The editor fails to hide how ornery all this Puppy news makes him, in today’s Scroll.
(1) D23 is this weekend and attendees received this Drew Struzan poster for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It’s a souvenir edition — Struzan will create another primary poster for the film.
(2) Just in time for WorldCon, “Tragedy of the Goats”, Francis Hamit’s epic story about, sex, security,and science fiction Fandom. Download it to your Kindle today and read it on the plane. (No puppies were harmed in this production.)
(3) Spokane Public Radio devoted about three minutes to “Worldcon Brings Science Fiction and Hugo Awards to Spokane”
Tom Whitmore, head of publicity, spoke to me over Skype and explained the twist in this year’s awards. Normally their 10,000 members nominate freely, but this year two writers groups formed a coalition to lobby for certain scifi works.
Whitmore: “And they were very successful in getting the nominations out there. This was not against any of the rules, it’s just not what’s been done in the past, it was against social norms.”
Hugo Awards recognize science fiction works, as voted on by Worldcon members.
And, he says, it has upset a lot of other members. Critics say these writer groups want to make the nominees more homogenous like the genre used to be, ie: winners would be less diverse.
That doesn’t sit well with one very-well known, award winning female writer. Vonda McIntyre will be a guest author at the convention.
McIntyre: “The most amazing writer going when I first started was Samuel R. Delaney…”
A science fiction writer who’s black, and gay.
And who’s named Delany.
(4) If Tom Knighton hadn’t titled his post “Why I no longer care” it would be easier to focus on his actual point:
I read for fun. If I want to challenge myself, I read non-fiction. I’m a damn political writer. I challenge myself daily. I read fiction for fun, and it’s not your place to suggest I challenge myself in what I do for pleasure. It’s not anyone’s place.
The truth is that those books I’m told I should challenge myself over are books I don’t want to read. I don’t care how it handles homosexuality. I care whether it tells a good story and whether I’ll like the protagonists. Now, if those protagonists are homophobic, I’m 99 percent sure I won’t like them. I don’t need to be told that the protagonists are gay, straight, trans, or whatever. That’s not pertinent to my interests. Whether the story is fun, is.
Somewhere along the line, folks got hung up on sex and sexuality. It’s pretty annoying.
However, it’s become clear that for some people, a book’s “message” is vital. Even books from bygone eras aren’t safe from being dissected for their social message rather than their story.
I’ve been one of those trying to argue that message fiction was a bad idea. I still think it is. But now, I just don’t care what those folks do.
(5) George R.R. Martin pre-interprets how any of several possible Campbell Awards winners will be an early sign of how the wind is blowing on Hugo night.
If Wesley Chu takes the Campbell, as he should, I think we will be in for a fairly reasonable night in Spokane. There will be some winners from the slates, and some categories will go the No Award, but most of the rockets will actually go to deserving work. If Chu wins, I think the vast majority of the fans in the auditorium will be more happy than not by night’s end.
If No Award wins, however… if No Award takes the Campbell, it will represent a huge and ominous victory for the “nuclear option,” for the faction of fandom that wants to destroy the village in order to save it. A victory by No Award in this category will signify that the voters decided to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and will likely betoken a long ugly night ahead, with category after category going to No Award. Myself, I think this unlikely. I think the hardcore “vote No Award on everything” voters are a small (if noisy) minority. But I could be wrong. It could happen.
And what if one of the four Puppy finalists takes the tiara?
That would represent a victory for the Puppies, certainly. But even there, certain distinctions should be made. Rolf Nelson was a candidate of the Rabids, but not the Sads. A victory by Nelson would be a singular triumph for Teddy Beale and the most extreme elements of Puppydom… and could suggest even worse results ahead, up to and including VD actually winning one or both of the Editing Hugos for which he is nominated.
Kary English, on the other hand, represents a much more moderate side of Puppydom. Though initially put forward by both the Sad and Rabid slates, VD later dropped her and removed her from his suggested ballot entirely when English put up a couple of blog posts that distanced herself from the Puppy party line.
(6) Miles Schneiderman of YES! Magazine joins the ranks of finger-waggers who haven’t bothered to learn how to spell “Torgersen” in his widely-linked critique “Sad Puppies, Rabid Chauvinists: Will Raging White Guys Succeed in Hijacking Sci-Fi’s Biggest Awards?”
