Five videos, seven stories, and a pair of tweets make up the Scroll today.
(1) The plush talking Admiral Ackbar doll was advertised as a limited run several years ago, however, Craig Miller bought one at Comic-Con.
Do you remember the Admiral’s line?
(2) Crystal Huff is interviewed about the Helskinki 2017 bid by Ed Fortune for Starburst:
STARBURST: Why Helsinki?
Crystal Huff: Helsinki is a location where Worldcon has never been. It has a lot of amazing fans and convention runners who are experienced at running Finncon, which moves around every year (like Worldcon does) and has a variable number of attendees (like Worldcon does). They have a useful skillset. The Finnish government gives grants to science fiction events to help them happen, and Worldcon will be eligible for that should we win. The program would be in English and other languages. The city of Helisinki has said that if we win the bid, all Worldcon members will receive free public transport to and from the convention. Not only will they be able to run around the city, they’ll be able to see all the tourist attractions in Helsinki very easily.
Most people probably only know Finland for The Moomins. Is there much science fiction in Helsinki?
Yes. Recently, there’s Emmi Itäranta who wrote the Clarke nominated Memory of Water; such an amazing book. It’s haunting and lyrical, and Emmi wrote it in English and Finnish simultaneously. There’s also Hannu Rajaniemi, who missed the Hugo nomination for The Quantum Thief by two votes. There’s Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen with The Rabbit Back Literature Society which came out in 2013. Also check out Sing No Evil, an excellent graphic novel.
(3) And the competition in DC also has a new local attraction to brag about:
https://twitter.com/DCin17/status/620651289655951360
The Museum of Science Fiction’s first physical exhibit, now on display at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, is “The Future of Travel”.
Most people passing by baggage claim No. 12 in Terminal C craned their necks to see the 6-foot replica of the Orion III Space Clipper from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Every so often someone would even belly-up to the glass and inspect the ship in detail.
By Thursday, museum officials expected to add 1950s-style travel posters for several planets to help travelers daydream about the future. Could they one day race a car on Pluto? What would it be like to rock climb on Saturn’s largest moon? And there is a smartphone app that allows anyone to plan a fictitious trip to the moon.
Founded in 2013, the museum has existed solely online until this week. “The Future of Travel” exhibit continues until October.
(4) ArmadilloCon takes place July 24-26 in Austin, Texas. They’re looking for people to take their Fannish Feud game show survey.
(5) For those combing the internet for their daily Sad Puppy news fix, Cute Overload has this Public Service Announcement From The Department of Science Fiction:
Remember, this is radioactive mutant giant spider season in the southern United States, portions of South America, and of course Australia. Protect yourself and loved ones by keeping pets and children away from webs, making an escape plan in case of invasion, and keeping your flamethrower fully fueled at all times.
A Public Service Announcement from the Department of Science Fiction http://t.co/p7GemSzYFa pic.twitter.com/Nmsc65sUNU
— Shed Ninja (@ShedNinjaBrush) July 13, 2015
(6) Those who prefer their critters untamed are directed by George R.R. Martin to the Direwolves On Staten Island. The Yankees minor league team will wear Game of Thrones themed jerseys when George attends their August 8 match with Hudson Valley:
Normally the home team is the Staten Island Yankees… but for one night only, they are changing their name to the Staten Island Direwolves, and will be wearing special jerseys. The visitors, normally the Hudson Valley Renegades, will be clad in gold and red jerseys emblazoned with the Lion of Lannister. So it will be Winterfell v. Casterly Rock once more.
(7) Even wilder life rendezvoused in Paris over the weekend. Vox Day’s report GGinParis’s salute to #GamerGate contains a link to a short video of Vox’s speech, plus remarks by Mike Cernovich and Milo Yiannopoulos.
Someday there will be a plush talking Vox Day doll who answers Admiral Akbar, “Yes, just as I planned!”
(8) More trailers that debuted at the San Diego Comic-Con:
Suicide Squad – Comic-Con First Look
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – Comic-Con Trailer
Official Comic Con Trailer: Into the Badlands: World Premiere
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I’m a native of Staten Island, gone from my hometown these long 12 years. I am sad I can’t go to the game, I’d totally get a jersey and a cap. Go Direwolves!
