Tag Archives: Future Tense

Pixel Scroll 5/8/25 It’s Just A Scroll To The Left

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(1) FUTURE TENSE. April 2025’s Future Tense Fiction story is “The 28th,” by Mark Stasenko—a story about AI, bias, and the criminal justice system.

The response essay by legal scholar Elizabeth Joh, of the University of California Davis, is “Automated Justice?”

… Yet nowhere is the use of AI as fraught as it is in the criminal justice system, where adverse decisions lead to starkly life-altering outcomes. This isn’t a hypothetical future concern: criminal justice automation of varying degrees has already arrived. Local police agencies can turn to predictive technologies to help direct patrol resources and even generate police reports. A number of jurisdictions use risk assessment tools to decide who should be detained pretrial. Others permit judges to use algorithmic tools to determine criminal sentences. Parole boards can rely on automated assessments to identify who should be eligible for parole.

So AI is already present in the criminal justice system. But how far should it go?…

(2) INFLUENCE OF ‘CLOUD ATLAS’. Charlie Jane Anders explores the question “Has ‘Cloud Atlas’ Become a Genre?” at Happy Dancing. Here’s an excerpt:

…I also feel like Cloud Atlas has become a shorthand for “genre-hopping novel with literary aspirations.”

As I’ve said before, this is how genres happen: a book comes along that everybody loves so much, they want more of the same. And “more of the same” leads to the use of tropes or devices that are reminiscent of that influential work. 

To find out more, I talked to four authors of recent books that seemed to bear a clear influence from Cloud Atlas. Here’s what they told me.

Conscious influence

“I conceived of Down in the Sea of Angels as Cloud Atlas meets X-Men,” says Khan Wong of his brand new novel. Down in the Sea of Angels is about Maida Sun, who can touch any object and see the stories of anyone who’s interacted with it in the past. Maida’s story in 2106 becomes intertwined with stories of a girl in a 1906 brothel and a tech worker in 2006. Wong describes it as “a time-hopping dystopian fantasy about psychic powers, liberation, and our interconnectedness through time.”

Wong says that he started out doing something more similar to Cloud Atlas’ format of six storylines spanning vast periods of time. But as he developed the novel, he “scaled it back, “both in terms of the span of time and the number of storylines and genres.”…

(3) ADULTING NEEDED. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] Cli-Fi is becoming an established sub-genre of SF no least with books like Kim Stanley Robinson’s  Ministry For The Future.  However most politicians simply don’t get it: some even deny it! Meanwhile scientists working in the area are suffering mentally. This is something of which I am acutely aware having worked in climate science for a number of years.  So this week’s Nature has  a very important editorial message on behalf of today’s youth….

“Adults should finally act like adults  on climate change”:

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” This rebuke to the delegates at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City in 2019 came from a tearful Greta Thunberg, founder of the children’s climate movement Fridays For Future. Then aged 16, she urged attendees to inject more urgency into keeping global warming to within 1.5 °C of pre-industrial levels. Since then, hundreds of thousands of children around the world have made similarly impassioned appeals to adults to heed the overwhelming evidence of the dangers of climate change. But so far, a grown-up sense of responsibility is lacking….

…Quantifying what climate change will mean for those being born now is an active topic of research. This week in Nature, one group of climate researchers reports findings (L. Grant et al. Nature 641, 374–379; 2025) that must surely make adults take more notice of what younger people are saying. Building on an earlier study (W. Thiery et al. Science 374,158–160; 2021), Luke Grant, a climate researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and his colleagues report that children and young people born in the present decade face exposure to heatwaves, crop failures, floods, droughts, wildfires and tropical cyclones, in a way that their parents and grandparents never did — and that this applies pretty much anywhere in the world.

Non-PDF version of the editorial with links to this week’s relevant research  here.

(4) THE BIG THREE AND FRIENDS. Big Issue offers several examples in “These are all the times sci-fi writers predicted the future”.

…In a 1964 interview for the BBC’s Horizon program, another of the ‘Big Three’, Arthur C Clarke, said: “I’m perfectly serious when I suggest that one day we may have brain surgeons in Edinburgh operating on patients in New Zealand.” He expanded on this in his 1975 novel Imperial Earth, in which the protagonist explains the risks of telesurgery over a network experiencing high latency: “A half-second lag would not matter in conversation; but between a surgeon’s hand and eye, it might be fatal.”

Clarke’s vision became reality in (fittingly) 2001, when a New York-based surgeon removed the gall bladder of a patient in Strasbourg, 6,200km away. A medical robot called ZEUS cut the patient’s flesh; the surgeon’s movements reached ZEUS across a network designed to minimise lag times…. 

…Sometimes one sees a prediction coming true in real time, and asks: will we heed the warnings SF gave us? Jack Williamson’s 1947 novelette With Folded Hands tells of a new type of robot following a Prime Directive: “to serve and obey and guard men from harm”. Since the robots work for free, soon no one has a job. It gets worse. The robots take the “guard men from harm” directive too literally.

They ensure a person can’t do anything remotely dangerous. Before long, humans can do nothing except sit… with folded hands. We should not fear this scenario. But one can easily imagine a world in which creatives – writers, painters, musicians, photographers – twiddle their thumbs while AI spews out soulless content on demand.

Writers such as Williamson saw the threat eight decades ago. Don’t complain we’ve had no time to prepare.

(5) THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING GAMING NEWS SCENE. [Item by Steven French.] The Guardian’s “Pushing Buttons” newsletter laments further loss of authenticity in video games journalism: “When video games journalism eats itself, we all lose out”.

Last week was a bad one for video games journalism. Two key contributors to the veteran site Giant Bomb, Jeff Grubb and Mike Minotti, have announced their departure after a recent podcast was taken down. The 888th episode of the Giant Bombcast reportedly featured a section lampooning new brand guidelinesissued to staff and is no longer available online. Later this week, it was announced that major US site Polygon was being sold to Valnet, owner of the ScreenRant and GameRant brands, resulting in a swathe of job losses. This follows ReedPop’s sale, in 2024, of four high-profile UK-based sites – Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, Rock Paper Shotgun and VG247 – to IGN Entertainment, owned by Ziff Davis, which also resulted in redundancies.

It’s sad how these long-standing sites, each with vast audiences and sturdy reputations, have been traded and chopped up like commodities. On selling Polygon, Vox CEO Jim Bankoff said in a statement: “This transaction will enable us to focus our energies and investment resources in other priority areas of growth across our portfolio.” It felt gross, to be honest, to see this decade-old bastion of progressive video games writing being reduced to an asset ripe for off-loading. Of its purchase Valnet said: “Polygon is poised to reach new editorial heights through focused investment and innovation.” Quite how it will do that with a significantly reduced staff is anyone’s guess….

(6) THIRD (SEASON) FOUNDATION. Gizmodo analyzes the Season 3 teaser: “Foundation Season 3 Shares a First Look for Lee Pace Fans (and Everyone Else)”. Returns on Apple TV+ on July 11.

…Here’s the official description for the season: “Set 152 years after the events of season two, the Foundation has become increasingly established far beyond its humble beginnings while the Cleonic Dynasty’s Empire has dwindled. As both of these galactic powers forge an uneasy alliance, a threat to the entire galaxy appears in the fearsome form of a warlord known as ‘The Mule’ whose sights are set on ruling the universe by use of physical and military force, as well as mind control. It’s anyone’s guess who will win, who will lose, who will live and who will die as Hari Seldon, Gaal Dornick, the Cleons, and Demerzel play a potentially deadly game of intergalactic chess.”…

(7) NOTES FROM BEAR MCCREARY. “‘The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ Composer Bear McCreary On ‘Limitless Palette’ Of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Work & ‘Pushing Boundaries’ For Season 3” at Deadline.

…With Season 2 and the rise of Sauron, McCreary was excited to musically explore parts of Tolkien’s world that haven’t been adapted to screen. “We go to this part of the map that no adaptation has ever done before, the lands of Rhûn, and I’ve always wanted to write for the Bulgarian women’s choir,” says McCreary. “They are singing in a language Tolkien himself devised, so they had to learn it phonetically. But they brought all the beautiful, unique things that come with that kind of music.”…

(8) TOMORROW PRIZE CEREMONY. The Omega Sci-Fi Project’s “Tomorrow Prize & The Green Feather Award: Celebrity Readings & Honors” will be held on Saturday, May 17, from 4:00-6:00 p.m. at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. Free registration at the link.

Our line-up of incredible guest stars include:

Nana Visitor from Star Trek: Deep Space, Tim Russ from Star Trek: Voyager, Isabella Gomez from One Day at a Time, Marcelo Tubert from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Amy Tolsky from Jury Duty, and Rico E. Anderson from Star Trek: Renegades.

Students winners and honorees of the Omega Sci-Fi Project’s awards are publicly recognized at the incredible May culminating event, where celebrity actors perform dramatic readings of finalists’ stories that you won’t want to miss!

“The young writers are offered a wonderful chance at recognition for their creative work through the awards process. Often, students don’t even realize that creative writing is a meaningful way for them to explore a world they struggle to understand. That is, until they get to try it!” says Bodin Adler, a participating teacher from Hollywood High School.

This event culminates a season of classroom workshops led by trained writers and literary enthusiasts and are free to any educator who wishes to participate. Within these workshops, students get to explore the development, writing, and editing processes for crafting a short science fiction story, preparing them to submit their original work to The Tomorrow Prize or The Green Feather Award, the two competitions offered under the Omega Sci-Fi Project umbrella. 

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC, KCB, KCIE, 1822 – 1915

I grant he’s not even genre adjacent, but I’ll give you a tale in a minute that makes it relevant to us. Harry Flashman appears in a series of twelve George MacDonald Fraser’s books collectively known as The Flashman Papers. If Flashman had a birthday, the author says it would have been earlier this week, May 5. 

The first novel, Flashman, was published in 1969 and many readers here in the States thought it was a work of non-fiction. He’s certainly not the only fictional that readers have assumed was real. Or wished was so. Who would you would want to be? 

The books center on the exploits of Harry Flashman. He is a cowardly British soldier, rake and just generally disreputable character who is placed in a series of real historical incidents between 1839 and 1894. It must be noted that despite his cowardice and his attempts to flee danger whenever possible, he becomes a decorated war hero and rises to the rank of brigadier-general. 

There is a Chumbawamba  song, “Hanging on the Old Barb Wire”, which has the lyric 

If you want to find the general
I know where he is
He’s pinning another medal on his chest
I saw him, I saw him
Pinning another medal on his chest
Pinning another medal on his chest

(It’s a variant of a Great War song of the same name. As the band notes on their  English Rebel Songs 1381–1914 LP, “Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire was written by soldiers in the trenches in the first world war. Designed to be sung whilst marching the song is one of many showing the dissent and disgust at the way war perpetuates the inequalities of rich and poor—those with the money give the orders, those without money face the guns.”)

Royal Flash, the 1975 British film, is based upon the second Flashman novel of the same name. It stars a thirty-two year old Malcolm McDowell as Flashman. It was not well received as The Observer noted it left them “breathless not so much with enchantment as with boredom”. However audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently give it a rating of sixty-four percent which isn’t bad at all. 

Here’s the trailer with a really funny narrator. As always, the standard warming about linking to copies of the film which is up on YouTube apply. You really don’t want to be defenestrated, do you? It can be rather painful or worse. 

Now for that genre connection that mentioned much earlier. No, I didn’t forget… 

Kage Baker didn’t actually write a Flashman novel, though we talked several times about her doing so, but the bones of one appeared in one of her novels as her sister Kathleen told me here: “Most of her notes she used in her last novel, Not Less Than Gods, which she wrote while she was sick, and that was published as she was dying. As far as I can tell, Kage and I were the only people in the world who liked it. A lot of it was panned because the reviewers didn’t get most of the satire, or hated Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, or both. Anyway, even if you personally disliked the book, I think you can see the bones of a Flashman novel there.” 

Now the Green Man reviewer also liked it though he had a lump in his throat as Kage had just died as he wrote his review.

I’m pleased to say the entire series is available in hardcover, trade paperback, epub and audiobook.   As audiobooks, the narration as done by David Chase captures the character extraordinarily well. 

(10) COMICS SECTION.

Or, if you prefer a smaller bookshop:

— Tom Gauld (@tomgauld.bsky.social) 2025-05-05T16:23:31.496Z

(11) SFF TO STREAM NOW. “’Godzilla Minus One’ and Other Science Fiction Movies to Stream” – recommendations from the New York Times. (Link bypasses paywall.) Here’s one of their picks.

‘Alienoid: Return to the Future’

Can’t decide if you want to watch a movie involving tentacled aliens or one with a sorcerer? Wire fu or time travel? How about ominous spaceships? The Korean director Choi Dong-hoon has you covered with his two-part “Alienoid” epic, which includes all of these elements. The second installment kicks off with a serviceable recap so newcomers can jump in, but having seen its predecessor, “Alienoid” (2022), makes the overall experience more enjoyable.

The madcap action goes back and forth between the 14th century and 2022 Seoul, when an alien menace going by the Controller is threatening to kill the entire population by unleashing a lethal gas. The key to defeat the Controller is in the past and involves a weapon called the Divine Blade. Even more important are the actions of a ragtag team that includes the spunky Ean (Kim Tae-ri, from “Space Sweepers”) and her possible love interest, Muruk (Ryu Jun-yeol). Choi keeps up a steady pace, peppered with goofy humor and surreal touches, as when Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” plays during a big moment. Narrative coherence is an afterthought in the “Alienoid” universe so it’s best to go with whatever wackadoo scenes the movies throw at you: What matters here is pure fun, and this installment delivers.

(12) SHAUN THE SHEEP 3. [Item by Steven French.] Who could resist a trip to Mossy Bottom?! “Aardman announces third Shaun the Sheep movie: The Beast of Mossy Bottom” – details in the Guardian.

A Halloween-themed third Shaun the Sheep film is in the works from Aardman Animations, following hot on the heels of the success of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

“Expect smashed pumpkins, wayward science, and a wild hairy beast,” said Sarah Cox, chief creative director of Aardman, about the film, which launches international sales via studio StudioCanal at Cannes next week, but has already been acquired by Sky for UK distribution.

“Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom sees the residents of Mossy Bottom Farm looking forward to Halloween – until the clumsy farmer trashes the flock’s beloved pumpkin patch!” runs a synopsis for the film.

“When Shaun turns mad scientist to fix the problem, things rapidly spiral out of control … With the farmer missing and a wild beast roaming the woods of Mossingham, all the ingredients are in place for a monstrously fun family adventure.”

(13) LEGO AND LUNAR OUTPOST PARTNERSHIP. “Lego and Lunar Outpost to roll out ‘Moon Rover Space Vehicle’ in August” promises CollectSPACE.

The United States’ first teleoperated rover to reach the moon’s surface is rolling out as a Lego model this summer, together with two futuristic vehicles inspired by real-life robotic lunar explorers.

The new Lunar Outpost Moon Rover Space Vehicle is scheduled for release on Aug. 1, as part of Lego’s Technic line of advanced building kits. The $99.99 set is the result of a collaboration between the Danish toymaker and Lunar Outpost, a Colorado-based company specializing in lunar surface mobility, commercial space robotics and space resources.

“Inspired by real-life Lunar Outpost vehicles enabling humanity’s return to the moon, this Lego Technic Lunar Outpost Moon Rover Space Vehicle comes with a moon rover, mining rover and MAPP rover to inspire endless journeys of exploration,” reads the set’s description on Lego’s website.

The MAPP, or Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform, was the key part of Lunar Outpost’s Lunar Voyage 1 mission, which on March 6 arrived on the moon, making history. It would have made even more, had the commercial lander that delivered MAPP there not have immediately tipped over, trapping the rover inside its garage. It never had the chance to actually rove anywhere….

(14) ONE LAST LANDING ON THE GLOBE THAT GAVE IT BIRTH. “53-Year-Old Soviet Spacecraft Will Plummet Back to Earth This Week” reports Gizmodo.

Kosmos 482 has been trapped in Earth’s orbit for 53 years but its wandering journey is coming to an end. The failed Venus mission is expected to reenter through the atmosphere in a dramatic fall toward its home planet, where it may remain intact or scatter its bits across a still unknown location on either side of the equator.

The Soviet-era spacecraft will plunge through Earth’s atmosphere sometime between May 8 to 12. As of now, the exact location of where Kosmos 482 will crash-land on Earth is still unknown, with a preliminary estimate that stretches across large parts of the world on either side of the equator. It’s also unclear whether the spacecraft will remain in one piece or if it will break apart during reentry, raining down bits of debris.

Kosmos 482 launched on March 31, 1972 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in what is know Kazakhstan. The mission was an attempt by the Soviet space program to reach Venus, but it failed to gain enough velocity to enter a transfer trajectory toward the scorching hot planet….

(15) DONE BY DAYLIGHT. “Lunar laser: China makes 1st daytime laser-ranging measurement from Earth to the moon” – Space has the story.

China has achieved a milestone feat, making the first-ever laser ranging measurement from Earth to the moon during the daytime.

Researchers at Yunnan Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) used an infrared lunar laser ranging system of a recently upgraded 1.2-meter (3.9 feet) telescope to ping a small laser retroreflector on the Tiandu 1 satellite orbiting the moon.

Laser ranging over lunar distances is challenging, requiring sending a high-power, precise beam over 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) to hit a small corner retroreflector, which bounces the laser pulse straight back where it came from. The return signal then needs to be picked up by a telescope using ultra-sensitive detectors. Doing this in the daytime brings the added challenge of massive background “noise” from the sun….

(16) SQUAREPANTS TREK BLOOPERS. Animation Magazine is there when “Paramount+ Voyages Behind the Scenes of Crossover Spot ‘Patrick Starship Enterprise’”.

Following the debut of its new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds X SpongeBob SquarePants promo video (which you can watch here), Paramount+ has dropped a behind-the-scenes blooper reel full of illogical, astro-nautical amusement.

