(1) GEN CON WRITER’S SYMPOSIUM BLOWUP.
E.D.E. Bell, part of the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium leadership, hasn’t been retained after the 2024 event and brought public attention to the issue in “Gen Con Writers’ Symposium Dismissal”, a long, thorough discussion. Here are excerpts:
On 10 September, our leadership met with Gen Con to present our report including requests and improvements for next year. Gen Con listened to the report and asked questions for the full hour, and then said quickly, right before ending the call, that the show went “really well” and all our work was appreciated, and also no one on the current committee will be invited back next year.
This is extremely distressing to me. The loss to the community is significant but there are also huge emotional, practical, and financial losses for my family. We were investing, a whole community was investing in a long-term plan for inclusion. You don’t turn these things fully around in a couple years. It also sends the message that a pro-inclusion committee can be mistreated and then dismissed without consequence….
… I am also hearing from many people that my removal from Origins Game Fair also over issues related to inclusion (they write “race” as if they aren’t ready to believe me) is evidence that I must be a problem. I do not have energy to defend my integrity or the existence of documentation. And no, it means that cons are working very hard to discredit someone who is in and doing the work. Origins Game Fair has a reputation for being a con very comfortable in whiteness. Gen Con Writers’ Symposium used to have a reputation for being unfriendly to BIPOC and many other writing communities. The last two years, that changed. I’m discouraged but not surprised that in 2024, the reaction is still – two places can’t be fighting inclusion – you must be the issue….
… Everything started when we invited Mikki Kendall as a Special Guest. Marian McBride reached out and said her boss (Derek Guder) had “concerns” about Mikki, that she did not have draw or broad appeal. I heard the dogwhistles, but still explained why she was a good fit. The entire committee agreed disinviting her at this late point after she’d already accepted and for this reason would be inappropriate and harmful on multiple levels. We were told not to announce the guests, and were asked to an “emergency meeting” whose title was something like “Concerns regarding Special Guest Mikki Kendall”. Specifically, the whole committee was asked to be there.
I thought, oh good, we can explain our inclusion plans and why Mikki is an awesome choice.
The summary of that meeting was:
- It was an ambush, stated to be a necessary dressing-down of the committee by someone who had no knowledge of what we did.
- I was looked at in the eye and told, “I need you to realize that what you did was bad.” and also “You invited two Special Guests with no draw and no broad appeal. Isn’t that correct?”
- We were repeatedly accused of funneling GCWS money for personal use.
- At no point was I actually allowed to explain anything to Derek; he would not let me speak….
… I am asking Gen Con and/or the 2025 GCWS Committee for a specific reason why they will not work with “Chris and Emily Bell” and I think I deserve that answer. Hopefully I’ll get at least that much respect from the community.
And one final thought: you really don’t have to have the argument about me in any way. Derek Guder is on the record saying that neither Linda D. Addison nor Mikki Kendall have draw or broad appeal at the same time he said he did not know them and refused to find out. He is also using this “four not two” Guests thing like it’s a gotcha, but he wouldn’t allow anyone on the committee to explain verbally why we did that, why it was coordinated Marian in December, or why it did not violate their intent in any way – and he refused to read anything submitted in writing. Please evaluate those actions on their own….
Eric Scott de Bie comes down on the side of GenCon in his equally long “The Writer’s Symposium Kerfuffle, September 2024” at Worldswalker. Excerpts:
…Note that Derek reiterates that his concerns are focused upon how many guests the leadership team invited, and about how the issues were communicated and coordinated.
At this point, per my interview with Derek, GenCon accepted there was nothing to be done for 2024. It was too late to make any radical changes to the Symposium, the guest list, or any of it, and so they let it ride for 2024.
After a successful Symposium (the leadership team did an excellent job putting on the Con, and that should be noted), GenCon informed them at their debrief meeting that they would not be working with the present leadership team again. What exactly was said at the end of the meeting, I am still researching, but as Emily frames it, they said something to the effect of “no one on the current committee will be invited back next year.”
What does this all mean?
So GenCon does not want to work with the Bells again. They didn’t “disinvite” anyone–they just won’t work with the Bells again. Even the other members of the Bells’ leadership team (some of whom signed onto the ultimatum), GenCon is ok with talking with them to sort this out. And yes, I have confirmed that with Derek….
