(1) CASUALTY OF INTOLERANCE. Al Davison’s writeup about being harassed on the street in his hometown of Coventry comes recommended by James Bacon with the note: “New Britain — bigots empowered — comic artist and martial arts expert Al Davison racially abused. His view and experience must be read. A decent man doesn’t want to live here anymore and fears for those who are kind to him. It’s not good.”
WHY I DON’T WANT TO LIVE HERE: Sunday night I’m almost home, it’s started raining, I’m rushing because my immune system sucks, I only have to smell rain and I get ill. Two men on the other side of the road shout ‘Fu**in’ islamist cripple! One adds, ‘takin our fu**in’ benefits’, while the other shouts, ‘What happened, didn’t your fu**in’ suicide vest do the job properly?’
They get a bit ahead walking backwards so they can keep looking at me, the older of the two, puts his hand two his mouth and laughs ‘Sorry mate, thought you were a P*ki, Sorry, ‘And what if I was’, I shout’, still looking ahead, and not at them. The other responds with, ‘why you sayin’ sorry, he’s still a fu**in’ scroungin’ cripple.” They start chanting ‘scrounger’, and and literally dance off down the road, like a couple of teenagers, the youngest was in his thirties, the other around fifty. Morons. I have a beard and wear a hat, that makes me an islamist! I know I am more than capable of defending myself, I’ve survived numerous physical attacks, but many aren’t equiped to defend themselves the way I am. ‘WE SHOULDN’T FU**KING HAVE TOO! …
(2) PRIME TIME. The CBC has the story: “Justin Trudeau joins Canadian superheroes for Marvel Comics cover”.
Make way, Liberal cabinet: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will have another all-Canadian crew in his corner as he suits up for his latest feature role — comic book character.
Trudeau will grace the variant cover of issue No. 5 of Marvel’s “Civil War II: Choosing Sides,” due out Aug. 31.
Trudeau is depicted smiling, sitting relaxed in the boxing ring sporting a Maple Leaf-emblazoned tank, black shorts and red boxing gloves. Standing behind him are Puck, Sasquatch and Aurora, who are members of Canadian superhero squad Alpha Flight. In the left corner, Iron Man is seen with his arms crossed.
“I didn’t want to do a stuffy cover — just like a suit and tie — put his likeness on the cover and call it a day,” said award-winning Toronto-based cartoonist Ramon Perez.
“I wanted to kind of evoke a little bit of what’s different about him than other people in power right now. You don’t see (U.S. President Barack) Obama strutting around in boxing gear, doing push-ups in commercials or whatnot. Just throwing him in his gear and making him almost like an everyday person was kind of fun.”
The variant cover featuring Trudeau will be an alternative to the main cover in circulation showcasing Aurora, Puck, Sasquatch and Nick Fury.
Trudeau follows in the prime ministerial footsteps of his late father, Pierre, who graced the pages of “Uncanny X-Men” in 1979. [Volume 120]
(3) VICE VERSA SQUAD. Camestros Felapton reviews “Batman versus Superman: Or Is it Vice Versa”.
I finally watched Batman versus Superman: Dawn of Justice. This was the Extended Cut and at least one review I’ve read suggest that the extra 30 minutes makes the film substantially better. Ah. Hmm. I didn’t see the theatrical version but either that was a huge mess of a film or the extra 30 minutes made the central problem far worse. This was a film that needed editing or some sort of substantial re-jigging. Perhaps what hit the theatres was a failed attempt at that?
Beyond this point there are spoilers aplenty – so don’t read on if you don’t want to discover who the alter-ego of Superman is or what house Batman lives in [HINT: its an anagram of Mayne Wanor].
(4) GAIMAN’S NEXT. “Neil Gaiman Delves Deep Into Norse Myths for New Book” announced the New York Times.
Mr. Gaiman’s forthcoming book “Norse Mythology,” which Norton will publish next February, is an almost novelistic retelling of famous myths about the gods of Asgard. The book will explore the nine Norse worlds, which are populated by elves, fire demons, the Vanir gods, humans, dwarves, giants and the dead. There are ice giants and elves, familiar deities like Thor, Odin (the wise and occasionally vengeful highest god) and Loki (the giant trickster), and a frightening doomsday scenario, Ragnarok, where the gods fight a fire giant with a flaming sword in an apocalyptic, world-ending battle.
