(1) HOPEFULLY INCURABLE. Rhianna Pratchett reacted to the news item that also inspired #12 in yesterday’s Scroll (“Nailsworth teacher claims Harry Potter books cause mental illness”):
I know what my father would say if anyone told him that his books encourage "difficult behaviour." He would say 'Good!'
— Rhianna Pratchett ??????????? (@rhipratchett) May 6, 2016
(2) CRAZY EX RATED. On NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, “Not My Job: Actress Rachel Bloom Gets Quizzed On Crazy Ex-Boyfriends”.
Since she’s the expert on crazy ex-girlfriends we’ve decided to ask her three questions about some well-known crazy ex-boyfriends in a game called “No! Really! This time I’ll change!”
She mentions Ray Bradbury, subject of her 2011 Hugo-nominated song.
Rachel Bloom meets Ray Bradbury in 2010. Photo by John King Tarpinian.
(3) GO AHEAD AND JUMP. David K.M. Klaus predicts, “Someday some Harry Potter fan is going to invent a practical personal jet pack or anti-gravity belt, just so he or she can play Quidditch.” ‘Til then we’ll make do with these skydiving Quidditch players from a Colombian phone commercial.
(4) PARTLY IMMORTAL. Fantasy Faction reposts “Foundations of Fantasy: The Epic of Gilgamesh”.
More than any other genre, fantasy tends to examine ancient epics. Whether it’s the study of archetypes and ectypes, or a historical understanding of narrative itself, or simply a desire to experience myths and legends that have lived for ages, these books remain alive to us. This series of posts will be about some of the more important mythic texts in history, and how they relate to modern fantasy.
The Story Behind the Story
The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest books we have on record. Original stories regarding the character date back as early as the eighteenth century BCE. The primary text was written between the 13th and tenth century BCE, in cuneiform on stone tablets. Then, it was lost for thousands of years, until it was rediscovered in 1850 in the excavation of Nineveh. Even then, it took decades to be translated into English.
Translations are tricky when dealing with situations like these. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke was one of the first people to read it translated. John Gardner (who also wrote the fantastic novel Grendel, a retelling of Beowulf from the monster’s point of view, and The Art of Fiction: Notes on the Craft for Young Authors) made a much more accurate, yet difficult to read translation, making certain to note each place the actual text was missing. Penguin Classics put out a two-volume translation by Andrew George which has received considerable acclaim. For a more poetic, if less rigorous version, Stephen Mitchell’s translation is quite readable, and uses inferences and the aforementioned earlier stories of Gilgamesh to fill in the missing gaps….
(5) GOOD STUFF. See Rachel Swirsky’s recommendation, “Friday read! ‘Hwang’s Billion Brilliant Daughters’ by Alice Sola Kim”.
One man watches the world evolve as he passes, sleep by sleep, into the future, trailing after his generations of descendants….
“Hwang’s Bilion Brilliant Daughters” by Alice Sola Kim…
(6) THE MARQUIS OF TENTACLE RULES. Is the beer as good as the label? Octopus Wants To Fight IPA from Great Lakes Beer.
It pours a beautiful burnt gold edging into a dull orange, like a orange creamsicle complete with a tight white head. As you can imagine, lots of tropical fruits abound from the glass with the first whiffs, followed by a walk in the woods as pine, evergreen and some herbaceous notes are picked up. The first sip provides some sweetness, some dank grass combined with pine needles and then onto “juicy fruit”. Soft body with some middle mouthfeel bitterness that tastes like another.
The Story “Our pet octopus is a bit of a jerk. He’s that guy who has a couple then either tells you how much he loves you or threatens to fight you. So we brewed this IPA, with 8 varieties of hops and 8 types of malt. We targeted 88 IBU and 8.8% to appease him. Sadly, when he found out that we’d fabricated all of the above info, it only made him more volatile. We are starting to realize that Octopus was a poor choice for a pet.”
Food pairing recommendations
Calamari…
(7) DRAGONSCALE. Mark Yon has a fine review of Joe Hill’s The Fireman at SFFWorld.
The arrival of the latest book by Joe Hill has generally been seen as one of the highlights of the publishing year, and has been much anticipated here at SFFWorld.
Joe has said that The Fireman is his take on his father’s masterwork The Stand. I can see what he means, though the end-results are clearly different. Whereas The Stand begins with the spread of a killer flu germ (‘Captain Trips’), The Fireman begins with the dispersal of a 21st century equivalent – a spore named Dragonscale, of unknown origin, possibly weaponised, that has spread to the general public. The symptoms occur suddenly and are quite striking – a strange dark tattoo, interlaced with gold, appears on the body, often followed by spontaneous combustion of the person infected….