… Per my research, GenCon’s decision had nothing to do with racism, and neither did Origins, or ConFusion, who have also cut ties with the Bells under similar circumstances. The Cons in question DO support diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. As far as I know, their decisions are based on her actions as a leader: poor communication, acting unilaterally, and not consulting them….
(2) TODAY’S SCROLL TITLE DECIPHERED. [Item by Daniel Dern.] The source for this title probably, ahem, weeds out many Boomers and most post-Boomers; per Wikipedia, “…Please Don’t Eat the Daisies is a best-selling collection of humorous essays by American humorist and playwright Jean Kerr.” (And, I see, turned into a movie starring Doris Day and David Niven.)
(Similar to some extent, possibly (I haven’t read Daisies), Shirley Jackson’s ‘domestic memoirs’ Life Among The Savages and Raising Demons.)
(3) TOLKIEN POETRY COLLECTION RELEASED. The Collected Poems of J. R. R. Tolkien edited by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond was released by Harper Collins today.
…The earliest work in this collection, written for his beloved, is dated to 1910, when Tolkien was eighteen. More poems would follow during his years at Oxford, some of them very elaborate and eccentric. Those he composed during the First World War, in which he served in France, tend to be concerned not with trenches and battle, but with life, loss, faith, and friendship, his longing for England, and the wife he left behind. Beginning in 1914, elements of his legendarium, ‘The Silmarillion’, began to appear, and the ‘Matter of Middle-earth’ would inspire much of Tolkien’s verse for the rest of his life….
A reviewer at Tolkien Collectors’ Guide took up the challenge of counting the poems in the volume. It’s not as simple as one would expect.
When this collection was announced, the editors were somewhat coy about exactly how many poems there are in total, and how many of those were unpublished, and reading through these three volumes one begins to understand why.
Entry 1 has two titles noted in the contents, ‘Morning’ and ‘Morning Song’, so one would expect two poems, but we are offered four versions, with notes to a further two or three variants, plus the fascinating commentary. This approach continues throughout, with many entries containing more poems, or versions of them than are noted in the contents. The editors describe there being 195 entries which would contain approximately 240 “discreet poems”.
Our count suggests there are roughly 550+ poems (inc. variant versions, which the editors described as instances in private correspondence) addressed directly, with many more in the notes and mentioned throughout the fantastic commentary. We have not tried to count all of these but it is an incredible number….
(4) KGB. Photos of last night’s Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series here on Flickr. Ellen Datlow adds, “Not as many photos as usual as I could get neither my camera nor my phone camera to work properly.”
(5) BRISBANE 28 TAKING PRESUPPORTS. The bid to hold the 2028 Worldcon in Brisbane, Australia has announced they can now take presupports: Support | Brisbane in 28.
We now have pre-support available to those wanting to help us succeed!
You can throw us a lobster or a pineapple, or be a real mate and buy your attending membership in advance.
All pre-support helps us get to more events, and do more things so we can make this the best Worldcon we can make it.
(6) MEMORY LANE.
[Item by Cat Eldridge.]
Anniversary: Young Hercules series (1998)
I know that a lot of you have seen Hercules and Xena, but I am guessing that a lot less of you saw Young Hercules which came out on this date, twenty-six years ago. It won’t surprise you at all that it was created by Sam Raimi who, of course, created the other two series.
The series follows Hercules (played Ryan Gosling) as he attends Cheiron’s Academy to train in the arts of the warrior under the wise headmaster Cheiron the Centaur (as performed by Nathaniel Lees under a most excellent costume). Other primary cast members are the future king of Corinth, Prince Jason (Chris Conrad), a thief who was a former member of a bandit group, Iolaus (Dean O’Gorman) who is here instead of in prison, and the academy’s first female cadet, Lilith (Jodie Rimmer). Need I say they’re all very handsome, or in her case, cute? They really are.
Not at all surprisingly Rob Tapert who had his hand in the other two series is involved in this series. Here he is one of the writers and executive producer. This series came to be just two years before he executive produced both Jack of All Trades and Cleoprata 2525.
Needless to say, it was produced in New Zealand — no not by Peter Jackson. Renaissance Pictures produced this one which makes sense as it was founded by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell to produce The Evil Dead along with the two sequels and yes, the company produced Xena and Hercules as well, and the Darkman films.
Ryan Gosling made a fine young, Hercules here. Actually, he was more believable as a character than, ahem, a certain other character that played the older one was. Just my opinion, I think this was because both he and adventures being geared towards a young adult audience were in lighter in tone. Also being, 20 minutes long, meant there was no filler, something that is important in telling your story sometimes.
