aka Slate Expectations
Today’s lightness comes from Katherine Tomlinson, amalythia, David Gerrold, Brad R. Torgersen, Cat Valente, Voss Foster, Andrew Knighton, Nick Mamatas, William Reichard, P. Llewellyn James, Cheryl Morgan, Bonnie McDaniel, Lisa J. Goldstein, Eemeli Aro, Kate Paulk, Pat Patterson, Tom Knighton, Dan Ammon, John Scalzi and Alexandra Erin. A couple of these are older items that seem to have been missed by earlier roundups. (Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editors of the day Kary English and Daniel P. Dern.)
Katherine Tomlinson on Kattomic Energy
“Hullabaloo over the Hugos” – May 3
When I first heard about the gaming of the system, it was disappointing but I spent decades in L.A. where gaming the system at awards time is a fine art. (Remember how many people were shocked, SHOCKED that Pia Zadora got a Golden Globe Award?)
But I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy. I write it now. And the stories I write and the characters I create reflect the world I live in. Complicated. Diverse. And women do more than open hailing frequencies and get rescued from towers.
The idea that there are writers out there who are trying to hijack two entire genres of writing to advance their political agenda is just not tolerable. I’m not a member of the WSFS but even so, I have skin in the game. Because I love these genres. And it is a delight to discover writers whose work inspires me. And entertains me. Call me a “pissypants” if you like (see above Slate article) but what that cabal of writers did will NEVER be okay for me. And it wouldn’t be okay if they’d had a liberal, left-leaning agenda either.
Hugo awards are the work of those who claim to know the truth and painting highly editorialized views as "news."
— Markov Kern (@sealion_ebooks) May 7, 2015
amalythia on Medium
“I Do Not Wish to Offend – Short Story” – May 6
[amalythia has written a story in response to Kameron Hurley’s short story “It’s About Ethics in Revolution”.]
There is a large bell in the center of town that used to ring every morning. But then the Minister’s daughter complained that the noise triggered her, by waking her up from her sleep. It doesn’t ring anymore. Instead we’re awoken by a phone call from our manager. My roommate sleeps right through it. I heard her mumble something about not coming in. Again. Ever since our last manager seemed to disappear overnight, when she threatened to fire her for incompetence, no one dares question her. I wear my tag: 0678. I think I had a name at some point, perhaps the one inscribed on the pendant my mother left for me. They don’t allow names anymore, as certain names might offend some people. I wouldn’t want to offend them.
David Gerrold on Facebook – May 7
… Second, after we reaffirm our commitment to inclusiveness, we need to consider whether or not the Hugo nominating rules need to be adjusted. I believe that the administrators of the award should have the power to disqualify slate-ballots, but the mechanisms for this might be controversial. (It should be possible to do a computer analysis of the balloting. If 25 or more ballots come in with identical nominees in every category, and they match a publicized slate…that could be considered compelling evidence.) Other proposals have been offered as well, and I expect there to be some vigorous discussion…..
But the point I’m working toward is a difficult one — it’s a conversation that we tend to shy away from. But any functioning community, does have the right to protect itself from disruptive agencies. Groups can and do disinvite those who spoil the party.
The SFWA expelled Vox Day for his unprofessional behavior. Fandom as a community, and the Worldcon as an institution, should have the same power to invite someone to the egress. Other conventions have taken steps to protect themselves from toxic and disruptive individuals — and based on the back-and-forth conversations I’ve seen, and as unpleasant a discussion as this will be, maybe it’s time to have a discussion about the mechanisms for shutting down someone who has publicly declared his intention to destroy the awards.
That’s the point. We cannot talk about healing while the knife is still being twisted in the wound. I can’t speak for the sad puppies, I can’t tell them what to do — but I would hope that they would recognize that being perceived as standing next to a man who wants to destroy the system is not the best place to stand. Despite what’s being said in their own echo chambers, the larger narrative isn’t a good one for the puppies.
Brad R. Torgersen in a comment to David Gerrold – May 7
Thing is, no matter how much “daylight” Larry and I put between ourselves and Vox Day, there are people on “your” side, David, who insist that it’s all the same thing. That there is no difference at all.
For five weeks, Larry and myself have had to hear it (from “your” side) about how awful we are.
We invited everyone to the democracy, and we have been awfulized for it. The SP3 voters have been awfulized. Awfulization has been the fad sport of the season. By people who pat themselves on the back for being “inclusive.”
As long as Fandom (caps f) insists on doing “sniff tests” about voters and fans (small f) being the “wrong kind” of people, there won’t be healing. Definitely not. This is the wound Fandom (caps f) has inflicted on itself, after decades of quiet exclusivity. Of telling authors and artists and fans (small f) they’re not the expected, or correct, or sufficiently “fannish” kind of people that Fandom (caps f) deems worthy.
This is why so many fans and professionals *avoid* Worldcon. WSFS. The Hugos. Etc. Because the “sniff test” is very glaring, and if the engineers of “inclusive” exclusivity (they know who they are) succeed in making it so that the poll tax (membership fee) is exorbitant, or that only attending members get to vote on the Hugo, or that the democracy is scuttled altogether (judges “your” side picks, always make sure “your” side gets the answers it wants) then Worldcon gets that much smaller, that much more exclusive, that much less relevant.