(8) FELLOW ARTISTS. Rudy Rucker blogs about recent visits to SF MOMA and other cultural events, accompanied by plenty of photos and wry commentary.
I was happy to see they have Arneson’s “California Artist” on display, wearing shades whose lenses are holes revealing, oho, that he has an empty head, California artist that he is. I first saw this sculpture when we moved to California in 1986, and I was, like, yeah, I’m a California artist too. I just didn’t realize that before. It’s high time I got here. Solidarität!
(9) FREE WEIRD. From Europa SF I learned about the English-language magazine Finnish Weird:
Finnish Weird is a free magazine published by the Helsinki Science Fiction Society. It introduces the concept of “Finnish Weird”, showcases a few writers and also includes short stories by Johanna Sinisalo, Anne Leinonen, Helena Waris, Leena Likitalo and Magdalena Hai. The printed version will be available on select occasions (come and look for the Finnish party at Worldcon!), but you can also read the zine online or get an electronic version, either as a pdf or an ebook (epub).
(8) TODAY IN HISTORY.
- May 7, 2010 — The Marvel Cinematic Universe gets its first sequel in Iron Man 2.
(9) LET IT RAIN. The Kickstarter for Quench seeks $20,312 to fund the creation of a computer game that allows players to control the weather and help herds of animals restore their home. Coming to PC & Mac in 2016.
Controlling the Weather
Using your divine powers over the weather, you will provide for your herds, help them as they take up their great pilgrimage, and ultimately restore the world.
Summon rain to bring life to withered plants, quench fires and calm enraged spirits.
Create gusts of wind to hurry your animals along, confuse attackers, and shift great dunes of sand.
Quake the earth to break open chasms and fountains, stun smokebeasts, and clear boulders blocking the way.
Strike lightning to start fires, revive fallen animals and obliterate foes. But don’t forget to take a moment to appreciate the beauty of nature!
There’s also an option for people to vote yes to greenlight the game on Steam.
(10) MORE ABOUT BLACK GATE. Rich Horton’s thoughts about the impact on fiction categories comes before this excerpt in his Black Gate post The Hugo Nominations, 2016; or, Sigh …”.
Of course Black Gate was nominated as Best Fanzine last year, due to Rabid Puppies support, and John O’Neill quite rightly withdrew its nomination. This year we again were (unwillingly) on the Rabid slate, and again John has decided to withdraw.
We discussed what to do – though the choice was always John’s – and there was a definite split. Many of us – myself included – at first inclined to the notion that perhaps we should stay on the ballot. I had four reasons for this: 1) I am certain that Black Gate got a good amount of support from non-Rabid nominators (but we have no way, for now, of knowing how much); 2) I though perhaps the point had been made last year; 3) I felt that withdrawing was ceding even more influence to Vox Day, and also was to an extent disenfranchising the non-Rabid nominators; and 4) I really do think Black Gate is a worthy choice.
But John made two very strong arguments in favor of withdrawing, arguments that now have swayed me so that I believe his decision is correct. First, and most important, by withdrawing it is guaranteed that there will be an entry on the Final Ballot not chosen by Vox Day. Second, in John’s estimation, it is likely that Black Gate wouldn’t have won anyway. I don’t think that’s nearly as important – but it’s probably true. (Alas, the very possible win for whoever replace Black Gate will be somewhat tainted as well if it’s perceived that it won as a default choice.)
(11) CAUSES ME TO TINGLE. Rachel Swirsky said if her Patreon reached $100 by the end of May she would write and send “If You Were a Butt, My Butt” to everyone who subscribes. Well, soon after this tweet, it did, and donations are still coming in. The funds will be given to Lyon-Martin health services.
https://twitter.com/rachelswirsky/status/728724730774233088
(12) OF TWO MINDS. Damien G. Walter’s vlog, titled “Why is writing hard?”, never mentions Chuck Tingle, missing a golden opportunity. He previews the actual topic on his blog —
“Damien gets passionate about writing, and talks about the thing that makes it hard, the clash of two very different sides of our personality, the conscious mind and the subconscious imagination. OR. The crazy old hippy VS the corporate middle manager in all of us.”
(13) THREE GOLDEN MINUTES. Kendall turned us on to the amazing 2012 short film “The Device.”