In other words, Torgerson seems to think there are merely a handful of science fiction and fantasy stories worth anyone’s time: the ones that are just plain fun. People don’t want uncomfortable ideas or unorthodox characters; they just want “a rip-roaring good story” full of “broad-chested heroes” with “pioneering derring-do” who, of course, “run off with beautiful women.” Anything else is false advertising, tricking the unsuspecting reader into a story with complicated messages and cultural commentary, when all they wanted was escapist adventure. Torgerson’s version of “old school” speculative fiction seems to be primarily for and about men. Get out of our treehouse, girls! We’re playing space pirates. Didn’t you see the sign?
Not only does this view denigrate women, it denigrates fans of speculative fiction. In fact, it disrespects the entire genre by negating the value of any story element that doesn’t contribute to the reader’s entertainment high. As the Canadian journalist Jeet Heer points out, “the faux-populism of the Puppy brigade is actually insulting to the right, since it assumes that conservatives can’t be interested in high culture.” The Puppy movement is anti-intellectual at its core, and thus anathema to the genre it seeks to redefine.
(7) Jugger Grimrod (would I kid you?) says the butcher’s bill at the Hugos won’t be as bad as you’ve heard, on Silence Is A Weapon.
Everyone says the Hugos will survive, and I tend to agree. I think the Puppy voters will get tired of throwing away their money in the name of making whatever statement they’re trying to make. They will also have a harder time maintaining the charade that their campaign is about anything other than self-promotion, because after this year there will be fewer neutral parties willing to appear on any slate. The nomination rules will probably be changed to make slates less effective, although I’m afraid that will make the whole process more confusing and could scare some potential nominators away. In the long run this will mostly be forgotten, but in the short term it probably means that at least two WorldCons are going to have their Hugos basically invalidated, and I don’t like that they have to make that sacrifice. In my opinion the harassment policy should be invoked against the Puppy organizers and they should be banned from the convention and disqualified from the awards on that basis. I get that the Hugo organizers won’t do this, they would argue that the integrity of the awards depends on strict adherence to the bylaws, not arbitrary decisions by administrators. I could make some counter arguments but I don’t want to go down that road right now. I will just say that when a group has a stated goal of disrupting the awards, it wouldn’t bother me at all if they were barred from participating.
(8) Brianne Reeves breaks down the Antonelli story from a politicial perspective in “Let’s Talk about the Hugo Awards (Now with more libertarianism!)”.
Most recently, a false police report was filed by a Hugo nominee against another, leading to a full WorldCon investigation and the nominee’s work being rejected from a magazine. In the fall out, death threats and harassment ensued. We’ll be talking a little bit about this. For the full background on the story, you can see some of the posts I’ll link below.
While the “victim” of the false police report has accepted Lou Antonelli’s apologies, the actions of Antonelli haven’t ceased to have consequences. Antonelli’s actions in particular aren’t really what I want to talk about. I’m going to be addressing the actions we have seen in our community more broadly. It feels a bit ridiculous that I should even have to do this; these behaviors are far from common. Unfortunately, they’ve insinuated themselves into our world.
I’m approaching much of this from a more libertarian perspective. This is for a few reasons (1) I think that a libertarian discourse about rights and the role of the state is fitting for the behaviors we have seen in this community; and (2) I think that a discourse about positive and negative rights is a broadly applicable approach for the rhetoric that accompanies the behaviors we have seen recently.
I believe Lou Antonelli acted on impulse, not in furtherance of either well- or poorly-considered libertarian principles, though Reeves’ post was interesting to me just the same.
(9) Marcus Bales’ poetic comment appears on Blog, Jvstin Style:
Ballade of Sad Puppies
[first of four verses]
Who knows within what hidden garret
Vox Day scribes his sexist rant,
or why Correia tries to parrot
his vicious views with careless cant,
or Torgerson begins to prate
of how their work has been ignored
providing cover for their slate
behind his merited award;
they’re powered by their privileged fear.
Oh, where are the pros of yesteryear?
(10) I often search Twitter for File 770 references but rarely for Glyer. It seems I have missed a few gems as a result.
https://twitter.com/benjanun_s/status/630820349010010112
https://twitter.com/benjanun_s/status/632156189296472064
Vile 770 speaks truth #SadPuppies Mike Glyer Aug 14,2015 16:16
Justice has been done — thanks for writing this post.Vile 770 is a kicker.
— Quilly Mammoth (@Quilly_Mammoth) August 15, 2015
[Thanks to redheadedfemme and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cubist .]