Starring Strange New Worlds cast members Ethan Peck (Spock), Anson Mount (Christopher Pike) and Celia Rose-Gooding (Nyota Uhura), the new video pokes fun at the making of the short and features some funny moments where we see the creative stand-in solutions for the animated characters, which include SpongeBob, Sandy and Mr. Krabs…

[Thanks to Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Steve Green, Joey Eschrich, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Mark Roth-Whitworth for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jim Janney.]

Pixel Scroll 4/2/25 Oh, Pixelline, Why Can’t You Be True?

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(1) LOST BONESTELL LITHOGRAPHS COMING ONLINE FREE. You’ll soon be able to view thirty-two recently discovered industrial illustrations from Chesley Bonestell’s early career. Starting this Thursday, April 3, Michael Swanwick and Marianne Porter will be posting one new illustration every workday on Swanwick’s blog at Flogging Babel.

Most of these images have not been seen for over a century.

Chesley Bonestell was the most significant and influential astronomical illustrator of the 20th century. But before his rise to fame he worked as an architectural illustrator. In 1918, he was commissioned by the Army Corps of Engineers to document the construction of a wartime munitions plant and hydroelectric dam in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Bonestell created 32 large-scale lithographs, showing the construction of the plant, including meticulous records of both industrial interiors, the dam and railroad being built, and the surrounding countryside. They were all signed in the stone.

The munitions factory was never a particularly successful enterprise; it came on line only a few weeks before World War One ended. But the hydroelectric dam was the first in the Tennessee Valley Authority, the massive project that made possible the economic and industrial development of the American South.

The thirty-two lithographs were stored in the Packwood House Museum in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where only two were actually on display to the public. This set of prints are not numbered, and it is not clear if any other prints were made. The Museum was owned and operated by John Featherstone, and his wife, Edith Featherstone, an artist in her own right, and was intended to showcase her work, as well as central Pennsylvania arts and crafts. Eventually the museum was closed and its contents liquidated. The Bonestell lithographs seem to have been included in the collection because John Featherstone was the engineer in charge of the Muscle Shoals construction project.

The lithographs were purchased by Swanwick and Porter in an auction. When all of them have been posted online, a torrent will be created, making the complete collection available at full resolution.

Michael Swanwick is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer. His wife, Marianne Porter, is the editor and publisher of Dragonstairs Press.  The first image to be posted is attached.

Swanwick explained on his blog today how the lithographs came into the couple’s possession: “Chesley Bonestell’s Lost Lithographs”.

“I don’t know what they are, but I hope you get them.”

That’s what the lady at the auction house said when Marianne Porter told her that all Marianne wanted were the Chesley Bonestell lithographs. There were 32 of them in the lot, and it was clear nobody at Pook & Pook knew what they were….

(2) KENNY GRAVILLIS Q&A. “Movie Poster Designer Kenny Gravillis Aims to Leave You Asking Questions” at PRINT Magazine.

…Is it common within the movie poster design industry to bid against other studios for projects? 

Especially on really big films, there will be three to four different agencies. Just to give you an example, on Game of Thrones season two, there were like 11 agencies that worked on that. It’s super competitive. For independent films that don’t have that much money, they might only be able to hire one agency to work on it. But when you start getting into the Dunes of the world, then there are multiple agencies working on it. And they’re working on it until the end, by the way. You don’t even know if you’re gonna get the final post; it’s pretty wild….

…I also think successful movie posters can exist as standalone pieces in their own right, outside of their attachment to a movie. A graphic image or design that you might want on your wall or you find compelling simply because it looks good. 

100%. The thing is, every filmmaker cares about their poster. There’s not one filmmaker that’s like, “Whatever…” Because it’s the face of the film. As great as trailers are, they’ll probably be forgotten. Nobody says, “I remember the trailer for Rosemary’s Baby or the trailer for Alien.” They’re like, “Oh, my God, the Alien poster!” …

…The other thing I’d like to say is that it never gets old. The other day, I went to see Captain America, and our poster was in the lobby. Seeing the stuff that I’ve worked on out in the world just never gets old. If it ever does, I think I’ll call it a day.

(3) CAN IT BE? “Trump Tariffs Hit Vox Day” says crusading journalist Camestros Felapton, who has found a way to leverage today’s headlines into a sff blog post. (By which I mean, dang, I wish I’d thought of it!)

…A country that surprised some in getting high tariffs was Switzerland at 31%. That’s higher than the UK (10%), EU (10%) and South Korea (25%). Sure would be a shame if some obnoxious hyper-nationalistic Trump support had invested a lot of money in printing and binding hardback books for Trump supporting fanboys in the US wouldn’t it?…

(4) A FIRST IN THE FIELD. A Deep Look by Dave Hook chronicles “’The Other Worlds’, Phil Stong editor, 1941 Wilfred Funk: The First Speculative Fiction Anthology”.

The Short: As discussed below, I believe The Other Worlds (aka The Other Worlds: 25 Modern Stories of Mystery and Imagination, 1942 editions), Phil Stong editor, 1941 Wilfred Funk, is the first speculative fiction anthology. I am glad I read it, but it’s a mixed bag and I would only recommend it to a big fan of horror, science fiction and fantasy from 1925 to 1940. It includes three essays by Stong in addition to 25 stories. My favorite story was the great “Alas, All Thinking!“, a novelette by Harry Bates (known best for “Farewell to the Master“, a novelette adapted for the movie “The Day The Earth Stood Still“), Astounding Stories, June 1935. I am not really a fan of horror, which influenced how I felt about The Other Worlds. My overall average rating is 3.45/5, or a rather anemic “Good”. It is in print, and available online…

(5) FUTURE TENSE. March 2025’s Future Tense Fiction story is “Coda,” by Arula Ratnakar—a story about computation, genetics, and cryptography.

The response essay, “Computing Consciousness”, is by computer scientist Christopher Moore, whose research actually inspired the story!

(6) TIME TO NOMINATE FOR THE CÓYOTL AWARDS. Members of the Furry Writers’ Guild are eligible to submit 2024 Cóyotl Awards nominations through April 5.

Nominations are open to all members of the Furry Writers’ Guild, though awards may be given to any work of anthropomorphic writing demonstrating excellence regardless of membership. Please see the award rules for what makes an eligible work. For a non-exhaustive list of what’s eligible, see the recommended reading list.

(7) DOUBLE-HEADER. In the first video below Erin Underwood interviews Martha Wells about her Murderbot series, with a couple of questions about the adaptation that is coming to Apple TV in May. The second video is a review of In The Lost Lands, which is an adaptation of GRRM’s short story.

Exclusive Interview with Martha Wells: Inside The Murderbot Diaries

Join me for this exclusive interview with Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries, as we explore one of science fiction’s most popular series — now being adapted into a new Apple TV series. What makes Murderbot so compelling, and how did Wells create such a nuanced, unforgettable character? Come watch on YouTube to find out!

In the Lost Lands, Movie Review – Worth the Watch?

Paul W.S. Anderson’s In the Lost Lands brings George R.R. Martin’s dark fantasy to life, but does its reliance on digital sets and AI-driven cinematography elevate or undermine the experience? With Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista leading the charge, this film raises big questions about the future of sci-fi and fantasy filmmaking. Join me on YouTube where I break it down.

(8) ON TARGET. “’Woke’ criticism of Doctor Who proves show on right track, says its newest star” in the Guardian.

Criticisms that Doctor Who has become too “woke” prove the series is doing the right thing by being inclusive, its new star Varada Sethu has said.

Sethu plays the Doctor’s latest travelling companion, Belinda Chandra, in new episodes airing next month. With Ncuti Gatwa returning as the Doctor, the pairing marks the first time a Tardis team will comprise solely people of colour.

Speaking about the milestone, Sethu told the Radio Times: “Ncuti was like, ‘Look at us. We get to be in the Tardis. We’re going to piss off so many people.’…

And the BBC has a long profile with the actor: “Doctor Who: Varada Sethu wants to inspire young South Asian women”

When new Doctor Who companion Varada Sethu first told her family she wanted to be an actress, there wasn’t immediate support.

“They had difficulty coming to terms with it initially,” she tells BBC Asian Network News.

Varada, who will be playing Ncuti Gatwa’s sidekick, Belinda Chandra in the upcoming series, feels going into acting is “sadly still not encouraged in the South Asian community”.

“There’s an element of resistance we face,” the 32-year-old says.

But Varada wants to change all of that, and says inspiring young girls to follow their dreams is one of her big goals.

“I want to be the person that these girls can point out to and say: ‘She made it and she came from a community that looks like mine’.

“So I think I’ve gone about this with the energy of, I can’t fall flat on my face,” she says.

But the actress, who has had roles in Disney+ Star Wars series Andor, 2018 crime drama Hard Sun and Jurassic World Dominion, says change comes with challenges.

A report by the Creative Diversity Network found in 2022/23 the percentage of on-screen contributions by those who identify as South Asian or South Asian British was 4.9%.

That’s compared with the latest census data, analysed by the UK Government, that found around 8% of people from those backgrounds are in the working-age population.

“It’s a constant battle of failure isn’t an option,” says Varada.

“Because, you know, your uncle’s daughter who’s six, who might wanna go into acting when she’s a bit older, won’t be allowed to, if I become the cautionary tale.”…

(9) STRANGE NEW TREK. Gizmodo says “The First Trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Is a Wild Trip”.

The new trailer immediately goes meta, detailing at least more than a few adventures where Strange New Worlds will take the crew of the Enterprise beyond the typical spacebound adventures and into some very meta territory–from murder mystery holoprograms, to a kitschy spin on the original Trek‘s ’60s production aesthetics. And that’s even before you get to Carol Kane’s Commander Pelia hooking up the whole ship to old-timey analogue phones!…

(10) VAL KILMER (1959-2025). Actor Val Kilmer, whose iconic genre roles included Batman Forever and Real Genius, died April 1 at the age of 65. The Hollywood Reporter tribute notes he was most famous for playing Iceman in Top Gun and Doc Holliday in Tombstone. And it also recalled some of his other sff work —

…Marlon Brando’s insane assistant in John Frankenheimer’s The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996); 

…He was married to British actress Joanne Whalley from 1988 until their divorce in 1996. They met while working together on Willow and wed months later.

…Kilmer starred as rockabilly teen idol Nick Rivers in the daffy spy spoof Top Secret! (1984) from Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers. 

…Kilmer also provided the voice of K.I.T.T. in a new version of TV’s Knight Rider in 2008-09

(11) MEMORY LANE(S)

[First piece written by Paul Weimer. Second piece by Cat Eldridge.]

April 2, 1968 — 2001: A Space Odyssey

By Paul Weimer: Did the “Blue Danube Waltz” play through your head just now? Or perhaps “Also Sprach Zarathrustra”?  Possibly both?  Even though I am not a music guy, both of those music pieces come to mind when I think of 2001. The music is the first thing I think of when I think of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

You know the story. Monolith uplifts Ape with the power of ultraviolence. Humans find the Monolith on the Moon, a ship heads to Jupiter to investigate where the signal went. Hal goes mad and kills most of his crew. David Bowman has an apotheosis. 

But 2001 is far more than the music and that plot. It’s visuals, really the first time I saw it, I felt that this could be what space would be like. Slow sedate visuals but one that felt accurate. (The jokes/conspiracy theories that the real moon landing was directed by Kubrick come from the visuals of 2001). Be it the apes scene, the casualness of the lounge in the space station, the investigation of the monolith, daily life on the Discovery, or the very very weird ending. I am still not quite sure I get it. But is it absolutely unforgettable? Yes. 

And that’s the fun thing about the movie. It is slow, very slow. But it doesn’t drag. It’s sedately and sedate in places, and then violently and suddenly. The movie seems to just know when to interrupt the quiet stately pace with a sudden action or point of drama. In any event, the movie holds my attention throughout. Every time I’ve started watching it, I’ve kept it on.  It is THE space movie for me. 

And it became clear to me that when I saw Star Trek The Motion Picture, just how much they tried to borrow from 2001. Maybe too much, for their own good. They learned the need for stately pacing…but not so much when to break it up.

By Cat Eldridge: Fifty-six years ago, 2001: A Space Odyssey had its world premiere on this date at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., it would be nearly a month and three weeks, the fifteenth of May to be precise, before the United Kingdom would see this film. 

It was directed as you know by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay by him and Arthur C. Clarke who wrote the novel. 

It spawned a sequel about which the less said the better. (My opinion, the critics sort of like it. Huh.)

It would win a Hugo at St. Louiscon over what I will term an extraordinarily offbeat field of nominees that year — Yellow Submarine, Charly, Rosemary’s Baby and the penultimate episode of The Prisoner, “Fallout”. 

It did amazingly well box office wise, returning one hundred fifty million against just ten million in production costs. 

So, what did the critics think of it then? Some liked, some threw up their guts. Some thought that audience members that liked it were smoking something to keep themselves high. (That was in several reviews.) Ebert liked it a lot and said that it “succeeds magnificently on a cosmic scale.” Others were less kind with Pauline Kael who I admit is not one of my favorite critics saying that it was “a monumentally unimaginative movie.” Humph. 

I was too young to see when I came out, but an arts cinema showed a few decades later which I saw it there, so I did see it on a reasonably large screen. It is extraordinarily amazing film. I don’t think the Suck Fairy would any problems with it even today

Audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently give it a most not unsurprising rating of ninety two percent. 

(12) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

April 2, 1948 — Joan D. Vinge, 77.

By Paul Weimer: It is fitting that The Snow Queen has her birthday just as we are getting out of winter and into Spring, and the treacherous Winters of the planet Tiamat are reluctantly getting ready to hand over the control of the planet to the Summers for a time.  The original Snow Queen novel and its sequels is where I began reading Vinge’s work. I picked it up for the same reason I picked up many books in the mid to late 90’s–it had been on an award ballot and I was filling in the gaps of my reading. (It won for Best Novel at the Hugos in 1981, and was a finalist for the Nebula the same year).  I found the worldbuilding of the novel most satisfying, and the titular Snow Queen and her grand plot to try and control the planet for its entire cycle by means of her clone I found to be a crackerjack story. 

Only after reading the story did I realize how much the story was influenced by both the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, and by Robert Graves (The White Goddess).  A re-read when I decided to read the entire series showed me that as much as I thought it has been rich and interesting, on a re-read the book was *even better*.  The Snow Queen is one of those novels that the more you know, the even cleverer and more intricately woven it appears to be. 

My favorite of that entire series is the standalone Tangled Up in Blue, which is really a noir mystery novel that just so happens to take place on the mean streets of Carbuncle. It’s a genre mashup that works even better than I hoped, and it works really standalone, too. You don’t need to read The Snow Queen to dive into Tangled Up in Blue. 

Besides the stories set on Tiamat, Vinge has written plenty of other stuff as well. Catspaw is a favorite of mine, although it is a case where I accidentally started with the second book in the series not even knowing there was a first book (Psion).  Vinge feels, like Julian May, like one of the last SF authors to really use and deploy telepathy in a major mainstream SF novel straight up. 

Finally, Vinge has also written a number of movie tie-in novelizations, including one (Cowboys and Aliens) that actually redeems that (IMO) very flawed movie.

Joan Vinge

(13) COMICS SECTION.

(14) DC COMICS HISTORY. BBC’s Witness History remembers “The wonder woman of DC Comics”.

In 1976, Jenette Kahn began one of the biggest roles in comic books – publisher of DC Comics, home to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. She was only 28 and the first female boss.

(15) WRITING WHILE DISABLED. In the second audio episode of Writing While Disabled at Strange Horizons, hosts Kristy Anne Cox and Kate Johnston “welcome Farah Mendlesohn, acclaimed SFF scholar and conrunner, to talk all things hearing, dyslexia, and more ADHD adjustments, as well as what fandom could and should be doing better for accessibility at conventions, for both volunteers and attendees.”

There’s a transcript at the link, where you can also watch the full interview on video with close-caption subtitles.

(16) VIDEOS OF THE DAY. “Oh Jeez, Rick and Morty Will Return in May” reports Gizmodo.

April Fools’ Day is upon us, but this is no joke: Rick and Morty season eight hits Adult Swim May 25, with a first look to prove it. The news came as part of Adult Swim’s annual April 1 celebration, and also included a 22-minute special of favorite Rick and Morty moments re-interpreted in appropriately and unexpectedly freaky ways. Adult Swim described it as pulling from “absurd, live-action, theater-based genres,” and frankly you just need to watch it to believe it.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, Paul Weimer, Erin Underwood, Michael Swanwick, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Mark Roth-Whitworth.]

Pixel Scroll 3/10/25 (SF/F Reference) + (Cultural Reference|770 Jargon) / Pun ~= (Scroll Title)

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(1) BULWER-LYTTON RIDES OFF INTO THE SUNSET. Last week Scott Rice told fans of The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, “Au Revoir, Noble Bulweriers!”

It is with deep regrets that I announce the conclusion of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.  Being a year and a half older than Joseph Biden, I find the BLFC becoming increasingly burdensome and would like to put myself out to pasture while I still have some vim and vigor!

When I initiated the competition in 1983, inviting entrants to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels, I never dreamed that we would receive thousands of entrants from all over the U.S. and the globe, or that the contest would survive for over four decades. 

​I am especially grateful to our entrants for keeping the contest alive and to our Panel of Undistinguished Judges who dutifully selected each year’s “winners.”  And, of course, I would like to thank my daughter, EJ, who has been indispensable the last several years of the contest.  It’s been 42 good years but, alas, all good things must come to an end. Rest assured we’re keeping the BLFC spirit alive by maintaining our archive for posterity so that generations and generations hence may witness your greatness!

(2) ERRATA REDUX. The UK’s SF Gateway bookselling site is having a little trouble identifying author “William Rotsler”, co-author with Gregory Benford of Shiva Descending. As Andrew Porter pointed out to them, this is a photo of Robert Silverberg.

