(1) A BEST EDITOR WINNER. SFFWorld interviewed editor Ellen Datlow:
A working life spent reading SF, Fantasy, and horror short stories sounds like a dream come true. Are there down sides to being an editor? Do you have any advice for aspiring editors?
ED: I’ve always loved short stories, so working in the short fiction field is indeed the perfect job for me. It’s hard to find time to read outside the genres in which I’m currently working. I mostly read short fiction for work, so picking novels that I hope I’ll enjoy is the challenge. They usually have to be dark/horror so I can cover them in my annual Best Horror of the Year. The administration is a pain: sending out contracts, paying royalties to a hundred writers is onerous (even with Paypal). But everything else is great. I love the whole editing process, from soliciting new stories that would not exist except for me asking; working with my authors on story revision (if necessary); and even the line edit.
Advice: Read. Read slush. If you don’t love reading, you have no reason to be an editor
(2) SCIENCE ADVISOR. Financial Times profiled Cal Tech physicist Spyridon Michalakis in “’I help Hollywood film-makers get their science right’”. (Warning: I had to answer a 10-question survey ad to see the full article.)
In the article Michalakis discusses his work through The Science and Entertainment Exchange, “which connects film and TV producers with scientists.” He’s consulted on Ant-Man, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and other shows.
Here’s what he had to say about Gravity:
“It’s a shame when I see films that inadvertently forgo scientific accuracy for added drama. For instance, in the movie Gravity when Sandra Bullock’s character grabs hold of George Clooney’s character while they’re both floating out in space, he tells her she has to let go of him, otherwise both of them are going to fly off and die because he’s pulling her farther and farther away from the space station. The trouble is, they’re so far away from Earth that, in reality, nothing would actually be pulling them.
“I find myself watching that scene and thinking they could have achieved the same drama just as easily with something called ‘conservation of momentum.” With this, the only way for her to get back to the station would be for Clooney’s character to actively sacrifice himself by pushing Bullock away from him. It would have been real science and it would have made the movie better. You watch these things and you say to yourself, ‘I’m just a phone call away.'”
(3) OHH-KAYYY…. The Washington D.C. public library has an idea for drawing attention to oft-challenged books. Is it innovative, or over-the-top?
Every year, libraries around the country observe Banned Books Week, to remind the public that even well known and much loved books can be the targets of censorship. This year, Washington D.C.’s public library came up with a clever idea to focus attention on the issue: a banned books scavenger hunt.
Now, readers are stalking local shops, cafes and bookstores looking for copies of books that are hidden behind distinctive black and white covers. There is no title on the cover, just a phrase — such as FILTHY, TRASHY or PROFANE — which describes the reason why some people wanted the book banned.
For those lunchin' @UnionMarketDC– we just did an #UncensoredDC drop while scoping out dreamy goods for the home pic.twitter.com/jLubu86RkW
— DC Public Library Foundation (DCPLF) (@LoveDCLibrary) September 15, 2016
(4) SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL CONSERVATIVE. John Shirley, who identifies as a progressive, argues “Why Conservatives are a Necessary Component of a Vital Society” in a post for Tangent Online. I have to say it brings to mind the ending of Harlan Ellison’s “Beast Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the World.”
….Every democracy genuinely needs conservatives. And not so we can have someone to argue with. We need them for their perspective; we need them for their call for individual hard work, which is always a good thing in itself, when people can find it; we need them for the reluctance at least some of them show to get engaged in wars that squander blood and treasure. And we need them to be skeptical of our schemes.
We need them to push back.….
This website, Tangent Online, relates to the science-fiction field, and so do I. From time to time the sf field has been storm-lashed by political controversies, essentially conservative vs. liberal and vice versa. Going back, it cuts both ways: back in the day, Donald Wollheim and Fred Pohl and Judith Merril and others were slagged by conservative sf writers and editors for leaning left. Now the pendulum has swung way, way the other direction and certain reasonable conservatives amongst science fiction writers and critics are sometimes being over scrutinized, even punished, for outspokenness and some fairly normal speech tropes—most recently, Dave Truesdale was actually ejected from the Worldcon for having declared on a short story panel, in the space of a few minutes, that science fiction was being unfairly truncated by politics, and free speech gagged by political correctness emanating from the left. I listened to a tape of the remarks and could find nothing that broke any convention rules. Some defending the convention fall back on claims that his use of the term “pearl clutchers” is sexist, is hateful to women. But in my experience the term does not apply to women, particularly—it’s about people who are making a drama of nothing, probably just to get attention. Underlying the con committee’s action was, I suspect, emotional fallout from the “Sad Puppies” Hugo Award controversy. But people shouldn’t let emotions dictate their interpretation of the rules.