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Nice.
As a former professional journalist, this line from the Forbes article amused me:
“Walsh and LaForme seemed a little bewildered that Gawker Media was being used as an example of how journalism in general functioned.”
Um, yeah, because Walsh and LaForme are professional and are journalists.
Shambles on August 16, 2015 at 7:12 pm said:
In heavens name, WHY would you want to hear from them again? Judging by their slate this year, they have absolutely TERRIBLE taste in SF/F.
These are the assholes who thought “Wisdom from my Internet” was more deserving of a Hugo award than the Heinlein bio was.
They’ve proven that they have terrible taste. They’ve completely destroyed their credibility – why would anybody be interested in hearing from them ever again?
@RedWombat Thanks! Stross is such an iconoclast…seemed hard to believe he was one of the 12 being summoned.
@Will (@6:25) —
Are you filking Dylan?
That’s awesome! It scans, the accents are in the right place, and it makes sense in this context.
…and we passed out to the sounds of puppies yapping.
Yapping for the Hugos that they should have won before!
For the sales boost and the cover blurbs that never will occur.
(needs work, someone else can take it)
Now I’ve heard there was a lit award
That writers won and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for reading, do ya?
It goes like this
Podcast, short fic,
Related work and novelette,
The smiling host handing Hugos to ya…
Hugos to ya! Hugos to ya!
…I’ll show myself out.
@Rick Ann made me think of it. One of my favorites.
Your sales were strong but you needed proof
Like all those SJWs
The beauty of their rockets overthrew ya
But ever since you made your slate
You’re likened to RequiresHate
And no one wants to give the Hugos to ya
Hugos to ya, Hugos to ya
Hugos to ya, Hugos to-o-o-o-o ya
I read that and I’m.., well, Ok, huh?, yes – file under: that was a thing that happened.
If I disappear for awhile only to pop up later writing for Castalia, please send a rescue party. I don’t want to live in oubliette in Finland – I can’t cope with non-Indoeuropean languages.
Jim, RedWombat, Hallelujah!
Camestros – it’s okay, almost everyone speak English in Finland.
Wait, that’s not really much of a comfort, is it?
Will I ever hear Hallelujah the same again?
(You guys are brilliant!)
You nom’d your best but they wasn’t much
They couldn’t write, and they couldn’t touch
So I told the truth and had to No Award you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll die before I bite my tongue
With nothing in my hands but no Hugo for ya
Phew! Sorry but I can’t stay to chat, there is a flock of flying monkeys at the door…
It may be the Percocet talking, but man, I love you guys.
I got no Percocet to blame, but same sentiment here.
Oh, thank you all for that. That is beautiful. I’ll be singing it on the walk to work tomorrow. Bravo.
If I don’t post, it’ll be because the local cops don’t appreciate good lyrics (like the Japanese cops who busted one of my squadron mates for singing ‘Electric Funeral’ at 3 A.M. walking through Peace Park in Hiroshima…)
GRRM continues Handicapping the Hugos
. Just the Fan, Artist, and Editor categories thus far, but looks like he reckons that Toni Weisskopf stands the strongest chance of winning a Hugo from the slates in those categories.
Something I just noticed from his article. In a weird turnaround, it looks like in her Puppy-Free Guide, Deirdre Moen is apparently asking people to not vote for the Mixon report because apparently “she campaigned for a Hugo with emotional blackmail language”. I can see the links that Moen has put up, but WtF?
ETA: Oh verry nice on the Hallelujah filk guys. Verry very nice. Please enjoy a metaphorical {OrsonWelles_SlowClap.gif}
You swear you’re great by God above
but there’s nothing in your prose to love
And some editor should take a pencil to ya
You’re like ships passing in the night,
you and logic. Learn to write,
Or no one will give a freakin’ Hugo to ya….
Caution: Narrative does not contain fact. May contain nuts.
Caution: Negotiating with rabid canine may cause reptile dysfunction
When you did not win what you thought the truth
Was the Hugo’s now long in the tooth
And the Worldcon fans did not at all respect you
So a Hugo slate you did create
You gamed the noms and a fuss did make
And from their lips you drew loud opprobria
Hugos to ya, Hugos to ya
Hugos to ya, Hugos to ya
@snowcrash Re: Mixon & Moen
I seem to remember that the Moens support RH. They probably don’t want the expose to win.
