The future is almost here, in today’s Scroll.
(1) SFWA will be selling fame at Sasquan.
If you've ever wanted to be Tuckerized, the SFWA auction at Sasquan is going to have some amazing opportunities.
— Cat Rambo (@Catrambo) August 7, 2015
(2) It’s not the accuracy that counts, it’s mainly Jim C. Hines having the idea to cast his thoughts in the form of 10 Hugo Predictions that’s genius.
- At least three puppy nominees won Hugo awards.
Congratulations to the winners, including those who were on the puppy slates. While most of the puppy nominees failed to take home a rocket, I imagine there will be at least three. I’m predicting one will go to my own editor, Sheila Gilbert, who’s made the ballot on her own in previous years, and is (in my biased opinion) utterly deserving of the award. I’m not as sure who the second will be, but I’m guessing Kary English in the short story category. One of the movies on the puppy ballots will also win. Finally, I think there’s a good shot of either Resnick or Brozek taking home a short-form editor Hugo.
- At least one category went to No Award.
No Award didn’t sweep the ballot like some people hoped/feared. It did take the Novella category, though. I think it will probably take Best Related Work as well.
(3) Jason Sanford seems to be expecting a much stronger showing by No Award than Hines, judging by this eulogy for the Puppies.
The problem for the puppies is they miscalculated about the outrage arising from their actions. As record numbers of people turned out to vote in the Hugos, the pups realized they’d overreached. It’s one thing to organize block voting on a preliminary ballot which few people actually take part in. But not being humiliated by a vote of “No Award” when thousands of people are taking part — that’s a much harder accomplishment.
(4) Alex Shvartsman tells how Unidentified Funny Objects got started on the SFWA Blog.
When I thought of the concept of a non-themed humor anthology, I was certain someone must have produced one before. But my research showed that no such thing existed. There were plenty of humor anthologies available: Chicks in Chainmail and Deals with the Devil to name a few, but those were all themed projects. No one seemed to be creating anthologies that would offer a wide variety of humorous voices and styles. It was the sort of book I would want to read, and I was confident many others would like it too. Thus, Unidentified Funny Objects and its parent micro-press, UFO Publishing, were born.
(5) Brad R. Torgersen has a horseshoe theory. No, I’m not cleaning up my language. His theory is completely horseshoe.
At one end of the horseshoe you have the “pulpy” stuff: visceral, action-packed, perhaps even hard-boiled? Emphasis on “doing” versus thinking.
At the other end you have the “literary” stuff: cerebral, theme-intensive, and sometimes abstract. Emphasis on “thinking” versus doing.
There are audiences waiting for you — the author — at both ends of the horseshoe. But there is nothing to say that you can’t combine both. Too much action and not enough contemplation, and your story becomes the tale of the idiot: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Too much contemplation and not enough action, and your story becomes the prototypical MFA piece: your main character does very little, thinks about a great deal, and again your story signifies nothing.
In order to hit the “sweet spot” you need to aim for the zone at the top of the horseshoe.
(6) A lawyer defending his client in a lawsuit is demanding trial by combat:
Richard Luthmann, a Staten Island attorney, is demanding that one of the plaintiffs (or their “champion”) in the suit against him face him in a literal battle to the death unless the case is dismissed. He claims that the practice has not been outlawed in the U.S. or New York state and is suggesting it to point out the absurdity of the plaintiffs’ allegations.
He’s gotten the idea from Game of Thrones – although Mack Reynolds wrote a series of stories in the 1960s for Analog about a mercenary who participated in settling corporate disputes by combat.
Here’s the lawyer’s argument why trial by combat can be permitted:
A Staten Island lawyer with a penchant for bowties and closely-cut beards is apparently channeling his inner “Games of Thrones” by asking a judge to sanction a trial by combat to resolve a civil suit in which he’s accused of helping a client commit fraud.
