
https://twitter.com/kukuruyo/status/727512929415864320
(3) OFF THE CHARTS. The map found in illustrator Pauline Baynes’ copy of The Lord of the Rings has a new home reports The Guardian — “Tolkien annotated map of Middle-earth acquired by Bodleian library”.
Here be dragons – and wolves, bears, witches, camels, elephants, orcs, elves and hobbits.
A map of Middle-earth, which to generations of fans remains the greatest fantasy world ever created, heavily annotated by JRR Tolkien, has been acquired by the Bodleian library in Oxford to add to the largest collection in the world of material relating to his work, including the manuscripts of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The annotations, in green ink and pencil, demonstrate how real his creation was in Tolkien’s mind: “Hobbiton is assumed to be approx at latitude of Oxford,” he wrote.
(4) CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN. BBC News has a story about a a member of the 501st climbing England’s highest mountain. A Star Wars fan who walked to the tops of Snowdon and Ben Nevis while dressed as a stormtrooper plans to tackle England’s tallest mountain.
Ashley Broomhall hopes to make the trek on Wednesday, the date of which – May the fourth- is often linked to the Star Wars phrase “May the force…”
He will wear his stormtrooper armour for the walk up 3,208ft (978m) Scafell Pike in the Lake District.
(5) AMAZONIAN TOSSER. Heather Rose Jones “tosses a little numbers-geekery” at the question of what it means for a book to have only really really good reviews on Amazon. (Spoiler: She says it means your book isn’t getting out enough.)
You know who has spent a very long time in the top 10 books sold in Historical Fantasy? Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander. Do you know how many one-star reviews Outlander has on Amazon? 749. Seven hundred and forty-fucking-nine one-star reviews (4% of the total). No book is universally beloved.
(6) CHINA BOUND. Martin L. Shoemaker posted his good news on Facebook:
Now that the contract has been signed, I am very honored to announce that “Today I Am Paul” will appear in Science Fiction World, the Chinese science fiction magazine, as part of their new series of Hugo/Nebula nominees.
(7) CROWDFUNDING AEROSPACE HISTORIAN. You can support Dr. Jim Busby by helping fund his travel to Spacefest VII.
Help Us Keep Our Aerospace Heritage Alive
From June 9 – 12 2016 Spacefest VII , a reunion of legendary NASA astronauts, engineers, famous space scientists, authors, astronomers, space artists, and fans produced by Novaspace, will be held in Tucson, AZ.
Dr. Jim Busby Aerospace Historian, educator and board member of Aerospace Legacy Foundation (ALF) in Downey, CA has been invited to be a guest lecturer and to do a memorabilia display. Unfortunately, ALF being a small non-profit organization cannot afford to send Dr. Busby, his wife and other members of the organization to Tucson. That is why we are turning to aerospace enthusiasts to help fund this trip. Dr. Jim Busby’s extensive knowledge of aerospace history has educated many over the years. In 1978 he helped create the world’s first Apollo lunar reenactments and worked at the California Science center for 19 years.
“I enjoy educating children and adults in our long fascination with space exploration,” Busby commented. “Inspiring children when I talk about Apollo lunar exploration is an experience beyond words.”
The GoFundMe has raised $645 of its $2,500 goal at this writing.
(7) JURY DUTY. Mary Anne Mohanraj announced on Facebook that jurors are needed to review grant applications for Speculative Literature Foundation.
JURORS NEEDED: The Speculative Literature Foundation is looking for ten volunteer jurors willing to read applications (a few pages each, including a writing sample) over the space of about a month for our Diverse Writers Grant and our Diverse Worlds Grant. The grant deadline is at the end of July, so you would need to have time available in August to read and discuss. In order to be considered, potential jurors should be writers, editors, teachers, or readers with broad knowledge of the genre, who are capable of judging literary quality in a work.
If interested, please send a brief note to our director, Mary Anne Mohanraj, [email protected], with the subject line: JUROR. Include a few lines on what your qualifying background would be for serving as a juror. Thank you for your interest, and for your support of science fiction and fantasy!
More information about the Diverse Writers and Diverse Workds grants at the link.
(8) SOUND RETREAT. John C. Wright takes “A Polite Retreat from Combat”.
Mr. George R.R. Martin here (http://grrm.livejournal.com/485124.html) has taken the time out of his busy writing schedule to rebut my comment where I rebuked him for characterizing the Sad Puppies reading list of last year as ‘right-wing’ and ‘weak’, a statement published in the Guardian newspaper.
My reply, humbly enough, was that my work was unweak enough to have sold at least one example to him. He responds by chiding me for being insufficiently humble: as if making a sale to George R.R. Martin were not indeed a matter for pride.
He and I (or so I thought) had an agreement to smooth over our puppy-related sadness.
In the spirit of that agreement, I plead nolo contendere to his allegations, in the hope that if I say nothing but this in reply, he will return to his writing, and tell me and his other fans the final fate of Westeros.
The years fly like autumn leaves, and life too short for such fare. Winter is coming.
(9) RITUALLY UNCLEAN. Sami Sundell calls it “Overemphasizing the Taint”.
