(1) CRANKY DRAGON AWARD FINALIST. It’s not the Dragon Awards that Tom Kratman is upset with — in contrast to those who are miffed because they dropped Cedar Sanderson. Kratman welcomes his book’s appearance on the ballot because it lets him count coup on Publishers Weekly which gave it a bad review.
That Publisher Weekly’s review concluded:
….A deeply conservative ideology runs throughout, often given voice through Sean’s observations about the differences between past and present: “The Democratic Party of my time,” he tells a 1960s Democrat, “is a wholly owned subsidiary of a new class of amazingly rich, denationalized and globalist plutocrats.” He follows this up with digs at LGBTQ rights and the sexual revolution (arguing it actually “reduced women’s choices”), and Kratman does nothing to differentiate the views of his character from the philosophy of the book itself. While the author’s flair for fight scenes is undeniable, there’s little else to recommend this.
(2) BOOKMARK THIS. The Photography Team at the 2024 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow is posting “Worldcon Photos” to Flickr. Obviously, there will be more when the convention really starts on August 8.
(3) BRISBANE IN 28 UPDATE. Today Random Jones, chair of the Brisbane in 28 Worldcon bid, sent a progress report subscribers:
The bid for Worldcon in Brisbane began in 2020, with the intention to bid for the 2025 Worldcon. However the pressures of dealing with a world with Covid and the massive changes that resulted from those years caused the committee to realise that 2025 was not feasible, and the bid was retargeted towards 2028.
Earlier this year the committee determined it was time to pass the baton on to a new and reinvigorated committee, and from this we are now a few days out from the start of Worldcon Glasgow 2024 full of energy and the desire to get the job done.
My name is Random Jones and I am the chair of the Brisbane in 28 Worldcon bid committee. I am the head of a small but dedicated bunch of fans who are intending to make our Worldcon the best that not only Brisbane has to offer, but the whole of Australia and the South Pacific region.
Over the next 2 years until the site selection vote, we want to make sure people truly believe that we are a fantastic option to hold Worldcon, and that we have the both the dreams and the ability to make it happen.
Glasgow Worldcon: Brisbane in 28 will be present at Glasgow Worldcon, 8 to 12 August, 2024. We will be running a table in the fan-tables section plus holding a party on the Thursday night. Come along and get a badge ribbon, learn what a Tim Tam Slam is, and possibly discover the truth about drop bears. There may also be fairy bread, but we can’t make any guarantees at this stage.
We will also be present at the Future Worldcons Q&A session which will be held on Friday August 9 at 13:00 BST in the Carron room. Vix will be there as our representative, and will be doing a small presentation and answering any questions people have.
(4) CHENGDU DELEGATION AT GLASGOW WORLDCON. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] On Tuesday 6th July, Hugo winner RiverFlow posted on Weibo a list of Chinese people who were known to be attending the Glasgow Worldcon in person.
Amongst the list of Hugo finalists and fans – some of whom wrote reports from last year’s Worldcon that were mentioned in Pixel Scrolls in late 2023 and early 2024 – there is a line item about a mysterious “Chengdu delegation”, with the parenthesized caveat that River doesn’t know who might be part of this delegation.
Whilst this could be a delegation representing the Chengdu Worldcon, this is perhaps unlikely for a variety of reasons. A perhaps more plausible answer is that it relates the retooled Tianwen Program which in its recent press announcement, explicitly mentioned the involvement of people from Chengdu local government. Other possibilities might be promotion for the Chengdu SF Museum, or parties interested in the ASFiC/EASFiC proposal (item E.12 on the Business Meeting agenda).
This delegation item doesn’t seem to refer to representation of Chengdu-based science fiction publishers such as Science Fiction World or Eight Light Minutes Culture, as staff from those organizations are listed in separate items in River’s post.
As an aside, it is unclear if the Panda Study trip covered in posts earlier this year is still going ahead. There was a Chinese-language update in late March (which didn’t get written up for File 770), which has a schedule indicating that the group would have arrived in London on Tuesday 6th, before heading to Glasgow on the 9th. That piece also states that the trip would involve a previous Hugo winner and/or one of the “Four Kings” of Chinese SF, saying that more details would be released 3 months in advance. The apparent lack of any such details becoming public may well indicate that the trip has been cancelled. No-one I’ve spoken to about it is aware of any updates since that one in late March.
(5) EVERMORE OVERHAUL COMING. [Item by Dave Doering.] Great news on Utah’s answer to Disneyland. Evermore revived! “Evermore’s new owners to reveal hints about opening with interactive clues, cash prizes” at KSL.com.
Evermore Park is soon to be nevermore. Utah real estate executive Brandon Fugal announced the private sale of the now-defunct fantasy adventure theme park Monday.
“I am thrilled to see the venue transition into its next chapter, now in progress,” Fugal said. “The new owners have an extraordinary vision.”
Evermore had struggled for years with its operating model, pandemic setbacks and financial woes until ultimately defaulting and being evicted from the property owned by Fugal.
New owners Travis Fox and Michelle Fox want Utahns to get excited about plans for the park through their community “Hatch The Egg” tournament. Anyone 18 or older can sign up, whether as individuals or families, to receive clues and compete for a chance to win cash prizes.
