(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 just read Thomas Mays’ withdrawn story, “The Commuter.” While I respect his decision, I have to say that I found his story just okay, mediocre at best; certainly not Hugo-worthy. V nffhzr gur Ibkzna pubfr vg va cneg orpnhfr bs vgf genqvgvbany, pyvpur punenpgref; fcrpvsvpnyyl, n zvydhrgbnfg sngure jub jnf bapr n Znevar, naq n zbgure jub pnyyf ure uhfonaq hc pelvat naq juvavat jura gurve qnhtugre vf gnxra gb Snrevr, vafgrnq bs tbvat nsgre gur xvq urefrys. Gur birenyy frggvat vf trarevp Snr, gebyyf naq ryirf, ohg gur fgbel jbhyq unir orra zhpu vzcebirq vs gurfr punenpgref unq orra syvccrq–gung vf, jr unq gur qnq nf gur fgnl-ng-ubzr cnerag naq gur zbz gur onqnff rk-Znevar jub fgbezf Snrevr gb erfphr gurve qnhtugre.
(Nyfb, Snrevr unf pryy cubar erprcgvba? Svir-one, ng gung? Ner genafqvzrafvbany gbjref n guvat abj? Pbzr ba.)
If the other Rabid entries (excluding stuff like Binti and Penric’s Demon, of course) are as mediocre as this one, I will have no problems placing them below No Award or leaving them off the ballot entirely.
(9) More short Finnish SF is available (free) here. There’s also an rather good anthology, It Came from the North, which overlaps slightly in terms of content (three stories out of fifteen, I think).
JJ said:
As mentioned in the ensuing comments, all staff and committee members will have badge ribbons identifying them. And if you don’t happen to spot one immediately wandering the halls, it ought to be easy to think of looking for one at any of the many places in the con where the con comes into official contact with its members– Registration, the volunteers table, the info desk, Ops, etc., etc….
We’re talking about over a hundred potential people to report to, not a tiny cabal hiding in a back office somewhere. (And that’s before throwing in the significant at-con volunteer population.)
Coming in rather late, but my favourite Gilgamesh is a short comic by Eddie Campbell about a Scottish football hooligan called Gil McMush and his friend Enky Du. The great cedars are the home team’s goalposts and the underworld is a London pub full of England fans.
I had a friend who collected so many ribbons at a convention one year that she used them as a scarf for part of her Fourth Doctor cosplay! 🙂
The badge ribbons I can immediately lay my hands on are 4 inches by anything between 1.5 inches and 2 inches. 1 5/8 inches seems to be the most common width. So about 100mm x 40mm, horizontal.
Dublin 2019 has a Code of Conduct for the bid itself, as reported here in 2014: https://file770.com/?p=20092
Presumably the at-con CoC will build on this.
I just googled “badge ribbon” and came up with a multitude of printers who make them in various colors and sizes.
Some of the badge ribbons at Sasquan served an official function, but a lot of them were more like t-shirt slogans, or proof you stopped by a particular info/dealer table or party.
I don’t know how much clearer I can make this Gilgamesh business, people. David. Ferry.
@Lydy, you seem to have it dialed in. Your friend’s objection to the stickers is just plain stupid. He’s fallen for MRA propaganda that’s gotten into his lizard brain and overwhelmed his logical self. I figured he was a white male before you told us. His good intentions haven’t seeped all the way down yet. Gentle him along.
Putting it right on the badges is perfect. Heck, they ought to be standard on everyone’s badge — you might never have been harassed, might miss seeing them to pick one up, etc. and then what do you do? No looking at the program (which you lost), a sign on the wall (where?), a place on the app (which doesn’t work on your phone). Right there where someone in the middle of trauma can find it easily. And give EVERYONE, down to the lowliest gofer, some training in how to deal with it calmly and compassionately, and how to get them to a quiet, safe place until whoever’s in charge can get there for a statement. Responsible people need to wear a bright t-shirt, different color badge, something.
