Tag Archives: Rings of Power

Pixel Scroll 9/14/24 Scrollchak, The Night Pixel

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(1) RING TIME. Robin Anne Reid’s newsletter Writing from Ithilien offers a collection of links to interesting discussions of the Rings of Power series in“The Vibes Around ‘Tolkien’”.

I love reading what fans who love the show have to say about it, and I’m having great fun reading those posts (including the ones I’ve linked to above!). Let’s just say I enjoy all the varied vibes around a text that is now part of the greater global “Tolkien” phenomenon, i.e. connected to all the things, even if I don’t much like that particular instance!

(2) BALANCED IN THE SCALES AND FOUND WANTING. Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter does a roundup of all the complaints about the two epic series adapting George R.R. Martin and Tolkien in “’House of the Dragon’ and ‘Rings of Power’ Facing Epic Headaches”. (Got to love the article’s illustration of a sword-wielding GRRM on a flying dragon.)

… As for Rings [of Power]s’ ratings, third-party services show a steep drop from the series’ debut season. The spin from Amazon goes like this: Of course the ratings are down, they were so huge last time. There is something to this. Even Prime Video hits like Fallout and The Boys haven’t matched Rings’ season one on a global basis (Fallout did top the show in the U.S.). Amazon says the new season is doing well internationally and is on track to be a Top 5 season for Prime Video….

…Then there is Dragon, whose problems are more interesting. The second season incensed some fans after spending eight episodes leading to a massive cliffhanger — a climactic battle sequence that was pushed from a shortened season two to season three, apparently for budget reasons (which has led to more “David Zaslav ruins everything” chatter online). In the ratings, the season dipped about 10 percent from the show’s first season, but the numbers do remain high. 

Two weeks ago, saga author (and Dragon co-creator and executive producer) George R.R. Martin, who has been complimentary about Dragon in the past, posted on his blog that he was going to reveal “everything that’s gone wrong” with the show. Smart money could have been wagered on this never happening — surely HBO would do everything in its power to persuade Martin not to post.

But last week, Martin did, and the result was fascinating…

(3) SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE 2024 LONGLIST. The Scotiabank Giller Prize 2024 longlist was released September 4. The Prize is a celebration of Canadian literary talent. The 12 titles were chosen from 145 books submitted by publishers across Canada. There is one longlisted work of genre interest:

  • Anne Michaels for her novel Held, published by McClelland & Stewart

The other longlisted works are:

(4) OCTOTHORPE. In Episode 118 of the Octothorpe podcast, “Och Aye, Sci-Fi”, John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty continue their discussion of the Worldcon. (There’s a rough-and-ready transcript here.)

We round off most of our discussion of the Glasgow Worldcon, including talking about Halls 4 and 5, communications, Worldcon structures, and publications. Thanks to Sara Felix, this week, for providing our lovely artwork.

Three pins of armadillos flying colourful spaceships are on top of a piece of paper with blobs of glue that look like planets. The lettering “Octothorpe 118” appears above in a similar style to the pins.

(5) JOURNEY PLANET. Journey Planet 84 “Workers’ Rights In SFF” is available at this link. File 770 promoted the zine with this post.

Contributor Joachim Boaz has cross-posted his article from the issue about Clifford D. Simak at Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations: “Exploration Log 5: ‘We Must Start Over Again and Find Some Other Way of Life’: The Role of Organized Labor in the 1940s and ’50s Science Fiction of Clifford D. Simak”.

My article on organized labor in the 1940s and ’50s science fiction of Clifford D. Simak went live! I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’ve spent the last half year researching and reading religiously for this project–from topics such as Minnesota’s unique brand of radical politics to the work of contemporary intellectuals like C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) whom Simak most likely read.

(6) SUPREME GENRE READER. The New York Times learns “Ketanji Brown Jackson Looks Forward to Reading Fiction Again”. (Paywalled.) “The Supreme Court justice has been drawn to American history and books about the ‘challenges and triumphs’ of raising a neurodiverse child. She shares that and more in a memoir, ‘Lovely One.’”

What kind of reader were you as a child? Which books and authors stick with you most?

Pretty voracious. My favorite childhood books were Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” series. I really identified with Meg. I also liked Judy Blume’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” And I went through a Nancy Drew phase.

Which genres do you … avoid?

 I don’t think I’ve indulged in reading fiction in many years. I hope to get back to doing so, now that our daughters are grown, but I would avoid anything that would qualify as a horror story. I don’t like to be frightened.

Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time?

I am gearing up to read “Parable of the Sower,” by Octavia Butler, soon. I have it both in paper and as an audiobook, which helps.

(7) TUTTLE REVIEWS. Lisa Tuttle’s latest sff review column for the Guardian takes up The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera; Withered Hill by David Barnett; Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud; The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei; and The Specimens by Hana Gammon. “The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup”.

(8) BOB WEATHERWAX (1941-2024). [Item by Andrew Porter.] The New York Times reports a star dog trainer died August 15.

Bob Weatherwax, a Hollywood dog trainer who carried on his father’s legacy of breeding and coaching collies to play Lassie, the resourceful and heroic canine who crossed flooded rivers, faced down bears and leaped into the hearts of countless children, died on Aug. 15 in Scranton, Pa. He was 83.

One of his uncles trained Toto for “The Wizard of Oz” (1939). 

Mr. Weatherwax also trained other dogs seen in Hollywood films, including Einstein, the Catalan sheepdog in “Back to the Future.”

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born September 14, 1936 — Walter Koenig, 88. Walter Koenig’s our Birthday Honoree this Scroll. He really has had but two major roles, though he has also appeared in a number of other roles. 

The first was as the Russian born Enterprise navigator Pavel Chekov on the original Trek franchise. He went on to reprise this role in all six original-cast Trek films, and later voiced President Anton Chekov in Picard. 

I like the Chekov character even if on viewing the series decades later I cringed on the quite obvious stereotype.

A much better character was played by him in the form of Alfred Bester (named in homage of that author and a certain novel) on Babylon 5. He wasn’t at all a sympathetic character and eventually was wanted for war crimes but was still a fascinating character. His origin story is established in J. Gregory Keyes’ Psi Corps trilogy written after the series was cancelled and is considered canon. 

He showed up in The Questor Tapes as an administrative assistant, Oro, for two episodes of Starlost.

Moontrap, a SF film with him and Bruce Campbell, would garner a twenty-eight percent rating at Rotten Tomatoes. 

Alienable, a sort of comic SF horror film which he executive produced, financed, wrote and acts in has no rating there. 

He’s Fireman Frank in Unbelievable!!!!! which apparently parodies Trek. The film has over forty cast members from the various Trek series. The film follows the omicron adventures however unintentional of four astronauts including one of who is a marionette. I cringed when I watched the trailer. I really did.  Anyone see it? 

Not surprisingly he acts in one of those Trek fanfics, Star Trek: New Voyage as his original character.

Finally he appears via the wonder of digital technology in the Hugo-nominated “Trials and Tribble-ations”. 

Walter Koenig

(10) COMICS SECTION.

  • Brewster Rockit should have declined the invitation.
  • Cornered illustrates do it yourself versus premade.
  • Carpe Diem wants to drop a subject.
  • Tom Gauld does his own version of a popular meme.

(11) NO SAVING THROW. All 25 quit: “Annapurna Interactive Entire Staff Resigns” reports Variety.

The staff of Annapurna Interactive, the games division of Megan Ellison‘s Annapurna, has resigned en masse after a deal to spin off the group fell through, Bloomberg reports.

Founded in 2016, Annapurna Interactive has partnered with boutique game studios for several critically acclaimed titles, including “Stray” (pictured above), described as a “third-person cat adventure game set amidst the detailed, neon-lit alleys of a decaying cybercity,” as well as “What Remains of Edith Finch,” “Outer Wilds” and “Neon White.”

The staff exodus came after a breakdown in talks between Ellison and Nathan Gary, formerly president of Annapurna Interactive, to spin the gaming unit off as a separate company. “All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned,” Gary and the other employees said in a joint statement Thursday to Bloomberg. “This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly.”

(12) STREET ART. James Bacon told File 770 readers today about “Dublin Street Art”.

Chris Barkley says his hometown deserves a look, too: “Cincinnati Wins A Top Spot For The City’s Street Art And Murals” at Islands.

…And, to those that know the Queen City, it’s no surprise that Cincinnati took the street art crown in 2024’s USA Today and 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. The annual competition, which counts down top tens around the country, uses a panel of experts to determine ten nominees with street art chops. Then, they leave voting to readers to decide the winners. This year, Cincinnati, which has been among the nominees going back to 2021, finally took the top spot, thanks to the more than 300 stunning murals dotting the city’s neighborhood streets….

There’s a more extensive photo gallery at ArtWorks Cincinnati.

(13) BLOCH SCRIPT ON EBAY. The Dave Hester Store of Storage Wars fame would be happy to sell you a screenplay from Robert Bloch’s estate, part of his personal archives: “1961 ‘The Merry-Go-Around’ By Robert Bloch”, based on Ray Bradbury’s “The Black Ferris”. Haven’t been able to determine whether it was produced. Taking bids, starting at $99.

(14) PRACTICING FOR ARTEMIS. NPR learned “How the crew of NASA’s Artemis II prepares for a mission to the moon”. It’s an audio report.

This time next year, NASA plans to send its first crewed mission to the moon. NPR’s Scott Detrow meets the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission, to see how the team is preparing.

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]

Pixel Scroll 9/11/24 I’ve Clicked To Scroll It Stealthily In Narnia

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(0) File 770 was crashed most of the afternoon. Customer Service said high bot traffic is to blame. That may be fixed now. Let me quote Alan Arkin to whoever is sending these bots my way: “Argo fuck yourself!”

(1) LIFE IN PANDEMIC TIMES. “Station Eleven 10th anniversary: Emily St. John Mandel on what she’d change” at Slate. “Emily St. John Mandel on her eerily prescient sci-fi classic—and what she’d change about it now.”

You’re in a unique position in that you wrote a pandemic book in 2014, then had the TV adaptation come out in 2021. You experienced people’s responses to art about pandemics before COVID, during COVID, and now. I’m curious what the differences may have been.

I remember absorbing a lot of comments online to the effect of How did you predict this? Which I absolutely did not. There was always going to be another pandemic. What was interesting to see was the differences in the way between how I imagined a pandemic would be and how it actually is. In the Station Eleven pandemic, the mortality rate is insane. It’s like 99 percent or something. I didn’t have to go that far. It turns out society gets extremely disrupted extremely quickly, with vastly lower numbers than that.

Something I hadn’t anticipated was the in-between state of pandemics. For all my research into pandemics, I’d kind of thought of a pandemic as a binary state. You’re either in a pandemic or you’re not in a pandemic. But I remain fascinated by the month of February 2020 in New York City—we knew it was coming, but we didn’t believe it. It’s this uneasy territory wherein it’s very hard to make informed, reasonable decisions around risk management when you’re kind of in a pandemic and kind of not. We’re kind of there again now. Obviously, it’s much better than it was, but I do a lot of events where typically people will be unmasked at this point, but often there are a few people in the audience wearing a mask, and that is absolutely rational, and also being unmasked is rational at this point. That was something I just didn’t expect.

One thing that doesn’t ring true to me about the book anymore isn’t necessarily something I got wrong, but just the way our country has changed. When I wrote the book, I wrote a scene where all these flights are diverted to the nearest airport and everybody gets off the plane. They go to a television monitor tuned to CNN or something, and the announcer is talking about this new pandemic and everybody believes what the announcer is saying, which—I swear to God, that was plausible in 2011. At this point, absolutely not. I can’t even imagine that happening.