Always interesting to see genetic superman Vox Day in real life. A world away from the Darth Vader-like character he portrays on his blog. He’s just another guy with a computer, an internet connection and some bad ideas. (And lots of Daddy’s money.)
The Suicide Squad trailer gives me hope. Except about Jared Leto’s Joker. Which is a shame.
As for the GGParis video, it is more of the same. More posturing. Claiming victory for something that is, at best, allows them to score internet points without actually furthering their long term agenda. The real problem with VD is not that he is some super villain. The problem is that he preaches hate and violence, hiding behind a facade of reason, relying on others to do his dirty work.
As a fuck you to Vox, #gurpgork, and #optordrop, I bought The Goblin Emperor on Friday.
It’s interesting to see that apparently GamerGate has as many followers in Western Europe as my town’s local geek Meet-Up group does on any given weekend.
The problem with the Joker being present is I’m going to be dreading the possibility of Harley Quinn betraying the team. It would be entirely in character for her to do that for the Joker, but I’m not a fan of the traitorous woman trope and I’d just rather not.
No thanks to The Suicide Squad, yes please to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. — have I said too much about my age?
Has anyone been to Nine Worlds before? The programme looks interesting and their accessibility information is wonderfully comprehensive (compare it with Sasquan’s, which is… fine, I guess). I’m scouting around for cons it would be vaguely plausible for me to get to. 🙂
@Pacific Standard Simon
Nah, I’m 25 and I’m more interested in The Man from U.N.C.L.E, too. 🙂 If mostly because of a fondness for classic television as well as a disillusionment with DC’s films.
Hmm. I think Margot Robbie could potentially do really well as Harley Quinn… It’s difficult to tell for the few seconds he’s in the trailer, but still not all that keen on Leto’s Joker.
Think this is a film I’m going to give a good week or two for reviews to come out before I make any moves about going to see it myself.
“Someday there will be a plush talking Vox Day doll who answers Admiral Akbar, “Yes, just as I planned!””
Wasn’t there an anime character who had something similar as their motto? I’m thinking Death Note or Yu-Gi-Oh….
@Oneiros
I thought much of Margot Robbie’s performance looked good, although its hard to tell from a trailer. I do wonder why Harley Quinn’s costume seems to lose more off it every time I check up on the character, sigh. If I hear a lot of positive noise about her portrayal I’m more likely to watch it. Harley’s one of my favourites. 🙂 (Maybe we could have a Poison Ivy/Harley Quinn team-up crime caper sequel??)
@Meredith: An Ivy/Harley spin-off would be amazing — done right they’re two of my favourite DC characters too. Here’s to hoping that Suicide Squad does well and they don’t screw up Harley Quinn!
The Suicide Squad Harley costume looks to be close to the one from when the title relaunched during DC’s New 52 push. And like most of the Nu52 redesigns it was pretty awful. Also I think it was meant more closely match the Arkham video game Harlequin for some reason…
@meredith: GO! GO!
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Nine Worlds last year which is why I’ll be going this year.
That suicide squad trailer is the most emo thing I’ve seen since the video Linkin Park did for Twilight
I may have missed something because of the sound quality, but as far as I can tell there wasn’t so much as a hint of “GG is about ethics in game journalism”. Beale tries to say it’s “not political”,* but apart from that both he and the two other speakers describe GamerGate in terms of “sticking it to the social justice warriors”, hating feminism, and fighting for the right to play sexist videogames without interference.
* And the “not political” comment makes some sense if interpreted as “it’s independent of traditional left/right bloc-thinking.”
GG stopped being about ethics in games journalism the moment Vox Day, Shadowdancer Duskstar, and Milo hijacked it for their own ends.
I went the first year, and I liked it, but mostly because the hotel had nice sofas were I could lie down and nap when I got the inevitable convention migraine. That was a big plus for me. I wish more hotels had similar arrangements. Not everybody can have a room at the main hotel. I hear it is now at the Radisson Edwardian aka the Radisson Non-Euclidean, which I am not terribly fond of.
For the rest, I have heard many good things and some less good. The less good had to do with the nefarious influence of RH, and I don’t know how things have changed in the meanwhile. I think also your enjoyment has a lot to do with the kind of fandom you’re in. A friend of mine was ejected from the Brony room on the grounds of having girl cooties.
I have to say also all the “we are not like LonCon who are Old White Men and Oppressive!” last year left my enthusiasm markedly diminished. I don’t think fandom is zero sum game.
