(1) BREAKING THINGS. Wired studies the physics behind the destruction of a Super Star Destroyer in Star Wars.
The Mass of the Death Star
The real question remains—why is it moving so fast? There are three possible answers:
After rebels destroyed the bridge, the Super Star Destroyer veered out of control and used its thrusters to drive into the Death Star.
The Destroyer used its engines in some way to stay above the Death Star. The attack eliminated this ability, and the ship fell into the Death Star due to the gravitational interaction between the two objects.
The impact was the result of the engines and gravity.
For the purpose of this analysis, I am going to assume the collision was due only to the gravitational interaction. If that’s the case, I can use this to estimate the mass of the Death Star.
(2) ANATOMY OF A REWRITE. Mark Hamill confirmed the story: “It’s official: ‘The Force Awakens’ almost started with Luke’s severed hand”.
“I can tell you now, the original opening shot of [Episode] VII, the first thing that came into frame was a hand and a lightsaber, a severed hand,” Hamill reveals in a video Q&A with The Sun timed to May the 4th. “It enters the atmosphere [of the desert planet Jakku] and the hand burns away.”
The lightsaber landed in the sand, and an alien hand picked it up. Hamill says he doesn’t know if that alien was Maz Kanata, the castle owner who has the lightsaber in a trunk in the movie.
Then “the movie proceeds as you see it” — presumably meaning we’d cut from the alien hand to a Star Destroyer above Jakku as Stormtroopers depart in shuttles, then Max Von Sydow handing the all-important map with Luke’s whereabouts to Oscar Isaac.
(3) FOURTH WITH. Digg has a compilation of Star Wars related fan art.
The “Star Wars” fanbase has always been fantastically passionate and creative, so in honor of their greatest holiday, here’s a bunch of different kinds of fan art to represent every corner of the “Star Wars” universe.
(4) FASHION STATEMENT. Michael A. Burstein had a big day, and shared a photo with his Facebook readers.
Today, I was sworn in for my fifth term as a Brookline Library Trustee. In honor of Star Wars Day, I wore my Han Solo vest.
(5) EQUAL TIME. That other famous franchise is making news of its own. Canada Post will issue a set of Star Trek themed stamps to commemorate the show’s 50th anniversary. Linn’s Stamp News ran an article about the stamp for Scotty.
The three previous Canada Post Star Trek designs have pictured William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk on a commemorative stamp similar to the Scotty design, the Starship Enterprise on a coil stamp, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock, also in commemorative format. Full details of the set, and the planned issue date, have not been officially revealed by Canada Post, though information released with the “Scotty” stamp design added, “More stamps are to be revealed soon.”
And Canada Post has release several short videos previewing the series.
(6) YOU DID IT. Donors stepped up to support Rosarium Publishing’s Indiegogo appeal and Rick Riordan dropped $10,000 of matching funds in the pot. The appeal has now topped $40,000 in donations.
(7) J.K. ROWLING’S ANNUAL APOLOGY. On May 2, the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, J.K. Rowling followed her tradition.
Once again, it's the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts so, as promised, I shall apologise for a death. This year: Remus Lupin.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 2, 2016
In the interests of total honesty I'd also like to confess that I didn't decide to kill Lupin until I wrote Order if the Phoenix.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 2, 2016
Arthur lived, so Lupin had to die. I'm sorry. I didn't enjoy doing it. The only time my editor ever saw me cry was over the fate of Teddy. ????
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 2, 2016
(8) FIRST FAN. Inverse knows this is the perfect day to dip into Craig Miller’s font of Star Wars anecdotes: “George Lucas’s Original Plans for ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ and Boba Fett Revealed”.
Craig Miller, Lucasfilm’s first fan relations officer, reveals the original plan for ‘Return of the Jedi.’
…“At first there was one film, and then George originally announced that it was one of 12, and there were going to be 12, and then that changed to, oh there was never 12, there was only 9, and he was going to make 9,” Miller said. “And then during all of it, George kind of lost interest in continuing it… While we were working on The Empire Strikes Back, George decided he was going to complete the first film trilogy and that would be it.
“And I remember sitting in a mixing room with George, working on Empire, and he told me he was just going to make the third movie, which didn’t have a title at that point, and then stop,” Miller continued. “He was going to retire from making big movies and make experimental movies. And that’s why the whole plot of the third movie, what became Return of the Jedi, completely changed.”