Details about the park’s new direction and opening will be revealed over the course of several months via tournament clues. The tournament’s grand prize of $20,000 and the grand reopening date will be announced Nov. 21…
(6) GALAXY MAGAZINE RETURNS WITH ISSUE 263. Galaxy Science Fiction magazine is back. Originally running from 1950 to 1980, Starship Sloane Publishing has revived the classic magazine for a contemporary audience, featuring both authors from its original run and beyond into today’s global SF landscape, with works spanning seven countries.
With fiction, essays, poetry and art by: Eugen Bacon, F. J. Bergmann, Eliane Boey, Ronan Cahill, A J Dalton, Bob Eggleton, Zdravka Evtimova, David Gerrold, Richard Grieco, Rodney Matthews, Bruce Pennington, Daniel Pomarède, Gareth L. Powell, Christopher Ruocchio, Paulo Sayeg, Robert Silverberg, Nigel Suckling, & Dave Vescio
Cover art by Bruce Pennington.
Galaxy #263 will be available in digest paperback and as a free PDF download at Galaxy SF.
(7) FAN IS NOW VEEP CANDIDATE. Nicholas Whyte notes that Politico lists Tim Walz’s status as an sf fan as one of his defining characteristics. The link goes to a January 2019 Twin Cities.com / Pioneer Press headline: “Minnesota, meet your new governor: teacher, coach, soldier, sci-fi fan — and eternal optimist”.
(8) OUT OF THE STARTING GATE. Michael Capobianco finishes his overview of the first year of SFWA in “A Brief History of SFWA: The Beginning (Part 2)” at the SFWA Blog.
… Damon Knight was now president of SFWA, Editor/Writer/Publisher of the Bulletin, and chair of a one-person Contracts Committee/Griefcom. It was at about this point that SFWA was becoming unmanageable for one person. Enter Lloyd Biggle, Jr., the newly elected Secretary-Treasurer. Biggle struck Knight as someone who was “sucker enough to take that job (Secretary-Treasurer) and do it conscientiously,” which was apparently an extremely accurate assessment.
Knight recalled in Bulletin #54, “Lloyd not only served two terms as Secretary-Treasurer and did dozens of other jobs for the organization, he set up the trustee system and served on it for years, while I got out after two terms and lay in a hammock. Furthermore, it was Biggle who proposed the annual SFWA anthology as a means of making money for the organization. And from that came the idea of the annual awards and the trophies and the banquets and this whole apparatus. Of course, it had crossed my mind that we might do something like that eventually, but in the beginning, we were too poor. It was our share of the royalties that made it possible.”…
(9) WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM. Steve Stred wants people to know how he was treated by DarkLit Press: “Speaking Up: My DarkLit Experience”.
I’m just seeing that it looks as though DarkLit Press is pulling all the books & closing up shop. It doesn’t surprise me with the number of authors who pulled their books – myself included – and I very well might’ve been the first one whose book had been published (a few pulled them when the new crew took over before publication) and out in the wider world, when the rights were requested to be returned.
But, behind the scenes I’ve already seen screenshots labelling me as the ‘trouble maker,’ and the reason this is happening. Which, if you know me and have even a passing idea of what’s gone on behind the scenes, you’ll know that is furthest from the truth. I try really hard to support everyone, cheer everyone on, and have helped with the Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant (how I miss that!) and trying to get the Canadian Horror Writers Association up and running….
These are just two of many incidents Stred lists:
– DarkLit had been known to post sales/preorder numbers. So and so has hit 1000 preorders! So and so has sold 2000 copies etc etc. From when my book went up for preorder, I asked monthly either through DM or emails for updates on the preorder numbers. As of writing this – on August 6th, 2024 – I’ve never been shown a single report, nor given any numbers.
– During the weekend before launch, I had a number of DarkLit authors reach out asking how my experience had been, and I was forthcoming. They shared lack of royalty payments, having to chase down being paid for royalties or even receiving a report, and this was both prior to and after the leadership/ownership take over….
(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Lis Carey.]
August 7, 1960 — Melissa Scott, 64.
By Lis Carey: Melissa Scott was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1960, and grew up there. She discovered science fiction when she broke her arm in gym class, and was sent to the school library until it healed. The librarian offered her a science fiction book and suggested she try it. She was hooked, and proceeded to exhaust the resources of every library she had access to.
Following in her father’s footsteps, Melissa attended Harvard College, in Cambridge, MA, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in history, and helped produce a college-sanctioned science fiction magazine, which led to the formation of the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association. From there, she enrolled in the graduate history program at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. (Both Cambridge and Waltham are within the metropolitan area generally referred to as “Boston,” by those from more distant parts who might find Boston’s actual boundaries a surprise.) While at Brandeis, she earned her PhD in comparative history, and sold her first novel, The Game Beyond.
The other thing Melissa did in Greater Boston was meet her partner, Lisa A. Barnett. They settled in Portsmouth, NH, and were together for 27 years, until Lisa’s death from breast and brain cancer, in May 2006.
Melissa has written two dozen science fiction and fantasy novels, as well as short stories. Three of those novels, the fantasy novels Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams, and the alternate history fantasy novel, The Armor of Light, were co-written with Lisa. Can I just express here how much I enjoyed the Points novels, and truly treasure The Armor of Light?
Some of my other favorite books of Melissa’s are the Silence Leigh trilogy (Five-Twelfths of Heaven, Silence in Solitude, and The Empress of Earth), Dreamships, and Trouble and Her Friends.