Gaiman joked about his posed photo accompanying the article.
I look at the photo & see a really brilliant tree, with a decorative author, so noone knows the tree wrote the book: https://t.co/IuqOKcNyh0
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) June 29, 2016
The tree's prose is usually so wooden, though. Hopefully you got it it to branch out, and it will flower under your tutelage.
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) June 29, 2016
(5) THE FIRST. Petréa Mitchell noted in comments that The Atlantic has an article on the adoption of word processors by writers which includes anecdotes about Jerry Pournelle and Isaac Asimov, and some general comments on the effect of word processors on sf writing.
Robinson Meyer: “Who was the first author to write a novel on a word processor?” You cast that question as what drove you to write this book. Is there something close to a definitive answer for it?
Matthew Kirschenbaum: We can’t know with absolute certainty, I don’t think, but there are a couple of different answers.
If we think of a word processor or a computer as something close to what we understand today—essentially a typewriter connected to a TV set—there are a couple of contenders from the mid- to late-1970s. Notably Jerry Pournelle, who was a science fiction author. He is probably the first person to sit and compose at a “typewriter” connected to a “TV screen”—to compose there, to edit, and revise there, and then to send copy to his publisher. That was probably a novella called Spirals.
If we move back a little bit further, there’s an interesting story about a writer named John Hersey, the novelist and journalist. He did the famous book Hiroshima. He was at Yale in the early 1970s, so maybe about five years before Pournelle, and he worked on one of the mainframe systems there. He didn’t compose the draft of the novel he was working on at the keyboard, but he did edit it, and use the computer to typeset camera-ready copy.
So those are two candidates.
And yet neither of them is Kirschenbaum’s choice…
(6) MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Tobias Buckell has a post on “How to collaborate on fiction in 2016 using pair programming, Skype, and Google Docs”.
I just finished a new collaboration. It’s a short story of nearly 10,000 words that will be in Bridging Infinity (you can pre-order here), edited by Johnathan Strahan “The latest volume in the Hugo award-winning Infinity Project series, showcasing all-original hard science fiction stories from the leading voices in genre fiction.”
The writer I collaborated with was Karen Lord, who currently lives in Barbados (author of Galaxy Games, Redemption in Indigo, you’re reading her, right?).
(7) NO POWER. Kim Lao argues “Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year” at Lithub.
I asked her what her secret was, and she said something that would change my professional life as a writer: “Collect rejections. Set rejection goals. I know someone who shoots for one hundred rejections in a year, because if you work that hard to get so many rejections, you’re sure to get a few acceptances, too.”
This small piece of advice struck a deep chord in my fragile creative ego. My vulnerable ego only wants to be loved and accepted, to have my words ring out from a loudspeaker in Times Square while a neon ticker scrolls the text across a skyscraper, but it’s a big old coward….
(8) LOST SERIES AND VANISHED VISUALIZATIONS. Suvudu will make you nostalgic for a TV show you likely have never heard of before: “’Out of the Unknown’: The BBC Sci-Fi Series Americans Should Have Seen”.
The Guardian’s Phelim O’Neill just published a rather nice review of the long gone BBC science-fiction and horror anthology program “Out of the Unknown”. While I’ve never seen it myself, from what O’Neill wrote, it sounds like it was a real doozy. Consisting of four seasons aired on BBC 2 from 1965 to 1971, “Out of the Unknown” adapted literary works by the likes of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and J.G. Ballard.
Out of the 49 episodes filmed, only around 20 or so remain. As “Doctor Who” fans are already aware, it was standard procedure for the BBC to delete old episodes of what was at one time deemed disposable entertainment. Coincidentally, one of the lost episodes of “Out of the Uknown” actually featured Doctor Who’s arch nemeses: The Daleks.
(9) ISHER IN AMERICA. Jeb Kinnison, who thinks File 770 readers will be intrigued by the sf aspects of this post, is honestly not optimistic very many will agree with his political comments — “The Justice is Too Damn High! – Gawker, The High Cost of Litigation, and The Weapons Shops of Isher”.
