Pixel Scroll 8/8/24 I Filed The Scroll, And The Scroll Won

(1) GLASGOW 2024 IN MEMORIAM LIST. The Worldcon In Memoriam 2024 was played today during Opening Ceremonies.

This is a listing of members of our community who have passed away since the last In Memoriam list was compiled for Pemmi-Con and Chengdu last year. This covers the period from July 9, 2023 to July 15, 2024. Any submission received after the 15th July was passed along to Seattle Worldcon.

(2) BIG HEART AWARD. The recipient was honored during Opening Ceremonies. “This award is given to those who go above and beyond in welcoming new people to fandom, and supporting the ideals of fandom.”

(3) SPECIAL COMMITTEE AWARD. Glasgow 2024 is giving a Special Committee Award to the game Dungeons & Dragons. The award is described as “an armadillo with a traffic cone on its head, and a resin die underneath it”. Okay. Photograph on Flickr.

(4) CHINESE VIDEO TOUR OF GLASGOW DEALERS ROOM. [Item by Ersatz Culture.] From the Eight Light Minutes publisher’s Weibo, a 47 minute video. See it at the link: 2024Worldcon  @八光分文化的微博 – 微博. I think there might be footage of other areas, but I only skim-watched bits of it.

(5) A NATION OF RIBBON CLERKS. Here are a couple examples of private edition ribbons people are handing out at Glasgow 2024.

Hugo, Girl! podcast is distributing this set. (Photo courtesy of Scott Edelman).

On behalf of Diabolical Plots:

(6) A CALL FOR GRACE. Caitlin R. Kiernan suspects their criticisms here will be “Falling on Deaf Ears”, a blog entry at Dear Sweet Filthy World.

…I made [two posts] to Facebook, and I will say up front, yes, both were inspired by the way I’ve seen George R.R. Martin slurred and mocked over nothing in the past couple of weeks. The most childish, mean-spirited, petty shit, and often from authors I thought I respected, who I would have imaged to be above schoolyard taunts. Generally, I usually miss the stuff, Writers bore me, and I tend to avoid them online….

[The second was:] We are all standing on the shoulders of giants. Don’t like that? Tough. We can do what we can do because someone was there before us. This is very true in publishing, maybe especially true in speculative fiction. And we should show respect to our elders (and that’s what they are), even when their poltics do not align with our own. You think you’d have as many opportunities had there never been a, say, George R.R. Martin? Really? We *owe* these people. They opened doors, and, you know, if they don’t fit *your* sensibilities, stop and think of all the reasons that might be. Jesus, did we forget how to cut folks some slack? I think we did. This is not about who was the most transgressive or progressive at some earlier point in history; this is about having the decency to respect those who have gone before. Egalitarianism is all fine and well, until it becomes an excuse to act like a shit.
Postcript: Fuck, I’m 60. Stop and try to imagine what it was like just getting publishers to buy stories about queer and trans characters when I began publishing in 1993…

…This is why I have never been part of this “community,” why I have never even really tried….

(7) MEANWHILE, ABOUT THOSE CHENGDU HUGOS. The Chengdu Worldcon Hugo Awards belonging to non-attending winners arrived in the United States in late January, but as Dave McCarty told Chris Barkley, all of the display cases and some of the awards were damaged in transit from China. They either needed to be repaired, or replacement parts made. There having been no word five months later, in June, Barkley started asking those waiting if they’d gotten theirs. Nope. Now there’s been some action – and the results are alarming. Here’s a Hugo just received by a Hugo, Girl! podcaster.

(8) CLARION WEST COMMENTS ON GAIMAN, DISCUSSES THEIR POLICIES. Clarion West has posted a statement about the allegations against Gaiman and more specifically about how they select instructors and respond to sexual harassment or abuse at the workshop. They issue a call for transparency and action in the SFF community as a whole. “Silence Does Not Lend Itself To Change”.

News of the allegations against Neil Gaiman began breaking as this year’s six-week workshop hurtled into its third week. As we emerge from the workshop and have time to process this news, our board and staff want to take a moment to recognize that a culture of silence and protecting prominent authors has been widespread in the SFF community, and that it often disproportionately affects the most marginalized and vulnerable in our society. The silence, and its impact, is not acceptable. 