@World Weary has a good idea. Put down the numbers for CoC reports, emergencies, con security, disabled services, any info you might need quickly all together. Then the harassers have even less to stand on. I’d find this useful even if I never had to file any personal complaints. Someone’s passed out and bleeding, I want to know the city emergency number.* Someone’s walking around without a badge, I need to contact security. Deaf people need to text someone to ask if there’s going to be an interpreter for a big event.
@Vicki, the cab company and all-night drugstore numbers are good too. Sometimes you need meds, sometimes you need a toothbrush and some aspirin and tampons and protein bars and…
KC is way, way the hell behind in spelling out their CoC and procedures for enforcing it. And no weapons policy AT ALL, in a place where likely attendees have boasted about how many guns they’re going to bring (Sidenote: this makes me admire Zoe Quinn even more. She’s brave). WHY haven’t they used one of the model codes Tasha linked as a starting point?
I’m looking at my program from Silicon Valley Comic Con. Right up front, it says No Real Weapons unless you’re a cop in uniform. Replica weapons for your cosplay to be inspected at the entrance and peace bonded if they’re too lifelike. No ammo allowed. No brandishing. Security will get onto you if you ignore this.
Unacceptable behavior not allowed, will get you thrown out. List is standard and straightforward, incl. harassment. Then there’s a whole separate section on harassment, says to contact any staff member, and the harasser can be thrown out without refund and/or the cops called.
And KC says “contact us” if you have concerns about disabilities? Have they not noticed that fans tend to be more likely than average to use wheelchairs, walkers, canes, etc? They need to have at least one person working on this full-time, and sign language translators lined up to work every day.
SVCC had sign translators for the big events, and reserved seating (with a different entrance) for the disabled. Okay, one of the elevators broke down but that’s not the con’s fault.
KC should just gank one of the model codes Tasha provided, or copy wholesale the SVCC one. Woz put his reputation and his startup money into it, and he’s a smart guy who knows from lawyers (He and Stan the Man were great together BTW).
Here’s most of what was in the SVCC program book about weapons, harassment, and disabled services:
http://svcomiccon.com/the-show/about/
@Kyra: I put KM on my ballot. I just really liked everything about it, even the action.
@Kevin: If you don’t file a bid, it doesn’t matter how many votes you get. That’s not a theoretical consideration; it made a difference for a Westercon not that long ago.
Oy, did it. We serpentined for what seemed like days. BUT it led to possibly the bestest Westercon ever, with people of all colors and genders hanging out without fear or tension. Plus the programming was great. Which is why I have so much confidence in San Jose 2018 — many of the same people who put on the bestest Westercon 66 with almost no prior notice are running SJ 2018. They have their act thoroughly together.
I would absolutely support a motion in the Business Meetings to require bids to have these things. It’s way past time. Failing that, the outside pressure of opinion could do the same thing, faster than drawing up a motion and getting it through for two years. Why not both? I sez.
I’ve never gotten more than about a foot of ribbons. But I have friends who get so many that they wrap all the way around the front and back like a sash, and then continue onto the front. My recent-ish favorites, though sad, were the ones after we lost pTerry and Nimoy, which said “AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE WALK TOGETHER” and “Peace and long life”. Of course they were on the same length as “I aim to misbehave”, “Shiny!” and “San Jose in 2018”.
———————————–
*I saw that at one Worldcon. Luckily there was an ex-military medic and an RN standing near her, and everyone called 911. Turns out she’d just been too busy to eat and had gotten way overheated. She woke up right away and was mostly just embarrassed; the ambulance guys determined that she was fine. But you don’t know that when someone’s skull hits marble.
Petréa Mitchell: As mentioned in the ensuing comments, all staff and committee members will have badge ribbons identifying them. And if you don’t happen to spot one immediately wandering the halls, it ought to be easy to think of looking for one at any of the many places in the con where the con comes into official contact with its members– Registration, the volunteers table, the info desk, Ops, etc., etc…. We’re talking about over a hundred potential people to report to, not a tiny cabal hiding in a back office somewhere. (And that’s before throwing in the significant at-con volunteer population.)