“The allegations made by plaintiffs, aided and abetted by their counsel, border upon the criminal,” Richard A. Luthmann wrote in a brief recently filed in state Supreme Court, St. George. “As such, the undersigned (Luthmann) respectfully requests that the court permit the undersigned to dispatch plaintiffs and their counsel to the Divine Providence of the Maker for Him to exact His divine judgment once the undersigned has released the souls of the plaintiffs and their counsel from their corporeal bodies, personally and or by way of a champion.”
…Over the course of 10 pages, Luthmann discusses the history of trial by combat from Middle-Age England to the founding of the Thirteen Colonies. (Fun fact: One British bishop in 1276 paid a champion an annual retainer fee, with additional stipends and expenses for each fight. Luthmann doesn’t say how much.)
More to the point, an attempt to abolish the practice in the Thirteen Colonies was blocked by Parliament in 1774, nor was it subsequently banned by the Constitution in the United States or by the state of New York, Luthmann contends.
(7) This day in history, courtesy of Phil Nichols and the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies’ Facebook page.
Fifty-eight years ago today, Oliver Hardy died, bringing an end to the decades-long comedy partnership of Laurel and Hardy.
Ray Bradbury adored Laurel and Hardy. When he went to Ireland in the 1950s to write the screenplay for Moby Dick with John Huston, he discovered that they were making a personal appearance in Dublin, so he went to see them on stage.
Later, he wrote three short stories inspired by the duo. “The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair” is probably the best of these, and can be found in Ray’s book The Toynbee Convector. “Another Fine Mess” is in his book Quicker Than The Eye. “The Laurel and Hardy Alpha Centauri Farewell Tour” is in One More For The Road.
Laurel and Hardy
(8) Major League Baseball is getting more eyeballs on its website by speculating “What would the Marvel Cinematic University’s baseball time look like?”
Ant-Man would play shortstop.
Hear us out. With a slick glove and an army of ants ensuring that any grounder would hop into his grasp for an easy out, Ant-Man would also offer surprising pop for the position. Plus, he would enrage pitchers with his ability to get on base thanks to his Pym Particles allowing his strike zone to shrink 12.7x its normal size, rendering him impossible to strike out.
From Ant-Man to Iron Man, these are Earth’s Mightiest Ballplayers.
(9) The Book Wars’ “Top Ten Tuesday” recommendations amount to around 50 titles, lots of YA and fantasy – and also, the reason I’m mentioning the post, one lists includes The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Pavlac Glyer.
(10) Mr. Sci FI, Marc Scott Zicree, visits the space shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center.
(11) It’s 2015, and Marty McFly’s hoverboard is here:
[Thanks to Morris Keesan, John King Tarpinian and Martin Morse Wooster for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Richard Brandt .]
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The days when your choices were Heinz, Hunt’s, or the crappy store brand that someone bought once because it was cheaper are long gone.
One might even analogize the Puppy campaign to people who rail against anyone who likes Cherry Coke or Vanilla Coke because everyone knows the one true coke is simply Coke. But the Puppies take it a step further and claim that people who drink Cherry Coke or Vanilla Coke are doing it wrong.
I’m on the puppy side here. I will rail against ANYONE who likes vanilla coke. >.<
Given some of the nominated Puppy works, I’m beginning to think they like the crappy store brand of ketchup that someone bought once because it was cheap.
@Aaron Worse than that, they claim that including Cherry Coke on the menu is proof that someone is trying to drive off the plain Coke drinkers.
@RedWombat There is now a small chain of currywurst restaurants in London…
@Oneiros, hmm the best Stephenson to start with would be Snow Crash and Diamond Age, but the cyberpunk milieu they’re in may appear quite dated. The next best would be Cryptonomicon, but that’s represent’s a significant investment in time, as the physical version of the book can be used to stun cows in abattoirs.