…I’ve also seen some more dire messages. For example, Steve Davidson listed nominations sans puppy taint. Matthew M. Foster had an even stricter stance and called the awards Vox Awards. And that’s what really hit my nerve….
So who cares if one of the nominees is Ann Leckie‘s Ancillary Mercy, the final part of the trilogy that started with Hugo winner Ancillary Justice – a book that has been much reviled by the Puppies. Mercy was on Sad Puppies recommendation lists so it’s tainted. Same apparently goes for Uprooted by Naomi Novik.
And Vox Day, apparently all by himself, decided Seveneves by Neal Stephenson is worthy of a Hugo nomination. You know, the multiple award winner Neal Stephenson? And a book that was pre-emptively put into mind blowing science fiction list of io9 in January 2015? Expectations were high, and I’ve seen plenty of reviews saying those expectations were met, and then some.
Same goes for Alastair Reynolds’ Slow Bullets and Lois McMaster Bujold‘s Penric’s Demon. McMaster Bujold has won or been nominated for Hugos more times than I have fingers. Is it really so hard to believe she would write yet another masterpiece?
…No. Saying Day made some OK choices is not surrender. That blog entry is surrender. It gives all the power to Vox Day, it ignores the quality of works, and it claims fans had no say in the nominations. That sounds awfully lot like the arguments we’ve heard from Puppies for several years….
(10) TROLLFIGHTING SPACE KITTEN. Spacefaring Kitten would deal with the ballot this way — “On Fighting Trolls and Going to Have to Ask Kevin Standlee”.
Rule changes are slow, however, so they don’t help in the current situation — where we indeed have a hostile takeover by trolls who have stated explicitly that their intention is to destroy the award. Among the Hugo finalists, there are works that include blatant hate-speech, fat-shaming, misogyny et cetera. Overall, it’s more horrible than last year, when the voters had to mostly just stomach bad writing (this year, the level of writing is probably much higher).
The works I’m referring to here are of course the short story “If You Were an Award, My Love” and the related works SJWs Always Lie, “The Story of Moira Greyland” and “Safe Space as Rape Room” (and maybe the work of the fan artist “Kukuruyo”). These are ugly works manufactured to harass individual members of the SFF community or groups of people that the Rabid Puppies contingency happens to love harassing (women, LGBTI community and so on).
So, what could be done about them? Unfortunately, not much.
After reading the WSFS constitution, I came up with only two things. If I was running the Worldcon (which I’m not, of course), I would:
- Not include them in the Hugo voter packet. (There are zero rules about the voter packet, so it would be completely possible for the Worldcon to exclude the works mentioned above.)
- Insert onto the online voting form a statement that says “Midamericon II condemns the hate-speech/whatever featured in Finalist X”.
(11) SUTHERLAND CONTINUES. Meanwhile, Doris V. Sutherland is still working on her category-by-category discussion of last year’s results in “2014 Hugos Versus 2015 Sad Puppies: What Could Have Been, Part 1” at Women Write About Comics.
So, let me restate that the works on these longlists are the works that received the highest number of votes during the Hugo nomination process without being on either the Sad Puppies or Rabid Puppies slates. I have seen no evidence to justify suspicion of any conspiracy or wrongdoing on the part of George R. R. Martin or anyone else involved.
That said, I also have to question the claim made by certain Sad Puppies opponents that these longlists show us exactly what the Hugo ballot would been had the Sad Puppies campaign never existed. This interpretation ignores the fact that some of the Puppy picks could quite conceivably have made the final ballot even without the aid of the campaign. Nevertheless, a look at the longlist will at least give us a good idea of how the ballot would have looked without Puppy slating—and an idea is all we can have.
Best Short Story
“Jackalope Wives,” by Ursula Vernon
One of the 2014 nominees in this category was Sofia Samatar’s “Selkie Stories are for Losers,” which riffed on the folkloric motif of the animal bride. Interestingly enough, one of the contenders for the 2015 award plays with the same theme—albeit with very different results.
Ursula Vernon constructs her pseudo-folkloric story from specifically American materials, lending it a folksy tall-tale feel. It takes place in a world where young men periodically go out and hunt for jackalopes—which, in Vernon’s conception, are more than just antlered bunnies. Once they remove their fur, they take on their true forms as beautiful, unearthly women. As per animal bride tradition, any prospective suitor must steal a jackalope’s fur before he can win her as a bride, and burn it to prevent her from changing back and escaping.
So far, so conventional. But while folktales of this type are often told from the point of view of the man, with the bride’s disappearance seen as a sad occurrence, Vernon sheds light on how rotten the scenario must be for the woman. The protagonist of “Jackalope Wives” learns the ugly truth behind the legend when he tries to burn a jackalope’s fur; her resulting screams of pain cause him to have second thoughts, inadvertently leaving the woman trapped halfway between human and animal. The manic pixie dream girl has had her wings cut off.
“Jackalope Wives” is true to its folkloric roots while simultaneously offering a contemporary spin on the age-old material. A deserving contender for Best Short Story.
Sutherland also drew a “salute” to GamerGate Life.