(5) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRL
- September 15, 1907 – Fay Wray
(6) RICK RIORDAN PRESENTS. Disney has announced a new Rick Riordan Presents imprint reports Publishers Weekly. Riordan will curate a line of books that introduces selected writers of mythology-based novels.
Rick Riordan has gotten a variation on the same question from his fans about a zillion times: When are you going to write about (fill in the blank): the Hindu gods and goddesses? Ancient Chinese mythology? Native American legends?
Now, he has an answer – of sorts: Disney-Hyperion is launching Rick Riordan Presents, an imprint devoted to mythology-based books for middle grade readers. The imprint, which will be led by Riordan’s editor, Stephanie Owens Lurie, hopes to launch with two books in summer 2018. The books will not be written by Riordan, whose role will be closer to curator than author.
…The plan is to launch the imprint in July 2018 with two books, though those books have not yet been acquired yet. “We’ve approached a couple of people but some of them are adult writers so they would be trying to do something completely different,” Lurie said. “The point of making this announcement now is to get the word out about what we’re looking for.”
“Rick just can’t write fast enough to satisfy his fans,” said Lurie, whose official title will be editorial director of the imprint. “I think he’s doing an incredible job writing two books a year already.”
There’s also this: ”I know he feels that, in some instances, the books his readers are asking for him to write are really someone else’s story to tell,” Lurie said.
(7) MAJOR SF ART EXHIBIT. The IX Preview Weekend Popup Exhibition will take place at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, DE from September 23-25. Tickets required.
Imaginative Realism combines classical painting techniques with narrative subjects, focusing on the unreal, the unseen, and the impossible. In partnership with IX Arts organizers, the Delaware Art Museum will host the first IX Preview Weekend, celebrating Imaginative Realism and to kick off IX9–the annual groundbreaking art show, symposium, and celebration dedicated solely to the genre.
Imaginative Realism is the cutting edge of contemporary painting and illustration and often includes themes related to science fiction and fantasy movies, games, and books. A pop-up exhibition and the weekend of events will feature over 16 contemporary artists internationally recognized for their contributions to Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, Marvel, DC Comics, Blizzard Entertainment, and Wizards of the Coast, among others.
There will be workshops by two leading sf artists as well.
Sept 24 @ 7:00 pm
Workshop with Bob Eggleton: Seascapes Sept 24 @ 10:15 am – 12:15 pm and 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm During this hands on demonstration and group painting salon, Bob Eggleton will walk participants through creating a seascape in acrylic paint with a nod to the ocean as ‘character’. Incorporated into the illustration storytelling aspect of this demonstration will be construction of the ocean as narrative using elements, from the subtle to the extreme, like sea monsters, antique ships, rocks, waves, clouds, lighting, and odd bits of flotsam and jetsam debris. Bob will share his own experience as well as that of his heroes, classic 19th and 20th century illustrators and fine art Masters. Pre-registration required. Supplies: Attendees should bring preferred acrylic painting setup, including brushes, paints, and paper/panels/boards.
Drawing Workshop and Lecture with Donato Giancola: Compositional Drawing Sept 25 @ 10:15 am – 12:15 pm and 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Donato will share his knowledge and approach to producing skillfully drafted drawings. From sketch to finish, the aesthetic and technical decisions the artist makes will be laid bare for observation and comments offering wonderful insight into the foundations of creativity of a modern artist. The four-hour workshop is for the artist who aspires to pursue further development and refinement of their skills in composition and as storytellers. Attendees of all skill levels are welcome as the focus of the workshop is upon creative problem solving, not technical execution. Pre-registration required. Supplies: Attendees should bring along their own preferred drawing utensils (pencils, paper,sketchbooks, etc) as well as a few favorite images/photos of themes they wish to create work upon. Alternative drawing supplies will also be available for use.
(8) WHAT’S A HUGO WIN WORTH? Kay Taylor Rea of Uncanny Magazine says Hugo wins are helping sales there. (Uncanny won the 2016 Best Semiprozine Hugo.)
considering the Hugo's meant we've already passed last year's site traffic at Uncanny saying awards don't drive sales? Hm
— Kay Taylor Rea (@kaytaylorrea) September 4, 2016
(9) NOT LETTING THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG. Mary Robinette Kowal posted a photo of what’s in the suitcase she’s taking to the Writing Excuses Workshop.