It isn’t the first time something like this has happened to Rotsler. When he was the 1973 Worldcon Fan Guest of Honour, the designer of TorCon 2’s program book erroneously ran a photo of John Schoenherr instead of Rotsler. (Coincidentally, Robert Silverberg was the author of that 1973 bio!)

(3) DROPPING FAST. The Guardian reports “US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms”.

The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms.

Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to “strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world”, announced the inclusion of the US on the non-profit’s first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia….

(4) NEW DAVE HOOK POSTS. A Deep Look by Dave Hook praises “’Deep Dream: Science Fiction Exploring the Future of Art’, Indrapramit Das editor, 2024 The MIT Press”.

The Short: I recently read Deep Dream: Science Fiction Exploring the Future of Art, Indrapramit Das editor, 2024 The MIT Press. My favorites of the ten short stories were “Encore“, by Wole Talabi, “The Quietude” by Lavie Tidhar, and “Autumn’s Red Bird“, by Aliette de Bodard. The essays and art were great also. My overall rating was 3.88/5, or “Great”. Strongly recommended.

And for an encore, Dave Hook shares “My 2025 Hugo Nominations”. His list includes —

Best Related Work nomination:

I nominated “The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion“, Chris Barkley & Jason Sanford Author/Editors, File770/Genre Grapevine, February 14, 2024.

(5) FUTURE TENSE. February’s Future Tense Fiction story is “Mothering the Bay,” by Deji Bryce Olukotun—a story about AI, misinformation, and parenting, set on the BART public transit system in California’s Bay Area.

The response essay, “The Awareness Imperative”, is by educational technologist Babe Liberman.

 (6) PAGING CAPTAIN PIKE’S BARBER. “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Character Posters” – there are 13 images in the gallery. The Captain looks like he stuck his head out a porthole while the ship was at Warp 3. I rather like the photo of Scotty, though.

Paramount+ reveals new character art for Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds!

The new character art features Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as First Officer Una Chin-Riley, Ethan Peck as Spock, Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel, Christina Chong as La’An Noonien-Singh, Celia Rose Gooding as Nyota Uhura, Melissa Navia as Erica Ortegas and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga.

In addition to the main cast, we have recurring guests Paul Wesley as James T. Kirk, Melanie Scrofano as Marie Batel, Martin Quinn as Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott, and Carol Kane as Pelia.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is based on the years Captain Christopher Pike manned the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike
Martin Quinn as Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott

(7) KAZUO ISHIGURO Q&A. [Item by Steven French.] With a 20th Anniversary special edition of his science fiction novel Never Let Me Go about to be published, Nobel prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro is interviewed by the Guardian and discussed his openness to speculative fiction, his own opinion of his prose style and the dangers posed by the increasing use of AI: “’AI will become very good at manipulating emotions’: Kazuo Ishiguro on the future of fiction and truth”.

Never Let Me Go had a long gestation period, as Ishiguro explains in his introduction to a new edition; for many years, it existed merely as thoughts and notes about a group of students whose lifespan – perhaps as the result of a nuclear accident – was markedly different from their peers. The breakthrough came via a combination of external factors and timing: societal interest in the potential benefits and dangers of cloning, at its most headline-grabbing in the shape of Dolly the sheep; and a shift in writing and publishing that made a place in so-called literary novels for the techniques and practices of speculative fiction.

“I gave myself permission to use what traditionally might have been called genre tropes,” Ishiguro explains. “And that wasn’t because I was being terribly brave or anything. I think the climate around me changed; the next generation of writers, people about 15 years younger than me, didn’t see anything weird about it, at least the people I happened to become friends with, David Mitchell or Alex Garland. They were taking their cues from all kinds of places and I really liked their work.”

(8) SIMON FISHER-BECKER (1961-2025). “Simon Fisher-Becker dead: ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Doctor Who’ actor was 63” reports USA Today.

Simon Fisher-Becker, a British actor known for his roles on “Doctor Who” and in the first “Harry Potter” film, has died. He was 63.

Fisher-Becker’s death was confirmed by his agency in a statement issued to USA TODAY on Monday.

“Today, I lost not only a client Simon Fisher-Becker, but a close personal friend of 15 years standing,” the statement said. “I shall never forget the phone call I made to him when he was offered the part of ‘Dorium’ in Dr Who. He had been a fan of the show since he was a child.

“Simon was also a writer, a raconteur and a great public speaker. He helped me out enormously and was always kind, gracious and interested in everyone. My condolences go to his husband Tony, his brother, nieces and nephews and his legion of fans.”

Fisher-Becker portrayed the Fat Friar, a ghost from Hufflepuff, who appeared in 2001’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” In the film, he comes through the floor of the Hogwarts dining hall as several ghosts arrive, including Nearly Headless Nick.

The actor also starred as Dorium Maldovar on the British sci-fi series “Doctor Who.” He played the role in the fifth and sixth seasons of the modern reboot opposite Matt Smith’s Doctor….

(9) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Frederik Pohl’s Gateway wins the Hugo for Best Novel (1978)

Forty-six years ago at IguanaCon II, where Tim Kyger was the Chair, Harlan Ellison was the pro guest, and Bill Bowers was the fan guest, Frederik Pohl’s Gateway wins the Hugo for Best Novel. 

The other nominated works for that year were The Forbidden Tower by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Time Storm by Gordon R. Dickson and Dying of the Light by George R. R. Martin. 

It was serialized in the November and December 1976 issues of Galaxy prior to its hardcover publication by St. Martin’s Press. A short concluding chapter, cut before publication, was later published in the August 1977 issue of Galaxy.

It would win damn near every other major Award there was as it garnered the John Campbell Memorial for Best Science Fiction Novel, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, the Nebula Award for Novel and even the Prix Pollo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel published in France. It was nominated for but did not win the Australian Ditmar Award. 

It’s the opening novel in the Heechee saga, with four sequels that followed. It is a most exceptional series. I’ve read I think all of them. 

I’m chuffed that Pohl was voted a Hugo for Best Fan Writer at Aussiecon 4. Who can tell what works got him this honor? 

Gateway of course is available at the usual suspects. 

If I’m remembering right, there was talk of a film for awhile.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) THE NEXT DISRUPTION. The Guardian asks, “Are AI-generated video games really on the horizon?”

Another month, another revolutionary generative AI development that will apparently fundamentally alter how an entire industry operates. This time tech giant Microsoft has created a “gameplay ideation” tool, Muse, which it calls the world’s first Wham, or World and Human Action Model. Microsoft claims that Muse will speed up the lengthy and expensive process of game development by allowing designers to play around with AI-generated gameplay videos to see what works.

Muse is trained on gameplay data from UK studio Ninja Theory’s game Bleeding Edge. It has absorbed tens of thousands of hours of people’s real gameplay, both footage and controller inputs. It can now generate accurate-looking mock gameplay clips for that game, which can be edited and adapted with prompts.

All well and good, but in an announcement video for Muse, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer caused confusion when he said that it could be invaluable for the preservation of classic games: AI models, he implied, could “learn” those games and emulate them on modern hardware. It’s not clear how this would be possible. Further muddying the waters, Microsoft’s overall CEO Satya Nadella then implied in a podcast interview that Muse was the first step in creating a “catalogue” of AI-generated games.

But Muse, as it stands, can’t create a game – it can only create made-up footage of a game. So just what is this new gaming AI tool? A swish addition to game developers’ tool belts? Or the first step towards an era of AI-generated gaming detritus?…

(12) CLIPPING SERVICE. Filer Lise Andreasen says, “I made a joke!”

(13) MIND INTO MATTER. “Vesuvius Turned a Roman Man’s Brain Into Glass. Now, Scientists Reveal How the Extremely Rare Preservation Happened” in Smithsonian Magazine.

In 79 C.E., Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the nearby ancient Roman city of Pompeii and the smaller town of Herculaneum under deadly layers of volcanic ash, pumice and pyroclastic flows. But the disaster that demolished the two settlements also immortalized them, preserving everything from the shape of victims’ bodies to frescoes in private villas and library scrolls.

Archaeologists even discovered the remains of a young man whose brain and parts of his spinal cord had turned into glass. Scientists had never seen a glassy soft tissue in nature before—and no one has found anything like it since….

…The recent study, however, supports the 2020 research claiming that the remains are indeed a brain—they found preserved neurons and axons, as well as proteins known to be common in brain tissue. They conclude the vitrification was caused by an ash cloud that arrived in Herculaneum before the pyroclastic flows from the volcano….

…But there’s a catch: “Conditions must have been very, very specific, because the organic tissue must have experienced a heating fast enough not to entirely destroy it (which is instead the most common occurrence) and then fast-cool to turn into glass,” Giordano says to Popular Science’s Andrew Paul.

To achieve those specific circumstances, the skull and spine acted as protective layers, shielding the soft tissue within from a bit of the heat. “The glass that formed as a result of such a unique process attained a perfect state of preservation of the brain and its microstructures,” the team writes in the paper.

Giordano tells Live Science’s Tom Metcalfe that they found charcoal fragments in Herculaneum that supported their idea. These fragments “experienced multiple [heating] events, and the highest temperatures were associated with the early, super-hot ash cloud.”

Benjamin Andrews, a volcanologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History who was not involved in the study, tells Science’s Collin Blinder that the team’s findings are “remarkable.”

“There’s a huge story, a huge wealth of information, contained in these little particles,” he adds.

Not everyone agrees with the new conclusions, however. For example, Alexandra Morton-Hayward, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Oxford in England who was also not involved in the research, is not convinced that the glassy material is indeed parts of the man’s brain. She maintains that soft tissue vitrification is “incredibly unlikely,” per CNN….

(14) LUNAR ECLIPSE VISIBLE FROM THE AMERICAS. Coming March 14: “Total lunar eclipse to mesmerise skywatchers in March” reports the Guardian.

This week, the moon experiences a total lunar eclipse, which although not as spectacular as a total solar eclipse is still a beautiful celestial sight to behold.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the full moon passes directly behind Earth, through our planet’s shadow. Skywatchers first see the shadow of Earth creeping across the face of the moon. This is known as the partial phase.

Then, during the total phase, when the moon is engulfed by Earth’s shadow, the lunar surface turns a deep red colour. In the last phase, also known as a partial phase, Earth’s shadow slips off the lunar surface and all returns to normal.

It is a leisurely process, taking more than three hours to complete. On 14 March, the partial eclipse begins at 0509 GMT. The total phase begins at 0658 GMT before returning to a partial phase at 0731 GMT. This final partial phase then ends at 0847 GMT.

Unfortunately for European and African viewers, only the initial partial phase will be visible. Observers in North and South America, however, will be treated to the whole thing. Parts of Asia and Australia will then catch the final partial phase.

(15) FILK HISTORY. “Margaret Middleton – A Shaper of Modern Filk (Part 2 of 2), interviewed by Edie Stern” has been posted by FANAC.org on YouTube.

Title: Margaret Middleton – A Shaper of Modern Filk  (Part 2 of 2), interviewed by Edie Stern

Description: FANAC History Zoom: February 2025:  Named to the Filk Hall of Fame in 1996, and a long time officer of the Filk Foundation, Margaret Middleton has been instrumental in the shaping of modern filk, as well as a mainstay of Arkansas fandom. She’s published multiple fanzines, including Kantele, and was a founder of the first specialized filk convention, Filkcon 1.

In Part 2 of this 2 part recording, the conversation ranges from Margaret’s taxonomy of filk, to tips for busking at the Farmer’s Market, and to the effect of the internet on filking and the filk community.  We also learn about Margaret-when-she’s not filking, including her involvement in  the Civil Air Patrol, quilting and her professional responsibilities for “measuring piles of dirt and holes in the ground.” … It’s a wide-ranging conversation, and ends with barbershop quartets, the Ballad of Eskimo Nell (discussed – not sung),  the relationship of quilts to filk conventions and audience Q&A…For those interested in the history of filk, this 2 part interview is highly recommended.

[Thanks to Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, Joey Eschrich, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, and Kathy Sullivan for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 2/6/25 I Know It’s Only Pixel Scroll, But I Like It

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(1) RADIO FREE BRADBURY. Phil Nichols’ new Bradbury 100 podcast tunes into “Ray Bradbury on Radio: SUSPENSE”.

This time, I look at the early years of Ray’s professional career, which saw him not only mastering the craft of short story writing and putting together his first book, but branching out into media – in particular, getting his stories and scripts onto national radio shows such as CBS’s Suspense.

Over a span of a dozen years, Suspense produced no fewer than eleven shows based on Bradbury stories, with some of the stories being produced multiple times. I argue that this early media presence – which included a number of stories previously unpublished – helped cement Bradbury’s growing popularity and reputation.

The direct link is here: “Episode 61 – Ray Bradbury and Radio’s SUSPENSE!” at SoundCloud.

(2) FUTURE TENSE. ASU Center for Science and the Imagination’s “Future Tense Fiction” story for January 2025 is “The Funniest Centaur Alive”, by Gregory Mone—a story about standup comedy, AI, and the ethics of human enhancement.

The response essay “The AI House of Mirrors” is by computer scientist Suresh Venkatasubramanian.

I spend my days thinking about collisions between tech—especially artificial intelligence—and society. There was a time when I could separate out that part of my day as work, but in 2025, such a division is no longer possible. Rather than simply think through these collisions, I now also live them, in nearly every corner of my life. AI is unescapable: I go to the grocery store and the radio is talking about the technology’s use in some sector or another. I go to get a haircut and we discuss smart mirrors that could show you virtual hairstyles to choose from. My child’s school insists on deploying some rather questionable software that claims to use AI to detect concerning behaviors or online communications and wants my consent to use it….

(3) AT THE HALF CENTURY. LA Review of Books introduces Jonathan Bolton’s review of The Dispossessed: 50th Anniversary Edition saying he “thoughtfully reads Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Dispossessed’ within and against the grain of a half century of criticism”. “To Touch the Dust of Anarres”.

… Among political novelists, Le Guin stood out for her ability to blend different kinds of politics. She was fascinated by the grand politics of class and revolution—her novels are full of parliamentary factions, court intrigue, diplomats, spies, and rebels. As the Thuvian ambassador tells Shevek, “You have got to understand the powers behind the individuals.” But as a feminist and skilled imaginer of everyday life, she also had a sensitive eye for the mundane power struggles of “the personal is political.” Nor did she ignore the cruel paradoxes and structural violence of imperialism, playing out in both colony and metropole. Through it all, she maintained a keen sense of the pure force of ideas to move back and forth among these three political worlds. The Dispossessed is a running political conversation—full of intrigue and drama, to be sure—in which Shevek is forced to test and develop his anarchist ideals against a range of friendly and hostile interlocutors on both Anarres and Urras. These varied conversations leave no political idea unchallenged, even as Shevek preserves his ever-evolving anarchist ideals….

(4) BLACK HERITAGE IN HORROR. The Horror Writers Association has launched a month-long series: “Black Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Jamal Hodge”.

What inspired you to start writing?

Pain, uncertainty, and hope. Honestly, I was a naive child, filled with joy at the thought of meeting another face. But when homelessness found my family in the South Bronx, I quickly learned that people weren’t always safe. Being exposed to ‘American history’ in school further revealed what it meant to be Black in this country, a trauma, in my view, that demands mental health support, like counseling, in schools. These harsh realities made me dream of a better world. I found that place within the pages of books, the ink of a pen, and the boundless depths of my own imagination.

What drew you to the horror genre?

Hope, survival, and truth. To me, horror encapsulates all of these. It transforms fear into something useful, something empowering, and even fun. Horror and fantasy were my first loves for precisely that reason: they validated our right to be scared, acknowledging that evil exists and that we live in a dangerous world. But they also illuminated our power to face terror head-on, to survive. That resonated with me.

(5) GROUP STATEMENT OPPOSING ANTI-TRANS EXECUTIVE ORDER. “Literary Organizations Release Joint Statement Decrying Anti-Trans Executive Order” – Publishers Weekly has the full text – read it at the link. Not sure how the 54 signing organizations were recruited, but neither the Authors Guild, HWA, nor SFWA is among them.

Following the release of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 20, which asserts that his administration will implement “language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male,” a large number of major organizations in the book business and literary world released a statement decrying the move. Among them are the American Booksellers Association, Audio Publishers Association, Comic Book Legal Defense fund, EveryLibrary, Independent Book Publishers Association, IngramSpark, National Book Critics Circle, PEN America, PubWest, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and many more.

The statement says in part:

…Trans, nonbinary, and intersex experience is vastly underrepresented in literature but disproportionately targeted by bans. During the 2022-2023 school year, 30% of books banned included LGBTQIA+ characters or themes. Such censorship robs us of perspectives that enrich the American story. Though the executive order in question tries to paint LGBTQIA+ people and allies as bullies enforcing their perspective on others through “legal and other socially coercive means,” that’s exactly what the order itself does, just as book-banning pressure groups have done since 2020 in school boards and libraries around the country. The fate of trans, intersex, and nonbinary people is not a political ideology, it’s a matter of human rights, civil rights, and freedom of expression. Government erosion of those rights should concern all Americans, regardless of their investment in LGBTQIA+ literature specifically.

This executive order is censorship, pure and simple, and it has no place in a free society. It must be rescinded or stayed as soon as possible, and at the latest, before the earliest implementation deadline, February 19, 2025….

(6) ELLIOTT SHARP Q&A. Interviewer Rob Thornton reaches back 25 years to share – “Archival Interview (2000): Elliott Sharp on Sci-Fi, Spoken Words, and Sound”.

In 2000, I did an email interview with Sharp about his work with Seeing Eye Theater, why he’s a science fiction fan, and how his approach to music has been shaped by science fiction.

There are many authors who read for Seeing Eye Theater. Did you choose to work with Murphy, Goonan, Womack & Shepard or did Seeing Eye Theater introduce you to them?