I drew this in honour of #Gamergate Life's recognition at the #HugoAwards. pic.twitter.com/XGNwWESUYn
— Doris V. Sutherland (@DorVSutherland) May 3, 2016
(12) AGAINST HATRED. Jon Tully at GeeksOut tells “How Hatred Is Hurting the Hugos”.
…This year, the Rabid puppies doubled their votes and succeeded in nominating 62 out of 80 stories that they backed. And are these stories that reflect where our culture is headed? Are they stories about inclusivity, empathy, and reflection?
No. They are stories such as “SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police” a story about “social justice warriors” (penned by Beale himself), “If You Were an Award, My Love” by Juan Tabo and S. Harris, (a direct spoof on the gay-affirming “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love”), “Safe Space as Rape Room” by Daniel Eness (published by Castalia House) and, my personal (sarcastic) favorite, Space Raptor Butt Invasion by Chuck Tingle, which has all the literary merit the title suggests.
If the judges were willing to deny awards in five categories last year, what is it going to look like this year? Will any awards be given? Will authors begin to gravitate away from the Hugos towards the Nebula or the Locus Awards?
Will this be the death of an institution I love?
As Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” And while these oft-repeated words can seem passé (and a little too gender-specific), there is, of course, a core of truth. The reason that we’re in this situation is because the various Puppies were able to rally enough hate to their side to be heard.
But the fact that sours my stomach is not that small-minded children were able to throw a tantrum and get their way, it’s that, by doing so, they’re hijacking the narrative of our era. Metaphorically speaking, the Rabid Puppies are wedging their intolerance into a time capsule that future generations will open, and societies not yet born will see and be ashamed of.
(13) WORD BALLOONS. At this link you will find what seems to be popularly regarded as “the best superhero story ever.” And at minimum it’s pretty funny: http://imgur.com/a/czaDD
(14) FLIGHT TO THE FINNISH. Zen Cho can’t resist temptation.
In the half day I've been on Finnish soil I've bought so many Moomin things I feel slightly alarmed at myself. pic.twitter.com/KVsMg29vCE
— Zen Cho (@zenaldehyde) May 2, 2016
Temptation is everywhere. Resistance is futile. pic.twitter.com/6mi4LdzRb3
— Zen Cho (@zenaldehyde) May 2, 2016
(15) FRED POHL IS HERE. The Traveler from Galactic Journey has the latest ancient prozine news: “[May 3, 1961] Passing the Torch (June 1961, Galaxy, 2nd Half)”.
Fred Pohl came on last year. He was not officially billed as the editor, but it was common knowledge that he’d taken over the reigns. Pohl is an agent and author, a fan from the way-back. I understand his plan has been to raise author rates again and bring back quality. While he waits for the great stories to come back, he leavens the magazines with old stories from the “slush pile” that happen not to be awful. In this way, Galaxy showcases promising new authors while keeping the quality of the magazine consistent.
The June 1961 Galaxy is the first success story of this new strategy.
Last issue, I talked about how Galaxy was becoming a milquetoast mag, afraid to take risks or deviate far from mediocrity. This month’s issue, the first that lists Pohl as the “Managing Editor,” is almost the second coming of old Galaxy — daring, innovative, and with one exception, excellent.
Take Cordwainer Smith’s Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons, in which an interplanetary ring of thieves tries to steal from the richest, and best defended planet, in the galaxy. Smith has always been a master, slightly off-center in his style; his rich, literary writing is of the type more usually seen in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Kittons is ultimately a mystery, the nature of the unique (in name and nature) “kittons” remaining unknown until the last. A brutal, fascinating story, and an unique take on the future. Five stars.
(16) DABBLING IN THE DEBACLE. Amanda S. Green asks “What do you want?” at Mad Genius Club.
…the Hugo debacle. Yes, debacle. There is no other way to describe it. Whether you support the idea that the Hugos are a fan award (which I do since you buy a membership to WorldCon in order to vote and anyone with the money can do so) or a “literary” award (which, to mean, would require it to be a juried award in some fashion), I think we all can — or at least should — agree that Hugo should not be exclusionary. If you can afford the money for the membership, you should be able to vote and your vote should have the same weight as the next person’s. Until the rules are changed, that is how it should be.
So imagine my surprise yesterday when I was looking through Facebook and came across a post from one of the puppy-kickers — and I am looking straight at you, Mr. Amazing Stories — saying that the committee should go in and look at all the ballots. Any ballot cast by a puppy should be thrown out. (And he even adds to his comment “screw privacy”, which had been one of the concerns last year’s committee had when they were asked to release the voting data.). But that’s not enough for him. He advocates never letting a “puppy” buy a membership to WorldCon again. There’s more but you can go look for yourself — assuming the post is still there. It is dated April 26th and was posted at 7:24 pm.
Needless to say, when I saw this, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Laughter because these sorts of comments show the hypocrisy of those who are “fighting the good fight” against those evil Sad and Rabid Puppies. We are called all sorts of names because, as they claim, we want to exclude message and “marginalized” people from the genre. Yet here one of their most vocal supporters is doing exactly what they claim we are doing. He is saying we should not be allowed into the same room with the Hugos. Note, he is not only saying that we shouldn’t be allowed to vote for their beloved award but tat we should not be allowed to attend WorldCon.