(10) NO ONE BEHIND THE WHEEL. Matthew Johnson is the latest Filer to leave a poetic masterwork in comments:
Inspired by item 7:
My self-driving car must think it queer
To stop without a charger near.
I wonder, did I hurt its pride
When I pressed DRIVER OVERRIDE?
Whose woods these are I think I spy:
in June the Google Car went by
And so the trees, though deep in snow, are green
When viewed upon my tablet screen.
Most days I doze away the route
That my car drives on our commute
And trade the sight of forests dark and deep
For just another hour’s sleep.
This night, the darkest of the year
Some demon woke me, passing here,
And so I stopped, though home is far
Got out and left my loyal car.
A single line of deer track goes
Into the forest, deep with snow
My road, I know, was once just such a trail
Blazed by cloven hooves and white-tipped tails
Crowdsourced by deer to find the gentlest route
Through tree and mountain, lake and chute
Then followed feet, at first in leather clad
To travel where the hooves of deer had.
My car’s soft beep awakens me:
To stay longer would unreasonably
Expose the maker to liability
And besides, it voids the warranty.
Well, a contract is a contract, after all,
And speaks louder than the forest’s call
So I return, my feet no longer free,
Because I clicked on I AGREE.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have Terms of Use to keep,
And miles to go while fast asleep,
And miles to go while fast asleep.
[Thanks to Lee, Martin Morse Wooster, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Dawn Incognito.]
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I have to speak out against the idea that Paulk’s criticism is terrible because she didn’t read the whole book. In all fairness, sometimes the beginning or an excerpt can inform the rest of the work. For example, when in the first few paragraphs I read the following:
I decided that the rest of it is gonna be an exercise in utter idiocy. Regardless, I did soldier on.
I was not proven wrong.
ETA: The first quoted paragraph is an excerpt from the work that Paulk is…critiquing
OMG, the failure of the text when it comments on the Sad Puppies “Terms of Surrender”, a text that was published on an obvious satire site. Do your homework again.
Random Art: Here’s a cover I think is way cool, from an upcoming Tor.com novel. Lovely art. (The novel looks interesting, too.)
ETA: @snowcrash: ::snicker::
John A Arkansawyer:
This is extremely offensive.
Yeah, it’s not like tons of people thought “The Fifth Season” was the best novel they’d read in years, and certainly the best of 2015. I mean, if you leave out the amazing world-building (and world-destroying, right there on the first page!), the vivid characterizations, and the masterful use of language, you could … nope, because then you’d be reading a blank book, which never win literary awards, no matter who puts them out.
Also, JJ was referring to the man quoted in the article, who says he’s a progressive, and therefore not a conservative at all! He is an older white man, however.
I don’t recall Fred Pohl and Don Wollheim whining about how persecuted they were by conservatives back in the day and bleating about how they needed their liberal safe space to withdraw into. Or calling a big percentage of the field insulting terms they made up. Or try to take over the Hugos against the will of the voters. Nor how they would abjure and deride everyone not of their political persuasion — gosh, they not only published conservatives, they were friends with them!
@Hampus: he’s paraphrasing a famous conservative quotation/philosophy.
@Lela E. Buis: ROFL. Oh no, not at all. You have to actually make the case for your outlandish claim. No one has to make a defense against a wild, spurious claim like yours. I would say “nice try,” but, well, it wasn’t.
Actually, all the indicators pointed to Uprooted as the winner. See stats at Chaos Horizon that put the Fifth Season in fourth place.
Lela E. Buis: Hm. Are you suggesting that only older white men are conservatives?
No, I am stating — flat-out stating, not “suggesting” — that I am getting really, really tired of older white men continually telling everyone else that since they don’t have a problem with another older white man’s behavior, no one else should have a problem with it, either.
I am, however, suggesting that you take some remedial courses at your local community college (or, perhaps more appropriately, grade school) to improve your reading comprehension. You really seem to struggle with understanding what other people have written on an ongoing, rather than merely occasional, basis.
Really? I voted for a groping and engaging novel written in an original and distinctive voice.