[Thanks to Sunhawk, JJ, David K.M. Klaus, ULTRAGOTHA, Kendall, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Hampus Eckerman.]
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I’ve tried a couple of versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh and couldn’t get into it -too scholarly. Would love it if someone would rewrite the story in contemporary prose focusing on readability more than accuracy.
(1) HOPEFULLY INCURABLE.
I miss you, PTerry. I say “good!” too.
(6) THE MARQUIS OF TENTACLE RULES.
Bwahahaha! I like the Tank Ten series, actually. And I enjoy a nice IPA. So I will check for this next time I’m at the LCBO and report back if I find it.
I actually popped by because I was doing some Daily Science Fiction reading and found a couple stories that were painful to read in that good way:
“The Stories She Tells Herself” by Kelly Sandoval. This one resonates a lot as I was in an abusive relationship for too long. Too too long.
“Rocket Man” by Lynette Mejia. The more I think of it, the more I pity superheroes. This reminded me a wee bit of an issue of Powers I read, where a power accidentally kills someone because he doesn’t know how to land.
The Frith of Forth.
PARTLY IMMORTAL. For Gilgamesh, I love and recommend David Ferry’s wonderful, idiomatic verse translation.
(10) MORE ABOUT BLACK GATE.
Rich Horton: Last year I suggested that people read the stories, and vote for anything that seemed Hugo-worthy. Most voters didn’t do that, instead voting No Award above any of the slate choices
Gah! This old canard again!
Rich, how do you know that people did not indeed read the slated stories, but found none of them Hugo-worthy? It’s pretty insulting for you to insist that I, and all the other people like me who did exactly that, did not rank the stories according to our honest assessments.
True fifth
(4)
I’ll freely admit that in my mind, I usually here the word Gilgamesh, as well as Uruk and Enkidu, as pronounced by Patrick Stewart.
(1) HOPEFULLY INCURABLE
She’s a good one.
(10) MORE ABOUT BLACK GATE.
Really, “The only winning move is not to
playslate”. But given we are all responding to a scenario where slating has happened, none of the outcomes are ideal. I’ll repeat what I said earlier, “It’s a tough call to withdraw, but I can understand why.”(13) THREE GOLDEN MINUTES.
Nicely done.
@Bookworm1398
FWIW: I liked the Mitchell translation (the only one I’ve read, so I can’t compare to other versions). For a fantasy retelling you might check out Gilgamesh the King by Robert Silverberg. It’s what led me to seek out the source material. It’s been years since I read it but I remember it being good.
I want a “True Scrollaroo” ribbon
Idiocracy indeed. 🙄
Professor’s airplane math leads to flight delay
An Ivy League professor said his flight was delayed because a fellow passenger thought the math equations he was writing might be a sign he was a terrorist…
Menzio said he was flying from Philadelphia to Syracuse on Thursday night and was solving a differential equation related to a speech he was set to give at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. He said the woman sitting next to him passed a note to a flight attendant and the plane headed back to the gate. Menzio, who is Italian and has curly, dark hair, said the pilot then asked for a word and he was questioned by an official.
“I thought they were trying to get clues about her illness,” he told The Associated Press in an email. “Instead, they tell me that the woman was concerned that I was a terrorist because I was writing strange things on a pad of paper.”
@3 is impressive; it’s not easy balancing with so much of the drag below the waist (instead of having the hands up near the ears).
@JJ,
Al-jabr is undeniably part of a long-term Arabic conspiracy to influence the thinking of American mathematicians…
…so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.
[It’s either laugh or cry at this point.]
Not awake. Awake not needed. Sleep needed.
And reading the linked article it mentions the Silverberg… And that it has a sequel, which I didn’t know.
(Note to self: read links before posting!!!)
(13) For a minute I thought that guy was going to get a handful of books and transport into, say, the Star Wars universe.
Which is kind of what he did. 🙂
Soon Lee: Al-jabr is undeniably part of a long-term Arabic conspiracy to influence the thinking of American mathematicians… so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me. [It’s either laugh or cry at this point.]
I opted for “laughing” — but it only barely just beat out “sobbing in despair”.
I imagine that to her eyes, it looked like Arabic writing, which was somehow going to magically detonate and take down the plane. 🙄
::A True Checkaroo::
@Bookworm1398: I also highly recommend the Mitchell version of Gilgamesh. It’s actually a verse rendition rather than a translation, relying on several previous translations, but it’s really quite beautiful.
JJ,
So she’s been reading Charles Stross’ Laundry books?
ETA: True story.
