aka It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a sad puppy in possession of a published story must be in want of a Hugo
From rules wonk to rap filk, we have it all in today’s roundup courtesy of Adam-Troy Castro, Keith “Kilo” Watt, Jameson Quinn, Ian Mond, Kat Jones, Lis Carey, Joe Sherry, Reinder Dijkhuis, Brian Niemeier, Rebekah Golden, Lou Antonelli and Vox Day. (Title credit goes out to today’s File 770 contributing editors Kurt Busiek and Peace Is My Middle Name.)
Vox Day in e-mail – May 26
[How many GamerGaters were involved during the Hugo nominating phase? Vox Day says people overestimated in today’s comments.]
The GamerGate involvement in RP/SP through the nomination period is limited to two individuals, me and Daddy Warpig. We are both original GG (GG before Baldwin) and we are both Rabid Puppies.
There are a few GGers who have gotten involved post-nomination, but I don’t know how many. The RP are basically the Vile Faceless Minions plus a few Dread Ilk.
You may wish to note that there are more Vile Faceless Minions (366) than Rabid Puppy nominating votes. That’s because the extent of the Rabid Puppies campaign was a single blog post. Every Rabid Puppy is a VP reader. We didn’t need GG and we knew it, as you can confirm from our pre-shortlist discussions. There are some GGers buying supporting memberships. How many, I do not know.
Adam-Troy Castro on Facebook – May 26
Among the revelations in the “Return of Kings” blog post about how women in publishing are keeping true men writers down:
If you are a first-time writer and the acquiring editor decides that you’re an asshole — literally, if she is given reason to believe you’re an asshole who will be a pain to work with — she will likely make the decision to not buy your book.
This is represented as part of the shameful status quo that is keeping men down….
The other option is, of course, to not be an asshole, and is left unconsidered.
Keith “Kilo” Watt on Making Light
“E Pluribus Hugo: Out of Many, A Hugo” – May 26
In this thread we will hammer out the formal language of the proposal, any FAQs we wish to include, and strategize for the presentation at the business meeting itself. At this point, we’ll consider the system itself locked in, so we are really only looking at the language.
- RME instead of 6th place
- (1,1), (1,2), or (1,2,2) for ties in points
- Option 2a (if there is a tie for nominations, eliminate the one with fewer points; if there is a tie for both nominations and points, eliminate them both)
There is one more issue that is still up for debate: Should we explicitly empower the Hugo admins to use further tie breakers in the future if they decide it’s necessary? I’ve written the proposal and FAQ explanations assuming that we do, however, a case can be made for not worrying about giving them the power explicitly. We should settle that question here. I think that the way I’ve written the “empowerment” makes it okay to include it, but for myself, I don’t feel a strong need to. I’m definitely not opposed to it, however.
….19. Wasn’t this system just designed by Social Justice Warriors to block the Good Stuff? It is true that much of the discussion for this system occurred on Teresa and Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s “Making Light” discussion board, and it is also true that groups such as the Sad Puppies and the Rabid Puppies consider TNH and PNH to be The Enemy, and therefore completely biased and not to be trusted. Other than serving as occasional moderators, TNH and PNH had no real input in the discussions of the system, however. Those of us who worked on the system were very clear that our goal was not to keep the Sad/Rabid Puppies off of the Hugo ballot, and that any system which specifically targets any type of work is inherently wrong and unfair. One of the members of the group is a retired US Naval officer, a combat veteran, a certified Navy marksman, a Christian, and considers Robert Heinlein to be the greatest science fiction author who has ever lived. In short, he is exactly the Puppies’ demographic. But any slate, of any sort, be it a Sad Puppy or a Happy Kitten of Social Justice, breaks the Hugo Award because a small percentage of voters can effectively prevent any other work from appearing on the final ballot. This is a major flaw in the Hugo nomination system, and it is a flaw that must be fixed if the integrity of the award is to be maintained. Politics should play no role whatsoever in whether a work is Hugo-worthy or not.
Jameson Quinn in a comment on Making Light
Final update on the gofundme:
Fully funded, and beyond!
I’m truly in awe of the generosity this community has shown, both to me personally and to the cause of voting reform. Not only has the main campaign received $1440, beyond the goal of $1400; but I’ve also been offered a Sasquan attending membership, so in effect it’s actually $250 over the goal.
