Editor’s Appeal: Is “Pixel Scroll” a good title for these daily posts? If so, I still think there needs to be some adornment and variety to keep it fresh. Can anybody think of a scheme to generate a brand of subtitles? (The “Pixel Scroll” title could be changed to something else to facilitate a winning idea.)
(1) George R.R. Martin is coming to Sasquan after all and has declared he is taking back the Hugo Losers Party from the boring souls who have sanitized it and disguised it as the “Post-Hugo Nominees Reception.” GRRM and Gardner Dozois held the first one in 1976 and it immediately became de rigueur.
Gardner and I ran another one at Suncon in 1977, and yet another at Iguanacon in 1978 (I lost my first novel Hugo that year). I don’t think there was one in 1979, but don’t know for sure… that year worldcon was in England, and I didn’t have the money to go. But the Hugo Losers party came back big in 1980, at Noreascon II. That blurry picture up above? That’s me, entering the Hugo Losers Party with two Hugos in my hands. Such hubris cannot go unpunished. Nor did it. Please note the man lurking behind me. That’s Gardner, smiling innocently. A few moment later, when my back was turned, he produced a can of whipped cream and sprayed it all over my head. Sic Semper Victorius.
So George says:
Fuck 1999. Let’s party like it’s 1976.
(2) Those looking to practice their party skills should show up for Prolog(ue), the relaxacon being held in Seattle the weekend before the Worldcon (August 14-16). Ulrika O’Brien has posted a progress report at the link. The international array of Persons of Interest coming to the con includes TAFF winner Nina Horvath and —
Charles Stross – Hugo- and Locus-Award winning author of the Laundry Files series, the Merchant Princes series, and too many stand-alone novels and short stories to mention, will be reading from his latest Laundry Files book, The Annihilation Score (released July 7) and possibly unreleased upcoming stories. You Heard It Here First.
(3) “Portlander Ursula K. Le Guin is Breathing Fire to Save American Literature” in Portland Monthly begins, “At 85, she may be Portland’s greatest writer. She may also be the fiercest.”
Foremost among her concerns these days, it seems, is what Le Guin considers a worrisome literary shift whereby writers—squeezed to make a living in a world that attaches less and less financial value to their profession—view themselves more as brands and “content producers” than artists. “I see so many writers getting pushed around by the sales department, the PR people, and being led to believe that that’s what they do,” she told me. “That’s a terrible waste.”
Artistic resignation in the name of pragmatism—“letting commodity profiteers sell us like deodorant, and tell us what to publish, what to write,” as she put it in her National Book Awards speech—elicits Le Guin’s especial disapproval precisely because she herself spent an entire career bucking what others thought she should write. Yet even now that her own science fiction has been lofted into the modern literary canon, praised by no less an elitist than Yale’s Harold Bloom, Le Guin remains more interested in keeping the good fight going than in declaring victory. “We’ve come a real long way,” she admitted, “and in fact I think essentially these genre walls are down. But you would not believe how contemptuously reviewers and other people still just dismiss sci-fi. There’s still so much ignorance, and that bugs me.”
(4) GoodReads has blogged their choices for “10 of the Best Narrator and Audiobook Pairings of All Time” which includes numerous SF/F entries:
BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS Written by Kurt Vonnegut Narrated by John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich)
READY PLAYER ONE Written by Ernest Cline Narrated by Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stand by Me)
THE HANDMAID’S TALE Written by Margaret Atwood Narrated by Claire Danes (My So-Called Life, Homeland)
A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS Written by Lemony Snicket Narrated by Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, It)
FAHRENHEIT 451 Written by Ray Bradbury Narrated by Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption, Mystic River)
(5) Robert J. Sawyer admits he is skeptical about newer writers crowdfunding their novels.
So, I’m still struggling with this. I’ve supported some Kickstarters for projects that clearly are not commercially viable that I’d like to see done. But early books in a writer’s career? Those have rarely been commercially viable for anyone, and have always represented a substantial degree of risk and commitment on the part of the author.
