It’s a party. It’s a dog party! But don’t drink the punch. That’s the advice in today’s Scroll.
(1) Well, that was brutal. HitchBOT the hitchhiking robot met its fate in Philadelphia.
Canada's hitchhiking robot lasts just two weeks in US before getting decapitated. http://t.co/802FBRUMho #smh pic.twitter.com/0bJexW3igk
— Lauren O’Neil (@laurenonline) August 2, 2015
The now-destroyed robot hails from Port Credit, Ontario. It completed a successful 26-day journey in 2014 in which it “traveled over 10,000 km from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Victoria, British Columbia.” Then in early 2015, hitchBOT moved onto a 10-day German adventure, followed by a three-week jaunt in the Netherlands.
Three countries. Zero incidents. But once hitchBOT made it stateside, it didn’t even make it past the Mason-Dixon line before getting the wiring kicked out of him.
Buzzfeed linked to a vlog recorded in Philly made during hitchBOT’s final hours.
This video from YouTubers BFvsGF shows them discovering hitchBOT Friday night. The researchers said the vloggers are the last known people to have seen hitchBOT.
(2) Nichelle Nichols may wind up the Star Trek cast member who came closest to reaching outer space, all despite her recent health setbacks.
The actress who played Lt Uhura in Star Trek is to blast off on a mission for US space agency NASA aged 82 – and three months after suffering a stroke.
Nichelle Nichols, who has been an ambassador for NASA since portraying the groundbreaking character in the 1960s, will fly on the SOFIA space telescope in September.
While the telescope – housed in a specially converted Boeing 747 – doesn’t quite go to the final frontier, it makes it as high as the stratosphere, around 50,000 above the Earth.
(3) Numerous features of Pluto and Charon are being given names from science fiction and fantasy. Kowal Crater on Pluto, just north of the right side of the heart, is not named for Mary Robinette Kowal (which would have been cool), but rather Charles T. Kowal, who discovered a new class of object in the solar system (centaur asteroids, which cross the orbits of major planets).
Showalter told BuzzFeed Charon is the first solar system body to have features named after geography and characters from both Star Wars and Star Trek. Darth Vader got a dark rimmed crater, while Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker both got lighter-rimmed craters.
Doctor Who is well-represented. Gallifrey, the home planet of the Time Lords in Doctor Who, is intersected, fittingly, by a chasm named Tardis, the Doctor’s time machine and space ship.
On the Star Trek side of things, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Lt. Uhura, Lt. Sulu, and the Vulcans all get shout-outs in Charon.
“We felt strongly as a mission team that we stood on the shoulders of giants,” Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission, told BuzzFeed Science, and that they needed to “honor the missions and the engineers and scientists who figured out how to do space exploration, because we could have never pulled off New Horizons without their experience.”
(4) Some of you should plan on going to Pluto – in person! That’s Brad Torgersen’s recruiting pitch on Mad Genius Club today.
Okay, kids, wake the hell up. I know you’ve been sitting in those desks since zero-four-hundred, wondering what the hell is going on, but never forget that you volunteered to be here. Nobody is making you do this. If you want to, you can go directly out that door in the back of the room, call your mommy or your daddy to come pick you up, then go home to your comfy little beds . . . No?
Right. Good. Now, pay attention. This is your official inprocessing brief.
A few days ago, the New Horizons probe did a close fly-by of the (dwarf) planet Pluto. Did you see the news? The pictures? I know, Pluto kinda gets lost in the shuffle — what with all the politicized, hyperbolic, narrative-laden bulls*** they cram into your brains all day. If it’s not the snooze news, it’s social media — where the way you change the world is by clicking your mouse, then giving yourself a hug. Because you care so much. No, don’t bother denying it. You’re children of your era, I know that’s how the game works. Virtue-signaling. Slacktivism. Never get your hands dirty.
Well, be prepared to get some soil under your nails, boys and girls. Because Pluto is where we’re ultimately headed. And beyond. Not with robots. But with human beings.
(5) The Radchaai do not believe in coincidences, and neither does Lou Antonelli.
