(1) BRANDON O’BRIEN Q&A. Amanda Wakaruk and Olav Rokne have posted their interesting conversation with Brandon O’Brien about the Hugo Award for best poem: “Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog: Interview with Worldcon Poet Laureate Brandon O’Brien”.

UHBCB: Does everyone have an ear for poetry? Should everyone vote in this year’s Hugo for best poem?

Brandon O’Brien: Here’s the thing — I think everyone undeniably has an ear for poetry, and everybody knows in their heart that they do. I just think that lots of little biases get in the way of how we see poetry.

It’s the same way that I think everyone has a feel for dance even if they can’t dance well, and then we grow up and we see expert dance as too technical or too high-art to judge, and it limits our appreciation — but when we see good dance, we know it, and good dance is not just ballet, but folk dancing and breakdancing and swing and salsa, and we can feel all of those, too.

And in that same way, everyone is feeling poetry all the time: if you’re listening to music you’re listening to poetry, and depending on your favourite genre or favourite artist, whether you’re listening to Kendrick Lamar or Metallica or Fiona Apple, you’re probably listening to very challenging poetry, too. And if you’re already a fan of speculative fiction you also know enough about the genre and its trappings to make an assessment of whether its tropes are being played with in interesting or revealing or emotional ways.

So if everyone who can nominate and vote in the Hugo Awards just used those senses that they already have, they’re just as capable of deciding what should win in the Best Poem category….

(2) WHEN WILL THE DOCTOR BE BACK? Only faithful rugby viewers know this. “New Doctor Who season two launch date confuses fans with ‘random’ announcement” claims The Independent. Anyway, April 12 is the date.

The BBC has confirmed that Doctor Who will return with a new season on 12 April after a surprise announcement that appeared on the broadcaster’s iPlayer service on Friday.

Sex Education actor, Ncuti Gatwa made his debut as the Time Lord in December 2023. The new season will also star Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday.

Also joining the cast is Strictly Come Dancing star Rose Ayling-Ellis, who won the BBC dancing competition as the show’s first ever deaf contestant in 2021.

The manner of the announcement has raised some eyebrows among fans, especially as the rugby game in question wasn’t considered to be a high-profile encounter.

TV journalist Scott Bryan said: “Quite a random place to drop such a big announcement.”

“I find it hilarious that it was a totally unrelated rugby match that announced the release date of the next season and not, you know, the BBC itself, any of Doctor Who’s social media pages, the Doctor himself, or even the showrunner. No, a trailer in a random rugby match,” another fan wrote….

(3) INTERFERENCE WITH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY PROGRAMMING? “Amid Changes at the National Archives, the Carter Library Cancels a Civil Rights Book Event” reports the New York Times (behind a paywall).  

Three book events at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta were abruptly canceled late this week, raising questions about whether leadership changes at the National Archives and Records Administration were affecting programming at the 13 presidential libraries it oversees.

The events, which featured authors of books on climate change, homelessness and the civil rights movement, had been scheduled months earlier. But this week, the authors were told they would have to move to other venues and the events were removed from the library’s website.

Among the affected authors was Elaine Weiss, whose new book, “Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools that Built the Civil Rights Movement,” tells the story of the Highlander Folk School. In the 1950s, it began organizing “citizenship schools” where Black southerners were trained to pass the Jim Crow-era literacy tests designed to prevent them from voting.

In an interview, Ms. Weiss said the event had been arranged in November. But on Thursday afternoon, she said, her publicist at Simon & Schuster informed her that she had been told it could not go forward because the library, which was facing staff cuts, now needs approval from Washington for all programming. (Simon & Schuster declined to comment.)

Ms. Weiss said that she did not know whether the event had been called off because of the subject of her book. But she called the sudden cancellation “chilling.”

“The idea that a program about a book about democracy has to be approved by someone in Washington was and should be for everyone very scary,” she said. “The book is about voting rights, and about using education as a liberating tool.”

The other speakers whose events were canceled include Mike Tidwell, the author of “The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A Story of Climate and Hope on One American Street,” and Brian Goldstone, the author of “There Is No Place for Us,” about five “working homeless” families in Atlanta. By Friday evening, information about all three events had been removed from the library’s website.

In a statement, Crown, Mr. Goldstone’s publisher, said that the local bookseller helping organize the event contacted it on Feb. 19 “to let us know that the Carter Library would now need to seek approval from the National Archives for all programs, even those already scheduled.” The next day, the publisher was told it would be moved to a different location….

(4) INDEPENDENT SPIRITS. The “Independent Spirit Awards 2025 Winners” ceremony was this afternoon The Hollywood Reporter says Anora took home the top award of Best Feature.