@Hampus You will not like the new coke machines that are rolling out then: you can mix a vanilla/cherry coke (among many other things). Came across one in a café on the Microsoft campus when I was visiting there a couple of weeks ago…
@oneiros @snowcrash I usually recommend Zodiac as a good place to start, then Snowcrash and The Diamond Age.
I prefer to read my Neal Stephenson with a safety helmet.
His books are different from each other. I adored Anathem with the adoration of 10,000 angels. I bounced hard off others.
@snowcrash recommends snowcrash, clearly some kind of conspiracy is going on here
Stepheson isn’t the only one who likes blades, IIRC MZW makes fancy knives and has spent 50 years as a sniper-pilot in Iraq so that could give him an edge
I grew up with Del Monte catsup. It’s probably what military commissaries sold. If I went to a friend’s house, or a barbecue, and they had Heinz or Hunt’s, it never seemed right to me. One was too literary, the other too action-oriented.
I disagree with Brad. Ted Chiang writes good stories that are all idea and no action.
Some examples in the slipstream : Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Stanislaw Lem, John Barth.
I remember Robert Silverberg re-writing Borges’s ‘the Lottery of Babylon’ to include action and character, with the resultant story having much less impact than the original.
Novels might be a different matter. ‘The Star Maker’ pulls off the all-idea novel, can’t think of another offhand.
@ Kurt Busiek 7:13 PM: Thank you for your response, nicely done. While JS/MN wasn’t all-out action, there were times when my stomach was in a knot during some exposition part, which is the same visceral response I get in an action sequence. So maybe there is a visceral horseshoe, were the reader’s emotional response is measured. But like the action/contemplation shoe, where is the balance and is balance what is best? Too visceral and it becomes draining to read, less visceral and one wonders if time wouldn’t be better spent on another book. Just my thoughts, but your (Kurt’s) post made me think more about “balance” and just what makes a story “good” to me.
Here’s what I’d consider wins for the Hugos tonight:
1. Best Novel: Ancilliary Sword or The Goblin Emperor. Three Body Problem wasn’t on any of the slates but it has been claimed by some puppies, so I’d consider it a win against slates but not against Puppies if it did.
2. No rockets for Beale or Wright. Major bonus points if they end up behind any no awards.
3. No rockets for Castalia House. Turning the Hugo’s into your way to market to old white people angry with the fact that the status quo is becoming more welcoming to all people might help CH’s bottom line, but rewarding it with Hugos would be fucked up.
4. A rocket awarded for Best Graphic Story. Many a puppy has whined about how it’s all crap and they’re no awarding it. There was crap, but it was puppy crap.
5. Wesley Chu for the tiara. Nothing to do with Puppy or Non. I just really like Wesley Chu’s works.
I don’t get why there’s been no revival of chocolate coke. In my youth it ranked with cherry coke as a standard kids’ fountain drink. I’m not sure I personally would find it palatable today, but I never liked cherry coke and it’s ubiquitous now.
I remember Robert Silverberg re-writing Borges’s ‘the Lottery of Babylon’ to include action and character, with the resultant story having much less impact than the original.
He did? I remember a short (“To See the Invisible Man”) developed from an aside in “Lottery”, but didn’t know of a rewrite of the whole thing.
Here’s what I’d consider wins for the Hugos tonight:
Tonight?
…. wow. How the hell did I get the WorldCon dates wrong by two weeks? Now I feel dumb.
alright, thanks everyone! Whenever I’m next vaguely settled I’ll see if I can grab a copy of Zodiac (I’m stuck in the past reading dead tree editions of novels mostly) and move onto Snow Crash et al after that (provided I enjoy Zodiac)
re weaponry: I’m quite partial to swords myself. Spears and bows, too. Generally, oldschool stabbing/cutting things, actually. Guns, I’m not so wild about, but I know my way around pistols at least.
re Torgersen: The main problem with his little essay is that what he’s trying to describe isn’t a two-dimensional thing. It’s hugely complicated and it’s less about hitting any particular spot than it is about scratching a multitude of itches.
