Tag Archives: Stephen Fabian

Pixel Scroll 5/9/25 Better To Light One Pixel Than To Scroll The File

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(1) BOOKS THAT FETCHED BIG BUCKS. AbeBooks lists the “Most expensive sales from January to March 2025”. The complete top 10 is at the link. Here are the three fantasy/SF books that brought the highest prices.

1. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams and William Nicholson – $28,000

Paper covered boards with Nicholson’s illustrations, covered in matching original dust wrapper First published in 1922, The Velveteen Rabbit has become one of the most beloved children’s stories of all time. This rare and fragile first edition is particularly notable for its seven color illustrations, some double-page, each with its original printed caption. The endpapers feature delightful drawings of rabbits.

This exceptional copy retains its paper-covered boards with Nicholson’s illustrations and original publisher’s pictorial dustwrapper with matching design. It presents in near-fine condition, with only a short split to the foot of the upper joint and light spotting to early pages. The dustwrapper, while showing a small chip to the spine foot and minor fraying, remains remarkably well-preserved for such a delicate publication.

“The Velveteen Rabbit has struck a chord with child and adult readers alike since its original publication in 1922, with its combination of Margery Bianco Williams’s underlying message and William Nicholson’s striking double page colour illustrations, which work in harmony with the text. The first edition is both rare and inherently fragile so copies in such exemplary condition are very seldom found. In thirty years as a specialist in rare children’s books this is only the fourth such copy we have sold.”

4. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White – $18,700

Author’s presentation copy, inscribed to friend and fellow novelist, Elizabeth Taylor on the front end paper, “For Elizabeth Taylor / and I do like Irish whiskey / E B White” E.B. White and British novelist Elizabeth Taylor maintained a literary friendship despite rarely meeting in person. Their connection flourished through The New Yorker, where White’s wife Katherine served as Taylor’s first editor. This first edition of Charlotte’s Web carries their relationship in ink – White’s inscription reads “For Elizabeth Taylor / and I do like Irish whiskey,” a fitting note from an author known to store manuscripts in whiskey boxes and keep a bottle ready for guests.

The first issue (marked ‘First edition, I-B’ on verso) features Garth Williams’ original color dustwrapper and line drawings, showing only slight toning to the spine.

“Charlotte Web has long been a popular with children the world over, but what makes this book particularly special is the inscription by the books author, E.B.White to fellow novelist, Elizabeth Taylor. The notion of author to author associations strikes a particular chord with sophisticated book collectors, the book marking an intersection of the author’s creative endeavour and their life outside the text. It is evidence of this personal contact which influences the author’s work which gives books like this an animation all of their own. Taylor had the misfortune to be a contemporary of the much more famous actress of the same name, but was nevertheless a successful (and lately, increasingly read) author in her own right, described by Kingsley Amis as ‘one of the best English novelists born this century’.”

8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick – $15,500

First edition review copy with publisher’s original publicity slip 1968 marked a turning point in science fiction with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dick’s tale of bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalking artificial beings through a post-apocalyptic landscape would redefine the genre’s approach to human consciousness and artificial life.

In its original grey cloth binding with gilt spine lettering, this review copy offers a rare glimpse into the novel’s publication. The inclusion of the publisher’s publicity slip and unclipped dust jacket makes this example particularly noteworthy in Dick’s bibliography.

“As one of the genre’s most influential authors, Dick’s exploration of themes like reality, identity, and authoritarianism has left a lasting impact on literature and film. His thought-provoking narratives, often blending dystopian futures with psychological intrigue, have inspired numerous adaptations, including the iconic Blade Runner.”

(2) FLASHY MEETS THE BUGS. The discussion Cat Eldridge sparked yesterday with his piece about George Macdonald Fraser’s “Flashman” made me track down my parody of the series, “Flashman at Klendathu”, and add it to File 770’s library of my fanwriting. The article originally appeared in Guy H. Lillian’s fanzine Challenger in 2008, adorned with this wonderful illo by Charlie Williams.