(2) NATIONAL BOOK AWARD. Two of the five National Book Award longlists were announced yesterday reports Publishers Weekly, for Translated Literature and Young People’s Literature. The shortlists come out October 1. The winners will be announced during an awards ceremony in New York City on November 20.

The works of genre interest in the 10-book longlists are named below.

Translated Literature

  • The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa, translated from the Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain (Restless)
  • Woodworm by Layla Martínez, translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes and Annie McDermott (Two Lines)
  • Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías, translated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary (Scribner)

Young People’s Literature

  • The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly (Greenwillow)

(4) WILL GAIMAN STEP BACK FROM GOOD OMENS? According to Deadline: “’Good Omens’: Neil Gaiman Offers To Step Back From Season 3”.

Neil Gaiman is understood to have offered to step back from the third and final season of Prime Video‘s fantasy drama Good Omens.

Deadline revealed on Monday that pre-production had paused on the BBC Studios-produced show in the wake of allegations made by four women against Gaiman, which he denies. This came after Disney’s planned feature adaptation of Gaiman’s 2008 YA title The Graveyard Book also was put on pause.

Now, we understand that Gaiman has made an offer to Amazon and producers to take a back seat on the latest season so that it can continue amid crisis talks over the Terry Pratchett adaptation’s future. Deadline understands Gaiman’s offer is not an admission of wrongdoing following a podcast from Tortoise Media that chronicled accounts of two women, with whom he was in consensual relationships, who accused him of sexual assault. Another two have since come forward. Gaiman’s position is that he denies the allegations and is said to be disturbed by them. His rep did not respond to a request for comment….

(5) WOT’S THAT? TV Guide says “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Has an Accent Problem”.

Tom Bombadil made his The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debut this week, played by character actor Rory Kinnear in a voluminous beard and wig. Known for his role in The Fellowship of the Ring (notably cut from the Peter Jackson movie), Bombadil is enigmatic yet silly; a mythic figure who hints at ancient wisdom while living out his days as a jovial, eccentric hermit. And like his harfoot neighbors, Rory Kinnear’s version speaks with a strong regional accent, playing into a recurring problem throughout the show.

Tolkien’s linguistic worldbuilding is famously sophisticated, and The Rings of Power puts a lot of work into its use of constructed languages like Quenya. Unfortunately its English-language choices are nowhere near as thoughtful, embracing clumsy stereotypes from around the British Isles. The most uncomfortable example is the nomadic harfoot community in Season 1; they’re the only characters who speak with Irish accents.

Writing in The Irish Times, critic Ed Powers described these “twee and guileless” harfoots as “a race of simpleton proto-hobbits, rosy of cheek, slathered in muck, wearing twigs in their hair and speaking in stage-Irish accents that make the cast of Wild Mountain Thyme sound like Daniel Day-Lewis.” He made the convincing argument that they reflect offensive images of Irish culture as “pre-industrial and childlike.” Unfortunately the show’s accent problems don’t stop there.

Overseen by American showrunners, the accent choices in The Rings of Power are deeply rooted in unexamined classism and regional stereotypes.….

(6) SUZANNE PALMER FUNDRAISER. “Fundraiser for Suzanne Palmer by Meguey Baker : Changing Suzanne’s Story: Emergency Funds for a Writer” at GoFundMe.

Let me tell you about Suzanne. She’s a writer, a world-builder, and a dear friend of mine over the past three decades. We need art to live. We need stories and storytellers. We need Suzanne. It’s easy to think that artists just make art, but they also have lives, and bills, and accidents that are terrible, or hilarious, or both, depending on the telling.

So when she told me the story about her kid stepping through the ceiling, plaster raining down on their sister’s bedroom below, it was with the smile of a writer who sees the humor in the misadventure. I knew it would become a family legend. But when she told me about being crushingly tight on funds due to payment for her work being months late, I knew that was no laughing matter.

I’m asking us all to step up….

(7) ANALYZING CONCORD’S FAILURE. [Item by Steven French.] Here’s the latest gaming news from the Guardian: “Sony’s big-budget hero shooter Concord failed spectacularly – here’s where it went wrong”.

As is now traditional, right after I’d filed last week’s Pushing Buttons, huge gaming news broke: Sony was pulling its hero shooter Concord from sale just two weeks after launch – because nobody was playing it. Everyone who bought it on PlayStation 5 and PC was refunded, and the future of the game is now unclear.

This is a brutal sequence of events. Sony bought the makers of Concord, Firewalk Studios, in 2023. Concord had been in development for eight years, and it was an expensive game, with bespoke cinematics and a long-term plan that would have cost $100m or more to develop. In its two weeks on the market, it sold fewer than 25,000 copies, according to estimates. This is a shocker, even compared with the year’s other bad news for developers and studios.

Much has been written about why Concord flopped so spectacularly. As Keith Stuart pointed out in his review of the game, it launched into a crowded genre, the hero shooter, in which many players already have their preferred game (Overwatch, Valorant or Apex Legends, to name three). Sony’s marketing of the game also seemed to fail, in that almost nobody knew about Concord before it arrived. (I barely knew about it, and it’s my job to know these things.) Criticisms, too, were levelled at its characters and design: it was generic and didn’t have any particularly interesting gameplay ideas.

The failure of Concord is also symbolic of the existential-level problems in modern game development: they are so expensive to create, and they take so long that a game can miss its moment years before it is released. All this makes publishers risk-averse, but if you’re simply trying to recreate what’s popular, it’ll be out of date by the time it’s finished….

(8) DID DISNEY MUFF THE MOFF? “Lucasfilm Sued for Recreating Grand Moff Tarkin Actor Peter Cushing’s Image in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” at IGN.

Peter Cushing

Disney subsidiary Lucasfilm is being sued over its recreation of Grand Moff Tarkin actor Peter Cushing’s image in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

As reported by The Times, a friend of Cushing has alleged Disney did not have permission to recreate the actor’s image with special effects for Rogue One. Disney tried and failed to have the case dismissed for a second time on September 9, 2024.

The plaintiff Kevin Francis is suing Lucasfilm through his film company Tyburn Film Productions and also brought claims against Rogue One producer Lunak Heavy Industries, the late executors of Cushing’s estate, and Cushing’s agency Associated International Management.

Francis claimed he must give authorization for any recreation of Cushing’s image following an agreement made between him and the actor in 1993, one year before his death at age 81.

Lucasfilm claimed it didn’t think it needed permission to recreate Cushing’s image due to his original contract for Star Wars (the 1977 film which became Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope) and the nature of the special effects. It also paid around $37,000 to Cushing’s estate after being contacted by his agent about the recreation.

On September 9, deputy High court judge Tom Mitcheson dismissed the appeal, stating the case should go to trial. “I am also not persuaded that the case is unarguable to the standard required to give summary judgment or to strike it out,” he added. “In an area of developing law it is very difficult to decide where the boundaries might lie in the absence of a full factual enquiry.”

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Lis Carey.]

Born September 11, 1952 – Sharon Lee.

By Lis Carey: She is best known as one half of the writing team of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, creators of the popular and very enjoyable Liaden Universe series of novels and stories. Her solo works include two Maine-based mysteries, a fantasy series set in the fictional Maine town of Archer’s Beach, and several dozen short stories, both sf and fantasy.

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller in 2017.

It may interest some to know that her “day jobs” over the years have included (in addition to a lot of secretarial work) advertising copy writer, call-in talk host, nightside news copy editor, freelance reporter, photographer, book reviewer, and deliverer of tractor trailers.

 Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, she met fellow beginning new writer Steve Miller. They married in 1980, around the time Sharon made her first professional sale, “A Matter of Ceremony,” to Amazing Stories.

 In 1988, Sharon and Steve moved to Winslow, Maine, and lived there until 2018, when they moved “into town,” to Waterville, on the other side of the Kennebec River. Throughout their writing lives, they’d been carefully supervised by a succession of cats, and this remains true for Sharon. She currently has three Maine Coon cats, including veteran editorial cats Trooper and Firefly, and the new apprentice, Rook.

Sharon is working on the next Liaden book, Diviner’s Bow. She makes no guarantees on how long she will continue writing the series, but will continue to credit Steve as co-author on any new Liaden works she writes. She’s adamant that Liaden would not exist without both her and Steve, and that he is still an integral part of continuing to tell stories in that setting. Because of that, new Liaden stories will continue to bear both names.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

(11) KISSES FROM SPACE. [Item by lance oszko.] Orbital Author Reading gives new meaning to Book Launch. “Kisses from Space”. “Kisses from Space – St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital”.

Polaris Dawn Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon invites you to embark on a celestial journey as she reads Kisses from Space, a children’s book published by Random House. Inspired by the resilient spirit of the young patients at St. Jude, Anna’s heartwarming tale comes to life by bridging the gap between the cosmos and our earthly hearts. These courageous children, in turn, have lent their creativity to the book by crafting artwork inspired by its whimsical illustrations. As you immerse yourself in the magic of Kisses From Space, know that every page turned contributes to a noble cause: supporting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

(12) WESTEROS: EVERYTHING MUST GO. Heritage Auctions is running “HBO® Original Game of Thrones The Auction”, an huge event offering over 2,000 costumes, weapons, props, and set decorations, from October 10-12. For example:

…Among the essential pieces in this auction, my favorite is Oathkeeper, a Valyrian steel sword. Although initially forged for Jaime Lannister (through Tywin Lannister) from Eddard Stark’s legendary sword “Ice,” it was later gifted to Brienne by Jaime with the poignant directive, “It was reforged from Ned Stark’s sword. You’ll use it to defend Ned Stark’s daughter.” Oathkeeper thus became a symbol of Brienne’s journey from an underestimated sole female heir, whose worth was once seen as limited to marriage, to her rise as the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard….

(13) DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO BABYLON-I-AY? Live Science celebrates a “Babylonian Map of the World: The oldest known map of the ancient world”.

…This tablet, which depicts how Babylonians perceived the world thousands of years ago, is peppered with details that offer insight into an earlier time. For example, the ancient world is shown as a singular disc, which is encircled by a ring of water called the Bitter River. At the world’s center sits the Euphrates River and the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon. Labels written in cuneiform, an ancient text, note each location on the map, according to The British Museum. …

(14) CHINA’S MARS PLANS. “China aims for historic Mars mission ‘around 2028’ as it vies for space power” reports CNN.

China’s historic attempt to bring samples from Mars to Earth could launch as soon as 2028, two years earlier than previously stated, according to a senior mission official.

The country’s Tianwen-3 mission would carry out two launches “around 2028” to retrieve the Martian samples, chief mission designer Liu Jizhong said at a deep-space exploration event in eastern China’s Anhui province last week.

The projected mission launch is more ambitious than a 2030 target announced by space officials earlier this year, though the timeline has fluctuated in recent years. A 2028 target appears to return to a launch plan described in 2022 by a senior scientist involved with the Tianwen program – a mission profile that would see samples returned to Earth by 2031.

The latest remarks follow China’s landmark success retrieving the first samples from the far side of the moon in June.

It also comes as an effort by NASA and the European Space Agency to retrieve Mars samples remains under assessment amid concerns over budget, complexity and risk. The US space agency, which first landed on Mars decades ago, said it is evaluating faster and more affordable plans to allow for a speedier result than one that would have returned samples in 2040….

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. Once upon a time on Letterman: “James Earl Jones presents things that only sound cool when he says them.”

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, lance oszko, Lise Andreasen, Andrew (not Werdna), SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 9/7/24 You Are Like A Pixel Scroll, There’s Files In Your Skies

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(1) SANS CLUE. Cora Buhlert declares, “The Guardian is Clueless about Masters of the Universe”.

