There’s a strong forest fire ash scent in the air — when we flew in last night and encountered that suspicious burning paper smell passengers started looking around to see if something had gone wrong aboard the plane.
This morning I emerged from the elevator and there was Dennis Miller with his bicycle, setting a good example for the rest of us. I also met Amy Thomson who filled me in about the Ranquet location.
Dennis and I headed for registration. En route we got to say hi to Larry Niven, and Michelle Pincus gave us some gag ribbons for our badges. Mine says “48% Sith, so don’t push it.” I’ll let you know when somebody gives me the ribbon that answers what the other 52% is….
Although the reg line was advancing at a shuffling pace, which is good for the first morning of a Worldcon,I decided that would be too long standing on a hard surface. So wandered back til I found a spot to crash on a bench, which happened to be next to Colin Harris, a past Worldcon chair and Journey Planet coeditor.
While working on this post I’ve said hello to Jo Walton, Dave McCarty, Morris keesan and James Bacon.
And somebody just walked by wearing an “Occupy Mars” t-shirt, which kind of symbolizes why I come to these things.
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“I have run across the sly insult “a touch of the old tar brush” in UK writings, meaning roughly the same thing.”
Good point. This was a pernicious idea, and has caused no end of trouble. The Latin American concept is much more realistic.
Wow, and in a remarkably timely fashion, I just ran across a comic about the difference between Hispanic and Latino yesterday! (This is an American Latino and Hispanic comic artist.)
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/19/9173457/hispanic-latino-comic
@Jamoche
Like sandkings? Run. Run very far away.
I just know you meant this guy:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/44544845@N08/13314077995
Daily Kos blogger and black civil rights activist Shawn King didn’t lie about being biracial. His biological father is black. He’s been reluctant to refute the ugly right-wing smears spread by dillweeds like Theodore Beale because it would drag his mother’s private life into the public eye. The attack on him launched by Breitbart this week is completely lacking in decency.
Naively, I was hoping by this point the comments MIGHT be about the convention, and not about the oh-so-tired-and-talked-out issues which have been pounded to death (or maybe I wish they had) by now. Doesn’t anyone have anything to say about the con, and what they’re doing at the con, and such? Please?
“in a remarkably timely fashion, I just ran across a comic about the difference between Hispanic and Latino yesterday!”
Reminds me of this quote from Lone Star
Coming out of mostly lurking and observing to ask –
What does racial background matter in the discussion of books and movies anyway? Not a bit.
Let him diddle on with his dna fetish and ignore him. Because…books!
Huh. So someone from Portugal is neither Latino nor Hispanic. Imagine that…
JJ: The session was quite interesting but unfortunately hugely marred by an asshole who insisted on monopolizing most of the conversation with repeated lengthy babbling about Baen, Toni, and other subjects completely unrelated to Hodgell’s work.
Congratulations… you’ve met a Barfly. They’re not all like that (#notallbarflies), but a significant number are.
@Buwaya Ah, you more than make up for any technical shortcomings with your enthusiasm.
Anyway, to drag the topic off somewhere else for a minute–can anybody point me to their favorite good, pithy explanation of the whole fiasco (preferably one that also points out that in the end, it was a cronyism slate with an attempt at culture war as cover, but I’m not picky) that I can point my blog readers if/when I finally make a post about this mess after all the fireworks have ended?
Ideally this would be one that people who are not up to their eyeballs in fandom would understand. Like my mother.
I just wanted to let it be generally known that I write lowbrow trash, and have no shame about this.
Have you heard about the new space opera series, focusing on the life of a rebel graffiti artist who travels from space habitat to space habitat and teaching godlike AIs to be more politically aware?
Iain M. Banksy.
@VD
Well, at least now we understand why you relocated. All those Spaghetti Westerns.
RedWombat, would this do?
