(1) A postcard from the Baen beachhead at Dragon Con.
This #dragoncon photo goes out to my fiends at File770: pic.twitter.com/78ejOGHsRS
— Ray Radlein (@Radlein) September 5, 2015
(2) The Stanley Hotel in Colorado inspired Stephen King’s novel The Shining, a connection the hotel’s operators have used to market the resort for years.
But unlike King’s fictional Overlook it never had a hedge maze – until this summer when the owner had one built to placate his customers.
Missing from the experience, however, has been the hedge maze that Mr. Kubrick used as the setting for the film’s climax….
At a colleague’s suggestion, Mr. Cullen [the owner] opted to hold a contest for the design, a move that amplified the public-relations potential. A panel of judges received 329 entries from around the world, and the winner was a New York architect named Mairim Dallaryan Standing.
Mr. Cullen chose to form the maze from juniper trees that grow to just three feet high, making the Stanley’s maze far less imposing than the 13-foot labyrinth in the Kubrick film. Mr. Cullen said he was concerned about losing children in the maze.
This summer, that decision has caused some disappointment….
The owner of the real hotel builds a maze to please King fans, who then are not pleased because it doesn’t match the source. How fannish is that?
(3) John O’Halloran’s Sasquan photo album – mainly the Hugo ceremony.
(4) Lou Antonelli on Facebook
I’m going to write an alternate history set in a world where cloning was perfected in the 1920s and by the beginning of the television era in the 1950s entertainers are able to license copies of themselves for live performances.
The clones of bigger stars are more expensive than the clones of lesser ones. One man has to settle for a Teresa Brewer clone, but he bemoans the fact that he couldn’t afford a clone of the star he REALLY wanted.
The story will be called…
“If You Were a Dinah Shore, My Love.”
(5) The works of Karel Capek are being celebrated at a festival in Washington D.C. Celia Wren penned an overview in the Washington Post.
Prepare for rebellious automatons, a 300-year-old opera singer, and a pack of newts taking a page from Ira Glass. These and other inventions will unfold locally this fall courtesy of the Czech writer Karel Capek (1890-1938), with help from other artists.
Capek is the focus of the Mutual Inspirations Festival 2015, led by the Embassy of the Czech Republic and offering films, theater pieces, lectures, art exhibits, and — for children — a Lego Robotics Workshop. Now in its sixth year, the festival pays tribute to an influential Czech figure, such as Antonin Dvorak (2011), Vaclav Havel (2013) or Franz Kafka (2014).
The Mutual Inspirations website has complete details.
Running from September 3-November 21, 2015, the festival highlights events at select venues in the Washington area, such as the Kennedy Center, the Gonda Theatre in the Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown University, the Avalon Theatre, and Bistro Bohem. Highlights of this year’s festival include a jazz-age evening of music and dance, theatrical readings of the new work R.U.R.: A Retro-Futuristic Musical, the world premiere of War with the Newts adapted by Natsu Onoda Power, a robotics demonstration and lecture with Czech robotics expert Vladimir Ma?ík, a panel discussion on R.U.R. and the Rationalized World, and a Lego Robotics Workshop for children facilitated by the Great Adventure Lab. Additional noted speakers include Templeton Prize-winner Tomáš Halík, art historian Otto Urban, and theatre/ interactive media arts scholar Jana Horaková. The festival incorporates a variety of events, including theatrical performances, film screenings, a concert, lectures, and exhibitions. With over 30,000 people attending the festival over the last three years, the festival strives to reach a wide audience through its vibrant programming.
(6 George R.R. Martin, in “Awards, Awards, and More Awards”, encourages the Puppies who are talking about starting an award of their own.
He discusses how many different awards there are in the field and includes lots of pictures – which is easy because George has won most of them.
A great many of the awards discussed above were started precisely because the people behind them felt someone was being overlooked by the Hugos and/ or other existing awards, and wanted to give an “attaboy” to work they cherished.
There is no reason the Sad Puppies should not do the same. Give them at Dragoncon, give them at Libertycon… or, hell, give them at worldcon, if you want. Most worldcons will give you a hall for the presentation, I’m sure, just as they do for the Prometheus Awards and the Seiuns. Or you can rent your own venue off-site, as I did with the Alfies. Have a party. No booing, just cheers. Give handsome trophies to those you think deserve it. Spread joy.