This is an important conversation for everyone in the SFF community about protecting the most vulnerable in our industry from predation, and how to learn to listen to victims and make it easier for them to come forward without causing them further harm.

The Clarion West board of directors and our entire team are deeply invested in establishing a safe and harassment-free environment for those who participate in our programs. 

How do we do this? 

We believe that personal behavior is as important as professional standing and endeavor to make selections for instructors based on what we know of their personal and professional comportment. The process for instructor selection allows for concerns to be heard, both during selection meetings and privately. 

To address concerns around instructor behavior, Clarion West has had a written instructor policy against harassment or sexual misconduct with students for at least 25 years. This policy is given to every workshop instructor. Neil Gaiman received a copy of this policy when he taught for us in 2013. Organizers were not aware of accusations or inappropriate behavior by Gaiman prior to inviting him, nor were they made aware of any abusive behavior during his tenure. 

In more recent years, the organization has created and posted our Code of Conduct and an Anti-Harassment Policy publicly. We’ve made significant efforts to improve the process for students, staff, and community members to report harassment as well as the procedure for investigation and follow-up. The organization seeks to create transparency around the workshop and all programs. 

Clarion West takes any reports of misconduct among our community members seriously and is dedicated to improving the experience of writers in speculative fiction, especially those historically underrepresented in publishing. We pledge to continuously review and update our policies, investigate accusations thoroughly, and work toward maintaining safe and inclusive spaces.

If you have information to share, concerns or questions about our policies, or wish to report abusive behavior related to the workshop or other Clarion West programs, please contact us at report@clarionwest.org

(9) JEFF WARNER OBIT. Veteran conrunner Jeff Warner, who co-founded I-CON, has died. Michael Dauenheimer paid tribute on the convention’s Facebook page.

For those of you who weren’t fortunate enough to know Jeff Warner, he showed a life-long devotion to Science Fiction fandom. As a Stony Brook student, Jeff was one of the founding members of I-CON, helping to plan and run the first one on the SB campus in 1982.

He was also heavily involved with the Science Fiction Forum during his students years and continued to show concern and be involved when he could, attending reunions and staying touch with old friends.

Jeff was one of a kind. One of those unforgettable characters that you thought only existed in movies. He was definitely a people person and showed more “team spirit” than any athlete possibly could. When it came to conventions, Jeff tried to attend as many as he could, more often than not, volunteering to help them run. To him it was his passion to promote and foster Science Fiction fandom….

He will be greatly missed by many. He will not be forgotten.

Warner was briefly onscreen and is named in the credits of The People vs George Lucas (2010), a documentary about Star Wars fans. He was active as a File 770 contributing editor, supplying the titles of three Scrolls: Pixel Scroll 9/4 The Scrolling Stones, Pixel Scroll 12/28/19 Pixel Gadol Hayah Scroll, and Pixel Scroll 2/4/24 Pixel, Pixel, Scroll And Stumble. File Churn And Cauldron Double.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) I GET MY SIDEKICKS FROM. [Item by Daniel Dern.] A CBR.com columnist granted a reader’s wish to give superheroes kid sidekicks: “Line it is Drawn: Superheroes Gain New Kid Sidekicks”. The image of Doctor Manhattan’s new sidekick Kid Manhattan image is obviously (to those of us with long memories etc) an homage to this Superman cover (per “Supergirl’s First Comic Appearance: Everything Fans Need To Know”.

(12) GOOD NEWS FOR FANHISTORIANS. Richard Graeme Cameron was happy to announce today that the audio department of the Special Collections Library at Simon Fraser University of Burnaby B.C. has offered to conserve and digitize the audio tapes of early VCON convention events. The other day Cameron had put out a plea for a collection that would take responsibility for them.

Simon Fraser University Science Fiction Society (SF3) was one of the three organizations sponsoring the first VCON back in April of 1971. The other two sponsors were the B.C. Science Fiction Association (BCSFA) and the University of B.C. Science Fiction Society (UBC SFFEN). Note that SFU fen contributed to ongoing VCONs for many years thereafter.