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/jul/31/the-puppies-are-taking-science-fictions-hugo-awards-back-in-time
“most of either descent would consider themselves of white European descent”
Racial concepts elsewhere are more fluid and more rational, in my opinion.
Consider, for instance, recent presidents of Mexico – lets say Nieto, Calderon, or Fox
All of them could be popped down in Madrid and the would “pass” without question as natives.
Across the US border they would be unquestionably “Hispanic” for all purposes.
There’s another thread on File 770 today where people are talking about the business meeting today and how the EPH proposal did.
If you’re hungering for details about con happenings, as I am, check out the Instagram tags #Worldcon and #Sasquan and the same tags on Twitter. I was hoping there’d be video from the scene, but aside from one Periscope user at the opening ceremonies and the business meeting videos I haven’t found any.
He’s gathering “hypocritical” “SJW” quotes to fan the flames.
He’ll rage and rave and whine no matter what anyone does or says, so really, there is no reason to care what his motives or goals are. He’s just a whiner playing to the circle-jerk of sycophants who gently stroke his wounded pride.
“I just ran across a comic about the difference between Hispanic and Latino yesterday! ”
I don’t know. My Mexican father-in-law considered himself Mexican, and said the Hispanic/Latino business was stupid. I don’t think a lot of “Latin America” would be describing themselves this way. It seems very artificial.
Interesting, thanks!
Oh … Huh. So “Hispanic” means speaking the Spanish language, so those who speak Portugese are not Hispanics. And “Latino” means from Latin America, so Europeans, even those from Spain or Portugal, are not Latino.
Which means that people from Protugal are neither Hispanic nor Latino, and no amount of linguistic wriggling will make them so.
Re: Lordi. I always wondered if the Finns didn’t want to host and chose Lordi because there was no way they could win. Then of course they did win. It’s my theory why Jedward keeps representing Ireland.
Re: Jethro Tull. I still like Songs from the Wood and Heavy Horses best. Aqualung is probably what people used to know best. I suppose that’s no longer true. Maybe it’s time for Tull to be rediscovered much like ELO has been rediscovered. (Hey, they even made the Grammy Awards program!)
Re: Wes Anderson’s Punisher. Did we already see him in The Grand Budapest Hotel?
Jan Svankmajer’s Squirrel Girl (Think of the glorious taxidermy!)
They were. We had been.
Then Theodore Beale dropped in a very short while ago, for the first time in weeks, maybe months.
Happy to get back to the con, though.
“Which means that people from Protugal are neither Hispanic nor Latino, and no amount of linguistic wriggling will make them so.”
Which conclusion only follows if one accepts these definitions. There is no reason not to reject them. They aren’t written into any laws.
Anyhow, someone somewhere commented that the ‘Puppy talking points have been discredited’
Every Puppy talking point has been discredited. Martin tore several of them apart. Anders tore some to pieces. Sandifer left most of the Puppy talking points in shreds. And on and on. The Puppies themselves have discredited several of their own talking points as they frothed and raged.
There isn’t a Puppy talking point raised to date that has withstood even the slightest amount of scrutiny.
@RedWombat : When we first saw the lawn crayfish out and about we thought they were scorpions. But nope. And we have many in the back yard because of the damp. Their towers can get pretty high before the lawnmower dude knocks them down. Our dogs who ate walked on leashes are fascinated by the holes and bark like crazy when onie is outside in the lawn.
We are in northeast Texas BTW.
@RedWombat: Anyway, I named him Bob.
I absolutely adore you for this story. I did not know such a thing existed. They apparently don’t live in my state, but I’m delighted to learn about them.
Also, you might want to check your math. Specifically, you might want to figure out how much a great-grandparent contributes to your heritage.
If he cares to put his genealogy in a computer program, I know where he can download one that will tell him how inbred he is.