Lucas’s 15-year retirement from Star Wars didn’t do much to derail the enthusiasm amongst hardcore fans, who showed early on that they were very, very dedicated to the Galaxy far, far away. Miller remembers one of his better publicity coups, setting up an 800 number (1-800-521-1980, the film’s release date) that allowed fans to call in before Empire and hear little clues about the upcoming sequel, as recited by Luke, Leia, Han Solo, C-3PO and Darth Vader.
“There was no advertising; we talked about it at conventions, and Starlog ran a two paragraph announcement of it,” Miller recalled. “And with just that, we completely swamped the 800 system.”
AT&T forced Lucasfilm to buy more phone lines, cease their advertising (easy, since they weren’t doing any), and apologize to the public and other 800-number users. “That was great because now it was being carried all over the world that we were apologizing that Star Wars fans were so enthusiastic about seeing Empire that they swamped AT&T,” Miller said, laughing.
(9) MAKING THE SCENE. Cat Rambo shares some material from a class, that takes apart what having a scene gives you for purposes of making it into a story: “More From Moving from Idea to Draft”
What it is:
A scene is usually a moment in time that has come to you. It usually has strong visual elements, and something is usually happening, such as a battle, or has just happened in it (a battlefield after the fighting is done). It is probably something that would appear at a significant moment of a story and not be peripheral to it.
What it gives you:
- Everything but the plot. But actually, that’s not true. What is the main source of tension in the scene, what is the conflict that is driving things? That is probably a version of the overall plot.
- A scene gives you a strong slice of the world and all that is implicit in that, including history and culture.
- If characters are included in your scene, they are usually doing or have just done something more purposeful than just milling about. You have some sense of their occupation, their economic circumstances, and often some nuances of their relationship.
(10) NED BROOKS. Part of the late Ned Brooks’ fanzine collection is on display at the University of Georgia, where his family donated it.
Some of Ned Brooks Fanzine Collection, now available @ugalibs Special Collections. @NASA_Langley #file770 #scifi https://t.co/BOzJqiyvJj
— Emily W. Thompson (@DrEmilyT) May 4, 2016
The university library’s blog has posted “To Infinity and Beyond! Selections from the Ned Brooks Fanzine Collection”.
A look at a fun collection examining all facets of science fiction fandom. Included are representative fanzine titles from the 17,000+ issues to be found in the Brooks zine collection. They represent a variety of times (including the zine some hold to be the earliest Science Fiction zine in the U.S., Planet #1, from July of 1930), a myriad of international locales, and a broad spectrum of specialized Fandom communities and their interests. Mementos from Brooks’ 38-year career with NASA’s Langley Research Center, along with a vintage typewriter and early reproduction equipment.
The exhibit, in the Rotunda of the Russell Special Collections Libraries, will be up through July.
(11) COOL SPACE PICTURES. Digg has “The Best Space Photos from April”.
Every day satellites are zooming through space, snapping incredible pictures of Earth, the solar system and outer space. Here are the highlights from April.
(12) YA AND AWARDS. Joe Sherry makes raises a point about YA in his post about “2016 Locus Award Finalists” at Adventures in Reading.
This is likely worth a longer discussion, but this year’s Locus Awards are pretty close to what the Hugo Awards should have looked like in the absence of the Rabid Puppy participants voting a slate in apparent lockstep….
Now, there are things we can argue with because it isn’t an awards list or a list of books at all if there isn’t something to argue with. For example, the YA category features five books written by men even though a huuuuuuge number of YA novels are written by women. Further, Navah Wolfe points out that the nominees in this category are, across the board, writers best known for adult science fiction and fantasy.
In terms of the Locus Awards, I think this is a bug rather than a feature. Locus (and it’s readers who voted / nominated), as a whole, is far more plugged into the adult SFF scene. Their nominees for Young Adult Book very strongly reflects this.
This isn’t to say that these finalists are bad, because they very much are not, but they are also not reflective of the YA field.
A committee has been looking at a proposed YA Hugo category for a couple of years. The Hugo voter demographic is probably similar to that of Locus voters. So if we make two assumptions – that the category had existed this year and was not affected by a slate – wouldn’t the shortlist have looked pretty much like the Locus Award YA novel category? And how does that affect people’s interest in having a YA Hugo category?