Oh god I took SO MUCH PERCOCET last year. I don’t even remember the dosage I got up to, but I know the OxyContin I took concurrently maxed out at 180mg. I had two emercency-room visits for a normally routine bodily function it doesn’t do to discuss in detail. I kind of like PercoCet itself, but whoever decided OxyContin worked as a pleasure drug was an idiot.
The “Hallelujah/Hugos to Ya” filk: Vid? Flash mob style?
@@Christian Brunschen, Steve Wright, Buwaya, ‘As You Know’ Bob: Yes, this kerfuffle is a big Hasselblad, but Contax matters.
(Mike: Your email field won’t accept the last email address I used, and anyway I might as well use the Gravatar.)
Both Moens support RH. Between that, Ricky’s support for VD’s antisemitism, and Deirdre’s encouraging of RH’s continuing harassment of one of RH’s previous victims, I’m sure Laura Mixon is delighted not to have them on her side.
But as for the claim of emotional backmail…consider the source.
There are a lot of fair criticisms of these people, but that’s not one of them.
Yowch, Jim! Sounds unpleasant. I have nothing so exciting, just a bad back. My shoulder’s been giving me trouble and today’s enthusiastic weeding was probably not the best for it. But the weeds don’t pull themselves.
Loving the hallelujah additions, guys!
That’s interesting. I didn’t know that. Does anyone know why?
@RedWombat: But those weeds will know they’ve been weeded, I’ll bet! Hope you feel better soon.
Truth is, all other medicinal opiates pale before the morphine pump, but they guard that thing like they don’t want people getting jaded.
And who by puppy, who by sea lion,
Who in the email, who in the blog post,
Who by high respect, who by common appeal,
Who in your many many posts of sff,
Who by very slow FUD
And who shall I say is trolling?
And who in her lonely ship, who by ancillary,
Who in these realms of elves, who by some spell…
Viverrine, that is quite good.
According to failfandom, DSH was upset that her expose on MZB was denied a Hugo nod, and she may also have been trying to suck up to Winterfox’s prominent fans in order to get their support for a Hugo of her own. http://failfandomanonwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/98830596/Deirdre%20Saoirse%20Moen
The article includes a bunch of links to posts and comments by DSM, including a complaint about the Bay Area SF Association not recommending her expose on Bradley for a Hugo, and comments by her defending Winterfox.
I must go down to the con again, with the fen old and new
And all I ask is a good book to award a Hugo to.
And the Pups raged, and the Pups swore that the Hugos bored them,
But the fen looked at the slates’ fare, and will No Award them.
NowhereMan, it’s also my belief that DSM thought RH, apparently being such a rising young star with so many well connected publishing names supporting her (cf my previous comments on Martin Wisse, Nick Mamatas – also see Sean Wallace, K Tempest Bradford, etc), was a better bet to hitch her star to than Laura Mixon (another of those invisible older women.)
DSM isn’t very smart, however, and her moral compass dubious. Who knows what her actual reason is?
Rail
There is a reasonable (in story) explanation for that, I believe it also impacts the scientist suicides.
rgl doesn’t like the violence the sophons do to QM
@Ann, @Max, @NowhereMan – thanks for the context, disappointing if so.
I note that Brian Z is switching grav-IDs. Good for him, variety is the spice of life and alla that. For those of us using Aan’s script to whiteout/ highlight his posts, please note that you can use his blog address as the variable as well:
[href*=”caninedaze”]::after
Credit to Kendall in this post here:
https://file770.com/?p=24388&cpage=7#comment-319395
snowcrash, since he’s playing this trick, it would be trivial for him to remove his blog address too.
I am now so familiar with his tone that even if I don’t see his name and make the mistake of starting to read his comments, it’s clear within ten words who’s speaking, and then I scroll.
I’m sure people deal with me posting the same way, and that’s fine. I figured while everyone’s still tolerating and feeding Brian and Buwaya and the one without an I, they can cope with a foul mouthed and evil tempered old bag as well – or skip.
I’ll go away when they go away. Promise 🙂
@snowcrash,
It’s a Gravatar ID he’s used before so is already included in my script. I’m highlighting *and* fading out (the type is still legible so if I succumb to temptation, I can still read the comments, though it requires effort). I think of it as the File770 version of disemvoweling. DisBrianing?