That’s fine. But you haven’t said how any of this was communicated to con attendees ahead of time. And that’s my point about SMOFs thinking from a conrunner point-of-view and not thinking from a clueless attendee point-of-view.
It doesn’t matter how many staff you have or how well-trained they are if you haven’t communicated effectively with con attendees ahead of time. Because when they are frightened and panicked, they are not going to be thinking, “well, I’d better go online to the website and see if I can find something about what to do now”.
I am a big proponent of con security, at least, wearing something you can see from across a room–neon vests, bright red T-shirts, something. (NOT COSPLAY MILITARY UNIFORMS, sweet Christ, on the list of bad ideas that one was just behind lawn darts.) Because frankly, if you’re three tables away, I can’t READ your ribbons, and if I’m stuck behind my table with an asshole leaning over it, I can’t very well leave in order to grab somebody. I want to scan the room and KNOW who to make a bee-line for.
(It’s come up at least once–I witnessed a fight break out in the loading area of the hotel, ducked inside–huge crowd of people in the lobby. If I’d gone from badge to badge, somebody would have been bloody pulp by the time I got to security. But! At this con, they all have bright red shirts that say SECURITY and I could collar one in time to defuse.)
And yes, I’ve had the “But people will feel uncomfortable if they see visible security!” talk, and my answer is usually “You’ve never needed Security yourself and had to go find them, have you?”
ETA: Yes, Clack, many other conventions have harassment policies. The American Library Association has one for their conferences, for example.
ULTRAGOTHA: Here is a photo of Julie McGalliard’s badge with ribbons from Sasquan (no, I don’t know who that is, I found it on an image search).
That’s our own filer McJulie!
@Bonnie: That’s what I thought about “The Commuter”. Pleasant enough, but broke no new ground and was fairly trite. It would be the best story in many fanzines back in the day. It’s not bad, but it’s not Hugo-worthy. He did fandom a great service by withdrawing to allow “Cat Pictures, Please” to get on the ballot — a story a lot of random people legitimately nominated or at least had on their personal longlists.
@JJ: Yes. EVERYONE should be told when handed their badges at registration, “If you need any help, please call one of the numbers here on the back (flip to display list), or look for a staff member, who’s wearing X.” Physically showing everyone before anything bad happens.
@Wombat: Agreed. Security ALWAYS needs brightly colored t-shirts. Just like at concerts, no huhu.
Book report: I just finished two fantasies set in the 1920’s. “Cuckoo Song” by Frances Hardinge succeeds admirably as creepy-fantasy, less as historical fiction. The past tense of “weave” was “wove”, dammit, not “weaved”. By which I mean that, in general, it was hard to hear the 3rd-person-limited narrative voice as that of a 13-y.o. English girl in the 20s — or even that of an older person of the period.
Nonetheless, it’s an novel (and creepy!) take on the changeling story, and on Faerie-Fields We Know relations.
Barbara Hambly’s “Castle of Horror” is a novelette, a sequel to “Bride of the Rat God”. I have to find and re-read Bride to see how smoothly this follows it. It’s in here somewhere …
“Castle of Horror” involves two silent movie crews filming at the same site: one with many of the characters from “Bride”, and one a race film by and for African-Americans. My problem was that I couldn’t always remember which character names were which (I read it late at night), and the voices of the white & black characters weren’t distinctive. I’m not saying Hambly should have tried writing in “dialect” (that never ends well), but that there should have been more of a distinction in rhythm and word choice. Or even failure of comprehension: Norah (the POV character) is English, and in the late 70s I was a TA for a professor from England, who explained that one of our TA duties was to translate between her and the African-American students in the lecture, because their language was often not mutually comprehensible. To be fair, she had one of the most rapid and stereotypical Oxbridge accents I’ve ever heard.