I had met the producer, Tony Daniel, through Ellen Datlow, Jack Womack, and Lucius Shepard when doing a performance. He told me that he had followed my work. the next step was easy. I’ve followed sci-fi since I first began to read and had been a longtime fan of Jack. Pat, and Lucius.

We’ve performed together on a number of occasions and I had included all of them reading in a compilation of one-minute pieces called State of the Union. Tony, as producer, makes the choices. I certainly offer feedback. I did become a fan of Kathy Ann Goonan’s after working with her on a Seeing Ear Theater production….

There’s a whole library of “Seeing Eye Theater (Radio)” episodes available at YouTube.

(7) SATURN ON THE BLOCK. A forthcoming episode of Antiques Roadshow will feature “1986 Leonard Nimoy Saturn Life Career Award”. I’m thinking, come on, it’s a Saturn Award, what can that be worth? Well, it seems that having Leonard Nimoy’s name on it raises it well above the value of the average bowling trophy. The figure is named in this clip.

(8) DAVID EDWARD BYRD (1941-2025). Deadline reports: “David Edward Byrd Dead: Artist Behind Iconic Rock And Broadway Posters”. Here’s a brief excerpt from the obituary, with his best-known genre work bolded.

…For some devotees, though, Byrd left his most indelible impression on Broadway, designing some of theater’s most influential and best-remembered posters and logos. He created the gorgeously garish and grisly poster for The Little Shop of Horrors, a more muted 1971 poster for Jesus Christ Superstar combining cathedral art and rock imagery, and that same year, the iconic poster for Follies, the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical about a reunion of aging showgirls.

In the 1980s, Byrd worked as Art Director for Van Halen and designed posters for Los Angeles theaters including The Mark Taper Forum and The Ahmanson Theatre.

While his work might best be remembered by folks of a certain age, at least one set of his illustrations is well-known to a younger generation: He designed the richly colorful covers for the first three Harry Potter books.

In 2023, Byrd published his autobiography Poster Child: The Psychedelic Art & Technicolor Life of David Edward Byrd, chock full of the poster art that has delighted untold numbers of observers….

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

February 6, 1922 — Patrick Macnee. (Died 2015.)

By Paul Weimer: “There are those who believe that life here began out there. Far across the universe, with tribes of humans…some believe there may be brothers of man who yet now fight to survive…”

My first encounter with the work of the formidable Patrick Macnee was, improbably, in Battlestar Galactica.  His voice is the unmistakable one in the opening credits to the 1978 series. In addition, he also showed up in a two part episode as “Count Iblis”, who was, as far as I can figure, a fallen angel or the outright devil himself.  And also he showed up at least once as the Imperious Leader, the head of the Cylons. That striking British baritone voice of his served him well and was unmistakable. 

It would be years, though, before I encountered The Avengers and his role in that, proper. In fact, I had somehow missed the existence of The Avengers for years, and didn’t know it existed or that I might like it. It was the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Community that clued me in. A particular GM and player in that community had a penchant for playing characters who were versions of John Steed himself. The first couple of games I played with him in it, I didn’t quite get who he was “supposed to be”. I finally got a chance between games, to actually ask him about the character — I was embarrassed because it seemed I was the only one who wasn’t “in on it”.  And so he told me, and urged me to see The Avengers for myself. 

And then I finally saw the series itself on VHS tape. While there were several partners (Diana Rigg’s Mrs Peel being just the most prominent), the anchor of that relationship was McNee’s stalwart John Steed. I immediately finally saw what my fellow roleplayer was doing. And why he would model his character and his very con appearance (complete with a bowler hat and an umbrella, although he preferred white to black. It all clicked. The stalwart, competent and implacable and unflappable gentleman that Macnee portrays is tailor made for borrowing as a character template, or just a fashion template. What a fascinating character! An excellent spy, cultured, intelligent, and always prepared. And a perfect gentleman who wasn’t above some very above board wordplay with his associates. I think that Macnee so created and inhabited the role is a reason why attempts to reboot the character in media have gone from horrible (sorry, Ralph Fiennes) to forgettable (the Big Finish audio dramas). 

Macnee also shows up in series and roles ever since, from Columbo to Sherlock Holmes to an episode of the series Frasier where he plays a psychiatrist. 

A class act, throughout his acting career. He died in 2015. Requiescat in pace.

Patrick Macnee

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) ON A ROLL. The New York Times tells readers about a game involving “Intergalactic Shantytowns Where Dice Dictate Your Future” (behind a paywall.)

The dice roll is the fundamental engine of numerous games. In a board game, it might determine what type of resources you receive or how far you can move. In tabletop role-playing games, it might determine whether an action is successful. When you swing your sword at an ogre, does it land a fatal blow? Or does your blade accidentally glance off a nearby statue and clatter uselessly to the ground? The dice decide.

Although video games often use similar systems to decide the outcome of a player’s actions, the dice roll itself — the machinery of chance — is typically concealed.

“The idea with video games is they’re supposed to be this warm bath of immersion that you disappear into,” said Gareth Damian Martin, whose new game Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector subverts convention by placing the dice center stage.

The dice in Citizen Sleeper 2, which releases for PCs and consoles on Friday, can be spent on actions within a cyberpunk future where mercenaries, scavengers and outcasts eke out a hardscrabble living on the margins of a galaxy ruled by rival corporations. The higher the number of an assigned die, the greater the chance that the player will successfully work shifts in an intergalactic kelp bar, sell scrap engine components down at the shipyards or overthrow a corporation as part of a labor revolution.

“The process of abstracting things to dice gives an incredible flexibility to storytelling,” said Damian Martin, who uses they/them pronouns. “The game inherently supports you and creates drama from any situation.”…

(12) TANGLED UP IN BLUE. Deadline introduces “’Smurfs’ Trailer: First Footage Of Rihanna’s Smurfette”.

…The synopsis: When Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is mysteriously taken by evil wizards, Razamel and Gargamel, Smurfette (Rihanna) leads the Smurfs on a mission into the real world to save him. With the help of new friends, the Smurfs must discover what defines their destiny to save the universe….

(13) NOT WITH A BANG. [Item by Steven French.] It’ll be interesting to see whether AI can describe the end of the universe before it brings about the end of the world: “AI to revolutionise fundamental physics and ‘could show how universe will end’”.

Advanced artificial intelligence is to revolutionise fundamental physics and could open a window on to the fate of the universe, according to Cern’s next director general.

Prof Mark Thomson, the British physicist who will assume leadership of Cern on 1 January 2026, says machine learning is paving the way for advances in particle physics that promise to be comparable to the AI-powered prediction of protein structures that earned Google DeepMind scientists a Nobel prize in October.

At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), he said, similar strategies are being used to detect incredibly rare events that hold the key to how particles came to acquire mass in the first moments after the big bang and whether our universe could be teetering on the brink of a catastrophic collapse….

(14) ORIGIN STORY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] OK, so you are an SF fan, but could you be a multibillionaire? Now, I have occasionally dreamed of having a superpower and if I ever did I guess it might be the USA.  However, you don’t have to be born on Krypton or be bitten by a radioactive spider.  All you need — as Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark showed — is lots and lots of dosh, and then you can even influence things on the national stage. But in real life one SF enthusiast did just this, and it is this interest of his in SF that gives us a clue as to his beliefs, as a BBC Radio 4 series of half-hour programmes reveals…

The story of Elon Musk, the way it’s usually told, makes him sound like a fictional character, a comic-book superhero – or supervillain. He’s the world’s richest man, and now an adviser to the US President. He uses X – his social media platform – to berate politicians he doesn’t agree with around the world.

He plans to put chips in people’s brains, and to save the world by colonising Mars. Musk’s visions of the future seem to stem from the science fiction that has fired his imagination since he was a boy. But what’s the real story, the true history, behind the comic book? Back in 2021 Harvard History Professor and New Yorker Writer Jill Lepore became fascinated by this question.

So she made a Radio 4 podcast which tried to explain Musk through the science fiction he grew up with – tales of superheroes with origin stories that seemed to influence how he understands his own life. So much has happened since then that we decided to update that series – and add three new episodes, too. Because Musk keeps changing, and so does what Lepore calls ‘Muskism’ – his brand of extreme capitalism and techno-futurism. And strangely, his origin story keeps changing, too.

How can understanding these fantasy stories – some of them a century old – help us understand the future Musk wants to take us to?

You can listen to the first episode here: “Introducing X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story”.

(15) NO LAST OF US. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] There is a review of fungi impact on Earth’s ecosystems – “Fungal impacts on Earth’s ecosystems” — in this week’s Nature.

Here, we examine the fungal threats facing civilization and investigate opportunities to use fungi to combat these threats….

This is an excellent overview but, alas, no mention of The Last of Us…!

(16) THEY KNOW WHERE THE SKELETONS ARE. Hollywood Graveyard combines filmmaking history with the pastime of tracking down celebrity graves. Can you guess what movie this installment focuses on? “Graves From The Black Lagoon : A Famous Grave Film”.

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Joey Eschrich, Rob Thornton, Danny Sichel, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Dan’l.]

Pixel Scroll 12/17/24 Pixel Yourself On A Boat On A Riverworld, With Tatooine Trees And Mesklin Skies

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(1) READY FOR WHO CHRISTMAS? Bleeding Cool is on hand when “Doctor Who Christmas Special: ‘Joy to the World’ Gets New Trailer”.

… Earlier today, we took a look at what #WhoSpy had to share on the long-running show’s Instagram “subwave network” about the upcoming special. Now, we’re getting a new look that should definitely help you piece together your speculation puzzle – a shorter second official trailer!…

(2) DISNEY BAILS ON TRANS STORY LINE. “’Win Or Lose’ Transgender Actress Speaks Out After Disney Cuts Back Role” – Deadline has the story.

In 2020, Chanel Stewart was scrolling through X when she happened upon a post about how Pixar was looking for an authentic, 14-year-old transgender girl to voice a transgender teenager in a new animated series.

Stewart, who at 14 had already logged a few commercials, knew instantly that it was her role of a lifetime.

“I was exactly what they wanted to a T, and that’s why it felt so right. It felt just so right,” says Stewart, who is a transgender girl from Los Angeles. “I immediately asked my mom if I could do it, because I just felt like if I don’t do this, it wouldn’t make sense. You know what I mean?”

Stewart eventually scored the voiceover job in Win or Lose, which revolves around a co-ed softball team at a middle school named the Pickles in the week leading up to their big championship game. Stewart couldn’t wait to share the news with her friends.

“Oh my God, it was crazy,” the now 18-year-old recalls. “I wore it as a badge. I wore it with pride. I wore it with honor because it meant so much to me. The thought of authentically portraying a transgender teenage girl made me really happy. I wanted to make this for transgender kids like me.”

So when Disney called Monday night to tell her mom, Keisha, that Win or Lose would no longer include a transgender storyline, both she and Chanel were heartsick. (Disney released a statement that said “when it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.”)…

… By cutting the transgender storyline, Disney eliminated “a few lines of dialogue” from an episode that references a character’s gender identity. Stewart was not at liberty to share details with Deadline about her character, but was told by Disney that she’s “still a part of the show heavily.”

“It’s just that my character would now be a cis girl, a straight cis girl,” says Chanel Stewart, who is repped by KEY Talent Management and Innovative Artists. “So yeah, that’s all they really told me and that I was still a part of the show.”

But there’s one thing that Disney can’t take away from Stewart. “I’m definitely one of the first [transgender girls] to do this!” says Stewart of her voiceover gig. “It’s a true honor to be a part of queer history.”…

(3) TUNES OF MIDDLE-EARTH. [Item by Steven French.] Thijs Porck is a medievalist and Tolkien scholar at the University of Leiden and in a recent blog post he offers an interesting and detailed analysis of the songs in the anime film, War of the Rohirrim: “The Medieval in Middle-earth: Old English Songs in LOTR: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)”.

“Where is the horse? Where is the rider?”, the opening lyrics of “Hama’s Song” in The War of the Rohirrim (2024) will remind many a Tolkien fan of “The Lament of the Rohirrim” which Aragorn recites in the chapter “The King of the Golden Hall” in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. In Aragorn’s poem, the opening lines run as follows: “Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?”. Tolkien, a Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford, based Aragorn’s poem on the Old English elegy The Wanderer, which uses the so-called ubi sunt motif (‘where are they now?’) to express the fleeting nature of worldly pleasures (the answer to the rhetorical questions being “they are no more”). As it turns out, “Hama’s Song” of the new movie is closer to the Old English original poem, which has the line: “hwær cwom mearg, hwær cwom mago” [Where is the horse? Where is the man?].’

The context of “Hama’s Song” makes clear that “the rider” referred to is the movie’s heroine Héra, who is also the subject of the movie’s credits song by Paris Paloma called “The Rider”. If you listen carefully to this song, you will notice that there is a very clear Old English lyric at 0:41 (and again at 2:01 and 3:01): “Heo is se wind, heo is se wind” [she is the wind, she is the wind]…

(4) UNHOLY ICON. [Item by Steven French.] Atlas Obscura delved into the essence of Krampus (in Milwaukee!): “Krampus Is the Christmas Icon We Need—And Maybe the One We Deserve”.

It’s the Fifth Annual Milwaukee Krampusnacht, an event that has taken over the city’s historic Brewery District. Milwaukee is a city with deep German roots, and this neighborhood, centered around the atmospheric 19th-century Pabst Brewery, with narrow streets and castellated facades, is particularly evocative of the Old World. It’s a fitting backdrop for the horde of Krampusse emerging from the shadows to mete out punishment to the naughty. Evolved from Central Europe’s pagan past and reimagined by Church elites as a kind of unholy enforcer, Krampus is now a global icon for the digital age. But what explains the ascent from obscure Alpine tradition to a 21st-century celebrity that has inspired Krampusnachten around the world? What brings people out of their warm homes, on a night when temps flirt with freezing, to stand on a sidewalk and hope to get thrashed by a masked demon? And what do the people behind the masks get out of transforming into the cool ghoul of Yule? To understand the Krampus, I must become the Krampus.

(5) KSR Q&A IN NATURE. “Sci-fi icon Kim Stanley Robinson: ‘anything can be climate work’” he tells Nature.

As climate change and artificial intelligence reshape the world, some say that reality is starting to look a lot like science fiction. A book that people often point to is Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future (2020).

The novel opens in 2025, with a deadly heatwave in India — a topic that turned out to be eerily prescient earlier this year, when the country faced extreme heat and humidity. In the book, the heatwave triggers a haphazard rallying of society to protect living creatures from climate catastrophe.

Robinson talked to Nature about how the climate crisis is causing younger generations anxiety, but also offering them existential meaning, and why he thinks that AI is a poor choice of name.

Why do you think The Ministry for the Future has garnered attention?

The novel is trying to say that, if we apply ourselves, we have the tools to avoid causing a mass-extinction event. And ordinary processes of humanity — science, diplomacy, treaties, the nation-state system, even capitalism itself — could be used to escape the crisis. That’s a very reassuring message.

(6) FUTURE TENSE. This month’s installment of Future Tense Fiction is “A Healing at the Triple B Trophy Lodge,” by Daily Show writer Scott Sherman—a story about fringe psychological treatments, human cloning, and violent catharsis.

The three-and-a-half-hour drive from Portland Jetport to the former site of Baxter State Park reminded Zayna of her midnight scrambles through the Jammu and Kashmir territory while embedded with the Indian light infantry. Just with fewer IEDs and more abandoned pawn shops. She flipped through her frustratingly thin research file on Parker Rodion as the white rental van cruised north past Bangor. There was essentially zero record of his existence before he became synonymous with kill therapy, and to make the research even more confusing, his aesthetic was so consistent it looked as if all the images of him from the last 10 years were taken on the same day. 

 The response essay, “Sorry, Clone”, is by the bioethicist Josephine Johnston.

The most compelling case for reproductive cloning is often made by infertile people or those who have lost a child. In the early days of 2001, a US congressional hearing on human reproductive cloning heard from two grieving parents. One man’s words were read aloud by a scientist working with couples interested in cloning. The man’s 11-month-old son had died after heart surgery, and in a letter to the committee the man wrote that he “hoped and prayed that my son would be the first; I could do no less for him. He deserves a chance to live … I would never stop until I could give his DNA—his genetic make-up—a chance.”…

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born December 17, 1944 — Jack Chalker. (Died 2005.)

By Paul Weimer: Jack Chalker may have had a “bit”, but he worked that bit rather well.

His bit was transformation. I have a friend, he’s not much into reading SFF books. He loves SFF movies, though and he loves physical transformations. Give him a werewolf transformation or something else, and he is there for it.  If he ever decided to try science fiction or fantasy, I would hand him a Jack Chalker novel and let him go to town on it.

Because Jack Chalker and his works were all about transformation. 

This is most evident in his most popular series, the Well World novels. The Well World itself, shorn of the transformational aspects, is one of the most interesting concepts for a SF novel or series.  A supercomputer that, in effect, stabilizes and controls our universe, posing as a planet that is cut up into 1500 hexagons. If you use one of the gates from our universe (available in old ruins on various worlds) to enter a hex of the Well World, you are usually automatically transformed into a form appropriate for that hex — because normal oxygen-nitrogen land hexes are not the only hexes to be had.  The partial maps of the Well World show all sorts of intriguing things such as the “Sea of Chlorine”, “Sea of Storms” and other intriguing bits. Even more intriguing is that given the reality warping available to the computer in the well world, the hexes can and do enforce levels of technology that work in a hex. It’s an amazing setting (but the RPG made from it was terrible).  This all puts Chalker’s Well World firmly in the realm of science fantasy. 

The real comp for that would be Farmer’s World of Tiers, which has plenty of gates and artificial worlds…but without the transformational elements therein. 