(3) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman invites listeners to break for brunch with writer Adeena Mignogna on Episode 253 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Adeena Mignogna

Ever since Adeena Mignogna dared to eat a donut on the Capclave Donut Carnival episode of this podcast, I knew I’d eventually host her for a more in-depth conversation. And that time is now!

Mignogna is the author of the the Robot Galaxy series, which so far is a quartet, made up of Crazy Foolish Robots; Robots, Robots Everywhere; Silly Insane Humans; and Eleven Little Robots. As you’ll hear in our chat, there’ll be many more to follow. She’s also the author of Lunar Logic — the first novel in a series which doesn’t yet have an overarching title, though the second book will be titled Moonbase Mayhem, so who knows, perhaps there’ll be something alliterative there as well.

She’s also one of the hosts of the long running BIG Sci-Fi podcast. When not writing or podcasting, Adeena is a physicist, astronomer, and software engineer who’s worked for nearly three decades in the aerospace industry as a Mission Architect.

We discussed how Star Trek changed her life, which Trek character she used as her screen name on fan forums when she first went online as a young teen, why she never wrote fanfic, the feedback from a friend which saved her NaNoWriMo novel from being trunked, how she discovered she’s neither a plotter nor a pantser but rather something in-between, her favorite science fiction novel of all time (and the important lesson it taught her about her Robot Galaxy series), why she went the indie route and how she knew she had the chops to pull it off, the manner in which we gender robots, the reason writing each book in her quartet was more fun than the one before, why she remains hopeful about our AI future, how she finally learned she was a morning writer after years of trying to write at night, and much more.

(4) PEN AMERICA LITERARY AWARDS. The 2025 PEN America Literary Awards were announced on May 8. None of the fiction appears to be genre.

The PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award went to Jason Roberts for Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life.

(5) JEOPARDY! [Item by Rich Lynch.] The current Jeopardy champion going into today’s match is Dan Moren, a sff author, editor and podcaster with an entry in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia.

(6) RETURN TO SUMMERISLE. “Are you here for the burning?” – The Observer covers a dedicated fan’s restaging of The Wicker Man.

As the sun sinks over the Irish Sea, Fergal O’Riordan stands on a headland in south-west Scotland and looks up with tears in his eyes at the 7 metre-tall wicker man, blazing against the darkening sky. Five years of work going up in smoke. He couldn’t be happier.

Dubliner O’Riordan first contacted me in February to tell me about a documentary he was making on Robin Hardy’s 1973 cult folk-horror classic The Wicker Man. The project had consumed him since 2020, costing him all his savings, and almost his marriage, his family and his sanity.

Publicity seeker, I assumed. But when I finally got to meet O’Riordan, 55, last weekend, for the premiere of his film, Return to Summerisle, in the small town of Newton Stewart, it became apparent that he had been deadly serious…

(7) ORWELL ARCHIVE GAINS DOCUMENTS. “About 160 historic George Orwell papers saved for nation after outcry” reports the Guardian.

George Orwell’s correspondence, contracts and readers’ reports relating to his earliest novels are among historic papers that have been saved for the nation after an outcry over their initial dispersal.

University College London (UCL) said it had acquired the archive of the Nineteen Eighty-Four author’s publisher as “a valuable piece of Britain’s cultural heritage”.

About 160 items, dating from 1934 to 1937, are to be added to the Orwell Archive in UCL Special Collections, the world’s most comprehensive holdings of research material relating to him….

…The collection had belonged to his publisher, Victor Gollancz, who founded one of the 20th century’s foremost publishing houses.

The company was acquired by the Orion Group, which became part of Hachette, owned by the French multinational Lagardère, whose decision to sell the archive because its warehouse was closing was condemned last year as an act of cultural vandalism….

(8) DISRUPTION OF THE DAY. “Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden Fired by White House” reports Publisher Weekly.