There were two winners of genre interest.

…Maisy Stella won the Spirit for best breakthrough performance, for her role in My Old Ass. …

…Flow was named best international film. …

(5) CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. GameRant shares its picks for “The Best Low-Budget Sci-Fi Movies”.

Science fiction is a genre that often comes with a hefty price tag because of the extensive special effects involved. Even before the rise of CGI, which is still expensive, the labor and cost involved in the creation and use of practical effects were also daunting.

Here’s number seven on their list.

7 – Cube

Production Cost: $249,420

• Director: Vincenzo Natali
• Producer: Cube Libre
• Starring: Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller
• Release Date: September 11, 1998

Cube looks like it was filmed in two rooms because that’s literally how director Vincenzo Natali filmed it. It was a way to keep the cost of the film low, and after the cast was filled with mostly unknown Canadian actors, the total bill barely came out to roughly $250,000, but the movie made $9 million and inspired sequels, remakes, and reboots. One of the most recent examples is the Japanese remake with the same title that was released in 2021.

The concept of the film was inspired by the Hitchcock movie Lifeboat — which includes the same moral dilemma about the good of the many versus the good of the one — and Natali’s need to save money by using minimalist sets. The characters eventually discover that the Cube is one part of a maze made up of many cubes that form an elaborate prison, and escape might be possible once its puzzles are solved.

(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

February 22, 1937 — Joanna Russ. (Died 2011.)

By Paul Weimer: Joanna Russ. The leading light of feminist science fiction. 

She once wrote “There are plenty of images of women in science fiction. There are hardly any women.” And while that is not as true as it once was, it’s a damning indictment of science fiction up to that point, and ever since for that matter. Russ saw clearly in ways we are still coming to terms with, and authors of all genders are still coming to accept and inculcate in their own writing and action.

But her work is more than that. Sure, you can talk about the feminist themes of “When it Changed”, where the male astronauts who visit the colony of Whileaway are not greeted with the open arms that they expect. That was my first encounter with Russ, and it was in the second Dangerous Visions anthology.  And sure, you can talk about the feminism of The Female Man, where four different visions of male-female relations, ranging from our baseline to an all-female society that resembles the one of “When it Changed”. 

But what a lot of people miss about Russ’ work, especially The Female Man, is how mordantly and darkly funny it is. I had a discussion once about this with the aforementioned inestimable Farah Mendlesohn and we were both in accord of it, and pondering how her other virtues in writing mean that the humor of her work, however dark, gets left out of the conversation.

And then is her criticism and critical eye. “How to Suppress Women’s Writing”, written in 1983, is still timely, still useful, still relevant as a look at the issues women face in trying to get published. Her literary criticism is and was as relevant to science fiction and fantasy (and literature in general to be clear) as much as her feminist science fiction. She was fair but could be merciless and unforgiving in her criticism and reviews (she held no truck with Lord Foul’s Bane for instance, and given a certain event in that book, I can see why she would be unrelenting in her criticism of it). 

And she has sparked a lot of criticism and literary analysis of her own work. Writers like Farah Mendelsohn, Gwyneth Jones and others have written monographs, essays and entire books analyzing her works, probing the themes and style and power of her work. Her work is a ferocious beast of an oeuvre, both her criticism and her fiction and coming to terms with it is something that is worthwhile for everyone.  

I’d place her in a small group of authors like Le Guin and Butler as among the most literary of Science Fiction’s authors, authors that truly can and do evaporate genres and elevate American letters to a high art. 

She passed away in 2011. Requiescat in pace.

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY, TOO.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

February 22, 1925 — Edward Gorey. (Died 2000.)

Edward Gorey, a distinctive light and talent of art. 

You’ve seen his work, even if you never realized just who the artist was. The gothic fantastical Victorian/Edwardian look to his art, line drawings all, is unmistakable. The limited palette of the image of the line drawings, the creepiness and dark wonder of the art, are unmistakable once you’ve seen it, and then you see it everywhere. His work as an illustrator and an artist extended from book covers to surrealist art. 

But as much as his own art was influential, iconic, and unmistakable, as the center of a group of artists of the macabre he has had an outstanding influence. Not just artists like Gary Larson, Charles Addams and others but authors such as Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) have interpreted, reflected, refracted and incorporated his ideas and visual vocabulary. I am not well versed in Goth culture and subculture but his influence on their fashions and designs and works from fashion to art to music cannot in fact be overstated. 

I can’t even remember when I first saw my first piece of Gorey’s work or something inspired of it. It’s been in my vocabulary of visuals for as long as I’ve been reading and enjoying visual media. Probably a long-ago book cover in a library or a bookstore. The deceptive simplicity of his illustrations has always drawn my eye and appreciation.