(13) DEFECTION FROM THE RANKS.
https://twitter.com/ferdinandpage/status/727766395719651329
https://twitter.com/damiengwalter/status/727748585132072960
(14) ANOTHER SHOCK. Because that’s what popularly voted awards do?
https://twitter.com/ApeInWinter/status/727758368555806720
(15) USE OF WEAPONS. Paul Weimer curated the latest SF Signal Mind Meld reading pleasure today, in which people talk about their favorite SF/F weapons.
(16) TODAY IN HISTORY. Norm Hollyn remembered on Facebook:
May 4 is the 19th anniversary of the death of Lou Stathis, one of my closest friends and major influences (I first heard the Mothers thanks to him). Hopefully you’re happily playing the kazoo wherever you are.
(17) HAY THERE. Signal boosting author Judith Tarr’s appeal to help feed her horses.
Right now I do not know how I’m going to feed the horses for the rest of the month. I have managed to scrape out enough to pay for the last load of hay (if that late check finally gets here), but once it’s eaten, which it will be in about ten days, I don’t know what I’m going to do. The farm will be gone by midsummer unless I find a steady source of sufficient income. I’ve been hustling like a hustling thing but so far with minimal results.
The market does not want either me or the horses. The horses are all old and therefore retired and unsalable, or else would require thousands of dollars’ worth of training and show fees to have any sale value. No one can take them. The market is saturated with unwanted horses and the rescues are overloaded. I am over 60, hearing impaired (ergo, unable to use the phone), and with chronic fatigue syndrome which makes office or minimum-wage work difficult to impossible. And minimum wage would not support the animals, let alone me. All my income streams from backlist books, editing, writing, etc. have shrunk to a trickle or dried up. No one has booked a Camp in over a year.
I have had a few small things come through, but as with everything else, they’ve fallen short or failed to produce. I continue to push, and with the fiction writing regaining its old fluidity, I may manage to make something happen there. I’ve been urged to try an Indiegogo for a short novel, and I am closing in on that. (Indiegogo, unlike Kickstarter, offers an option that pays even if the goal is not met. The goal would be enough to cover mortgage, horses, and utilities for a month.) Since for the first time in my life I’m able to write more than one project at a time, that means I can continue to meet my obligation to backers of last November’s Kickstarter for a science-fiction novel, and also write the novella (and short stories, too).
A friend suggested that I offer sponsorships for the horses. I feel weird about that, but they need to eat. What I would give in return is a little writeup about the horse being sponsored, with a digital album of pictures and a monthly update. And short fiction as it happens, if you are a reader with an interest….
Details and specific support levels at the site.
(18) MEMORY OF THINGS PAST. Katster once was “Dreaming of Rockets”
Of course things got derailed. My cunning plan to eventually raise myself to a point where I’d get notice from the nominating body of Worldcon crashed hard with two factors — the rise of blogs and fancasts as well as the related fact that pros were getting nominated in the fan awards and, more importantly, my own demons.
I’d end up semi-GAFIAting (the acronym means Getting Away From It All, and covered anybody who’s dropped out of science fiction) and not being very enamored of fandom in general. The break point came in 2013, with a completely different award. Fanzine fandom recognizes its own in an award called the Fan Achievement Awards (FAAns) and I’d hoped a particular issue of my fanzine Rhyme and Paradox I’d poured my heart into might have a chance at Best Issue. A friend of mine said he was nominating it, and I hesitantly nominated it myself, hoping in some way that it would end up on the shortlist. It didn’t, and the award was won by somebody that was well known in fandom for a typical issue of his (once a year) fanzine.
The blow really came when I got ahold of the longlist and found how many votes my ‘zine had gotten. It had gotten two, one from my friend and one from me. It stung like hell. Here I had poured my heart out writing that zine (I still think it’s some of my best writing ever) and it had sailed quietly in the night. I know, it’s just an award, and all these things are popularity contests, but even now, I feel the hurt in that moment.
I wonder if it’s the same hurt that has fueled the slates. The influence of failing to get an award did somewhat lead Larry Correia to start making slates. As I’ve said before, the Hugos were vulnerable to this kind of attack, but it was explained to me pretty early in fandom that making slates was anathema in fandom, a policy only practiced by Scientologists. Everybody knows where the rest of this story goes.