Vox Day is a side show. A red herring. Don’t water that weed.
What is Worldcon doing to prove that it is, in fact, WORLDCON? Because any given Comic Con, Dragoncon, et al., beats the pants off Worldcon, in terms of audience youth, audience enthusiasm, and connection to the broader SF/F realm.
To paraphrase a line from one of my favorite films, this isn’t the field you built in your garage anymore.
You can’t arrest Vox Day. You can’t turn off his blog. You can’t touch him. So why fixate on him endlessly?
If Worldcon begins to boast memberships on the order of 30,000 to 55,000 then Vox Day and his influence cease to exist. There is no bloc that can hope to survive those numbers.
So, go big.
Or stay small, and shutter the windows and doors.
One of those choices has a future. The other does not.
Cat Valente in a comment on File 770 – May 7
Tintinaus: Regardless of what Dave Freer thinks of me–a writer I barely know who misquotes me at every turn and who, when we met, replied monosyllabically to my friendly overtures while looking like he wanted nothing more than for me to leave, only to go online four years later and claim to know a whole lot about my thoughts and feelings–it makes me sad (AS SAD AS A PUPPY) to hear my SF work once again dismissed as “gussied up” fantasy.
Essentially nothing SFnal I write gets classified as SF. It can take place on other planets, concern itself with science and technology, even have ray guns, and it somehow always gets dismissed with a wave of the hand and an assurance that it’s “just” fantasy. I can think of a lot of science fiction authors with much less hard science than I’ve used in my stories who are never questioned as to which side of the genre they write on. I am genuinely curious whether it’s because I use that pretty language, that I’ve written more fantasy than SF–or maybe my science really is that bad. Or maybe it’s that “hard” SF gets written by men, and the whole conversation is incredibly gendered.
Thing is, I’ve never claimed to write hard SF. I didn’t want to write SF at all for a long time because I was convinced the science fiction community did not want me and would not accept me–funny how that’s still kind of true. I can write about programming and physics till I’m blue in the face but it’ll never be SF for some reason.
And what I said, what I have said over and over at conventions, is that you don’t need a background in math and science to write SF. That’s what research is for. I research like a bear and I would think anyone who’s read my books would laugh at the idea that I think everyone should be ignorant and uneducated–I mostly get called a pretentious, elitist asshole, not a champion of dumbing down. I was trying, as I always do, to assure young writers that they are allowed to write SF even if they don’t have a degree in physics, because I don’t know if people realize how intimidating it can be to even attempt science fiction with a lot of people yelling about getting off their lawn if you’ve never interned for NASA. Or are a dude.
I do not have a science background. I research and I research hard because it’s more difficult for me than folklore and myth, which I’ve studied all my life. But I maintain it’s absurd to say SF can only be written by scientists–absurd and elitist and exclusionary. And honestly, show me the diamond-hard science in the Puppy slate. Show me the PhD peeking out from behind the dust jacket. The kind of SF they advocate, with the buxom ray guns and the strapping spaceships, is NOT hard SF. It’s adventure fiction “gussied up” as science fiction. And that’s fine, but it has no more real science than my gussied up fantasy.
Voss Foster on Demon Hunting & Tenth Dimensional Physics
“I Will Walk With You” – May 6
Now, I’m not a shodan in Aikido (in 4th grade, I had a white belt in karate…), and I don’t have the same presence as Vonda McIntyre. I also hate wearing those badge ribbons. One or two is my max. But I’m 5’10”, and close to 300 pounds (and dropping, yay me!), and I generally look intimidating. But even if I didn’t, like she said, it’s a presence, it’s someone by your side. And I will do that, and happily so. If you feel like you need someone, whatever side of the issue you fall on, I will walk with you.
Andrew Knighton
“Change, Reaction and Pain – Coping With Cultural Backlash” – April 29
I love that the world is changing. I love the variety that brings and the novelty it creates within our culture, even as the dark fingers of uncertainty send tremors of fear through my body.
Unfortunately, fear of change is currently rearing its big, ugly head all over geek culture.
The most prominent and hideous example of this is the treatment of feminists in computer gaming. There are some great designers and critics out there critiquing the domination of gaming by white, straight, male gamers and characters, and the way this excludes others. This has triggered a huge backlash, in which people have been called the vilest names and even had their lives threatened for expressing their opinions on a medium they love.
Then there’s the fuss, for the second year in a row, around science fiction and fantasy’s Hugo awards. I think there are a lot of problems with the Hugos, but they’re certainly high profile within the core of sf+f. This year, a reactionary group have managed to dominate the nominations with a slate of conservative, white, male authors. It’s a shame, but it is at least getting people engaged with the awards, and may favour the pro-diversity arguments in the long run.
Nick Mamatas in a comment on Ask.fm – May 7
Screw real politics, what about the hugo’s? Torgersen write anymore slash or did Correia just cry for like the twentieth time about how life is unfair and everyone was so mean to him at worldcon?
Brad made a mildly homophobic remark regarding Scalzi, which half the planet had to blog about because it was just soooo awful and apparently now the US will fall to ISIS because how can Brad’s soldiers trust him now?