He died in 2000. Requiescat in pace.

(8) GOREY POSTSCRIPT. [Item by Cat Eldridge.] Edward Gorey’s Birthday was a one hundred years ago today. In honor of that, I give you this charming look at his animated introduction for the PBS show Mystery! done in 1980. The sequence was based on the ink drawings that he did and then were animated by British animator and filmmaker Derek Lamb. 

Animation World Network would write an article about Gorey and the Mystery series style which was published just after his death. You can read it here.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

• Barney and Clyde recognizes the tell.
• Carpe Diem predicts the next Batman.
• Rhymes with Orange brings us a new style of science writing.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal tells what this phrase means to them.

(10) MORE GOREY. This weekend the New York Times is also paying “A Centenary Tribute to Edward Gorey”. (Link bypasses paywall.) The article is by Lisa Brown, author-illustrator of the graphic novel The Phantom Twin, and illustrator of the picture book Mummy Cat by Marcus Ewert. She has also collaborated on three books with Lemony Snicket, most recently Goldfish Ghost.

…. Living among Gorey’s art helped lead me down the path to my eventual career. As an illustrator of sometimes dark and funny picture books and comics, I am regularly asked whether I have a specific age group in mind when I write. (The answer: not always.) This was also a common question for Gorey. In a 1974 interview with Tobi Tobias for Dance Magazine, Gorey said that “a lot of things” he’d done he intended for children, and then added, “I don’t know many children.”

The children Gorey drew, and there are many, are either preternaturally sophisticated little adults — like the young ballet aficionados of “The Lavender Leotard,” who spout mature pronouncements such as “Don’t you feel the whole idea of sets and costumes is vulgar?” — or pale specimens with circles under their eyes, faced with desperate misfortune.

Gorey does, on occasion, channel what an actual child, whatever that is, might feel, as in “The Beastly Baby,” about an infant so disgusting the reader is relieved when it explodes to bits at the end. Children troubled by a new sibling might delight in the story, but is it really for them?…

(11) HUES CORPORATION. “Crayola is temporarily bringing back popular retired colors” — amNewYork tells us which ones.

… This is the first time in its 122-year history that Crayola has ever un-retired colors, welcoming back Dandelion (deep yellow), Blizzard Blue (frosty light blue), Magic Mint a soft light green), Mulberry (pinkish purple), Orange Red (a deep orange with red overtones), Violet Blue (a deep shade of blue with shades of violet), Lemon Yellow (bright yellow) and Raw Umber (woodsy brown) to their rotation of magnificent colors. Some of these iconic shades haven’t been available since you were a kid, and now parents can share these nostalgic hues with their own little ones…

(12) NOT CREEPY AT ALL. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] No creep factor here. Especially in the movie of the full figure dangling from a trapeze-like harness and twitching like a frog leg in Luigi Galvani’s lab. Perfectly normal, that. 

Now excuse me while I make sure my doors are locked and I turn on every light in my house. No dark corners for me tonight. “Robot with 1,000 muscles twitches like human while dangling from ceiling” at Ars Technica.

On Wednesday, Clone Robotics released video footage of its Protoclone humanoid robot, a full-body machine that uses synthetic muscles to create unsettlingly human-like movements. In the video, the robot hangs suspended from the ceiling as its limbs twitch and kick, marking what the company claims is a step toward its goal of creating household-helper robots.

Atherton, California-based Clone Robotics designed the Protoclone with a polymer skeleton that replicates 206 human bones. The company built the robot with the hopes that it will one day be able to operate human tools and perform tasks like doing laundry, washing dishes, and preparing basic meals.

The Protoclone reportedly contains over 1,000 artificial muscles built with the company’s “Myofiber” technology, which builds on the McKibbin pneumatic muscle concept. These muscles work through mesh tubes containing balloons that contract when filled with hydraulic fluid, mimicking human muscle function. A 500-watt electric pump serves as the robot’s “heart,” pushing fluid at 40 standard liters per minute….

(13) THAT’LL SHOW THOSE HUMANS. Ryan George introduces us to “The Aliens Who Invented Crop Circles”.

(14) KEEP BANGING ON. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] This week’s science question from the wonderful Matt O’Dowd over at PBS Space Time asks “Will The Big Bang Happen AGAIN (and Again)?”

How did the universe begin? How can something come from nothing? One way to “solve” this most difficult of philosophical conundrums is to avoid it altogether. Maybe the universe didn’t begin. Maybe the Big Bang was just one in an endless cycle.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, Olav Rokne, 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 Olav Rokne.]