(19) ANTI. “’Ghostbusters’ Is the Most Disliked Movie Trailer in YouTube History” says The Hollywood Reporter.
Not only does it have the most dislikes for a trailer on the social platform, but it also makes the top 25 most disliked videos overall.
Things are not boding well for director Paul Feig’s upcoming Ghostbusters based on the film’s first official trailer on YouTube.
Released March 3, the trailer, viewed 29.2 million times and counting, is the most disliked movie trailer in YouTube history, according to “MyTop100Videos” channel’s “Most Disliked Videos” list that was last updated April 16. (Justin Bieber comes in at No. 1 with 5.99 million dislikes for “Baby.”)
Coming in at No. 23, the reboot — starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Chris Hemsworth — has more than double the number of dislikes as likes (208,606)….
Although there has been controversy over the trailer, with many YouTube comments centered around the all-female cast, the video has been generating mostly positive reviews on Facebook with 1,186,569 positive reactions (like, love, haha and wow) and 32,589 negative reactions (sad, angry). The reactions add up to 97.3 percent positive sentiments on Facebook overall.
(20) BREAK THE PIGGY BANK. Coming August 16 in Blu-Ray/DVD — “The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension [Collector’s Edition]”. (Doesn’t it feel like you’ve been reading the word “buckaroo” a lot this week?)
Expect the unexpected… he does.
Neurosurgeon. Physicist. Rock Star. Hero. Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller, Robocop) is a true 80s renaissance man. With the help of his uniquely qualified team, The Hong Kong Cavaliers, Buckaroo is ready to save the world on a moment’s notice. But after his successful test of the Oscillation Overthruster – a device that allows him to travel through solid matter – he unleashes the threat of “evil, pure and simple from the 8th Dimension”… the alien Red Lectroids.
Led by the deranged dictator Lord John Whorfin (John Lithgow), the Lectroids steal the Overthruster with the intent of using it to return to their home of Planet 10 “real soon!” But no matter where you go, there Buckaroo Banzai is… ready to battle an interdimensional menace that could spell doom for the human race.
How can Buckaroo stop the Lectroids’ fiendish plots? Who is the mysterious Penny Priddy? Why is there a watermelon there? For the answers to these and other questions, you have to watch The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, monkey boy!
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Mark-kitteh, James Davis Nicoll, Will R., Martin Morse Wooster, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
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@rob_matic
Same here. I like the suggestion of YA being voted on by its target audience, because I’m no judge of whether something is actually good for Young Adults, and inevitably my judgement is as an actual adult*.
*uh, that statement may be optimistic
Looks at Locus List.
The Fantasy novel seems solid. The only one there I’m not aware of is Wylding Hall, the rest strike me as entirely fair nominations. Which male authored books does opus feel were squeezed out?
YA Novel: The conspicuous absence seems to be Frances Hardinge, but perhaps she’s not made waves in the US yet.
My comment on Locus:
I don’t think, looking at the finalists, that the Locus Awards have a “nominating women problem”. There are 9 out of 20 finalists who are women across the novel categories, 20 out of 35 across the fiction categories, and 32 out of 70 across all named individuals on the list. There’s nothing wrong with those numbers, and the same people voted on all of them as voted on the YA.
I do, however, think the Locus Awards have a bit of a YA problem, though. There were some notable omissions from their longlist, both male and female (Rachel Hartman, Patrick Ness, Fran Wilde, Kate Elliot). And the finalist list looks more like what SFF fans who don’t read a lot of YA would know about — e.g., books by authors already well-known for adult SFF fiction. (This does NOT mean they were bad books, but I think the mix would likely have been somewhat different with a voting audience more tuned in to YA-only authors.)
This is not a problem unique to Locus. The Nebula’s Andre Norton Award shortlist has sometimes been frankly embarrassing (it was actually pretty good this year, but last year was almost bizarre in its omissions.)
I don’t think letting only YA readers vote on YA is a particularly good idea. But there genuinely has been something of an issue with SFF YA categories being voted on by people who aren’t well tuned in to the YA scene.
+1
I’ve also seen Civil War already. Only takes the loose outline of the comic, and fixes a lot of its issues. Juggles a huge cast really well, too — pretty much everyone gets their moment.
