225 thoughts on “Time for Comments 9/1”

  1. Dr. Science, you didn’t specify that the stage combat had to be between two women, but there’s a fight scene between two sisters (over a scrapbook full of stamps) in Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius. I think there’s a lot of fights of various kinds in Qui Nguyen’s She Kills Monsters, too. The main character is a 20-something woman who falls into a D&D world. I know that swords are mentioned (the main character, Agnes, wants a sword of her own), but I don’t think all the avatars in the fight scenes have them or that they need to have them.

    Sartre’s No Exit has one woman trying to remove another, which could also work for two women.

    If it can be only one woman… There’s a good boxing scene between a woman who wants to be a boxer and some laundry in Sunil Kurvilla’s Fighting Words.

    I think Madame de Winter had a fight scene (with Constance?) in a version of The Three Musketeers I saw, and, yes, the Musketeers have swords, but Milady and Constance didn’t.

    I’d also look at As You Like It and the scene where Rosalind is trying to elude Phoebe while Phoebe is trying to elude Silvius. It usually involves some slapstick running around and knocking down and falling over and that kind of thing. Or you could gender-bend the wrestling match between Orlando and Charles the Wrestler.

    I’ve also seen unarmed combat to open Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Theseus and Hippolyta engaging in a battle that he wins (to show us how he “wins” her and why she’s marrying him). Since she is a warrior queen, a little hand-to-hand combat to open the play defines her character.

    I’m doubting you want to try Desdemona and Othello when he kills her, but that is definitely stage combat.

    If I had more time I could consult a friend who teaches stage combat (she’s a she) because I’m sure she would know. I’m trying to think if Mother Courage gets into any fights (I don’t think she does, although her daughter gets raped, but I wouldn’t want to stage that) or if the two women in The Caucasian Chalk Circle ever get into it physically.

  2. Faux Scroll item:

    Police respond to report of a gun, discover that Fan Expo has come to town

    “We love a good Fan Expo costume but we are encouraging those attending to respect that other passengers may not be able to distinguish what’s cosplay [and] what’s reality,” she said.

    “While we don’t want anyone leaving their phasers or whatnot at home, maybe consider keeping more realistic accessories stored until you arrive at your destination.”

  3. Aaron on September 1, 2016 at 1:36 pm said:
    For what it is worth, I finished writing up my account of my experience at Worldcon. I’ll be writing more about Worldcon (and the Hugos) over the next week at least, but it will be on more specific topics.

    Let Worldcon be Worldcon?

  5. The forecast path currently keeps it quite a bit south of Atlanta.

    My area is projected to get around 2 to 3 inches of rain on Saturday and I’m around an hour or so’s drive north-east (more east than north) of Atlanta. So a medium amount of rain. (Got much more from Hugo. Got much more from the rains around this time last year that flooded Columbia–during that one, a large, old oak fell over from its roots around 50 feet or less from where I was standing–if it had fallen in my direction, splat.)

    Margaret Atwood has written a superhero graphic novel. About bird conservation.

    Atwood immediately insisted that graphic novels are not “comic books” and she certainly would write no such thing as that…

  6. I’ve always held a bit of a grudge against Margaret Atwood for her insistence that Oryx and Crake wasn’t SF. I read OaC. Not only was it SF, but it was pretty bog-standard dystopian SF. So there nyah 😛

  8. Darren Garrison said:

    Got much more from the rains around this time last year that flooded Columbia–during that one, a large, old oak fell over from its roots around 50 feet or less from where I was standing–if it had fallen in my direction, splat.

    Yikes. May your quercine luck continue to be good.

  9. @Dawn:

    She has reversed her opinion on that in the past few years though. She has come to fully embrace the scifi label. (I believe her collection of essays from a couple years ago explicitly called it a collection of her thoughts on science fiction)

  11. Annihilation on television will probably be terrible but has a slim chance of being BRILLIANT. Maybe. *hopes*

    I just booked an Airbnb place in Helsinki for Worldcon, thank you for the reminder, Ultragotha. (I do have a $35 off coupon for Airbnb if anyone wants it.) For once my spouse is excited about coming to a Worldcon.

  12. Huh, I didn’t know Andy Weir doesn’t like to fly. I suspect that 2 astronauts for 1 author was an acceptable trade though

    I have seen several Pups claiming that the fact that some of the Hugo winners didn’t show up in person to accept their award is evidence that the Hugo is losing its appeal. My response is that we had two astronauts on stage accepting awards.

  13. Let Worldcon be Worldcon?

    That was sort of the sentiment of the opening portion of my post.