…That said, the casting of Alison Brie has attracted more mainstream attraction than the casting of Galitzine and Mendes, probably because Brie is better known. And so Ben Child, who has a weekly geek media column in The Guardian, penned a spectacularly clueless article about the proposed live action Masters of the Universe movie.

Even the headline is terrible: “Can Travis Knight’s He-Man movie do for boys what Greta Gerwig’s Barbie did for girls?”

Yes, we all know how fiercely gendered the toy industry is, but must we really perpetuate those shitty stereotypes, especially when we know they’re wrong? Because in the 1980s, Mattel found to their own surprise that forty percent of all Masters of the Universe toys were sold to girls, which is what prompted the introduction of She-Ra. The 1980s Filmation cartoon was eagerly watched by both boys and girls and though Masters of the Universe fandom skews male, there are plenty of female fans, me among them. This isn’t surprising either, because Masters of the Universe has always featured plenty of impressive female characters such as Teela, Evil-Lyn, the Sorceress, Queen Marlena and of course, She-Ra and her entire supporting cast. Finally, there are plenty of male Barbie collectors as well….

… The main problem with the article is that Ben Child seems unable to view Masters of the Universe as anything other than a joke…

(2) FORMER BOARD MEMBER, NOW 404 ERROR. Sarah Gailey, who was on the NaNoWriMo “writers board” is no longer, as explained in “Some Thoughts on NaNoWriMo”.

…It’s reasonable for people to have reacted badly; the “statement” they released was very silly. To say “we will not take one of two positions, but we will say that one of those positions is classist and ableist” is not the deft rhetorical maneuver that NaNoWriMo seems to think it is. The arguments themselves around this so-called classism and ableism wave off the actual existence of writing communities, critique groups, beta readers, and critique partners; they also ignore the creative realities of the impoverished and disabled artists, marginalized authors, and indie authors who have been working all this time without the help of language learning model software that was trained on work stolen from their peers and colleagues. …

And this is the statement Gailey sent to Kilby Blades, Interim Executive Director of NaNoWriMo:

And Gailey said:

… I haven’t heard anything back. As of the time I’m writing this, the urls for the staff page and the Writers’ Board page are returning 404 errors. So does the url for my pep talk. …

(3) GOOD OMENS THIRD SEASON STILL HAPPENING. “’Good Omens’ season three on track at Amazon despite Neil Gaiman allegations” reports Screen Daily.

The third season of Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens is understood to be going ahead as planned at Amazon Prime Video, even though Disney has paused a feature adaptation of Gaiman’s novel, The Graveyard Book, following allegations of sexual assault against the UK author and screenwriter….

Amazon officially greenlit the third season of fantasy drama Good Omens in December 2023. Screen understands plans have not changed for the third season starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant to start filming in early 2025 in Scotland. Gaiman is executive producer, writer and showrunner of the series that is based on a book he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett.

Gaiman is also executive producer and a screenwriter on Anansi Boys, a Prime Video series based on Gaiman’s novel of the same name. While production wrapped on the series last year, no official release date has been set. Screen understands there are no plans to not stream the series….  

(4) CRIME ACTUALLY DOES PAY. For seven years! “FBI busts musician’s elaborate AI-powered $10M streaming-royalty heist” – Ars Technica tells how the scheme worked.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors charged a North Carolina musician with defrauding streaming services of $10 million through an elaborate scheme involving AI, as reported by The New York Times. Michael Smith, 52, allegedly used AI to create hundreds of thousands of fake songs by nonexistent bands, then streamed them using bots to collect royalties from platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.

While the AI-generated element of this story is novel, Smith allegedly broke the law by setting up an elaborate fake listener scheme. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced the charges, which include wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. If convicted, Smith could face up to 20 years in prison for each charge.

Smith’s scheme, which prosecutors say ran for seven years, involved creating thousands of fake streaming accounts using purchased email addresses. He developed software to play his AI-generated music on repeat from various computers, mimicking individual listeners from different locations. In an industry where success is measured by digital listens, Smith’s fabricated catalog reportedly managed to rack up billions of streams.

To avoid detection, Smith spread his streaming activity across numerous fake songs, never playing a single track too many times. He also generated unique names for the AI-created artists and songs, trying to blend in with the quirky names of legitimate musical acts. Smith used artist names like “Callous Post” and “Calorie Screams,” while their songs included titles such as “Zygotic Washstands” and “Zymotechnical.”

…The district attorney announcement did not specify precisely what method Smith used to generate the songs….

(5) BULGACON. Начална страница (bulgacon.org) – Bulgacon, the Bulgarian national convention – takes place September 21-23 with Ian McDonald and Farah Mendlesohn as guests of honor. Dr. Valentin D. Ivanov reports, “Many panels will be in English and the committee is considering opening the online panels to everybody.”

(6) LEARNEDLEAGUE SFF: NARNIA AND MURDERBOT. [Item by David Goldfarb.] Question 1 on day 9 of the current regular LearnedLeague season asked us:

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Magician’s Nephew are all books set in what mythical realm?

(I’ve spoiled the answer in my header, but I daresay very few Filers would have had any trouble with it.) This had a get rate of 89%, with no single wrong answer getting to 5% of the submissions.

In the most recent off-season there was a One-Day Special about File 770’s favorite rogue death machine: follow this link to see Murderbot for Everyone. As the title suggests, the questions try to include general-knowledge paths to the answers as well as knowledge of the books themselves. I actually didn’t do all that well on it: 9 right out of 12, and only 63rd percentile in the scoring. Filers may enjoy seeing if they could have done better.

(7) FLASH SF NIGHT. Space Cowboy Books of Joshua Tree, CA presents “Flash Science Fiction Night” online on Monday September 9 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific. Register to attend for free here.

This is the last Flash Science Fiction Night of the season! Join us online for an evening of short science fiction readings (1000 words or less) with authors Jenna Hanchey, Eric Fomley, and Marie Vibbert. Flash Science Fiction Nights run 30 minutes or less, and are a fun and great way to learn about new authors from around the world.

(8) SFWA TOWN HALL COMING. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association Board will conduct the organization’s first SFWA Town Hall for members on September 10, 2024.

This event is part of the ongoing effort to foster communication with the membership, talk about what the organization is current doing and planning, and to take an opportunity to listen.

By working together, the board can address concerns and begin writing the next chapters in the history of SFWA.

(9) TRIBUTE TO BROTHER. Inverse remembers, “40 Years Ago, a Cult Classic Sci-Fi Movie Beat John Carpenter to the Punch”.

…Compared to the bloated multiverse era where “less is more” is an alien concept, 1984 cult favorite The Brother from Another Planet seems like it’s been beamed in from an entirely different celestial body. Its $350,000 budget — a small sum even for the time — would be lucky to cover 30 seconds of a Marvel flick. Its special effects are limited to a few glowing lights and a deformed toe. And far from delivering any grandstanding speeches, its superhero is entirely mute.

The titular Brother, who’s not even given the luxury of a name, is an extra-terrestrial whose powers are far more intuitive (he can hear voices from the past by touching his surroundings) than communicative. But thanks to a nuanced performance from future Emmy winner Joe Morton, he still manages to convey the emotional complexities of the immigrant experience (just to make it clear the film is allegorical, his primitive spaceship crashlands on Ellis Island)….

(10) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Anniversary: Land of the Lost series (1974)

By Paul Weimer. “Marshall, Will and Holly, on a routine expedition…”

Before Buck Rogers, or Battlestar Galactica, or reruns of TOS Star Trek, the first genre shows I can recall watching, in the misty lands of the 1970’s, were reruns of the Sid and Marty Krofft TV shows, including and most especially, Land of the Lost. 

What was not to love in those days? The Marshall family trapped in another world. Dinosaurs! Lizardmen! Weird alien technology crystals? I watched the show avidly, until it fell away from TV screens, and other tv series took their place in my mind in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.  And I mostly didn’t think about Land of the Lost for two decades.

Until Bubble Boy.

Bubble Boy was a 2001 film, and I can’t really counsel you to seek it out and watch it. It has a young Jake Gyllenhaal playing the titular immunocompromised character who goes on adventures despite being in a bubble. But he is as sheltered emotionally and otherwise as he is physically, having not been allowed to even watch much TV.  One of the shows he has been able to watch was, in fact, Land of the Lost…and very early in the movie, the titular character does a “punk rock version” of the theme song.  It brought me back immediately to my young watching of the show.  That song really is an earworm.

Later on, a few years later, I met a friend who was obsessed with the show, and insisted I watch it again. So, with the suck fairy an idea that had not formulated in popular culture, but was in my mind, I decided to rent it on Netflix DVDs and rewatch it. I was nervous it was more going to be than wasted time, that my fond distant memories of the show would burst like a bubble.

Yes the show is cheesy, the special effects not so much, and it is a kids tv show…but I was surprised at how much I liked the show for what it was. 

Watching the entire arc from start to finish, I saw the creative seeds of genius in the show (and also saw at least one episode I had missed back in the day. Crucially, an episode written by Larry Niven (!) where the Marshalls try to paddle out of the Land of the Lost, run into a Confederate Gold miner and discover they are, in fact, in an enclosed pocket universe. Combine that with the crystal powered pylons that allow time and space travel, a time loop episode and more, the strong SF roots of the show came to mind. 

And then there is Enik. Poor, poor Enik, the intelligent Sleestak..who thought he had traveled into the past to see the barbaric ancestors of his high-tech civilization. And the soul crushing realization he gets when he realizes that he has in fact traveled far to the future, and his high-tech civilization is doomed to fall to barbarism. Heady stuff for a kids TV show, eh?

Land of the Lost crops up again, visually and otherwise in fantasy novels and tv series. In the novel Paragaea, for instance, the main character, trapped on another planet, stumbles onto a jungle temple ruin, complete with Sleestaks, described exactly in terms of the tv series. 

But the remake movie with Will Farrell? Skip it. Just skip it. I’ve never seen the reboot series, either (that is apparently currently on Apple TV).

“When I look all around, I can’t believe the things I found…”

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) CAMPY CRANIUM. “New horror musical arrives in Ypsilanti just in time for Halloween” – The Eastern Echo has details.

Getting antsy for the spooky season? Kick off those calendars with the premiere of “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die!”, a new musical written by Ypsilanti-area vocalist and stage director Carla Margolis.

Inspired by the 1960s cult classic of the same name, the musical is a reimagining that takes audiences through the infamous, campy storyline with an all-new original soundtrack. When a brilliant yet, reckless scientist’s fiancé is decapitated in a car accident, he uses a magical serum to keep her head alive. The head, while completely immobile, keeps its ability to sing and talk.

Fans of the movie can expect a more serious look at the same themes found in the original. 

“It focuses on bodily autonomy for women; now that it’s more perilous than ever, I don’t really address it specifically, but there was definitely an inspiration. There’s a lot of misogyny baked into this story,” Margolis said. 

Margolis’ unique take is rooted in a time period when feminist themes were less accepted in media, and that elevates the script to new levels, they said….

(13) ALL ABOARD FOR ALL ALONG. “How Marvel expands ‘WandaVision’ corner of MCU with ‘Agatha All Along,’ ‘Vision Quest’” – Entertainment Weekly interviews a Marvel TV exec and a showrunner.

…These two shows will broaden what Schaeffer refers to as “the WandaVision corner” of the MCU, and Winderbaum says Agatha All Along, titled after Hahn’s chart-topping song of the same name as performed in that first series, “really led the charge.”