Ian Mond on The Hysterical Hamster
“Who Should Win The Hugo Award For Best Novel” – May 27
The Anderson in particular led me to question this whole notion purported by the Sad / Rabid Puppies that good SF has big ideas and entertains. Having read two examples of this sort of SF, both the KJA and Charles Gannon’s awful Nebula nominee, Trial by Fire (review forthcoming) I can only conclude that my idea of entertainment and big, high concept ideas lives in a very different Universe than what the Sad Puppies are aiming to promote. This isn’t snobbishness***** on my part, I just struggle to see the appeal of novels that are so poorly written.
But let’s get back to the point of this blog post:
Who Do I Want To See Win – I tossed and turned about this, but I’ve finally landed with The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette)
Who Do I Think Will Win – I might not have been so keen on the novel, but I believe that Ann Leckie will take home her second novel Hugo for Ancillary Sword.
Kat Jones on CiaraCat Sci-Fi Review
“Review: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison” – May 26
It’s an interesting slice of life, and I found myself caring about some of the characters. But for me, it wasn’t a compelling STORY.
Lis Carey on Lis Carey’s Library
This is the first pure fun I’ve had reading Hugo nominees this year, barring The Goblin Emperor, which I read prior to the announcement of the ballot.
Joe Sherry on Adventures In Reading
“Thoughts on the Hugo Award Nominees: Professional Artist” – May 26
There is a lot of quality art being produced by the 2015 nominees. Julie Dillon, last year’s winner for Professional Artist, continued to produce excellent work. Based on their work included in the Hugo Voter’s Packet, Greenwood, Pollack, and DouPonce have also produced good work. As a point of personal preference, Greenwood is my top choice here, but it was very close between Dillon and Greenwood. While referencing the Voter’s Packet is a touch unfair because unless you’re also a voter, you can’t see that work. Unfortunately, except for Dillon, none of the other nominees have work posted at the Hugo Eligible Artists tumblr (a great reference for both fan and pro work, by the way), but you should be able to browse the various websites I’ve linked above to get a feel for their work.
Reinder Dijkhuis on Obsession Du Jour
“Notes/first impressions: 3 Hugo-nominated graphic novels” – May 25
Above, I’ve dwelled on the flaws of the comics discussed a lot, and I would like to mention that I really did enjoy two of them and found things to enjoy in the third. They have flaws but they’re not disastrous ones. As the incompleteness problem is apparently par for the course for this category, I’ve decided to ignore this and give all works the benefit of the doubt on that score as far as award-worthiness is concerned. I have decided to vote all four above No Award for the Hugos, in, as it happens, the exact same order as I read and discussed them. My preliminary vote for the category, then, is
- Ms Marvel
- Sex Criminals
- Rat Queens
- Saga
- No Award.
Reinder Dijkhuis on Obsession Du Jour
“Notes/First Impressions: Zombie Nation by Carter Reid” – May 26
…. Everything about it looks copied from other comics. That includes the writing, which is based on just a small number of stale, sexist jokes and pop culture references that need to be retired. Who in their right minds nominated this?
https://twitter.com/RoguesClwydRhan/status/603300743957848064
Brian Niemeier on Superversive SF
“Transhuman and Subhuman Part VI: Swordplay in Space” – May 26
“Why is the preferred weapon of the Galactic Empire the sword?” John C. Wright tackles that question in the sixth part of his essay collection Transhuman and Subhuman.
Following the premise that a man’s attitude toward war and death reveals his outlook on life, Wright examines a selection of great science fiction books for the answer to why authors attempting to imagine the future so often employ archaic conventions.
Wright posits five basic views on war…
Rebekah Golden
“2015 Hugo Awards Best Movie: Reviewing Lego Movie” – May 26
I really liked the Lego Movie. I believe it has a lot more content to it than first glance would give it. It is interesting and has a good emotional punch as well as a significant number of fun moments.
Lou Antonelli on Facebook – May 26
On the way to Kansas City for ConQuest 46, I had to drive through Hugo, Oklahoma, so I stopped and took a selfie of me with the city sign, in celebration of my …two Hugo nominations.