Sounds pretty exclusionary to me. How about you?
(17) HE’S EXCITED. More from Shamus Young about his Hugo nomination in a podcast on his site. The show notes say:
01:08 Shamus is up for a Hugo Award
Here I talk about the fact that I’ve been nominated for a Hugo, and I briefly mention the controversy the Hugos have been having for the past two years. I don’t want to talk about the controversy here. In fact, the no politics post was written specifically in anticipation of this discussion.
If you’re looking for more information: On WIRED there’s this post entitled Sci-Fi’s Hugo Awards and the Battle for Pop Culture’s Soul, which seems to be the one everyone links when trying to bring people up to speed on this. However, like a lot of Wired articles this one feels like the author was paid by the word. It’s long on anecdotes, it takes forever to get to the point, it’s broad and hyperbolic, and for all the words it spends it never feels like it gets down to details.
I found this one much more useful: A Detailed Explanation by Matthew David Surridge, explaining why he declined his Hugo nomination last year. It is also long – I’m afraid you can’t really do the topic justice in a couple of paragraphs – but instead of spending its word count on stories, he just takes up one side and argues for it. In the process he kind of maps out a good deal of both sides[1].
I’m excited to be nominated for a Hugo. I’m excited that videogames are being recognized and encouraged in their pursuit of sci-fi stories. I’m dreading dealing with people who don’t respect my no politics rule and are just looking for an opportunity to unleash the anger they’re hauling around. I think accepting the nomination is the most diplomatic thing to do, and win or lose I’m grateful for everyone who thinks my work has merit.
(18) COUNTING TO ZERO. The Locus Awards navigated around the worst rocks and shoals of the puppy lists only to incur criticism about the composition of the YA Novel finalists.
Surprise, welcome to Systemic Sexism, Locus Awards edition!!
— Renay? (@renay) May 3, 2016
Just to clarify the poll is based on the Locus Recommended Reading List–readers choose the finalists for the awards. (Still a problem.)
— Gwenda Bond ?????The Frame-Up????? out now (@Gwenda) May 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/stephandrea_/status/727625334120583169
Hey, if you read LOCUS, don't worry: women do actually write fantasy and science fiction, even if they didn't make any awards lists.
— Martha Brockenbrough FRANK AND THE BAD SURPRISE (@mbrockenbrough) May 3, 2016
(19) NEW POPULAR FICTION MFA. Emerson College in Boston is starting a new Masters of Fine Arts in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing in Fall 2016. It will be a fully online program designed for students who want to pursue a career as a writer of novels in the genres of fantasy, science-fiction, horror, mystery, thriller, or young adult.
The program will enroll a cohort of 12 students in order to provide individual attention and coaching. The two-year accredited MFA program will be housed in Emerson’s nationally known Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing.
The MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing is one of the first online writing programs to prepare students to write professional-level stories and novels in a variety of fictional genres and provides an opportunity for students to read deeply, think critically, and discuss popular fiction with peers. Students will have the experience of participating in creative workshops and literature courses that focus on the history of various popular genres. Additionally, hands-on publishing courses will teach students how to turn a completed manuscript into a polished, publishable work. Emerson’s publishing faculty will offer insights on the avenues available for students to publish their work, from finding and working with literary agents to self-publishing to reaching a wide readership through trade publishers.
For more information, visit the MFA in Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing web page or contact John Rodzvilla, graduate program director, at [email protected] or 617-824-3717.
(20) PUPPY DISAMBIGUATION. Don’t miss the rollover in Trae’s cartoon “The inevitable outcome”.
(21) UNKNOWN TRAILER. The first trailer for Approaching the Unknown has been released, a movie starring Mark Strong and Luke Wilson.
(22) TOLKIEN TALK. Terri Windling will lecture about Tolkien in Oxford on May 26.
(23) PAYING BACKWARD. Rachel Swirsky has a plan for getting through these parlous times which she shares in “Making Lemons into Jokes: ‘If You Were a Butt, My Butt”.
In my family, humor has always been a way of putting crap into perspective. When life hands you lemons, make jokes. And then possibly lemonade, too. It is coming up on summer.
In that spirit, I’m trying a self-publishing experiment. And that experiment’s name is “If You Were a Butt, My Butt.”
If my Patreon reaches $100 by the end of the month, I will write and send “If You Were a Butt, My Butt” to everyone who subscribes. If things go well, I’ve got some stretch goals, too, like an audio version.
I will be donating the first month’s Patreon funds to Lyon-Martin health services. Lyon-Martin is one of the only providers that focuses on caring for the Quiltbag community, especially low-income lesbian, bisexual, and trans people. They provide services regardless of the patient’s ability to pay.
[And that’s the end! Thanks to John King Tarpinian, James David Nicoll, Mark-kitteh, DMS, Chip Hitchcock, Cat Rambo, Hampus Eckerman, Mike O’Donnell, Glenn Hauman, and Michael J. Walsh for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]
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I suppose….simply attempting to utilize the same Alinsky-ist tactics aimed in the opposite direction.