Nick Pheas, I do not care which male author did not get on the list. Exclusion of some male author is not the problem. I do not care for most of the new male or female authors who write now anyhow. I do not care for most of the old authors of both genders either truthbetold. The day I organize my reading repertoire around recomendations based on the nominees for any of awards, I feel will be the day I stop reading SF, Fantasy and Horror.
The problem is –
If Jemisin and Walter are arguing that all male list of nominees is bad, why are they not arguing that all female list of nominees is equaly wrong?
For all those suggesting YA vote for YA aaward – the YA crowds are not the readers of Locus magazine. Do you know what Locus Magazine is?
Ah, Opusfail Yeah I like that!
Frances Hardinge book I belive you are thinking of Mr Pheas, is not yet published in USA, as far I know, or is published AFTER Locus recomendation list.
I still don’t know what Jemisin has to do with this.
Opus: If Jemisin [is] arguing that all male list of nominees is bad, why are they not arguing that all female list of nominees is equaly wrong?
Still waiting for you to provide that substantiating link rob_matic asked for.
2) Maz Kanata wasn’t on the desert planet Jakku…
13) … darn.
15) HAH! I am a player in one of the links on File 770.
19) Have they not heard the canard “Any publicity is good publicity?” Or, noticed that anything that the manosphere hates tends to rack up a ridiculous amount of downvotes?
@z, I think that the downballot has enough problems with having enough nominators/voters that restricting such a Hugo to Young Adults would be a nonstarter.
I see Opus has taken the role of our latest person angry about things that aren’t related to the thing he wants to pretend to be angry about. How much do you want to bet that they have strong ideas on DIVERSITY, and ROBERT HEINLEIN
robmatic
Jemisin and Walter and their pals are turning their malevolent gazes upon Locus and deem it guilty of wrongthink or something because YA Locus Novel category is comprised of four male nominees – google theyir primar mode of expression – their twitter feeds.
Opus: Jemisin… and their pals are turning their malevolent gazes upon Locus and deem it guilty of wrongthink
Still waiting for you to provide that substantiating link for Jemisin that rob_matic asked for… also substantiating links for whatever “pals” you’re claiming are in on this.
I did, but maybe you could point out to me what Jemisin said in her “attack”?
alexvd I see that you do not read what I write. I am courious, can you perchance find it in your heart, the strength to educate ME about what I think?
JJ Our dear host, Mike Glyer has already done what you ask of me, so you either are not reading the fruit of his hard work in keeping us up to date about some of thing Fantastic – quite disrespectfull I think – or you are too lazy to CLICK THE LINK provided in article above?
Hmmm, I am off to see has Guardian already have anything on this topic, if they can squeeze it in the current brouhahah over London mayoral election…
Opus: Our dear host, Mike Glyer has already done what you ask of me, so you either are not reading the fruit of his hard work in keeping us up to date about some of thing Fantastic – quite disrespectfull I think – or you are too lazy to CLICK THE LINK provided in article above?
I’ve read the Joe Sherry article linked above. Where is the Jemisin link? Where are the links to the other “pals” claiming this?
You are too lazy to subtantiate your claims, I think.
@ Opus “CLICK THE LINK provided in article above”
In the article above Damien Walter says he’s switching his interest to the Locus awards from the Hugos. What has this to do with what you accuse Walter and Jemison “and their pals” of saying about the nominees? Add me to the list of people who want links (also to the unidentified pals). Demanding that people answer a question without providing them with the information needed for a fact-based response is a poor way to conduct a conversation.
I clicked the link and
a) it’s not by Jemisin
b) doesn’t mention Jemisin
c) only briefly mentions the YA gender split and suggests that it’s due to Locus readers not being into YA.
Yeah, and that seems to happen pretty much every year. All but one of the winners so far are known mostly for adult SFF, not YA, same applies for most of the nominees in the category over the years. Not really surprising since Locus does not pay all that much attention to YA fiction.
I am courious, can you perchance find it in your heart, the strength to educate ME about what I think?
Nope. Not when you use “wrongthink” unironically.
@NickPheas – I read Wylding Hall last weekend – very good. Spooky and evocative and quite scary in spots.
Re: “YAfuffle”. For those who actually want a link:
Jemisin retweeted this and provided the first “incredulous” comment.
To summarize: Justina Ireland tweeted (and Jemisin retweeted): “How is there not a Single. Fucking. Woman. In. The. YA. Category?”