Much of the rest of Chalker’s oeuvre is more science fictional than science fantasy, but as noted before, people winding up in new bodies (long before things like Altered Carbon, sorry Richard Morgan) were de rigueur in Chalker’s books. Although he did not do as much with it as some might like, winding up in a body of a being of different gender (or genders) was par for the course for Chalker. Unfortunately, I can think of multiple times where women (and it seemed to be frequently women) who wound up in new bodies of lesser intelligence and usually higher sex appeal in combination (you don’t need a further picture than that) . That wasn’t so great. 

Chalker grew more enthusiastic with his world the longer he wrote, right up to his unfortunate passing. Midnight at the World of Souls is a lean and mean book, the books grew longer and longer as that series went on, and he went to other books.  But I think that first novel still holds up, especially if you don’t know the answer to the question of who or what Nathan Brazil really is. I think the revelation of that deflates the works, just a little bit. But still, in the end, Chalker had his bit and he worked his bit to a fine edge. If transformation is your thing, Chalker is here for you.

Jack Chalker

(8) COMICS SECTION.

A @newscientist.bsky.social cartoon for Christmas

— Tom Gauld (@tomgauld.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T15:34:22.610Z

(9) CAN YOU DIG IT? [Item by Steven French.] We haven’t been there that long but already there are concerns about preserving our archaeological footprint on Mars! “Anthropologists call for tracking and preservation of human artifacts on Mars” at MSN.com.

Are human spacecraft, landers, rovers and other space-exploration debris little more than trash littering the surface of Mars, or the modern equivalent of Clovis points—treasured artifacts marking Homo sapiens’ lust for new frontiers?

A new paper by University of Kansas anthropologist Justin Holcomb argues physical artifacts of human Martian exploration deserve cataloging, preservation and care in order to chronicle humanity’s first attempts at interplanetary exploration.

The paper, “Emerging Archaeological Record of Mars,” appears in Nature Astronomy.

“Our main argument is that Homo sapiens are currently undergoing a dispersal, which first started out of Africa, reached other continents and has now begun in off-world environments,” Holcomb, its lead author, said.

“We’ve started peopling the solar system. And just like we use artifacts and features to track our movement, evolution and history on Earth, we can do that in outer space by following probes, satellites, landers and various materials left behind. There’s a material footprint to this dispersal.”

Much as archaeologists use “middens” (or, ancient garbage dumps) to reveal secrets of past societies here on Earth, Holcomb argues that much of the material deemed “space trash” actually has great archaeological and environmental value.

“These are the first material records of our presence, and that’s important to us,” he said….

(10) EX-WRESTLER BEAMING UP. “Star Trek’s Next Series Casts a Major WWE Star as Part of the Bridge Crew” reports Comicbook.com.

WWE star Becky Lynch is set to embark on an Earth-bound adventure in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Earlier this afternoon, the former multi-time WWE Women’s Champion announced the news on her social media pages. “You know, when you’ve already been champion of the world there’s really only one place to go next and that’s to the stars,” Lynch said in a video. “I am so excited to share with all of you that I am joining Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as part of the bridge crew! Lads, this has been the most incredible experience acting alongside just a spectacular cast and crew. I cannot wait for all of you to check it on when it comes out on Paramount+ and hey, live long and prosper.”…

(11) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Ryan George talks with “The Guys Who Designed Airplane Interiors”. Yes, yes, you’re right, the content is not genre related. BUT, attending many large conventions involves flying for a lot of people. And it sucks just as much as this video implies.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Lise Andreasen, N., Joey Eschrich, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]

Pixel Scroll 11/26/24 The Sandmaid’s Tale

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(1) GREAT MARTHA WELLS PROFILE. Meghan Herbst’s “How Murderbot Saved Martha Wells’ Life” in WIRED is fascinating in so many ways. You’ll find reasons of your own. Mine is the revelation how many of the same events Wells and I were at in the 1980s – even an AggieCon — yet I don’t think we ever met.

MURDER IS IN the air. Everywhere I turn, I see images of a robot killing machine. Then I remind myself where I actually am: in a library lecture room on a college campus in East Texas. The air is a little musty with the smell of old books, and a middle-aged woman with wavy gray-brown hair bows her head as she takes the podium. She might appear a kindly librarian or a cat lady (confirmed), but her mind is a capacious galaxy of starships, flying bipeds, and ancient witches. She is Martha Wells, creator of Murderbot.

Hearing a name like that, you’d be forgiven for running for your life. But the thing about Murderbot—the thing that makes it one of the most beloved, iconic characters in modern-day science fiction—is just that: It’s not what it seems. For all its hugeness and energy-weaponized body armor, Murderbot is a softie. It’s socially awkward and appreciates sarcasm. Not only does it detest murdering, it wants to save human lives, and often does (at least when it’s not binge-watching its favorite TV shows). “As a heartless killing machine,” as Murderbot puts it, “I was a terrible failure.”…

…The young Wells dealt with her awkwardness the same way Murderbot eventually would: by immersing herself in far-off realms. She sketched maps of Monster Island, the home of Godzilla, and wrote fan fiction set in the worlds of Lost In Space and Land of the Giants. At the nearby bookstore, she gazed in wonder at the covers of books like F. M. Busby’s Zelde M’Tana, featuring a Black woman in a jumpsuit raising a gun. She picked her way through Phyllis Gotlieb, John Varley, Andre Norton. There was also Erma Bombeck, the witty writer whose local newspaper column on suburban family life, “At Wit’s End,” hit a vein with ’70s housewives. “That was my first real indication that being a writer was a real job,” Wells says….

(2) DEVOUT PARODY. Sister Boniface Mysteries, explains Wikipedia, is a spinoff from the Father Brown TV series that premiered in 2022.

…The series is set in England during the early 1960s. Sister Boniface is a Catholic nun at St. Vincent’s Convent in the fictional town of Great Slaughter in the Cotswolds. In addition to her religious duties at the convent, she makes wine and has a PhD in forensic science (although this is referred to as a MA (Cantab), in the The Forensic Nun episode of Father Brown) allowing her to serve as a scientific adviser to the local police on investigations….

A viewer told The Divergent Universe forum that in recent episodes “’Sister Boniface Mysteries’ does ‘Doctor Who’”.

“Sister Boniface Mysteries”, the less-than-serious and not-very-good “Father Brown” spinoff … has got into the habit of doing parodies of well-known series. There was an episode where a “Blue Peter”-type series was filmed in the village, an episode where an Ian Fleming-adjacent author was trying to cast a James Bond-esque movie role, and this week they hold a Doctor Who convention. Excuse me, a Professor X convention. No, it wasn’t even that, it was “Professor Y”. 

“Professor Y” is a tv series that, by whatever stage in the 1960s “Sister Boniface Mysteries” is set, has been cancelled but fans keep the spirit alive and are campaigning for it to be brought back. The police inspector and one of the nuns are big fans. Anyway, the clips of the series they show are actually not all that bad – certainly much less silly and far more credible than, say, Inspector Spacetime. Mark Heap was cast as the actor who played the Professor, and while his performance is perhaps closer to nuWho than 1960s DW, it’s not that bad. And the Dalek-type creatures look fairly good for Dalek-type creatures. The voice actor isn’t Nick Briggs but I thought was trying to sound like him.

Anyway, it gave us three days of DW in a row, sort of.

(3) DERN CHEEP STREAMZ: [Item by Daniel Dern.] Want to watch Dune: Prophecy (on Max), Ted Lasso, Foundation, etc on Apple+? Roku is having some great multi-month deals, “Up to 90% off on 25+ premium subscriptions” including Acorn ($0.99/month for two months, vs $7.99/month)(Murdoch Mysteries, etc) BritBox $3.99/month for two months, vs $8.99/month) (McDonald & Dodds, if nothing else) Max ($2.99/month for six months, vs $9.99/month) (Penguin; other DC flicks’n’shows) Paramount ($2.99/month for two months, vs $12.99) Star Trek; NCIS; The Daily Show, The Late Show etc. “Black Friday Deals | Premium Subscriptions | Roku”.

A Roku account itself is free.

I don’t think you need to buy/have a Roku player (“streaming stick” etc).

There’s a Roku (mobile) app, for your phone, tablet, and (possibly) “smart TV”.

We have/use a Roku player (streaming stick) (no cablebox these days, and the TV is old enough that it won’t, I think, let me add apps directly). — We have the slightly $$ Roku player, for the build-in Ethernet and other features, but the other models are inexpensive (and currently on Black Friday sales as well). (And a second, smaller Roku player&remote, for convenience during increasingly-rare travel.)

‘Nuff watched!

(4) RECOVERED WISDOM. “Ursula K. Le Guin — Book View Café: Navigating the Ocean of Story” is a page at the Ursula K. Le Guin website with a directory of links to 14 recreated copies of posts she wrote for BVC.

In 2015, a few months before the publication of the revised edition of Steering the Craft, Ursula began “an experiment: a kind of open consultation or informal ongoing workshop in Fictional Navigation,” which was hosted at Book View Café. She took questions about writing from readers, and offered generous answers.

These posts were lost in an update at BVC, but we’ve recreated them as best we could with the help of the Wayback Machine. Three other posts appeared only at BVC and not on Ursula’s own website’s blog; those are included here too.

(5) FUTURE TENSE. November 2024’s new Future Tense Fiction story is “A Time Between,” by Kevin Galvin, a story about augmented reality and detective work. It’s paired with a response essay by Jim Bueermann, founder and president of the Center on Policing and Artificial Intelligence: “The Long Arm of Law and Technology”.

…When used for policing, what does technology illuminate—and what does it obscure? Kevin Galvin’s “A Time Between,” a new short story published by Future Tense Fiction, explores these questions through the eyes of Detective Carberry, an older, somewhat disillusioned officer who prefers tangible experiences over the augmented reality technologies that now dominate his fictional universe—and his police department. Carberry is wary of how reality and fiction are becoming increasingly hard to distinguish, and his skepticism comes to a head when he’s tasked with investigating the death of a college freshman who supposedly fell from a dorm-room window, but whose body cannot be found….

Other news: There’s now a dedicated landing page for Future Tense Fiction on the website of their publishing partner, Issues in Science and Technology. You can find it here: https://issues.org/futuretensefiction. It will feature our new fiction and essays, selected stories from the Future Tense Fiction archives, video interviews with authors, and more.

(6) FAN HISTORY IS CALLING. First Fandom Experience’s editors are “Seeking collaborators for research and publishing on the early history of fandom”.

Fan history is replete with stories of individuals whose experience in fandom enabled them to create the foundations of the massive science fiction and fantasy industry we know today. The writings of these early fans also offer unique insights on the US and Britain during the Great Depression and the Second World War.

We hope to engage with students, historians and others with interest and intent to learn, understand and publish these stories.

In support of our work, FFE has assembled an extensive archive of fan material — fanzines, convention material, club ephemera, photographs, correspondence and others — all from the late 1920s to the late-1940s. The physical archive resides in the collections of David Ritter and Alistair Durie, each accumulated over decades. Our exclusive focus on this period also allows us to source supplemental digital material from other private, university and public sources….

 … FFE is prepared to facilitate access to the archive for individuals and organizations seeking to research and publish in this area of study. Please reach out to us at: info@firstfandomexperience.org

(7) A MUCH WIDER WORLD. Robin Anne Reid shares her talk “Tolkien’s ‘Absent [Female] Characters’: How Christopher Tolkien Expanded Middle-earth” at Writing from Ithilien.

… I said I’d be looking at how Christopher’s work on the posthumous publications expanded Middle-earth by including more female characters.

And then things just all came together in my head, including the four Éowyn posts I had made in my Substack earlier this year….

… This talk is the start of a larger project which will explore three related topics. The first is how the posthumous publications CJRT edited (from the 1977 Silmarillion to the 2018 Fall of Gondolin)¹ expand the number of female characters in Middle-earth and give us a unique view into alternate and contradictory ideas JRRT explored in his writing process. The second is how academic scholarship on his fiction is still, almost 50 years after the publication of The Silmarillion, overlooking most of the legendarium’s female characters except for a handful in The Lord of the Rings plus Lúthien.² The third is how those of us who are feminists can challenge that tendency by paying more attention to the messy, complex material about female characters in the multiple histories of Middle-earth and by acknowledging and incorporating the valuable work women and non-binary fans have been and are doing with the posthumous publications.³

This talk, and this project, exist in the current Anglophone socio-political context in which some critical theories, such as feminisms, have been dismissed as inappropriately imposing politics (and, the worst of all politics, “identity politics” which is apparently politics by anyone who is not a straight Christian white man) on literature since at least the 1980s. As Sue Kim argues in “Beyond Black and White: Race and Postmodernism in The Lord of the Rings Film”: “It is disingenuous to claim that certain modern politics apply (war, fascism, industrialization, conservation) and others do not (gender, sexuality, race), just as it is disingenuous to say that any one kind of reading necessarily discounts all other readings” (882).⁴…

(8) EARL HOLLIMAN (1928-2024). Actor Earl Holliman died November 25 at the age of 96. Fans know him best as the star of The Twilight Zone’s debut episode “Where Is Everybody?” which aired on October 2, 1959. The Deadline tribute details some of his genre work:

…Holliman had done several guest-starring roles on 1950s TV before making history as the focus of the first episode of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling’s landmark anthology series that put ordinary people in extraordinary situations. The October 1959 episode “Where Is Everybody?” opened with Holliman’s Mike Ferris wandering in a deserted town, which appears to be populated — coffee is boiling, a jukebox is playing, a cigar is burning — but no one is seen. The unsettling scenario continues to build to a wildly unexpected climax that would be the still-loved series’ signature….

Prior to that he appeared in the Fifties sf film Forbidden Planet. And his career was bookended by a genre TV series:

…He would land a final series-regular role on the syndicated NightMan in 1997. He starred opposite Matt McColm, whose Johnny Domingo becomes the title superhero after a lightning strike. Holliman played his ex-cop dad who appeared in two dozen episodes before being killed off in the Season 2 premiere….

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born November 26, 1919 — Frederik Pohl. (Died 2013.)

By Paul Weimer: Frederik Pohl first came to my attention thanks to his multiverse novel, The Coming of the Quantum Cats. I saw the book in a bookstore, was attracted by the cover, hooked by the back matter, bought it and read it quickly and avidly. I had never heard of Pohl before, and if you’ve read these vignettes and have gotten any sense of who I am, you know I had to find more of Pohl’s work. If he could do multiverse novels, what else could he do? What else did he do?  Plenty it turns out.

Frederik Pohl as shown on the cover of his 1979 autobiography The Way The Future Was.

Next up came Gateway, the novel for which he is most famous, with its unusual structural style and tone, and a focus that frustrated me then…but now I find brilliant, unique, engaging and makes the book memorable.  From Gateway, I read a number of Pohl works and novels over the years. The Space Merchants with its criticism of capitalism that feels every more prescient as the years pass. The wide-ranging epic of the Eschaton trilogy, which brings a near future government agent into conflict with aliens who have orders and information from their far future apotheosis. There is his nonfictional collaboration with Isaac Asimov, This Angry Earth, which was an early 1990’s clarion call to deal with climate change. We did not listen, we did not hear, and now we are paying that price. 

And then there were a large number of short stories. A lot of them seem to be awfully funny, such as the subtle The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass, which I managed to read just before reading Lest Darkness Fall (which it references and I then wanted to, and did, read — and then immediately read Harry Turtledove’s The Pugnacious Peacemaker, which is his sequel to the classic).

The best of these is my favorite Pohl work (even more than The Coming of the Quantum Cats) — Day Million.  It tells the story of a typical day in the year 2739. It’s a future to give Rep Nancy Mace fear and loathing. The main character Dora is genetically male but biologically female, and forms a relationship with a starship flying cyborg, with whom she has virtual sex, among a variety of lovers of various kinds. The story is addressed to and written in a point of view addressing the reader in a challenging, direct way, saying that if you are repulsed by this, by this future, just think what Attila the Hun would think of you and your life. It’s a story that feels especially relevant in this year of 2024.

Frederik Pohl in 2008.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) BOOK REMOVAL LITIGATION UPDATE. “Summary Judgment Motions Filed in ‘Tango’ Book Banning Case” reports Publishers Weekly.

With discovery now complete, dueling summary judgment motions have been filed in a closely watched book banning case in Escambia County, Fla., over the removal of Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson’s 2005 picture book And Tango Makes Three.

In a filing this week, the authors, who first filed suit in June 2023, argue that the removal of their book—an illustrated book based on a true story about two male penguins who adopt and raise a penguin chick—was removed based on unconstitutional, anti-LGBTQ+ “viewpoint discrimination” and should be returned to school library shelves.

“Following Florida’s enactment of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and a challenge from a District teacher with a documented history of homophobia, Defendant removed Tango from District school libraries,” the filing states. “There is no dispute that Defendant did so because Tango depicts a same-sex relationship, a viewpoint-discriminatory justification prohibited by the First Amendment.”

In their own motion for summary judgment, lawyers for defendants Escambia County counter they should prevail because school officials have the authority to remove any book from library shelves for any reason, citing a common defense in several book banning cases now underway across the nation—that which books go on library shelves is “government speech” and thus immune from First Amendment scrutiny….

(12) DISNEY CLASS-ACTION SETTLEMENT EXPECTED. Deadline has learned “Disney Will Pay $43M To Settle Pay Equity Class-Action Lawsuit”. “Not even the cost of a slice of cheese for the Mouse,” opines Cat Eldridge.

We now know how much Disney is writing a check for to end the pay equity class-action suit that has loomed over the company for the past five years.

Set to address the up to 14,000 eligible class members of female Disney employees past and present from 2015 to today, the Bob Iger-run fun palace will be paying $43.25 million, according to papers set to be filed later tonight in Los Angeles Superior Court docket.

Far less than the $300 million it was estimated the case could balloon to once if was certified as a class action last December, the official compensation comes a couple of weeks after news broke of a quietly reached October settlement between Disney and the Lori Andrus represented plaintiffs. The whole matter was set to go to trial in May 2025….