In the latest blow to professional research and the literary and arts community, the Trump administration fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on May 8. “Tonight, the White House informed Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden that she has been relieved of her position,” a Library of Congress spokesperson confirmed in an email to PW. No reason for Hayden’s removal was provided, and no further information has been announced regarding the library’s staffing or budget.

Hayden has led the Library of Congress since 2016, when she was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed and sworn in by the U.S. Senate. She was the first woman and first Black person to head the nation’s library, a federal resource whose vast on-site and online collections are the research arm of the U.S. Congress and an information hub for organizations and individuals worldwide. Hayden is a past CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, and from 2003 to 2004 served as president of the American Library Association….

…Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D–N.Y.), the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, issued a statement calling the removal “unjust” and “a disgrace” that represents the president’s “ongoing effort to ban books, whitewash American history, and turn back the clock.” Calling the Library of Congress is “the People’s Library,” Jeffries added: “There will be accountability for this unprecedented assault on the American way of life sooner rather than later.”…

(9) TARIFF TERROR. “‘A kick in the teeth’: UK film industry’s horror at possible Trump tariffs” says the Guardian.

It is a sunny May afternoon in leafy Surrey, and Richard St Clair is carefully preparing a bomb. It is not real, but it will look like it is when shown on a Netflix TV show. Across the workshop a colleague is cheerfully sandpapering a pile of hip bones for the 28 Years Later zombie film – trailers suggest a lot of skeletons will be involved.

They are working at db Props, a small company based at Shepperton Studios that has made everything from Thor’s hammer to Alan Turing’s computer in The Imitation Game.

Yet for all its work on huge productions, the workshop has a shadow hanging over it, cast by Donald Trump. The US president this week sent shock waves through the global film industry with a surprise statement that he will bring in a 100% tariff on movies “produced in Foreign Lands”. “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” he wrote on his social network Truth Social.

“I’m terrified about this new Trump thing – whatever that may be,” says Dean Brooks, the owner of db Props and a 45-year veteran of the props trade after joining at 16. “This has been a proper kick in the teeth.”

Britain’s film and video production industry employs about 99,000 people, but it punches well above the UK’s economic weight globally, and has a glamour that other industries cannot match. Hollywood relies heavily on Britain to make its films and big budget TV series such as the recent Star Wars series Andor and Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible franchise. In turn the UK relies on Hollywood for work: inward investment and co-production spend on film and high-end television in the UK reached £4.8bn in 2024, representing 86% of the total, according to the British Film Institute.

(10) STEPHEN FABIAN (1930-2025). Sff artist Stephen Fabian, whose impressive black & white covers adorned fanzines before he moved on to a successful pro career, died May 6 at the age of 95. Bob Eggleton was among those who announced his passing.

Fabian was a Hugo finalist for Best Fanartist twice (1970-1971) and Best Professional Artist seven times (1975-1981).

He won the British Fantasy Award for Artist in 1980 and 1985, and his “The End of Days” (Chacal #2) won the Artwork award in 1978. He was also a finalist three other times.

His success apparently was a pleasant surprise to him. Fancyclopedia 3 notes:

…Fabian did not start out to be an artist. He attended several schools before joining the U.S. Air Force in 1949, where he served as a teacher of radio and radar. He left the Air Force in 1953 and worked for electronic firms as an engineer until 1973, when he found himself out of work….

Fabian studied drawing and painting on his own, and began submitting artwork to fanzines in the 1960s, becoming a well-known fan artist. The day he was laid off work, he received letters asking him to submit his work to both Amazing and Galaxy. He immediately switched from electronics engineer to full-time SF artist…. 

In addition to prozines, Fabian produced artwork for TSR’s Dungeons & Dragons game from 1986 to 1995, particularly on the Ravenloft line.

There’s some pretty amazing artwork in the gallery on his website. See it while you can.