Now, I know right now, some of you are thinking, “Hah! That’s as close to a Hugo as you will ever get, Antonelli!”
Lou Antonelli poses with sign outside Hugo, Oklahoma.
Vox Day on Vox Popoli
“You don’t like the medicine, Doctor?” – May 26
And because Public Enemy is always appropriate:
He book-reviewed, he S.J.W’d
Vile minions viewed his anti-Puppy feud
One-star the rating, listen to him double trouble
He signs in now he’s pushing for the lower level
Like crashing cars he’s out there stealing stars
From books he took without a single look.
Taking a toll ’cause his soul broke with the poll
From the revelation… of a Puppy Nation.
Now this is what I mean an anti-Puppy machine
If Hugo come out at all, he won’t come out clean
But look around here go the sound of the wrecking clown
Boom and pound when he put ’em down
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Oh dear god, Lou Antonelli is adorable. This is the down side of writing faceless reviews. It’s all nit pick nit pick and then you see the funny face behind the writing and think “oh dear god, I hope I didn’t hurt anybody’s feelings.”
Oh, today’s title and subtitle are the best yet, I think. Well done, Kurt and Peace.
Adam Troy Castro: “The other option is, of course, to not be an asshole, and is left unconsidered.”
Not be an asshole? OPPRESSION!!!
Congrats to Jameson Quinn, and here’s hoping E Pluribus Hugo gets some legs behind it.
To Lis Carey and everyone else reading Ms Marvel for the first time – Oh you’re in for a treat. Pay attention to the background, there’re a lot of jokes hidden in them. Hate the stupid watermark, but it’s Marvel/ Disney – I’m surprised and happy that they even gave it out.
Oh dear god, Lou Antonelli is adorable.
in my interactions with him, he’s been an asshole.
I don’t know if Daddy Warpig constitutes an individual, I’m pretty sure its just a bunch of goblins standing on each others shoulders in a trenchcoat.
Made my way through JCWs nominated work. That was something. Read A Single Samurai. It read like a caricature of samurai but it was fun. Maybe reading it after the JCW stuff made it more palatable. Totaled had a bit more substance to it though.
I’m eager to see what Lis Carey thinks of Saga, though it does have the problem of being the third book in a continuing story.
On GG/ Puppies:
As noted by Abi here, Larry Correia actively reached out to Nero/ Milo Yiannopoulos (a reasonably significant figure in GG) back in January. and got a signal boost amongst the GG community from him:
“Watch @voxday and @monsterhunter45 closely over the next few months http://monsterhunternation.com/2015/01/26/sad-puppies-3-the-ensaddening/ …”
Based on the comments fields in Brad, Larry and Day’s sites, there is quite a bit of crossover between Sad/Rabid Puppies and GGers (stronger in the Rabids obvs)
snowcrash: Why do you think Abi knows anywhere near as much about this as Vox does? Bearing in mind Vox’s ability to declare victory in a range of circumstances, why would he bother to deny that GG support was recruited for the nominating phase if he had done so?
And what does “quite a bit of crossover between Sad/Rabin Puppies and GGers” translate into as a number? And where does that number source to?
The most dubious part of this narrative you are insisting upon is the notion that a bunch of people who never heard of the Hugos before — GamerGaters — would buy memberships at $40 apiece to vote for a bunch of people and stories they also never heard of before. And that Vox Day would have to round up those people during the nominating phase because the readers of his own blog were not as interested in the outcome as these hypothetical strangers?
Now since the Hugo ballot was announced Daddy Warpig has been visible on Twitter trying to sift support for the Hugos. I come across his tweets daily when I’m researching the roundup. But to flip the cliche — this is now, that was then.
Why do you think Abi knows anywhere near as much about this as Vox does?
Because Vox always lies, sorry, rhetorics, and also, this was Larry “let you and him fight” Correia who first reached out to GamersGate. Vox Day is of course a huge arsehole and hence a good distraction from the crap Brad and Larry pulled and continue to pull. Just standing next to him makes them look slightly more reasonable, but why were they standing next to him in the first place?
Yes, yes, Beale is lying again. Wright is also a gamergater, as is Correia.