I'm surprised I didn't see anyone comment on the fact that the day the voting ended for the Hugo awards was also a Blue Moon.
— Lou Antonelli (@LouAntonelli) August 2, 2015
(6) Inside Out – How It Should Have Ended.
(7) Hugo voting has closed and here is John Scalzi’s valedictory to the Puppy movment.
It does seem to me that the all the Puppy bullshit ran down and out of steam there at the end; at a certain point there was nothing left to say, there was just the voting, and you voted or didn’t. The last bit of nonsense I saw from the Puppy environs was some of their nominees rage-quitting the Hugos and deciding to “No Award” themselves, and at least one of them saying that was the plan all along, because apparently when you have no idea what you’re doing, every outcome, no matter what it is, is a victory condition. At which point you just roll your eyes, pity the sad and meaningless sort of existence where being the turd in the punch bowl is a legitimate life goal for a presumably adult human, and move on.
Doesn’t “Floating in the punchbowl” scan about the same as “rolling on the river”? I won’t take that idea any farther…
[Thanks to Steven H Silver and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]
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1. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
3. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
Brad’s Pluto speech was nearly as inspiring as this song and similar in content.
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner
3. FOOL’S RUN
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
Statistics:
Women: 50% (3/6)
Men: 50% (3/6)
From the previous round to this, no works by women were eliminated and one was added. Five works by men were eliminated.
Without the added work, which may be a more fair way of assessing trends, the numbers are:
Women: 40% (2/5)
Men: 60% (3/5)
U.S.: 66.7% (4/6)
England: 33.3% (2/6)
From the previous round to this, one work from England was eliminated. Four works from the U.S. were eliminated, and one was added. Without the added work, the numbers are:
U.S.: 60% (3/5)
England: 40% (2/5)
90’s: 16.7% (1/6)
80’s: 16.7% (1/6)
70’s: 50% (3/6)
60’s: 16.7% (1/6)
Before the 60’s: 0% (0/6)
Two works from the 50’s were eliminated, zero works from the 60’s were eliminated, two works from the 70’s were eliminated, one work from the 80’s was eliminated and one was added, and zero works from the 90’s were eliminated. Without the added work, the numbers are:
90’s: 20% (1/5)
80’s: 0% (0/5)
70’s: 60% (3/5)
60’s: 20% (1/5)
Before the 60’s: 0% (0/5)
2. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
1. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
2. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
3. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
Didn’t need a cold cloth. This is worrying.
I actually noticed in the sci fi bracket that the middle rounds seemed to have the hardest choices.
Well, I predicted that Mr Beale had one more bombshell left to fire off, or at least a nice sparkly rocket for people to ooh and ahh over, in the last week or two of voting, and I’m happy to admit that I was wrong. Clearly I overestimated him. And without something to get people excited that part of the Puppy campaigns ended with a whimper rather than a growl.
I can only assume that Mr Beale is too busy writing his various victory speeches. One for No Award. One for John C Wright wins all the things. One for the Chinese Communist book, One for the weird gender book, One for the manly urban fantasy, One for the goblin steampunk politics, and One for the long complicated space opera. One for David Gerrold slightly mispronouncing a winner’s name. One for the Campbell Tiara being put on upside down. One for the awards ceremony being hijacked by Giant Bugs. I wonder if he’s up all night with a flowchart and a paragraph for every possible permutation. By now he’s got to Heinlein returns from the dead and storms the stage with a new manuscript that didn’t get nominated. Victory, he types. The SJWs don’t have an answer for THIS!
He’s probably right about that.
1. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
3. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. BeagleNine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
Abstain
3. FOOL’S RUN
The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner
3. FOOL’S RUN
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
1. Abstain
2. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
3. The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
(The last one was tough, but The Riddle-Master is still a vital personal touchstone after all these years.)
Regarding subtitles:
Closing Bracket
Regarding short works (I don’t think this is a novelette, but short work in general is something I have to remind myself to keep looking for) I recently was pointed at In Libres by Elizabeth Bear and really enjoyed it.