It’s been years since I’ve read any of Hambly’s Benjamin January novels. Do they seem to you guys to have an authentic period/regional voice? Which would be one hell of an achievement, no question.
RedWombat: And yes, I’ve had the “But people will feel uncomfortable if they see visible security!” talk, and my answer is usually “You’ve never needed Security yourself and had to go find them, have you?”
So much this.
Because when something happens, whoever’s involved may be panicked or disoriented and not thinking straight, and they need to be able to find someone to help them right away without having to search all over the building or crowded conference hall to get help (not to mention that having to brave walking around in a huge crowd of people trying to find help after an incident is something many people in that panicked / disoriented condition will not be able to manage).
@Dr Science: For the January series, Hambly did a lot of study in the languages of that period, how the Americans who bought the place off the French had a different culture and a different way of looking at the Free Blacks. I don’t know if the story set in Hollywood is less researched or if she wanted to portray the actors as persons of education….but I loved BotRG. I gotta read the sequel.
Doctor Science: Wait, what? There’s a novella in the same world as Hambly’s Bride of the Rat God? I DON’T CARE HOW AUTHENTIC THE VOICES ARE, I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR A SEQUEL TO THAT BOOK SINCE THE DAY I READ THE LAST PAGE!
*Whew.* Thank you. Kagan in eprint and now this? This is a Good Day . . .
I’ll try to get back to you on dialects after I’ve read it. Short possible answer: California is a weird part of the world for dialects, so that might account for some of what you noticed.
I actually had a security incident at a comics convention yesterday. A woman started to disturb the audience at a panel by trying to sell stuff.
I saw easily identified guard 30 meter away, moved there. She saw this and quickly left, guard in tow. Simple and easy. There were people with badges of organizers there, but they seemed unsure what to do and didn’t have same authority (was in a public space).
So yes, easily visible are nice.
Very out of the loop here.
So does Kansas City World SF Con have a coherent harassment policy? Because those things need to be meticulously planned out and organized, *especially* if there have been parties of bad faith making threats, veiled or otherwise, against convention-goers.
ULTRAGOTHA on May 8, 2016 at 10:46 am said:
However, San José’s parent non-profit corporation has a general policy that requires all of our conventions to adopt a code of conduct. We worded the policy so that each convention could handle it in their own way, as we don’t think a one-size-fits-all policy is likely to work. Also note that the co-chairs of Westercon 66 are respectively the bid chair of the San José in 2018 Worldcon Bid (Andy Trembley) and the designated chair of the 2018 Worldcon if the SJ bid wins (Kevin Roche), so I don’t think one has to worry about this subject that much in SJ’s case.
(I’m the corporate secretary of SFSFC Inc.)
@Clack: “Serious question : is there something specifically about SFF cons that make Codes of Conduct necessary?”
I’m posting anonymously because I don’t want to get in trouble with my employer. We host several big conferences and smaller seminars, and a year or so ago I thought about floating the idea of a code of conduct regarding harassment, but I could just hear my bosses saying, “We’ve never had a problem with that, why should we even bring it up?”
I doubt that it’s never happened. A few anecdotal incidents suggest that it did, at least years ago. Hard to believe it doesn’t happen sometimes these days, and I wonder about our liability in case of a serious incident.
In other genre conferences, I used to go to a midwest conference on mystery writing, where as far as I know nothing ever happened (aside from a session in which the seminar leader read a long excerpt regarding spanking, which I walked out of, and mentioned in the conference evaluation).
I once asked a friend in the industry (published, active in MWA, not a big name) about feuds in the mystery field. He said no, and kind of put it off to people in SF being nerds without social skills. Which kind of irritated me. But then, mysteries don’t have the kind of fan culture that SF does.
Re. Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is an important character in the Fate/stay night visual novel and it’s prequel novels Fate/Zero. So he is also in the many anime adaptions of them. Not perhaps his most true to the stone tablets version but he does get to be a magnificent bastard in Fate/Zero.