(6) Bradbury, the Building makes for good reading, too, on LA Curbed.
The timeless, fantastic Bradbury Building at Broadway and Third Street is a much-beloved Downtown Los Angeles landmark, most widely known for its significant appearances in movies including Blade Runner, (500) Days of Summer, and Marlowe, starring the late James Garner. But before it was a popular film set, it was the idea of a gold-mining magnate who really wanted to put his name on a building. His vision led him to turn down a prominent architect and mysteriously commission a totally untrained one instead, and that not-quite-architect, George H. Wyman, turned to ghosts and literature to pull it off. Avery Trufelman, producer of the design and architecture podcast 99 Percent Invisible, talked to Esotouric operators Kim Cooper and Richard Schave about the eerie history of what 99 PI calls “arguably the biggest architectural movie star of Los Angeles.”
As the story goes, Lewis Bradbury, a gold-mining millionaire, decided he wanted to build and put his name on a building, so in 1892 he commissioned prominent architect Sumner P. Hunt, who alone and with partners would design the Southwest Museum, the Ebell Club, the Automobile Club in University Park, and loads of private homes for wealthy clients throughout the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Hunt prepared some plans for the proposed building, but when Bradbury visited the office to check them out, he wasn’t taken with any of them. Here’s where things get weird…..
It’s said that Wyman’s inspiration for the building’s design was directly inspired by a novel, Looking Backwards by Edward Bellamy, a popular science fiction novel about a utopian society that was published in 1888. A passage from that book describes this incredible building in the future (which, in those days, was 2000): “a vast hall full of light received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome.
(7) Pluto appears to have glaciers of nitrogen ice, judging by the latest pictures from the New Horizons probe.
….But the mission team cautions that it has received only 4-5% of the data gathered during 14 July’s historic flyby of the dwarf planet, and any interpretations must carry caveats.
“Pluto has a very complicated story to tell; Pluto has a very interesting history, and there is a lot of work we need to do to understand this very complicated place,” explained Alan Stern, the New Horizons principal investigator.
In a briefing at the US space agency’s HQ in Washington DC, he and colleagues then outlined a number of new analyses based on the limited data-set in their possession.
These included the observation that Pluto has a much more rarified atmosphere than previously predicted by the models. …
(8) Don’t miss out — here’s info about how to submit yourself for casting calls for the next three Star Wars movies.
The Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm in association with Kasdan Pictures and Genre Films will begin production on “Star Wars: Episode VIII” on January 16, 2016. Casting is now officially underway for new lead roles and supporting roles. Filming will take place at the Pinewood Studios in London, England among another undisclosed locations in the United Kingfom. Casting director information is posted below. Experienced film crew members can now submit resumes to the production office email below. All actors, extras, and film crew members must be legally eligible to work in the entertainment industry in the United Kingdom….
(9) Speaking of available work, Vox Day posted a Tor job announcement today – they’re looking for a publicist. See how helpful he is? Not just trying to create openings at Tor, but willing to fill them too!
(10) I enjoyed Spacefaring Kitten’s spin on this nominee –
Just watched a superfun toy commercial which is also a #HugoAwards finalist. http://t.co/tqZz7fL4IA
— Spacefaring Kitten (@SpacefaringK) July 24, 2015
(11) Sarah Lotz, in a Guardian book blog post titled “The Hugo awards will be losers if politics takes the prize”, has this to say —
It raises the question: who should nominate works for awards anyway? A select jury (a la the Man Booker or Clarke) or the fans who actually buy the books? Clearly there should be enough room – and integrity – for both. Yet this year’s Clarke award shortlist was almost universally praised, while, in contrast, the Hugo nominations were met with derision and incredulity (for example, so-called “rabid puppy” Vox Day, who has called women’s rights “a disease to be eradicated”, is up for two awards). You might say that this is democracy at work – the fans have spoken! – and that would be all well and good, but, tellingly, two authors recommended by the Sad Puppies have already pulled their work from the nominations, saying that they want their writing to be judged on merit and not on their assumed political affiliations. It goes without saying that all books, whatever their authors’ political stance, should be judged on whether they’re any good or not; but with some factions suggesting fans vote “No Award” on categories that they believe have been hijacked, and the Puppies urging their stormtroopers to stick to their guns, the whole thing has slipped into farce. And this is a great pity.