I hadn’t heard that there were many Chinese novelettes out there. Are they available in English? Where does one find them? I haven’t read much work by Chinese writers. I’ve read Three-Body Problem, of course, but didn’t like it that much. And I tried Grace of Kings but bogged down about 35% in, in part because there was a pretty notable lack of women characters. But two books is not a trend; I’m willing to keep trying.
On the subject of translation, I’ve been working on learning Dutch and one of the ways I’m doing it is translating Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett into Dutch. (It has probably already been translated, and much better than anything I can do; the point is to give me a focus to keep using the Dutch I know and learn new words. I now know a couple of ways to say “witch” for example, and am quite solid on the difference between “toad” and “path” which is harder than you might think.)
Anyway, wandering back to the point, I really admire Ken Liu’s accomplishment with Three-Body Problem even if I didn’t care for the book. That was a big chunk of his working time he committed to that project. I suppose this is one reason works in translation are not widely available in the US.
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
3. FOOL’S RUN
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
I’m curious about the timing. Did the puppies losing steam coincide with the round ups stopping over here? That’s when I stopped interacting with them, personally, because I certainly wasn’t going to seek them out on my own.
@Kurt Busiek: “I don’t actually believe you, Brian. I don’t disbelieve you either, but you’ve abused the idea of sincerity to the point that your assurances mean less than nothing.”
Is the term you’re looking for “bullshit”?
(sidenote: in addition to Aaron James’ Assholes: A Theory, Harry Frankfurt’s On Bullshit have best explained the Puppies to me and are well worth a read in case one hasn’t)
When I read The Three Body Problem I had no idea it was the first part of a trilogy, and was disappointed with the way it came to a crashing halt just as it was getting interesting (again). Reading the blurbs for the next volume, I’m getting the feeling that some (presumably multilingual) readers were enthusiastic for the series as a whole and somehow failed to communicate that they were talking about the trilogy, or failed to realise that they were projecting qualities of the whole on to the first part.
Just a thought I had recently.
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
My vote here was a foregone conclusion, I realize.
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
ABSTAIN.
3. FOOL’S RUN
ABSTAIN.
Poor Baby Brad: Even when it comes to human space travel, the ur-thrill of the whole genre, he can’t just groove on the coolness of the idea. He has to bang on about his political resentments in the course of things.
@Tofu
My sense is that there was a coincidence in timing, but that may be because the Puppies were already starting to lose steam. There was a point at which it became apparent that:
1) they have little power to manipulate the final voting;
2) they can’t even organize a boycott of one of their outrage targets that has a statistically significant effect on the bottom line; and
3) a workable rules change is in consideration to fix the nominations process.
At that point I decided that it was no longer necessary to pay so much attention. Mike decided to close the roundups just a few days after that, so I’m guessing he came to the same conclusion. The universe can always surprise us – I’m going to be very interested to see how the final voting went – but for the moment it just doesn’t seem necessary to follow what the Puppies are saying and doing very closely.
Jim Henley: Poor Baby Brad: Even when it comes to human space travel, the ur-thrill of the whole genre, he can’t just groove on the coolness of the idea. He has to bang on about his political resentments in the course of things.
This seems to be a huge problem for Puppies. It doesn’t matter whether they’re blogging about self-publishing, or the writing craft, or space exploration, or anything else — they just can’t seem to manage doing it without making numerous digs at “libruls” or “SJWs” or “literati”.
This whole Puppy fiasco has been really interesting to me in the sense that it’s been like observing and studying a new species of human being — creatures who see every single thing through an intense, politically-charged lens, and who imagine conspiracies and hostile attacks in everything, regardless of subject or motivation.
It’s bizarre. I can’t imagine living life with this sort of sociopathic mindset — and I certainly would not want to do so.
Ok, first, the Ritual Hating of Kyra’s Dice.
Although, frankly (and heretically) – it’s not her dice’s fault. When all the greatest works of SF and of Fantasy are distilled down to a few, of COURSE it’s going to be hard to choose….