Gawker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to avoid paying the bond which would otherwise be necessary to appeal the $140 million judgment against them in the Hulk Hogan sex tape lawsuit. (It’s a good thing I don’t have to explain that sentence to a time traveler from the last century — would take a long time.) There have been plenty of stories and hot takes on it, so I’ll reach back to discuss what the real problem is — the cost of justice is too damn high. ….
Today’s United States resembles the Empire of Isher more than a little — a relatively prosperous population, but with layer upon layer of accreted law, regulation, and bureaucracy, with ideals of justice corrupted in practice so that only the wealthiest can afford government-sanctioned courts…. The impunity with which Gawker operated for years while stepping on the privacy rights of people for profit is just one symptom of the inability to get justice at a reasonable price. The simmering resentments of citizens made unknowing scofflaws while going about their lives and the increasing regulatory overhead to start and run a small business are slowing growth and damaging the careers of young people who have been trained to ask permission before trying anything new….
(10) KELLY OBIT. Peter David took note of the passing of a behind-the-scenes figure: Lorna Kelley, RIP.
The chances are spectacular that you have not heard of Lorna Kelly. For the vast majority of you, there is no reason that you would have. Lorna was an auctioneer who worked for Sotheby’s for a time–one of the first female fine arts auctioneers in the world–and she recently died of a stroke at the age of 70.
The reason that the David family knew her was because every year for over a decade, she was the auctioneer at the Broadway Bears charity auction sponsored by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Every year she would coax and cajole individuals into bidding ridiculous amounts of money for bears that had been lovingly costumed in exact replicas of Broadway character outfits. But that was hardly the extent of her life. She treated AIDS patients in Calcutta working with Mother Teresa. According to the NY Times, “She also traveled to Senegal, where she vaccinated thousands of children. In Cairo, she ministered to impoverished residents of a vast garbage dump; she likewise served the poor in Jordan, Gaza and the Bronx.” To say she led a well-rounded life is to understate it, and we were privileged to have met her and spent time with her.
(11) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOYS
- Born June 29, 1911 – Bernard Hermann
- Born June 29, 1920 – Ray Harryhausen
And did they ever work together? I’m glad you asked – Internet Movie Database shows Hermann did the music for Mysterious Island and Jason and the Argonauts, two films for which Harryhausen created the special visual effects.
(12) GUILLERMO DEL TORO. Another film available to fans and collectors.
Criterion's Pan's Labyrinth 10th anniversary edition! And more news to come soon! pic.twitter.com/GWpToRoiqN
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) June 27, 2016
Slashfilm covers the news: “Pan’s Labyrinth Criterion Collection Release Announced”.
The 2006 film is often looked at as the filmmaker’s best work, and understandably so. Most of del Toro’s films have plenty of heart, horror, and beauty, but Pan’s Labyrinth, narratively and dramatically speaking, it is his most satisfying work. Good luck trying not to tear up during Ofelia’s (Ivana Baquero) heartbreaking journey.
(13) STRUGATSKY ADAPTATION. In the film of Roadside Picnic, Matthew Goode takes top billing.
The Good Wife and Downton Abbey alum Matthew Goode is set as the lead in WGN America’s alien saga pilot Roadside Picnic, based on the famous novel by top Soviet/Russian science fiction writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
Written by Transcendence scribe Jack Paglen, with Terminator Genisys and Game Of Thrones helmer Alan Taylor attached to direct and Neal Moritz producing, Roadside Picnic explores a near-future world where aliens have come and gone, leaving humankind to explore the wondrous and dangerous mysteries left behind. The story also explores the social ramifications of their visit, as seen through the eyes of Red (Goode), a veteran “stalker” who has made it his mission to illegally venture into the once inhabited zone and scavenge the abandoned remains of the alien culture.
(14) MST3K. Ceridwen Christensen may leave you green with envy: “I Attended the MST3K Reunion Show, and It Was Everything I Wanted It to Be” (B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog.)
Last night at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, I had the absolute pleasure to experience the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reunion show, hosted by Rifftrax, purveyors of downloadable movie-mocking commentary tracks, a company founded by several alums of the show. It also featured members of Cinematic Titanic, likewise the brainchild of ex-MST3K cast members. Last night, they got the band back together, uniting writers and actors from several eras of the show, both past and future. It was a celebration of the fact that Joel Hodgson, the original creator, recently wrapped the most successful film and video Kickstarter of all time: a successful bid to revive the show after more than 16 years off the air; squee. Hodgson riffed on a short with the new lead, Jonah Ray. I think I actually hurt my throat laughing….