(12) Here’s a dissenting theory.
https://twitter.com/JimRoseVSOP/status/624658232745684992
(13) And now you need a laugh.
A Italian western parody, of Sergio Leone’s THE GOOD, THE BAD and the UGLY…but with Star Wars characters. With respect to Ennio Morricone’s unforgettable and entirely iconic film score.
[Thanks to JJ, Paul Weimer, SF Signal and John King Tarpinian for some of these links.]
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I kind of don’t want there to be a Hugo Loser’s Party this year, but that is the small-minded part of me thinking.
As for Pixel Scroll, I like the idea of subtitles, but I admit it’s a hard theme to create for. We had it easier during the canine era.
ETA: Way too cool to type “First!”
Oh shit.
Personally, I like “Pixel Scroll”, especially when there is no mention of any Godsdamned Puppies, Rabid or Sad. Obviously I have read too many novels by CJ Cherryh since “Godsdamned” has become part of my vocabulary. 😉
Chiming in to say I like “pixel scroll”–such a nice blend of concepts.
Though at the moment I feel more pixillated……
I got bored with the Lemony Snickett books at some point, but I am struck by the brilliance of having Tim Curry as the reader for the audio books……
I like Pixel Scroll. If I could make one suggestion, it’s making it easier to see where the next item in the post comes in. Either a horizontal line, or just bolding the title, or even bullet points. Because of all the quotes and indented text and so on it’s sometimes easy to scroll past a new item.
I like Pixel Scroll as well, but am not opposed to subtitles. Perhaps something along the lines of Kyra’s bracket titles?
Also, the fact that Le Guin won the brackets and has an article in this post is great!
In keeping with tradition I’ll move the eff you dee to a new thread and reply to Camestros.
I don’t support a list of nominations-to-date published partway through.
I don’t prefer a longlist stage, but it is better than EPH insofar as it might work as advertised. To wit:
Sort of. It would be more time-consuming, but stage two is easier than stage one, which is already a tough job – and people could skip a stage if they don’t have time like they do now – and it might be more fun.
It addresses the rationale for slates since there will naturally be more puppy-friendly (sekrit cabal-friendly, etc.) work in the top 15.
It might have the feel of a jury for a literary award.
One can’t take the new algorithm and apply it to old data sets.
exactly
I say “no knee-jerk changes,” but this is something to think about.
OK.
Squint at the horse-trading and you might see debate among fans about what deserves a fan award.
The biggest objection is practical: you’d have to track down and read a lot more stuff. Success might depend on publishers making it easy to find excerpts, and more time allotted. Still, even if it is inconvenient as hell, it might, again, be fun.
I confess I don’t really get what “Pixel Scroll” signifies, unless it’s just a “scroll” (record) with text made of pixels, in which case I don’t love it, but I don’t really have a better alternative. Maybe something that says what it’s about rather than what it is?
“File 770 Fandom Facts”? “The Latest Word”? “File Under: Fandom”? “This Just In”? [there are no bad ideas when you’re spit-balling, he mumbled]
Without knowing the subject(s) of the items ahead of time, I don’t know how pithy subtitles can be generated, unless maybe it’s themed by the day of the week or something? That has problems with news items not fitting the theme (or having to sit on news until “Throwback Thursday” or “Con Monday” or what have you). Having said that, I loved the subtitles, so I hope they can return — maybe ones that riff on “news” or “information” or “facts” or some such.
Pixel Scroll 7/24: Party Like It’s 1976 (aka Fuck Me, Bradbury Building)
JJ — Are you suggesting (through your fine examples) an ex post facto subtitle addendum? Because that could actually work! It would take some fast turnarounds, though, and definitely favour the “hangers on”.