Anyway, under Sharia law, launching politicized slates for the Hugos is barred, so I guess the problem has solved itself!
William Reichard
“Cry ethics and let slip the puppies of war” – May 7
In which I am called a liar, though perhaps not in a way that’s literally, dialectically true but is actually more true because it lets me see the truth, which is that I am lying. Maybe. Or something.
William Reichard
“The day I got mentioned on Vox Day’s blog” – May 7
His Voxness mentions me in what may be some kind of compliment, though it may also translate as “you are fairly amusing…for a slave boy with inherently limited mental capacities and basic worth.” But hey, us Rhetoricals take what we can get, right? I know from long experience that my flame-retardant suit is far too flimsy to sustain me in any battle with the mighty forces arrayed off my port bow and preparing to decloak at any sign of hostile intent, so my only hope is to position myself as a jester, dancing merrily on the sidelines and dodging the occasional peach pit. So, hopefully, everyone’s still laughing. Ergo…where was I again?
P. Llewellyn James on The Refuge
“Hugo : ‘Skin Game’ the Best Novel?” – May 6
There are five books nominated for Best Novel for the 2105 Hugo awards. The winner will be chosen by a few thousand votes from among those who have registered as a member of WorldCon. But what does the wider audience of readers think of the books? Here are some Amazon statistics as of today May 6th. Voting closes on July 31st.
I’m using two measures – the overall sales rank, and my own invented ‘approval rating’, or calculation of positive to negative reviews ((5star + 4star)/(2star + 1star))….
Predictions
The overwhelming favorite on the basis of its approval rating is Skin Game, which is also the second-best seller in Kindle format.
The best-selling book in Kindle format is Lines of Departure, and it has the second-best approval rating.
Cheryl Morgan
“A Little Awards News” – May 7
Also yesterday the Arthur C. Clarke Award continued its journey away from science fiction and towards literary respectability. This year the award went to a beautifully written piece of sentimental twaddle aimed at the sort of pretentious hipsters who think that suffering an apocalypse means being unable to have iPhones, Sunday supplements and skinny flat lattes. It is a very long time since a book without a trans character made me as viscerally angry as Station 11 did. However, I don’t appear to have sent any death threats to the Clarke jury. Nor have I vowed to destroy the award, or even decided that it is “broken”. In fact I rather suspect that the Clarke will do better next year without any help from me. Clearly I am doing this social media thing all wrong.
Then again, I am confident that the winner of this year’s Hugos will be a far better science fiction novel than the winner of the Clarke.
Adult Onset Atheist
“SNARL: Flow” – May 6
This is a review of “Flow” by Arlan Andrews, Sr. (Analog, November 2014)
Overall this was an engaging novella. This is such a grand departure from the other four nominees that I will have awarded this story five whole stars (out of 10) by the time I have done reviewing it. I am sure it would have not scored as well if the competition was not so utterly dreadful.
Bonnie McDaniel on Red Headed Femme
“The Hugo project: ‘Totaled’” – April 30
The Hugo Project: “Totaled”
(Note: this is the newest in a series of posts wherein I review as many of the 2015 Hugo nominees as I can, and explain why I will or will not vote for them.) Hot damn. I finally stumbled upon a decent story. Actually, this story is pretty good, even if its premise is downright terrifying.
Lisa J. Goldstein on theinferior4
“The Hugo Ballot, Part 4: Short Stories” – May 6
“On a Spiritual Plain” by Lou Antonelli takes place on a planet where “the living and the spirits of the dead coexist side by side” for the sentient race there, the Ymilans. One day a human, Joe McDonald, dies on Ymilas, and then manifests in spirit form. The human chaplain learns from the Ymilan chief cleric that Joe’s soul has to make a pilgrimage to the north pole so it can “move on,” and so the three of them — the chaplain, the Ymilan, and Joe’s ghost — set off from the Terran base near the equator.
I would have liked more description of the Ymilans — all we’re told about them is that they’re “large.” I would have also liked more description of the trek across half the planet, but we see only electrical storms, and, towards the end, “diminishing hills.” I would have liked some sense of ceremony or ritual when the soul dissipates, but here Antonelli seems to have anticipated readers like me, because he has the Ymilan cleric say, “I’m sorry, I forget your people put a great deal of stock in theater and rituals, which is to be expected in such an immature race.” Okay, then.
Eemeli Aro in a comment on Charles Stross’ Antipope – April 5
[Comments about Worldcon site selection seemed tangential when I started doing these roundups, but after T.C. McCarthy’s tweet and the ensuing discussion here, I am going to link to this so I know where to find the quote in the future.]
Eemeli Aro: This is what I posted about Castalia House on a mailing list earlier today (for context, I’m chairing the Helsinki in 2017 Worldcon bid and somewhat involved in both Finnish and Worldcon fandoms):
I’d like to note that Castalia House has practically no connection with Finnish sf fandom, and they have never had a presence at any Finnish con. The only communication with the proprietor (Markku Koponen) that I’ve been a party to is a post by him to a Finnish sf mailing list last April, where he states (translating), “As must be clear to most, Castalia House is ideologically opposed to the majority of practically all fannish groups in this country.”
So in brief, no, the Finns that are members of Sasquan on account of having participated in the 2015 site selection vote or that have purchased a membership since then to participate in said process this year are unlikely to be aligned with the supporters of works published by Castalia House.