GG was never about ethics in games journalism. That came out as a cover a week into the attacks on Zoe Quinn, going back to their previous attack on Leigh Alexander to try and legitimize the abuse and justify going after other women.
In other GG news, last night I learned that Mike Cernovich had his Twitter account suspended, and his Wikipedia article snowball deleted. So it’s not all bad news.
And we all know that Suicide Squad got started when someone accidentally typed an ‘a’ instead of an ‘i’.
I’m pretty indifferent about The Man from UNCLE movie based on the Comic Con trailer. Oddly, I’m more interested in Hugh Grant’s Waverly and whoever Alicia Vikander is playing. Solo seems OK, but Armie Hammer seems wrong for Kuryakin.
Those GG people are so impossibly delicate. How is anybody 1. Critiquing sex roles in video games from a feminist point of view (Anita Sarkeesian) or 2. Developing video games as a feminist (Brianna Wu) or 3. Developing video games as a feminist and also ex girlfriend of a particularly nasty and vindictive person (Zoe Quinn) interfering in their ability to play sexist videogames if they want?
You’d think these women were going over to their houses and stealing their equipment or something.
It ends up making them seem like the most spoiled of spoiled toddlers, ready to throw an epic tantrum over the tiniest thing.
@ McJulie
The toxicity, in my opinion, comes from two elements that have converged at the same time. First, one of the core gamer complaints over the last 20 years has been that games are growing in complexity, storytelling and popularity, but still aren’t taken seriously. Second, that gaming is a male geek safe space that they own and are safe from the women who they feel demean them and operate on double standards.
These two things intersected with the rise of casual gamers and female gamers not only joining into the community but acting like they deserved to be part of its voice and games finally getting the same kind of critical reviewing and assessment as film, fiction and other arts. They hate any kind of legitimate criticism on the community or the games and they especially hate that their voices are no longer dominant. As a result, it’s fueled the intense and irrational level of response. It’s no longer about facts or ethics or anything; it’s now a bastion for any kind of anti-feminist angle on the world, from fake rape allegations to MRA screeds.
And we all know that Suicide Squad got started when someone accidentally typed an ‘a’ instead of an ‘i’.
Oh bravo.
I agree that they response is reactionary, intense and irrational. I wouldn’t say they hate losing dominance. They feel disenfranchised, because they don’t understand the difference between losing dominance and being shut out of the space. This ignorance is being fed by a radical fringe which is being marginalized by their own toxic behavior.
@Chris Hensley
Fair. In any case, it’s an extreme backlash to seeing the community identity as anything but a mirror for themselves, and it feeds a complex network of underground rivers of resentment. The multi-headed hydra is in part a way for them to cheer on unacceptable behaviour while being able to denounce it when they want to appear credible; a fiction that I think only they have bought into.
Yep. Now, they believe that they represent the majority of the community, but that is just wishful thinking and confirmation bias.
Greetings from Xlendi!
Actually, Xlendi does exist; it’s a tiny bay in an obscure corner of Gozo, but for me it seems the sort of name ascribed to generic alien world in generic SF dating from the 1960s, whilst the New Wave wasn’t watching.
I’m not sure that it’s possible to provide any useful analysis of GG in Europe, not least because VD appears to have had to fly in people not from Europe in order to make his video, though rising at 4.45 to crawl from the hotel to BA’s Club lounge for remedial champagne may have blunted my faculties. Finding Parisian people in Paris to stick it to the SJWs really doesn’t seem likely, since French people are, in general, thoroughly unimpressed by the U.S., and haven’t a clue what SJW means anyway; why should they? The fact that VD is talking in English to what purports to be a French group is yet another subtle clue that he hasn’t managed to wrap his brain around the fact that Europe is large, with lots of different countries, and lots of different languages; English is simply one of many.
So provided he’s not doing a tour including Malta we should be OK, and I can get back to my holiday reward reading; ‘The Future Falls”, by Tanya Huff, edited by Sheila Gilbert of Daw. I had to buy the first two books in the series so I could enjoy this one; I was hooked by the sample chapter, of the 17 such chapters which Sheila Gilbert provided in her Hugo bundle. I will be buying more when my bank balance recovers.