@Brian Z —
1. Not “sort of.” It’s more complex for the end user, and I’m not seeing this potential for “fun” you claim to see.
2 & 8. Not really interested in facilitating the bad behavior of slates. The Hugos have become prestigious because they operate on the wisdom of crowds, not the strategizing of political campaigns.
3. This isn’t a juried award, and we don’t have to convert it to a juried award in order to prevent slates from dominating it.
4. You’ve been happy to do do in order to raise the Awful Prospect of Tepper not making the Campbell ballot.
5. Insert eye-rolling here.
6. Kneejerk changes can’t happen; WSFS rules mean a minimum of two years before changes can get final approval. Your objection to EPH is not that it’s kneejerk, or even that it’s radical. Your objection is that it weakens slates rather than surrendering to them.
7. You find this a powerful objection when arguing against EPH. Or at least you say you do. Who knows?
9. You and the rest of the Puppies will regard it as honest discussion among fans only if you like the results. If Scalzi or Leckie win another Hugo, you’ll call it horse-trading, log-rolling, and all kinds of secret corruption.
All that typing and I didn’t click the box.
bloodstone75: Are you suggesting (through your fine examples) an ex post facto subtitle addendum?
Actually, I was just being whimsically stupid. However, it would be fun to see what commenters come up with for each Pixel Scroll; Mike could then pick the one he likes best and modify the Post Title ex post facto.
Or, Scroll we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Or, At the scroll point of the turning world.
Or, To Scroll Beyond the Sunset.
Or, Scrolling from the Wreckage.
Or, the truth, the scroll truth and nothing but the truth.
[Basically, anywhere “scroll” is a slant rhyme by even the loosest criteria., probably including consonance on at least one end of the word. It’ll never beat the best subtitles from the Hugo roundups, though.]
@Lis
1. Focusing people’s attention on the top 10 or 15 things could also be helpful – even though it isn’t my preferred solution.
2 & 8. No need to organize slates with a longlist – your kind of stuff has a better shot already.
3. I simply said it would feel more like an award jury than a political party.
4. I didn’t choose to apply EPH to 1984 and publish it, you are mistaking me with somebody else.
6. My main objection to EPH was that I thought it was moving away from the model that was successful in the past. My new objection, based on the finding that a slate would still take three or four places on the ballot in short fiction and fan categories, is that it does not work.
7. My objection to targeting things for elimination even though they had more nominations was that it might work against the “wisdom of the crowd.”
9. No, I think the problem has to do with the internet and self-pimpage, and the “puppies” are one symptom of a larger problem that has been evident for the past several years.
My new objection, based on the finding that a slate would still take three or four places on the ballot in short fiction and fan categories, is that it does not work.
Which is a bullshit claim and you know it. You’re engaging in the Nirvana fallacy, and it is obvious you’re doing so to advance a dishonest argument.
Brian Z.: Focusing people’s attention on the top 10 or 15 things could also be helpful – even though it isn’t my preferred solution.
It would greatly encourage tactical nominations, inciting people to nominate something because they think it has a better chance of making the final ballot, rather than because it’s what they loved the most. You have railed continuously on with the (false) claim that EPH would encourage tactical voting. Now you’re saying you support encouraging tactical voting.
Brian Z.: My main objection to EPH was that I thought it was moving away from the model that was successful in the past.
Except that the Puppies have resoundingly demonstrated that the “model that was successful in the past” is no longer successful — and they have stated that they intend to continue demonstrating that in future years.
Brian Z.: My new objection, based on the finding that a slate would still take three or four places on the ballot in short fiction and fan categories, is that it does not work.
It works quite well. A solution which completely eliminated any slate choices would not be a just solution; the slaters are nominators, and should have input into the final ballot, just as other nominators do.
Your objection to EPH is now, and always has been, that it prevents slates from monopolizing the entire ballot.