We do, on the other hand, have a thriving small press and short story scene, and a rather unique fanzine tradition, all of which is well integrated with Finnish fandom at large. Of course that’s mostly hidden from American eyes, as it tends to produce content in Finnish. If you’re interested in such, though, we do have a few things coming out this spring and summer that will be in English.
Kate Paulk on Mad Genius Club
“A Mad Genius Goes To RavenCon – Part the Final” – May 7
With a mere hour remaining ere her final panel of the day, Kate the Impaler did rest for a time, whereupon a member of that most secret guild of SMOF did approach her and divulge that the campaign to end the sorrow of young canines was indeed sending waves of shock through the grand halls of fandom, and how in response some sought to wrest that jewel of fandom, the Convention of World, from any locale where the friends of sorrowful young canines might gather, and take it to a far distant place that in isolation they might gather in force and thereby bring about changes to the Rules of Hugo, thus condemning the young canines to eternal sorrow. (For those not inclined to translate: read up on the contenders for the 2017 Worldcon, pay your $40 and vote. You’ll be a supporting member for 2017 before the price rise kicks in, and you get to choose where it is. Vote for the best candidate. Ignore that I like Washington, DC as a venue. I only like it because it’s the only one I could drive to).
The warrior maiden did assure the SMOF that voting would indeed be encouraged, and promised that no secrets would be divulged, for yea, as the house of fandom is divided, so too is the secret guild of SMOF.
Schlock Magazine
“Pop Culture Destruction – Forgive Me, For I Have Failed To Destroy Pop Culture” – May 7
If you’ve been following any goings on in the world of genre/science fiction literature you’ve surely heard of last month’s controversy surrounding the Hugo Awards, which got hijacked by literal fascists in the name of promoting what amounts to little more than right wing propaganda. And that’s before internet scum collective GamerGate got involved. In any case, writer Philip Sandifer has this excellent roundup of the sorry debacle on his blog, to which I can only add that, at this point, the Hugos can only fixed with the application of a bullet to the head.
Pat Patterson on Papa Pat Rambles
“Laura Mixon Gets It Right” – May 4
Again: if you have not read Laura’s report, do so. I do not know whether she will win the Hugo in the “Best Fan Writer” or not; she is competing against four other respected fan writers, three of whom I consider to be personal friends. I plan to vote for Nunaya Bidness, but if I were on the slate against her, I would consider that to be an honor-by-association.
Tom Knighton
“Woman wants to ban men at literary readings, a fisking” – May 6
I’m sorry, but you can’t claim on one hand that women are self-censoring from raising their hands, and then say it’s not their fault that they’re not raising their hands. Women aren’t punished for asking questions as adults.
She claims that the moderators don’t notice them, but you know who moderators are far more likely to notice? People raising their damn hands, for one! Yes, I know they skipped over Livingston, and while she wasn’t their target, they really couldn’t know that, but how prevalent is the situation? Honestly, maybe it’s just personal. If these are the same folks, maybe they just don’t like her for some reason?
Dan Ammon on The Shield
”Why and How The Hugo Awards Should Be” – April 18
But that doesn’t matter. What matters here are the fact that sci-fi books aren’t being judged on their merit, but their politics. So here’s how I propose to fix that:
A) THE NEUTRAL BENIGN COMMITTEE
What I propose is an apolitical committee that votes on which books, comics, scripts, short stories, etc, should receive nominations to the awards, based on their merit. How would this come into existence? Simply by finding the most apathetic people alive, have the Hugo voters, lefty and righty alike, deliberate and nominate them, then subject these nominees to a lie detector test to make sure they are actually apolitical, and not being paid off by either side.
I LIKE MY COFFEE LIKE I LIKE MY MEN — wait, I don't like men.
(throws out coffee)
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) May 6, 2015
Alexandra Erin on Blue Author Is About To Write
“Sad Puppies Review Books: GREEN EGGS AND HAM” – May 7
Sadly much like 1984 this book ends with the protagonist giving in before the onslaught. He does love Big Brother. He does like green eggs and ham. He will eat them with the fox. In a perverse mockery of holy communion, he will eat them with the goat (like Pan or Baphomet, or other guises worn by Satan). This is preparing our children to have not just their food supplies controlled but also their minds and very souls.
A child indoctrinated by this book is not only trained to give in to the illegitimate application of government authority but is also primed to use these techniques to convince others. Unless your children are strong-willed and well-trained to recognize these tricks and traps I recommend keeping this book the hell away from them.
If you have raised your children right as I have done with mine then your best bet is to take a hands-on approach. I read this book to my children, taking care to explain the subtle SJW traps that were on every page. I am pleased to report that they showed no interest in it afterwards.
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
Kate Paulk seems here to have taken TC McCarthy’s ball and run with it a hell of a lot further, suggesting that the Helsinki 2017 bid has anti-Puppy motivations.
I don’t think Helsinki has any ideological anti-Puppy motivations, but the Puppies do seem to be appealing to a very specific American demographic.
Feists “Magician” was based on an AD&D campaign, if I remember correctly, and it was great fun. Could well have been worth a nomination.