… First filed in April 2019 over back pay, lost benefits and more by Disney staffers LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore and heading towards a May 2025 trial, the suit accused the Magic Kingdom of not being so kind with its cash based on gender as opposed to performance. At its core, the suit claimed Disney has violated the Fair Employment & Housing Act and California’s Equal Pay Act in paying men more than women for the same work.

Seeking at least $150 million in lost wages initially, the suit saw repeated big push back from Disney over the year in efforts to have it dismissed and not certified. Exclaiming the whole thing was merely “highly individualized allegations,” Disney’s Paul Hasting LLP team sought to limit the matter to a small contingent of less than 10 women. There was also drama over documents and discovery, with the plaintiffs calling out the Mouse House as dragging their feet with data and paperwork….

(13) FURNISHED FOR ADVENTURE. If you’re ready to part with $295, GW Pens will happily sell you the “GW Dungeon Dice and Pen Set with Field Notes 5E Character Journal”. And the chest it comes in!

Ready to embark on a new dungeon crawl? Be sure to grab your chest of necessities before you go! 

This wooden box unlatches to reveal a dragon themed ballpoint twist pen with hand cast resin and Matching hand cast resin dice! The pen and dice are easily kept together in the pictured wooden chest, with faux leather lined insert to keep the dice edges safe from the metal components of the pen. The tray can lift out from the box for a small storage area beneath.

Also included with this set is a Field Notes 5E character journal, helping you track everything you need to know about your character from the first roll of the dice!

The included dice are dense enough to have a nice weight to them, offering true “rolls” and not just stopping on whatever side they land on. 

(14) OUR LOOKOUT. [Item by Steven French.] Astronomer Desiree Cotto-Figueora on defending the planet: “I defend the planet from asteroid collisions” in Nature.

There are hundreds of millions of asteroids in the Solar System, the majority of which are in the main belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. But some of these asteroids, either through collisions, or through gravitational effects or other processes, end up in new orbits that come close to or cross Earth’s orbit. Currently, astronomers think that there are more than 36,000 of these near-Earth asteroids, and at least 2,400 of those are considered potentially hazardous, because they could strike Earth.

I’m part of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission, which aims to detect and characterize 90% of near-Earth asteroids that are larger than 140 metres in diameter. The first step is to work out where they are, but it’s also important to characterize them and understand their fragmentation process so that scientists can design strategies for deflection and disruption, if needed.

Along with my research, I spend a lot of time teaching astronomy and organizing outreach events through my role as coordinator of the Astronomical Observatory at the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao. In this photo, I’m standing next to the observatory’s 14-inch telescope. Although it’s a lot smaller than the 42-inch instrument I use for my research, it’s a great tool for connecting people with the Universe. I love seeing how excited kids and adults get when they look through a telescope for the first time and see the rings of Saturn or the Galilean moons of Jupiter.

I’ve loved astronomy and watching space documentaries from an early age. In high school, I started an astronomy club and visited nearby observatories, including the one I work at now. I’m so lucky to have ended up doing work that I’m passionate about. Even now, I don’t think that high-school girl would ever have imagined that one day she’d be working on a NASA mission.

(15) EARTH CALLING THE HIDDEN CITY… “’We didn’t know what it was at first.’ NASA aircraft uncovers site of secret Cold War nuclear missile tunnels under Greenland ice sheet” – Space.com has the story.

NASA scientists conducting surveys of arctic ice sheets in Greenland got an unprecedented view of an abandoned “city under the ice” built by the U.S. military during the Cold War.

During a scientific flight in April 2024, a NASA Gulfstream III aircraft flew over the Greenland Ice Sheet carrying radar instruments to map the depth of the ice sheet and the layers of bedrock below it. The images revealed a new view of Camp Century, a Cold War-era U.S. military base consisting of a series of tunnels carved directly into the ice sheet. As it turns out, this abandoned “secret city” was the site of a secret Cold War project known as Project Iceworm which called for the construction of 2,500 miles (4,023 km) of tunnels that could be used to nuclear intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) at the Soviet Union….

…Construction on Camp Century began in 1959, but the base was abandoned in 1967 due to the costs and challenges of keeping the tunnels from collapsing in the ever-shifting ice sheet…

…The trenches were designed for a type of modified Minuteman IRBM missile known as “Iceman” that would be able to withstand the pressures of launching through the ice sheet. Project Iceworm was ultimately canceled and abandoned along with Camp Century, but the echoes of this era of the Cold War still reverberate throughout the Greenland landscape today…

For more details about the facility watch this “’Camp Century’ Restored Classified Film”.

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Joel Zakem, Joey Eschrich, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel “Benny and the Gesserits” Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 11/5/24 Be Our Ghost, Raise Your Pixels In A Toast

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(0) SCROLL TITLE, LONGER AND UNCUT. You’ll immediately guess Daniel Dern’s title inspiration once you see his original, full-length suggestion: “Be Our Ghost, Be Our Ghost, Raise Your Pixels In A Toast (Try The Knishes, They’re Delishnes)”.

(00) HOUSE WINS. Er, wrong reference. Just announcing this will be an abbreviated Scroll because I’m finding it too hard to pull my attention away from election coverage.

(1) MARTIAN ENCOUNTERS. Martian Encounters / Encuentros Marcianos: Imagining Alternate Non-Colonial Futures, a series of international, interdisciplinary conversations, is taking place virtually on November 12 and 13. Martian Encounters is presented by three organizations in Mexico City—Marsarchive.org, Cúmulo de Tesla, and UNAM—in collaboration with Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination and Future Tense.

These sessions bring together thinkers and practitioners from across art, science, and literature to address themes shaping our visions of the future on Earth and beyond: Maps, Temples, Borders, and Ecosystems.

Among our guests are a number of speculative fiction authors and creators, including author Erick J. Mota (Cuba), author and artist Luis Carlos Barragán (Colombia), author, translator, and editor Libia Brenda (Mexico), video game designer Randy Smith (U.S.), scholar and fiction anthologist Grace L. Dillon (U.S.), and author Gabriela Damián Miravete (Mexico).  

The event features five 90-minute panels, all hosted on Zoom: one for each theme (Maps, Temples, Borders, Ecosystems), plus a final synthesis session on “Martian Weirdness.” Each panel features a diverse group of speakers, ranging from biologists and astrophysicists to fiction authors, visual artists, poets, and video game designers.

Conversations will be held in English and Spanish, with simultaneous translation between both languages. All sessions are free and open to the public. You can see the full schedule and register for any or all of the 5 panels at https://csi.asu.edu/martian-encounters (in English) and https://csi.asu.edu/encuentros-marcianos (en español).

(2) COUNTERINTUITIVE ADVICE. Children’s author Moira Butterfield encourages creators to “Have Bad Ideas!” at Picture Book Den.

…Have bad ideas to get better is the opposite of what many people imagine is the creative life. 

TRUTH: Creators do not come up with perfect work straight off the bat. They might pretend they do. They might quite like you to think they’re unusual geniuses with some kind of hotline to the muses. But the truth is, they will have made – and continue to make – bad work in order to get the best. They will have taken ‘wrong ‘pathways. The chances are they will have thrown stuff in the bin after spending ages on it. 

The view that good creators only make perfect things is not that surprising – because you may well have been encouraged to think that in school. There your writing/painting/creative project is judged good or not good. Right or not right. I think it’s why so many people give up on art early on and say ‘oh I can’t do that’. They didn’t do it ‘right’ first time and that was that.

But if you continue with that view you will struggle – I will go as far as to say you won’t make it – as a creator in any field.

Wrong is the fertiliser of right.  It’s the path you take to eliminate things, learn things and ultimately find the best way….

(3) NANCY DREW FANDOM. “Among the Sleuths: Looking for Answers at the Nancy Drew Convention” at Literary Hub.

… This was the second night of the Nancy Drew Convention, an annual affair that sees devotees of the iconic teen detective (better known as “sleuths”) gather to celebrate her enduring legacy….

…As in many of Nancy Drew’s adventures, the questions were more important than their answers. Does anyone really remember what the secret in the old attic actually was, once our favorite teen detective got it out of there? (“Sheet music!” someone answered during Saturday’s round of Nancy Drew trivia.) Though she’s closed 600-plus cases over the course of her 94 year career, Nancy’s always been more—and less—than her prodigious solve rate.

With a cultural half-life that spans five generations, two hair colors, and at least four mediums, the fictional detective became a mythic figure long ago. She’s also, fittingly, something of a mystery herself. Who is Nancy Drew, specifically? Why have fans been so long devoted to her, in particular? Though this year’s convention was centered on the 15th book in the original series, The Haunted Bridge, it’s this unanswered question that brought these two longtime fans to Sleepy Hollow. Surrounded by the decades-long devotion and keen expertise of those who know her best, we came in search of the girl who is forever finding things.

The Nancy Drew Convention officially began in Toledo, Ohio in 2001 and has descended upon a range of American cities on an almost-annual basis ever since. Activities vary year to year, but they tend to include trips to local haunts (like the graveyard), book hunting and collecting, presentations, merch sales, and—of course—a mystery to solve over dinner….

(4) FIRST IN CLASS? Muse from the Orb introduces us to “Beware The Cat (1553): A Very Spooky Word-Hoard”, a claimant for the honor of inventing weird fiction.

…Was weird fiction invented in 1553? It’s tempting to consider. At the time, they certainly seem to have thought Beware the Cat was weird. The earliest response we have to Beware the Cat dates from 1570, and it’s a poem by an anonymous writer who attacks the book’s “staunge faschions” and its author, William Baldwin, for spreading lies. The poet maintains that “every thing almost in that boke is as tru / as that his nose to my dock [ass] is joyned fast with glu.” Which makes sense, since Beware the Cat is a novel about the adventures of a guy who uses alchemy to gain the ability to understand cats.

Anyway, happy late Halloween! It’s my absolute pleasure to discuss Beware the Cat. It’s been called the first-ever horror novel, but I personally feel that its other elements — humor, folktale, scientific discourse, mystery — keep it from being anything so classically definitive….

(5) JONATHAN HAZE (1929-2024). Roger Corman collaborator Jonathan Haze, who originated the Seymour role in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) died November 2 at the age of 95. Deadline notes that among the 20 movies they made together were Day the World Ended (1955); It Conquered the World (1956); Swamp Women (1956); Not of This Earth (1957); and The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent (1957).

…Haze — a cousin of drum legend Buddy Rich — went on to appear in Corman’s 1963 films The Terror and X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes and would have sporadic film and TV roles culminating with the 2010 gangland drama feature Nobody Smiling.

He also served as production manager on Corman’s The Fast and the Furious and The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955) along with a few other films in the 1960s and ’70s. Haze also wrote screenplays for the 1962 feature Invasion of the Star Creatures and a 1960 “Family Skeleton” episode of 77 Sunset Strip and went on to enjoy a long career producing commercials….

(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born November 5, 1960 — Tilda Swinton, 64.

By Paul Weimer: My first exposure to Tilda Swinton, as it was for many people at the time, was the movie Orlando.  I was in my 20’s, now going to college, and starting to see beyond the small walls of the culture of my family, and Staten Island. A genderswapping portrayal by the title character was a bit much for me to take (see also The Crying Game) but Swinton herself was stunning and enthralling.

I saw here in a variety of films, particularly in genre. Her Gabriel in Constantine is the best damn thing in the movie, acting up a storm. She’s elegant excellence as the White Witch Jadis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She has a small but crucial role in the underrated (probably because it gets compared to the Spanish original) Vanilla Sky. Her turn in Snowpiercer shows how much of a chameleon she can be–I didn’t even recognize her as Minister Mason. Playing two dueling gossip columnist twins in Hail, Caesar! is delightful (as is the rest of that movie).  She also shows up in Wes Anderson films as well, which suits her abilities quite nicely.

And then there is Three Thousand Years of Longing. You may not have seen it yet (thanks, Pandemic) or even know that there is a movie featuring Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba as the leads. And that Swinton plays a narratologist, uncovering and understanding stories, who gets a bottle with a Djinn (Elba), uncorks it, and learns his story. And learns to love, and be loved, despite all the challenges. It’s a touching story that Elba, and Swinton sell on the basis of their acting ability. 

Tilda Swinton

(7) COMICS SECTION.

(8) THESE WEREN’T EXACTLY PREDICTIONS. “10 Sci-Fi Films That Got the Future All Wrong—and the Hilarious Reasons Why!” at Fortress of Solitude.

According to sci-fi future films, by the year 2015, we should have been surrounded by flying cars, wearing automatically-adjusting clothing, seeing kids everywhere riding hoverboards, all of the lawyers should have been dead and Jaws 19 should be showing at the 3D cinemas everywhere. Well, that’s if you believed the future as predicted in Back To The Future II. As great as that sci-fi future film was, it was completely wrong….

Here’s a forgotten (or perhaps never heard of in the first place) example:

5. DOUBLE DRAGON (1994)

Welcome to New Angeles… 2007? It was a post-apocalyptic swampy wasteland, but at least it’s a difference from a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland. Cops control the city during daytime, gangs control it at night, and the weather forecast is brought to us by comedian Andy Dick. Oh geez.

Why on Earth any villain would even want to rule this place is beyond us, and why a sassy Alyssa Milano and her buddies would want to stop him is even more mystifying.

While this sci-fi film future may not have actually come true and was ultimately wrong, we can rest easy knowing that if it did then we could rely on a pair of martial artist brothers to save us.

(9) FLORIDA CENSORSHIP. “Florida Removed More Library Books Than Any State Last Year” – Yahoo! runs the numbers.

Florida topped every state in the nation for the number of books removed from school libraries during the 2023-2024 school year.

That’s 4,500 books from July 2023 to June 2024, according to an annual report from PEN America, a nonprofit advocating for freedom of expression.

That represents nearly half of nationwide removals, which numbered 10,064. Iowa, which removed more than 3,600 books, was next closest to Florida.

Florida’s 2023 law, HB 1069, created a legal process for removing books, including a requirement that they be pulled while schools respond to challenges filed by parents or citizens. The list compiled by PEN includes books permanently removed from schools, removed pending investigation, and restrictions based on grade level or requiring parental permission.

Thirty-three school districts in Florida removed books, according to PEN’s report….

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

Pixel Scroll 10/31/24 The Scrollden Girls

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(1) WHERE HALLOWEEN COSTUMERS GET BUSTED. I never thought of Halloween being celebrated in China. And if Shanghai cops have their way, it won’t be this year: “China’s Latest Security Target: Halloween Partygoers” in the New York Times (behind a paywall). “Last year, the Shanghai government said Halloween celebrations were a sign of ‘cultural tolerance.’ This year, the police rounded up people in costume.”

The police escorted the Buddha down the street, one officer steering him with both hands. They hurried a giant poop emoji out of a cheering dance circle in a public park. They also pounced on Donald J. Trump with a bandaged ear, and pushed a Kim Kardashian look-alike, in a tight black dress and pearls, into a police van, while she turned and waved to a crowd of onlookers.

The authorities in Shanghai were on high alert this past weekend, against a pressing threat: Halloween.

Officials there clamped down on Halloween celebrations this year, after many young people turned last year’s festivities into a rare public outlet for political or social criticism. People had poured into the streets dressed up as Covid testing workers, to mock the three years of lockdowns they had just endured; they plastered themselves in job advertisements, amid a weak employment market; they cross-dressed, seizing the opportunity to express L.G.B.T.Q. identities without being stigmatized.

At the time, many on Chinese social media celebrated the revelries as a joyous form of collective therapy. The Shanghai government even issued a news release saying the celebrations were proof of the city’s “cultural tolerance” and the “wisdom of its urban managers.”

“There is an absence of festivals in China solely dedicated to the simple pleasures of having fun,” it said. “Halloween has filled the void.”

But the authorities have grown increasingly restrictive toward personal expression in recent years, including seemingly apolitical expression. They are also wary of impromptu crowds, especially after the anti-lockdown protests in 2022. And so, for all their praise last year, this year they seemed determined to prevent a repeat.

Around Julu Road, a popular area where most people had congregated last year, guardrails had been erected, blocking off the sidewalks. Flanks of police lined the street and subway entrances. When they saw someone in costume, according to videos and photos on social media verified by The New York Times, they hustled them out of view.

(2) BAD NEWS ON THE DOORSTEP. “Extra Extra!The End Times, Onscreen” — the New York Times shares numerous video clips from horror films that use front page news mockups to set the stage. Link bypasses the NYT paywall.

Alien invasions, viruses, zombies, meteors, natural or human-caused catastrophes. When the end is nigh in apocalyptic, dystopian, disaster or horror films and television shows, there is often a distinct moment that offers audiences a glimpse of what was known in those last days before civilization was forever changed: the front pages of newspapers.

Sometimes the camera lingers on the page, allowing us to read headlines that telegraph the scramble to make sense of unprecedented events. Other times, blink and you’ll miss it.

In some instances, these front pages are the last ones printed in the before-times; in others, humanity endures in the end, though it is certainly transformed.

… In John Krasinski’s alien horror film “A Quiet Place,” which begins a few months after extraterrestrial creatures that hunt by sound have killed most people on Earth, a family is silently scavenging for medication in what once was a pharmacy. As they tiptoe out, a broken newspaper rack reveals the last New York Post headline: “It’s Sound!”…

(3) CULTURAL BOYCOTT OPPOSITION. Reported here the other day was an open letter in which “Authors Call for a Boycott of Israeli Cultural Institutions” (New York Times; paywalled).

A second group, under the umbrella of the Creative Community for Peace, have signed a statement opposing cultural boycotts: “1000+ Authors, Writers, Journalists, Publishers, and Entertainment Leaders Stand United Against Cultural Boycotts”.