I was picked out for extra screening at airport security because the scanner showed my backpack contained a “suspicious” rectangular object consistent with “organic material”.
It was a paperback book…
@Dawn Incognito
re: “The Stories She Tells Herself”
Oh, that is…wow. It reminds me of Eugie Foster’s work. Thank you.
Hampus, this is a truly great title.
(6) makes me need to add 🐙
(Katsu 4eva)
MidAmeriCon II still has not posted a Weapons Policy, and their Harassment Policy still lacks specifics. WTF. 😡
http://midamericon2.org/home/registration-hotel-member-information/for-our-members/policies/code-of-conduct/
One of the best things about aging is that while I find new things funny, much of what made me laugh when I was younger still works.
(in many cases this applies to books too)
Indeed, I laughed at loud at the scroll title! Good job Hampus!
—
As for Gilgamesh, I’ve only read the Silverberg version and the very amusing summary provided in Larry Gonick’s wonderful The Cartoon History of the Universe. The Silverberg was reasonably entertaining, but I can’t comment on how true to the original it was. The Gonick was great, but all too brief; only a single page. Of cartoons.
—
The Rachel Bloom interview in (2) is excellent! 🙂
@JJ
I’m wondering if MidAmeriCon II is going to bother with a Weapons Policy or adding specifics to their Harassment Policy. I’m thinking bids need to be required to have these policies in hand prior to site selection or there going to keep falling off the radar/being done last minute/haphazardly.
Their accessibility page isn’t overly useful IMHO opinion either. Focuses on wheelchair attendees and gives them basic information on ADA and shuttles but not much on getting around at the con or participating on/audience at panels. No mention for deaf/hearing impaired, blind, other accessibility issues other than “email us if you have concerns”.
I got inspected in an airport in Okinawa because X-ray revealed a clock (my alarm), batteries, wire (a jumper wire to replace a broken radio aerial), and a stack of blocks suspected to be explosive (two stacks of paperbacks… I read a LOT)…
On the gripping hand, one year I did have a knife, which they kindly checked through for me without criticism…
Tasha Turner: I’m wondering if MidAmeriCon II is going to bother with a Weapons Policy or adding specifics to their Harassment Policy. I’m thinking bids need to be required to have these policies in hand prior to site selection or there going to keep falling off the radar/being done last minute/haphazardly.
I agree. I’m pretty pissed off at this point. I would not have voted for KC if I’d known that they were going to pull this shit.
In future, I won’t be voting for any Worldcon or NASFiC bid that doesn’t have these ready as part of their bid package — and what’s more, I will actively campaign with my friends on Facebook and other online venues against any bid that does not have their ducks in a row.
Is there a way to modify the WSFS bid rules to REQUIRE that a bid have these in place to be a valid bid for voting purposes? * cough Kevin Standlee cough*
This shit has been going on for how many years now? This is just inexcusable. 😡
@JJ This shit has been going on for how many years now? This is just inexcusable.
Since conventions started happening. I’m not sure how long no CoC policies have started to be taken seriously by attendees. Scalzi harassment policy is only 3 years-old. Problems go back to early days.
Worldcon 75/Helsinki has the beginning of an accessibility policy up. No sign of a CoC yet. No weapons policy but I’m fairly certain getting weapons from the US into Finland isn’t easy. I’m not as worried given stricter gun laws. Convention is over a year away. Given the chairs I expect policies will be up and much better than we’ve seen from some others over the last few months.
Are we doing this thing with showing old SF-shorts now? The Device is great. I also want to highlight this gem. Should have won a BDP Short.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/08/comedy-short-film-shows-the-dangers-of-having-everything-you-want/
@JJ and Tasha: What specifics do you think that harassment policy should include? To me, it’s a fine policy. It’s not a procedure, I don’t think it’s customary to publicly post procedures. I ask because I’m Chair of the Code of Conduct for Minicon this coming year, and I’m trying to learn what things look like to perspective attendees. My own feeling is that policies shouldn’t be too specific because that invites min-maxing. At the same time, it need to serve as a commitment to the attendees that their concerns will be taken seriously.
Was this Security Security, or Bio-security?
PS My last trans-Tasman return trip saw me groundside ~25 minutes after my phone connected to the local network as we taxi-ed in on both legs, so I must have good karma.
@Lydy Nickerson @JJ and Tasha: What specifics do you think that harassment policy should include?