Although she was slated I very much hope that those voting on the Editor-Long Form Hugo will not hold her ignorance of the sleazier slime-balls infesting the web against her; a woman who has devoted 45 years to editing some of the finest books SF has to offer, and is still working for all her authors by providing the 17 sample chapters, deserves, in my view, our respect and our support…
“Open Channel D.”
A two-way radio disguised as a pack of cigarettes isn’t going to seem as cool as it once did, I’m sorry to say.
So, who’s playing Doctor Calamari?
VD, Milo and Cernovich all in one room? Someone missed a fabulous opportunity to glitter-bomb them.
It occurs to me that those who are immovably opposed to slates, even if there are good people on said slates, who are impressed with Gilbert’s work, could vote against slating this year and nominate her next year (or the year after, if necessary). Unlike voting on a novel, which has a more limited window of eligibility, an editor can generally be counted on to use their skills year after year, often on books by the same authors.
One strange thing about GG supporters (1j is their insistence they games be treated like art, yet they hate independent criticism. I forget who it was that pointed it out the solution- it’s because they basically have a child’s view of art. Art is something that gets hung on the wall, it’s important and respected. It’s not something you criticize, that’s an attack.
So when people are invited to view this media as art, and people actually engage in critique, pointing out problematic elements and flaws, that’s regarded as a betrayal and an attack- an organized attempt to deprive them of their fun.
(1) This of choose doesn’t apply to the GamerGate leaders- they quite cynically knew what it was all about.
Scott Frazer : VD, Milo and Cernovich all in one room? Someone missed a fabulous opportunity to glitter-bomb them.
Glitter-bombing?
Oh, ye of limited imagination…
@alauda : GG stopped being about ethics in games journalism the moment Vox Day, Shadowdancer Duskstar, and Milo hijacked it for their own ends
You have half a point – the band of idiot would-be supervillians you mention DID leap in and hijack an already existing movement for their own purposes.
However, even those GGs genuinely and only concerned with flaws in game journalism should admit to the fact that the thing started based on misogyny and slut-shaming of one particular person.
So that’s what Trelane looks and sounds like. Color me singularly unimpressed. He’s even more boring speaking more or less extemporaneously than he is when “typing” his “thoughts”.
@Dex on
GG sensibilities certainly seem related to other dude-nerd tantrums of recent years — such as the notion of the “fake geek girl.”
All of that seems really weird to me — when I first got into fandom in the 80s, it was kinda male dominated, but it didn’t seem like any of the dudes actively preferred it that way. Why would they? It made it harder for them to get dates!
The idea of geekdom as some kind of he-man-women-haters-club is just one of many GG aspects that make them all seem like twelve-year-olds.
@Stevie
Remedial champagne? How does that differ from advanced champagne?
All of that seems really weird to me — when I first got into fandom in the 80s, it was kinda male dominated, but it didn’t seem like any of the dudes actively preferred it that way. Why would they? It made it harder for them to get dates!
I think a lot of male “nerds” convinced themselves that it was their geeky interests that kept them from getting attention from women. Now that women are present in geek spaces, showing themselves to love geeky things, these individuals feel betrayed that these women are not also enamored of them. It seems inconceivable to these male nerds that it is their personalities that repel women, so they conclude that the women aren’t really fans of what they say they are fans of, but are instead just pretending that they love Dr. Who or Star Trek or Game of Thrones or Marvel or whatever. And so they turn toxic and act like gatekeepers, badgering women who aren’t sufficiently “real” fans in their eyes, making fannish spaces hostile because of their own insecurities.
McJulie wrote
I’m going to go out on a limb here and propose that remedial champagne is taken as a remedy for a hangover, in contrast to advanced champagne which is taken to cause the next hangover.
But that is only a guess.
Homeopathic champagne is particularly effective as a hangover cure.
I just finished reading BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES 157, the issue supplied in the Hugo packet as a sample for their nomination for Best Semiprozine Hugo. Every story in it is better than every short fiction Hugo nomination this year.
@Kurt Busiek: As a member of WSFA, I’ve started reading the nominees for the WSFA Small Press Award. To preserve my sanity while reading the Hugo award nominees, I’m alternating between reading the Hugo short fiction nominees and the WSFA nominees. The difference in quality between the two sets of nominees is simply stunning, and it isn’t the WSFA nominees that are on the losing side of the equation.