That said, I’m in on the sledgehammer fund. Just ’cause. Gnashing of teeth follows:
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny2. THE DISPOSSESSED
The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner3. FOOL’S RUN
The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillipSmall Gods, Terry Pratchett
(I’m almost (almost!) glad you didn’t pick Paks. I don’t know how I’d’ve voted there…)
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
Voted for both at different times which made this one a toss up
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
Easy pick
3. FOOL’S RUN
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
Voted for both all the time which made this a very hard pick
And now that I’ve read through the other voters so far… I find it actually makes me feel good to see that others voted differently that I did. Because these are ALL great works, and they ALL deserve acknowledgement. I’d be genuinely distressed for any work to be shut out, even if it were a work that I’d not voted for. (Well, for it to be a shut out, naturally I’d not have voted for it, or it wouldn’t be. But you know what I mean.)
@Bruce
Now, Now. I think we’re missing the point of Torgersen’s speech. It’s not just how he managed to distill all of the scientific wonders of New Horizons down into a screed about how he and the rest of the MGC are all Manly Men Who Are Men While Being Manly. Indeed, we should be happy.
Because a few months ago, weren’t we all informed that the reason Torgersen wasn’t answering questions about the wildly shifting kaleidoscope of Sad Puppies justifications, the nepotism of his slate, his willingness to speak for the people who wanted out of his slate, his definition of everyone who won that he didn’t like as an affirmative action baby, was solely due to the fact that he was going to be facing down ISIS, alone with naught but a sharpened toothbrush handle and a ball of a twine. Anyone who uttered a peep of criticism of Torgersen was obviously a disloyal traitor who hated America and Freedom and Wanted ISIS To Win.
I can only assume that Mr. Torgersen’s return to posting screeds of manliness on MGC is a sign that he is now out of danger. We should rejoice, at the stalwart courage of this man, so much greater than ourselves, who would never dream of hiding behind his deployment (or anything else) when convenient.
@Tofu
I think the roundups were demonstrating the loss of steam for a couple of weeks before Mike put them out of their misery. Basically, by the time we’d settled down and actually read MZW’s mighty tome, Stuff I Stole From rec.arts.funny, all the case that these were great writers unfairly denied their place at the table evaporated, and the puppies knew it.
I saw several people at various points in discussions here talking about Tim Powers. Just wanted to let y’all know that one of his books, The Stress of Her Regard, is the SFF Kindle deal of the day at $1.99.
Have the Puppies lost steam? I rather suspect the perception that they have has more to do with not seeing daily, itemized directories of bullshit than a decrease in the production of bullshit. I skimmed Hoyt’s blog and, yeah, she’s still pumping out entries and still banging on about her hobby horses. I just hit the Genius Club and, oh yes, the first entry (from today) is still going on about Hugos and Puppies and blah blah.
So: I don’t think they’ve lost steam. They may have lost some of their audience (us), but that’s it.
OK, lets hold my nose and try a test. Looks at Teddy’s blog.
* Immigration is a bad thing (written by an immigrant…)
* Continued debate on something obscure, but nothing to do with SF as far as I can tell.
* Sigmund Freud.
* Migration
* (at last) The Puppies will achieve great victory in the Hugo awards (for certain values of Great. And certain values of Victory).
So even Teddy seems to have largely moved onto other things.
Cat,
Not sure about novelettes, specifically, but in terms of short fiction, Clarkesworld did a Kickstarter last year to fund Chinese translations, and did well enough to add other languages.
From the two most recent issues :
Security Check by Han Song, translated by Ken Liu
The Hunger Tower by Pan Haitian, translated by Nick Stember
Oh, right, voting:
1. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
3. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
In the “missed it by *that* much” category, one of the features on Charon is named “Serenity Chasm.” They couldn’t have just gone for “Serenity Valley” for the win? It is located near Alice Crater, which was named for Alice in Wonderland, but could just as easily have been named for early fictional lunar explorer Alice Kramden.