(15) DAVID D. LEVINE COMING TO LA. Shades & Shadows 17 will be at Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum in Burbank, CA on July 16. Doors at 7:30 p.m. Readings begin at 8:00 p.m. $10.
It’s summer. Everything is on fire, melting, or exploding. Everybody is one power outage away from convincing themselves we’ve entered the world of Mad Max.
Which, hey, isn’t far off from what we’re offering. Leave reality behind for a while. Come see what we have on tap as we bring in our mix of award winning authors and emerging voices in the literary scene! It’s a genre experience like no other!
Featuring: PAUL TREMBLAY, STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES, VESTA VAINGLORIA, DAVID D. LEVINE, GLEN HIRSHBERG, +1 TBA!
(16) HELP FRAN EVANS. Karen Willson alerted me that contributions are requested to the Fran Evans Assistance Fund (on GoFundMe) to help a longtime LASFSian.
This fundraiser is for a friend of mine, Fran Evans. Fran just had brain surgery and can’t work.
She says that “the money would be used to “pay my bills/rent for the next couple of months while I recovery from having holes drilled in my head. Whatever moneys I normally get go to my rent, this would help pay the difference and other bills. Not many, I’m pretty frugal. I have no credit cards. If I can’t pay by check or debit – it doesn’t happen. Water, for the moment, is free.
“I don’t smoke or drink or go shopping. My idea of a big splurge is a used paperback on Amazon. I just want couple of months to heal without any worries about money. The doctors said about two months before my balance begins to come back online. I seem to spend a lot of time resting or sleeping. Gee, wonder why.
“I’d like to get $2,000. to $2,500. But whatever I can get would be nice.”
Fran has worked many years in the film industry and the Bob Burns Halloween show. Folks at conventions will remember her for her backstage help at many events.
Your assistance will mean a lot to Fran. Thank you for thinking about it!
(17) PROFESSIONAL PREFERENCES. Sarah A. Hoyt advocates for writing in “First Person, Singular”.
1- The main reason I like first person singular is that for a moment it tricks you into that space behind the eyes of another person, relieving the loneliness of that narrative voice that can only ever describe your own life.
This is a universal and enduring quality. I’ve had teachers tell me — and to an extent they’re right — that first person is “less believable” because you KNOW you haven’t done those things.
To which I counter that WELL done, with the right balance of external activity and internal dialogue, with just enough of a “touch of nature makes the whole world kin” i.e. of physical sensation that the readers, too, have experienced, it can make you feel it is happening/happened to you.
(18) TIME IN A BOTTLE. At Examined Worlds, Ethan Mills discusses the philosophical questions within the classic sf novel: “At War with Time: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman”.
In addition to the emotional scars of returning soldiers, the time dilation speaks to the feeling of aging while the world moves on around you. This is something I feel acutely as an aging college professor constantly encountering fresh crops of young whipper-snappers with their new fangled cultural references and ways of being! The time dilation reminds us that we are all at war with time, which is of course relative to the observer’s position. It’s also by far the most interesting aspect of the book and allows Haldeman to write the history of the next 1,000 years.
Suffice to say there are some ruminations on this war and war in general. Why are they fighting? Why can’t they learn more about the alien Taurans? How is the war the cornerstone of the economy? Does the war make it possible for the government to control most aspects of society?
The philosophical questions are more implied than pedantically presented. You don’t get anything quite like the classroom scenes of Starship Troopers. I honestly would have liked a little more explicit philosophy to chew on.
(19) YOUTH REACT. James Davis Nicoll tells me his second post on Young People Read Old SF goes live 9:00 a.m. Thursday.
(20) HUGO CONTENDER. Lisa Goldstein reviews “Short Story: ‘Space Raptor Butt Invasion’” for inferior4+1. The last line is the most surprising part of her post:
I have no idea why this story was on the Rabid Puppies’ slate.
I believe a lot of readers here could explain it.