No, I am stating — flat-out stating, not “suggesting” — that I am getting really, really tired of older white men continually telling everyone else that since they don’t have a problem with another older white man’s behavior, no one else should have a problem with it, either.
And no one else does this?
Lela E. Buis: And no one else does this?
Do you see the words “and no one else does this” anywhere in that statement?
I’ll give you a hint, because I know that reading comprehension is really difficult for you: You don’t.
Do you see the words “and no one else does this” anywhere in that statement?
I’ll give you a hint, because I know that reading comprehension is really difficult for you: You don’t.
Does this mean you don’t have an answer for the question?
Sorry, that is a little trollish. You’re being quite rude, though.
Lela E. Buis: Does this mean you don’t have an answer for the question? Sorry, that is a little trollish. You’re being quite rude, though.
It means that what I said was exactly what I meant. If I had meant “and no one else does this”, I would have said so. I have no problems articulating what I mean.
And as long as you continue to come to File770, and so rudely and offensively (and, I will point out, quite trollishly obviously) attempt to put in other peoples’ mouths words that they have never said, you are not in a position to call anyone else “rude”.
I suggest that you get some remedial vocabulary lessons along with those reading comprehension lessons.
“Daddy, what’s a sea lion?”
Lela E. Buis:
Maybe people would be less rude to you if you stopped behaving like a troll?
Lela, stop putting words in other people’s mouths for the purpose of accusing them of being trolls. That is a bog-standard troll tactic. No one has said any of the things you’re accusing them of having said. Unlike the more charitable commenters who have already addressed this, I think you understand this perfectly well and are just… well, trolling by pretending not to. It’s the Purloined Letter tactic — nobody could get multiple statements as completely wrong as you do without having a firm grasp of what was actually said.
Lela E. Buis:
The whole idea that awards should be based on calculations and not the result of people reading and voting… Uprooted was a YA book and much to lightweight for me. I guess plenty of other voters thought the same.
I voted “The Fifth Season” first because I always like a streak of darkness in my books.
Man, I love Peter watts.
Lela, stop putting words in other people’s mouths for the purpose of accusing them of being trolls.
Tsk. I didn’t accuse anyone of being a troll. I was referring to my own question.
@Hampus Eckermann–
This is a paraphrase of a famous and influential American conservative who said “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” (Grover Norquist, May 25, 2002, NPR Morning Edition.)
And yes, many people found it very offensive. And continued to find it offensive as many other American conservatives quoted it as if it were the soul of wit. I’ll worry about paraphrases offending conservatives when they start reading the original the way you read this paraphrase. We need conservatives–real conservatives, not current American “movement conservatism” and not the hate-filled populism that is currently alarming even the movement conservatives who helped nurture it.
@Lela E.Buis–
I loved Uprooted.
The Fifth Season has many things which made me very reluctant to even read it, and I resisted until it was actually on the Hugo ballot and I felt I couldn’t avoid it anymore.
And then I loved it. It was just so very well-done, drew me in completely. Strong story, excellent characters, great writing.
I voted it first for Best Novel. I do not make such choices based on someone else’s statistics. Or on sales figures, which appears to be a preferred Puppy metric.
Here’s a really nice Worldcon Report from a First-Timer:
Hugo Awards – a (Belated) Retrospective
I love the smell of billy goats in the morning…
Bah, Swype, you know perfectly well that gripping was the word I was looking for…
nickpheas: I voted for a groping and engaging novel
nickpheas: Bah, Swype, you know perfectly well that gripping was the word I was looking for…
For a little bit there, I was thinking that I’d missed out on all the fun… 😉
Hint: No choice will be enjoyed by all readers.
@Lela:
I mean, sure, it’s hard if you’re already going out of your way to be offended by it. Otherwise, it’s even harder to make the case that it was a political choice meant to poke the Puppies in the eye.
Re: Paulk
If I recall the writing posts at MGC properly, they are pretty big on openings that suck a reader in, so as to keep the reader with butt in chair. Her inartful fisking of the opening of Fifth Season is in keeping with that.
She says in a comment about why she didn’t name the book and author
” The other reason is that I have nothing against the author and didn’t particularly wish to be gratuitously nasty.”
Personally, I think she doth protest too much, but my love of the book is already established in purchase and in Hugo voting.
Puppy-narcissism. Everything must be about them.
I don’t wish to be gratuitously nasty, but…
There is indeed a difference between manners and courtesy.