The premise kicks off when a mysterious goth teen who’s obsessed with witchcraft (Joe Locke) helps Agatha break free of Wanda’s spell, only now she’s completely left without her powers. This “Teen,” who’s been hexed by…someone so that he can never share his name or any identifying information with other witches, plants the idea of traversing the Witches’ Road, a mystical realm that faces wanderers with deadly trials. If conquered, Agatha could regain all her magic once more. She just needs a coven to pull it off. Enter Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal, Patti LuPone’s Lilia Calderu, Sasheer Zamata’s Jennifer Kale, and Ali Ahn’s Alice Wu-Gulliver….

(14) SAIL SIGHTED. “NASA spacecraft captures 1st photo of its giant solar sail while tumbling in space” – Space has the story.

On April 23, NASA launched a solar sail protype to orbit around our planet — a piece of technology that could very well revolutionize the way we think about spacecraft propulsion. Then, on Aug. 29, the agency confirmed this sail successfully unfurled itself in outer space. Yet, we still didn’t have official photographic evidence of this for some time. 

Now, as of Sept. 5, we indeed do. NASA has released the first image of the open solar sail, formally called the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, and stated that the spacecraft from which the sail was released will continue to send back more footage and data as time goes on….

… As NASA says in the statement, it’s important to first remember there are four wide-angle cameras in the center of the spacecraft anchoring the sail. 

Near the bottom of the image, one camera view shows the “reflective sail quadrants supported by composite booms” while at the top of the photo, we can see the back surface of one of the craft’s solar panels. Most spacecraft are lined with solar panels because that’s how they power themselves up: with sunlight.

“The five sets of markings on the booms close to the spacecraft are reference markers to indicate full extension of the sail,” the statement says. “The booms are mounted at right angles, and the solar panel is rectangular, but appear distorted because of the wide-angle camera field of view.”…

(15) WHIP IT. Gizmodo says “Bear McCreary Wants to Bring an Obscure Lord of the Rings Song to Rings of Power”.

The soundtrack for Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel has afforded composer Bear McCreary a canvas as vast as Middle-earth to play with: Howard Shore-ish riffs, unique orchestral pieces, and increasingly in season two, lots of song work. We already know the lumbering hill-troll Damrod is getting his own heavy metal infused piece this season, and this week, McCreary weaved one of Tolkien’s own poems into a beautiful song to welcome Tom Bombadil to the show. But the composer has a much more obscure, and much more intriguing ditty from the franchise’s adaptive past he wants to make a nod to.

That song? “Where There’s a Whip, There’s a Way” from the Rankin Bass adaptation of Return of the King. “I’m looking. I’m looking for the moment,” McCreary said in a recent Instagram live chat of his desire to bring the song to Rings of Power (via /Film). “It hasn’t happened yet but I would love to make that happen.”

[Thanks to Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, David Goldfarb, Paul Weimer, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, and Steven French for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Ken Richards.]

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(1) SANDERSON’S LATEST KICKSTARTER BONANZA. [Item by David Doering.] Brandon Sanderson has once again won the hearts of his fans. His current Kickstarter for “Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere® RPG by Brotherwise Games” had a campaign goal of $250,000. It’s currently raised $12.3 million, and has one day left to run. It is the largest RPG Kickstarter of all time.

The Cosmere® Roleplaying Game is a new system that encompasses the entire universe of Brandon Sanderson’s best-selling novels. This original RPG launches in 2025 with the Stormlight World Guide, Stormlight Handbook, and Stormlight Stonewalkers™ Adventure. It expands to include Mistborn® in 2026, with a steady rollout of new worlds and adventures for years to come!

(2) WILL LIBRARIAN FOLLOW BOOKS INTO THE CAN? “New College moves to fire top librarian over book disposals” reports the Tampa Bay Times.

Days after a public outcry over images of thousands of discarded books in a dumpster, New College has moved to fire the dean of the college’s library.

In a letter dated Aug. 16, the university’s general counsel sent Shannon Hausinger a letter saying a preliminary decision to fire her was made after they deemed her responsible for the improper disposal of 13,000 books.

The letter claimed Hausinger “deleted or failed to maintain notes relating to the reasons or justification that each book was selected for disposal.” The letter said that Hausinger sent a link to the library’s weeding policy to General Counsel for review on Aug. 14, but that the dumpster had arrived on campus on Aug. 13.

Hausinger was given 10 days to reply to the letter before a final decision would be made. New College did not immediately confirm if a decision had been made as of Tuesday.

In a statement Monday, university spokesperson Nathan March said the books in the library that were disposed of were separate from the hundreds of books in the Gender and Diversity Center — the removal of which received praise from the likes of trustee Chris Rufo and spokespeople for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“There is no connection between the New College Library and the books that were removed from the Gender and Diversity Center,” he said. “As previously stated, the Gender and Diversity Center was in a separate building, and the books were never a part of the library’s collection. Those books could have been claimed at various times, and finally were claimed and donated; (they) were not discarded.”

Faculty and students have contested that characterization, saying they had no warning to claim the books and that it is unclear how many of those have been saved….

(3) THE RULES WE MUST FOLLOW. [Item by Steven French.] A new hit Chinese game has sparked controversy after gaming influencers who were given early access were told not to mention news and politics, Covid-19, or “feminist propaganda” while publicly discussing the game. “Hit game Black Myth: Wukong faces backlash after telling players not to discuss ‘feminist propaganda’” reports the Guardian.

Black Myth: Wukong, which was released last week, is China’s first “triple A” rated game, an industry term meaning a high budget blockbuster game, and is based on the famous 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West.

Within three days it had sold more than 10m copies worldwide according to the game’s developers, Game Science.

But amid its success there has been debate over a list of topics to avoid that was sent to influencers and content creators along with access to a pre-release version of the game. The document, which was quickly shared on social media, listed issues to avoid while live-streaming the game.’

Do NOT insult other influencers or players.
Do NOT use any offensive language/humor.
Do NOT include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse.
Do NOT use trigger words such as ‘quarantine’ or ‘isolation’ or ‘Covid-19’.
Do NOT discuss content related to China’s game industry policies, opinions, news, etc.

It wasn’t clear what the instructions meant by “feminist propaganda”, but reporting on the directive noted Game Science employees had faced allegations of sexist and inappropriate behaviour, most notably in reports from game website IGN in November…

(4) CONSENT WILL NOW BE REQUIRED. “SAG-AFTRA Wins Passage of California Bill to Limit AI Replicas” – Variety explains.

A bill to protect performers from unauthorized AI replicas was approved by the California Senate on Tuesday and will soon head to the governor’s desk.

SAG-AFTRA, the actors union, has made the bill one of its top legislative priorities this year. AB 2602 would require explicit consent for the use of a “digital replica” of a performer.

The bill mirrors language in the SAG-AFTRA contract that ended last year’s four-month strike against the film and TV studios. It would also extend those protections to include other types of performances, such as videogames, audio books and commercials, and would also encompass non-union work….

(5) THE APPEAL OF D&D. NPR’s A Martínez and Glen Weldon think back: “As D&D turns 50, we remember the early days”.

…MARTÍNEZ: Now, you wrote an essay for NPR about your very first D&D character. Tell us about that.

WELDON: Well, yeah, I started playing a few years after it came out. And when I was 13, I started playing as a character who I stuck with for years. He was a kind of wizard called an illusionist. And I chose him because I found this one pencil sketch in a D&D rule book by illustrator Jeff D. It was an illusionist casting a gnarly-looking spell, and I dug that, but what I loved, what moved me, and what frankly sealed the deal for my young closeted, queer self was his outfit. And I went back and found this illustration. You can see it in the essay. A, He had thigh boots for one thing. I mean, I’m not made of stone.

MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).

WELDON: Plus, he had very tight pants, and this form-fitting tunic, a sleeveless tunic – you and I would call it a tank top. But the important thing is that was a tank top with shoulder pads, and I’m not talking like little epaulets. I mean these were some dramatic, flared out, Ming the Merciless meets Julia Sugarbaker shoulder pads. So I’d love to sit here and tell you that it was something profound that hooked me on the game, like the magic of the imagination and the camaraderie with my fellow players, but real talk, it was that muscle shirt with the big swoopy shoulder pads….

(6) CHADWICK BOSEMAN COMMEMORATED. Entertainment Weekly took note as “Lupita Nyong’o marks 4th anniversary of Chadwick Boseman death”. (The Instagram post is at this link.)

The years go on, but the pain of loss hardly fades. Wednesday was the fourth anniversary of Chadwick Boseman’s death from colon cancer at age 42, and his Black Panther costar Lupita Nyong’o marked the occasion with a touching Instagram post….

“Grief never ends. But it changes. It is a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith. It’s the price of love,” Nyong’o wrote on Instagram, attributing the words to an unknown author.

She concluded the post more directly: “Remembering Chadwick Boseman. Forever.”

(7) CAROL ANN MACLEOD (1952-2024). Carol Ann MacLeod, wife of Glasgow 2024 guest of honor Ken MacLeod, died August 16. MacLeod made the sad announcement in a blog post today.

Carol, my beloved wife whom I met in 1979 and married in 1981, died on Friday 16 August.

She was the centre of my world, and she’s gone.

There will be a funeral service at Greenock Crematorium, on Monday 2 September, at 2 pm, to which all family and friends are invited. Family flowers only please. There will be a retiral collection in aid of Carol’s favourite charities.

(8) FRAN SKENE (1937-2024). Vancouver fan Fran Skene died June 17 at the age of 86. File 770 only learned that when we were notified of plans for her memorial.  Garth Spencer has written a fine tribute to her in Obdurate Eye #41.

Fran chaired the 1977 Westercon, held in Vancouver, and three editions of the city’s annual V-CON (1978, 1981, and 1986). She was one of the leaders of the Vancouver in ’84 Worldcon bid (won by L.A.)

She published the fanzine Love Makes the World Go Awry from 1979 to 1983.

She was a guest of honor at MileHiCon 10 (1978), Westercon 35 (1982), Ad Astra 7 and Keycon 5 (1988), and the CUFF delegate in 2019.

(9) JOHN ADCOCK (1950-2024). Yesterday’s Papers website host John Adcock died June 1. The site’s new administrator, Rick Marschall, paid tribute in “RIP, John Adcock”.

…John Kenneth Adcock was born in 1950 in Nelson, BC, Canada; and grew up in Trail, BC. He was a cartoonist, illustrator, storyteller, and blogger. As a professional and amateur scholar he shared his love and fruits of research in the areas of comics and cartoons; dime novels and “penny dreadfuls” and various genres of folk music.

In recent decades John devoted himself to this web magazine In its electronic pages he published thousands of articles (many by himself but also by scholars from around the world) and illustrations. It commenced in 2008 with an article about Walt Kelly’s Ten Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo. At the time of John’s death there had been 5,562,010 page views of the Yesterday’s Papers site.

Yesterday’s Papers is widely respected as the internet’s premier site for scholarly essays; news and analysis; reviews and commentary on the history and heritage of the comic-strip art form….

(10) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

August 28, 1916 — Jack Vance. (Died 2013.)

By Paul Weimer: One of my heart authors. 

I first heard of Vance’s work through the famous Appendix N in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Vance’s Dying Earth was hard to find at that point, however, and so my first exposure to Vance’s work was as the progenitor of the D&D magic system, instead of his science fiction and sword-and-planet works. My older brother had copies of the Tschai novels, featuring stranded astronaut Adam Reith. Since I was watching cartoons like Blackstar (which featured a stranded astronaut), the appeal was a connection for me to try Vance’s work. 

Jack Vance. Photo by Hayford Peirce

On such a hook, a lifelong love of Vance’s work began. I stumbled on various short stories of his, here and there, and briefly contemplated buying a far too expensive used copy of the Dying Earth.  But in the 1990’s the Dying Earth got re-released (as did the Tschai novels, the Demon Princes novels, and much more) and I deeply absorbed all the Vance that was republished. And then there are the Subterranean Press anthologies of his work, which I might decide to do columns on, in a re-read of his most excellent short fiction. 