(11) PETER MORWOOD (1956-2025). Irish novelist and screenwriter Peter Morwood died May 9. He was best known for his Horse Lords and Tales of Old Russia series. He lived in Ireland with his wife, writer Diane Duane, with whom he co-authored several works. Duane announcement of his death on Facebook said:

…I am in utter shock and terrible pain to have to inform everyone that our friend, my dear husband and creative partner of nearly forty years, Peter Morwood, passed away suddenly early this morning after a brief illness that as late as yesterday (when his doctor saw him) had seemed to be on the mend.

I’m not in any position to say much more about this situation now, as you’ll understand my current mental state is not up to the task. (I keep expecting to wake up from a truly terrible dream, but this one shows no sign of breaking.) I will let people know more about this in coming days.

There will be a postmortem shortly to determine the exact cause of his death. I’ll share what details of this are appropriate as they become clear….

Duane and Morwood married at Boskone in February 1987.

Duane has asked for financial support:

Meanwhile in the short term I’m very much going to need assistance with the expenses that in the days that follow will inevitably surround what’s happened. For those people who want to assist, please feel free to use the Ko-Fi account here, and simply tag the associated messages, etc, “P expenses”. ETA: Please choose the Stripe payment option at Ko-Fi rather than PayPal, as PP seems to be having some kind of obscure difficulties at the moment. I have disconnected PayPal until this is resolved.

Peter Morwood and Diane Duane. Photo by and (c) Andrew Porter.

(12) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Soylent Green (1973)

Fifty-two years ago, Soylent Green was in general distribution in the States. It had premieres earlier in LA and NYC, respectively, on April 18th and April 19th. 

The film was directed by Richard Fleischer who had previously directed Fantastic Voyage and Doctor Doolittle, and, yes, the latter is genre. Rather loosely based off of Harry Harrison’s Make Room! Make Room! Novel, it starred Joseph Cotten, Chuck Connors, Charlton Heston, Brock Peters, Edward G. Robinson in his final film role, and Leigh Taylor-Young. 

The term soylent green is not in the novel though the term soylent steaks is. The title of the novel wasn’t used according to the studio on the grounds that it might have confused audiences into thinking it a big-screen version of Make Room for Daddy. Huh? It’s worth noting that Harrison was not involved at all in the film and indeed was was contractually denied control over the screenplay. No idea why he agreed to this but hopefully the money was good. 

So how was reception at the time? Definitely mixed though Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Tribune liked it: “Richard Fleischer’s ‘Soylent Green’ is a good, solid science-fiction movie, and a little more. It tells the story of New York in the year 2022, when the population has swollen to an unbelievable 80 million, and people live in the streets and line up for their rations of water and Soylent Green.” 

Other were less kind. A.H. Weiler of the New York Times summed it up this way: “We won’t reveal that ingredient but it must be noted that Richard Fleischer’s direction stresses action, not nuances of meaning or characterization. Mr. Robinson is pitiably natural as the realistic, sensitive oldster facing the futility of living in dying surroundings. But Mr. Heston is simply a rough cop chasing standard bad guys. Their 21st-century New York occasionally is frightening but it is rarely convincingly real.“

Audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes currently give it an excellent percent rating. 

It was nominated for a Hugo at DisCon II, the year Sleeper won.

(13) COMICS SECTION.

(14) BIG SQUEEZE. “Games Workshop Freezes Assets Amid Worldwide Seller Takedown” – Spikeybits has a long report about the litigation.

Games Workshop has initiated a worldwide Warhammer crackdown, suing 280 sellers, freezing accounts, and sales platforms.

If you’ve checked your favorite online marketplace lately and noticed a few listings mysteriously vanish, you’re not imagining things. Games Workshop just dropped the legal equivalent of an orbital bombardment—suing 280 sellers across the globe and freezing their assets in one sweeping move.

We’re talking shut-down stores, locked accounts, and some very panicked vendors. Some were clearly pushing counterfeit kits, while others got hit for less obvious reasons, like using the word Citadel in a brush holder listing. Let’s break down who got caught in the blast radius, why it matters, and what this means for the rest of us trying to hobby in peace….

(15) TRAILER PARK. Netflix is airing Old Guard 2.