That’s what awards are supposed to be about, after all. Giving some joy back to the writers and editors and artists who have given you so much joy with their work. Celebration.
Since RAH is already taken by the Heinlein Foundation for its own award, maybe you should call them the Jims, to honor Jim Baen, an editor and publisher that I know many of you admire. If you launch a Kickstarter to have a bust of him sculpted for the trophy, I’ll be glad to contribute. (It may surprise you to know that while Jim Baen and I were very far apart politically, we shared many a meal together, and he published a half dozen of my books. Liberals and conservatives CAN get along, and usually did, in fandom of yore).
(7) Kevin Standlee philosophizes about the relationship between a stable, democratically-run society and good sportsmanship.
A prerequisite of a stable democratic society is being a good loser.
If your definition of “democracy” boils down to “I get what I personally want or else the entire process is wrong and corrupt,” then you have reduced yourself to the spoiled child who throws a tantrum and overturns the table when s/he loses at a board game.
Could it be that our society’s over-emphasis at “win at any cost” and “second place is the first loser,” and a complete de-emphasis on learning how to be graceful in defeat is undermining the entire democratic process? After all, if you’ve been conditioned to think that Winning Is The Only Thing and that losing gracefully is for suckers and wimps, how can you possibly live with yourself when your “side” loses a political election, even if the process was demonstratively fair? In such a situation, you almost naturally are doing to insist that the process itself is wrong, because you’ve built up a self-image that requires you to win.
I’m also worried that we’ve overly emphasized not hurting people’s feelings when they are young by pretending that they can never lose. When they reach the real world where not every corner is padded for them, they can’t handle anything other than “I showed up, so I need to win.” I admit that possibly I’m just being old and crotchety about Those Darn Kids.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m disappointed that Popular Ratification, into which I invested a lot of myself, lost at the ratification stage. But I can see that the process was fair, and I neither consider myself a moral failure because my cause lost nor do I consider the entire WSFS legislative process invalid because I got outvoted. I get the feeling, however, that a whole lot of people out there can’t live with the concept of losing.
(8) Didact doesn’t care.
I really can’t make it any clearer than that, unless the good people over at File770 want me to break out a pack of crayons and draw them a picture. And I don’t speak any dialect of dipsh*t, so even that probably won’t help.
Didact, Vile Faceless Minion #0309, repeats:
WE DON’T CARE whether or not our nominees won awards. Not this year, not next year, and not in any other year. It matters not the minutest quantum of a damn for us. As far as I, personally, am concerned, the Hugo Awards have lost their point and purpose and need to be torn down and replaced wholesale.
I don’t know why I have such a hard time getting it through my thick skull that they don’t care. Really. It’s just embarrassing. As many times they’ve been forced to repeat this. Think of all the time they could spend on something they do care about if only I would just get it. All my fault. My bad. So sorry.
(9) And dammit, Jonathan M has uncovered another of this blog’s deepest secrets.
https://twitter.com/ApeInWinter/status/640547743925186561
(9) Great photos from a vintage computer exhibit.
(10) Megan Guess at Ars Technica – “I watched Star Trek: The Original Series in order; and so can you. Or, Filling the gaps in your cultural knowledge is equal parts boring and fun”
At the beginning, this is how I approached The Original Series. Despite how much everyone wants to talk about Star Trek‘s progressiveness in 1966, you can tell just by a quick glance at the costuming that womankind is not going to be treated as equal, with all the rights and responsibilities pertaining thereto.
But around the end of season one, I couldn’t help but become a little bit invested in the world of the Federation. I was always happy when Lieutenant Uhura was given real lines in an episode, because she was just what you’d want in a starship officer of the future—brave and serious, but with a human side, too. Nurse Chapel was also welcome—she had gravitas without being robotic and cold.
Of course, for every Uhura or Chapel there was the endless supply of one-off Kirk foils planted on every strange new world, waiting for a strong-jawed spaceman to rescue them. Sometimes they were decent characters, like Edith Keeler in “The City on the Edge of Forever,” one of The Original Series’ most famous episodes. In it, Kirk and Spock end up in the 1930s and a depression-era charity worker—Keeler, portrayed by Joan freaking Collins—preaches futurism to a group of unenlightened hobos. (And then Kirk falls in love with her. Because of course.) Other characters were worse—you need only search “Women Star Trek Original Series” to find the lists of the show’s hottest, most vacant babes.