I am absolutely thrilled, in that at some point in the near future interested fen world-wide will finally be able to hear these treasured recordings from the past.

Precise details have yet to be worked out, but I am confident the tapes will be transferred well before the end of the month and conservation work begun.

(13) I CAN’T BELIEVE MY EARS. “Cate Blanchett says ‘no one got paid anything’ for ‘Lord of the Rings’” according to CNN.

Actress Cate Blanchett may have starred in the box office smash hit “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” but, according to her, that money didn’t trickle down to the cast.

During an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” Blanchett played “Plead the Fifth” and was asked about the film for which she received the biggest paycheck.

“I think it’s probably ‘Lord of the Rings,’” Cohen suggested

“Are you kidding me,” Blanchett said as Cohen expressed surprised. “No. No one got paid anything to do that movie.”

When Cohen asked whether she “got a piece of the backend,” referring to the practice of big stars getting a percentage of the ticket sales, Blanchett said no.

“That was way before any of that,” she said. “No, nothing.”

Blanchett said she did the 2001 film for the chance to work with Peter Jackson, who directed “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

“I wanted to work with the guy who made [1992 horror comedy film] ‘Braindead,’” she said. “I mean, I basically got free sandwiches. And I got to keep my ears.”…

(14) ICONIC ANIMATION. One of the items in Heritage Auction’s “The History of Animation – The Glad Museum Collection Signature® Auction” running from August 16–19 is this cell from “The Jetsons Opening Title Sequence: Judy and George Jetson”.

It’s time to meet ponytailed “Daughter Judy” as daddy George gets her ready to zoom to class, in this iconic image from the classic opening sequence of this beloved animated series. This is an extremely rare original hand-inked, hand-painted 12 field two-level production cel setup with an original Jetsons sky view production background painting, gouache on board. The Jetsons originally ran on ABC-TV for a single 24-episode season in 1962-63…

(15) COLLABORATORS AND QUISLINGS. The UK’s Society of Authors is concerned about publishers licensing their catalogues to AI companies.

(16) SWIPER, DON’T SWIPE. And the Creators’ Rights Alliance has sent a warning to AI technology companies.

The Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA) has today (7 August 2024) reaffirmed that its member organisations and the creators that they represent do not consent to their works being used to develop generative artificial intelligence (AI) by sending letters to AI technology companies.

The CRA, which represents over 500,000 creators through its member organisations, said that they ‘do not authorise or otherwise grant permission for the use of any of their works protected by copyright and/or related rights (including performers rights) in relation to, without limitation, the training, development, or operation of AI models.’

Download the full letter here

To date, generative AI models have been developed using vast amounts of copyright-protected work without consent, transparency over data sources or remuneration for rightsholders and creators. The copying of rights-protected works without authorisation is against UK law.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Dan’l, Ersatz Culture, Marnee Chua, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]

World Fantasy Convention 2022 in New Orleans

World Fantasy Convention 2022 has named its Guests of Honor: Ginjer Buchanan, Victor LaValle, Jo Walton, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Andrei Codrescu. The Toastmaster is Ursula Vernon. An artist Guest of Honor will be named later. Chaired by Tom Hanlon, the convention will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana November 3-6, 2022.

The event’s sponsor, the Louisiana Association for Literacy and the Fantastic, launched WFC 2022’s website and opened online registration early this week.

“While it’s been a challenge to organize and prepare for an event with a shorter time span than normal due to COVID, and Hurricane Ida didn’t help any,” said Hanlon, “we’re thrilled to have a committee with ideas and participation from New Orleans, throughout the South and across borders. We have an amazing committee who are working hard to ensure this year’s World Fantasy Convention exceeds our members’ expectations.” The event will be held at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans, located downtown within walking distance of many historical sites.

Although registration officially opened at the 2021 World Fantasy Convention in Montreal, this week’s website launch made online registration possible. Initial pricing is $150 US for attending memberships and $50 US for supporting membership. “We are planning to host a hybrid convention, with a strong virtual component,” says Hanlon. “Our initial price for virtual membership is $50, the same as a supporting membership.” The prices for attending and virtual memberships will increase on February 1, 2022, while the supporting membership will remain $50.