Andy (Charlize Theron) and her team of immortal warriors are back, with a renewed sense of purpose in their mission to protect the world. With Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) still in exile after his betrayal, and Quynh (Veronica Ngô) out for revenge after escaping her underwater prison, Andy grapples with her newfound mortality as a mysterious threat emerges that could jeopardize everything she’s worked towards for thousands of years. Andy, Nile (KiKi Layne), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), Nicky (Luca Marinelli) and James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) enlist the help of Tuah (Henry Golding), an old friend who may provide the key to unlocking the mystery behind immortal existence. Directed by Victoria Mahoney, and also starring Uma Thurman, The Old Guard 2 is an emotional, adrenaline-pumping sequel, based on the world created by Greg Rucka and illustrator Leandro Fernandez.

[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Danny Sichel, Rich Lynch, Michael J. Walsh, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jack Lint.]

Pixel Scroll 10/17 The Fish Have Discovered Fire

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTZ3VAjHiS0

(1) A Tokyo department store is offering a $91,000 solid gold figure of the alien Baltan, a villainous monster from Japan’s superhero Ultraman TV series. The perfect accessory to go with the 2007 Hugo base, except none of the winners I know can write the check!

(2) Stephen Fabian, among the most gifted illustrators ever, and whose professional career was capped by multiple Hugo nominations and a World Fantasy Life Achievement Award (2006), has put his gallery online. StephenFabian.com contains 500 drawings and paintings that he did for fan and professional publications beginning in 1965. Fabian includes autobiographical comments about each drawing or painting. For example, appended to his notes on the drawing “Born to Exile”:

And the greater wonder of it is, for me, that every once in a while I receive a surprise gift from a fan in appreciation of my artwork. In this case a fan sent me a beautiful copper etching that he made of my drawing that you see here, and that etching hangs on the wall in my drawing room. Other surprise tokens of appreciation that I’ve received from fans are; a miniature spun glass ship, a knitted sweater with an artist’s palette worked into the chest area, a neatly carved wooden figure of a “Running Bear,” that came from a missionary preacher in New Zealand, a fantasy belt buckle, and a miniature paper-mache sculptured “gnome” that keeps watch over me. I cherish them all, they give form and reality to that wonderful feeling of appreciation that comes from the heart.

Stephen E Fabian Collection

(3) Enter a selfie by tomorrow for a chance to win a box of “Marshmallow Only Lucky Charms”.

General Mills announced the “unicorn of the cereal world,” Marshmallow Only Lucky Charms, is finally a reality — but there are only 10 boxes.

The cereal maker said the 10 boxes of Marshmallow Only Lucky Charms will be given out as prizes in the “Lucky Charms Lucky Selfie” contest, which calls on participants to post pictures of themselves holding “imaginary boxes of Lucky Charms” on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag, “#Lucky10Sweepstakes.”

Entries must be posted by Oct. 18, the company said.

(4) The Gollancz Festival ‘s “One Star Reviews” features Anna Caltabiano, Simon Morden, Sarah Pinborough, Joanne Harris, Brandon Sanderson, Aliette de Bodard, Richard Morgan, Bradley Beaulieu, and Catriona Ward on camera reading their most savage reviews.

(5) Then, Game of Scones is a Gollancz Cake Off with Jammy Lannister and fantasy authors AK Benedict, Edward Cox and Sarah Pinborough competing for the Iron Scone.

(6) Oneiros wrote:

I dream of the day that I’m libelled quoted by Mike on File770. Of course first I guess I’ll have to start a blog of some description.

I notice there is a lot of competition in the comments for the honor of being Santa Claus, but how many others can fix this up for you? While saving the internet from another blog? Merry Christmas!

(7) Mark Kelly journals about his Jonny Quest rewatch – a show that was a big favorite of mine as a kid.