If you like anime I would suggest giving the Fate/Zero anime series a try. I mean it has Gilgamesh, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, Alexander the Great, Gilles de Rais, Lancelot, Hassan-i Sabbah, and King Arthur running around fighting in a secret magic war. Of course they have all been ran through an odd even for Japan lens, for example King Arthur ends up a girl. It does have a number of things needing trigger warnings mostly having to do with Bluebeard getting back into child murder.
@Lydy
Going back to a previous question notice some of the links ULTRAGOTHA posted had holding spots for phone number, committee, and signs will be posted. This lets us know the the convention intends to have this information available and where. It also serves as a reminder to the ConCom to put the information up/available. This is the type of thing I’m looking for in CoCs prior to conventions.
@JJ That’s fine. But you haven’t said how any of this was communicated to con attendees ahead of time. And that’s my point about SMOFs thinking from a conrunner point-of-view and not thinking from a clueless attendee point-of-view.
This. What good does it do attendees for staff to know how/whose handling harassment if You don’t tell attendees who to grab in an emergency
@RedWombat: And yes, I’ve had the “But people will feel uncomfortable if they see visible security!” talk, and my answer is usually “You’ve never needed Security yourself and had to go find them, have you?”
This. When I need someone right now I need to be able to easily find them. People being a little uncomfortable with security around will get used to it as it becomes the norm.
——-
Talking to my husband earlier we were talking about who gets to feel comfortable at cons. For 60+ years a certain contingent has felt comfortable. During those years many marginalized fans have stayed away or accepted being harassed as the price of participating, a number of cons were treated as party central, hotels have had thousands of dollars in damage done, and attendees ending up hospitalized for foolish teenager behavior.
We are in the process of transitioning. I believe we are deciding to switch the privilege to reflect the diverse fandom which has always existed but been excluded in many small ways. Me, I’m ok if some of the long-term comfortable group find things like a CoC and visible security reasons not to attend. Hopefully over time they’ll realize the world hasn’t ended and come back because one can behave like an adult and still have a lot of fun.
RedWombat: And yes, I’ve had the “But people will feel uncomfortable if they see visible security!” talk, and my answer is usually “You’ve never needed Security yourself and had to go find them, have you?”
Tasha Turner: Talking to my husband earlier we were talking about who gets to feel comfortable at cons.
Whenever I hear people complain about con security personnel (who, apart from their special shirts, are generally fairly unobtrusive and off to the side or in the back, keeping a low profile), I always wonder, “what were you planning on doing, that you don’t want security staff around?”
Seconding the recommendation for Fate/Zero and the caveat about trigger warnings. All the trigger warnings. Also a hugely talky first episode to set everything up. But when the action starts, hoo boy is it epic.
*hearts* Kiritsugu, Gen Urobuchi’s trademark Mysterious Badass With A Tragic Past.
THERE’S A SEQUEL TO “BRIDE OF THE RAT GOD”?!
Why was I not informed?! Thanks, Dr. Science. Although, yikes, $4.99 for a novelette is pretty steep. 11c a page.
“what were you planning on doing, that you don’t want security staff around?”
JJ, that’s a very good question. It ought to be asked more. If it keeps griefers away and jolts honest people into re-thinking why they object, it needs to be asked a LOT.
Why KC hasn’t at least said “The convention center and hotels don’t allow real weapons”, I don’t know. Esp. since various canines have gleefully announced their plans to bring their guns along.
@Nemo, hello! May I snort in derision that there aren’t harassment and feuds in mystery? Of course there are. Your acquaintance just didn’t know.
I’m on the Access team at MidAmeriCon II. We have quite a lot arranged beyond what is currently on the website. We do plan to update the website over the next week or so to indicate that, so please stand by, and thanks for noticing the lack. Like every other person working on the con, we are all volunteers, and most of us have day jobs, so sometimes it takes longer than we would like to get everything lined up and agreed to, and all the communications done properly after that.