Who/how to contact the right people. What kind of badges to look for if I need staff assistance. I don’t want to spend 30-60 minutes being passed around staff because no one knows who is on the Incident Response Team (IRT) or who I should talk to. Or worse to report it to someone who is trying to help, takes my report, does nothing with it because they can’t find out what to do next, and eventually report is lost and I’m not helped.
Their policy feels unfinished. Maybe it’s because I don’t know if there is more based on:
Errol,
It was Security Security.
For Biosecurity I always have something to declare even if they are only technically plant/animal items. It’s my policy now, after being randomly selected a few times too many for some friendly questions…
Lydy Nickerson: What specifics do you think that harassment policy should include?
I’m presuming from the way you worded that, that weapons are not under your purview.
As far as the Harassment Policy, I think that there is at least one glaring omission:
2. If you do not feel comfortable talking with the person(s) involved or if talking to them does not resolve the issue, please report the situation immediately. Try to provide a name, badge name/number and/or physical description of the person(s) involved. Note that we need to know during the event about any incidents in order to take action.
Report the situation immediately to who??? No name, no phone number, no specified office to go to, just “report the situation”.
I mean, seriously, WTF? If someone has just been harassed or intimidated or assaulted, they may be shaken up, they may be frightened, they may be literally shaking, they may not be able to think straight such that going online to find this policy may be hard enough for them to do, and MAC II is expecting them to somehow figure out who to report to?
Maybe they’re going to have big signs all over the place at the con telling people what number to call and/or what office number to go to. But if that’s what they’re planning, shouldn’t it say that in their policy online ahead of time, so that people can go to the con already knowing how to find out that information?
It occurs to me that a sticker, with a phone number and an office/room number for reporting, would be something great to stick on the back of the badges.
First BBQ of the year yesterday, and as we’re a geeky bunch I figured I’d wear a SpaceX “Occupy Mars” shirt I’d picked up on my last US trip. One of my friends had exactly the same thought, and wore his. Much rocket geekery ensued.
(5) Very creative story; made me read it twice. I liked it while I was reading (both times!), but ultimately it left me a bit unsatisfied.
In other news: The people at Hugo Recommendations Season have compiled a nice availability table (YouTube, Netflix, etc) for both the 1941 and 2016 BDP Long Form finalists.
@Tasha and JJ: Thank you. That’s very helpful.
I know details of how people would contact the CoC responders until about a week before Minicon, roughly, I didn’t know what phone number people were going to be using to contact my team. This was a problem of procrastination on my part, as well as an attempt to save some money. What I ended up doing was activating an old phone for one month on my current cell service, which was by far and away the cheapest option available. However, there was no way to do it too early without incurring additional charges. So I didn’t have any contact information in the policy. If it had stated in the policy that there would be a hotline to call, and that information would be available on the pocket program and at the registration desk, would that be sufficient, do you think?
Guessing wildly, MacII doesn’t have it’s contact plan in place, yet. They could well be in the same place I was, still looking at options and trying to figure out the best bang for buck scenario. Badges may well not be designed, yet, and they may well yet not know if there will be identifying ribbons, or vests, or hats, or whatever. I have _no_ inside knowledge, here. But I can easily see how these particular details would still be in flux.
As for stickers… last year and this year, I had stickers made up with the CoC hotline number, which I had placed on the backs of the concom badges, and had the stickers available at the registration desk for members to put on their own badges, should they want to. I got significant push-back on that. Some of the push-back was from people who just hate the whole idea of Codes of Conduct. But one of the people who was concerned about it was someone whom I know is smart, careful, and on my side. He has been involved resolving the two harassment issues that I was subjected to, and has been involved in writing the CoC and the procedures to back up same. I don’t just assume his good will, I’ve seen it in action. That’s a really significant piece of data that I’m still processing. Push-back isn’t just coming from bad actors, missing stairs, and people too mired in their privilege to understand other people’s points of view; push-back is also coming from people with a real desire to address the problem, but who worry about unintended consequences.
As I’ve said before, this stuff is actually really hard. The CoC is the most visible piece of what is actually an attempt to make a very important cultural change.
What, precisely, was he worried about? As someone who is very immersed in the ongoing conversation about harassment and codes of conduct (although not under this nym), hearing that someone is concerned about “unintended consequences” of giving people the contact info for the incident response team gives me REALLY bad feelings.
I think that the Benjamin R. Foster + Douglas Frayne and Gary Beckman translation of Gilgamesh is the most popular for intro courses in academia. Most of the undergrads in my World Lit I course (now staffed by my minions) seemed to find it accessible. I found the Silverberg helpful in reaching students who totally bounced off old religious texts and national epics because it provided a way to get inside the world view of the writers and cultures that shaped those narratives.