(Also, I have cousins who are 1/16 Native American, and it’s documented. It’s not so far back that it’s even hard. It isn’t even unusual. I recommend he reads this book for some real-life perspective on families.)
re:VD
“I am not lying. I am a genuine American Indian, which term I prefer to Native American. I am not merely “one-sixteenth Cherokee” as some have tried to claim.” Sooo–what’s the definition of genuine? Full; half; quarter? Not made in Taiwan or with artificial flavors?
“I am also Mexican; my great-grandfather rode with Pancho Villa before escaping to New Mexico after Villa’s assassination.” Oh honey, I hope you got some kind of documentation for that one. Anyone who has dabbled in family history or genealogy has hit the “ancestor in history” story. My third great grandfather (according to family legend) grew up in the household of Robert E Lee and would be “part of the race of the Natchez and the steamship ‘Robert E Lee in 1850” according to an obituary of his son.. Of course, since the race was from New Orleans to Saint Louis in 1870 and there is no record of Great Grandpa even leaving Iowa, it creates a problem. Especially when you add the medical records found from the Mount Pleasant asylum where he died.
Well it appears to be a lie that Shaun King lied about being black. So.
“Anyone who has dabbled in family history or genealogy has hit the “ancestor in history” story. ”
Yeah, I have a a bunch.
Viewed a certain way I am a descendant of “the last conquistador”, Jose Oyanguren, who conquered what are now either three or five provinces for the crown in 1847, as a commercial venture. Problem is our ancestress was his native mistress. Not entirely sure who GGGGPa was.
“Racial concepts elsewhere are more fluid and more rational, in my opinion….Which conclusion only follows if one accepts these definitions. There is no reason not to reject them. They aren’t written into any laws.”
Even if you decide that TB has some special personal definition of the word “Latino” we aren’t privy to but must somehow respect anyway, the context of his sentence (“A Latino, an Indian, and a White man”) shows that TB is clearly using the word “Latino” as meaning “not White.”
Under what fluid and rational system “elsewhere” do the Portuguese count as NOT white, pray tell?
And yes, I do agree that racial divisions are based on bullshit. But a man like TB, who’s ranted at length about how racial heterogeneity dooms a society and the superiority of one race over another, is not the right authority to appeal to when lecturing me about it.
ETA: Thank you, Jim. Good to know.
Dude, according to my mother, I’ve got a saint AND a cannibal in the family tree!
…sadly, they were not the same person.
“Under what fluid and rational system “elsewhere” do the Portuguese count as NOT white, pray tell?”
Under he assumption that anyone who is descended from native speakers of one of the tongues of the Iberian Peninsula is not, or rather was not, considered “white” under the conventions of the USA (unreasonable as they were), for which one can make an argument, there being a certain prejudice in certain parts against such people. The definitions of “prejudice” are also fluid and fuzzy, as were circumstances of time and place. There were times and places where, for instance, French Canadians were looked down upon. There were times and places where some people of Mexican descent were held in high regard, such as the early landowners of California.
The fundamental problem is that the government has made laws regarding these unworkable and undefinable categories. So if people make fun of them and subvert them I think its only fair.
Oh, hey, Peace–got sidetracked by lawn crayfish, but believe me, I hear you on the bee balm and the asters. I have both. The bee balm mostly stays in one bed and is ruthlessly ripped out in fall. (I tell it that it’s lucky it brings in the hummingbird hawk-moths or else I would sow the earth with salt.)
The asters I’ve found I can keep under control if I prune them back by half around May or so. It also keeps them from breaking open in the center, and if you underplant ’em with stuff like catmint that’s aggressive enough to hold its own, they’re almost manageable. They still lean on everything by about September, but the show is mostly over by then, so I’m glad to see them.
(I still gotta go in occasionally and do a major tear out, but I’m down to every few years instead of every fall.)
My Aster phase was fortunately brief, which is why the garden is still remotely manageable. My Sedge phase has largely ended, and I am deep in the throes of a Succulent phase that will probably end with hen-and-chicks planted everywhere. (Salvias, alas, are proving to be less a phase and more of a life-long obsession.)