… On Wednesday, the group released a statement condemning the boycott as an attempt “to persecute, exclude, boycott and intimidate.” Their letter was signed by more than 1,000 authors and members of the entertainment industry.

“We believe that writers, authors, and books — along with the festivals that showcase them — bring people together, transcend boundaries, broaden awareness, open dialogue, and can affect positive change,” the letter states. “Regardless of one’s views on the current conflict, boycotts of creatives and creative institutions simply create more divisiveness and foment further hatred.”

Authors who signed the statement include Lee Child, Howard Jacobson, Lionel Shriver, Simon Schama, Adam Gopnik, Herta Müller, David Mamet and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Although a number of famous thriller and mystery authors are here, the only well-known sff names that jumped out at me when I scanned the signers of this open letter were Guy Kay (apparently Guy Gavriel Kay), and perhaps actress Mayim Bialik of Big Bang Theory.

(4) FUTURE TENSE. October 2024’s new story from Future Tense Fiction is “Patrons,” by Cassidy McFadzean, about alien visitors, economies of art and creativity, and the inscrutable politics of taste.

When the Patrons first appeared, we were not thinking about our jollies, or wealth and material benefits, or technological advancements they might share with our kind, so awed we were by their presence. Those first weeks felt like a dream, like the doctored images of aliens in the Weekly World News my mother used to leaf through at the kitchen table. Gradually, videos spread online, and not just footage from grainy dash cams. Drone footage captured the Patrons in HD, putting all conspiracy theories to rest. They were real, as beautiful as they were terrifying. And as much as you hoped the Patrons would select you, the lucky ones were always taken off guard, not thinking of recording the astonishing event on their phones….

There’s also a response essay by human geography scholar Oli Mould. “What Would It Look Like to Truly Support Creative Work?”

Artists have never had it so good, right? Access to technology is abundant (even a humble smartphone can shoot award-winning photos and films), we’re able to digitally peruse the entire human zeitgeist for inspiration, and there are a multitude of platforms for showcasing creative products. Gone are the days when artists had to rely on the whims of wealthy aristocrats to fund their creations. In the twenty-first century, breaking free from the drudgery of a 9-to-5 job to pursue the dream of becoming a self-made artist seems, on the surface, more attainable than ever.  

But the story isn’t so simple….

(5) BIGGER THAN A BAZILLION. Gizmodo reports “Russian Court Wants Google to Cough Up $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000”.

A Russian court has ordered Google to fork over a calculator-breaking sum of money to more than a dozen TV channels whose programming the tech company blocked from appearing on YouTube.

The fine has been accruing since 2020, when Russian outlets Tsargrad TV and RIA FAN sued Google for blocking their content, according to Novaya Gazeta. Since then, the penalty has continued to grow as 15 other channels, including Kremlin-backed networks, won court cases against Google. “As of Tuesday, the fine totaled 2 undecillion rubles (that’s 2 followed by 36 zeros), which is equivalent to about $20 decillion (2 followed by 34 zeros) U.S. dollars….

(6) FAREWELL SCOTT CONNORS. Independent scholar Scott Connors has passed away Jason V. Brock reported on Facebook. He specialized in the life and work of Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and other writers of weird fiction. Connors was twice nominated for the International Horror Guild Award, and he received the Founders Award at the 2015 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.

His publications included In the Realm of Mystery and Wonder, a collection of Clark Ashton Smith’s artwork and prose poems, and a five-volume edition of Smith’s Collected Fantasies.  His work has been published in Skelos, Lovecraft Annual, Weird Tales, Weird Fiction Review, All Hallows, Studies in Weird Fiction, Publishers Weekly, The Explicator, and academic books published by Rowman and Littlefield and Greenwood Press.

(7) LARRY S. TODD (1948-2024). Underground comix artist and sf creator Larry Todd, 76, died September 28 at 4:20 a.m. According to The Comics Journal —

…The significance of the time of day would not be lost on his fans. Todd was perhaps best know for his character Dr. Atomic, a mad scientist who enthusiastically championed the consumption of marijuana. The series appeared in small press newspapers before Last Gasp began publishing it as a comic book in 1972. Dr. Atomic combined slapstick humor and fantastical scientific creations in stories that often involved the smoking of marijuana. Though not as well known as Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Freak Brothers, Dr. Atomic was immensely popular among many fans in the counterculture during the early 1970s….

Todd broke into sf magazines while still a teenager.

… He began submitting stories and drawings to science fiction publications while he was in high school, with early work appearing in Galaxy Magazine.

“While in my junior year in high school I sold a story to Galaxy,” he told Rosenkranz in 1972. “I had their illustrator do the illustration simply because I wanted to see what he could do. I was appalled. In my senior year, I sold another story, either to Galaxy or If. That one I chose to illustrate myself….

He also created prozine covers, as well as the cover for something called Harlan Ellison’s Chocolate Alphabet.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born October 31, 1959 — Neal Stephenson, 65.

By Paul Weimer: One of the true giants of our field today, and that’s not just because he writes doorstoppers that can be used as weapons. Neal Stephenson’s works have, ever since I picked up The Diamond Age (I would go back and read Snow Crash later) and saw his power as a cyberpunk writer who, in the middle of this novel, explained the fundamental basis for computer systems almost as a lengthy aside. Stephenson’s rich detail and backgrounding of stuff helped me get through the truly large historical Baroque novels which were often quite funny. 

I’ve learned that trying to listen to Stephenson in audio is a commitment I just can’t make, unless I intend a multiweek road trip to plow through one. He remains a physical copy (for defense against zombies) and ebook only author for me. His Seveneyes, for example, my current favorite oif his works, is 31 hours in audio.  I do have a copy…for perhaps when I am trapped and cannot read and need something to distract me.  The sheer scale and breath of Seveneves is perhaps his biggest in terms of time frame in the novel, and is thus for me, the definitive Stephenson experience. One day I will reread it…but that day is not going to be today…nor will it be in just a day. 

I haven’t yet picked up his new historical series starting with Polostan, but I must indeed find time with it. Given his painstaking detail in the Baroque cycle and elsewhere, I have high hopes for his take on the years running up to the first atomic blast.

Neal Stephenson

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) KEEPING TRACK OF HARRY POTTER. “Glenfinnan Viaduct: Repairing Scotland’s ‘Harry Potter’ bridge”. The BBC News video can be viewed at the link.

The Glenfinnan Viaduct is one of the best known landmarks in Scotland but at 123 years old, it’s in need of restoration work.

Rope access teams have been working day and night in recent months to strengthen the bridge’s concrete arches and trackside areas.

Made famous by the Harry Potter film series, hundreds of visitors gather at the viaduct each day to watch the “Hogwarts Express” train cross its 21 arches.

(11) A ROCKY PINNACLE. A Rocky Horror costumer tells Gothamist fan activity levels are “’Unprecedented’ — NYC ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ screenings are on the rise”.

They wanna go, oh-oh-oh-oh, to this late-night, single-feature picture show — which, on the eve of its 50th anniversary, is more popular than ever.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” has long been beloved as an off-the-wall musical, but in recent years its popularity has freshly reached a fever pitch.

This October alone, New York had well over 40 showings of the cult classic — a remarkable amount, according to Aaron Tidwell, who maintains a comprehensive spreadsheet of local screenings.

“I have never seen this many groups actively performing in New York,” said Tidwell, who has been with New York City’s longest running “Rocky Horror” shadowcast (a troupe of costumed actors who perform alongside the film) since 2005…

… As for the reason behind its current resurgence, Tidwell chalks it up to a few factors: Functionally, pandemic closures opened up “more spaces for ‘Rocky’ groups to get into” beyond just theaters. His spreadsheet of this month’s shows includes events at bars, burger joints and nightclubs. He posits the pandemic created a newfound drive for interactive experiences.

“I think that the 50th anniversary coming up is just massive,” he added. “So, kind of a perfect storm this year. We’ll see the peak of it next year.”…

(12) MARKS AND ANGLES. NPR reports on “’Witches marks’ and curses found at historic Gainsborough manor” in the UK.

A set of markings known as “witches marks” have been discovered carved into the walls of a historic medieval manor in England.

The “witches” or apotropaic marks — believed to protect against witches or evil spirits — and other ritual carvings were found at Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire in eastern England. They were discovered during two years of research by Rick Berry, a volunteer for English Heritage, the organization that oversees Gainsborough, along with more than 400 other historic sites, monuments and buildings.

Berry found and catalogued roughly 20 carvings in “a wide range of designs,” mainly in the servants’ wing, at the property, which dates back to the late 15th century, English Heritage said in a press release Tuesday.

They include a pentangle meant to ward off evil; overlapping V’s — also called Marian marks — which some believe to be a call to Virgin Mary for protection; and hexafoil designs believed to trap demons, the organization said.

Notably, rare “curse” inscriptions were found, which English Heritage said it had not previously seen at any of its sites. One such inscription was of the name of one of the property owners, businessman William Hickman, written upside down. Defacing a person’s name was thought to curse that person, according to English Heritage.

There were also 100 burn marks, which the organization said was to protect against fire.

Kevin Booth, head of collections at English Heritage, said the reason for the many markings at the site is unclear….

(13) PITCH MEETING. Ryan George takes us inside “The Shining Pitch Meeting”.

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

Pixel Scroll 10/1/24 By The Pixeling Of My Scroll, Something SFF This Way Comes

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(1) BOMBS AWAY. Reactor’s Leah Schnelbach wanted to love the new Coppola movie, but it was too big a stretch: “Et Tu, Wow Platinum? Megalopolis’ Vision of the Future Offers Nothing New”. “Alas, I come to bury Cesar Catilina, not to praise him.”  

…See there are people who will go with the full title Megalopolis: A Fable, and people who will not. I’ll go with it as far as it wants to go. There are people who will be on board with a movie where Adam Driver clambers out onto the top of the Chrysler Building and screams “TIME STOP!!!”—and time actually does stop. I am such a people, I eat that kind of shit right up. There are people who giggle with delight at a character named Wow Platinum and people who roll their eyes—I’m a giggler, baby.

But when the “fable” is so obvious Aesop could see all the twists and turns coming even though he was sight-impaired in life, and is currently dead, and when TIME STOPS but no one uses it to do anything interesting, and when the character Wow Platinum is a boring misogynist cliché—well, to be honest I become frustrated and sad that my willingness to go with a movie has been squandered…

And that’s just the beginning of Schnelbach’s highly entertaining review.

(2) LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS OFFICIALLY RELEASED TODAY. And Rolling Stone’s Jason Sheehan tells the masses why it matters as “Harlan Ellison’s ‘Last Dangerous Visions’ Hits Shelves 50 Years Later”.

LET ME TELL you a story about Harlan…

I talk to 10 people about Harlan Ellison and that’s how almost every conversation starts. If I’d talked to a hundred, it would’ve been the same. Because everyone has a Harlan Ellison story. Everyone who knew him, worked with him, argued with him, fought with him; everyone who was friends with him or claimed to be; everyone who was taught by him, learned from him, owes some portion of their career or life to him; everyone who loved him or hated him — they’ve all got a story about Harlan….

…It matters because this book was different. Special in a way that only lost albums or missed connections truly can be. Over 50 years, TLDV (as the cool cats call it) had been promised, anticipated, maligned, dreaded, forgotten, and mythologized by generations of fans. In Harlan’s lifetime, it swelled to over 600,000 words, got split into three volumes (none of which ever materialized), shrunk down to half its size, then a third. It is undoubtedly the most famous science fiction book never published. And it haunted Harlan — physically, emotionally, and spiritually. At his home in Sherman Oaks, California, it literally sat, in pieces, stacked on the railing outside his office until the dust started gathering dust.

But now, decades later, Harlan’s great, unfinished project is finally going to see the light of day. Set to hit shelves on Oct. 1, The Last Dangerous Visions comes with all the weight of decades of impossible expectation and the relief of a last debt finally paid. And its existence as a finished, bound, actually readable object is thanks largely to years of efforts by Harlan’s friend, partner in crime and the executor of his estate, J. Michael Straczynski….

(3) NATIONAL BOOK AWARD. The 2024 shortlists have been released. The complete lists are at Publishers Weekly: “2024 National Book Award Shortlists Announced”. These are the works of genre interest:

FICTION

  • Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda (Norton)

NONFICTION

  • Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie (Random House)

TRANSLATED LITERATURE

  • The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa, translated from the Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain (Restless)

YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE

  • The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly (Greenwillow)

(4) FUTURE TENSE FICTION IS BACK. After a hiatus for much of 2024, Future Tense Fiction once again will be publishing an original speculative fiction story each month, accompanied by illustrations and a response essay from an expert in a related field. Their new publishing partner is Issues in Science and Technology, a publication of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and Arizona State University.

 The story for September 2024 is “Parasocial,” by Monica Byrne.

“Do you have any idea how good holography has gotten in the last 10 years?”

The response essay by Vance Ricks, a researcher at Northeastern University, is “Move Fast and Fake Things”.

In a recent episode of the podcast Women at Warp, the hosts discussed their favorite episodes of the various Star Trek series in which the Holodeck—a fully immersive, interactive virtual reality interface—is central to the plot. On occasion, a Trek character uses a Holodeck to interact with holo-versions of their crewmates, turning their coworkers and friends into unwitting characters in a storyline that they didn’t help to write. Reflecting on the potential problems of that choice, one host observed that Starfleet’s human resources department “would have a binder that was the size of Crime and Punishment for the Holodeck.”

The characters in Monica Byrne’s “Parasocial” should have read whatever is in that binder…. 

The archive of Future Tense Fiction stories, running through January 2024, is still available on Slate. As they continue publishing new work with Issues, though, they will be resurfacing some favorites from the archives, with new illustrations, and posting them on the Issues site as well.

(5) FURY AND FAST. “Samuel L. Jackson was surprised by his Marvel contract’s length: ‘How long I gotta stay alive to make nine movies?'” – so he told Entertainment Weekly. “The Nick Fury actor joked he had no idea how fast the Marvel machine could grind through a nine-picture deal.”

…It’s true that Marvel moves through films faster than most studios would ever dare to try, but “two and a half years” is in reality more like 11. Jackson’s first appearance in the MCU as Nick Fury, the former spy, Avengers founder, and director of S.H.I.E.L.D., was in 2008’s Iron Man, and his ninth was in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The character and the conditions at Marvel were clearly agreeable enough to Jackson, because he has starred in a tenth film (The Marvels), three TV series (Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., What If…?, and Secret Invasion), and three video games (Iron Man 2, Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes, and Disney Infinity 3.0) as Fury….

(6) NOT YOUR AVERAGE WITCH. “Who Is Baba Yaga? The Slavic Witch Has a Complicated Origin Story” says Atlas Obscura.

Excerpted and adapted with permission from Becoming Baba Yaga: Trickster, Feminist, and Witch of the Woods, by Kris Spisak, published September 2024 by Hampton Roads Publishing. All rights reserved.

… The old woman, with her legs as skinny as bones, lives deep in the woods in a hut that stands on chicken feet. The structure turns and moves as it likes, but especially away from those who seek to find her. Baba Yaga’s broom isn’t for flying but for sweeping away her tracks. She is rumored to eat her victims for supper if she thinks they deserve it, but she also features in tales of reluctant kindness, of mentorship, and of fairy godmother-like grace. Isn’t it time we all knew her for who she is?

Folktale traditions can be difficult to explore, because how does one capture the whispers at bedtime or recollections told back and forth among family and friends, all of which have been built upon centuries and centuries of tellers? There is good; there is evil. Then there is Baba Yaga….

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Mike Glyer.]

October 1, 1941 – Glen GoodKnight. (Died 2010.) I was often in the home of Glen Goodknight and his partner Ken Lauw when I was on Glen’s 1997 Mythcon committee. It was the ideal fan’s home, walls covered with bookcases, though unlike other fans Glen’s shelves were filled with editions of Lord of the Rings in every language it had appeared: collecting these was his passion.

Ken Lauw and Glen GoodKnight at 2007 Mythcon.

Glen founded the Mythopoeic Society in 1967 in the aftermath of the legendary “Bilbo-Frodo Birthday Picnic” held in September of that year. He invited fans to his house on October 12 to form a continuing group. The 17 attendees became the Society’s first members. Within a few years they had planted 14 discussion groups around the country. In 1972 at the suggestion of Ed Meskys of the Tolkien Society of America the two organizations merged and overnight the Society grew to more than a thousand members.

Mythcon I in 1970 was organized to help knit the Society’s different groups together. Glen married Bonnie GoodKnight (later Callahan) at Mythcon II in 1971.

Glen edited 78 issues of the Society journal Mythlore between 1970 and 1998.

After staying away from Mythcons for several years, Glen returned to celebrate the Society’s 40th anniversary at Berkeley in 2007. Greeted with a standing ovation, he delivered an emotion-filled reminiscence of the Society’s early days. 

GoodKnight died in 2010 and his collection is now at Azusa Pacific University.

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) FOR THOSE WHO MISSED THIS STORY THE FIRST TIME AROUND. “The real story on the Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman crossover with Star Wars that DC and Lucasfilm were cooking up (and why it didn’t happen)” at Popverse.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….Superman took on Darth Vader. 

Well, not quite. However, this almost happened. Believe it or not, Star Wars was going to crossover with the DC Universe. In 2017 writer Kurt Busiek revealed that he and Alex Ross had once developed a DC/Star Wars pitch, but the project fell apart due to corporate disagreements regarding the money. It’s unknown when this project was first pitched, but it was presumably sometime before Disney acquired Lucasfilm. While details of the pitch are scant, some of Alex Ross’ concept art has been released, including the Superman vs Vader image that acts as a headline for this article. 

Speaking to a crowd at Tampa Bay Comic Convention, former DC publisher Dan DiDio elaborated on why he canceled the project, which apparently was about more than money.

“I was brought a DC Universe and Star Wars crossover. There was fighting over what you could and couldn’t do, and who gets the better shot, and who gets the hero moment…it wasn’t worth it. Honestly, it just wasn’t worth it.”