Lydy Nickerson: However, there was no way to do it too early without incurring additional charges. So I didn’t have any contact information in the policy. If it had stated in the policy that there would be a hotline to call, and that information would be available on the pocket program and at the registration desk, would that be sufficient, do you think?
… AND on signs conspicuously posted around the convention spaces. These days, a lot of people don’t keep the pocket program with them, they use the cell phone app with the con panel schedule. Maybe put the contact information at the top of the header on the con schedule app, and have a sign at the registration desk with a screenshot saying, “you can find the number here”?
Most people — unless they’ve had a bad experience in the past — aren’t going to show up at the con thinking “I need to find out what the harassment contact number is first thing and program it into my cell phone, so that I have it available”. So even if it’s there at the registration desk, they may not take it. Suddenly, the unexpected happens, and now they’re really shaken and upset and they need that phone number but they don’t know where it is or how to find it.
So it needs to be available in a very immediate and obvious way — the pocket program, the schedule app, signs posted prominently around the convention hall, and on the back of the badge are all excellent places for it.
I am surprised you got pushback from an ally — what, did he think people were going to be calling the number on a whim?
Today’s read — Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear. Yes, it took me this long to get to it, for some reason. There are so many books!
A steampunk western about a prostitute’s fight against nefarious foes in a northwestern port town. Good stuff, and definitely goes onto the Good Lesbian Romance SFF page (Bear was already on the list for Dust, but I like this one better so it will get precedence of place.) Loved the narrator’s voice. I was pretty involved in the story for most of it, but I did think the ending wasn’t as strong as the beginning and middle; to oversimplify why, too much got solved by punchin’ things for my taste. It was explicitly taking some of the form of a dime novel, so the action adventure-y ending was certainly deliberate, but I don’t think it 100% worked. Still, I enjoyed it and I’m glad I read it.
@Kyra
I know what you mean about the ending of Karen Memory. I don’t think the dime store/pulp elements integrated quite as well as Bear wanted. I still thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was just a smidgen away from working fully.
@Lydy Nickerson —
What exactly did he think could be the Bad Consequences of making sure the number to call to report harassment was immediately and easily available to everyone? Because, I’m sorry, but without specifics, I do suspect FUD and concern trolling.
We’re talking about making information on where to get help if you need it readily available, not the phone numbers of employers of suspected possible harassers.
[*grump, grump*] I’m sorry, I know you have confidence in this person’s goodwill. I don’t even know who this person is, or anything about them other than they’re presumably male. And I don’t trust easily, on some subjects. 🙁
Ninth Fifth!
Also: the dialogue between Death and Susan about how people need to believe the little lies (tooth fairy, hogfather, etc.) so in order to believe the big ones (Justice, Mercy).
And sword.
re: Gilgamesh. While I’d vaguely heard of Gilgamesh, I first came across his story in the two Silverberg novels.
@Kyra re: Karen Memory. I figured, personally, that she had to have an action-adventure ending because of the through lines through the novel. It had to end in a bang, not a whimper.
@ Lis: The concern the person had was that by pushing the stickers, it was giving the message that the convention expected people would be harassed, and he felt that it made things feel less friendly and welcoming. In that case, it was partly a misunderstanding. He thought that the sticker was to go on the front of the badge, and he was worried that I wanted to sticker everyone’s badge. I believe that his concern is misplaced, and pretty much a product of being male and white and therefore not likely to be subject to the kind of harassment that women and POC deal with. However, it is important to realize that the kind of actions that make me feel more safe make him feel less safe. And, as I said, this is a person whose good will and good sense has been demonstrated. But his sensibilities are…not what I wish they were.
I do have a rant about this, but it’s rather late in my day, I’ll save it for later. But we are asking for a huge change. It is a good and necessary change, but not everyone who is discomfited by it is against these changes. Some of the people discomfited are, in fact, really good people working outside their comfort zone. I believe that understanding that is also important to effective change. Please understand, I am not suggesting that we back off and let their discomfiture stop progress. But seeing it as a necessary cost to change, rather than an enemy in and of itself, seems to be a useful insight.
I really hope that this isn’t going to give anyone ideas, sooper geniuses that they are, but putting a number out ahead of time would make it fairly easy for trolls to distribute it and sign it up for avoidance calls. Don’t know if that’s ever happened, but it wouldn’t be difficult to arrange.