I can’t speak to the weapons policy or the CoC, except to agree that the con just finished a major advance meeting (to which many high-level volunteers spent their own money and time to go, including four members of the access team). I wasn’t able to go myself, so I’m a little behind on details, I’m afraid.
Tasha Turner said:
And you’re going to justify the tiny text necessary to cram all that onto the back of the badge to your accessibility coordinator how?
I’m not dissing the entire idea of putting emergency info on the back of the badge, but if it’s going to be usable in an emergency to a population with a high incidence of bad eyesight, you’ll need to keep it to one or two numbers. Say, one number for reporting issues to the con (CoC and other emergencies are probably going to both be routed through the same people at Ops anyway), and one for local emergency services?
Thanks for the update, Lenore. I know the volunteers are working very hard, and I appreciate that; I just find it really frustrating that there’s still no weapons policy less than 4 months out. I’ve already spent a shitload of money on membership and plane fares (not to mention getting stuck with half the hotel cost if I can’t find a roommate to replace me on short notice), and I don’t want to find out when I walk in the door that MAC is another GunNutCon. Having one of those on the ballot for NASFiC is already one too many. 😐
@Clack: “Serious question : is there something specifically about SFF cons that make Codes of Conduct necessary?” [quoting this from someone else’s quote]
Last year at Bay Con I was riding the elevator with some non-convention people and, seeing my Bay Con name badge they asked, “We’ve seen all these posters talking about harassment. What’s up with that. You don’t see things like that at a convention of lawyers or accountants.” (highly paraphrased)
To which I responded something to the effect of, “No you don’t. Conventions of lawyers and accounts had plenty of harassment, they just don’t have policies against it like we do.”
This was, of course, a gross oversimplification. But I think I got the point accross.
neon vests, bright red T-shirts, something
Neon safety vests should be doable – there are cheap ones available. (Google: ‘safety vests in bulk’)
I’ve just been poking around in the MAC2 web page.
Nothing’s changed since I looked at it in February, save the addition of the Hugo and Retro Hugo finalists.
The Blogs! block in the middle of the home page (one of 4 things there) is supposed to lead to News. If you go there, it has a few things posted before the Hugo announcement.
Click on “Convention Information — News and updates about the convention”
I get “Page Not Found” and “No content — do something cool here”
How is anyone who doesn’t already know they’re going supposed to find anything out? Nobody’s posting news updates! I don’t even see the stuff about parks and Ancillary Benches.
This is no way to run a railroad.
(ack, edit time ran out)
Lenore, thanks for telling us. Please poke some people to copy and paste things that are already decided (like Parks!) onto the website. And get the weapons policy up soonest. JJ doesn’t want to go to GunNutCon; GunNutz won’t want to go if they’re not allowed to bring their metal pals. So everyone’s unhappy right now.
@jonesnori/Lenore Jones
Thanks for the update. I know getting websites updated takes time.
@Petréa Mitchell And you’re going to justify the tiny text necessary to cram all that onto the back of the badge to your accessibility coordinator how?
Badges are pretty good-size. So don’t use all example numbers if they don’t fit. Pick ones your ComCon feels are most critical to their attendees. If it’s a local region con you probably don’t need to include 911. 14pt font and a little creativity you’d be surprised how much you can fit on those suckers. Part of my job used to be designing postcards, business cards, badges. I used MS Word or PowerPoint templates and played around. I’m not recovered enough/had setback to pull out the 17″ laptop to test. Did you give it a try to see how it looks/works?
JJ, I passed on the question about the weapons policy and the CoC. They’re not my area, so I hope someone from those areas will respond or just update the site.
On the back of badge phone number idea, I think this idea must be spreading. WisCon is first going to print the Safety on-call number on the back of all badges this year. We had it in the PPB and posted at Reg and in the Con Suite last year. (Safety is what some cons call Security, or Ops/ Operations, or The Watch, or other such names. Tastes vary.) I think it’s a great idea if there’s badge real estate available, as everyone should then have ready access to the number.