So: the show is about Jonny Quest, his father Dr. Benton Quest, a world-renowned scientist, Quest’s pilot and bodyguard “Race” Bannon, and their ‘adopted son’ Hadji, an Indian boy who saved Dr. Quest’s life while visiting Calcutta. The episodes involve various investigations by Dr. Quest, who seems to have a new scientific specialty each week (sonic waves one week, lasers another, sea fish another, a rare mineral to support the space program on another) or who is challenged by alerts from old friends (a colleague who is captured by jungle natives) or threats from comic-book character Dr. Zin (via a robot spy, etc.)

(8) Accepting submissions – No Shit, There I Was —

Who We Are: Alliteration Ink is run by Steven Saus (member SFWA/HWA), focusing on anthologies and single-author collections, with over a dozen titles across two imprints.

Rachael Acks is a writer, geologist, and sharp-dressed sir. In addition to her steampunk novella series, she’s had short stories in Strange Horizons, Waylines, Daily Science Fiction, Penumbra, and more. She’s an active member of SFWA, the Northern Colorado Writer’s Workshop, and Codex.

Who: This will be an open call. All who read and follow the submission guidelines are welcome in the slush pile.

When: Rachael wants stories no later than 6 Jan 2016. No exceptions will be made. The Kickstarter will occur after the table of contents has been set.

What We Want From You:

Stories 2,000-7,500 words long. Query for anything shorter or longer.

All stories must begin with the line, No shit, there I was. It can be dialog or part of the regular prose.

(9) Childhood’s End starts December 14 on SyFy with a three-night event. Stars Charles Dance, recently of Game of Thrones.

John King Tarpinian says, “Hope they do not screw this up.”

I’m not completely reassured, because when I checked the SyFy Youtube channel today, this was the first video they were hyping —

(10) Today in History:

October 17, 1933: Physicist Albert Einstein arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

(11) Congratulations to frequent commenter Laura “Tegan” Gjovaag on her award-winning photo in the Better Newspaper Contest sponsored by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

DSN reporter Laura Gjovaag came away with the Sunnyside newspaper’s only first-place award. She won the top award in the black and white sports photo action, or feature, category. The photo of Lady Knight softball player Jenna den Hoed appeared in the May 20, 2014 issue, and beat out all entries in the category submitted by all four circulation groups.

(12) Ultimately, Sarah A. Hoyt’s “Magical Thought” is about a particular anti-gun protest in Texas involving dildos, but on the way to that topic she writes —

The problem is that more and more — and unexpectedly — I run up against this type of thought in places I don’t expect.

We ran into it a lot over the puppy stuff.  No matter how many times we told them we were in it for the stories, and because our story taste was different from theirs, they kept thinking magically.  It went something like this “We’re good people, and we’re for minorities.  So if these people don’t like the same stories we do, they must be racist and sexist.”

This was part of the nonsense that started Gallo’s flareup.  She had some idea we’d get all upset at TOR publishing Kameron Hurley’s book.  Because you know, we have different tastes than those primarily on the left who controlled the Hugos so long, so we don’t want them to … get published?

This only makes sense if the person saying it is inhabiting a magical world, where objects/people of certain valences are played against each other like some kind of card game.

This is not real.  I mean sad puppy supporters might not — or might, I won’t because it’s not to my taste, but — read Hurley’s book, but we won’t recoil from it like a vampire from a cross.  A Hurley book doesn’t magically cancel out a Torgersen book.  Or vice versa.

On the good side, at least on that level, our side doesn’t act like that.  We don’t say “ooh” at a new Ringo book because “Oooh, that will upset those liberals”  we say “oooh,” because we’ll get to read it.  Books are books and people are people, not points in some bizarre game.

(13) Umair Haque says he can explain “Why Twitter’s Dying (And What You Can Learn From It)”.

Here’s my tiny theory, in a word. Abuse. And further, I’m going to suggest in this short essay that abuse?—?not making money?—?is the great problem tech and media have. The problem of abuse is the greatest challenge the web faces today. It is greater than censorship, regulation, or (ugh) monetization. It is a problem of staggering magnitude and epic scale, and worse still, it is expensive: it is a problem that can’t be fixed with the cheap, simple fixes beloved by tech: patching up code, pushing out updates.