Vance’s use of language (and footnotes!) charm me incessantly. His baroque and descriptive locations, ideas, cultures, societies and worldbulding keep me going back to his work, from short stories to novels. Yes, some of his main characters can be sometimes faceless determinators, vessels for the reader to explore the worlds they live in more than having personality. But even that is a stereotype, an exaggeration, and perhaps his characters don’t come colorfully off of the page.  As interesting as Ghyl Tarvoke is as a character in Emphyrio, it is the unusual social systems and the tenor of his writing that draw me in and keep me turning pages in one of his best and most definitive novels. It’s the one SF novel of his I’d commend to you if you want to try his SF side. 

Trying to choose a favorite Jack Vance work is much harder than it looks. I have already named some of his best and some of my favorites. But I am going to go with one of his non-series minor stories. “Green Magic”. It’s short, sharp, and in the end has a poignant melancholy to it that infuses a lot of Vance’s work. The price of knowledge can be hard and steep, and in the story, Howard Fair indeed learns that cost. 

And if you think his fiction is wild, his real life (as seen in his autobiography, This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This Is “I”) was pretty wild, too.  Such a talent.

Dick Lupoff delivers Jack Vance’s 2010 Hugo for This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This Is “I”)

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) NOT A FAN. Maya St. Clair’s trio of reviews in “The Agony, the Ecstasy, the Renaissance Fantasy” includes a wonderful KTF of My Lady Jane, both the book and the recent adaptation.

…This is a confession. When I read the widely-beloved book My Lady Jane however many years ago, I felt it was some kind of cultural gaslight designed to torture me personally. No matter how I tried to understand its appeal, I could never figure out just why, or for whom, My Lady Jane existed. Its humor felt forced and precious; its cutesy insistence on giving Protestant child-martyr Jane Grey the fairytale AU she somehow “deserved” (or would have even wanted) came across as a fake-friend kind of projection. In terms of style, My Lady Jane felt engineered to appeal to the twee librarian blogs that dominated YA in the 2010s. None of it clicked for me, and I never had one of those poptimist conversion experiences by which one learns, like a chill and well-adjusted person, to stop worrying and love the Silly Thing For What It Is….

As for the quickly cancelled TV series:

… We know that the real Jane Grey would have resisted such portrayals, but as a figure of the stuffy, backwards past, she couldn’t have known any better, and will receive our punishment/liberation anyway. Our female gaze is constant and sharp, and we do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, we want our female gaze to be inflicted on others….

(13) THIS JOB IS NOT THAT F’N EASY! [Item by Steven French.] “’It was bloody hard work’: what it’s like to be a 16ft TV troll” says the Guardian.

With the second season of Amazon’s The Rings of Power featuring a hill troll called Damrod lumbering around, now is the perfect time to consider these massive creatures afresh. More specifically: if you’re asked to portray one as an actor, what do you do?

“We had a little bit of difficulty right at the start because: how do you actually play a troll? How do you move?” This is William Kircher, who played Tom, one of the three cave trolls in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Kircher was lucky enough to portray not just Tom; like the other two actors in the troll sequence, he also doubled up as a dwarf in the Hobbit trilogy (and got paid two separate fees for his trouble). But, while his dwarf Bifur was for all intents and purposes just a small man who had never been to the barber, his troll role took a little more thought. “It was bloody hard work,” he says. “There’s no easy way to play a troll.”’

(14) FOR AULD LANG NYE. The last Disney World ride featuring Bill Nye is going to be replaced. “It’s The End Of An Era As Disney World Cuts Ties With Bill Nye The Science Guy After Nearly 30 Years” – Cinemablend tells what happened.

Following D23 we have a very a lot to look forward to at Disney Parks. A great deal of new attractions at Disney World are planned for the next several years. The recent announcement that work is set to begin soon on the Tropical Americas area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom has a lot of Walt Disney World fans quite excited.

Dinoland U.S.A. has been underused for years, and the news the new land will be receiving attractions dedicated to Encanto and Indiana Jones is a lot to look forward to. However, there is one beloved attraction that will have to go to make room for what’s new, and when Dinosaur finally closes it will also end a nearly three-decade run for Bill Nye The Science Guy at Walt Disney World.It’s sad when moments like this happen, and Bill Nye is a pretty iconic figure for many who grew up with him. It will certainly be sad to see him go.

Bill Nye’s relationship with Disney goes back to the early 1990s when his self-titled TV series was produced by the company. Perhaps that was why, in the late ‘90s the famed educator could be found in three different places at Walt Disney World. However, two of those three attractions are already gone, and as one fan pointed out on Twitter, the third is now on the chopping block….

… When the new Tropical Americas area at Disney’s Animal Kingdom was officially announced to be replacing Dinoland U.S.A., it was all but confirmed that Dinosaur was dead….

The exact date that Dinosaur, and by extension Bill Nye, will disappear from Disney World is unclear. D’Amaro said the Tropical Americas construction would be done in phases, so even if work begins soon, that doesn’t mean Dinosaur will close on the day that work starts. D’Amaro specifically mentioned fans having a bit more time to say goodbye to Dinosaur, indicating it will be open for at least a while during construction….

[Thanks to Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Paul Weimer, David Doering, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, and SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]

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(1) LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION AWARD. The idea of the Location Managers Guild Award is truly Hollywood insider stuff. It’s “meant to spotlight outstanding filming locations that sent the tone and enhance the narrative for international features, television and commercials.” There are genre winners, of course. “Location Managers Guild Awards 2024” at Deadline.

OUTSTANDING LOCATIONS IN A PERIOD TELEVISION SERIES
Fallout
Paul Kramer, Chris Arena, Mandi Dillin / LMGI, David Park / LMGI, Paul van der Ploeg

OUTSTANDING LOCATIONS IN A CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION SERIES
Fargo Season 5
Mohammad Qazzaz / LMGI, Luke Antosz / LMGI

OUTSTANDING LOCATIONS IN A TV SERIAL PROGRAM, ANTHOLOGY, MOW OR LIMITED SERIES
Ripley
Robin Melville / LMGI, Giuseppe Nardi / LMGI, Fabio Ferrante, Shane Haden

OUTSTANDING LOCATIONS IN A PERIOD FEATURE FILM
Oppenheimer
Justin Duncan /LMGI, Dennis Muscari, Patty Carey-Perazzo, T.C. Townsen

OUTSTANDING LOCATIONS IN A CONTEMPORARY FEATURE FILM
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part 1
David Campbell-Bell, Enrico Latella / LMGI, Jonas Fylling Christiansen, Niall O’Shea, Ben Firminger

OUTSTANDING FILM COMMISSION
Film in Iceland
True Detective: Night Country

OUTSTANDING LOCATIONS IN A COMMERCIAL
Toyota: Present from the Past
Mark Freid / LMGI, Paul Riordan / LMGI

(2) LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS BOOKS. Charlie Jane Anders names “10 Literary Books That Made Me a Better Science Fiction Writer” at Happy Dancing.

… As I wrote a while back, the appearance of literary merit means people will give your work more of a chance in spite of weird experiments, but it also means the reader might pay a bit more attention to the nuts and bolts of the story (at least sometimes.) In a good literary story, this relationship with the ideal reader leads to more attention to detail: the sentence-level prose, but also the small details of people’s lives and inner states….

6) Possession by A.S. Byatt

I re-read this book just a few months ago, because my upcoming novel Lessons in Magic and Disaster has a similar literary detective story at its heart. And when I think about the current vogue for Dark Academia stories, Possession feels like a foundational text to me. The story of two young scholars who stumble upon a long lost letter that hints at a secret affair between two Victorian poets, Possession fairly burns with the joy of discovery and textual analysis. That’s the thing that I really discovered when I re-read this book: the poetry of Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte is vitally important to the story and to their love affair, and the “clues” in the story are as much about the beauty of their writing and metaphors as any love letters. I’ll probably be writing more about Possession as the release date of Lessons in Magic and Disaster grows closer, so stay tuned….

(3) CAN THE PRICE BE RIGHT? “AMC to release new Batman popcorn bucket” – Batman News has details.

…AMC Theaters will have a Bat-Signal popcorn bucket available on Aug. 28 that will sell for $34.99. A new collectible cup of the Batmobile will also be available for $11.99, but a combo can be purchased for $44.99….

(4) ARMED LIBRARIAN. “Hell hath no fury like a librarian scorned in the book banning wars” – behind a paywall at the LA Times.

A MANDA JONES is a Louisiana middle-school librarian who sleeps with a shotgun under her bed and carries a pistol when she travels the back roads.

Threats against her began two years ago after she spoke out against censorship and was drawn into the culture wars over book banning. She was condemned as a pedophile and a groomer and accused of “advocating teaching anal sex to 11-year-olds.” The Christian right targeted her, and she found herself in the news warning that conservatives in her state and across much of the country were endangering libraries and intellectual freedom.

“I never expected any of this,” said Jones, who lives in Livingston Parish. “It’s a huge weight to feel all that attention. I’m just a school librarian from a two red-light town.”

Jones’ cautionary and disquieting testament to the nation’s divisiveness is told in her new memoir, “That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America,” a blunt, angry, searching and redeeming story about a woman engulfed by forces and designs she never imagined. It is a glimpse into a family and a small town that reads like a chapter out of “The Scarlet Letter” or “The Crucible,” narratives whose themes of fear, superstition, rage and religion are again permeating the nation’s political moment, including Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s recent comments that “Democrats want to put sexually explicit books in toddlers’ libraries.”…

(5) ANALYSIS OF A CONVOLUTED PUBLISHING HISTORY. Rich Horton decides it’s time for another look at a classic: “Review: Norstrilia, by Cordwainer Smith” at Strange at Ecbatan.

… I don’t really want to say more about the plot. There is at the same time a lot going on, but in an odd way not. Some of it seems a bit arbitrary, some doesn’t quite convince, and some is fascinating. But still at all pretty much works. The novel isn’t at a level with Smith’s greatest works, but parts of it are. At time it reaches the incantatory heights Smith could achieve, and it hints throughout at a really important story — the story of the Underpeople (which is also central to “The Ballad of Lost C’Mell”, and which perhaps is ultimately key to the entire Instrumentality future history.)….

(6) HOWARD WALDROP REMEMBRANCE EVENT. George R.R. Martin tells readers about the video portion of a memorial for Howard Waldrop, held June 29, at Not a Blog.

…I was not able to be there in person (we were in London at the time) but there was no way I could not be a part of a remembrance for H’ard, so I taped some remarks and sent them to Robert Taylor, who was organizing the event.   I went on rather a long time, as it happens, but Howard and I had a long history and I am a wordy bastard in any case, as many of you know.  My tape ended up coming in around 45 minutes long, and could easily have gone three hours if I’d just kept talking.  There are so many stories to tell.

That was too long for the Austin memorial, so Robert and his team kindly cut and trimmed it for the event.   I do have the longer version and will likely post it here… probably later rather than sooner.   For now, we have this; not only my video, but all the other speeches and stories as well, from some of Howard’s pals.   (Some, not all.  Howard had friends all over the world.

Parts of this may bring a tear to your eye.   Other bits will make you laugh.   Laughter was one of Howard’s gifts….

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

August 25, 1955 – Simon R. Green, 69. I’ve had email conversations with our Birthday honoree, Simon R. Green. He’s a fascinating, friendly person. 

I first read the Deathstalker series which, like everything he writes, is part of the same multiverse.  Owen Deathstalker, reluctant heir to the ancient Deathstalker name and a very minor historian, will come to lead a rebellion against the powerful and corrupt empire ruled by The Iron Bitch. Every SF trope is here — crashed alien starships, rogue computer hackers, clones and espers to name but a few. Yes, it’s space opera but not to be taken too seriously. 