@alexvdl:
This will not do.
Have you learned nothing from the roundups on this blog? Nothing? This is either a conspiracy (“the Evil Clique of Unholy Puppy Eaters (ECUPEs) is LYING about the date the Hugos are announced”) or part of your VICTORY (“Hah, by making you think I didn’t know when the Hugos were announced I will triumph over you all”).
(Personally, I’m not actually sure what day it is. Or year. Or century…)
Weeeeeeelllllll, I aim for transparency :p
So what’s everyone up to weekend-wise? I’ve just finished Witcher 3, so that’s opened up my leisure time. Currently dividing it up between Kowal’s Of Noble Family (off to a good start), and starting up on Life is Strange (certainly one of the more unique gaming experiences I’ve had) and Humans (just through the first couple of eps – it’s really quite intense!)
@clack Torgersen’s comment reminded me of Ortega y Gasset talking about how Proust managed to write a novel with the least amount of story possible, so I would submit Remembrance of Things Past as a possible example as well as Tristram Shandy. Of course, it’s hard to tell if they qualify given the vagueness of Torgersen’s account. If you were to take Torgersen’s description of what action is, “visceral, action-packed, perhaps even hard-boiled?”, there are many, many works that have no action (side note: it also seems his account of action is gendered).
re: Cryptonomicon I would be curious to hear a defense of the book or why his other books are different. I enjoyed Snowcrash, but stopped reading him after Cryptonomicon because, among other things, the book seemed suffused with libertarianism and his discussion of Athena vs. Mars seemed a) not very smart and kind of offensive because oftentimes the bad guys are technologically more advanced and win (e.g. 19th and 20th century imperialism) and b) made the entire book undramatic because you knew the bad guys were just parasites with no originality who would lose. Haven’t read it since it came out so I could be misremembering.
@Snowcrash: This has nothing to do with sci-fi, but my weekend plan is that I’m going to Bannerman Castle tomorrow. I’m quite excited about, often having seen it from the train as I go into NYC.
I’m dividing my time between one of David Weber’s Safehold books and studying some Turkish. Meanwhile, the missus is binge watching the second season of Extant.
I’ve heard great things about Humans so may have to acquire that somehow.
Snowcrash,
The wife and I are finishing up season 4 of Inkmasters, and we will then immediately transition into season 5. I’m about to start Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir on the recommendation of Peter V. Brett, and I’ll probably do some small amount of studying, not nearly as much as I should.
Also, I was going to watch the Hugo’s tonight but… apparently not. 🙂
@Robert Whitaker Sirignano – I think it’s safe to say that “Doc” Smith is not in sync to the skillionth of a whillionth of a nanosecond with everyone’s tastes.
Sometimes, when I’m in the right sort of mood, I detect an odd sort of Lovecraftian vibe coming from Smith. The hyper-adjectival prose is one thing… also, some of the bad guys. The Eich are pure Lovecraft, in their physical description at least. And as for the Eddorians… shoggoths, surely!
I find the existence of Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke incomprehensible, but I feel no anger at it, or at the people who, incomprensibly, enjoy they. I don’t see how it affects me.
I didn’t vote Three Body Problem first, but not because the Puppies, after the fact, have tried to claim it. We had three worthy nominees this year, and relative ranking was hard.
Soon Lee, I’m sorry for your loss, and glad you were able to have a ceremony that you found appropriate and comforting.
Snowcrash: For me, some MMO playing (World of Warcraft, where I’m leveling up a new character to help my lady love with some things, and Final Fantasy 14, which I’ve fallen in love with), reading Call of Cthulhu adventures, and this and that. A very nerdy weekend.
I suspect that the trial by combat attempt will fail. Even at common law it was attached to some – only some – of the old forms of action, which were abolished in the various states of the US in the late 19th century. (It’s like being able to bring an action in Assumpsit using old-style pleading rather than a modern claim for breach of contract – not that trial by combat was ever available as a remedy in Assumpsit.)