Aaron, you mean you think it is fine to argue your case with a PowerPoint demonstration of an idealized 2013 Best Novel scenario, but not acceptable to ask the same question about Best Novelette.
but not acceptable to ask the same question about Best Novelette.
Jesus you are stupid. You are saying that because EPH is not perfect, then it is not better. That’s the Nirvana fallacy, and it is a dishonest argument. But I don’t expect less than that from a proven liar like you.
Is this the legacy you want? To be known forever as “Brian the really stupid liar”?
Aaron: it isn’t that it isn’t perfect. It isn’t a functional solution. Unless you find it agreeable to spend the foreseeable future choosing between No Award and The Day the World Turned Upside Down?
Brian Z: it isn’t that it isn’t perfect. It isn’t a functional solution. Unless you find it agreeable to spend the foreseeable future choosing between No Award and The Day the World Turned Upside Down?
In other words, you find it agreeable to spend the foreseeable future choosing between No Award and 5 mediocre-to-unreadable Puppy entries. I don’t, and neither do a lot of other people. EPH will, to a great extent, stop that from happening.
It’s perfectly functional. And your preferred course is to allow slates to dominate completely.
Lis, if you think a slate occupying four places is a vast improvement over a slate occupying five places, we are going to have to agree to disagree.
Okay Brian. I hope this is the last time I’m motivated to respond to your idiocy.
Focusing on the top 10 or 15 takes away the motivation for me to vote, because at the nomination stage I want to nominate the works that affected me the most, not other people. It also adds, potentially, 10 or 15 works into each category that I then have to read in order to make an informed decision. That’s doubling or tripling the traditional workload of Hugo voting, and I don’t necessarily have the time, inclination or money to add that many books to my TBR in order to make a real decision at this stage of the process. So, I’m likely to burn out. Other people are too. That means fewer voters going all the way to the shortlist, which I think we can both agree would be a bad thing.
There was no need to slate this year, and yet people still did. Do you really think the presence of a longlist is going to stop a determined arsehole from slating? I mean, especially when it gives our hypothetical arsehole yet another point at which he can get the hate machine nice and rev’d up?
It doesn’t feel like a juried award, because it isn’t a juried award. Stop saying that it feels like a juried award. it doesn’t and it isn’t.
But you did choose to piss and moan about it as if someone was going to erase Tepper’s nomination from the timeline, but since you’ve now admitted that you can’t actually complain about a new rule change affecting historical nominations, you can stop using that too.
By the way could you point me towards where Ann Leckie actively and disgracefully campaigned for her nomination and win with Ancillary Justice? I’m not seeing it on her blog. Maybe she’s a member of this super secret cabal I keep hearing so much about and seeing so little evidence of?
“Those are my objections. If you don’t like them, I have others.” — Brian “Groucho” Z.
I’m sure it’s utterly futile to point out to you that what you’re referencing is what happened this year without EPH, but with the fortuitous booting off of a slated works for not being eligible. If EPH lets even one more work onto the ballot that might be worth reading, that’s a win for EPH, not a loss.
Brian Z.: My new objection
Stop right there, unless you’re planning to keep digging until you get to the moon.
P J you know full well I’ve been saying all along that EPH should be tested in more vulnerable categories, not just Best Novel. So is felice wrong? She asked to be corrected.
I commiserate with Ms. LeGuin. As one of current SF fandom’s more prolific and creative fan writers (I do not especially count myself as an analyst or reviewer) I have been persuing a literary form that almost nobody values and certainly no one will pay for. I commiserate and lay out the red carpet for all professional writers while secretely gloating over their downfall. Welcome to my hell…
@ Beth
Yes, great to see LeGuin on the scroll after winning the bracket. Long may she wave!
Brian Z.: I’ve been saying all along that EPH should be tested in more vulnerable categories, not just Best Novel. So is felice wrong? She asked to be corrected.
Tell ya what, Brian. When you come up with a solution that would work better than EPH at 1) minimizing the magnification effect of slates, 2) maintaining the nomination process for the voter the same as it is now, and 3) ensuring that nominations by individuals receive just treatment, I will support your method 100%, even against EPH.