Six bomb threats, to the police rather than the hosting group? There has at most been one prior anti-Gamergate bomb threat, if that was from an anti-GGer rather than someone on their side doing the false-flag thing they’re so obsessed about. Six threats about the same event (which had received very little prior discussion on the Gamerghazi reddit and other places that keep tabs on and discuss Gamergate) have just about got to be “false flag” nonsense. Gamergaters are the ones with a history of threats like that, and a fascination with playing what they imagine the part of critics of theirs to be like. (See, for instance, their various efforts to spawn fake social justice crusades on Twitter.) If the event was talked up in advance among Gamergaters, then I can easily see six guys in the herd all independently deciding that they’ll help out the cause and make those nasty SJWs seem that much worse.
As always, I could be persuaded otherwise by reliable evidence pointing at someone else. But all the Bayesian priors are on the side of typically irrationally exuberant Gamergaters trying to drum up sympathy for their own.
Bruce, you’re probably aware the Lou Antonelli apologists are all over this one.
Quite what the logic is behind assuming that the critics of Antonelli==those who made bomb threats, I have no idea. I’m sure one needs a touch of the Canine to make that leap.
@Ann: Every time I see something from the “Superversive” group, they seem more stupid and paranoid than I thought anyone could possibly be.
I suspect that the Puppies know they are about to be swamped under a tidal wave of votes at the Hugos, and are desperately trying to grasp at any straws they can before their narrative that they represent “real fans” is dealt a serious blow.
Bruce Baugh –
That’s what I’m thinking as well. Trending analytics had Gamergate at the lowest in the last week than any week prior, aside from a core group people had for the most part moved on. Anyone against it had no reason to call a threat in, those 15 minutes the ‘consumer movement’ had were up.
Not sure if it was some gator was hoping this would revitalize things, some batshit crazy person against it that for some reason still thought Gamergate was relevant, or just some third party troll for the hell of it, but I hope they catch whoever did it. Filing false threats to the police is something anyone should be against.
@Ann
These are the same people that continuously claim ABSENT ANY ACTUAL EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that the Hugo’s have always been “rigged”.
If course they would claim that this makes it utterly justified, even though there’s nothing linking the threats with anyone on the non-GG side; there’s nothing linking the event with Crazy Uncle Lou’s UTTERLY RATIONAL CONCERNS; and there’s nothing linking this with anyone on the non-pup side as well.
Logic is not part of the makeup, and they’re always the victims (pronounced “whingers”)
“I suspect that the Puppies know they are about to be swamped under a tidal wave of votes at the Hugos, and are desperately trying to grasp at any straws they can before their narrative that they represent “real fans” is dealt a serious blow.”
I don’t know that they care that much about the Hugos. What they are trying to do is build in group solidarity, so a victimisation narrative suits them very well (as it does RH for the same reason.) Paranoia against the other is not just a given with people doing this, it’s actually necessary.
I can’t say that it would make for a pleasant or productive mental space in which to exist, though.
“they’re always the victims (pronounced “whingers”)”
Funny, I’ve always pronounced it that way too :)*
*No offence or insult intended to real victims of real abuse/harassment.
@Ann, I, at least, would rather you didn’t go away. By the way, what is the image in your gravatar? Is it a book cover?
Ann @ 9:25 p.m. — oh, my god, I followed the link. Why did I do that? At least it was short, but now I need to wash the stupid off. So much stupid in so few words. One must praise, at least, their economy.
“what is the image in your gravatar? Is it a book cover?”
Yes, it is. The artist is PL Nunn, who has created some stunning covers for me recently.
Ann said
I am starting to feel this as well. Especially looking at lead pups doubling-down at trying to create divisiveness. It’s all echo chamber discussion with little to no discussion on other venues. People post but never make it past moderation.
It’s almost like they want to split off some fans and writers to form their own little universe of SF. Hermetically sealed and impervious to the goings on of the world around them.
Ann, I wasn’t following Lou news, but…see my shock and surprise. 🙂
” I wasn’t following Lou news”
ah, it’s just a troll popped up in the last post (?) to whine about this, and I thought you might have seen that. It was clear from the troll’s wording that a communiqué had gone out from Dog Control to put the message out to those evil SJWs.
“see my shock and surprise.”
I am shocked and amazed at the degree of your shock and surprise 😉
Sorry, Mike.
My revised demand is that VD and the rest of the Evil League of Evil apologize to everyone who cast a nominating ballot for the 2015 Hugos, and that each of the puppy leaders make donations to the Tiptree Award and the Southern Poverty Law Center. (I figure we might as well ask for something actually useful.)