This year’s WFC will be the second held in New Orleans. Hanlon also chaired the first one in 1994.

[Based on a press release.]

2020 Novellapalooza

stack of books ©canstockphoto / olegd

[Editor’s note: be sure to read the comments on this post for more novellas and more Filer reviews.]

By JJ:

TL;DR: Here’s what I thought of the 2020 Novellas. What did you think?

I’m a huge reader of novels, but not that big on short fiction. But the last few years, I’ve done a personal project to read and review as many Novellas as I could (presuming that the story Synopsis had some appeal for me). I ended up reading:

  • 31 of the novellas published in 2015,
  • 35 of the novellas published in 2016,
  • 50 of the novellas published in 2017,
  • 38 of the novellas published in 2018,
  • 57 of the 2019 novellas,
  • and this year I was waiting for access to a few novellas from my library, so I was reading others, and thus my final total crept up to 59!

The result of these reading sprees were

I really felt as though this enabled me to do Hugo nominations for the Novella category in an informed way, and a lot of Filers got involved with their own comments. So I’m doing it again this year.

It is not at all uncommon for me to choose to read a book despite not feeling that the jacket copy makes the book sound as though it is something I would like – and to discover that I really like or love the work anyway. On the other hand, It is not at all uncommon for me to choose to read a book which sounds as though it will be up my alley and to discover that, actually, the book doesn’t really do much for me.

Thus, my opinions on the following novellas vary wildly: stories I thought I would love but didn’t, stories I didn’t expect to love but did, and stories which aligned with my expectations – whether high or low.

Bear in mind that while I enjoy both, I tend to prefer Science Fiction over Fantasy – and that while I enjoy suspense and thrillers, I have very little appreciation for Horror (and to be honest, I think Lovecraft is way overrated). What’s more, I apparently had a defective childhood, and I do not share a lot of peoples’ appreciation for fairytale retellings and portal fantasies. My personal assessments are therefore not intended to be the final word on these stories, but merely a jumping-off point for Filer discussion.

Novellas are listed in two sections below. The first section, those with cover art, are the ones I have read, and they include mini-reviews by me. These are in approximate order from most-favorite to least-favorite (but bear in mind that after around the first dozen listed, there was not a large degree of difference in preference among most of the remainder, with the exception of a handful at the bottom). The second section is those novellas I haven’t read, in alphabetical order by title.

I’ve included plot summaries, and where I could find them, links to either excerpts or the full stories which can be read online for free. Some short novels which fall between 40,000 and 48,000 words (within the Hugo Novella category tolerance) have been included, and in a couple of cases, novelettes which were long enough to be in the Hugo Novella tolerance were also included.

Please feel free to post comments about 2020 novellas which you’ve read, as well. And if I’ve missed your File 770 comment about a novella, or an excerpt for a novella, please point me to it!

If you see something that looks like gibberish, it is text that has been ROT-13’ed to avoid spoilers. (Please be sure to rot-13 any spoilers.)

(fair notice: all Amazon links are referrer URLs which benefit non-profit SFF fan website Worlds Without End)
Continue reading

2018 Novellapalooza

[Editor’s note: be sure to read the comments on this post for more novellas and more Filer reviews.]

By JJ: I’m a huge reader of novels, but not that big on short fiction. But the last few years, I’ve done a personal project to read and review as many Novellas as I could (presuming that the story synopsis had some appeal for me). I ended up reading 31 of the novellas published in 2015, 35 of the novellas published in 2016, and 46 of the novellas published in 2017 (though a few of those were after Hugo nominations closed).

The result of this was the 2016 Novellapalooza and the 2017 Novellapalooza. I really felt as though I was able to do Hugo nominations for the novella category in an informed way, and a lot of Filers got involved with their own comments. So I’m doing it again this year.

The success and popularity of novellas in the last 4 years seems to have sparked a Golden Age for SFF novellas, with Tor.com, Subterranean Press, NewCon Press, PS Publishing, Book Smugglers, Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Tachyon bringing out a multitude of works, along with the traditional magazines Asimov’s, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Analog – so there are a lot more novellas to cover this year. By necessity, I’ve gotten to the point of being more selective about which ones I read, based on the synopsis being of interest to me.