Well, remedial champagne is the stuff you need in order to face the day at ungodly hours: recreational champagne is for fun. On the other hand, champagne has traditionally been a morning drink, but I think it needs to be drunk whilst you are conscious, which brings us back to remedial.
No, I am not going to class Sheila Gilbert with the Baen editors, which is what voting No Award in long form would do. I’m not going to class her with Theodore Beale, who is also nominated for best editor long form, either.
Obviously everyone has their own perspectives on what is ethical in these circumstances, and that is right and proper. But I refuse to say that an editor like Sheila Gilbert, who has served our community for 45 years, and keeps going and puts her duty to Daw’s writers above whatever her personal preferences may be, is the same as VD.
It isn’t fair and it isn’t just and it isn’t true.
Given that Sheila Gilbert was also a finalist in the 2013 *and* 2014 Hugos, it’s not unreasonable to assume that she would have been a finalist this year regardless*, and vote accordingly.
*In the same way that most (if not all) of the finalists in the BDP (Long) would have been there without Puppy backing. Having slogged my way through the nominations, I would say that in almost all cases, there would be no difference between voting ‘No Award’ based on quality and voting ‘No Award’ above Puppy slate works. But ultimately, use your vote however you want.
Most of the fandoms/geek culture that I was in during the 80s and 90s was male dominated but it wasn’t intentionally unwelcoming. Most of the guys I talked to (and being a straight guy, I’m well aware that others experience may vary severely) were more frustrated that getting girls who were in one fandom interested in others was a challenge. The guys who showed up to the local RPG tournaments were also guys you found browsing in the SFF section of the used book store, the comic shop and at the rep theatre.
(Just as an aside, I recall at one roleplaying con overhearing a guy trying to convince a girl that she had to start reading Vertigo titles because she was into RP. Her response was ‘I’m interested in roleplaying and independent film festivals. I’m not interested in comic books, fantasy or you.’)
I’m inclined to think that the internet communities going back to the USENet days were the start of the more obnoxious neckbeards getting a stranglehold on various fandoms and weaponizing that male dominance to create toxic cultures that they never would have been able to do on-line. And as more fans flooded on-line and it became their primary fan experience, they absorbed the misogynist attitudes.
@Stevie
Do they do mimosas over there? I might start having to call them “remedial champagne.”
@Dex
I don’t get why you would do that — get frustrated about somebody who was into one fandom not being interested in this other fandom — unless you were already dating that person. That seems like a weird thing to fixate on.
See, that’s what I’m talking about. They didn’t even have a friend relationship and he was already trying to tell her what kind of fandom to have. Granted, I wasn’t there, but based on her reaction it doesn’t sound like he was just enthusing about Vertigo titles and how great they were. It sounds more like he was trying to tell her how to change herself to meet his standards, and she was emphatically not interested.
But if that’s how a certain subculture of guys just automatically goes into tbe process of talking to women at conventions, no wonder they have a negative experience. And then they go online to tell each other “no, bro, YOU weren’t the obnoxious one — she was just a bitch! And a fake fan too!” and the whole thing spirals out of control.
I think it’s a pretty normal element of fannish behaviours. Especially in the pre-internet 80s and 90s, fandoms were pretty small and local. The overlap of a Venn Diagram would be pretty tight. So when you found someone cool who was into one thing, you pretty naturally assumed that they’d get excited if exposed to other things. Based on my experience at the time, male roleplayers were usually also gamers, comic fans, SFF readers, etc. Female fans were more likely to be found in one or two categories as opposed to the all encompassing list and there was a lack of comprehension why.
So I can see how someone could find it obnoxious or aggressive, but it took the internet for it to turn as toxic on a general level.
It was more along the lines of ‘if you like this, you have to like this other thing!’. It’s like finding out someone loves the Game of Thrones show and telling them that The Wheel of Time books will totally be their thing, ignoring every time they say they aren’t interested in reading fiction.
At the time and in the context, it was more cluelessness and ignoring the obvious signs of disinterest than malice. But you’re absolutely right that its part of the innocuous roots of the shitflowers that make up the later misogyny and rage that is so prominently featured in fandoms these days. I’m quite glad I was in my late teens before I hit the internet, because with the fandoms I was involved in as a kid, getting into the online communities when I was 14-15 could have easily pulled me into that spiral.