I enjoyed it a lot more until I realised that it wasn’t just an AD&D campaign, but it was quite specifically ‘In which The Empire of the Petal Throne invades Greyhawk’
Vivien:”Stockholm syndrom in the course of reading the “Wheel of Time”, ”
But it got better! ::plaintively cries::
Brad Torgersen wrote “For five weeks Larry and myself (sic) have had to hear from your side how awful we are.”
Um, Brad, the rest of us have been hearing from Larry how awful we are for two years. This is typical of Puppies, of course; anything they say about nonPuppies is okay; any response to them that falls short of enthusiastic foot-kissing is proof that they are badly treated.
I suspect this is how “people were mean” to Larry at Worldcon; an unconscionable failure in the enthusiastic foot-kissing department.
“We invited everyone to the democracy and we have been awfulized for it”
By now it’s really hard to imagine that you don’t know that encouraging people–yes, even far-right conservatives—to vote in the Hugos was never the problem. You have certainly seen it pointed out, many, many times by many people, that it was the slate that was the problem.
“Vox Day is a sideshow. A red herring. Don’t water that weed.”
What a shame you didn’t realize that last year, and take it up with your friend Larry. Who, you know, put Vox Day on the SP2 slate, got him a Hugo nomination, and gave him his first proof-of-concept demonstration for slates. Why are you telling *us* not to water that weed?
As for “sniff tests” you mean like assuming that any woman or minority who wins an award is an “affirmative action” pick? That kind of “sniff test”? Or do you mean ceaselessly searching for communism under every freaking rock? That kind of “sniff test”?
Or is your problem really that you wanted to slate the Hugos, and you wanted to make everyone really angry, but at the same time you wanted everyone (who is not on your side, at least) to have to make nice about it and not say anything? I guess you can get away with that kind of thing in the military, right? People with rank lower than yours have to smile and suck it up when you are awful to them.
But it doesn’t seem to be working on fandom.
Vivien, I think that’s a pretty good analysis of the GR/Amazon ratings thing. Kudos
“I don’t think Helsinki has any ideological anti-Puppy motivations, but the Puppies do seem to be appealing to a very specific American demographic.”
No. There are Puppies everywhere from Indonesia and China to Brazil and Finland. Look at how many language translations Castalia House features. We are considerably more international in orientation than the Worldcon community.
The reason some people are concerned about Helsinki is that a small group within Worldcon is planning to make use of the fact that their expected opposition within Worldcon is less likely to be present there so they can ratify some rules or whatever.
I don’t pay any attention to Worldcon politics, so I don’t care one way or the other. I tend to favor Helsinki myself. But there are pro-Puppies in Worldcon who keep me informed of these things.
“I listed some criticisms that are readibly available in Amazon reviews. … People here at file770 have been demanding for days to hear which works are trash. So yes, in my sleep deprived state, I went to Amazon to look at the crappy reviews and abbreviated them.”
What a perfect encapsulation of the Puppies campaign. You’re certain that the Hugo winners we have chosen in recent years are not deserving, but since you didn’t read any of those books yourself, you skim a few negative user reviews on Amazon and pass those sentiments along.
You have a lot invested in disliking books you’ve never read. Maybe your time would be better spent reading Hugo-nominated works from recent years instead of parroting other opinions as your own.
What’s the over/under on how long it takes before we start reading about the slate being put forth in File 770 for 2016?
The Amazon rating thing (I don’t use GR) does show up some regional variation. The only John Ringo book I have ever read anything of the The Last Centurion, but I gave up after relentless chapters of ultra right wing talking head.
On the (4+5)/(1+2) rating scheme Amazon.com gives it a score of 1.79, not great, but not awful. Amazon.co.uk on the other hand produces 0.15.
Redshirts on the other hand (to pick the most eeevil and despicable book I could think of) comes out at 4.07 and 4.00 respectively.
Which says something, but exactly what remains tbc.
Jack Lint – What? No. This is mine! You can’t have it! Nominate someone else! *kicks over a sand castle*
The empirical evidence shows that Vox Day and the Rabid Puppies are not the side show they are the entire three ring circus! Not also did the Rabid Puppy slate fair better then the Sad Puppy slate, but in every category where they went up against each other the Rabid Puppies won. That means that the non-Rabid Puppies represent the minority of the Puppy nominators. If you look at the discussion on twitter and the comment sections of blogs the loudest and most numerous voices are those who support Vox Day and the Rabid Puppies. I am certain that was not Brad and Larry’s intent, but that is the facts such as they are. Maybe the Sad Puppies can appeal to their voters and represent a larger number of final voters then their Rabid litter mates. I wish them the best with that. Even if they do, it doesn’t change the fact that the nominees were dictated by the Rabid Puppies nor does it diminish the control that represents.
Speaking of John Ringo’s The Last Centurion, I found this quote is in the second review that comes up when I look at the book in Goodreads:
“Admitting loving this book is like slapping a scarlet “C” on your chest and bellowing into the grand canyon, “I AM A CONSERVATIVE.””
I just want to note that Mike Glyer’s FAILURE to post a puppy update at its normal time yesterday really screwed up my day.