Melissa’s books typically feature gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters, but their sexuality is rarely the point of the story. The characters’ sexuality is just a feature of the characters, and the cultures they live in. When she started publishing, this was new and exciting—at least for me. The one exception to the characters’ sexuality being just part of the characters and not the point of the story is Shadow Man, where a drug used to survive interstellar travel causes an increase in intersex births. This leads the culture recognize and accept five body types—except on the relatively isolated planet of Hara, where they recognize only two, male and female.
Trouble and Her Friends, Point of Dreams, and Death by Silver won Lambda Literary Awards for gay/lesbian science Fiction. Melissa also won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1986.
After Lisa’s death, Melissa moved to North Carolina, near where her mother grew up. She has continued to write fantasy and science fiction, including more Points novels, more original science fiction, and both Star Trek and Stargate: Atlantis tie-in novels, as well as collaborations with other authors.
(11) COMICS SECTION.
- Non Sequitur introduces another unwanted superhero.
- Off the Mark illustrates horror reading.
- Bizarro eavesdrops on a frustrated prince.
- Carpe Diem finds a different evolutionary path still has a familiar problem.
- Loose Parts visits alternate history.
(12) MEDICAL UPDATE. “Daisy Ridley Reveals She’s Been Diagnosed with Graves’ Disease: ‘I Didn’t Realize How Bad I Felt’” at Yahoo!
Daisy Ridley is opening up about her health, revealing in a new interview that she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease in September 2023.
The actress, 32, discussed her experience with the autoimmune disorder in the cover story for the September/October issue of Women’s Health, which dropped on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
“It’s the first time I’ve shared that [Graves’],” said Ridley, who had previously shared her struggle with endometriosis and polycystic ovaries.
Graves’ disease is an immune system condition that affects the thyroid gland, according to Mayo Clinic. It causes the body to make too much thyroid hormone….
(13) TERF BATTLE. The New York Times finds “A Play About J.K. Rowling Stirred Outrage. Until It Opened.”
There are more than 3,600 shows in this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe and most will struggle to get even a single newspaper review. Yet for months before the festival opened on Friday, one play was the subject of intense global media attention: “TERF,” an 80-minute drama about J.K. Rowling, the “Harry Potter” author, and her views on transgender women.
Before anybody had even read the script, a Scottish newspaper called the play, which imagines Rowling debating her views with the stars of the “Harry Potter” movies, a “foul-mouthed” attack on the author. An article in The Daily Telegraph said that “scores of actresses” had turned down the opportunity to play Rowling. And The Daily Mail, a tabloid, reported that the production had encountered trouble securing a venue.
On social media and women’s web forums, too, “TERF” stirred outraged discussion.
The uproar raised the specter of pro-Rowling protesters outside the show and prompted debate in Edinburgh, the city that Rowling has called home for more than 30 years. But when “TERF” opened last week, it barely provoked a whimper. The only disturbance to a performance on Monday in the ballroom of Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms came from a group of latecomers using a cellphone flashlight to find their seats. About 55 theatergoers watched the play in silence from the front few rows of the 350-seat capacity venue….
… But the muted response to the show itself suggests that fewer British people are riled by the debate than the media coverage implies — or at least that when activists engage with potentially inflammatory art, outrage can quickly vanish.
The play’s title, “TERF” — an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist — is a pejorative label that Rowling’s critics have applied to her for years. Rowling has gotten into heated debates about gender issues on social media, and she published an essay in 2020 accusing transgender activists of “seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators.” Critics have accused her of being transphobic or anti-trans, which she has denied. Through a spokesman, she declined to comment for this article….
(14) CRUSHING LAWSUIT. “Crew of Titan sub knew they were going to die before implosion, according to more than $50M lawsuit” – AP News has the story.
The family of a French explorer who died in a submersible implosion has filed a more than $50 million lawsuit, saying the crew experienced “terror and mental anguish” before the disaster and accusing the sub’s operator of gross negligence.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet was among five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded during a voyage to the famed Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic in June 2023. No one survived the trip aboard the experimental submersible owned by OceanGate, a company in Washington state that has since suspended operations.
Known as “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet participated in 37 dives to the Titanic site, the most of any diver in the world, according to the lawsuit. He was regarded as one of the world’s most knowledgeable people about the famous wreck. Attorneys for his estate said in an emailed statement that the “doomed submersible” had a “troubled history,” and that OceanGate failed to disclose key facts about the vessel and its durability….
…The lawsuit goes on to say: “The crew may well have heard the carbon fiber’s crackling noise grow more intense as the weight of the water pressed on Titan’s hull. The crew lost communications and perhaps power as well. By experts’ reckoning, they would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel’s irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding.”…
(15) THIS HOAX IS UNUSUAL FOR BEING FONDLY REMEMBERED. “A giant sea monster shows up on Nantucket 87 years after an elaborate hoax” – NPR attends the celebration.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: Eighty-seven years ago, a local artist perpetrated a spectacular prank on the residents of Nantucket, the Massachusetts island. The artist, Tony Sarg, was big in his day. Edgar B. Herwick III of member station GBH was on Nantucket yesterday for a re-creation of the monstrous hoax.
EDGAR B HERWICK III, BYLINE: In the summer of 1937, artist, entrepreneur and notorious prankster Tony Sarg took his penchant for high jinks to grand new heights with a long con of sorts that began weeks before the main event.
DARIN JOHNSON: He met up with two of his fisherman friends who he coaxed into going to the newspaper and telling the newspaper that there was a sea monster spotted out in the water.