While DiDio didn’t name Busiek, he noted that the creator was not happy.

“The creator who came onboard got really angry because he brokered the deal and brought it to us. I just didn’t want to do it at that time, because it didn’t make sense.”

(10) VOYAGE TO SEE WHAT’S ON THE BOTTOM. “Wreck of ‘Ghost Ship of the Pacific’ Found Off California” reports the New York Times. (Story is paywalled.)

On Aug. 1, a ship dropped its unusual cargo into a patch of ocean some 70 miles northwest of San Francisco: three orange robots, each more than 20 feet long and shaped like a torpedo. For a day, the aquatic drones autonomously prowled the waters, scanning nearly 50 square miles of ocean floor.

Some 3,500 feet beneath the surface, an apparition popped up on the robots’ powerful sonar. Down in the darkness, the drones saw a ghost.

The robots had spotted the wreck of the “Ghost Ship of the Pacific,” the only U.S. Navy destroyer captured by Japanese forces during World War II. Formerly known as either the U.S.S. Stewart, or DD-224, the ship was resting in what is now the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary.

Three days later, another set of underwater robots captured images of the historic wreck. Though shrouded in decades of marine growth — and home to sponges and skittering crabs — the 314-foot-long destroyer is almost perfectly intact and upright on the seafloor.

“This level of preservation is exceptional for a vessel of its age and makes it potentially one of the best-preserved examples of a U.S. Navy ‘four-piper’ destroyer known to exist,” Maria Brown, superintendent of both the Cordell Bank and Greater Farallones national marine sanctuaries, said in a statement.

The find, which came during a technology demonstration, highlights the efficiency of modern robotic ocean exploration. Ocean Infinity, the marine robotics firm that operated the drones that made the discovery, owns the world’s largest fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles. The drones are used to create high-resolution maps of the seafloor — a major gap in our understanding of the oceans. The technology is also crucial for selecting sites for offshore construction projects such as wind farms and oil rigs, or for laying out routes for undersea pipelines and cables.

These robotic fleets are also proving invaluable to marine archaeologists. In 2020, Ocean Infinity helped find the wreck of the U.S.S. Nevada. In 2022, the company also contributed to the rediscovery of the Endurance, which sank during a 1915 expedition by Ernest Shackleton….

(11) TAKES A LICKING, BUT WILL IT KEEP ON TICKING? “Spruce Pine just got hit by Helene. The fallout on the tech industry could be huge” according to NPR.

…Nestled in the Appalachian mountains, the community of Spruce Pine, population 2,194, is known for its hiking, local artists and as America’s sole source of high-purity quartz. Helene dumped more than 2 feet of rain on the town, destroying roads, shops and cutting power and water.

But its reach will likely be felt far beyond the small community.

Semiconductors are the brains of every computer-chip-enabled device, and solar panels are a key part of the global push to combat climate change. To make both semiconductors and solar panels, companies need crucibles and other equipment that both can withstand extraordinarily high heat and be kept absolutely clean. One material fits the bill: quartz. Pure quartz.

Quartz that comes, overwhelmingly, from Spruce Pine.

“As far as we know, there’s only a few places in the world that have ultra-high-quality quartz,” according to Ed Conway, author of Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization. Russia and Brazil also supply high-quality quartz, he says, but “Spruce Pine has far and away the [largest amount] and highest quality.”

Conway says without super-pure quartz for the crucibles, which can often be used only a single time, it would be impossible to produce most semiconductors…

(12) GETTING THERE. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] You know how it is, there you are stuck out 500 light years away on the Galactic rim from the nearest decent real ale pub in Bognor Regis when your motor breaks down. The repair guy says a new engine is required (‘they couldna’ take it Jim’). So what sort of drive should you have?

David Kipping over at Cool Worlds has ranked the best options for you….   However, the betting is you won’t get back before closing time…. “Interstellar Propulsion Technologies – RANKED!”

Many of you wanted me to talk about the different interstellar propulsion ideas out there so we figured a fun way to compare them all would be in a tier list! Today we take a look at 14 different methods proposed to explore the stars. Let us know your rankings down below in the comments.

(13) SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. A “cut for time” sketch – really? “Blonde Dragon People”.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Michael J. Walsh, Joey Eschrich, 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 Paul Weimer.]

Pixel Scroll 1/30/24 Ocean’s Elven

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(1) SO FEW REMAIN. George R.R. Martin calls these “Dark Days” at Not a Blog.

 …2023 was a nightmare of a year, for the world and the nation and for me and mine, both professionally and personally.   I am very glad that it is over.

Unfortunately, so far 2024 looks to be even worse….

…I am famous and I am wealthy and, supposedly, I have a “big platform.”  Whatever that is.  But I have grown more and more cynical about this supposed “power” that people keep telling me I have.   Has anything I have ever written here ever changed a single mind, a single vote?  I see no evidence of that.  The era of rational discourse seems to have ended.

And death is everywhere.   Howard Waldrop was the latest, and his passing has hit me very very hard, but before him we lost Michael Bishop, Terry Bisson, David Drake… from my Wild Cards team, Victor Milan, John Jos. Miller, Edward Bryant, Steve Perrin… I still miss Gardner Dozois and Phyllis Eisenstein and my amazing agent Kay McCauley… Len Wein is gone, Vonda McIntyre, and Harlan Ellison… Greg Bear too, and… oh, I could go on.    I look around, and it seems as though my entire generation of SF and fantasy writers is gone or going.  Only a handful of us remain… and for how long, I wonder?  I know I have forgotten people in the list above, and maybe that is the destiny that awaits all of us… to be forgotten.

For that matter, the entire human race may be forgotten.   If climate change does not get us, war will.  Too many countries have nukes….

(2) FLASH MOB. The term Larry Niven coined for his stories of a world with transport booths is in the mainstream now. Shelf Awareness’ headline about this crime is: “Deadtime Stories, Lansing, Mich., Victim of ‘Flash Mob Robbery'”.

…Owner Jenn Carpenter wrote that around 2:30 p.m., a van pulled up to the corner of Washington and South St., and five teenagers wearing backpacks, carrying a big black trash bag, got out and entered the bookstore, where they remained for approximately 15 minutes. 

“During this time, they took turns asking me questions and keeping me occupied on the bookstore side of the shop, while the rest of them stuffed their backpacks with over $1,300 worth of merchandise,” she continued…

The WILX story has more details: “Lansing’s Reotown store ‘Deadtime Stories’ victim of theft, catches individuals on security footage”.

“The very first clip that I pulled up was them stuffing hundreds of dollars of merchandise in backpacks,” said Jenn Carpenter.

In Lansing’s Reotown, a well known book store, Deadtime Stories, fell victim to a theft. The owner, Jenn Carpenter says she had no idea she had been stolen from until another store owner asked her to check her security footage.

In the security footage, you can see a group of people stuffing store merchandise in a backpack, purse, and even in their pants.

“We lost more yesterday in stolen than we made in sales,” said Carpenter,“This brazen like an entire group of people coming in and just stuffing hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise in their bags and leaving… I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The business across the street, Vintage Junkies, also fell victim to the thefts. The owner says the group took more than $700 in merchandise, even stealing a lamp.

(3) STUDYING OCTAVIA BUTLER. Lois Rosson, a historian of science, is The Huntington’s 2023–24 Octavia E. Butler Fellow. She is currently working on a project about the depiction of outer space over the course of the Cold War titled Scientific Realism and American Astrofutures: Octavia Butler and the Space Environment. “Interview with Octavia E. Butler Fellow Lois Rosson” at The Huntington.

Durkin: You have noted that Octavia E. Butler grew up in Pasadena, not far from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. How do you think that informed her work? And how does that inform your scholarship?

Rosson: For me, this is one of the most interesting parts of my project. The triangle formed by JPL, the Hollywood special effects industry, and commercial aerospace in Southern California has had an outsized impact on the look of outer space. A lot of the illustrators I write about found work in these three industries, and they often moved from one to another.

As you’ve noted, Butler grew up in the northwest part of Pasadena, in close physical proximity to JPL. That said, the scientific and technical expertise concentrated in the region was parsed out socially, not geographically. Pasadena’s public schools were segregated until as late as 1970 and officially desegregated only because of a federal court order. In fact, Pasadena was the first city outside of the South that needed such a mandate. Butler graduated in 1965 from John Muir Technical High School, which was then a vocational school serving the area’s growing African American population.

So, there’s a moment in my story when the illustrators I write about and many of their scientific collaborators are concentrated around JPL, Caltech, and Hollywood, and they are using a frontier model to articulate the landscapes of the outer solar system. Butler is living in the same environment at the same time and forming very different ideas about how society should be organized in space. Unsurprisingly, the arid landscapes of the West take on a different meaning in her work. In her Parable series of novels, outer space represents an escape from the degradation of Earth’s landscapes. In Butler’s work, space settlement looks more like diaspora, which upends the frontier logic we’re used to. Casting space as something other than a frontier helps us understand the persistence of the metaphor more clearly and rethink how we relate to space as an environment.

(4) AWARD FOR CALIFORNIANS. The 2024 Golden Poppy Awards were presented by the California Independent Booksellers Alliance on January 25. The 14 categories include a sff award. 

  • Octavia E. Butler Award for Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror: Maeve Fly by CJ Leede (Tor Nightfire)

(5) OCTAVIA BUTLER MURAL. Publishers Weekly’s January 29 “Picture of the Day” shows authors Sherri L. Smith (l.) and Elizabeth Wein (r.) celebrating the launch of their book American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers), with a visit to Octavia E. Butler Magnet STEAM Middle School in Pasadena, Calif.

(6) CHENGDU WORLDCON ROUNDUP. [Item by Ersatz Culture.]

A Chinese fan writes in English about recent events and their impact

The author of this was OK for me to link to the source, but after a brief discussion with them, I am presenting their original unedited English language text here instead.  We did not discuss any of the things that they allude to in this text; I am more interested in conveying to a wider audience the sort of thing that (I imagine) many Chinese fans are feeling, than getting into the weeds of the specifics.

The problem is not that Chinese SF is without hope. I won’t be disappointed if that is the case because there would not be any hope at the very beginning. The problem is that, people who actually care about Chinese SF, who make every effort to make it shine, who knows this industry, who want this explained fairly, are being dishonored, silenced, denied, warned. They even had to warn each other about potential cost: it’s not worth it to hang on anymore. 

So, that’s it. The opportunity was cast away for a generation at least. People who had cherries picked got their fruits and headed for the next big one. The catastrophe was left behind for writers, publishers, mag editors to deal with.

As a SF reader for nearly 20y but not one who read Chinese SF for years, I was not familiar with many candidates before con. But I just heard too many familiar stories of what the survivors have to worry about afterwards.

The dishonesty, like a thorns crown, was forced on the winners’ head. Few would expect blood trailing from behind, but the bleeding will not go away easily. It was never the fault of the winners, but penalty is put on them.

I hate it. 

Mike has been provided with the link to the original source, just so that he can verify that this isn’t something I’ve invented myself.

Fact-checking Babel’s status in China

Regarding all the discussion about why Babel was declared ineligible, here’s an attempt at rumour-control of the specific issue of whether it is legally published and available within China.  This isn’t intended to prove or disprove if or why any censorship or interference took place in the Hugo nominations, but just to clarify whether the work is available.

On January 22nd, Yin Harn Lee pointed out on Twitter that Babel had been published and was available for purchase in China.  I replied with a link to a Tweet I’d made a couple of days earlier, referring to the fact that it had recently ranked 4th in a list of the top 10 SFF books of 2023 on Douban.  (I’m not sure how that list was generated – from sales, user activity, a judging panel, or something else.  Also, I’d only come across that list via a post from a Chinese Twitter user, but their tweets are protected, so I can’t really credit the “real” source for that info.)

A few days later, I did a bit more digging.  Per Douban (which is China’s equivalent of Goodreads/IMDB/etc), the publisher of that translated edition is 中信出版集团, which can be translated as something like CITIC Press.  I’ve since had it confirmed that CITIC Press is ultimately part of CITIC Group, and their Wikipedia article has some interesting nuggets about their founding and ownership.

Note: CITIC being the publisher of Babel explains a comment on Weibo I saw shortly after the Hugo finalists were announced.  My quite probably incorrect recollection is that it translated as something like “CITIC won’t be happy”, which didn’t make any sense to me at the time, even after I’d read the Wikipedia article linked above.  In retrospect, I’m guessing that by the time the finalists were announced, Babel had already been announced as an upcoming publication by CITIC.  Given all the buzz about it, CITIC would likely be expecting to gain a lot of publicity and enthusiasm from the Hugo nomination that many of us were assuming was a dead certainty.

(7) FUTURE TENSE. The January 2024 entry in the Future Tense Fiction series is “Sad Robot,” by E.R. Ramzipoor. The story is about what happens when a globally crucial AI system is in need of therapy. Future Tense Fiction is a monthly series of short stories from Future Tense and Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination about how technology and science will change our lives.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born January 30, 1955 — Judith Tarr, 69. Did you know Judith Tarr breeds Lipizzan horses at Dancing Horse Farm, her home in Vail, Arizona? They figure into her romantic fantasies that she wrote under the name Caitlin Brennan which she used for her White Magic series, The Mountain’s Call and sequels, and the House of the Star novel.  Yes, romantic fantasies.

Judith Tarr

Her Hound and the Falcon trilogy (The Isle of Glass, The Golden Horn and The Hounds of God) is set in twelfth and thirteenth century Europe. With elves. Yes elves. Why not?

Her Epona series (White Mare’s Daughter, The Shepherd Kings, Lady of Horses and Daughter of Lir) is set in prehistoric Europe. It takes the theories of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas that a matriarchal society existed in Paleolithic Europe. I’ve read her rationale on that — it’s interesting. The novels are a good read though perhaps a bit dogged at times.

Now Household Gods co-written with Harry Turtledove is a rollicking good novel that’s fun to read. Time travel, ancient Roman gods, a feisty female character — wharf’s not to like?

The next one being His Majesty’s Elephant. Charlemagne. A gift of magical elephant. A supernatural plot afoot. 

A Wind in Cairo allows her to show her love of horses as one of the characters is a male who for his transgressions is transformed by a sorcerer into a magnificent stallions in medieval Cairo where one of victims is now his jockey. 

Finally there’s Living in Threes which Book Cafe quite nice sums up this way, “Three lives. Three worlds. Three times. Three young women, past, present, and future, come together to solve an age-old mystery and save a world..” A novel where you don’t need the Bechdel test. 

She’s written some fifty shorter pieces of fiction, none collected, save those in, and try not to be surprised, in her Nine White Horses: Nine Tales of Horses and Magic collection. 

(9) BRAIN CHIP. “Elon Musk’s Neuralink implants brain chip in first human” reports Reuters.

The first human patient has received an implant from brain-chip startup Neuralink on Sunday and is recovering well, the company’s billionaire founder Elon Musk said.

“Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk said in a post on the social media platform X on Monday.

Spikes are activity by neurons, which the National Institute of Health describes as cells that use electrical and chemical signals to send information around the brain and to the body.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had given the company clearance last year to conduct its first trial to test its implant on humans, a critical milestone in the startup’s ambitions to help patients overcome paralysis and a host of neurological conditions.

In September, Neuralink said it received approval for recruitment for the human trial.

The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neuralink said previously, adding that its initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone….

(10) NO RELATION TO THAT FLYING SQUIRREL. Atlas Obscura remembers “How NASA Got Involved With Parachuting Beavers”.

IF YOU WERE WANDERING THE wilds of the Wasatch National Forest in Utah in September 2023, you might have encountered a strange sight: a line of slowly marching horses, with beavers saddled on their backs. Unfortunately, the rodents were not wearing tiny cowboy hats and boots. They were inside carriers, but their journey via horseback was still a fairly Wild West–type of solution to a problem. These beavers were headed to a new home—a battleground in the fight against drought and wildfires in the region….

…For decades, people have gone out of their way to move beavers across great distances. Today’s preferred methods—hiking, humping, and horseback rides—are an improvement over 1948, when beavers were parachuted out of planes in Idaho. Back then, Idaho Fish and Game had loaded the animals into boxes designed to spring open upon landing, and then dropped them over the Sawtooth Mountain Range….

…However, the reason behind all of this shuttling beavers around has completely reversed since the 1940s. Then, they were being sent to remote locations because humans didn’t want them around. Today, in Idaho, Utah, and other sites, they’re being brought back. Beavers are ecosystem engineers—and the ecosystems they create happen to be key to limiting wildfires and managing drought conditions. The mini-paratroopers have been revealed to be mini-firefighters, and it was the results of that aerial feat in 1948 that helped kick it all off, at least once NASA took notice….

(11) DESERT SONG. “Dune Spice Opera 2024 remaster” available for sale at Bandcamp.

From the first Dune 1991 game, reworked in 1992 with Philippe Ulrich, a classic of 90’s Electronic music now available in a qualité never Heard before!

Carefully remastered using modern tools, this 2024 version features spectrally enhanced sound, wider stereo, and clearer dynamics, rendered in Hi-Res Audio 96/24 format.
Includes also a special bonus: The full game OST in a yet unveiled quality!

(12) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Deadline sums up the “’Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ Trailer”.

The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare will be released on April 19. Think Ritchie meets Magnificent Seven and Inglourious Basterds….

…The true story covers Winston Churchill and Ian Fleming’s secret WWII combat organization. The clandestine squad’s unconventional and ‘ungentlemanly’ fighting techniques against the Nazis helped change the course of the war and gave birth to the modern Black Ops unit.

The script by Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, Arash Amel and Ritchie is based on war correspondent and military historian Damien Lewis’ best-selling book of the same name. Tamasy and Johnson initiated the project and sold it as a pitch to Bruckheimer and Paramount in 2015….

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Joey Eschrich, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]