@Redwomat And my answer is you’ve always expected security to help you when they’re asked to. What about people who are used to being sided against because of who they are or how they look?
@Iphinome – What about people who are used to being sided against because of who they are or how they look?
I wasn’t raised in a neighborhood or an environment that promoted the idea that Police Officers Are Our Friends (except in the weird Officer Friendly handouts we sometimes got in school) and despite decades of being both law abiding and white, I do not feel safer in the presence of any sort of law enforcement personnel. That’s kind of what happens when you’ve had a consistent set of experiences and I’m not sure there is a remedy for those whose expectations do not include cordial relations with security and law enforcement.
I guess my question is how to discover and implement what will make people who are used to being sided against feel safe and comfortable?
@Cheryl S A good question and one I can’t answer. High visible omnipresent security is going to feel oppressive to some people and apparently not having it will make others worried.
My own preferences would be for them to come only when called
Iphinome: A good question and one I can’t answer. High visible omnipresent security is going to feel oppressive to some people and apparently not having it will make others worried. My own preferences would be for them to come only when called.
I think having signs/posters prominently displayed, and stickers on the back of badges, would reduce the need for highly-visible, omnipresent security.
My concern is that someone who may be shaken up and not thinking straight won’t have to think — that they can just react and say, “Oh yeah, there’s a phone number on that sign right there / on the back of my badge”, get someplace where they feel safe, and call. At which point, a concom member on duty, who’s been trained in reassuring victims and assisting with reporting, shows up to help them ASAP.
Making them go look for a staff or security person (especially in a crowd), or go looking for directions on how to report, is unnecessary cruelty — and would likely discourage reporting.
“I do not feel safer in the presence of any sort of law enforcement personnel.”
Which is valid, except here we’re talking about unarmed geeks in t-shirts. Not cops or even security guards. Who don’t actually strut around wanting to be noticed, they just sort of stand there quietly around the edges. You’ll see them if you’re looking for them, but otherwise they look just like everyone else at the con.
Reflective west, sash or T-shirt in special colour. Doesn’t have to say security, can say host or whatever, as long as people know that they are the people they should go to in case of trouble.
I have seen that group of staff, and their identifying vests etc., labeled “safety”: that includes “I’m being harassed,” but it also very obviously includes accidents on the level of “I think I sprained my ankle,” which is also a thing that happens. I hope people aren’t going to decide not to attend cons because the con isn’t magically safer than the outside world, where it is also possible to fall and break a bone.
re Gilgamesh: (This video actually caused one of my sprogs to ask about Sargon, Gilgamesh, etc)
(They Might Be Giants, “The Mesopotamians“)
Tasha Turner on May 8, 2016 at 9:40 am said:
Well, my apologies; I have little experience of running conventions, and since I read here that some conventions are struggling to implement a CoC, I mistakenly assumed that they were lacking for resources such as the ones you linked to.
I don’t think cops are on my side. They’ve not been much help when I’ve needed them. Geeks/hired security at a con wearing a t-shirt doesn’t cause the same feelings in me a cops in stores when I shop (creepy and scary). My experience is not everyones. My comfort level is not everyones. I’m unlikely to be shot for walking/driving white or beat up for using the wrong bathroom.
I’m not sure how we balance the need to have people around and available to help in crisis who are easy to find versus genuine fear by groups of people who are frequently abused/ignored by the system instead of helped. Numbers on the back of badges let both person in crisis and bystanders call/text to get help ASAP.
@Dawn Incognito
Also a hugely talky first episode to set everything up. But when the action starts, hoo boy is it epic.
Yes, the lets walk around in circles while we talk so the animators have something to do besides animating lip flaps for an hour episode. They really needed to get all that info out for the newcomers and doing it that way let them get it over with I guess.
Thinking about the trigger warning got me to thinking about how crappy the Fate/stay night universes are in general. And how they sort of play out the diminishing from the Golden Age of many writers, like Tolkien, to it’s natural end.