Jemisin replies: “@justinaireland Oh. That is. Damn. -_- ”
After this comes much agreement from a number of people.
I’ve just finished the new issue of Mothership Zeta over lunch, and yet again it’s a great issue full of fun and funny stories. I’m also getting to really appreciate their non fiction as well – for example, there’s a “story doctor” feature in each issue that analyses one of the stories that I find really interesting.
I do not care for most of the new male or female authors who write now anyhow. I do not care for most of the old authors of both genders either truthbetold.
You sure seem to be spending a lot of time on something you don’t care about.
@bloodstone75
AHAH! Someone said DAMN, with an EMOTICON.
BURN THEM! Blood for the Blood God! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
[13] I hope Damien G Walter’s newfound attention to the Locus Awards includes a newfound respect for truth. He recently tweeted that I had been fired from Locus – an outright lie.
My only issue with the Locus nominees is that Radiance is not one of them. (Same gripe with the Hugo ballot.) I keep harping on that fact and that I’m just flabbergasted that it isn’t on these award ballots. I DON’T UNDERSTAND LIFE
That twitter thread has a certain amount of incredulity that Abercrombie’s books have been treated as YA. Well, they have YA protagonists and have been explicitly marketed as YA, so I guess that makes them eligible. Having read and enjoyed them I’d say they sit at the very top end of what can be considered YA. I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw them on the adult shelves as well/instead.
This whole faux-outragefest over the YA category is one more reason I find myself glad to be withdrawn from the fray.
I looked at the RR List, which serves as a sort of longlist for the award. The number of recognizably male authors [out of about 20] is just about half. This is the input that Locus has into the award selection. The actual nominations come from readers.
So what the hell is Locus supposed to do when the results don’t meet with the satisfaction of the commentariat? “Oh, sorry, readers, but your nominations aren’t acceptable, so we decided to discard your votes.”
Jemisin said “D**n”?
Holy Moly.
She really cut loose with both barrels there, didn’t she?
How come then no one objects to Fantasy novel category, which consist of all women nominees, as not reflective fo the field?
Perhaps because there is no 3000-year history of discriminating against male authors?
@alexvdl: Cute. But — Opus’s troll indicators notwithstanding — I’m pretty sure that retweeting indicates firm agreement with the original statement, and her “damn” + grimace emoticon indicates exasperation and disgust. Prior to this, in her own feed, her only Locus comment that I saw was to note that her own novel made the list (no gender balance observations in any category).
Currently reading Bryan and Dr Mary Talbot’s The Red Virgin And The Vision Of Utopia. A rather fascinating graphic novel history of the Paris Commune as a biography of Louise Michel, through a lens of late C19 and early C20 utopian fiction.
Highly recommended. But Graphic Novel or Related Work?
Locus actually has form where fixing people’s votes for them is concerned. It’s why I tend to ignore that set of awards.
Impressive Supernatural last night. For those who don’t watch (or fatigued out of it after 842 seasons) in an earlier season, Sam and Dean, the main characters discover that there is a whole series of novels on the market–under the series title Supernatural–that are accurate depictions of their lives and adventures (even using their “real names.”) They track down the guy, and it turns out that he is a prophet who sees their lives in visions. This plot point allows for some self-referential humor in the series–the guys have to at various points deal with highly-modivated fans of Supernatural, encounter squicky Sam and Dean slash fiction, and attend a Supernatural convention. An episode last season had the guys following a case at an all-girl high-school that is putting on a play based on Supernatural.
Fb–va gur rcvfbqrf srnghevat gur nhgube bs gur Fhcreangheny frevrf, gurer unir orra fhogyr pyhrf gung erny-yvsr snaf unir oryvrirq gb fhttrfg gung gur jevgre vf npghnyyl Tbq (jub vf bsgra zragvbarq nf orvat ZVN) va qvfthvfr. Jryy, jurgure gung jnf gur jevgre’f vagrag nyy nybat be vs vg jnf snayber gung gur jevgref qrpvqrq gb nqbcg, gur Fhcreangheny nhgube “pnzr bhg” nf Tbq ynfg avtug. Unq ybat, rkvfgragvny pbairefngvbaf jvgu gur natry Zrtngeba–hu, V zrna Zrgngeba. Fnvq gung juvyr qvfthvfrq nf n uhzna ur unf qngrq, naq unq n srj tveysevraqf. Gur nqqrq gung ur unf unq n srj oblsevraqf.