I’m beginning to think that there’s a conspiracy going on. Surely Mike has to know that puppy shenanigans have become addictive and that it is necessary to all addict’s well-being and proper maintenance to be able to obtain their fix on a reliable schedule. And a full boot-up, not that little ‘taste’ thing he offered us halfway thru the day.
(The “jonesing” yesterday was horrible! Horrible in the extreme! I started shaking, got cold sweats, started thinking that the cabal was somehow spiking my internet feed; thought about going back to cigarettes to calm my nerves; I even started looking under the couch and into other dark places to see if puppy-trolls were hiding there. Fortunately I wasn’t so bad off that I actually saw some….)
It’s quite obvious to me at this point that Mike is trying to corner the market on puppy-related info – and this will not stand!
No one should be allowed to control the supply of puppy-info – certainly not someone with strong ties to SMOFs – and by association obvious strong ties to the Worldcon Cabal. Such a monopoly does not reflect the best practices of the free-market economy!
I mean, his affiliations are pretty obvious once you understand that File 770 was originally a PAPER FANZINE! Talk about not caring about sales and commercial success and gathering up Amazon four star reviews! Add to that the huge number of Hugo wins and nominations he’s gotten over the years and I think it ought to be as plain as the mote in god’s eye that File 770 is a creature of the cabal – maybe even a LEADER – and is probably responsible for this whole mess to begin with.
And we let him bring us the news?
People, wake up. It’s time to take control of File 770 away from Mike – or at least get equal time for other blogs that might want to offer a competing product. (Which would be largely pointless since File 770 throws so much weight around).
Puppies aren’t the conspiracy. File 770 is! If Mike wasn’t trying so hard to be fair and balanced, we might actually be able to hear from only one side! Things would be far less confusing. And a lot less explaining would have to be done. Who likes to have to think when they can have their opinions written for them by someone else!?
We need to take a vote or something. We need to express our dissatisfaction by doing something pointless, largely ineffectual and extremely annoying. How about a campaign to ban File 770 from the internet – until such time as it only presents one view – the one we agree with (after being told what to agree with)?
Or maybe a petition to ICANN. That might work. Dear Icann Board; the website File 770.com is publishing stuff that not everyone agrees with. Furthermore, the daily news roundups are not always published at the same time or the same length; frequently they do not include an exact 50/50 split of opposing viewpoints (please tell the FCC to look into that); sometimes readers can’t even tell what some of the poster’s are trying to say. This is a gross violation of the Freedom of Speech because some speech is apparently more logical than others. Further, the publisher hardly ever lets us know what he thinks about the things he publishes – and we NEED people to take a firm position on one side or the other so we can figure out who to troll, doxx and swat. By allowing File 770 to continue to publish on the web you are violating our god-given and constitutional right to the free expression of doxxing!!! (And no, we don’t care whether the constitution applies to international law or not cause it should!) And other stuff we don’t like. Sincerely, the Internet.
Or maybe we should file a court case, hand-written by an ambassador from god, demanding to know whether File 770 is committing a sin or not. (I know just the person to write it) (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nebraska-woman-sues-all-homosexuals-liers-thieves-n354301).
But regardless. This must stop! I need my fix. I need my fix to be full strength, all the time, on time. Otherwise, File 770 and its ringleader, the multiple Hugo Winning Fanzine Publisher Mike Glyer is gonna find out – real soon – just what a puppy-junky is capable of!
rcade – ‘What a perfect encapsulation of the Puppies campaign.’
I’m beginning to think Alexandra Erin’s mock Sad Puppy reviews are inherently flawed in that the ‘reviewer’ discusses their own opinions of the book instead of putting forth another person’s opinion on it.
‘I’m beginning to think Alexandra Erin’s mock Sad Puppy reviews are inherently flawed in that the ‘reviewer’ discusses their own opinions of the book instead of putting forth another person’s opinion on it.’
Zing.
@Snowcrash “But it got better !”
I know. It was a very bad Stockholm syndrom. I read until the end :-).
No offense meant to Robert Jordan, but I really think Brandon Sanderson saved the serie. I was impressed by how he pushed up the pace again and managed to deal with all the loose threads which started to look like Medusa’s hair by the time. I a m yet to read anythig he wrote in a universe he created, but I am eager.
To be honest, I owe several things to the “Wheel of Time”. It was the serie that made me switch to english for my F&SF reading, and that change *a lot* of things in terms of works accessible to me.
And I was so traumautized I tried to read more short fiction through “Best of the Year” and the likes, and I am still prodigiously enjoying that :-).
@alexvdl
Thanks!
That’s a fair point. I’ll try to make some of the future reviews a little more true to reality.
I’ll look forward to reading it! Also I’ve no idea why but every time I get to the bottom and read two stars I lose it.
The Invisible Puppy
Annie Y, Thank you for enocuragemnets and advices. As for the *adventures in SF and F publishing*, I am seeing that you know very well the sheneningns which accompany it in non english countries. Here to ease at least a little of the burden – we had a translator so bad that she constantly translated British intelligence, meaning secret services, as British intelectuals, and when she translated Ride of the Valkyres from the Ring of the Nibelungs as Valkires walk ( she thought that was a name of the male character ), the publisher got someone to, as I put it, tranlsate her translation.