It is not at all uncommon for me to choose to read a book despite not feeling that the jacket copy makes the book sound as though it is something I would like – and to discover that I really like or love the work anyway. On the other hand, It is not at all uncommon for me to choose to read a book which sounds as though it will be up my alley and to discover that, actually, the book doesn’t really do much for me.

Thus, my opinions on the following novellas vary wildly: stories I thought I would love but didn’t, stories I didn’t expect to love but did, and stories which aligned with my expectations – whether high or low. Bear in mind that while I enjoy both, I tend to prefer Science Fiction over Fantasy – and that while I enjoy suspense and thrillers, I have very little appreciation for Horror (and to be honest, I think Lovecraft is way overrated). My personal assessments are therefore not intended to be the final word on these stories, but merely a jumping-off point for Filer discussion.

I thought it would be helpful to have a thread where all the Filers’ thoughts on novellas are collected in one place, as a resource when Hugo nomination time rolls around. Which of these novellas have you read? And what did you think of them?

I’ve included plot summaries, and where I could find them, links to either excerpts or the full stories which can be read online for free. Short novels which fall between 40,000 and 48,000 words (within the Hugo Novella category tolerance) have been included.

Please feel free to post comments about any other 2018 novellas which you’ve read, as well.

(Please be sure to rot-13 any spoilers.)

(fair notice: all Amazon links are referrer URLs which benefit non-profit SFF fan website Worlds Without End)

Read more…

2017 Novellapalooza

[Editor’s note: be sure to read the comments on this post for more novellas and more Filer reviews.]

By JJ: I’m a huge reader of novels, but not that big on short fiction. But the last couple of years, I’ve done a personal project to read and review as many Novellas as I could (presuming that the story synopsis had some appeal for me). I ended up reading 31 of the novellas published in 2015 and 35 of the novellas published in 2016 (though a few of those were after Hugo nominations closed).

Last year, the result of this was the 2016 Novellapalooza. I really felt as though I was able to do Hugo nominations for the novella category in an informed way, and a lot of Filers got involved with their own comments. So I decided to do it again this year.

The success of Tor’s novella line seems to have sparked a Golden Age for SFF novellas, with Subterranean Press, NewCon Press, PS Publishing, and Book Smugglers jumping on the bandwagon, as well as the Big 3 magazines and the online fiction venues – so there are a lot more novellas to cover this year. Toward the end, I’ve gotten to the point of being more selective about which ones I read, based on the synopsis.

It is not at all uncommon for me to choose to read a book despite not feeling that the jacket copy makes the book sound as though it is something I would like – and to discover that I really like or love the work anyway. On the other hand, It is not at all uncommon for me to choose to read a book in such a case, and to discover that, indeed, the book doesn’t really do much for me.

Thus, my opinions on the following novellas vary wildly: stories I thought I would love but didn’t, stories I didn’t expect to love but did, and stories which aligned with my expectations – whether high or low. Bear in mind that while I enjoy both, I tend to prefer Science Fiction over Fantasy – and that while I enjoy suspense and thrillers, I have very little appreciation for Horror (and to be honest, I think Lovecraft is way overrated). My personal assessments are therefore not intended to be the final word on these stories, but merely a jumping-off point for Filer discussion.

I thought it would be helpful to have a thread where all the Filers’ thoughts on novellas are collected in one place, as a resource when Hugo nomination time rolls around. Which of these novellas have you read? And what did you think of them?

Please feel free to post comments about any other 2017 novellas which you’ve read, as well.

(Be sure to rot-13 any spoilers.)

Read more…

Undebatably Fantastic Fiction as KGB Readings Series Features Ketchum and Kiernan

By Mark L. Blackman: The “K” in KGB stood for Ketchum and Kiernan as, on the evening of Wednesday, October 19 – a record-breaking warm day and the night of the third and final Presidential Debate – the monthly Fantastic Fiction Readings Series hosted authors Jack Ketchum and Caitlin R. Kiernan at its venue, the 2nd floor Red Room at the KGB Bar in Manhattan’s East Village.