The universe really seemed to have it out for Kiritsugu for some reason.
Teemu Leisti Well, my apologies; I have little experience of running conventions, and since I read here that some conventions are struggling to implement a CoC, I mistakenly assumed that they were lacking for resources such as the ones you linked to.
Sorry for the high level of snark yesterday. Google is available and I often wonder why people don’t availe themselves of it before making assumptions and looking foolish online. That brings out the snark in me which is frequently uncalled for. I’m sorry.
Problems with implementing CoCs:
1. Questioning a need for one. The cons I run and attend don’t have a problem with harassment because we are all good people.
2. Posting and enforcing a CoC will discourage socially challenged geeks and one geek fallacy is that we are accepting of everyone and another is women/POC can’t tell the difference from an awkward comment and a predator or true harassment; CoC will be used to get revenge; many/most harassment charges are false (wrong)
3. Enforcing CoCs is hard. Too many times a person reported will be someone whose been part of the community long-term and likely to be a friend
4. Communities are still more worried about the members most likely to harass than they are about those harassed – follow a redemptive arc rather than safety first
Follow the links I posted yesterday and you’ll learn much, much more about the problems in our communities.
@lurkertype – Which is valid, except here we’re talking about unarmed geeks in t-shirts. Not cops or even security guards. Who don’t actually strut around wanting to be noticed, they just sort of stand there quietly around the edges. You’ll see them if you’re looking for them, but otherwise they look just like everyone else at the con.
I don’t think I was picturing people strutting around, but I’m less likely to be able to ignore security personnel than some others (and more likely to do so than a different set of other people). It’s not that security personnel are a problem (in my head, I’m all in favor), but Iphinome’s point was a valid one and being inclusive would suggest taking it seriously as a barrier to entry, even if nothing material can be done above providing multiple experiences that are all positive.
A festival I went to had what felt like a great balance of safety and security, with paramedics who also had risk management, crowd control and other training. They wore bright orange vests and otherwise participated just like everyone else. Maybe geeks in t-shirts work the same way?
@lurkertype: I am not phoning it in. I may be getting it wrong, but I am not phoning it in. I may not be allocating my spoons appropriately, but I am working really hard on harassment issues, and I care greatly about them. You suggest that I gentle my friend along; that is what I am doing. Noticing and understanding his concerns doesn’t mean that I endorse them. It means that they are important data that help me understand what is necessary to move my local convention and club in useful directions. This is a political process, and politics is the art of the possible. There is a huge benefit to people who are angry, take no prisoners, and move the Overton window. But there is also a lot of value in the work that I’m doing, too. Change actually needs both. I think your accusation is unfair.
@JJ, and lots of other people: First of all, more useful dissemination of the contact information for the CoC people is obviously necessary. Minicon doesn’t have safety or security personnel. Last time I was at Convergence, they had people managing their overweening lines wearing green aprons. It was a lovely bit of semiotics. It was highly visible, and not the least bit authoritarian or military. Many years past, Minicon troubleshooters wore highly visible vests with the number of the Bridge embroidered on the back. Ah, the huge Minicons of yesteryear.
At the moment, signage and stickers are a political problem, and one that needs to be addressed. One of the things that came up this year is that although there are concom badges which identify people’s concom functions, they look almost identical to regular member badges, and so don’t really function as a way to identify people that might be helpful. There’s some talk of changing that, and this conversation definitely gives me additional reasons to make that a priority.
I have a lot of thoughts about why we shouldn’t frame harassment as an emergency, but it’s getting late, and I have to work tonight. Just one quick note, though: by the time the convention has been involved in a complaint about harassment, it’s almost never an emergency. It might have been one, but usually we don’t know about it, then. We find out later. And while the target may still be extremely upset, usually there’s nothing that needs to be done on an emergent basis. Instead, what needs to be done is provide necessary aid to the target, take a report, and start the wheels in motion to respond appropriately. This takes time, and probably should. The fact that it’s a high priority is not the same thing as it being an emergency.