    For future posts, I’m planning on writing about the harassment incidents and the con’s response (and harassment at cons in general), a breakdown of the Hugo voting and what I think it means, an “unPuppied” Hugo ballot, and a couple of posts about the effect EPH would have had on the ballots for this year and the last couple of years. I’m also going to post about the Retro Hugo longlist.

  19. Doctor Science: I second BigelowT’s recommendation of As You Like It (Act I, scene iii); nothing specific in the script, so sprog can choreograph anything as long as Orlando wins. The demo of what Sarah has learned in her judo(?) class in scene 2 of Company quickly turns competitive. The lines leading up to “I Made a Fist” near the end of The Most Happy Fella (like Orlando, male but young enough to be cross-played)

    Best typo so far today: rcade, for “It’s hard to believe 11 years have passed since a hurricane made landfill in this state.”

    Darren Garrison: good one on Atwood, even if it’s obsolete. I once heard Gaiman say that someone told him he wrote graphic novels rather than comic books, with a spin that made him feel like a streetwalker being told she was a lady of the evening.

  21. ULTRAGOTHA: Hotel Bookings for WorldCon 75 are open and rooms are going fast.

    I’m a little pissed off about that. I tried to reserve a Hilton room, and the group code provided by Worldcon75 does not appear to be valid.

  24. ULTRAGOTHA: hotels in Helsinki are…more expensive than I’m used to.

    No shit — I’d be paying twice what my Worldcon Marriott room cost.

    I may have to rethink whether the trip is actually do-able, given the added costs of accom for a couple weeks’ travel (without which the trip would not be worthwhile).

  25. @galacticjourney

    In other news, I started reading the October 1961 Galaxy. Willy Ley’s article is on the ambitious land reclamation plans of the Netherlands. It is fun to be able to fast forward 55 years and see which ones came to be.

    I predict that brand new cities will be built in the newly reclaimed Flevoland province within the next 6 to 15 years.

    I also predict that the massive Delta Werken flood protection scheme (Did Ley write about that?) will be built and protect the Dutch coast and its inhabitants. However, I also predict that we will still see property damages and loss of life due to winter storms and the resulting floods on the European North Sea coast until then. In fact, I fear we may see a particularly devastating flood within the next five months.

    WorldCon 75 hotels: Alas, it seems none of the chains I normally favour seem to be operating in Helsinki. So I’ll talk to my Mom over the weekend to decide on a hotel and then I’ll book our rooms.

  27. I’m halfway through the second book in the Southern Reach trilogy and absolutely loving it. It takes the uncompromising unhumanness of the Zones in the Strugatsky brothers’ Roadside Picnic and combines it with a rendering of the airtight environment of the secret pursuit of (at first) knowledge and (then) institutional prestige.

    It reminded me a lot psychologically of David Cronenberg’s movie Spider, starring Ralph Fiennes as a troubled man returning home after years in institutional care. Cronenberg emphasizes in the commentary that he wanted it not to be a movie about a specific illness, and no disease or syndrome or anything is ever named. The man has troubles, we see them, and that’s enough. There are mysteries in his past he’d like to resolve, but his troubles mean he can’t. His memory is not reliable. Nor is his cognition – even if he got a wholly accurate moment of recollection, there’s no guarantee he’d know it. His search is an impossible one. (It is one hell of a brilliant sad movie.)

    The Southern Reach is like that as an institution. There are so many layers of manipulation, deception, and concealment going on that no truth about Area X would survive in it. I’m expecting the trilogy to end with the big questions all still unresolved, simply because the Southern Reach can’t resolve questions – that’s not what it’s for, anymore.

    The combination of the two kinds of alienness delights me no end.

  29. Taking a quick look at Helsinki hotels, I found this plaintive comment at Tripadvisor:

    4 of 5 starsReviewed 1 week ago
    I opted for standard room but in standard room as well you should have Cattle service. I have not found any cattle in room and upon asking to reception they were saying that it is on chargeable basis and 12 euros per day.

    Maybe you need to have a suite to get complementary cattle.

  30. lauowolf: Maybe you need to have a suite to get complementary cattle.

    *snort*

    The commenter has English as a second language; do you think they meant “wifi” or “internet” and got a bad translation?

    ETA: Ah, they were talking about coffee service.

  32. I was able to reserve. Note that the online Reservation code is BWORLDCON, while the phone code is just WORLDCON.

  33. @Bruce Baugh: I thought the entire Southern Reach trilogy was fantastic; it’s clearly not for everybody, but if you’ve loved it to the halfway point I guarantee you’ll love the rest of it.

  34. jonesnori/Lenore Jones: I was able to reserve. Note that the online Reservation code is BWORLDCON, while the phone code is just WORLDCON.

    That’s just for the Sokos hotels.