[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, Mark and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day James H. Burns.]
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And of course Domain by James Herbert.
Yeah, well… I was already 2/3 into the book when that particular bit happened, so I just kept reading. I was hoping it would get more convincing. Heh. (Seveneves spoiler: yrg’f whfg fnl gur bayl jnl gb oryvrir guvf ng nyy vf gb cergraq trargvpf ner pbafvqrenoyl zber qrirybcrq va gung havirefr guna va bhef).
I second the recommendation for Barefoot Gen, which is historical, not SF. I read it after visiting Hiroshima.
@Buwaya: “All writing is lies.”
I have no reason to read yours, then.
Vasha on September 7, 2015 at 4:12 am:
Thank you for the list, but you left off Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswoman books.
Emgrasso: apocalpytic inventiveness!~!!!11!!
Let me recommend N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season (first of a trilogy).
Postapocalyptic because….geology! Although not just geology: oh, no, it’s not some random geologic event although the world it’s set on is prone to such things.
I’ve been thinking about trying to make THE FIFTH SEASON the new GOD STALK!
(I’m afraid I kind of stalled out in GOD STALK with a bunch of new releases by authors I love….)
THE FIFTH SEASON!
I should try to post it on wait for it THE FIFTH post….
My younger sprog is currently in college, and just read “There Will Come Soft Rains” for one of her courses. One of their discussion questions: “Does being post-nuclear holocaust automatically make it dystopian?”
Can you-all think of examples of post-nuke holocaust that *aren’t* dystopian? I get the feeling there is one, but it’s not coming to mind.
Tegan:
No kidding. My approach is much more plausible and would have saved everyone a lot of trouble!
Dr. Science — Maybe Alas, Babylon?
It’s true the rest of the world is pretty awful, but in Randy’s Florida, everything sorts out pretty nifty.
re: more post-apocalyptic goodness
There’s also David Graham’s Down to a Sunless Sea, which entails a pilot flying his jumbo jet all the way to Antarctica in an attempt to outrun the radiation.
Apparently there’s two different endings to this. The one I have is the “happier” one.
At one point, DC Comics’s future history included the post-nuclear holocaust Atomic Knights AND the post-unspecified-great-disaster Kamandi, and yet that future eventually became the bright and techy world of the Legion of Superheroes.
Alright, I only just started reading the comments, so I’m probably not the first to point this out, but I can’t believe s/he missed the obvious joke. It’s a Wanker Engine, not an engine of wank
@Doctor Science: Can you-all think of examples of post-nuke holocaust that *aren’t* dystopian? I get the feeling there is one, but it’s not coming to mind.
Hmmmmm……I guess if it were set sufficiently POST nuclear holocaust it might not be considered fully dystopian……I’m thinking vaguely some of the feminist utopias that are set some time after the destructive event that aren’t completely dystopian (sort of on the spectrum–of course one person’s utopia is another’s dystopia, I always say–Plato’s Republic had slaves, etc. etc. etc.).
Charnas’ Walk to the End of the World total dystopia. That whole Holdfast series bums me out so completely I cannot bear to reread them, and it took me a while to build up to the last one.
Pamela Sargent’s The Shore of Women set in a post apocalyptic world (cannot recall offhand if it was nuclear holocaust?) but the dystopian elements are handled differently.
Joanna Russ’ revelations regarding the dystopian history (sort of?) of Whileaway over the development from “When It Changed” to Female Man — not nuclear holocaust, but still not natural disaster like a meteor strike …i.e. cause is human action leading to destruction
Speaking of which: THE FIFTH SEASON!
My assembly language class was *still* targeted at the 360 in 1985
The one I took in 1981 was for PDP-11 (it was an engineering class, not computer science, which is what I was taking). I have the card somewhere, and the book (it has a drawing of the Antikythera machine on the cover). I have a 360 reference card somewhere, also, or had a couple of moves back – if it’s around, it’s in a box. And, I think, one for 8080, because fan….
Anna Feruglio Dal Dan –
That makes sense to me, but at the same time is part of the reason I liked the book. When looking at Arthur it didn’t hold back at showing his flaws and those flaws felt human rather than a caricature so many books do when emphasizing the good and bad about characters. I can see why it wouldn’t be for everyone but I’m with Kurt when I say that it worked for me and it worked really, really well.