A nice example of Kate Paulk not getting it is her analysis of the opening paragraph:
How can you state a character is shocked senseless, and in the very same sentence complain about there being no feeling?
That’s either gross stupidity, or willful blindness because you’re looking for something, anything, to dismiss the work.
Alert for those as like that kind of thing
Big Finish weekend Sale on 4th Doctor stories.
Shipping costs quite high for overseas, but the download options deeply affordable.
And how dare a writer strike a conversational tone to set the scene? Why, it’s almost as if the story is being told by one character to another one!
I’m also very tired of Kate’s habit of sniping at others without linking or naming. If she’s so damn sure of her criticism of T5S she could name the work and the author, or is she worried that someone who knows what they’re talking about will show up and destroy her “criticism”?
Perhaps I am unique in this, but I don’t see the name N.K. Jemisin and think that it must be a black person behind the name. Or indeed a woman, though these days initials are largely used by female writers looking to not drive away the kind of sensitive boys who’re scared of girl cooties, to the point that it’s become a stereotype.
It’s very clear that Nnedi Okorafor is an African name, but Jemisin? Could be anyone.
@Hampus Eckermann: I’d forgotten that a famous saying by a US conservative is a meaningless reference to most of the rest of the world. My apologies. I actually looked it up to get it right, then varied from it a tiny bit to make it sound better. That should have reminded me. Next time, I’ll link it.
I don’t mind having actual conservatives around. Some of them have useful critiques. Letting them near the machinery of power is a bad idea. But they aren’t the right-radicals US politics is afflicted with today, either. Those people mean to kill me.
Chaos Horizon’s prediction model gave 5S a 17% chance of winning and noted in the accompanying notes that there were observable trends in Jemisin’s favour which weren’t being captured. Uprooted was given a 27% chance of winning.
Based purely on those numbers, arguing that 5S should not be have won is roughly equivalent to stating that a 6 sided die should not have rolled a 4 because it was more likely to roll a number under 2.
@Lela E. Buis: What I hear you saying is that people who care so much about the Hugo Awards that they’re going to great lengths to keep them valuable also value those same awards so little that they’ll give one out to a bad novel just to give a small group of yammering chowderheads the finger.
NickPheas: Perhaps I am unique in this, but I don’t see the name N.K. Jemisin and think that it must be a black person behind the name… It’s very clear that Nnedi Okorafor is an African name, but Jemisin? Could be anyone.
My university Engineering Drafting 101 instructor’s last name was Jemison — and he was so white, he would have sunburned outside in about 15 minutes flat (and an absolutely fantastic guy he was, too).
Anyone who assumes that Jemisin/Jemison is a “black” surname has no idea what they are talking about.
Thanks, Mike, and thanks to everyone who commented on the poem. Glad people enjoyed it.
@snowcrash: I don’t know. If this were the opening paragraph of a novel:
I’d be inclined to keep going. In the hands of a sufficiently funny writer–I’m thinking Vonnegut–that could be the opening of a great book:
@Paul Weimer
Recall if you will her earlier line:
She’s trying to make a point, and there is definitely one being made. Just not the one that she intends.
Last year, some of the MGs went on a straw-grasping hunt as to how Chuck Wendig and his Star Wars novel were the worst. Looks like NK is going to be this years recipient.
@Hampus: Thanks for calling that out. That needed to be said.
@John, apology much appreciated 🙂
@Lis: I wouldn’t defend the original statement either, but the paraphrase is pretty awful. Both (a) because the fact that it’s meant as a reference really is not self-evident, and (b) because “drowning the conservative movement in a bathtub” sounds a lot more like violence to individual people with the wrong opinions than “drowning government,” which is explicitly talking about eliminating an institution.
Kind of like the difference between saying you’d like to get rid of Big Tobacco, vs. saying you’d like to get rid of smokers. 😛
Perhaps I should read a Paulk book, having just finished The Obelisk Gate. Any recommendations?
@Standback: I’m afraid I might be about to ruin that apology, because if I had a forced binary choice between ending government and ending conservatism, with all the horror either option would entail, I’d choose to keep government.
I’m very glad I don’t face such a choice. It would suck. And I’m open to developments that would make me change my mind. But the only thing I see on the horizon that could replace government is panopticonic corporate control. That sounds like a fate worse than death.
So government it is.
This is not something I would have said throughout most of my adult life. I’ve changed a lot over the years. There’s a good chance I’ll change again.