I’m just going to point out that when anyone on the right uses the term “Alinsky-ist tactics”, they immediately lose pretty much all credibility on the subject they are opining upon. The only people who are obsessed with Alinsky are those on the right. There hasn’t been anyone on the left who cared about, or paid attention to, Alinsky in decades.
One might also note that the “extreme existential crisis” moments that the right seems to think happen due to the “left” blowing things up disproportionately almost always turn out to be the right (and mostly the alt-right) exploding over a relatively modest criticism of something.
Weapons…we should remind ourselves that OGH quietly dropped “Ice-5” on us recently.
OK, last one, and this probably crosses over too much with the favorite ships threads recently, but the Argo from Star Blazers was one cool weapon.
@Lee,
I haven’t read Divergent, to be completely fair. But I know that it and Hunger Games fall very much post-Apoc, while Strike falls either intra-Apoc, or immediately therafter. I did not mean to disparage either.
@Stevie,
If you’re putting in for Steve Brust’s swords, I feel like I should put in a good word for Saberhagen’s.
To see a few of them, follow the link in my comment on the yeoman page.
Here is mention of another one.
Here is one more speaking up.
Here are more.
And more.
The extreme nutbag left is no better than the extreme nutbag right.
Weaons…
The nasty little spider robots from the movie Runaway (1984). They gave me nightmare as a kid.
Heather Rose Jones said:
Sadly, I think that’s a too generous hypothesis. I checked out the users who voted for that author’s books, and all but two of them are Goodreads authors themselves. Which means that the best hypothesis for those books’ high rankings is actually vote-trading among Goodreads authors. It’s not uncommon for a subset of GR authors to post requests on certain GR communities asking for Listopia upvotes on particular lists, and to respond in turn to their fellow authors’ requests (most often without bothering to read the book(s) that they’re upvoting).
Darren Garrison:
Um, yeah. I haven’t actually run into any of those people, they are reported about online. My comment actually referred to that fact that I tend quite left of center, as do most of the people in my life but nobody does stuff like that.
Perhaps if more did everyone wouldn’t scream socialist at our perfectly reasonable wishes for a more equitable world.
Aaron reminds me, my favorite SFF weapon – Alinsky-ist tactics. Better even than Sting, Stormbringer, or Lazy Guns.
(11) @Lorcan Nagle (IIRC) – thanks for the explanation of that comic. I was completely confused. Then I went over and read some of the Gamergate Life comics. I remember now reading the first couple when it started up. It’s an excellent example of far right “humor.” Reminds me of “Day by Day”, which I had thankfully forgotten about years ago and which, to my utter shock, is still apparently a going concern.
I’m very sorry to hear the news about your wife, Steve. I wish you both the best.
On the axis of weapons, robots, spacecraft and anime, I’m going to put in a vote for every Macross ship. There’s nothing like a starship with a stupidly powerful gun that can transform into a robot and then punch other spaceships. Special shout out to the end of Macross Frontier where two of them team up to beat on an enemy ship.
https://youtu.be/IRTWVtreFy0?t=16m40s (this link should go to the right spot in the episode)
No doubt, but the “extreme left” can be somewhat flexibly defined in the great Hugo debate. I’m a Conservative-voting Brit but I am apparently an SJW/Stalinist/librul in the eyes of some of our fellow travellers in the genre.
@cmm
Perhaps I missed some context. Are you referring to some folks sending hateful messages about Mr. Davidson’s wife? Which is really abhorrent and inexcusable, without question.
As for some “extreme left” samples, how about the rioters armed with molotov cocktails that were assaulting police and general vandalizing businesses in May Day “protests”?
Other examples….will be promptly ignored by those that see the left as bereft of violent intent and bullying tactics.
—
Regards,
Dann
@Darren: And yet none of those examples seem to show an “existential crisis”.
Weapon? Stitch. The fluffiest Weapon of Mass Disruption.
John A Arkansawyer – the sequel (Dreams of the Golden Age) is, in my opinion, a better book, though equally difficult to classify.
Steve Davidson – best wishes to your wife and yourself.
Mike – thanks for the correction.
Paul (@princejvstin) on May 4, 2016 at 12:56 pm said:
I must say, I am enjoying the “Sidecar” of Mind Meld answers to my Mind Meld here on File 770.
Me too. In spite of lightsabers and the blades from LotR, I’m going to echo one of the people from today’s Mind Meld and say Gonturan. There’s something extra appealing about a weapon with a mind of her own.
Also the all-too-literal ‘smart bomb’ in John Carpenter’s Dark Star.
The Scrollmaker of Pixelee Street
Must’ve been done, surely.
I think you are addressing a different point. My issue was not a lack of civility in discussion but an aspect of alt-right ideology that takes obnoxious behavior (which can be found anywhere) and actually frames it as core ideology.
As for our margin for reasonable disagreement, I think what ypu are seeing is something else.
At other times in history there have been times when unreasonable positions were also socially acceptable positions. An extreme example would be being pro-slavery in mid-19th century America. That was never actually a REASONABLE position but it was one that peopke were expected to respond politely and in a manner in which pretended it was something within the bounds of reasonable ethics. Another example would be casual antisemitism prior to WW2 (and after).