I think the reason that the GG narrative is so attractive is that their methodology and other features are so similar to the Puppies’. The insistence that this is all down to the SJWs, the rewriting of history, the non sequitur arguments, and so on.
Now, against that is the total lack of opsec the GGers have always shown. There’s nothing that the GGers do that they don’t talk about on their (not at all) sekrit fora, before, during and after any event. If the GGers were big in the Puppies, you’d expect a lot more boasting about it. Bad as the Puppies are, they seem to be marginally smarter as a group than the GGers.
@Aaron, but Antonelli looks like he might be a Lecturer on Gaseous Fishes at the Unseen University. (Note just because I say adorable doesn’t mean I’d want to be stuck in an elevator with him.)
Mike: I was mainly replying to the following line by Day: The GamerGate involvement in RP/SP through the nomination period is limited to two individuals, me and Daddy Warpig.
The comms between Larry and Milo show that there was other direct involvement as well.
If Day is stating that only him and DW were formally part of both GG and SP/RP – well, I don’t really get that as neither of those groups are formal associations. They’re more collections of like-minded individuals ,with wildly varying degrees of dogmatic adherence related to a particular area (gaming/ SF fandom)
If Day is claiming that only he and DW were GG/ Puppy crossovers at the point of the nomination phase, I’ll admit that I don’t find that to be a credible claim at all – from what I’ve seen, there’s *some* crossover jsut within Day’s own fandom. As to the numbers of this, I’ like Day have no ides, and I’ll amend the “quite a few” to “some” as such.
If the idea is that GGers who had no prior interest in fandom/ were taking part in the nomination aspect of it – I agree that it was unlikely at that point, and it strikes me as unlikely that someone would bother then. I see Milo’s signal boost aimed towards those GGers who were already SF fans (for given value of fans), but who probably didn’t paticipate in things like Worldcon/ Hugo
Subsequent to the ballot announcement (Anno Sh*t has Hit the Fan), there is certainly much more interest, to the point that it’s looking like GGers who are not SF fans (frex Tuomas) are regularly joining in the discussion.
Are they paying up and joining in for the voting? I dunno, and time will tell on that I guess.
I’m inclined to agree with Abi Sutherland’s comment here: https://file770.com/?p=22740&cpage=6#comment-269539 in that the problem is not whether GGers voted, the problem is that the Puppies tried to recruit a mob of doxxers at all.
Mike Glyer:
The most dubious part of this narrative you are insisting upon is the notion that a bunch of people who never heard of the Hugos before — GamerGaters — would buy memberships at $40 apiece to vote for a bunch of people and stories they also never heard of before.
I have no idea whether any significant number of GGers have bought memberships, but they are a group known to spend fairly large chunks of cash on console games, weaponising charity, and funding the projects of anyone who manages to convince GG that they oppose
Anita SarkeesianSJWs. Its not entirely implausible that they’d spend $40, although I think it would take a Best Video Game award for them to get involved in numbers.Mike:
Don’t find that dubious, as it wouldn’t be the first time gamergaters did a thing like that. They are quite known to send money to dubious projects. Just look at their sending of money to “The Sarkeesian Effect” and the kickstarter for Honey Badgers against Calgary Expo.
But Gamergate is a splittered movement. When reading KotakuInAction, it was obvious that some people was against Beale, others thought that it was a matter of cronyism. And still others liked the nominated books. So I would say that even if they courted GG, only some of the Gators were interested. There was never the large scale campaigning we’ve seen in other places.
Might come next year, though.
@Mike
What I actually said about GG participation in the Puppies is:
If Beale wants to say that there were only two of them, well, I’ll put as much faith in that as I do in anything he says. I suspect that there are more, simply in the sense that the similar zeitgeist among the two groups would lead to overlap in actual people attracted to them. But it’s also possible that such overlap did not specifically announce itself.
As I said,
Two is enough. Zero is enough. I’m judging the reaching-out, not how well it went.
Hampus Eckerman: So I would say that even if they courted GG, only some of the Gators were interested. There was never the large scale campaigning we’ve seen in other places. Might come next year, though.
Maybe… but after the nominations procedures change, they’ll get bored and go find something else that riggable.
Even a rat will stop pressing on the bar once enough time goes by without getting a hit.