Sadly the fans do not have the capital to start some serious endeveour, so the big publishers seems to do their best to drive as much people from SF, Fantasy and Horror as possible. That is why I turned to reading in english, mostly Horror and not to specific verbaly laden SF or Fantasy, as I am afraid for the reasons I mentioned earlier to read more language challeging works, and especially authors who are in much better control of the nuances and beauty of the art of writing. Those I kept hoping and waiting to show up translated.
As for the non-english literature, I am sure there are masters of the genre that we have never even heard of, and that makes me sad. After all, Lem, Strugacki brothers, and now the guys who wrote those Watch and Witcher books, and the lady who wrote Wolfhound novels, though I have no interest in that, make me glad to have so much success in Europe and Asia.
I hope you win some Bulgarian Bingo that will enable you to start a sucesful publishing house devoted to the literature of the fantastic!
Steve Davidson: When you got to the part about File 770’s history as a paper fanzine I thought “Dead trees!” and that you were about to sic the Ents onto me, never mind ICANN or the FCC.
Confessions of a Puppy Artist
Mike Glyer- I want to echo the comments of some. File 770 has been one of the best things to come to my attention over the last month or so. Great job in hosting a site with many different and conflicting posters and viewpoints. It’s greatly appreciated.
Mike – thanks for giving me more rope to hang you with! 🙂
I’m puzzled by the assertions flying back and forth that the 2017 Worldcon location should have anything to do with Hugo rules changes in reaction to the Puppy slates. If a change makes it through, it’s going to start this year, be ratified next year, and be a done deal in 2017.
Petréa Mitchell on May 8, 2015 at 8:53 am said:
“I’m puzzled by the assertions flying back and forth that the 2017 Worldcon location should have anything to do with Hugo rules changes in reaction to the Puppy slates. If a change makes it through, it’s going to start this year, be ratified next year, and be a done deal in 2017.”
I am afraid you are applying logic and rational thought to this matter.
Please remember that a lot of people involved in this are steeped in conspiracy thinking.
Furthermore, if the proposal passed last year at LonCon3 to allow ratification for the third year by ALL members of WSFS is ratified (in a form close to it’s current form) this year at Sasquan, NO changes to the Constitution will be finally ratified in 2017. They will have all either been passed (or defeated) at MAC II or will have to be ratified by ALL members of WSFS in 2018. The only thing the 2017 WorldCon will be able to do is pass new proposals, or pass for the second (but not final) time old proposals passed on from MAC II.
Now, if that proposal from LonCon fails, then yes, 2017 will have some changes passed on from MAC II to do the final ratification on. But they won’t necessarily be changes that affect Hugo Nominations.
VD: I don’t pay any attention to Worldcon politics, so I don’t care one way or the other.
Of couuuurse you don’t. You’ve been “do not caring” all through this.
Because Aristotle, or something.
BTW Mike, hope you’re feeling better!
In re Helsinki: If you all help DC in ’17 win the bid, I will, or will not, attend in person, depending on which promise gets the most votes for DC.
Likewise, I will, or will not, attend Helsinki, depending upon which option gets me the most votes for DC in ’17. I also promise to do the opposite of your wishes if Helsinki wins. (Nothing against the fine folks in Finland – my Spanish Language Editor is a regular denizen – but I desperately want to be at a Worldcon in person (again) sometime within my remaining lifetime and DC looks like the best opportunity for that. Not that I’m dying or anything – but if believing that gets me sympathy votes….
Vixen, thank you for the comments on Amazon/Goodreads ratings. Feels right, based on my experience.
Opus: Here to ease at least a little of the burden – we had a translator so bad that she constantly translated British intelligence, meaning secret services, as British intelectuals,
Man, you guys must have been so confused if you thought the James Bond series were campus novels…
Flow my tears, the puppy said?
I like reading one-star reviews.
I discount the ones saying “U suck!” and “Too long”, but the ones where someone hated it for reasons reassure me that the work might have some substance. If no one can find anything bad to say, then I suppose it’s going to be bland pabulum, something to absorb my reading time, but not to remember.
When I was a purchaser of the New Adventures there was a poster on rec.arts.drwho who taste almost exactly opposed mine. When he pronounced a book rubbish I knew it would, for me, be worth a read. I still don’t think any of them Hugo worthy though.
@Opus
As a fellow non-native english speaker, I cannot recommend you enough to try to read the original versions in english. I personally never regret it, and even if we seem more lucky with our translations here in France then in Bulgaria.
Vocabulary is going to be the main issue, especially in fantasy, true enough. No one bothered to teach me at school what “scabbard” or “hawthorn” meant, for instance. But you write like it seems you can handle it, and it improves soon enough.
Last suggestion: stay with electronic versions as much as you can. Sourcing the books is easier and cheaper, and the embedded dictionary in the kindle (for instance) makes it much faster to find a definition. That’s still helping me a lot…
I prefer Finland, as well.
I guess that means it is on my slate, as there is only one slot for 2017, and I’ve just promoted it.
Will – ‘Flow my tears, the puppy said?’
Already done 4/26.
Totally the best thing about the Alexandra Erin reviews is that “two stars” at the end.
awesome
xdpaul,
As long as you got Finland’s permission to agree to be nominated, its all good.
“Please remember that a lot of people involved in this are steeped in conspiracy thinking.”