Under what fluid and rational system “elsewhere” do the Portuguese count as NOT white, pray tell?
well, several of the southern states certainly included them as non whites in their miscegenation laws; along with meludgens, mulattos, turks, and asian european mixes as no nos for whites to marry and pollute their pure bloodlines. It is essentially the same distinction as “coloured” in apartheid era south africa.
Race as used here is an issue that stems directly from slave holding societies need to define who you are allowed to sell. Add in the evolutionary descendent of this need and we have the current emotional conflation of culture and genetics that brings so much joy and peace to the world.
Finally, i have no problem with anybody identifying as anything; beale can claim to be one fifth martian and one third god for all that i care. However, if you want to criticize such claims, you need to ask why they are being put forth.
So thus: “okay, you are american Indian and racially Mexican (whatever that means) . Why is that important ?”
“So thus: “okay, you are american Indian and racially Mexican (whatever that means) . Why is that important ?””
Its important for the purpose of making fun of people who assign importance to these identities.
Dude, according to my mother, I’ve got a saint AND a cannibal in the family tree!
…sadly, they were not the same person.
Perhaps St. Hannibal the anthrophage ? Patron of fava beans and cianti ?
I have a friend whose family tree shows that he is a descendent of the sun. That big yellow thing in the sky. That’s the kind of ancestry I respect.
“Its important for the purpose of making fun of people who assign importance to these identities.”
You mean the ones who credit their Neanderthal genes with granting them inherent superiority?
I’m 1/16th sun!
The whole ‘leaders are Native American, Hispanic, etc’ is bullshit but not because of any race or heritage thing, but because it’s a dumb deflection to try and say that Puppy leaders can’t be racist misogynists, some of them have non-white backgrounds and are women. Which is silly not only because the people listed swear the Sads and Rabids have nothing to do with each other and yet are listed together, but also it implies saying that people only won awards because of their race, gender or sexual preference instead of merit is any less racist, sexist or homophobic because he’s Native American or because someone is Portuguese or because they have female members.
No questioning of family background is needed to point out that bullshit.
The more I ponder it, the more I suspect Vex’s visit today of all days had nothing to do with days-old comments about the Superman-joke setup (“a Latino, a white guy and an Indian…”). I think this was just one more place to spread the Breitbart lie about Shaun King.
“So thus: “okay, you are american Indian and racially Mexican (whatever that means) . Why is that important ?””
Its important for the purpose of making fun of people who assign importance to these identities.
Pretty sure I wasn’t asking you; regardless, mocking people for those kind of choices rather than their motivations is just playing into the narrative of the professional victim; or, alternately, being a douche. Which is your goal ? a question for quiet contemplation.
“You mean the ones who credit their Neanderthal genes with granting them inherent superiority?”
Being Basque (in part) I have genuine cave-painting Cro-Magnon genes, that trump any barbaric Neandethals.
@RedWombat:
Around here he New England asters bloom well into November. It’s nice having a little color that time of the year, so I forgive them.
I still pitchfork out the big clusters after two years.
Down here, I’ve had asters last into January in really warm years. I’m REALLY glad of them then, because they’re about the only thing keeping the bees going.
That’s kind of sad, really.
The more I ponder it, the more I suspect Vex’s visit today of all days had nothing to do with days-old comments about the Superman-joke setup (“a Latino, a white guy and an Indian…”). I think this was just one more place to spread the Breitbart lie about Shaun King.
Possibly, but that coatail of race has been being ostentatiously dragged by him for quite a while. I suspect that its just another manufactured controversy from the master of 4G warfare to keep the troops all het up.
Nah, it’s just that all his usual people to vex are at Sasquan so aren’t saying anything except occasional breathless tweets about how much fun they’re having. Scalzi’s on book tour and won’t even notice if he launches a full-on barrage. He’s hurting for someone to pay attention to him, so he breaks his rhetoric about never posting here again.