Also, summer is coming and gamergate is loosing steam. They used to be above 50 000 tweets/retweets a day, are now down to 10-15 000. Maybe they will mobilize again after summer, but that is an unknown. Might come something totally different instead.
Abi: “I suspect that there was very little actual involvement of GamerGate participants who did not identify as SF/F readers before hearing about the Puppies.”
Up to now that’s what has made sense to me, for two reasons. Fans are very bad at keeping secrets. And several people who are invested in there being a link between GG and SP/RP have been out there looking for connections for months. The WSJ reporter was also interested in that question (it’s what he asked me about, and he asked others) and if he’d found that smoking gun I’m sure it would have been mentioned.
I tend to be more interested in is how actual votes have been delivered than in what names I’m allowed to call the voters because it might help me evaluate the range of reasons people have gotten involved and whether any rules changes will be effective in restoring democracy to the Hugo process.
The ongoing discussion of gamergate reminds me of something our adorable (except when he’s calling you a Nazi) fellow fan Lou Antonelli said a while back:
A self-professed Gamergater swallows his pride and decides to think for himself after meeting Brianna and Frank Wu at Ravencon. Very good video, and for what I can tell, spot on.
Mike: it might help me evaluate the range of reasons people have gotten involved and whether any rules changes will be effective in restoring democracy to the Hugo process.
The E Pluribus Hugo proposal would restore some semblance of democracy to the process. It doesn’t eliminate the effect of slates — it just mitigates the effects of a small minority being able to overwhelm the ballot as they did this year.
Under the proposed method, a slate would have to be a majority of voters to take all slots. And if that happens, then it has worked properly and is democracy, because they’re a majority.
Mike Glyer: The most dubious part of this narrative you are insisting upon is the notion that a bunch of people who never heard of the Hugos before — GamerGaters — would buy memberships at $40 apiece to vote for a bunch of people and stories they also never heard of before.
Ah, but GamerGaters had heard of Brianna Wu before. And then they heard that her husband had won Hugo awards. And then the Hugos became one more thing to hit Brianna Wu with.
Brian: The picture of Lou Antonelli on this post is the only impression of him I have so far. And based on that, he looks like a grumpy lawn gnome. So now I’m imagining Lawn Gnome Lou shaking his fist at people and calling them nazis.
Not sure if it’s adorably twee or not.
MickyFinn, maybe it is part adorably twee and part Godwinian Lawn Gnome.
Glenn Hauman: That’s just magical thinking. There are several steps you need to prove up to reach such a conclusion.
(1) GamerGaters knew Frank had won Hugos. (2) GamerGaters for some inexplicable reason think it would wound Frank now in 2015 for them to shut him out of an award he hasn’t been nominated for since 2009. (3) That actual GGers stated that was their motivation. (4) That any GGers in fact joined Sasquan for that reason.
I think the commenters here are generally intelligent, thoughtful people, and I would very much appreciate it if everyone could refrain from making remarks based on people’s physical appearance.
The Puppies have said and done plenty of things worthy of ridicule. There’s loads of fertile ground there for mockery, and no need to look farther afield for spurious reasons to mock.
As a member of The Gnomish Liberation Front, I find offense in the mere concept of lawn gnomes.
I think I’m about to upset the Gnomish Liberation Front…
https://rebekahgolden.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/adorable.png
Heinous!!
Mike Glyer: There are several steps you need to prove up to reach such a conclusion.
(1) GamerGaters knew Frank had won Hugos.
They did, from at least December of 2014, when they started vandalizing his Wikipedia page.
http://avalidpoint.tumblr.com/post/105461987320/an-open-letter-to-whoevers-messing-with-the
http://spacechannel6.com/post/109011637543/frank-wu-is-awesome-and-gamergate-should-leave
(2) GamerGaters for some inexplicable reason think it would wound Frank now in 2015 for them to shut him out of an award he hasn’t been nominated for since 2009.
We have SF authors who are trying to disrupt the Hugo Awards right now to stick it to other past winners. We have GamerGaters who have done lots of other inexplicable things to harass their targets. Surely this isn’t a stretch of imagination.
(3) and (4)? It’s 3 AM here, I’ll get to research later if someone hasn’t beaten me to it.