HERWICK: That’s Darin Johnson, CEO of the American Theater for Puppetry Arts and Sarg scholar. Later, these so-called firsthand accounts were augmented in the press with photos of enormous reptilian footprints on a South Shore beach, whipping the townsfolk into a frenzy.
JOHNSON: And then, on August 19, they blew up this giant balloon and floated it out in the water, and it became this huge national media sensation.
HERWICK: And it was a monster balloon – a 125-foot green monster named Morton. Parade balloons may be Sarg’s greatest legacy. After all, he designed the very first ones for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in 1927. But he’s also considered by some the father of modern American puppetry….
HERWICK: It’s that all-too-forgotten legacy that inspired the historical association to dub this the Summer of Sarg on the island. And yesterday was its centerpiece, Sarg Community Day….
(16) RECOMMENDED. [Item by Ed Fortune] Here is the trailer for Emily Carding’s award-winning show: Quintessence, coming to Hall 2, Sunday, August 11, 2024, at the Glasgow Worldcon. “Quintessence by Emily Carding”.
A combination of cataclysmic events results in the extinction of the human race, leaving behind an AI being programmed to recreate humanity when the time is right, with the complete works of Shakespeare as a guide to the human spirit. Humanity must thrive… but at what cost? This original sci-fi storytelling show was inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and will leave you wondering who the real monster is. Originally created in collaboration with the London Science Museum, written and performed by award-winning actor Emily Carding (Richard III (A One-Woman show)).
[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, Ersatz Culture, Lis Carey, Daniel Dern, Dave Doering, Ed Fortune, Random Jones, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Dann.]
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We are certainly scrolling in interesting times.
(10) Um, per her website and stuff like that, Melissa Scott is still alive and publishing.
Jan Vanek jr.: It’s a miracle!
(I guess somebody put the wife’s date of death there in the draft by accident. At least the birthday is right.)
(1) Maybe it’s just me, but the PW review doesn’t even seem that bad. Yes, the review commented on the politics in the book — but it would be hard to avoid mentioning them in a detailed review as TK’s politics are a big part of his books.
Apparently, to some of the fans posting about this online, “Publishers Weekly” is now “woke” or something. Yawn.
(9) Yikes! That publisher’s behavior continues to be nasty.
14) Do the plaintiffs intend to introduce a Ouija board into evidence?
@Patrick Morris Miller
I think they’ll need one. Because everyone involved in the decision is very dead. (The one I feel sorry about is the kid. The adults knew they were doing something dangerous.)
(7) just another reason to like him. I already had quite a number.
(10) happy birthday to Melissa Scott! I, too, adore The Armor of Light. How not? Philip Sidney survives Zutphen, and saves Marlowe’s life at Deptford; Shakespeare turns up; and theatre saves the world.
(13) self-declared non-transphobe Rowling is furiously misgendering the Algerian woman boxer Imane Khelif on Twitter. Because she loves women so much, presumably.
13) I hadn’t known about the play but my sense is that activists in the UK feel they have better things to do right now than give free publicity to a bigot
I have a few albums by the Irish folk singer Karan Casey, but far from all of them. So when an unfamiliar song by her appeared on my car’s sound system, I tried to read the screen to identify it. Unfortunately, because it was a sunny day, there was a glare, and as I was driving I could only glance over. The album the track was from was entitled Nine Apples of Gold, but I could only identify some of the letters. Surely that didn’t read New Apples for Old, did it? No, but what a lovely title that is! Very evocative.
It doesn’t really fit our Scroll title format, but I offer it up anyway.
(3) Good onya.
(6) Having been one of the subscribers in 1980, I have downloaded the new iteration.
(7) Nerds nearer to the levers of power! (Okay, VPs don’t get to do much, but still.)
(10) I could not have enjoyed the Points novels more. Armor of Light was good, although the cover was… less so.
(14) Yes, and they might have been deliriously happy from some sort of weird air system failure. Or passed out cold. Or abducted by aliens before it hit the bottom. It’s likely, but can’t be proven to lawsuit standards in any jurisdiction. I do feel sorry for the kid who didn’t want to go but was bullied into it by his father, and the kid’s mother.
@Anne Marble: It was a review that said “eh, nothing special” but didn’t cast any aspersions on Tank personally or even his line in politics. Also, PW certainly DGAF about the Dragons. This is not the flex he thinks it is.
[surfacing after a bit of absence]
Apologies for the digression, and greetings from Glasgow! Having kept myself sadly out of various loops for a while, are there any plans for a Filer meetup during Worldcon this year?
Just repeating what Christian Brunschen said.
Oh, I also have “I’ve read Trigger Snowflake” badge ribbons, available until out, to anyone who (a) asks for them and (b) has read a Trigger story.
Most reliable “find me” is “Village Hotel, as the BM lets in or out”, but I am likely to be ambling about elsecon too.
(3) Good to see renewed activity
(6) Excellent – Galaxy was very good back in the day.
“File, you Fans!”
14) Pardon the pun, but after the entirely avoidable OceanGate tragedy, the estate of Stockton Rush deserves to be squeezed into oblivion.
Jef Smith wrote: “The album the track was from was entitled Nine Apples of Gold, but I could only identify some of the letters. Surely that didn’t read New Apples for Old, did it?”
Which brought an old Bradbury story to mind, and then this: The Golden Pixels of the Scroll
Mostly c4c…
1) I wonder if PW reviews ever complain about leftist ideology flowing out of the mouths of leftist characters written by leftist authors.