(21) SUCCESSFUL COUP IN BRITAIN. The Evening Harold has scooped the mainstream media with its report “Lord Vetinari takes control of the UK” (via Ansible Links.):
The UK is under new leadership this morning following a coup by the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Havelock Vetinari…..
[Thanks to Karen Willson, Petréa Mitchell, John King Tarpinian, Taral Wayne, and David K.M. Klaus for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bruce Baugh.]
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You gotta jump down, scroll around,
File a bale of pixels.
Tonight I think I’ll walk alone, I’ll Pixel Scroll as I go home.
https://youtu.be/oUjUTG3hwyQ
I have to admit that I’m still somewhat puzzled about the SRBI nomination. Yes, I’ve heard several theories, some of which seem fairly plausible. But still…what did they actually think was going to happen? That everyone was going to say, “oh my gosh, yes, now that I see some gay dinosaur porn on the Hugo ballot, I realize that gays and women and PoC don’t actually deserve awards”?
It’s at least a little baffling.
Oh, and pre-pre-something-fifth.
Sacrificial fourth
I heard a radio story about the Marvel/Justin Trudeau bit tonight. His people more or less literally said (to the comic’s author) that it was inappropriate to approve or disapprove, but that as a public figure, his opinion wasn’t needed.
Fifth!Second fifth!(7) NO POWER. Mm, I dunno. There’s a decent principle in here, but I’ve heard editors complain before about realizing that someone they’re getting frequent submissions from is on this program; the editors get offended.
Second fifth!
ETA: maybe not.
@Camestros Felapton: Quite liked your BvS review. And you remind me of my favorite passage from the trove:
In #3, you quote Camestros as spelling “versus” as “verus”… (Does this mean I should appurtain myself a walrus? I’d rather have a pickled herring…)
The first time I heard the title, I assumed it was a parody of “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love.”
Who thinks that? I’ve never once read a first person narrative and thought I was supposed to be the narrator. That’s what second person is — you are doing this, you are doing that. First person is somebody telling you about something interested that happened to them.
Appurtain a walrus or appertain a pickled herring, you can go both ways here at File 770.
Owner of a Scrolling Heart <3
Is it just me or does the scroll jump from 7 to 11?
(14) The event was also broadcast to movie theaters around the US. I attended the Portland, OR showing. They’ve all still got it. I can’t wait for the revived MST3K.
Bookworm 1398 — Craps!
[ticky]
I have fixed the numbering. And I edited the number reference in Petréa Mitchell’s comment, which I believe was the only one affected.
Hoyt: This is a universal and enduring quality. I’ve had teachers tell me — and to an extent they’re right — that first person is “less believable” because you KNOW you haven’t done those things.
Sean O’Hara: Who thinks that? I’ve never once read a first person narrative and thought I was supposed to be the narrator. That’s what second person is — you are doing this, you are doing that. First person is somebody telling you about something interested that happened to them.
Yeah, that’s a really bizarre statement. I’ve always considered reading a first-person story as the equivalent of reading someone’s diary. It’s never occurred to me that I should be reading it as if I myself had written it.
And I don’t find first-person any less-believable than third person, except when the narrator gives me reason to suspect that they may be unreliable — and if that’s the case, then the narrative is believable because I’ve known plenty of people who
liedtook editorial license with their personal accounts.But hey, this is Hoyt we’re talking about. If what she said actually made sense for a change, I’d have to make a special notation on the calendar, put on a party hat and toot one of those roll-up horns, and appertain myself a walrus.
*can’t stop laughing*
Thanks 🙂
It lacked a hook though and it only occurred to me later: all Zack Snyder films are actually allegories about Zack Snyder’s film-making process, which is why they not only make no sense but also why the characters keep doing things that sort of make local sense but which don’t fit together into any coherent plan. As such, Batman v Superman is a work of introspective genius in which the tripartite elements of Snyder’s psyche (epitomised by Batman, Superman and Lex Luthor) struggle to assemble a coherent plot but ultimately fail. It is sort of like Inside Out but in which the central character is a major film director rather than a schoolkid.
I like to think I’m helping keep the typo quota high for you all.
Camestros Felapton: I fixed your type here after Cassy pointed it out. If you go and fix it on your blog, too, then I will be back to having an exact selective quote.