I will be expecting you to shut the hell up about EPH until such time as you present us with that method.
I don’t think I believe you
MaxL: I don’t think I believe you
I don’t either — but hey, it’s worth a try.
Instead of Hugo losers party this year, I’d’ve thought a nominee’s loser party would be more appropriate. Not to mention more fun: does anyone expect a party with multiple instances of Vox Day and John C Wright in attendance to be worth going to? (Not to mention the other tedious boors that the Puppies foisted on us.)
The only consistent thing about Brian is that he doesn’t want EPH to pass. His reasons change, and the things he suggest as replacements are contradictory, but the opposition to EPH remains. No prizes for guessing why.
NelC: Instead of Hugo losers party this year, I’d’ve thought a nominee’s loser party would be more appropriate.
Given GRRM’s manifest disgust with the Puppies, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he let it be known that the authors of the longlist entries which were kept off the ballot by the slate were welcome at the party, too.
Ray: I am not the one who tested EPH against a slate in vulnerable categories, nor did I support a longlist. I said it isn’t my preference but would work better than EPH.
GRRM writes the most entertaining blogposts. Someone should give that man a book contract, he’d be a natural.
Sawyer sounds a little like he’s saying that he ground his way through his early career, so why shouldn’t these young whippersnappers? (To be fair, he addresses that point in his full article, but it still comes over with some cane-waving). It’s actually an interesting point. I remember reading something a while ago that lamented the division of musicians into “starving in a garrett” and “international superstar” with no middle class in between, because the labels inevitably chased the possibility of a superstar rather than supporting an artist who could bring in a much smaller but consistent income. (It may have been Amanda Palmer, for a little bit of obSF). Kickstarter, Patreon, et al may be ways of bringing about this middle class.
Between Becky Chambers and Christa Faust I really couldn’t care less about any hand-wringing on the topic of the “appropriateness” of kickstarter. It has already produced results that have enriched my life.
And that’s before we start talking about games!
Pixel Scroll alternate title:
Wisdom From My Intern… oh, sorry, already taken.
How about Gleanings From My Internet? Can’t think of any subtitle scheme though.
How about naming the threads “EPH is discussed on Making Light”?
I vote for:
‘Scroll and Troll’
since that seems to be what we end up with, followed by the date in Latin, on the basis that we elitists really should make more of an effort to be elitist.
Incidentally, I’ve just scorched my way through ‘Leviathan Wakes’ as reward reading; what do people think about later books in the series?
I was going to suggest Prolefeed.
Brian, I was wondering if you could expand on how ‘talking to them’ is ‘a more plausible solution’ than EPH. Let me cut’n’paste the things that I was curious about:
Oh, and no takers for ‘Pixie Scroll?’ So cute.
This gets my vote. Alternatively, Flogging a Dead Horse
It’s still somewhat sad to see people who know better addressing Brian’s “arguments” as though they’re actually legitimate or would have any impact (yes, yes, I’m sure the lurkers are grateful for this service, but still).
Hey, I’m all in for Pixie Scroll!
I bet that would generate subtitle suggestions, too.
I would like to reply with the appropriate icons from this set.
At least it would be colourful.
What, nobody’s suggested “Dispatches from the Kree-Scroll War” yet?
Ok, so, deafening silence re books following ‘Leviathan Wakes’ leads me to look elsewhere for stuff to cheer myself up with.
It would have been nice if people had mentioned the fact that God has ruled that we don’t have to read the stuff in the ‘related works’ somewhat earlier; I may have suffered irreversible brain damage. Of course, my reading the wretched garbage has led to a major increase in my loathing for the idiots who inflicted it on us, and I don’t do forgive and forget.
On the other hand I have voted on the really awful categories, so being inadvertently run over by a bus between now and the close date is not a problem, at least when it comes to the Hugos; it would probably screw up my Istanbul-Venice trip, so the plan is to avoid buses altogether…