R/
D.
@Lurkertype–Which edition of Armor of Light? Because for one of them I have a story about the cover.
(7) VPs do what the President gives them to do, beyond their Constitutionally mandate duties of being alive and eligible to become President, and occasionally breaking tie votes. This can mean a lot of time spent fishing–or taking on quite significant, sometimes policy-generating, projects. Let’s hear it for need VPs!
(13) Yeah, activists in the UK are a bit busy just now. Rowling will have to wait her turn. She’s not the most urgent thing going on right now.
Skimming the member list I spot more than a dozen “fake names” with obvious coordination. A tiny fraction of 377. How did they get to that number? Disqualify everybody who didn’t use a real-looking name, even without apparent coordination? Disqualify hundreds on the basis of an anonymous accusation that they were reimbursed for voting in some unstated way?
(13) Her actions speak for themselves: her prolonged, misguided, aggressive fear-mongering has been helping no one, and has been putting my trans friends at greater risk. Of course I resent that deeply, whatever we call it. The people I know in the UK are (as far as I’m aware) all cis, but the reason they’re on the same page as I am is that they also have trans friends, or family members, or colleagues, or so on. At the same time, her bigotry is such a tiny part of the story. Shon Faye’s excellent book on transgender issues in the UK devotes maybe one sentence to her.
@Brian Z–I expect Glasgow 2024 is engaged in the nefarious act of not giving potential cheaters pointers on what mistakes to avoid. Evil and underhanded, I know.
(13)
“Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?”
The tweet that started it all.
@Harold Osler,
That is not in fact “The tweet that started it all”.
See for example this article that gives a bit more complete of a timeline up to early 2023.
I don’t bother with Brendan–his bias is well known.
And the late Magdalen Burns was correct– there is no such thing as a lesbian with a penis.
@Lis Carey
If you have a story about one of tthe Armor of Light covers, please share? I have a (much worn) Baen paperback with a reasonable portrait of Elizabeth I teleported into action in which she does not participate in the book.
What she and other transphobes have done to Khelif is evil. The boxer is a cisgender woman from Algeria who also competed in the 2020 Olympics. Because Khelif won a boxing match convincingly in Paris and her looks didn’t meet Rowling’s standards for femininity, she used her massive online platform to incite hatred against the woman, which quite foreseeably led to death threats.
Rowling and the rest of the bigots never bothered to ask themselves whether it made any sense at all to believe that the country of Algeria — where being LGBTQ is a crime punishable by imprisonment and often results in vigilante violence and torture — would have sent a transgender woman to compete in the Olympics.
@Harold Osler,
The article that you so cavalierly dismissed pointed out that JKR had “liked” transphobic tweets and followed transphobic people, well before the tweet that you claimed “started it all”. Those are simple facts, but you seem unwilling to engage in them at all.
So thank you for amply demonstrating your bias, and thus that nobody has to bother with you.
Plus you are of course wrong in your bold claim. There absolutely exist trans women who are attracted to other women (whether cis or trans), and thus, are lesbians. And if such a trans woman has not (yet?) had bottom surgery, then they may be lesbians with a penis.
After all it turns out that things like gender, and indeed even sex, are more complex than transphobes tend to be willing to acknowledge. There is not even an absolute sex binary in the “XX chromosomes == woman, XY chromosomes == man” sense – because there are intersex people, and there are people whose visual appearance from birth is the opposite of what their chromosomes might suggest.
Plus of course, gender is a separate thing from sex, and is very much in the brain. Which remains part of our biology: the “hardware” that our “software” (the mind) runs on.
But this still means that all of this complexity, including what happens in the brain!, is biological. The brain remains biological – and it is at the same time one of the most complex things we know about.
So anyone talking about “simple biology” has apparently never progressed beyond that to “advanced biology”; and yammering on about “biological sex” also completely fails to take into account the complexity that exists there as well, biologically.
For those who have an actual open mind, another timeline may also be of interest.
Magdalen Berns left behind a legacy of transphobic hatred that would be better off forgotten, not quoted as if we’re all supposed to nod our heads.
She used her prominent YouTube account to show non-famous transgender people, mock their appearances and misgender them, and on social media spread the anti-Semitic view that George Soros was the “money behind the transgender movement.”
I wish you hadn’t dropped that turd in this punchbowl.
“I Filed the Scroll, and the Scroll Won.”
@Liz: The MMPB. Nobody looks like who/how/where they’re supposed to be in the text. It’s the same one @msb has.
My copy of the cover detached, front, back, and spine years ago. That publisher has pretty low standards for book quality. At least the cover stayed in one piece so I could tape it back on.
But tell us the story anyway!
@Christian: Amen.
(No pun intended, but I’m leaving it, because duh.)
(12) I had a credential who had that. If Daisy ever goes on any meds, I’m sure it’ll be MUCH less trouble than getting a pill down a tortie’s mouth twice a day.
There really needs to be some better way of passing you news bits than leaving a comment in a random Scroll.
Cate Blanchett claims nobody got paid for acting in LotR
Back to the member list, the children’s tour seems to have been canceled since they aren’t listed in the stats as registered as attending. However, some might have still wanted to vote. A good number of the weird Chinese names look like diminutives (including the doubled names) that could be children’s nicknames. I wonder if the several with the same name plus numbers might be children’s ballots, and maybe some others.