All the live filming took place in NewZealand, but the visual effects were done in LA as was the music. Weta, yes, that company that would later be involved in The Lord of the Rings, was responsible for the special visual visual effects here. They lost most of that team very fast because of the overlap with the filming of The Fellowship of the Ring.
I like this series every bit as much as I do Xena and I like both of these series far, far more than I ever liked Hercules. It ran for fifty twenty-minute episodes which aired technically in one season though I saw it broken up into three seasons later on.
It’s not streaming anywhere right now though you can purchase it on DVD.
The image below has the main cast with Gosling on the left, Dean next to him with Chris just behind Jodie.
(7) COMICS SECTION.
- Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal recognizes signs of life.
- The Flying McCoys gets upstaged.
- The Argyle Sweater looks over the shoulder of a curious dough boy.
- Rubes gives last words.
(8) SHOCKED, I TELL YOU, SHOCKED. Bleeding Cool reports: “A New Book Called ‘Stan Lee Lied’, Claims That Stan Lee… Lied”.
Chaz Gower has written a new book called Stan Lee Lied. Full title, Stan Lee Lied: Your Handy Guide to Every Lie in The Origins of Marvel Comics. And it does exactly what it says on the tin. …it takes the Stan Lee-authored Origins Of Marvel Comics for its fiftieth anniversary, and systematically attempts to disprove as many of the statements in that book as possible, using recorded facts and archives, testimonies and memories of others. This is a case for the prosecution; there is no attempt to be even-handed, and anything that doesn’t challenge the tenet that Stan Lee didn’t co-create or write the comic books he claimed to have and was credited for is either not included or dismissed with a hand wave.
That 1974 volume Origins Of Marvel Comics is itself getting a deluxe hardcover printed from Gallery Editions next month for its fiftieth anniversary, so this is clearly well-timed. Maybe you could read them together? Here is just one small example to let you know where this is going…
“Stan Lee: “At the moment, the trend is monster stories… Jack and I were having a ball turning out monster stories with such imperishable titles as ‘Xom, the Creature Who Swallowed Earth’, ‘Grottu, the Giant Ant-Eater’… ‘Fin Fang Foom’….”
“Stan Lee signed almost everything he ever did from… at least 1950 on. Most likely from Day One, but for SURE from 1950 on. He signed pin-up pages if he wrote even the smallest of dialogue on it, and paper doll pages in Patsy Walker comics… he rarely if ever missed an opportunity to sign his name to something, to get the credit and of course, the PAY. BUT… He never signed a single Jack Kirby monster story from those presuperhero years at Marvel Comics. Which means he didn’t write ANY of them. Not ONE SINGLE STORY. He signed NONE OF THEM. Which means he didn’t write ANY of them.”
(9) SPLASH! “650-Foot High Megatsunami in Greenland Sends Seismic Waves Worldwide” – SciTechDaily has details.
…In September 2023, a massive tsunami in remote eastern Greenland triggered seismic waves that captured the attention of researchers worldwide.
The event created a week-long oscillating wave in Dickson Fjord, according to a new report in The Seismic Record.
Angela Carrillo-Ponce of GFZ German Research Centre for Geoscience and her colleagues identified two distinct signals in the seismic data from the event: one high-energy signal caused by the massive rockslide that generated the tsunami, and one very long-period (VLP) signal that lasted over a week.
Their analysis of the VLP signal—which was detected as far as 5000 kilometers (3100 miles) away—suggests that the landslide and resulting tsunami created a seiche, or a standing wave that oscillates in a body of water. In this case, the seiche was churning for days between the shores of Dickson Fjord….
(10) OPEN THE POD BAY DOOR, ELON. “Tech billionaire pulls off first private spacewalk high above Earth” reports Yahoo!
A tech billionaire popped out from a SpaceX capsule hundreds of miles above Earth and performed the first private spacewalk Thursday, a high-risk endeavor once reserved for professional astronauts.
Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman teamed up with SpaceX to test the company’s brand new spacesuits on his chartered flight. The daring feat also saw SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis going out once Isaacman was safely back inside.
This spacewalk was simple and quick — the hatch was open barely a half hour — compared with the drawn-out affairs conducted by NASA. Astronauts at the International Space Station often need to move across the sprawling complex for repairs, always traveling in pairs and lugging gear. Station spacewalks can last seven to eight hours; this one clocked in at less than two hours….
[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]