The crowd in the room, distinctive for its red walls and Soviet era-themed décor, was smaller than usual, was ascribed by co-host Ellen Datlow to some regular attendees staying home to watch the Debate and she expected that part of the audience would dash out quickly to catch it. She encouraged those present not to “get your stomachs in a knot,” but to stay here “and have fun.” They could, she noted, always watch the Debate on YouTube.

Continuing, she announced that next month’s readers, on November 16 will be John Langan and Series co-host Matthew Kressel. On December 21, Livia Llewellyn and Sarah Pinsker will be reading; and on January 18, 2017, Holly Black and Fran Wilde will be featured. (Details are available at the Series website.) The Series, ongoing since the 1990s, is known for reliably offering an outstanding mix of writers and styles.

Caitlin R. Kiernan. Photo by Kyle Cassidy.

Caitlin R. Kiernan. Photo by Kyle Cassidy.

The evening’s first reader, Caitlin R. Kiernan, is a four-time winner of the International Horror Guild Award and a two-time recipient of the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker and James Tiptree, Jr. Awards. Her work includes the novels The Red Tree and The Drowning Girl: A Memoir, and the short fiction collections A is for Alien, The Ape’s Wife and Other Tales, and the forthcoming Dear Sweet Filthy World. She read from a novella due to be published in February by Tor, Agents of Dreamland, a marvelously descriptive, furiously stream of consciousness evocation of modern culture, with allusions ranging from Charles Manson to the mandatory supplanting of analog tv by digital.

kiernan-agents-of-dreamland

After a break, Matt Kressel took the podium and urged the crowd to support the Bar, whose generosity allows the Series’ readings to be free, by buying a drink or soft drink. He noted too that the Series nevertheless has expenses (such as treating the readers to dinner afterward) and that they planned a fundraising drive after the new year, offering nifty premiums like signed books.

 

Jack Ketchum

Jack Ketchum

Jack Ketchum, the second reader of the evening, is a five-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, most recently for Lifetime Achievement, and has been called “probably the scariest guy in America” by Stephen King. A wide-ranging talent, he is the author of thirty books, including novels – five of which have been filmed – novellas, collections, nonfiction and poetry. His most recent books are the novel The Secret Life of Souls (written with director Lucky McKee) and the collection Gorilla in My Room, both due out later this year. His offering, the mystery shocker “Bully,” was from the latter. A woman’s question to her third cousin about an old photo elicits uncomfortable reminiscences and slowly reveals a terrible family secret.

ketchum-cover

Copies of Ketchum’s and Kiernan’s books were for sale at the back of the room from the Word Bookstores of Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Jersey City.

Datlow’s photos of the event may be seen at the Series website.

Pixel Scroll 11/21 The Incredible Linking Fan

(1) For lovers and others of giant movie monsters, “Doc Kaiju” — well known at the Classic Horror Film Board — has put together a rather remarkable compendium of such creatures: Kaijumatic: House of 1,000 Giant Monsters

Or, as he likes to put it:

Now with 1003 pages stuffed with 1670 big stars from 749 movies!

And, he updates it, constantly.

(2) Barney Evans has uploaded 50 photos taken at the 1988 Loscon, including many from the masquerade.

(3) “David Tennant Answers Our Burning Questions… Sort Of” in a Yahoo! video and profile.

As any David Tennant fan knows after years of watching him promote Doctor Who and Broadchurch, no one evades questions more delightfully. Hoping some of the mind control capabilities of his latest character, the villainous Kilgrave in Marvel’s Jessica Jones (now streaming on Netflix), had rubbed off on us, we invited him in to Yahoo Studios, handed him a card filled with questions, and asked him to answer them.

One example:

Name a book, TV show, or movie you’ve pretended to have read or seen, but you totally haven’t.

That’s a very good question. Probably in audition I’ve done that several times with some worthy director, who asked me what I thought of their latest opus.

(4) Entertainment Weekly looks on as “Stephen Colbert mocks scientists for making wrong Lord of the Rings reference”:

This week, a new species of spider was identified and given the name Iandumoema smeagol, a reference to Smeagol, the hobbit who would become Gollum after getting ahold of the One Ring. The cave-dwelling spider was given the name Smeagol because it shared a similar lifestyle with the character, who lived in a cave and stayed out of the sun until he morphed into the monstrous Gollum.