Simon R. Green

Moving sideways for a movement, he did a stellar job with his Forest Kingdom fantasy series which plays it more straight I think save SLIGHT SPOILER such touches as a butterfly collecting dragon END SLIGHT SPOILER. The connected Hawk and Fisher series of two Guardsman in Haven, a corrupt seaport, solving magical mysteries is wonderful.

Remember how I said everything was in the same multiverse? Hawk and Fisher show up in Strangefellows, just having a drink. Strangefellows being the bar in Nightside, the pocket universe beneath London where John Taylor is the only detective, as told in the Nightside series. Great setting, fascinating characters, weird stories. 

The Secret History series involved the Droods, an ancient family that watches over the world and protects it from mostly supernatural and magical threats. They have a magical armor they, well, protects them from everything. Great series. This and the Nightside series were wrapped in one novel, Night Fall. 

I should note that all of the must be read from the beginning. There is significant plot development as each series moved along. Characters change, situations develop. 

The Ghostfinders of the Carnacki Institute, an ancient and very secretive government department , exist to deal with ghosts, and live by the motto “We don’t take any shit from the Hereafter”. The plots here are thinner than in his other series but I find the character interesting enough to like the series. 

Ishmael Jones is someone who cannot afford to be noticed, someone who lives under the radar. Why so? Because it’s been sixty years since the alien starship made him human and he hasn’t aged at all. These are really fun because Ishmael Jones simultaneously believes he’s human and alien, and views everything that way. Stories are quite good. 

A freestanding novel of note is Drinking Midnight Wine about a small English town (actually where he was born) where good in all sorts of magical forms pushed back against evil in yet more magical forms. There’s an Angel, but trust me when I say that you wouldn’t want to meet her.

He’s too prolific to cover everything here and I noticed I skipped the excellent Giden Sable series. Oh well.

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) NOW WITH EXTRA ADDED EVIL. “’Rings of Power’ Returns, With More Creatures and More Evil”. Link bypasses New York Times paywall.

… In April last year, the production for Season 2 sprawled across several sites around Windsor, England. Shuttle cars sped hundreds of crew members and craft makers between vast studios and forests. For about eight months, nearly 90 cast members spent hours in hair and makeup to be transformed into elves, dwarves, orcs and other Middle-earth dwellers.

A building housed racks of costumes and specially molded or 3-D-printed trinkets and armor. Outdoor sets the size of playgrounds plunged the actors into a court in Númenor or the trenches of an orc camp. And nearby, machinery waited in a muddy field to film a gritty battle scene inspired by films like “Saving Private Ryan.”

“I kept saying constantly on set: more blood, more dust, more mud, more everything,” Charlotte Brandstrom, who directed four of the upcoming season’s episodes, said in an interview. (Some scenes set in Rhûn were also filmed in the Canary Islands.)

This, after all, might be the most expensive series in TV history, a blockbuster prequel that reportedly cost Amazon $715 million for its first season, and premieres the first three episodes of its second season on Thursday…

(10) BITE ON. [Item by Steven French.] Do we need another zombie series? If it has Sue Johnston biting someone’s nose off, then yes please! “‘Sue Johnston’s first day on set, she was biting someone’s nose off’: Ben Wheatley on his zombie drama Generation Z” in the Guardian.

… The old eat the young. That is the back-of-a-beermat pitch for new Channel 4 drama Generation Z. And because the Z stands for zombie, the eating is meant literally. “I loved the idea of a horror story about societal breakdown, told from the perspective of different generations,” says its writer-director Ben Wheatley. “Once I started writing it, I couldn’t stop.”

The film-maker’s first original series for TV begins with an army convoy crashing outside a care home. The subsequent chemical leak turns the residents into marauding monsters who attack local youngsters. “It’s a bit of a Brexit metaphor,” admits Wheatley. “But it’s by no means binary. We discuss it from each generation’s viewpoint, exploring the notion that boomers have ruined the lives of the young. Because it’s a genre piece, that’s basically by biting their hands and eating their brains.”…

(11) BE ON THE LOOKOUT. Dan Monroe investigates “Whatever Happened to The LAST STARFIGHTER?” at Movies, Music & Monsters.

(12) ZERO FAMILY VALUES. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] From Netflix Anime. Very violent. Very bloody. Very NSFW. Gizmodo warns: “Terminator Zero’s New Trailer Shows the Bloody War to Come”.

…While writing Zero, Mattson keyed in on three core Terminator pillars: killer robots, “fear and dread around nuclear holocaust,” and family-centric stories. If the first two films are respectively about “a man and woman making a baby” and “a mother’s love for her son,” this series is about a fractured family coming together again. In his eyes, you don’t get Terminator without those three tenets, they’ve all led to an enduring franchise aiming to make a comeback and take some new swings.

[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jon Meltzer.]

Pixel Scroll 8/18/24 The Golden Pixels Of The Scroll

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(1) LOOK OUT FOR YOURSELF. The Horror Writers Association blog continues its “Nuts & Bolts” series with “Author Todd Keisling on Self-Advocacy for Writers”.

Nobody becomes a writer because they had childhood dreams of negotiating contracts. Like it or not, according to author Todd Keisling, it’s part of the job for authors without an agent. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Todd talks about what authors – particularly beginners – should know about self-advocacy.

Q: What do you mean by self-advocacy, where writers are concerned?

A: I mean just that: You have to advocate for yourself. Not every writer has the luxury of an agent to review and negotiate contractual matters. I certainly didn’t, not for many years, and over time I learned from others what to watch out for, what was acceptable, and when to walk away. If a writer has no representation, it’s necessary to be their own advocate and speak up when a publisher isn’t doing what they said they would, or if a contract isn’t worded to your liking. No one else is going to speak up for you, so you have to do it yourself.

Q: What mistakes do beginning writers tend to make in that regard?

A: The biggest mistake I’ve seen (and one that I’ve made myself) is jumping into a contract as soon as it’s offered. Contracts are legally binding agreements, but many young writers are so enamored by an offer of publication that they will sign it without reading it. Another mistake is not taking the time to research the publisher, or to research the market and determine if what said publisher is offering is a standard deal or not. I’m talking about pay rates, percentages, rights, and more.

Q: What are some red flags that writers should look out for?

A: Any legal language that says the writer is financially responsible for any part of the process. That’s a huge red flag. Money flows to the writer, always.

Rights grabs are a big one. If a publisher is seeking all rights — worldwide print rights (regardless of language and region), film, audio, graphic novel — with little or no compensation, that’s a huge red flag. Especially if the publisher has no history of acting on those rights.

Term limits are another — you don’t want a publisher to own the publishing rights in perpetuity. Those terms should be spelled out in the contract. Lack of a rights reversion clause is another one I look for. A reversion clause will spell out how and when your rights revert back to you in the event the publisher files bankruptcy or goes out of business….

(2) BOMBADIL FINALLY GETS HIS 15 MINUTES OF FAME. In an Interview with actor Rory Kinnear, the Guardian reporter reveals that they haven’t read LoTR very carefully (hello, Barrowdowns?!!): “Rory Kinnear: ‘I congratulate everyone who is on the brink of baldness’”.

… Kinnear’s next appearance will be in the second season of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. He’s playing Tom Bombadil, a mysterious, magical, much-beloved character from JRR Tolkien’s classic, but one never before seen on screen. Viewed by Tolkien as a personification of nature, and the oldest being in Middle-earth, Bombadil doesn’t intervene in any of the goings-on in the books. Having been around since the dawn of time, he’s above the petty notions of good and evil.

That makes him a tricky character to adapt. Neither Ralph Bakshi, director of the 1978 animated retelling of the story, nor Peter Jackson, the film-maker behind the multi-Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy, thought him worthy of inclusion in their versions. Bakshi said Bombadil “didn’t move the story along”, a view shared by Jackson. Even JD Payne, co-showrunner of The Rings of Power, told Vanity Fair that the character was “anti-dramatic … the characters kind of just go there [to Bombadil’s home] and hang out for a while, and Tom drops some knowledge on them.”

What drew Kinnear to a character so inconsequential no director ever wanted to go near him before? His partner, it turns out. Kinnear had been approached by the producers of the series in late 2022 about joining the cast. But having never read the books or seen any adaptations, he was in the dark about the significance of the character. He got off the phone and went downstairs to tell his partner, fellow actor Pandora Colin, about some character called Tom Bombadil.

“She looked at me and said: ‘You’re kidding?’” he recalls. “It’s her favourite part of the books. I usually like her taste, so I thought I’d better read them and start preparing. It was mainly from her reaction that I was interested. Inconsequential, dramatically, as Tom may be, he’s obviously left an impression on fans.”’

(3) OCTOTHORPE. Winner of the 2024 Best Fancast Hugo Octothorpe has dropped episode 116: “I’m Not Absolutely Sure I Voted”.

The live episode from Glasgow 2024 is here! We know you all expect the live episodes to be a bit less structured and organised than the recorded ones, but the three of us had had even less sleep than usual and so it’s a bit more chaotic than usual… normal service will resume in 117!

Spontaneously generated transcript here.

John, Liz and Alison (I know, listener, I know) are looking off to the right holding their Hugo Awards as people take photographs of them on the stage at the SEC Armadillo.

(4) FRESH HORROR. Gabino Iglesias, author of House of Bone and Rain, reviews three new horror books in the New York Times: Nicholas Belardes’s The Deading (Erewhon Books, 280 pp., $28); Cherie Priest’s The Drowning House (Poisoned Pen Press, 418 pp., paperback, $16.99); and Chuck Tingle’s Bury Your Gays (Tor Nightfire, 294 pp., $26.99). 

(5) FURTHER PERSPECTIVES ON NEIL GAIMAN. Maureen Ryan, a critic, journalist and contributing editor at Vanity Fair, has thoughts on Neil Gaiman, creative gods, American Gods and rotten pedestals at Burner Account.

…It sounds like some of these women approached the media before and didn’t get anyone to take on their stories. If you’ve wondered, I’ve never been approached by anyone with allegations like the ones that recently came to light. And while I would be very surprised if there is not further coverage of this matter, I know from extensive experience that these kinds of investigations take time. A lot of time.

Time, care and attention are required to do this kind of reporting properly, in ways that show compassion and consideration to the survivors, and in ways that pass muster with fact-checkers, editors and lawyers. (Legal review of my book, for example, took about a year, and some stories I’ve done have gone through several months of legal review, especially when the subject of a story has the resources to hire a lot of lawyers, spin doctors and crisis PR firms. Having to engage for months with all those hired guns is about as pleasant as you’d think.)

Because folks have asked, I am not working on any kind of Gaiman followup. In part because I have other commitments that take precedence. In part because what I have to say about these kinds of behaviors, patterns, dynamics and abuses is in my book (and in my previous decades’ worth of in-depth reporting on Hollywood).

And in part because I have already reported on Gaiman, somewhat indirectly, and I did not enjoy a significant aspect of the fallout of that experience. 

In 2018, I began hearing about massive issues affecting the TV adaptation of Gaiman’s book American Gods. The debut season’s showrunners had been fired abruptly, and the second season, according to my sources, was in deep trouble. I pitched a story to Lesley Goldberg, a friend and a longtime reporter/editor at The Hollywood Reporter — and it turned out she’d been hearing similar things, so we teamed up. As it happened, our sources didn’t overlap much, which was actually a good thing: Between us, we’d gathered a large array of people with a wide range of perspectives, all of whom were saying similar things about the acrimonious chaos behind the scenes. 