You could always use my email — [email protected] — which is listed on the About page. People can also DM me at the File 770 account on Facebook, X.com, and Bluesky. I’m really not hard to get hold of at all.
Soon Lee: We have a winnah! Go to the head of the class!
@Lurkertype & Msb–Since you ask!
Not the MMPB. I had nothing to do with that, I’m pleased to say. It was the NESFA Press edition, which I edited.
Let us just say there may have been author displeasure with the MMPB, too, which led to discussion, which led to a contract. The text got a full copy edit, by the late, great, much missed George Flynn.
There was a hunt for a cover–with the exception of the Boskone books, we don’t generally pay for an original cover. We just don’t have the budget. We hunt for existing art that fits the book.
And at Boskone that year, in the art show, I found a lovely painting by Margaret Organ-Kean, that was perfect, I tell you, perfect.
Alice Lewis did her usual excellent cover design. I wrote the front flap copy, solicited blurbs…
And a digital scan of the cover art was sent to the printer.
When we got it back–too late to change anything–they had not messed with the cover design or copy.
But something very weird had happened to the color balance, and it had the effect of rendering Margaret’s lovely art almost cartoonish.
This was my first NESFA Press project as the lead, and I was assured it was not my fault. And also that it was too late fix it.
It was heartbreaking.
The good news, of course, is that NESFA Learned Better about lead times and checking on what the printer had done with the art.
I feel embarrassed every time I see Margaret. Furious every time I see that cover.
Breakin’ news in the fandom
I filed the scroll and the scroll won
I filed the scroll and the scroll won
I needed tidings ’cause I had none
I filed the scroll and the scroll won
I filed the scroll and the scroll won
I was ignorant it feels so bad
I guess my feed was blank
Scroll’s the best news that I ever had
I filed the scroll and the scroll won
I filed the scroll and the…
Christian – Lovely accurate comment
And various others too for giving the links to the larger saga, far too many of the talking heads and social commentators here in the UK have been far too vocal about transgender care, which they don’t have the background to understand, and that anyway should be left to individuals and the professionals who care for them.
It is frustrating that so many people think that the tiny amount of human biology they learnt in school is all there is to it, and any elaboration of something they didn’t learn back then is an affront to all that is true. They don’t do the same to physicists or chemists or astronomers, but somehow with human biology, particularly anything to do with sex and gender, what they learnt is school is the whole of the truth. What do they think medical professionals spend all those years leaning?
I find it particularly confusing that here, in a context of science fiction and fantasy, where we think nothing of circumventing the speed of light or of magically shape changing creatures, where we have seen so many fictional ideas go from strange brain child to “well maybe” to popping their head into the real world to society changing impact, that anyone takes a stance of “this cannot possibly be”.
Imagine the prototypical “sexbot” AI, programmed to provide pleasure to its users. what is its “sex” if its chassis can easily be swapped between different appendages or apertures it combinations thereof? what is its gender? fixed, fluid, changeable? is the choice imposed on it, or will it discover something on its own? among AIs, will it matter – will it be something that AIs “adopt” only for interactions with humans?
Or consider a shape shifting magical creature that explores these strange humans that have started to settle near its home forest. it takes on shapes mimicking different people it encounters, learning about different groups of people, discovers differences and similarities both. Does this creature have a sex or gender at all? is it forever “fixed” into whatever it first happened to choose, or can it discover a different affinity later, or decide to swap back and forth or even flow between them, including picking places in between?
and if this is the case for an AI or a magical creature we can dream up, then why not for a biological “machine” such as someone human, someone equipped with the most magical thinking and feeling thing we know of – the human mind?
or in short, it completely baffles me: how can anyone who enjoys mind expanding fiction such as fantasy and science fiction, keep their mind so small and narrow about people in the real world around them?
@Christopher
Perhaps because the human “machine” including the human mind did not evolve in that manner. As with many other facets of human existence (i.e. two eyes, two arms, two legs, two ears), we also evolved with two genders being the overwhelmingly common framework.
Exceptions being duly noted and respected as exceptions. Hopefully, no one will attempt to extrapolate that statement into a desire for legal (or extra legal) consequences for anyone who does not conform to that framework. That isn’t my intent.
Regards,
Dann
When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual. – Frank Herbert
@Dann665,
were you trying to respond to me? fun fact: “Christopher” is not the same name as “Christian”. Only one of those is mine. I ask, because simply copying and pasting my name would have prevented any error in this regard, something that I’m fairly certain computers have facilitated for literally several years at this point.
To me, your attempts at arguments fall rather flat.
Firstly, each person has approximately two arms, legs, eyes, etc; and more or less bilateral symmetry in general. However, regarding sexual characteristics, most people tend to have one set. We could just as easily have bilateral symmetry (two arms, legs, eyes, etc) but have asexual reproduction, or require three sexes for reproduction. Also, many plants have sexual reproduction with two sexes, but no bilateral symmetry whatsoever. Tenuously linking those aspects in an attempt to push the number “2” from bilateral symmetry onto something rather unrelated … that’s a bit weird, honestly.
Further, you’re using rather vague terms to try to support people who are arguing for a 100% hard divide! “Perhaps” is doing a lot of work here for instance. And even “overwhelming” does not mean “100%” and it is that 100% binary that some people are insisting on, and are outright refusing to accept anything else.