I believe Michael Z. Williamson, Sarah Hoyt and other Puppy eminences are GGers of some sort or other as well.
I’m at a loss for why VD says what he says but that’s nothing new, really.
I believe Michael Z. Williamson, Sarah Hoyt and other Puppy eminences are GGers of some sort or other as well.
Let me grab my sea-lion hat. When did Michael Z. Williamson and Sarah Hoyt join Gamergate?
Or maybe I’m sea-kaijuing.
“When did Michael Z. Williamson and Sarah Hoyt join Gamergate?”
I can’t find anything Hoyt has written to say she outrights *supports* GG, but at the same time, she is sociopathically indifferent to the harm it’s caused people:
“I mean, the worst PROVEN thing that happened to one of the SJW shills in gamergate was that someone wished she would kill herself, which she helpfully translated as “death threats.””
And perfectly happy to regurgitate the lie that it’s about ethics in gaming journalism:
“Besides, though I admittedly am not a gamer, I have skimmed enough articles to know that the problem here is not that WOMEN are writing anything, it is that there was suspicion of corruption in game journalism which happened to involve women. And also, as the catfight extended, that some gamers disliked a certain type of games they felt were getting unfair good reviews. Is that true? Don’t know. However, judging from the arguments the other side put out “games shouldn’t be fun” and “escapism is bad for you” I’d say whether journalists were corrupted by coochy or not, they’ve been corrupted by the same sort of “fake promise of prestige” that has seduced science fiction reviewers. In other words, they’ve become convinced of the rather juvenile idea that the purpose of entertainment (which is ultimately what science fiction and games are) shouldn’t be fun, but should be a lever for “changing society.””
http://accordingtohoyt.com/2015/02/14/a-game-of-mirrors/
I take this to mean that if the GGers were involved in the nomination process, she wouldn’t mind at all.
And Brian, please do not ask me to refine or dissect any of this. Not only does reading Hoyt give me hives, your approach to issues raised here does the same, unfortunately. I’ve done all the research on this I’m prepared to do without taking an antiemetic.
Brian Z on May 27, 2015 at 12:36 am said:
I believe Michael Z. Williamson, Sarah Hoyt and other Puppy eminences are GGers of some sort or other as well.
Let me grab my sea-lion hat. When did Michael Z. Williamson and Sarah Hoyt join Gamergate?
Or maybe I’m sea-kaijuing.
Google is your friend in this situation.
Brian Z: What is there to join? GG is not a formal association or group, and even as an informal collective, it’s even more decentralised than SP is.
What, to you, constitutes membership in GG?
An amusing part of VDs email (Still-Not-Commenting-Eh-Vox) is that he repeats his less than entirely accurate claim about being “original GG (GG before Baldwin)” which he’s been throwing around for a while. While Vox did throw up a post about Quinn quite early on, it was clearly only of interest to him on the “Here’s an uppity woman I can insult” front. His posts only started to claim leadership when it was clear GG was a movement to which he could beneficially hitch his wagon.
Ann Somerville, thank you.
Williamson claims to be shocked, shocked! at the idea that Gamergate was involved at all in the puppy bullshit, and also claims to have no idea what gamergate is
“Which is part of the problem. Did you notice NONE of the news articles about this talked to Brad or even Larry? They all went for the other side’s strawmen opinions, and tried to associate GamerGate (and I still have no idea what that actually is, since I don’t game at all. And no, please don’t explain).”
Comment at April 10 at 1:26pm here http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/item/no-matter-what-happens-the-hugos-are-doomed
I’m somewhat disinclined to believe he (a) has no idea what GG is since it’s been pretty much unmissable over the last year and (b) doesn’t know why it’s been associated with the slate making since he’s so chummy with the slate makers. But I am a nasty suspicious person about this kind of thing.
In the above comment, where Michael Z. refers to Gamergate and me, the person the quote is about is named Genesis Moss. I don’t want anyone to think I had any involvement in Gamergate. I attended Brianna Wu’s talk at RavenCon.because of my lack of knowledge. Mr. Moss was similarly impressed with her talk, and I had linked to his video.