To explain, let me be clear what I mean by abuse. I don’t just mean the obvious: violent threats. I also mean the endless bickering, the predictable snark, the general atmosphere of little violences that permeate the social web…and the fact that the average person can’t do anything about it.

We once glorified Twitter as a great global town square, a shining agora where everyone could come together to converse. But I’ve never been to a town square where people can shove, push, taunt, bully, shout, harass, threaten, stalk, creep, and mob you…for eavesdropping on a conversation that they weren’t a part of…to alleviate their own existential rage…at their shattered dreams…and you can’t even call a cop. What does that particular social phenomenon sound like to you? Twitter could have been a town square. But now it’s more like a drunken, heaving mosh pit. And while there are people who love to dive into mosh pits, they’re probably not the audience you want to try to build a billion dollar publicly listed company that changes the world upon.

(14) “3+1” — A funny claymation short by Soline Fauconnier, Marie de Lapparent, and Alexandre Cluchet.

(15) “(Give Me That) Old-Time Socialist Utopia: How the Strugatsky brothers’ science fiction went from utopian to dystopian” by Ezra Glinter at The Paris Review.

Since they started writing in the mid-1950s, the brothers published at least twenty-six novels, in addition to stories, plays and a few works written individually. According to a 1967 poll, four of the top ten works of science fiction in the Soviet Union were by the Strugatskys, including Hard to Be a God in first place and Monday Begins on Saturday (1965) in second. For at least three decades they were the most popular science-fiction writers in Russia, and the most influential Russian science-fiction writers in the world.

Their popularity wasn’t without political implications, however. Later in their lives, the Strugatskys were characterized as dissidents—sly underminers of the Soviet regime. In its obituary for Boris, who died in 2012 (Arkady died in 1991), the New York Times called him a “prolific writer who used the genre of science fiction to voice criticisms of Soviet life that would have been unthinkable in other literary forms.” This is mostly true­—their work did become critical and subversive over time. But at the beginning of their career, the Strugatsky brothers were the best socialist utopians in the game.

(16) Todd Mason at Sweet Freedom discovered the 1963 LASFS Lovecraft panel:

Briefly, and in October it’s almost mandatory, particularly for a lifelong horrorist such as myself, to deal with something eldritch, but I’ve finally read the August Derleth-annotated transcript of a symposium recorded on 24 October 1963 at the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, a discussion of Lovecraft and his influence featuring a panel including Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, writer Arthur Jean Cox, Sam Russell, and Riverside Quarterly editor Leland Sapiro, along with some comments and questions from the audience. Given that Bloch and Leiber were both helped and influenced by Lovecraft early in their careers and were the two most important exemplars of how to take his model for approaching the matter of horror fiction and improving upon it, it’s useful, if not as comprehensive here as one could hope, to see how they thought about that influence and their respective takes on Lovecraft’s work and legacy. Bloch unsurprisingly seems most taken by the interior aspects of what Lovecraft was getting at in his best work, the questions of identity and madness and usurpation from within; Leiber, also not too surprisingly, is at least as engaged by the larger implications, philosophically and otherwise, of humanity’s not terribly secure foothold in Lovecraft’s universe. The notion that such non-fans of Lovecraft as Avram Davidson and Edmund Wilson had more in common with him than their experience of his work led them to believe is briefly if amusingly explored. Not as significant as some of Leiber and Bloch’s other considerations of Lovecraft, but useful to read, and one’s suspicions of what August Derleth made of what he was transcribing and annotating, particularly when it touches on his own involvement with Lovecraft’s body of work, are mildly telling.

Click the link for a copy of the symposium transcript [PDF, 24 MB file]

(17) Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur is due in theaters November 25.

(18) If you click through the newly released archive of Apollo photos quickly enough you get something like stop motion animation.

[Thanks to Will R., Andrew Porter, Harry Bell, Karl Lembke, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Peace Is My Middle Name.]