Somebody did make a claim of this sort in England in 1818 — Ashford v. Thornton. The right was abolished Parliament shortly after. But more general law reform has probably had the same indirect effect by now in the various American states.
Brad, and the other Puppies at MGC, when they opine on the craft of writing, remind me of that quote from ST:tWoK:
It’s as if getting their heads around the idea that writing is a very complex, multi-dimensional undertaking is too daunting for them; as if they think that if they can distill it all down to a few main “rules”, that the process will be so much less overwhelming and frightening for them.
Not surprisingly, this is an echo of their political and moral rantings, where they seem to think that distilling everything down to good and bad, black and white, will make the world easily comprehensible and controllable for them.
It must be extremely difficult to live life so frightened and overwhelmed that one’s continual instinctive reaction is to try to reduce everything to very simple, grade-school-level rules.
I didn’t vote Three Body Problem first, but not because the Puppies, after the fact, have tried to claim it. We had three worthy nominees this year, and relative ranking was hard.
That’s the thing I don’t think the Pups understand. I did rank Three Body Problem first, but it doesn’t bother me that other people ranked other stuff higher. I won’t mind if it doesn’t win. I will be happy if Goblin Emperor or Ancillary Sword win, even though I ranked them below Liu’s book. I might be a little disappointed if Skin Game or The Dark Between the Stars win because I don’t think either were particularly good, but I’m not going to start a campaign of frothing hate as a result.
JJ: I don’t understand the point of belittling Mad Genius Club’s articles about writing. Most of them have published a bunch of books. They’ve actually written, not just wished they were writers. Torgersen’s literary theory is not typical of the more practical craft-oriented articles that show up there — when they’re not busy defending Puppydom.
@David Langford : you’re right, the Borges sentence being “During one lunar year, I have been declared invisible: I shrieked and was not heard, I stole my bread and was not decapitated.” The story (or rather, essay-story), then goes on to discuss other aspects of the Babylon lottery.
The concept of being declared invisible is more evocative as an aside — as pure idea (Borges being inspired by Paul Valery’s so-called “broken stories”) — than as Silverberg’s fully dramatized short story, IMO.
The SF essay-story can pack lots of sense-of-wonder impact in concentrate form.
When I read Samuel Delany on How to Write, I recognize that I’m reading nothing more than this is how Delany likes to do things. Same with Stephen King. Same here with Brad Torgensen.
Snowcrash: Preparing for not-Worldcon. 🙂 I’ve got a science track at Dragon Con to continue organizing.
Lifting weights and resting up in between. I have finally, after my long period of illness, unemployment and pretty much complete de-conditioning, rejoined a gym that includes a good free-weight facility, including olympic-lifting plates and two oly stations. I am having to start over from scratch – empty bar – and my legs have the characteristic soreness that comes when you take up squatting again after a long layoff. But I am super happy. It feels like having my life back in a deep way. I had my third workout yesterday and I’ll have my fourth tomorrow.
I’ll probably read something too.
ETA: There are a couple of women at the gym who deadlift substantially more than their body-weight, so that’s pretty inspiring.
The takeaway for readers in Torgersen’s post seems to be that we need to stop reading so much.
And thanks to the ruminations on corporate trial by combat, I now have Bill Sutton’s “9-To-5 Barbarian” stuck in my head.
I am leading a couple of dozen uni students into the woods to hunt each other.
So what’s everyone up to weekend-wise?
Headed down to the Yakima Valley Fair and Rodeo to cover some events for the local paper today. Tomorrow I rest.
I just started Karen Memory, so I’m going to try to get some reading time in. I also aim to read at least one short story/novellete a week to prep for next year’s Hugo nominations, so I’ll use the Spreadsheet of Doom to look for something that I might like.