Also, your claim that “the human mind did not evolve in that manner” presupposes reliance on a particular manner for the human mind to have evolved – when what I was doing was pointing out that science fiction and fantasy are so much about exploring myriad possibilities; and that in that context, subscribing only to “this is the only way it can be, that thing there that I don’t agree with cannot possibly exist!” is a flabbergasting contradiction – and shows a lack of flexibility in applying the kinds of thought experiments we make in science and fantasy fiction, to the real world, even though that is often precisely what those thought experiments are about in the first place!
Plus, we already know that the human mind is emphatically not only in service to a 100% “men procreate with and thus are attracted to women and vice versa” binary; see for example the mere existence of people who are gay, or not particularly interested in sex at all.
Societally there are also many examples where there has been recognition of Third Gender (“To Native Hawaiians and Tahitians, m?h? is an intermediate state between man and woman known as “gender liminality”. Some traditional Diné Native Americans of the Southwestern United States acknowledge a spectrum of four genders: feminine woman, masculine woman, feminine man, and masculine man.”), Kathoey (“According to historical accounts, the presence of androgynous people seeking sexual exchanges dates back over 700 years.”) and similar – so clearly the Western-European-derived overly simplistic gender binary is not as universal or overwhelming as some would state and would desperately like to believe and, indeed, force onto others.
And while you say “Exceptions being duly noted and respected as exceptions.”, you are making those arguments above in the context of defending people who are so closed-minded about the gender binary that they are trying to force onto everyone, that they do want to deny the very existence of anyone who falls outside of their narrow views (note the Magdalen Berns quote above!). Plus, the phrasing “respected as exceptions” rings of trying to make some things “normal” and other things “exceptions” i.e. “not normal” and thus implicitly not as good.
Yes, you say “Hopefully, no one will attempt to extrapolate that statement into a desire for legal (or extra legal) consequences for anyone who does not conform to that framework” but that is really what you are expressing! If that wasn’t your intent, then why did you express it as something being “the exception” that has to be “respected as the exception” (emphasis added)? Why not simply state that everyone, whether more or less common, has to be respected?
It’s really not about “These things are normal, those things are exceptions” (and thus implicitly, less worthy, less good than what is normal and accepted); it’s about recognizing that things are, as I already pointed out, simply (hah!) much more complex in general. That those things that look like “exceptions” are in fact perfectly part of the valid possible outcomes, even if they are not as prevalent or common; that the main thing that makes things look “out of the ordinary” is really the attempt to force one particular view of “ordinary” onto something that is so much more.
And again: if someone can accept such vast complexity as robots and aliens and shapeshifters in fiction, then it is an incredible contradiction that the same person can 100% reject the ideas that the human mind, human sexuality, gender identity and so on, are more complex than a simple gender binary, even in light of the actual evidence of people’s own lived experience, historical evidence reaching back centuries across different cultures across the glove, etc.
Such a rejection of any willingness to consider complexity, of hanging on to over-simplicity, remind me of an old joke: A person in late 19th century London visits the zoo, and for the first time in their life sees a giraffe. Surprised, they stop and look at it for a while, while it’s standing there eating and minding its own business; but after a few moments, shake their head, say “I don’t believe that!” and walk away.
@Christian,
I apologize for the error in your name. In the event it happens again, please assume a good faith error on my part and save the wear and tear on your keyboard.
Your response seems to miss the point.
We are not plants. (although most plants do seem to exhibit morphology involving two “genders”) Nor are we lower-order organisms where asexual reproduction could work.
We are humans. Like every other higher-order organism on the Earth, the evolution of our reproduction and thus survival centers on using two genders, just as we evolved to have binocular vision. The point isn’t the number “2”. The point is that we have evolved to be what we are.
[FWIW, someone did a computer model many years ago purporting to simulate the difficulties in one person finding a second person that was acceptable for procreation. They applied the same model to requiring three mutually acceptable people for procreation. The additional complexities of the three-person model failed to sustain the species.]
FBOFW, gender impacts the development of the individual. Forensic scientists have long been able to identify remains based on differential characteristics including bone density and pelvic bone structures that invariably result from the unique development of both male and female humans. Those documented differences also impact things like aggressiveness, thought patterns, muscle development, etc.
I use a lot of soft qualifiers (i.e. “perhaps”) for a good reason. There are people who (for various reasons) don’t conform to the dominant gender modes. They exist and as long as we are talking about consenting adults interacting with consenting adults, I have zero interest in making their lives any more difficult.
You seem to want to disagree with someone who believes in a 100% divide. That isn’t me.
As far as explorations of alternatives or ideation of potential future evolutionary patterns within genre fiction, I’m all for it. The one modest request that I have is that alternatives be justified within the narrative as an improvement over the current human condition.
I’m not inclined to positively receive wish-fulfillment fiction where the authorial hand is evident under paper-thin puppets.
You asked:
My response is that the biological “machine” represented by the current human species has not (thus far) evolved to make such gender flexibility central to the survival of the species.
I hope you are enjoying WorldCon.
Regards,
Dann
Think about the people that had friends at Jonestown. Want to reconsider that “koolaid” comment?
@Dann665
You write:
Using that line of argument, we can also notice that the current human species has not (thus far) evolved to make eyesight correction, automobiles, the Internet, space flight, electric power, and many other convenicenes and amenites central to the survival of the species.
But, they’re all damned nice to have, when you want them. Maybe gender flexibility (for those that benefit from it) would also be a good thing?