As luck would have it, I’m currently reading Nate Silver’s “The Signal and the Noise” (because U.S. elections are on the horizon, so it’s time to start Nate Silvering again) and I found this in a footnote:
“A conspiracy theory might be thought of as the laziest form of signal analysis. As the Harvard professor H.L. ‘Skip’ Gates says, ‘Conspiracy theories are an irresistible labor-saving device in the face of complexity.'”
In other words, the problem with the Puppies and other conspiracy theorists is that they are incredibly lazy thinkers who are uncomfortable with complicated situations, so they vastly over-simplify everything.
I have to say that “lazy” and “simple” are two really good adjectives for the kind of literature they seem to prefer to both create and consume.
The Dark Puppy Rises
A Study in Puppies
Requiem for a Puppy
Puppies and The Last Crusade
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Puppies
@MattY D’oh.
Invasion of the Hugo Snatchers?
Melancholy Puppies
Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Puppyburgers
Opera Puppy Aeterna
Marooned in Puppies
The Force That Through The Puppy Drives the Current
Puppies for Algernon
The Integral Puppies
How Much for Just the Puppies?
@Opus @ 8:16 am
Well – Bulgaria have a few decent publishers these days (for some value of decent) so things are not all bad but still – even if I lived there, I would still be reading directly in English. Still producing some funny translations though – any time I go back home, I stop by to see the bookshop friends I have and look through some book. The whole situation is never helped by the fact that everyone and their dog think that they know English and can translate. Thankfully though some of the more stable publishers had stopped going for the cheapest available translator. So things are stabilizing – somewhat.
Re: the British Intelligence translation – That made me laugh. It reminded me of a lot of the translations from the early 90s – you had to deconstruct the sentence and rebuild it in the original language in order to figure out what it means. I had not read such a bad thing in a genre novel lately but I had read translations from great translators that tackle fantasy for the first time. Let’s just say that bad got a new meaning. Which is why I mentioned at some point that even the best translator may be the wrong for a book.
Out of curiosity – which is your part of the world?
@Vivien,
Not to mention that when you read electronically, you can get the word in a dictionary very fast and check it – which sometimes help a lot with weirdly written sentences and flowery language 🙂
@Tuomas Vainio: “[Redshirts is] A play script that was not properly rewritten into a novel.”
I think you’ve missed something significant there. First of all, I can find no evidence that Redshirts was originally written as a play (or as any other sort of script). If I’m wrong about that, please show me the link. Secondly, given the basic concept of the book as taking place within a universe defined by a bad TV show, the “X said, Y said” construction that you see as “bad conversion” makes complete sense. Think it through. The book-characters are TV-show characters defined by the (fictional) bad scripts that created them, and having plain-Jane dialogue tags emphasizes that in a subtle, yet effective, way.
@Vivien:
I think your analysis has the right of it. Series books get a self-selection bump, and groundbreaking books tend to be polarizing in that some people like the result and others don’t, leading to a deceptive “mediocre” average. See above
@Rev. Bob – Speaking as a fan of John Scalzi’s writing, I nevertheless would totally expect the “X said, Y said” to simply be an unfortunate tendency on the part of the author. He does it continually through Agent to the Stars. I didn’t notice it until I was reading it aloud, but when I did, boy did I notice it.
But, like I said, I *am* a fan. It’s a minor quibble.
@Mike Glyer: “you were about to sic the Ents onto me”
Ha! As it happens, I refer to my non-electronic book collection as the Ent graveyard…
Chris Hensley
“Not also did the Rabid Puppy slate fair better then the Sad Puppy slate, but in every category where they went up against each other the Rabid Puppies won.”
This is part of the challenge I have with the entire mindless voting slate business. Even if we ignore the several remarks that Torgersen and Correia made on their blogs both for SP2 and SP3 where they asked readers not to mindlessly vote for their slate of nominees and assume that their remarks were made in bad faith, and even if we ignore that SP1 and SP2 did not seem to have wrecked the Hugo isn’t it possible that Vox Day’s Rabid Puppy campaign co-opted what the Sad Puppies thought of as a simple, though comprehensive, recommendation list? Maybe the Rabid Puppy slate didn’t fare better than the Sad Puppy slate because the Sad Puppies never considered their slate to be anything other than a typical recommendation list. Therefore a lot of Sad Puppies voted off slate.
I absolutely agree that it was inviting disaster for SP3 to set up their recommendation list in the manner that they did but since nothing like this had ever happened before I think it is at least legitimately conceivable that they didn’t think what did happen would actually occur. Could they have been more gracious after the debacle? Absolutely. Could they have said that this wasn’t their objective and that they would take measures to stop it from happening next year? Yes, and I think it speaks poorly of any of them to not have said so.
But again, you have to realize that many/most SP believe that there has already been someone with their thumb on the scale whether it be conspiracy, personal popularity of certain authors, voter apathy, or a voter demographic that simply does not align with their tastes in SFF. That is why the SP keep making references to Amazon or Times Bestseller lists. They are trying to say that their taste in SFF is the _majority_ taste and that they are being unfairly shut out.
Darrell,
Yes. It is obvious from the puppies I have talked to that they have a hard time conceiving that other people have different tastes in literature.