We are at a point were a host of issues, many centerd on gender and sexuality, are making that shift – were socially accepted but fundamentally batsh!t levels of ethically unreasonable by any consistent moral framework are being challenged.
I tend pretty far left for someone from the US. (I think single payer health care would be a good idea for instance.). I’d never heard of Alinsky until Torgersen started bringing up this weird capitalized adjective all the time.
Everybody I have seen bring it up to this point has been anointing the fire hydrant. I’m not going to go have a closer look at their calling cards. I don’t have the right sensory equipment to decipher the Puppy classifieds.
And well said, Camestros! Things that were deeply wrong were once still socially acceptable. That’s changing. Good.
Where and when?
Weapons…
You Gotta Believe me and Basilisk hacks are fun ones.
Another is the Cole Wand from the Paratwa series.
And just about anything from the hand guns to the cavalry knife/sword from Paul J. McAuley’s Confluence trilogy.
@ CeeV
Perhaps. But I would much rather err on the side of generosity and avoidance of finger-pointing unless I not only am certain of my conclusions, but believe that active harm is occurring.
More applause for Camestros!
As to weapons, I find Changeling terrifying (“Oh, so you wanted the ultimate destructive weapon? Here it is; now live with it.”) but I was also pretty scared of the gonne that Sam Vimes & Carrot disposed of. Gonturan seemed to have no worse characteristic than a sense of humor.
As far as weapons go, how about Lecter? I’ve got a fond spot for any instrument with a “This Machine Kills ” sticker on it.
First, sympathies for Steve and especially his wife.
_________________
I have a hard time taking seriously any claim that the left as a whole (rather than the absurdist fringe* and/or arseholes abusing a rule whose intent was much more sane) tends towards shrill, histrionics, existential crises. Because I have posted something, or shared something, with a moderate and modulated tone, and had it turn into a screaming-fest because someone else either conflated my opinion with its most extreme version (“I think it helps when men stop and listen sometimes” “Oh, so men aren’t allowed to say anything ever again.”) or assumed my level of anger was several stages higher than it was (extra bonus points for assuming I’m angry or hateful when I am, in fact, I’m snickering or rolling my eyes.)
*Darren Garrison’s examples I feel include some that are debateable both in level of absurdity and existential crisis — but crazy extremists exist. The “all heterosexual sex is rape” crowd, for instance. Now, if only a number of people didn’t assume they are the majority of feminists and people like me are the rare kind…
I see the political spectrum as a horseshoe … the two extreme ends are actually much closer together than points further up the curves … far-right ideologies are not any crazier than far-left ideologies. And yes the far-left can be just as big a bully as anyone. Fred Clark (Slacktivist) has been mentioned here I think .. I used to participate quite a lot on his comment threads before he moved to Patheos. Fred himself is pretty liberal, but also approaches issues from a Christian perspective. There were (and maybe still are) many commenters on his threads that would shout you down, use the “nuclear option”, etc etc .. if you dared to express disagreement with any of the extreme interpretations of Fred’s remarks (I generally found myself in agreement with Fred). I know … I was ‘nuked’ several times before I grew tired of it and left.
So yeah. I get it when some folks are irritated with political correctness, etc. But I swallow that irritation because it’s a small price to pay for at least trying to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard and considered.
I’m not particularly left wing, although I do believe that healthy societies care for their most vulnerable members. I have worked within the social justice movement for a couple of decades and had never heard of Alinsky until Puppies started burbling.
Eta: This comment posted itself, before I was finished. Thanks, dying phone.
Anyway, Alinsky’s 12 Rules for Radicals would shock neither Machiavelli nor SunTzu and don’t seem particularly radical. Also, he’s been dead since 1972, so I’m uncertain why his name even comes up.
Does anyone seriously argue that all heterosexual sex is rape — that is, anyone beyond McKinnon, Dworkin, etc and lesbian separatists from 40+ years ago?
I give anyone conflating that stuff (considered ancient history already when I was in college in the late 80s) with current feminism the same side eye I give people nattering on about Alinsky as if it has any relevance now to anyone other than right wingers who yell about it.
Lenora, no shade to you, I just get really irritated that these kind of positions are supposed to embody crazy left wing thought NOW when they are ancient history, and are thrown around in response to people pointing out insane things said by far right people in the past week.
“It’s nuts that the KKK is endorsing a mainstream political party’s presidential candidate”
“Oh yeah? Alinsky! Both sides do it!”
I suspect far left bullying is becoming more common than it was previously. I’m not sure why. I also don’t buy for one minute that it’s 1/10 the problem that far right bullying is – bullying and violence against out groups is absolutely essential to the far right.
I just came across the story of Zamii070 yesterday or the day before. It seems to be a legitimate case of the kind of bullying you’d normally expect from gators and the like.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/zamii070-harassment-controversy
Granted, I’m not american, but I’ve never heard of this Alinsky. Can some explain to me what “alinsky like tactics” is supposed to be? And where and what people that are promoting those tactics?
Weapons… Has anyone mentioned the white chair from Use of Weapons? Still makes me shudder
It’s a reference to Saul Alinsky, an activist who died in 1972. Presumably when they talk about tactics it’s his book Rules for Radicals.