So what’s everyone up to weekend-wise?
Right now I’m preparing for the RPG session that I will be GMing starting at 3ish this afternoon.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to be able to write a couple of reviews to post next week and paint some of my too large collection of unpainted miniatures.
Weekend — OVFF meeting this afternoon, to finalize the Pegasus ballot. Mass tomorrow. Some reading and maybe some TV.
Welcome to my not-so-exciting world…
The excitement for the week was precipitated yesterday when Luciano, the young Siamese managed to pry one of the porch windows open and escape into the wilds of the backyard. Mom managed to grab another potential escapee, Valentine aka Fat Cat as he was halfway out. I collared the third under the witch-hazel by the porch.
We were unable to find Luciano. We did a neighborhood search and by the time we got back he was was waiting by the porch door for us to let him in. We have now rigged the windows so that he can’t duplicate the exercise…
Soon Lee, my condolences to you and your family.
Spent today wandering around Tokyo. I’m flying to Kumamoto soon to meet up with dojo friends and train at our honbu for a week. I’m so excited I can’t sleep.
Soon Lee
I was sorry to hear your news. May tje recollections and remembrances of life lived be a comfort.
This weekend? Photographing mainline steam running on the railway line behind my house (for steam geeks, it’s Tornado, the first mainline steam locomotive built in the UK for 50 years – a Peppercorn A1 built using modern techniques), writing articles on Windows 10 and a blog post for The Economist, watching the NCIS:LA/Scorpion crossover, and starting season 3 of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (even if they have diverged from Kerry Greenwood’s excellent novels), oh, and reading more John Birmingham.
(ObSF: anyone else notice the walk-on by Peter Davidson’s Doctor in among the sureallists in Greenwood’s Dead Man’s Chest?)
About the appeal of Neal Stephenson:
He came to my attention via The Diamond Age, which I loved, so when Cryptonomicon showed up I was prepared to love it as well, and I did. One attempt to describe it from my 1999 Locus review:
“Northrop Frye called this sort of encyclopedic, Rabelaisian narrative an ‘anatomy’–but [. . .] the shorthand, high-concept comparison I’ve been using is that it feels something like Catch-22 reworked by Thomas Pynchon, with dashes of Vonnegut and Tom Wolfe. Or, to people who have read The Diamond Age, I just say, ‘Neal Stephenson does World War II,’ which gets the point across.”
I enjoyed the Baroque Cycle every bit as much and maybe more–the comparison that kept coming to me was to John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor. (And, interestingly enough, it was Stephenson, among others, I thought of when reviewing JCW’s initial three-decker meganovel. Make of that what you will.)
Not everybody has this kind of response, and Stephenson’s voice and interests could well have changed since then–his books have gotten away from me in the Locus allocation system, and I’m not sure I’ll ever catch up now. (Snowcrash is still buried among the 200 or so books in the get-to-them-someday midden-heap on the dresser.) But I found the ones I read breathtaking.
Laurel And Hardy in Dublin. Specifically, outside the Royal Hotel, Dun Laoghaire, which is where I went to my first Octocon and met my now wife. This is one of my favourite pictures ever.
Re Torgersen, this quote from Raymond Chandler:
Brad isn’t familiar with bell curves, is he? Or is it too intellectual/literary for him?
Mike Glyer: close call. You skated close to admitting that not everything puppies write is unreadably bad.
My condolences, Soon Lee. 🙁
I shall record my terrible podcast with my husband–Kevin And Ursula Eat Cheap, we review pre-packaged food–and continue playing Okami HD and taking macro photos of bugs in my garden.
What I’m doing this weekend: House-sitting for a friend who’s attending the Outside Lands music festival. In a couple hours, I’ll re-audition for the SF Bay Area chorus Schola Cantorum—”re-audition” because I’ve been a member for some time, but everybody has to have their singing chops evaluated fresh every year or two.