If the Aaron above is who I think he is, I took exception to when, in a Twitter post, he called me, Brad Torgersen, Larry Corriea and John C. Wright “assholes” out of the blue, and I let him know it.
A while back, I quipped – after a brief but brutal online encounter with Deidre Sease Moen, who has a No Puppies page – I quipped that name apparently was Gaelic for “Not all the Nazis are in Germany.” That’s what led to the assertion that I called her a Nazi.
Which certainly sounds grumpy, I suppose. I think Rebekah’s grumpy gnome is hilarious!
Here’s a random thought. (Dangerous, I know). What is it with the prevalence of the chromedome (Mieville, Scalzi/ Beale -depending on how their MPB is progressing) vs Witness-my-glorious-beeeeaaararrrd! (GRRM, Antonelli, OGH) looks within male SF fandom? I noticed in comic books as well (Bendis, Vaughn, Busiek, David), but is it just a bit of false pattern recognition on my part or is the real reason insidious?
I guess Stross straddles both worlds…
Sad news, of more significance than the whole Slush Pile Puppy kookocracy and their worthless works:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/26/fantasy-and-horror-writer-tanith-lee-dies-aged-67
SIW, Mike posted an update earlier https://file770.com/?p=22751
Brian Z said:
Let me grab my sea-lion hat. When did Michael Z. Williamson and Sarah Hoyt join Gamergate?
I got that impression from Brad R. Torgersen’s blog post in which he wrote that “GamerGate (as a label) encompasses so many different people, parties, sides, etc., that I can only speak about the folks who’ve contacted myself, Michael Z. Williamson, Sarah A. Hoyt, etc.”
VD’s definition of GamerGater might be a bit more exclusionary, though.
spacefaringkitten:
When reading that quote, it seems like Torgersen is talking about gamergaters contacting Hoyt and Williamson, not of them themselves being gators. Hoyt however, seems to have sympathy for the gators on the pure merit of them using the expression “SJW”.
So I have now read:
The Parliament of the Birds and the Beasts: Well, if the puppies are making a stand for rip roaring adventure fiction and against messages then they’re doing it in a damned funny way. At first I thought the styling was quite interesting, but it dragged on and on.
A Single Samurai: Was OK. Not sure it was very much more than OK. Will probably get a place on my final ballot, but unlikely to be very high. I don’t really get the way people were mithering on about the first person perspective. They say that as you die your life flashes before your eyes?
Hoyt: “However, judging from the arguments the other side put out “games shouldn’t be fun” and “escapism is bad for you”
How completely over-the-edge does someone have to be, to make this sort of blatantly false argument with a straight face?
snowcrash: “What is it with the prevalence of the chromedome vs Witness-my-glorious-beeeeaaararrrd! looks within male SF fandom?… I guess Stross straddles both worlds…”
Recently I was doing a Google Image Search for something and stumbled across a photo of Stross with beard, mustache — and full afro. I sat there for a minute, blinking and bemused, then clicked “Next”.
I kinda side with Diedre Moen: If you go onto somebody’s page and snarkily declare that their name translates to something that refers to them as a Nazi, I think most rational people would have grounds to say you called them a Nazi.
Trying to play the game that you didn’t, really, except in a kinda sideways manner is akin to the kind of behaviour that I’m trying to get my 13 year-old son to stop doing. *He* has the excuse that he is ASD, and he is making progress breaking out from what seems to neurological wiring.
Generally, when a presumed socially-functional adult acts that way, it’s an indicator they are trying, unsuccessfully, to be a smarta*s.
@NickPheas,
Re: A Single Samurai. The ending (… and then I died…) was just the last of the things that made it not work for me. I could see the idea the writer had, but most of it didn’t make it onto the page & the bits that did I found muddled.
@JJ,
Re: Charles Stross. That was a while ago.
Akin to the description that has been bandied around of the main thrust for this debacle is that people are actually reading what the SP main-liners are writing, and confirming the suggestion that they can only get close to the Hugo awards by employing something different from writing talent, I suspect that if the self-declared libertarians were to actually be plunked down in their libertarian paradise they would be in for a rude awaking. I suspect they would also find out just how literally taxes would equal forcible armed theft.
(should I try for a longer sentence? I don’t want to be found wanting in the Wall-O-Text Olympic events.)