I repeat, this is a man who died 44 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky
@Hampus – From what I remember, VD’s SJW’s Always Lie is an attempt to make a “Rules for Radicals” for right wingers.
@Cmm
I’ve only personally seen that statement used in a sort of thought experiment way when discussing systemic misogyny/the Patriarchy.
ETA: Also from what I recall… the Alinsky blather popped up largely when the Right was trying to smear Obama as a radical, and there were attempts to connect the two.
Re Saul Alinsky
To be very general, Saul Alinsky (the man, not the right wing boogeyman) was someone who attempted to organize New Left groups so that they had the cohesion and discipline of the old left. On the large scale, he failed. To enough of the New Left, any thing that smacks of organization is fascism. On the small scale, a lot of the groups that enjoyed some success since 1970 on the left have utilized him. However, this is Alibsky the man, not Alinsky the mythic boogeyman that Dann will, I was going to say invoke, but Dann never owns up his right winggery, so I’ll say imply.
The thing about Alinsky is that he emphasized an almost extreme self discipline. You stick to the goals and the message. Again, its old left Union solidarity for New Left college kids. So the huge emotional indiscipline of everyone’s favorite radical boogeyman usually isn’t his thing. It’s very basic stuff. Organize people and money to gain power. No chakras or trigger warnings. The groups that still will invoke Alinsky in the US are hard economic left – not the quinoa and kale left, the redistributionists.
One organization that still name checks him is the group that goes by the name Gameliel. One of their former employees was a lawyer named Barrack Obama, so about 8 years ago, Alinskys name is linked to a black man with power and suddenly his scary hidden master #1, oddly enough. Funny that.
Point being, Alinsky is the man who said that the new left should stop being hippies and start acting like old line Union men and women. The real irony is that there was a group that took the old tactics of the unions to heart on a large scale. I recommend the book Before the Storm. It’s about the rise of Barry Goldwater, and how a bunch of ex communists took their old left training and founded the New Right.
So like so many things, when our right wingers darkly invoke Alinsky tactics, they are assuming others work like they do. As a lefty, there are times I wish that was true.
All my sympathies, Steve. Best wishes for a the best possible outcome. Cancer sucks.
—
Thread necromancy ahoy! Attn: @Rev. Bob (others should probably ignore)
Way back in the mists of time (i.e. Friday), before I took off for a road trip through mountain passes and blizzards to participate in a roller derby tournament and then wound up scrambling to get back on top of my workload, Rev. Bob asked,
Rev. Bob on April 29, 2016 at 12:57 am said:
My Viggle experience these days is the same as it was those days: I am smartphone-free by choice, so I run Viggle on Bluestacks, an Android emulator. I do now own a laptop that runs Windows 10, which runs some apps natively, but none of Perk’s apps are in the Windows store. (The only app I use on Bluestacks that I found in the Windows store was Two Dots, and oh, my, scrolling down the map is painful.)
My points-earning goes like this:
On an old laptop that sits across the room from my desk, I check Viggle into whatever the high points earner for the day is. I use vigglerumors.com to find out what that is, and to play the sound clip. It’s usually the morning news show is at a 5x bonus (10 pts per commercial break). Viggle continues to allow re-checking in to the same show throughout the day for full bonus points every commercial break, so whenever it runs out I start it again.
Meanwhile, on the same laptop, I run Perk.tv and Viggle.tv on separate Chrome windows (they seem to hang if they’re two tabs in the same window; I suppose they react badly to not having focus). I don’t bother keeping an eye on them; when it’s time to re-check Viggle in, I also refresh the Chrome windows after clicking the “are you still watching?” button.
It’s pretty hands-off and, depending on how many times I refresh the process (depending on how long I’m home at my desk doing work or play), it’s anywhere from 1500 to 4000 points in a day.
I don’t do Amazon, but have instead been cashing in all my points for $25 B&N gift cards. I started with $10, but then discovered B&N won’t let you use more than 3 cards on a single order, which makes it hard to add up to the $25 for free shipping. The gift cards make it easier to take a chance on books I might have been wavering on and turns a lot of the recs and sale alerts here into insta-buys.
(I think you were the one who described how to de-DRM ebooks via calibre? That has so saved my reading experience, especially considering the move to the new laptop. Had a copy of Neil Gaiman’s “Nothing O’Clock” that I’d bought two laptops ago–same one as runs all the Perk stuff, as it turns out–and I no longer remembered my ADE login credentials to open it on the new computer. But I was able to install calibre and the de-DRM plugin on the old machine, so as to pick up the ADE key and strip the DRM, and then I could move n functioning copy over to the new computing environment. Hooray for never throwing away old laptops until their motherboards crack. Boo hiss for DRM.)
And that is my Perk-points earning experience. Because you asked. 😀
More on topic on this thread:
@kathodus:
Ditto. The argument I’ve heard, and that I have some sympathy to, is that to the extent that women’s lives, livelihood, and well-being within patriarchal society depends on men supporting them financially and in myriad other hard-to-classify ways, and also to the extent that women are often aggressively pressured to match an ideal of heterosexual marriage and childbearing before said patriarchal society will grant to them Real True Womanhood & Adult Status, heterosexual sex exists in a context where consent is not entirely freely given, or at least it is very hard to disentangle free consent from societal coercion.