ETA: If I had a choice between ending medicine and ending doctors, I’d pick doctors. A lot less death that way, in the long run. But that, too, would totally suck.
It is always a surprise that there are people who see government as anything other than an emergent property of civilisation.
John A Arkansawyer: I’d choose to keep government.
NickPheas: It is always a surprise that there are people who see government as anything other than an emergent property of civilisation.
Yeah, once you get old enough and wise enough, you realize that “Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried.”
(Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965)
All those vehement opponents of government have yet to suggest a viable replacement.
The Futurians (Pohl, Wollheim, Asimov, Michel, Knight, Kyle) were very left leaning: they actually created a form of socialism/communism for the SF community called Michelism (after the author of the manifesto).
Moskowitz, Taurasi, Sykora, et al, were anti-communist.
In fanzines at the time, each group hurled nasty epithets at each other that mirrored the European “political” conflict of the day; Moskowitz was a fascist, Wollheim a communist.
Moskowitz’s group stole a march on the Futurian plans to host the first Worldcon, giving the temporary ascendancy to the right-wing in the community – but it is and has always been mostly left/progessive/socialist leaning. (To give any voice to “their side”, Moskowitz’s crew had to run that first con. Note, however, that the “exclusion act of 1939” pretty much solidified fandom as a leftist preserve owing to the unacceptable nature of silencing a group of fans by kicking them out of the con.)
Going back a little further, one can make a slight case that Wollheim and company kept on breaking up other clubs that they were not in charge of, and kept on doing so until they were in charge: Moskowitz’s seizure of NyCon 1 can be seen as the final pushback, ultimately unsuccessful. But also note that it is the issues that they fought over that have become fandom’s legacy: a fan-based, non-commercial enterprise, (socialist), as opposed to a commerically based one (conservative), by throwing over the commercial Science Fiction League.
So, no, history itself doesn’t really support the Shirley piece.
Had John said “we need reasonable individuals from across the spectrum who will based their politics on reality, their differences expressed through different approaches to problems and issues (rather than arguing over what the issues are), I’d have found something to agree with.
But in a very general sense, we, no one, “needs” politicians of any particular political stripe. What we need is a balance between people (all of whom are presumed to agree on the factual data), some of whom are inclined to say – we need more study, and some of whom are inclined to say – lets put it into the field and see what happens.
In regard to government, I was actually thinking of the speech in Tunnel in the Sky where Tenag Pbjcre phgf Ebq Jnyxre bhg bs yrnqrefuvc bs gur rzretvat frggyrzrag.
What exactly is the use of bringing up that Paulk post? It is already well-established what she thinks of the latest Hugo winners, and it is equally well-established what all the regular commenters here think of Paulk’s opinions. If the intention of that link was pointing out something truly new or useful that I have missed, then fine. But if we’ve reached the point of noting every time she says something just so everyone can reflexively point and jeer, then I don’t wish to be a part of this community.
@ Lela E. Buis: I suggest that you look at the many, many reviews and discussions of The Fifth Season that occurred between its publication and the Hugo ballot deadline. Not one that I ever saw – not one – suggested voting for Jemisin as a way to spite the Puppies. The only suggestions I saw that anyone might do that came from the Puppy side itself.
(Full disclosure: I think The Fifth Season was the best SFF novel, not of 2015, but of the decade so far. Maybe the century, though it’s still early.)
All those vehement opponents of government have yet to suggest a viable replacement.
*polite cough*
(And see also Cory Robin’s “The Reactionary Mind” for a good account of conservative “liberty” as a radical aristocratic movement.)
Er, ObSF: I’m waiting until I feel resilient enough to finish “The Fifth Season” and in the meantime I’m looking for new comfort reading, which is always difficult. I just read “Sorcery and Cecilia” on a File770 recommendation – fun, but some combination of the epistolary format and the improvised plotting stopped it from being an automatic fave. I’ll definitely try the sequels at some point, though.
@Standback–
Government is people. That’s how it works. If you’re “drowning government, ” you’re drowning people. I see zero evidence that Norquist, who is a bright man, doesn’t understand that.
I agree that, unreferenced, it’s not at all apparent for international readers that it is a reference to a famous (in the US) conservative quote, and absent that context, it’s pretty shocking.
Which of course is part of why it sticks so firmly in the minds of American liberals.
@Ghost Bird, sorry, I don’t see anarchist communism as a viable alternative to government.