Orfvqrf orvat na birenyy irel fngvfslvat rcvfbqr, V yvxr gung vg jvyy yvxryl pnhfr dhvgr n srj urnqf gb rkcybqr. 🙂
The Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards are like that, sort of:
The local teacher-librarian is contacted by a representative from the Ontario Arts Council. A jury is selected using the sort of criteria you’d expect to be used for a book jury. There are currently two awards granted per year. One is judged by a jury of five grades 3 & 4 students, the other by five grades 7 & 8 students. Generally the split between boys and girls is as even as they can arrange (so either 3F/2M or 2F/3M) but this can be skewed by the demographics of the school supplying the jury (if, for example, the jury is drawn from an all-girl or all-boy school, it’s going to be deficient in the sex not taught at the school).
Now, the two juries are not expected to generate their own list of nominees. That is done by adults who are selected from the community of children’s literature specialists (but not people who work for publishers): librarians, writers (as long as they don’t have a book eligible that year), teachers and so on. There are three people on each jury and each of them is expected to produce a list of five noteworthy, eligible books, drawing from their knowledge of what has been published that year.
JJ on May 5, 2016 at 3:23 am said:
Thanks JJ. Another one meets the kill file.
Stefan Mitev says It seems to me that most Locus voters don’t read much (if any) YA books and thus voted for the works of their favourite authors known for their adult SFF works.
LOCUS polls its readers once a year on a wide range of subjects including demographic data which they make public in an issue. IIRC the readership for it is overwhelmingly male who are in the fifties and sixties.
LOCUS doesn’t actually cover that much YA fiction, again if IIRC, so I wonder why they have YA award. I agree with several others that the HUGO community could do a much better job of choosing an appropriate list of nominees.
James Nicoll – Certainly the timing of that change left a great deal to be desired.
There are alterations I might make to the Locus process. But if people had an objection to the longlist, the time to have made it was then, not after the nominations are tabulated and turn out not to include their favorite works.
@ Opus
Not true. I saw a number of people commenting on that as odd. In fact, women concerned with representation reflecting the actual field rather than stereotypes about who writes what.
@Opus: If all male list is bad, than it follows suit that all female one is bad too?
Oooh, the poor white men, subject to the horrible evil harpies of feminist domination of lists and the WORLD!
Yeah, right.
Your statement is a textbook example of a common and sexist False Equivalance:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/False_equivalence
The data to disprove your fallacious claim comes from data being collected in the field so to speak on the bias against women in literary award categories, reviews, etc. NOTE: the bias is even worse against women of color.
https://nicolagriffith.com/2015/05/26/books-about-women-tend-not-to-win-awards/
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/a-womans-place-20120113-1pyoa.html
http://strangehorizons.com/2013/20130422/2sfcount-a.shtml
In short there is evidence of widespread bias against women in literature (which could be joined by the evidence of widespread bias against women in all professions), that make the statement of “an all female list is just as bad as all male.”
Read it, and then tell me you really want to try to stand behind your false equivalence.
ETA: Ah, if I’d read the rest of the comments, I’d have seen there’s probably no use giving Opus facts (which I’m sure they’ll happily dismiss), but oh, well, useful links for those of us interested in this topic.
(20) I am always partial to this quote from one of the crew:
JJ
From the article abocve –
Further, Navah Wolfe points out that the nominees in this category are, across the board, writers best known for adult science fiction and fantasy.
The link is in *Navah Wolfe points ot*
So I am right, you did not read the articles Mr Glyer provided.
I see that concerned people wrote a bunch of posts which concerns more with me than the topic at hand – Locus YA Awards. Also glad to see that anyone who writes something that goes into teritory of wrongthink is being quickly labeled a troll.
Thanks for Lois Tilton and Bloodstone whose post summarize somewhat my posistions and thinkings on the mattar, so I point concerned people to thhose posts. Thanks for all those labeling me a troll, I leave you to your bussines.
Aaron, just to make it clear to you – I do not live in USA or England. The editors of our couple of our main publishing houses decided to not publish Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror, because audience in my neck of the woods, so to speak, are not very interrested in the stuff that has been produced in the USA or England markets of lately.