  35. I have to wonder how big of room blocks they were able to talk the hotels into. I keep finding that the same rooms are unavailable at the group rate, but are available at the standard rate.

  36. @JJ: Yes, Timothy tTC came to mind upon reading the combo of dogs and squirrels. I’ve always thought it odd that a cat would be so enamored of Puppies, but now that they’ve teamed up with the arch-enemy squirrels, poor Timothy may have some sort of existential crisis and breakdown.

    @Nancy Sauer: A friend of mine actually quoted her Siamese cat way down in the footnotes/bibliography of her master’s thesis. Nobody noticed, maybe because she listed it as “pers. comm.” It’s no physics paper, but it was an Ivy League school. I may or may not have made the suggestion. shifty eyes

    Woo, a comment entirely about cats. Go me.

  37. Cat Rambo:

    “I just booked an Airbnb place in Helsinki for Worldcon, thank you for the reminder, Ultragotha. (I do have a $35 off coupon for Airbnb if anyone wants it.) For once my spouse is excited about coming to a Worldcon.”

    AirBnb for me too. Found a place within walking distance from the exhibition center.

  38. Sprog reports:

    “thanks SO MUCH! I won’t have time to open a laptop and look at them until tomorrow, comments later.”

    I suspect this will be enough for her first assignment. Thank you guys a lot, I was sure you’d be able to help.

  41. lauowolf: 12 euros a day for cattle sounds like a steal, we have to pay that to get 10 minutes in a petting zoo.

  42. Whoa. I sort-of keep track of the statistics on my Flickr account, and I’ve observed that the day or two after I post a bunch of con pictures my views usually spike. But that had already happened a couple of days before I posted the link to my Worldcon set here… and yesterday my account had over 4,300 views, of nothing but that album as far as I went down the list to check. If that’s the power of the commentariat, I’m bloody impressed!

    @ Aaron: I tried to leave a comment on your Worldcon report; I hope it went thru. I really hate option menus that don’t offer name/e-mail as an ID option, because it always seems like the other options available to me don’t work.

  44. Jealous of people able to commit to a hotel booking a year in advance. :-/

    Hope there’ll still be room somewhere by the time I know whether I’m coming…

  45. Standback: Jealous of people able to commit to a hotel booking a year in advance. 😐 Hope there’ll still be room somewhere by the time I know whether I’m coming…

    Most of the listed hotels can be booked without advance payment, I think.

    Did anyone realize, when Helsinki proposed their bid, just how far all the hotels are from the convention center? I’m seeing mass transit times from 30-60 minutes one way from a lot of the hotels.

  46. At the local writers workshop Wednesday, participants were making their comments on the story I submitted last month, when one said it reminded her of Neil Gaiman’s work.

    Which is a great (if intimidatingly excessive) piece of egoboo, but “Actually, the effect I was trying for was about half R.A. Lafferty, half THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and a dash of Ursula Vernon for seasoning.” (Yeah, it’s kind of a weird little story.)

    Since I speak Mumble with a Vogon accent, I was misheard. “Yes, Ursula LeGuin, too. CATWINGS?”

    So if nothing else, correcting that mishearing meant I got to plug CASTLE HANGNAIL and tell everyone how adorable it is.

    – – – – –

    In other news, today’s doctor appointment (6-weeks post-surgery followup) told me I don’t have to wear the sling on my right arm 24/7 anymore. Which lets me do a bit more with the arm now.

    Still very sore and very tight, though, with a lot of scar tissue . (I’d post a pic, but it would probably need a trigger warning, or at least a caution flag.)

    I should be starting physical therapy next week to build range and strength back up in the arm and shoulder. So I’ll just say in advance: OWWIE OW OUCH OWWIE DAMN OUCH OWWIE OW OW OW JEEEEEEZUSSSSS OUCH.

  48. The problem seems to be that most of the hotels are in the city centre and the convention centre isn’t. This is where the free public transport passes come in handy.

    Unfortunately, I can’t book my flight yet, since Finnair flights can only be booked 11 months in advance. And I’m reluctant to book a hotel before the flight.

  49. @JJ anyone realize, when Helsinki proposed their bid, just how far all the hotels are from the convention center? I’m seeing mass transit times from 30-60 minutes one way from a lot of the hotels.

    I do but then I helped staff their bid table twice. 😉

  50. JJ:

    “Did anyone realize, when Helsinki proposed their bid, just how far all the hotels are from the convention center? I’m seeing mass transit times from 30-60 minutes one way from a lot of the hotels.”

    What tool are you using to see times? The Journey Planner? It gives 22 minutes from The President, including walk. Time on train is 4 minutes.

    Tip: You can enter both street address and train/bus station in the Journey Planner.

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