This is a far more nuanced position than “all heterosexual sex is rape.” Only one time, ever, in my life, did I run into someone who seemed to actually believe that. It during a roundtable discussion of monsters in fantasy literature. I forget how the conversation leading up to the exchange went, but I said something about how human-vampire romances tend to be problematic in terms of consent, because isn’t one of the vampire powers glamour/mind-control? And a woman across the table snapped back “Yes, well, but then all heterosexual relationships are problematic in terms of consent, so what’s your point?”
That is literally the only time I’ve ever heard a real live person express in real time, in my presence, a sentiment anywhere close to “all heterosexual sex is rape.”
Steve Davidson, I will keep your wife in my thoughts. My sympathies to your whole family.
I hope Locus doesn’t announce if they took action to counter slate voting, especially if they didn’t. Let Beale wonder if the elk simply weren’t that interested.
Yeah the Zamii stuff looks pretty damn insane. All the calling out/critiquing reads like kids who have found shiny new ideas and are running around bashing people with them indiscriminately. There ARE real problems with cultural appropriation and “whitewashing” etc but the yelling about it seems to be getting out of proportion to the “crime”. And when it comes to fan expression of characters they love, I really have no opinion. Just like fans recast chatprcters in all kinds of crazy ways, if people want to imagine them with different looks and sizes they are free to do it and people are free to like it or not like it, look or don’t look, follow or don’t, link or don’t. You don’t have to hound people about it.
Still all of this looks like the actions of really young and immature people who have some exciting new vocabulary and perspectives and are using them indiscriminately as a blunt instrument against people they forget are vulnerable humans on the other side of the screens. It seems to me to be of a piece with all the other instances of cyber bullying and harassment we see with an overlay of this political consciousness, instead of just telling people to kill themselves because they are fat, stupid, or ugly. It’s still harassment, it’s still awful, and using the language they do devalues the ideas they are trying to treat is important.
And it still isn’t a patch on the right wing stuff. This isn’t screaming at people at the store for using food stamps, beating up immigrants while talking about Trump, following people into restrooms because they aren’t dressing feminine enough, or physically pushing, shoving, punching and beating protesters exercising their 1st amendment rights to peaceful political protest.
For that matter why are all the worst examples of left wing bullying always against other left leaning targets? RH was the same way as the people going after Zamii. Are there any real examples (I.e. Not ginned up puppy style butthurt) of leftie folks going after right wing targets like gamer gaters go after someone like Quinn or Wu? It seems like most bullying and harassment from the left is against people who share the general worldview but arent far enough along (in the bullies’ estimation) or who are still stumbling over biases while trying to do better. I mean, you have people running around perfectly comfortable with calling Malia Obama terrible racial epithets on a mainstream news website on a story about her going to Harvard, and you are gonna spend your efforts on Twitter getting up someone’s nose for not drawing a character with kinky enough hair??
At the end of the day, my point still stands…I lean left of Center but am not radical. I think it is important to be inclusive and try to understand where people from other cultures are coming from, be respectful, be mindful of stereotypes and appropriation, but that’s not the stuff I’m going to barricades over when people get shitty education, shitty healthcare, shitty housing and shitty treatment by employers because of race, gender, socioeconomic class. That’s the stuff that matters. I have the same contempt for the Tumblr activists that I do for someone like VD because they are spending so much time and being just generally shitty people over something that in the vast scheme of things is pretty insignificant. Tho since the Zamii haters all sound like they are teenagers I can at least hope they will grow out of it.
Simon R Greene’s “The Speaking Gun” from the Nightside series is pretty horrible. Both for the effects on objects (makes them disappear) and on the wielder (makes them madder than a box of weasels).
Blagged from http://nightside.wikia.com/wiki/Speaking_Gun
RIIIING-RIIING beep If you can hear this, you are alone…
That’ll be Person of Interest back then, yay! Not sure if was the puppy poop that kept it off the Hugo ballot or its ability to fly under the radar.
Steve Davidson – You and your wife are in my thoughts. My best wishes to you both. Be gentle with yourself.
Rob Barrett on May 4, 2016 at 11:39 am said:
Because Gordon isn’t nearly as threatening. Now, maybe Feyd-Rautha . . .
@Cmm
That’s a good question.
And yeah, I agree that the bullies in that case sound like kids who’ve discovered a shiny new vocabulary and are using it incorrectly, as a bludgeon.
ETA: This thread is making me really, really want to re-read the Culture books.
If you want to see leftists flip out, talk about guns. Nothing takes an otherwise rational conversation from zero to bellows of “BABYKILLER!” faster.
@JBWeld – LoL
*rolls eyes* I see we’re talking bout hypothetical hysterical leftists now.
Steve Davidson, I’m so sorry to hear about your wife’s diagnoses. I hope for the best possible outcome.
@alexvdl
Other people’s lived experience isn’t hypothetical.
@JBWeld
Wrong!!! It’s KILLER BABIES.
http://www.snopes.com/toddlers-killed-americans-terrorists/
Also, the same could be said about rightists and abortion…