We worked really hard on that piece, and I felt — and still feel — confident of our sourcing and diligence. What we published, I believe, was not just accurate but prophetic. American Gods certainly wasn’t perfect in its first season, but it was bold, stylish, had a lot of potential and was a solid televisual interpretation of the book. Gods was a far inferior drama in Season 2, and the chaos behind the scenes apparently continued until it was finally cancelled after three seasons. At one point, the following became a running joke among myself and a couple of journalist friends: The shortest roster in Hollywood was the one listing experienced showrunners who hadn’t been asked to take over American Gods. 

People are allowed to react to reported pieces however they want, and the folks at or near the center of a story may well have a very different perspective than I do as a journalist. That’s all fine, and that’s not something I generally get worked up about. What I want you to understand about what follows is that I wasn’t upset by the fact that Gaiman had a reaction to that story, or that he appeared to have a reaction that didn’t align with my own impressions. What pissed me off was the nature of that reaction and how it made me feel as an experienced professional. 

After the story came out, and then when Season 2 of American Gods finally emerged months later, on social media and in interviews, Gaiman had things to say about our reporting. What pissed me off were remarks that made us sound like pesky little irritants who didn’t know what we were doing. Speaking for myself, I felt he conveyed the impression that we didn’t talk to anybody important or deeply informed or who had knowledge of the real story. (We did.)…

…When I saw Gaiman’s comments in various spheres, I felt some kind of way about this supposed champion of women being so gratingly, condescendingly dismissive of the work of two women who had, at that point, half a century’s worth of journalism experience between them. (Two queer women as well, though anyone reading the piece may not have known that.) 

After that, whenever I saw his “approachable cool guy” routine on social media, or saw him touted as an ally or feminist, I rolled my eyes pretty hard. Back when all this was going on, I thought about saying some of the above online, because for a while there, I was pretty angry about the way our work was dismissed so arrogantly. But I didn’t say anything in public, in part because I knew it might come off as sour grapes or pettiness.

An even bigger reason I stayed silent was that, after more than 30 years of acclaim, attention and adoration in comics, film, book publishing and TV, Neil Gaiman has a lot of strident defenders and superfans, and …honestly, that intimidated me. Having had other stan armies hatemob me in the past, I did not have the bandwidth to potentially endure a lot of enraged superfans coming after me….

(6) MEMORY LANE.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

August 18, 1950 – Destination Moon.  Seventy-four years ago on this date, Destination Moon, produced by George Pal and an uncredited Walter Lantz premiered in the United Kingdom. (It premiered earlier in New York City on June 27.)

It’s based off Heinlein‘s Rocketship Galileo novel. That novel, one of his juvenile works, had been published by Charles Scribner’s Sons just three years before the film came out. Heinlein wrote in Expanded Universe that publishers initially rejected the script feeling that journeying to the Moon was “too far out”.

It was directed by Irving Pichel from the screenplay by Alford Van Ronkel, Robert Heinlein and James O’Hanlon. Heinlein was also the technical adviser. 

It starred John Archer, Warner Anderson, Erin O’Brien-Moore, Tom Powers and Dick Wesson. Oh, and an appearance by Woody Woodpecker, who helps explain how rockets work. Really, he does appear here. 

Matte paintings by Chelsey Bonestell, already known for similar artwork, was used for the lunar landscapes. These were used for the departure of the Luna from Earth; its approach to the Moon; a panorama of the lunar landscape; and the spaceship’s landing on the lunar surface.

I can’t find any production notes so I’m unable to tell you about how the SFX was done. A pity that. If anybody knows, do tell. 

Critics were mixed with Bob Thomas of the Associated Press saying, “Destination Moon is good hocus-pocus stuff about interplanetary travel” whereas Isaac Asimov meanwhile not surprisingly said in In Memory Yet Green that it was “the first intelligent science-fiction movie made.”  

Audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes give it a so-so 48% rating. It however did rather well at the box office returning ten times its half million-dollar production budget. 

It would be voted a Retro Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation at the Millennium Philcon. 

It is not in the public domain, but the trailers are and here is one for you. So as always in such circumstances, do not offer up links to it. 

(7) COMICS SECTION.

(8) FICTION TAXONOMY. [Item by Steven French.] Mark Haddon on the difference between ‘literary’ and genre fiction: “Author Mark Haddon: ‘Bodies are such a good source of drama’” in the Guardian.

…One difference between what you might loosely call literary fiction and genre fiction is a kind of decorous avoidance of the overly dramatic. I always think of the sex scene in The Well of Loneliness: “And that night they were not parted.” Come on! Let’s see what happens! Or the Hilary Mantel story The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, which pulls away at the end. In genre fiction – horror, police procedural, whatever – that’s where the story would start, isn’t it? Keep the camera running. You get to the end of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These and think the drama is about to start: now the real difficulties will happen; now you have a family….

(9) SHAKE AND BAKE. “Pompeii Wrecked by Earthquake at Same Time as Vesuvius Eruption, Research Shows” – an unlocked New York Times article.

…“The effects of seismicity have been speculated by past scholars, but no factual evidence has been reported before our study,” Dr. Sparice said, adding that the finding was “very exciting.”

The team focused on the Insula of the Chaste Lovers. This area encompasses several buildings, including a bakery and a house where painters were evidently interrupted by the eruption, leaving their frescoes uncolored. After excavation and careful analysis, the researchers concluded that walls in the insula had collapsed because of an earthquake.

First, they ruled out hazards such as falling debris as a primary cause of the destruction — a deposit of stones under the wall fragments in the insula suggested it did not crumble during the eruption’s initial stage. Then they compared the damage to known effects of seismic destruction — for example, on historical buildings.

The excavation also revealed a pair of skeletons covered with wall fragments in the insula. One skeleton even showed signs of having attempted to take cover. According to the researchers, bone fracture patterns and crushing injuries observed in modern earthquake victims are evidence that these unfortunate Romans were killed by a building collapse….

(10) KILLING THE MESSENGER. “’Incredibly rare’ dead sea serpent surfaces in California waters; just 1 of 20 since 1901” – Yahoo! has the story.

Nothing marks the sign of impending doom like the appearance of the elusive oarfish, according to Japanese folklore. Hopefully it’s just a myth, since one was recently found floating in Southern California waters for only the 20th time in nearly 125 years.

A team of “sciencey” kayakers and snorkelers found the dead sea serpent while they were out for a swim at La Jolla Cove in San Diego over the weekend, according to Lauren Fimbres Wood, a spokesperson for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

A number of people, including the team of scientists and lifeguards, worked together to get the oarfish from the beach to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility, Fimbres Wood told USA TODAY on Friday.

Only 20 oarfish have washed up in the state since 1901, making the sighting of the deep-sea fish “incredibly rare,” according Scripps’ in-house fish expert Ben Frable.

…The belief that the sight of an oarfish in shallow waters is an omen of an impending earthquake dates back to 17th century Japan, according to reporting by Atlas Obscura.

The fish, also know as “ryugu no tsukai,” were believed to be servants of the sea god Ryūjin, according to Japanese folklore.

It’s believed that “Ryugu no tsukai,” which translates to “messenger from the sea god’s palace,” were sent from the palace toward the surface to warn people of earthquakes, USA TODAY reported.…

(11) ALL M. NIGHT LONG. NPR celebrates as “The Sixth Sense’ turns 25”.

Twenty-five years ago this month, one film and one filmmaker became synonymous with the big plot twist.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “THE SIXTH SENSE”)

HALEY JOEL OSMENT: (As Cole Sear) I see dead people.

MA: Now, after all this time, if you still have not seen “The Sixth Sense,” we are not going to ruin it for you. But it’s no spoiler to say that the film became a phenomenon, and its director, M. Night Shyamalan, an overnight sensation. His career has had some ups and downs since then. He currently has a film out called “Trap.” But it was his breakthrough film that reimagined the psycho thriller….

But if you don’t mind spoilers, I offer my review “Sixth Sense and Sensibility”.

…I think everyone went to see Sixth Sense twice: the second time to admire the way they’d deceived themselves about what was happening when they saw it the first time….

(12) VIDEO OF THE DAY. “Mr. Sci-Fi” Marc Scott Zicree has posted a Space Command Rough Cut with no finished VFX, music, color correction, sound mix, etc. He’s still gathering funding:

To find out about purchasing shares in Space Command, email [email protected] — Thanks!

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Lise Andreasen, John Coxon, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Bruce D. Arthurs.]

Pixel Scroll 8/14/24 File ‘P’ For Pixel

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(1) CLARION WEST 2025 INSTRUCTORS. The instructors for Clarion West’s 2025 Six-Week Summer Workshop have been named: Maurice Broaddus, Malka Older, Diana Pho, and Martha Wells. It will be an online workshop running from June 22-August 2. Applications planned to open December, 2024. Scholarships available.

(2) ALL GLORY IS FLEETING. T. Kingfisher’s Chengdu 2023 Hugo arrived in pieces, but at least they all arrived at the same time.  

(3) PROCESS OF ELIMINATION. Zoë O’Connell created colored graphs to illustrate the flow of votes in the Hugo Awards automatic runoff process. Thread starts here on Mastodon.

Visualising the #Worldcon #Hugo2024 voting results.

Alternative Title: Why ranked voting matters.

As a quick explanation, the last placed candidate in each round is eliminated and their votes transferred to the next candidate on each ballot.

Here’s the graph for Best Fanzine. Two other finalists held the lead before finishing behind the winner Nerds of a Feather. (Click for larger image.)

(4) SLOWLY, THE STARS WERE GOING OUT… Variety reports the squeeze is on: “Paramount Television Studios Shut Down by Paramount Global Cost Cuts”. Last week, company leaders announced that they would reduce Paramount’s U.S.-based workforce by 15% in an effort to save $500 million in annual costs. Several genre/related projects will move from the Paramount TV studios brand to under the CBS Studios umbrella.

…All current series and development projects made under the Paramount Television Studios umbrella will move to CBS Studios. 

Paramount Television marked the second time Paramount Pictures tried to move into the TV business — separate from the storied shingle that was built on the Desilu production studio founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. That studio, which backed such TV treasures as “I Love Lucy” and “Star Trek,” eventually became the center of Paramount Studios after an acquisition by Gulf + Western, and would be inherited by CBS after its split from the company formerly known as Viacom Inc. in 2005….

… Under its aegis, the company produced “The Offer,” an insider tale of the making of the landmark movie, for Paramount+; and series based on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan character for Amazon Prime Video. Other series it produced include “The Spiderwick Chronicles for Roku and a revival of the Terry Gilliam movie “Time Bandits” that is now a series on Apple’s streaming service….

(5) DID I MENTION, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. “Warner Bros. Discovery pretty much wiped the Cartoon Network website” reports The Verge.

Warner Bros. Discovery has updated Cartoon Network’s website to remove basically everything and turn it into a page pointing to the Max streaming service. Before the change, the website let you watch free episodes of shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe. The switchover appears to have happened on Thursday, Variety reports, and follows Warner Bros.’ announcement last week that it would be shutting down Boomerang, its streaming service for classic Warner Bros. cartoons.

“Looking for episodes of your favorite Cartoon Network shows?” reads a message that pops up on Cartoon Network’s website. “Check out what’s available to stream on Max (subscription required).”…

(6) A DISH OVERSERVED COLD. Sarah A. Hoyt is seeing so much “Vengeance” fiction she tried to apply the brakes at Mad Genius Club.

…No matter how angry people are, feeding on a straight diet of revenge fantasies will just make it worse and worse and worse.

Okay, so you’re not a missionary, and you just want to make money, what do you care if you’re making people crazier.