Colbert, however, wasn’t having any of it on Friday’s show. “Smeagol wasn’t a scary creature who lived in a cave,” Colbert said before recounting Smeagol’s biography, and how he killed his cousin after finding the One Ring.

Explained Colbert: “Smeagol hid from his guilt and the yellow face of the sun, by retreating into a cave, where his shame and his fear turned him into an unrecognizable creature. That creature wasn’t Smeagol anymore; that creature was Gollum. You should have named the spider Gollum. You don’t discover a venomous snake and name it Anakin. You name it Darth Vader.”

 

(5) Brandon Kempner strikes gold in “SFWA 2015 Nebula Recommended Reading List: Analysis and Prediction” at Chaos Horizon.

Table 1: Correlation Between Top 6 (and Ties) of the 2014 Nebula Suggested Reading List and the Eventual 2014 Nebula Nominees

Novel: 4 out of 6, 67.7%
Novella: 6 out of 6, 100%
Novelette: 5 out of 6, 83.3%
Short Story: 6 out of 7, 85.7%

(6) Netflix will remake Lost in Space.

The original comedy, which ran from 1965 to 1968, centered on the Robinson family as they attempted to colonize another planet in deep space — a mission that was sabotaged by a foreign secret agent and caused their ship to get knocked off course.

According to our sister site Deadline, the updated version is an epic (but grounded!) sci-fi saga about “a young explorer family from Earth, lost in an alien universe, and the challenges they face in staying together against seemingly insurmountable odds.”

(7) Laughing Squid presents the entire history of Doctor Who illustrated as a medieval tapestry.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, Bill Mudron has created a “slightly ridiculous” tribute to the Bayeux Tapestry that shows the entire history of the show. It begins when the Doctor runs away from his home planet of Gallifrey and ends with “The Day of the Doctor,” the 75-minute 50 anniversary special set to air on BBC One on November 23rd, 2013. A larger version of the illustration can be found on Mudron’s Flickr, and prints are available to pre-order online.

 

Doctor Who tapestry COMP

(8) The sparks fly when Galactic Journey’s time traveler to the sf genre of 55 years ago rubs together the contemporary and historical notions of political correctness in “I aim at the Stars (but sometimes I hit London)” .

If the United States is doing well in the Space Race, it is in no small thanks to a group of German expatriates who made their living causing terror and mayhem in the early half of the 1940s.  I, of course, refer to Wehrner von Braun and his team of rocket scientists, half of whom were rounded up by the Allies after the War, the other half of whom apparently gave similar service to the Soviets.

The traveler comments on a hagiographic von Braun biopic released at the time, and provides a scan of the souvenir Dell comic book based on the film.

(9) Michael J. Martinez prepping to see the new Star Wars movie by watching the two original trilogies in their canonical order. He begins — Star Wars wayback machine: The Phantom Menace.

This is basically a movie that’s supposed to remind us of the first trilogy, but does very little to actually create an origin story for those older movies. Instead, we have attempts at nostalgia. Look, Jedi! Lightsabers! The Force! Spaceships and space battles! But even there, we have problems. Such as:

There’s no smart-ass. All the prequels were missing the Han Solo archetype — the scrappy outsider and audience surrogate who can stand toe-to-toe with these gods and monsters.

There’s George Lucas’ efforts at being cute, with the Gungans. I think George felt that he needed to appeal to the cute younger audiences, starting with Return of the Jedi, and thus we had Ewoks. Now we have Gungans, complete with silly mannerisms and catchphrases. Adults always underestimate kids’ ability to grasp nuanced entertainment, and this is no exception. We didn’t need Gungans.

The stereotypical accents and mannerisms of the Gungans and the Trade Federation folk have been covered elsewhere. But still…WTF were you thinking, man? Just no.

Wooden dialogue and stiff acting. I think I know what George was going for here — a shout-out to the sci-fi serials and movies of the 1940s and 1950s. Fine, I get it. But it didn’t work. At all.

(10) “Don’t nominate me for any awards” posts Lela E. Buis.

I don’t want to be left out of the trending commentary….