For instance – Abercrombies YA trilogy did not get past first book when it became known that it has character which can be interpreted as thinly veiled, coded or whatever, transgender character.
So, because I have a ton of books – and since I have been encouraged to start reading SF in english on this blog and now have a ton of books in english as well – of authors which ruled the genres in 70, 80 and 90, and I like it, and have no need to subject myself to grimdark, paranormal romances, military sf or dystopias which are now 95 percent of the genre.
I love the genres and would like to see them flourish again. But as long as it is constantly mired in some fight over race and gender of its authors, and not fight in exploring of themes of scientific exploration, creating of new myths and legends or exploring human reaction to its deepest fears, that is not likely to happen. Nor will it be publish in my country to create new fans and authors.
If I am wrong – point me to this crop of new writers equivalent of Hyperion Cantos, Book of New Sun, Mists of Avalon, Earthsea, Riddlemaster, Thomas Covenant, Uplift, Galactic Centre, Alliance/Union, Pern, Dark Tower, Mars Trilogy, Enderverse, to point a few examles both in terms of quality of written word and ideas.
Crap, I am off to read some good old books.In closing leave Locus be, for decades it has done a great service to LITERATURE of the Fantastic, without that magazine SF Fantasy and Horror could not be respected as they are, for how long it may still last.
This seemed like a good place to stop reading. Not worth looking at the rest of the gish gallop after that.
Gosh darn it. Can anyone else find where I talked about “Borderline” by Mishell Baker, here? Searching avails me nought. It would have been in the past week. Or did I just plan to talk about it, then forgot?
robinareid No, just no. As you may know around 70 percent of the publishing industry workforce is women. If you have something to add to betterment of its situation please do. As for awards, and women, my library which has enormous amount of female authors wants to talk to you.
For those that might be interested, there’s actually a prose novelization of the Civil War movie out now:
https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Prose-Novel-Stuart-Moore-ebook/dp/B00EEH323M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1462456812&sr=1-1&keywords=stuart+moore
And also a new opus, no pun intended, from he who is clearly becoming Lord High Troll For Great Justice, Chuck Tingle:
https://www.amazon.com/Pounded-Irrational-Bigoted-Unicorns-Restroom-ebook/dp/B01F4NVWMC?ie=UTF8&keywords=chuck+tingle&qid=1462375854&ref_=sr_1_6&refinements=p_n_publication_date%3A1250226011&s=books&sr=1-6
…….I don’t believe I have ever experienced such pure and perfect schadenfreude before in my entire life.
Opus, as you come here for the sole purpose of finding reasons to declare yourself a martyr, I can’t find any reason to help you find something good to read.
If you can’t find any new books you like, bad for you. Bye.
Amen.
@Nate Harada
I read the sample, and it’s just hilarious.
Talk about Mr Beale’s dogma being bitten by karma…
The editors of our couple of our main publishing houses decided to not publish Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror, because audience in my neck of the woods, so to speak, are not very interrested in the stuff that has been produced in the USA or England markets of lately.
For someone who says he doesn’t care about these authors, you seem to care quite a bit.
If I am wrong – point me to this crop of new writers equivalent of Hyperion Cantos, Book of New Sun, Mists of Avalon, Earthsea, Riddlemaster, Thomas Covenant, Uplift, Galactic Centre, Alliance/Union, Pern, Dark Tower, Mars Trilogy, Enderverse, to point a few examles both in terms of quality of written word and ideas.
Those aren’t writers. Those are books. Let’s see: Of the authors whose works are listed on your “good writing” matrix, Kim Stanley Robinson is still writing. So is Gene Wolfe – has a book on this list of Locus nominees. And Stephen King. McKillip has a young adult fantasy out right now. And so on and so forth.
Of course, it is hard to discuss books if one doesn’t know what you have read that is recent. Have you read anything by Anne Leckie? Mira Grant? Brandon Sanderson? James S.A. Corey? Looking at the Locus list over the last couple of years shows that there are very few books that are “grimdark, paranormal romances, military sf or dystopias” which you claim make up “95 percent of the genre”. I suspect you haven’t actually bothered to read much recent material, because if you had, you wouldn’t make such an obviously erroneous claim.
No, just no.
I see. When actual evidence is presented to you, you just hand wave it away because it is inconvenient for your argument. If you want to know why you are being labeled a troll, that is why.