1. Nine Princes in Amber
2. The Tombs of Atuan
3. Small Gods
@Maxi, I have been active at Correia’s site. Those guys are still riled. There doesn’t seem to many of them though. I am starting to get the sense that Puppyville is pretty small. But if it is that small than I wonder if Vox Day’s and Larry Correia’s and John Wright’s attempt at niche marketing is helping or hurting them. Correia at least had the potential of developing a politically diverse fan base. Maybe nobody is paying attention.
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny2. THE DISPOSSESSED
The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le GuinSwordspoint, Ellen Kushner
3. FOOL’S RUN
The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillipSmall Gods, Terry PratchettThe Broken Sword, Poul Anderson
TheYoungPretender, that was a very manly response. How could I disagree?
They’ve completely lost traction outside their own space, so, yes. Remember when Beale was here going, today FT, tomorrow Fox News?
@Bruce @JJ
There are plenty of people in this world, of every political stripe, who see *Everything* in terms of politics and a political agenda. I can’t live like that, myself, either. It would eat me up inside.
On the other hand, it provides a group-identification and a sense of community for those involved. Maybe that’s their ultimate benefit.
I think everyone has lost some steam on the topic. You can only pound your head against the wall for so long before it begins to lose its appeal.
I’d like to think that people have come to the realization that their cause is unjust, but realistically that’s not about to happen. You see people posting about how wonderful the slated titles were and how much fun they’ve all had. Obviously a different definition of “fun” than I’m used to.
MaxL: I just hit the Genius Club and, oh yes, the first entry (from today) is still going on about Hugos and Puppies and blah blah.
Oh, wow, that piece from Freer is just a mess of illogic, isn’t it? It skips all over the place and is pretty much incoherent.
Based on what I’ve read over there, most of the people at MGC would benefit greatly from creating an outline for each of their posts and ensuring that it has a logical format, leading up to a point(s), instead of just regurgitating great swaths of random thoughts around some central idea until they’ve hit their word goal.
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
3. FOOL’S RUN
The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
(While PTerry is mighty, in the end McKillip’s powerful prose has had a bigger impact on me.)
Oh, Camestros, Cat Faber quoted you on John Scalzi’s blog, too. Enjoy the egoboo!
@Kyra: “I actually noticed in the sci fi bracket that the middle rounds seemed to have the hardest choices.”
Perhaps at that stage a lot of contenders have relatively small followings but are strong personal favourites of some of us? (Bridge of Birds, The Anubis Gates, The Worm Ouroboros in my case, to name but three) By the later rounds the ‘juggernauts’ are beginning to dominate.
To the voting:
1. Nine Princes in Amber. Can we have another LeGuin – Zelazny final?
2. Swordspoint. Do we really want another LeGuin – Zelazny final? Might well have written this in at some stage if I had time to do more than consider the pairings as given.
3. Small Gods.
That was relatively painless, considering.
Maybe that proposed subtitle should have been:
There Will Come Soft Flames
After the wholly undeserved loss Watership Down sustained in the last round of bracket voting, I am exercising my right to ‘No Award’ the entire affair. ;p
1. The Last Unicorn
2. The Tombs of Atuan
3. Small Gods
and JRRT for the win, forever.
Steven Silver on August 3, 2015 at 6:01 am said: It is located near Alice Crater, which was named for Alice in Wonderland, but could just as easily have been named for early fictional lunar explorer Alice Kramden.
Poor Kramden wound up a footnote in the history of space exploration, as her mission kept on getting postponed.
Oh, this one seems easier for me 🙂
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner
3. FOOL’S RUN
The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
Hm, odd signs of bolding in the preview. Let’s go for it and edit if needed.
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
— sorry, Roger, but “I know when I loved by the way I behaved” is something I still quote regularly.
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
—
no shame to lose to Le Guin.
3. FOOL’S RUN
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
—
not much of a contest
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner
3. FOOL’S RUN
The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do… I’m half-crazy [/HAL 9000]
1. UNICORN VARIATIONS
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
2. THE DISPOSSESSED
Swordspoint, Ellen Kushner
3. FOOL’S RUN
Small Gods, Terry Pratchett