Post-apocalyptically, I remember liking Out of the Mouth of the Dragon by Mark Geston. It’s more literally post-apocalyptic than most – it opens with passages from the Book of Revelations prophesying the battle at Armageddon then continues with passages from other texts written after, about people who had sworn allegiance to neither side who, after the final battle that was supposed to end creation, find themselves still alive and despairing that they’re going to have to go through it all again. And they do.
It’s a long time since I read it – probably 20 years – but there are images, particularly the final one, that I won’t ever get out of my head. I also remember that it was dark and gloomy in a way that makes a Peter Watts novel seem like a childrens’ party.
It’s even in print again, along with most of its author’s other work, in a volume called “The Books of the Wars” from Baen. I hope the suck fairy hasn’t found it.
I referred the question to the artist, Taral Wayne.
Always Coming Home, LeGuin. We could argue about it maybe not being a nuke, but there’s a lot of glass deserts and bad wastes and many people with what read like post-radiation birth defects. I THINK that the premise that that nukes caused the Ring of Fire to let go, but it’s a little vague.
The first thing that comes to my mind is the comic Legion of Super-Heroes, which is set a thousand years in the future (a rolling thousand: it’s always today’s date +1000) and has at least one nuclear war + rebuilding in its history.
Looking back (during the edit window) I see that Kurt beat me to that one.
Kurt: Did the Legion really have Kamandi in their past? I thought that was always considered to be an alternate history or different dimension.
H. Beam Piper’s Terro-Human Future History has space being colonized by Southern Hemisphere nations after the north destroys itself.
Can you-all think of examples of post-nuke holocaust that *aren’t* dystopian? I get the feeling there is one, but it’s not coming to mind.
Z for Zachariah isn’t a cheery novel but it’s not really dystopian, if only because it’s set on a small homestead that’s untouched by any society that may be left.
Oh, and for “dramatic presentations,” there is always Star Trek!
Inventive apocalypses… I see folks have mentioned No Blade of Grass, The Day of the Triffids, Dies the Fire, the Fortschen EMP books.
Would hard take off singularities count as apocalypses? That gives us the Quantum Thief, Hertling’s Singularity series. Then there is Charles Sheffield’s Cold As Ice and The Ganymede Club.
A non-gray goo Nanotech scenario, Jeff Carlson’s Plague series. It wasn’t my taste, but it might be to others.
DOH! Post-nuclear holocaust that isn’t dystopia: *smacks self on head*
Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy.
It’s not a happy warm fuzzy story, but I don’t consider it dystopian, and it’s definitely post-nuclear holocaust!
Matt Y: I can see why [Station Eleven] wouldn’t be for everyone but I’m with Kurt when I say that it worked for me and it worked really, really well.
I enjoyed the book, and felt that the characterizations were good. The worldbuilding was decent. The interconnected threads of the story were interesting, too. But I just didn’t think it was that exceptional a novel.
And all those f***ing sentence fragments drove me absolutely crazy.
ETA: Henley, DON’T EVEN START. 😡
Doctor Science –
I’ve been reading the NewsFlesh series and the Zombie Apocalypse came but people survived it. World War Z is the oral account of humanity after.
You could make that ‘the wretched’ we could even translate it into french to make it sound fancy.
Speaking of post-apocalyptic fiction, I thought The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan was lovely and haunting and just gorgeously written. I stumbled upon it in a list of Station Eleven readalikes, and I was surprised I hadn’t heard more about it. Also, Hugo eligible for next year.
Fifth to the fourth!
(Or maybe not – looks like I was a second too late.)
Doctor Science on September 7, 2015 at 6:44 pm said:
Hmm, maybe a Phillip K Dick short or novella? There’s a period where a lots of his stories are set in post-nuclear suburban settings where the nuclear holocaust has been a slight inconvenience more than a world ending event. Trouble is finding a non-dystopia thing from Dick.
Using Hainish Cycle works from Le Guin is probably cheating as the events rarely involve earth directly…
rrede: Yes. I read The Fifth Season a few days ago, and I think that was part of what reminded me of apocalypses.
At least the Stillness didn’t have a ‘season of rats’ (or at least we haven’t been told about it). One of the Creasey apocalypses had smart mutated rats. I don’t remember details, but that one has stayed with me for some reason — I think I encountered it at the same time as some A. Bertram Chandler rats-on-spaceships stories.