Dann wrote:
I watched all of the tv series “Bones”, and read many of the books ‘inspiring/starring in name only’ by Kathy Reichs.
I also read tvtropes on “Bones” long ago. I cannot find the trope page/article stating how simplified tv made the process of gendering skeletal remains.
Today I googled and partially read that “variability and overlap between the sexes” are part of the ambiguity of the process.
You make it seem as if the science of a century ago hasn’t changed to reflect that scientists used to just make shit up to determine male from female in skeletal remains.
50 years ago, someone found that 12% more males were reportedly identified in archaeological sites, which didn’t match human population statistics: it should have been closer to parity. Well, it seems the disparity was due to bias in identifying/non-ambiguity of binary identification: ie indeterminate gender was classified as male bringing the percentage disparity.
I am surprised that was so.
Then in the 90s, with 3 categories: male, female and indeterminate(which wasn’t so prior to the 1970s, at least from 1 Google result only) the balance was more even.
I am not linking my results but anyone with an open mind can Google for themselves.
@Mixmat
Thanks very much. I see nothing there that negates what I’ve said. I find it quite supportive.
@Ingvar
You appear to be conflating evolution with invention. We evolved brains of sufficient nuance and complexity to be able to investigate and invent useful tools for our survival as a species.
Separately, I’d argue that most (if not all) of those inventions are about creating and leveraging energy to increase our overall capacity for survival. They are essential.
In any case, gender flexibility is certainly a good thing for the individuals that benefit from it. I’m nothing if not supportive of the individual over the collective.
Regards,
Dann
The Africans know I’m not an African. I’m an American. – Whoopi Goldberg
@Dann665:
Well… Maybe. But, almost all of invention is not biological, so not something the biological machine “human” has been evolved for. So, if you want to limit yourself to “what biological evolved human” can do, you should eschew anything that comes through cultural transmission.
Since things like gender identity seem to lie in a tricky space between biology and culture, so if you want to limit it to “only biology”, we need to limit humans to “only biology”, to see where your argument leads. Since it seems to lead to blatant nonsense, it may be that your line of reasoning is blatant nonsense. Or it may be that my attempt to extrapolate your stated line or reasoning is blatant nonsense. I have opinions on likelihood for either, but I am fine with your estimates being different.
So, I’m an anthropologist in my dayjob, and one of the things that anthropologists found out back in the 1950s when they were very interested in working out what traits were universal to all humans is… gender crossing and gender ambiguity is one of them. Which at the very least suggests that there’s a biological component (since it wouldn’t be universal if it was only cultural).
I also feel compelled to add that a two gender structure can also be an artifact of colonialism: as in, coloniser countries imposing, deliberately or accidentally, a two-gender structure on a people whose native concept is much less rigid or includes more than two.
@Ingvar
My initial comments were centered on biological evolution. I’m not sure how invention got added to the conversation.
In any case, I agree that gender identity does include some tricky spaces in both biology and culture. As I have noted already, I fully acknowledge that there are biological exceptions. I also support treating those who do not conform to the trend with respect and dignity. The presence of exceptions does not invalidate the rule.
Someone born without legs (I actually know one or two people in that category) does not invalidate the general observation that the human species is bipedal.
The last word it yours.
@Fiona Moore
Thanks. I would expect there to be ambiguities due to a biological component.
Regards,
Dann
When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. – C.S. Lewis
@ Fiona Moore:
Ooooh, interesting, I was somewhat wrong and will update my knowledge of the world, to incorporate this new information.
@Msb
“(7) just another reason to like him. I already had quite a number.”
That Walz likes SF doesn’t erase the fact that he ordered National Guard troops and police to shoot at people who were sitting on front porches, minding their own business.
@bill–Got a link for that from a real source? Not just a tweet on Xitter, with no linked article?
@Lis Carey
There is no linked article because it is original footage. I read about it in what many here would probably call a “right-wing” source, and thus discount it, so I linked to a primary source.
But if it helps:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/minneapolis-police-national-guard-paintball-shooting-porch-a9541016.html
More authoritarianism from Walz:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/minnesota-grandma-jailed-defying-walz-lockdown-warns-americans-you-do-not-want-tyranny-level?
@bill–
So, during the protests following the murder of George Floyd by (local) police, protests which all rightwing sources maintain reduced multiple US cities to flaming hellscapes, there was an 8pm curfew in Minneapolis. (Sensible, because it was after dark that things turned violent,even if the perps caught were overwhelmingly white nationalists or just ordinary criminals taking advantage of the disruption.) And during this, the police and National Guard (which your favorite sources also delight in accusing Walz of not having called out soon enough), enforced the curfew, using non-lethal means. Oh, the horror. Aren’t you theoretically in favor of law and order, and on the side of “they could have avoided [whatever bad consequences] by just obeying the police”? What’s different here, I wonder, other than the fact that these people defying lawful police orders were merely paintballed rather than shot dead? Or suffocated?
Fox News. Fox News weeping big tears over a businesswoman repeatedly violating shutdown orders during the height of the covid pandemic, and eventually getting the legal consequences of her repeated violations of the law during a public health emergency. Cry me a river. No, Fox News is already doing that, in the hopes it will damage Harris and Walz, and help the guy who says he’ll be a dictator on day one (but only on day one! Realio trulio!),
Trump says he will be a dictator only on ‘day one’ if elected president
and that we should rip up the Constitution.
Trump calls for the termination of the Constitution in Truth Social post