Birthday boy Herrmann also scored birthday boy Harryhausen’s The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
So, a couple of days ago, there was a somewhat hilarious argument about the “historical accuracy” of the deployment of cavalry in Game of Thrones.
This guy has written an essay about GRRM’s world-building in general.
(found from the discussion over on Metafilter: Westeros does not make sense.)
It’s on the Hugo ballot ONLY because Beale had his minions block-vote for it.
The deeper explanation is that Space Raptor Butt Invasion is apparently the sort of thing that Beale and his minions like enough to consider Hugo-worthy.
(I know, I know: Beale’s weird tastes in fiction are somehow supposed to reflect poorly on OTHERS in SF fandom: but that explanation literally makes no sense.)
Beale is the guy whose enthusiasm for Chuck Tingle’s ouvre exposed him to a larger audience.
I guess there really is no accounting for taste.
TYPO-POWERS COMBINE!!!!!!!!
OK done 🙂
I took the Tingle nomination as Beale saying “ha ha, none of your alleged literature is worth any bit more than this bit of tossed-off porn”, and (as noted above) specifically for the dinosaur connection.
Reminder that nominations for the Cult Movie Bracket are still going on.
I think the Chuck Tingle nomination comes from Beale’s simple inability to understand any form of humour beyond the wedgie.
And seconding everyone on first person. Perhaps she meant second person? That would make some sort of sense at least, if not much.
BGHilton: Perhaps she meant second person? That would make some sort of sense at least, if not much.
I think it’s another case of Hoyt, Lost in Translation.
…in storms Mike Glyer, in a jealous rage. “You’re a hydrophobe!” he says. He was crazy and he kept posting, “You’re a hydrophobe!” And then he ran into my axiom. He ran into my axiom ten times!
JJ:
Calendrical Heresy! (I’m now about 70% of the way through Ninefox Gambit and it’s still excellent)
Spoilers below.
I watched BvS extended and have to say, either the extra footage worked or the negative hype did its magic, but I didn’t find it as completely awful as I’d been lead to expect. Which is not to say I would have gone to see it in a theater or that there’s any reason for making a superhero film as tonally dark, morally muddled and clumsily written in this day and age. Angst goes with Batman like a horse and marriage, but angst and Superman? Less is more. Mind you, they messed up Pa Kent quite badly in the other film, with his emphasis on suppressing powers and the desire to do good, which was utterly incoherent as a supposedly inspirational message from a father figure to a god-like son, so that’s hanging heavily over this iteration.
I thought Batman being twisted up and obsessive and brutal almost worked, because you can push Batman down that dark road at times, but mutilation and casual murder and murder-by-inaction (the whole guys-with-the-bat-brand-getting-targeted-in-prison thing) is up there with their Pa Kent in terms of missing the point of the character. Some of this was weirdly ameliorated when he says ‘We’re criminals. We’ve always been criminals.’ Which was actually a good character note for this Batman – he’s horrible, savage and suffering from tunnel vision, and that line defines him appropriately for this film. Batman the Detective would have prepared to fight Superman as a last resort. This one projects all his fear and insecurities and sense of failure and loss onto Superman and sets out to destroy him because of that, which makes him the villain, really. What ties the film in knots is that he’s supposed to be a good guy.
Superman as a god – wasn’t there a discussion about portrayals of religion being limited to the Judeo-Christian? Because Luthor’s ranting about showing god’s flaws suggests that he can’t see god as anything other than omnipotent and (supposedly) loving, whereas Superman’s godhood belongs to an older type of divinity, where the gods were avatars of nature in all its beneficence but also its random dangers and indifference, or gods that behaved in ways that were almost human, but human with divine powers. It’s fine for a monomaniacal villain, but I think the film-makers share this limited understanding, and it fundamentally hobbles the film’s portrayal of Superman.
Anyway, there was lots and lots of stupid stuff, like Superman turning up in time to save Lois out of nowhere, but missing that his mother was being kidnapped. The words ‘My mother has been kidnapped and I’m being forced to fight and kill you by Lex Luthor’ not being the first words out of his mouth when he arrives for the showdown. To name but two. It’s a good thing they’re superheroes because they have to carry gigantic super-idiot-sticks for the whole three hours plus of the film.
Wonder Woman was great. Alfred was great. They both made the film way more watchable than it would have been otherwise.