(11) “4 Beautiful Ray Bradbury Quotes That Celebrate Autumn”  selected by Jake Offenhartz at History Buff.

Though mid-afternoon sunsets and leafless trees may give the impression that winter is fast approaching, we’re still technically just halfway through fall. Which strikes us as good enough reason to look back at the work of Ray Bradbury—master of science fiction, adversary of censorship, and chronicler of all things fall. The author wrote extensively about the season, penning autumnal wisdom in various projects throughout his career, most notably in a short story collection called The October Season and a novel titled The Halloween Tree. We’ve collected some of our favorite fall-related quotes below, so cozy up and have a read:

1. The October Country (1955)

“That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain.”

(12) Merlin is in Disney’s future says CinemaBlend.

If you were going to create a checklist for how to make a current Hollywood blockbuster there are a few things you want to be sure were on it. First, you want to base it on an already existing piece of fiction, preferably a book. It would be even better if it were a series of books, about a character people were already familiar with. It would need to be able to have big fantasy action set pieces too. Then you want to bring in a production team that was involved in one of the previous fantasy action franchises based on a series of books, because that stuff looks great on a trailer. It looks like Disney just checked off all their boxes as they just brought in an Academy Award winning screenwriter from The Lord of the Rings to pen the screenplay based on a 12 book series about Merlin the magician.

Philippa Boyens is known, almost exclusively, as one of the writers behind the incredibly successful films based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

(13) Guy Gavriel Kay, Member of the Order of Canada.

(14) Caitlin Kiernan, two-time WFA winner, regrets the Lovecraft bust is being retired, in her post “I have seen what the darkness does.”

You may or may not have heard that the World Fantasy Committee has voted to change the design of the World Fantasy Award from Gahan Wilson’s bust of Lovecraft, which has served as the award since it was first given out in 1975. No, I don’t approve. I don’t believe this was the appropriate course of action. I’m saddened by this lamentable turn of events, and I’m glad that I received my two World Fantasy awards in advance of this change. How long, now, before the Mystery Writers of America are pressured to abandon the Edgar Award? When we set this sort of thing in motion, where does it end?

(15) A limited TV series based on a Vonnegut book – it could happen, reports A.V. Club.

Back in April, we reported that Kurt Vonnegut’s fourth novel, Cat’s Cradle, had been optioned for TV by IM Global Television. At that point almost nothing was known about the project other than the fact that it would indeed use Cat’s Cradle as its source material, which is implicit in a TV show labeled as Cat’s Cradle adaptation. Now though, according to Deadline, a precious few details have emerged: the show will live on FX as a limited series, and be written and executive produced by Fargo creator Noah Hawley.

Vonnegut’s original work was published in 1963 and takes on science, technology, and religion with equal satirical fire. After the novel’s narrator, John, becomes involved in the lives of the adult children of Felix Hoenikker, a fictional co-creator of the atomic bomb, he travels to the fake Caribbean island of San Lorenzo and encounters a strange outlawed religion called Bokononism that many of the area’s inhabitants practice anyway. Through Hoenikker’s children he also learns about ice-nine, a way to freeze water at room temperature that could be devastating if used improperly. Needless to say, destruction and dark humor ensue.

(16) On its February cover, Mad Magazine slipped Alfred E. Newman into a crowd of storm troopers.

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(17) IGN will be ranking the top 100 movie trailers of all time in a feature that will be unveiled November 23-25.

(18) Comic Book Resources retells a bit of lore about the making of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in “Movie Legends Revealed: The Accidental ‘Star Trek’ Actress?”

It is a funny scene, but it was also ad-libbed. Notice how everyone else ignores them? The woman who answered them was also supposed to ignore them. The comedy was supposed to derive from the fact that they couldn’t get an answer (and, yes, from the way Chekov says “vessels”).

The woman in question was San Francisco resident Layla Sarakalo, who woke up one day to discover her car had been towed. She had missed the notices that “Star Trek” was filming on her street, and her car was in the way. She decided that one way to get the money to pay for the towing was to get a job as an extra on the set.

 

[Thanks to Shambles, James H. Burns, Will R., John King Tarpinian, and Lynn Maudlin for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]