@JBWeld: I had thought that series was pre-1995, but now I see only the first one was. I have added it; thanks for the correction.
For post-apocalypse novels, how about Charles Stross’ Saturn’s Children and Neptune’s Brood? Even if the Apocalypse was, the human race dies off from biorhythm upset.
OMG, just got the latest Toby Daye _Red Rose Chain_
G’night yall!
Dashes off to get a bit of reading in before walking dogs and bed and shoot have to get up at 6 am tomorrow OH THE AGONY!
Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow is now my favorite non-dystopian post-apocalypse story. There’s a very strong cultural taboo against building cities which is pretty well justified – cities attract nukes, sooner or later. But the crucial thing is that knowledge hasn’t been lost or suppressed; there’s accurate history lessons in school, schooling is a thing, and there’s smart appropriate technology. Many people see the war in religious terms, but many don’t. It’s full of people acting like people.
Sample acquired, Bruce!
In Asimov’s “End of Eternity,” the Eternals’ rule is broken by triggering an early (for that timeline) invention of the atomic bomb, and it’s implied, although not shown, that nuclear holocaust is part of what spurs humanity to explore space. Whether that counts as a post-nuclear non-dystopia is in the eye of the beholder.
Post-nuclear: Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis: Dawn isn’t dystopian, exactly, though it’s certainly not easy for the humans to adjust to being rescued from annihilation by aliens…
ETA: rrede beat me to it!
Unrelated to anything else in this thread, but this looks like it could be useful, a new Twitter feed where SF editors like Ellen Datlow and Gardner Dozois recommend new short fiction: https://twitter.com/SFEditorsPicks
Good grief. In the amount of time Philip Sandifer’s spent explaining why it’s totally OK for him to nominate a book he hasn’t read, he could have just read it.
rrede on September 7, 2015 at 6:53 pm said:
To Clarify I’d consider Wyndham’s “The Chryssalids” a dystopia even as it’s sorta hopeful in the end… I think… I only vaguely remember the ending now I try to recall it.
re: the post-nuclear holocaust works – no mention yet of Riddley Walker? Another book that I love exists, but found somewhat hard to read, and then had to read it again just to process it. Maybe too far post-holocaust?
Cordwainer Smith? I don’t remember if the disaster that emptied the Earth in “Mark Elf” was specified, and the Instrumentality comes long after that.
It’s possible there was never an uncontrovertible link, but OMAC, the Atomic Knights and Hercules Unbound were all part of the DC Future, and OMAC was supposed to lead to the Great Disaster. At least until Crisis, when it led to Tommy Frickin Tomorrow instead.
Gully – RIDDLEY WALKER is great. I just loved it.
The future of Henry Kuttner’s MUTANT isn’t terribly dystopian, though it’s suggested that if any of the towns get too big for their britches, someone will drop a personal-sized atom bomb on them from the airborne equivalent of a station wagon…
I don’t remember if there were nukes or not, but “Emergence” was set in a post-everybody-dies-of-plague apocalypse, and it was actually pretty darn upbeat.
EMERGENCE is one of those “Empty America” stories I like so much.
THE GRACEKEEPERS is now on my list…
Dystopian: The Road is pretty grimmity grim grim.
World War Z maybe has a happy ending?
I got about a quarter of the way through Seveneves before chucking it. This was my first Neal Stephenson book, and it was just so bad. I’m not really in a position to critique the science aspects, but . . . well, parts of it (really, most of it) read like he’d written an extremely detailed outline for a book, but then instead of translating that outline into prose, he just reformatted the outline into paragraph form and sent it along to an editor who then didn’t bother reviewing it. The book read like an untalented amateur author’s first draft.
Can anyone who’s read some of his other books tell me if this quality of writing is standard Stephenson? Like, if I tried one of his much-lauded earlier books, like Cryptonomicon or Anathem, would I at least get mediocre prose? I can deal with merely mediocre prose.
I thought the comments on his blog were terrible enough, but then I glanced at his Twitter. Yeesh.
@JJ
And all those f***ing sentence fragments drove me absolutely crazy.
“I can’t even!”
He has a definite Marmite quality.
I’d say Seveneves is representative of his style but pethaps a very strong version of his style.
@Emma
I have tried several times to read Anathem. For me, Stephenson is someone who is much more interested in retailing ideas than in developing credible characters or convincing plots. It’s a trait he shares with William Gibson.