Perry White holding out his hands and declaiming headlines was awful, as was his determination to ignore a man dressing up as a bat and beating up criminals every night. I’m not sure Lois Lane was all that great either. Her quest for the truth seemed fairly inconsequential set against the irrational titanic emoting of everyone else about, y’know, STUFF. It seemed like she was just there to fill out the plot nonsense a bit and get pushed off a building and suggest that Superman was one fridging away from becoming a monster. (Funnily enough there’s a nifty little weekly comic that does this, and against all odds makes it work.)
Not sure I got the point of the Batman: Fury Road vision. There seemed to be no point in the film where it could have been clearly actualised, no path not taken to divert it, except maybe the couple of times Lois doesn’t die? It’d be nice to think the supposed death of Lois would have been one thing in a series of increasingly destructive and violent confrontations, and it was a subtle comment on the ultimate effect of escalating pointless conflicts, but this film doesn’t do subtle.
For all that, every Zack Snyder film I’ve bothered to watch since the admittedly subtext-ditching Dawn Of The Dead remake has bored the pants off me. This one didn’t. Or not all of it anyway. Some of it. There were parts of this film that I watched with unusual attentiveness for a Snyder film. That’s probably about as much praise as he’ll ever get from me. It’d be really nice if someone else made whatever DC films are to come, but it’s no skin off my nose if they don’t.
I do remember the first time I encountered a first person narrator and thinking that it was, in fact, supposed to be me doing the narrating. I was seven or eight at the time, and I think it was Treasure Island. The changing narrators threw me for a loop (wait, who am I supposed to be now?) and it left me a bit confused and leery of first person narrators for a while, but I got over it quickly enough.
I really hate being fair to Hoyt, but unless I’m reading very wrong, she didn’t say first person narrator is less believable; she said some creative writing teacher said that to her, and she rejects it.
But since I refuse to expose myself to too much of her blog, I’m not going back to recheck that.
In other news, Hugo review season continues; my review of Binti is up this morning.
I never thought that first person was anything other than the character/author telling me a story.
But then, when you think about it, isn’t first person awfully monomaniacal? Narcissistic? Kind of privilegey ?
Isn’t calling something “second person” awfully deprecatory and prejudicial? Doesn’t “third person” sound an awful lot like “third world”?
Man, this stuff just creeps in everywhere, doesn’t it?
Tingle/Beale:
He believes that a lot of “SJWs” who speak about diversity are just mouthing a platform, and many are not actually comfortable with “diversity”. He thinks forcing them to actually read gay lit (read what you vote for) is rubbing their noses in the mess they’ve made.
He thinks having that title forever associated with the Hugo Awards diminishes the award (and it may harm some perceptions, but not nearly as badly as he thought – especially following Tingle’s wonderful responses)
He thinks “made you read it!” somehow increases his power (it does for his followers)
He thinks having it on the finalists list will be ammo for the future: “look at the kind of thing they think is deserving of a Hugo” (yes, he nommed it, but you know, his followers are idiots and whatever Beale says is reality)
and he may even be able to use it with some constituencies in certain regions of this country to attack library holdings, school readings lists & etc.
(I wanted to see how corrupt and vile and anti-god those science fiction people were, so I put this piece of gay filth up for a nomination and they snapped it up. Are these the kind of people you want your children exposed to? “do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk… ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children’s ice cream.”)
I think, any given 5 minute segment of the film is quite good. The future dystopian Batman bit was a great bit of a film I’d probably enjoy, for example. It’s the whole thing which makes no sense.
Sean O’Hara said:
Except for when second person represents a disassociated first person POV, e.g. Essun in The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin or Joslyn Musey in Warchild by Karin Lowachee. Or when second person represents a first person narrator monologuing to another character, e.g. “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang.
In my experience, a second person narrative in which “you” are simultaneously the narrator and the reader is relatively rare outside of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books and Character/Reader fanfiction.
Jeb Kinnison started out another piece on SP3 like this:
He writes well, but he (deliberately?) doesn’t understand the issues.
Norse Mythology: A while back, I decided that if I ever become a multi-billionare, I am going to found a new town and name it Ginnunga, just so that a few people will be able to say that they work at the Ginnunga Gap.
I see Gaiman is jumping on the Iceland bandwagon…
(It’s a football/soccer thing. Move along. Nothing to see here.)
@CeeV You got to the CYOA bit about narrator and reader being identical before I managed to post and mention it, yeah.
I am reminded of Hamilton:
“Who lives?
“Who dies?”
“Who tells your story?”
For a lot of my reading life, the “who is this story being told to and by whom?” was mostly invisible to me. I just read the story and absorbed it without thinking about that level of reading. It took me a while to realize that the implications of who and what a narrator and audience were within the tale provides an extra level to the text. As mentioned above, The Fifth Season wonderfully knows how to play this space and paying attention to that provides insight into the text.
I am glad to see Hoyt defending 1st person, although I have not actually seen it attacked very often–to me 1st person storytelling seems like the most “natural” narrative voice in the sense that we all tell 1st person non-fiction stories about our own lives and things we’ve done. 3rd person became more common in novels at some point–but I think pre-1800 novels are 1st person as often as not, sometimes using epistolary format or frame narratives (thinking here of Manon Lescaut, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights) so as to maintain a 1st-person “storyteller” voice even the story may be 3rd person for various reasons. What I see attacked more often is 1st person combined with present tense, but tense is a separate issue.
@ Jim Henley
So, speaking from personal experience on both sides of that transaction. It’s true that the writer who is constantly just spitting words onto the page so they can have stuff to send in at a high volume can sometimes be annoying to editors. Subs that aren’t that great don’t offend or annoy–they’re the majority of the slush for one thing, and they’re where a lot of writers start, who will become better with time. Lots of subs that aren’t that great are just part of the job. Frequent subbers, assuming their submission behavior and demeanor is polite and professional, don’t offend. Sometimes you can see their work begin to improve, and that’s actually pretty nice.
On the other hand, a constant barrage of substandard work–particularly if it’s from someone you know can do better, though one isn’t always in a position to know that–is indeed annoying. It’s a particular problem with electronic subs–you can have a new story in the editor’s inbox mere minutes after she rejected you. Do this enough times and I guarantee that editor is not looking forward to seeing your name in the pile.
So if you’e looking at “aim for rejections” as something you need to grind out, you’re not necessarily going to offend an editor. But you’ll be wasting your own time, IMO. There’s no percentage in just slapping down half-assed writing when you could be using that time and energy for mindful work that will not only move you along as a writer but might actually stand a chance in the slushpile.
On the other hand, I actually do agree with advice to aim for rejections. They’re actually one of the few things in writing and subbing you can control–you know they’re coming, you know you’ll get lots of them. You can’t realistically aim for acceptances. And I think it’s easier psychologically to submit ambitiously if you think of the probably inevitable rejection as a kind of success. (Which in many respects it is. You can’t win if you don’t play, and those rejections are proof that you’re playing.)
I do think “aim for a hundred a year” is courting the grind it out approach, for those susceptible to it, though I suspect that “but of course don’t just slap down random crap to get that hundred” is so obvious to the article’s author that they didn’t feel the need to say it outright. The grinders are out there, though, and personally, if I were to write a similar post I’d probably suggest “aim for a hundred total and have a celebratory cupcake whenever that happens” instead. (And then, of course, set your aim for the next hundred.)
I fixed your type here…
I think you mean “typo.” Glad to help! AAHHK.
“first person is “less believable” because you KNOW you haven’t done those things.”
It seems to me that the “you” in this statement refers not to the reader, but rather to the author. It’s silly advice on the part of Hoyt’s teacher.
It’s up!
Regarding (15) David D. Levine, I picked up his short story collection Space Magic after last year’s story Damage leapt onto my Hugo ballot and refused to be dislodged. I finally got around to reading Space Magic this week* and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The surprise for me was the variety of stories in the collection – some of them very far afield from what I’d already encountered of his work, but I think I only bounced off one of the fifteen. Possibly more fantasy than SF, and a couple of worlds I’d love to read more of, all captured in a few thousand words each. Really glad I took the plunge. Thinking a lot harder about getting Arabella of Mars even though steampunk isn’t much of a thing for me.
* Because I’m also procrastinating on finishing up the Hugo-nominated novels, that’s why. Is there a support group?
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