Because you’ll train yourself to write very bad fiction. And because a lot of it is very very bad fiction which no one really wants to read, no matter how furious they are.

Particularly because — trust me — it’s disproportionate and worse, it doesn’t make for a good story. Even worse, unless you are an experienced author who knows precisely how to convey how mad you are and how much these evil people deserve their comeupance, revenge is not an easy plot to write.

It seems easy, because it’s a strong emotion. And if you feel the need to see someone being sliced to little bits, and aren’t picky about who it is, particularly if the person being sliced up is entirely fictional….

(7) TED TALK.  I believe I missed this issue…. In 1964, Theodore Sturgeon wrote a story for Sports Illustrated: “How To Forget Baseball”. [Via Paul Di Filippo.]

Once upon a possible (for though there is only one past, there are many futures), after 12 hours of war and 40-some years of reconstruction; at a time when nothing had stopped technology (for technological progress not only accelerates, so does the rate at which it accelerates), the country was composed of strip-cities, six blocks wide and up to 80 miles long, which rimmed the great superhighways, and wildernesses. And at certain remote spots in the wilderness lived primitives, called Primitives, a hearty breed that liked to stay close to nature and the old ways. And it came about that a certain flack, whose job it was to publicize the national pastime, a game called Quoit, was assigned to find a person who had never seen the game; to invite him in for one game, to get his impressions of said game and to use them as flacks use such things. He closed the deal with a Primitive who agreed to come in exchange for the privilege of shopping for certain trade goods. So…

(8) ROMANTASY ON THE MATURE SIDE. The New York Times hypothesizes “Why Romantasy Readers Pine for 500-Year-Old ‘Shadow Daddies’”. “Disappointed by swipe culture and, perhaps, reality, some readers pine for the much (much) older ‘shadow daddies’ of romantasy novels”. Gift article link bypasses NYT paywall.

… With the arrival of megahits like “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” a series by Sarah J. Maas, romantasy has garnered a huge fan base. Many readers dissect characters like Feyre Archeron, the protagonist in “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” who is about 19 when she meets her 500-year-old “mate,” a mysterious faerie; they swap theories; and they rate sex scenes on a “spiciness” scale. Among them, there has been a recurring point of debate: Is it acceptable for a 19-year-old to date a 500-year-old?

Some say it is not only acceptable — it’s aspirational.

“I’ve made poor decisions with regular men,” said Asvini Ravindran, 31, a social media specialist who lives in Toronto and has a TikTok about books, including romantasy. “Why not make them with an immortal man with magical powers?”

Fans of the genre refer to such ancient love interests as “shadow daddies.”…

(9) THE EPONYMOUS RING. CBR.com answers the question “What Was the One Ring Made of in The Lord of the Rings?” Of course, some of you won’t need to read to the end because you remember.

The One Ring from The Lord of the Rings had many supernatural abilities; it could render its wearer invisible, extend the lifespan of those in its presence, corrupt even the noblest hearts, and most importantly, dominate the other Rings of Power. Yet its bizarre physical properties were just as significant. The One Ring was practically indestructible, as it did not bend, break, scratch, or lose its shine, even after spending thousands of years at the bottom of a river. The only way to harm the One Ring was to melt it, and even then, no ordinary fire or even the breath of a great dragon like Smaug would suffice; it could only melt when dropped into the lava of Mount Doom, where the Dark Lord Sauron forged it. Additionally, it could change its size and weight at will, an ability it used to slip on and off the fingers of its wearers….

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

Born August 14, 1965 — Brannon Braga, 59. Brannon Braga was, not at the same time or always, the writer, producer and creator of the Next Gen, Voyager, Enterprise, The Orville, as well as of the Generations and First Contact films. He written quite a number of the Trek films —  Generations, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis.

Those four films he’s written. Is that more than anyone else? I could look it up, but I figure I’d ask the great pool of Trek fans here instead. 

Brannon Braga

Confession time — I’ve still not watched The Orville. Now that it’s been canceled, shall I go ahead and watch all of it? Opinions please. 

He has written more episodes of the many Trek series than anyone else — four hundred and forty-four to date, many of course co- written. I really don’t think he’ll be writing any more as his last scripts were for Enterprise.

He was responsible for the Next Generation series finale “All Good Things…” which won him a Hugo Award at Intersection for excellence in SF writing, along with Ronald D. Moore. 

He was nominated at LoneStarCon2 for Star Trek: First Contact for the screenplay along with Ronald D. Moore, and the story by Rick Berman and Ronald D. Moore; Torcon3 saw him pick up two nominations for Enterprise stories — first for the “Carbon Creek” story along with Rick Berman and Dan O’Shannon, and the wonderful “A Night in The Sick Bay” with Rick Berman.

(Digression. Ok, I like Enterprise a lot. For me, everything there worked. And the Mirror Universe finale worked for me though it got a lot of criticism.) 

Aussiecon 4 saw him pick up only his non-Trek related Hugo nomination or Award. It was for writing FlashForward’s “No More Good Days” with David S. Goyer. 

There’s a great quote by him after he stopped being Roddenberry’s replacement as head of the Trek franchise: “It’s not an easy task. On the other hand, I have nothing to be ashamed about. We created 624 hours of television and four feature films, and I think we did a hell of a job. I’m amazed that we managed to get 18 years of the kind of work that everyone involved managed to contribute to, and it’s certainly more than anyone could have asked for.” (Star Trek Magazine) 

(11) COMICS SECTION.

(12) IN X-CESS. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] Just what we all need, another list of somebody’s opinion about “best of…“ The Hollywood Reporter gives us “Best X-Men Movies, Ranked”. And as you might expect, it’s more fun to pan than to praise.

13. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Brett Ratner was never anyone’s first choice to direct an X-Men film. And from the film itself, and the stories that followed, it’s not hard to see why. The Last Stand smashes together Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s The Dark Phoenix Saga, widely considered to be the best X-Men story, along with the Gifted storyline from Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s then-more recent Astonishing X-Men. The film doesn’t serve either story well, and it all too hastily kills off Cyclops (James Marsden), sidelines several mainstays like Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) and Rogue (Anna Paquin), and introduces a bunch of new characters audiences had been clamoring to see — Kitty Pryde (Elliot Page), Beast (Kelsey Grammer), Angel (Ben Foster) and Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones), none of whom get much time to shine (although Grammer’s Beast is a welcome addition).

Famke Janssen does well with what the film decides to do with the Phoenix, which is to make her into a kind of demonically possessed powerhouse, and Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen all remain stalwarts of the franchise. A third act that features Magneto lifting the Golden Gate Bridge and Logan professing his love for Jean, while she tries to incinerate him, are highlights, along with John Powell’s score. But all in all, there’s just something a bit too studio-mandated and manufactured about it.

(13) NEW ISSUE OF SF COMMENTARY. Bruce Gillespie has released SF Commentary 117, July 2024. Covers by Alan White and Dennis Callegari. Poems by Alan White. Articles by Janeen Webb and Cy Chauvin. Columns by Bruce Gillespie, Colin Steele, Anna Creer, Tony Thomas, John Hertz. Reviews by John Litchen and William Sarill.

Download from eFanzines or at Fanac.org.

(14) THAT’S ALL, FOLKS. R. Graeme Cameron accepted the Auora Award for Best Fan Writing and Publication for Polar Borealis, its fifth win, then announced on Facebook that he is recusing the publication from future Aurora consideration.

…The purpose of the Auroras is to celebrate the diversity of Canadian talent in as inclusive a manner as possible. Five is a good, solid number. It’s time to make room for others, especially the new talent coming along.

Therefore, I state for the record that I am requesting CSFFA to no longer consider Polar Borealis for nomination or ballot status from this date forward.

Not that I am adverse to winning further Aurora awards for other things….

…Main thing is for Polar Borealis to stop hogging the limelight.

 (15) AN ARCHITECTURAL TRIUMPH. You can take an online tour of the fabulous McKim Building that houses the Boston Public Library. It’s gorgeous!

…The McKim Lobby, from its Georgia marble floor inlaid with brass designs to its three aisles of vaulted ceilings, continues a grand procession into the heart of the building. The ceilings, clad in mosaic tile by Italian immigrant craftsmen living in Boston’s North End, bear Roman motifs and the names of thirty famous Massachusetts statesmen.

The mosaic ceiling tiles clad vault work by Rafael Guastavino, a Spanish builder who specialized in Mediterranean-style ceramic tile-vaulted ceilings that were lightweight, fireproof, self-supporting, and strong. Guastavino’s collaboration with Charles Follen McKim throughout a number of ceilings in the Central Library represented his first major American commission, the starting point for a company that would go on to construct vaults in over 600 buildings throughout the country….

(16) RINGS OF POWER RETURNS. “War is coming to Middle Earth,” begins the final pre-launch trailer before The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 drops on August 29.

(17) APPRENTICED TO A PIRATE. From six years ago. “How Sir Paul McCartney acts in film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”.

Co-directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg explain all the details on Sir Paul McCartney’s transformation to a pirate.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian,  Chris Barkley, Paul Di Filippo, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]

Pixel Scroll 7/27/24 The Roads Must Scroll

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(1) MONTELEONE’S NEW SUBSTACK REPEATS OLD MESSAGE. Author Thomas F. Monteleone, who early in 2023 was ousted from the Horror Writers Association for violating its Code of Conduct, today launched a Substack newsletter with “Allow Me To Introduce Myself”, which rehearses many of the views that he was expressing on Facebook and in video interviews when HWA removed him from membership.

Sheena Forsberg also has screencaps of the newsletter in a thread on X.com: “Oh.. JFC. Tom Monteleone’s back.. I suspect this wasn’t what your friends and colleagues meant when they urged you to go the substack route.”.

(2) CASHING IN ON FANHISTORY. [Item by Chris Barkley.] A copy of the pamphlet that triggered the Exclusion Act at the first Worldcon in 1939, which yesterday’s Scroll reported was up for auction, went for $750 reports Stellar Books & Ephemera.

(3) 1929: THE GENRE GETS A NAME. Jim Emerson’s year-by-year history Futures Past will reach 1929 in the latest volume due in August.

FUTURES PAST is dedicated to all those amazing people who helped to shape our modern world by giving us a sense of wonder, by showing us possible futures and addressing social issues long before they touched the mainstream, and by simply daring to ask, “what if…” Our goal is to keep alive the people, works and memories of a great genre and introduce them to a whole new generation of readers, thinkers and dreamers.

You can download an excerpt: “The Stirrings of a New Genre”

…One of the feature articles for 1929 is an extensive look at the evolution of the term “science fiction” which was not called that until this year.  In fact, the word “science” was not coined until the early 1800s, and that is where this article begins….

(4) STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES Q&A. In the New York Times: “Stephen Graham Jones, Author of ‘I Was a Teenage Slasher’, on His Reading Life”. (Gift link bypasses Times paywall.)

How do you sign books for your fans?

I cross my name out then write it for real. I can’t use markers on grabby paper. That raspy sound makes me crawl out of my skin like Mr. Krabs, molting….

What do your English department colleagues at the University of Colorado Boulder make of your horror writing?

Lot of them read it, and talk to me about it. It’s nice to work with faculty without that inbuilt prejudice against genre. Or, I’m a little bit tall, so it’s tricky to look down your nose at me. Unless you lean just way back….

(5) SHARING EXPERTISE. “Show up, love the process, don’t follow trends: insider tips on how to write a book” – the Guardian publicizes a creative writing podcast.

The novelist and podcaster Elizabeth Day, host of the How to Fail series, has created a “podclass” to answer those questions and more, hosted by three publishing pros: novelist Sara Collins, agent Nelle Andrew and publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove. Here, the four share their key advice for getting a book out into the world.

One of Sara Collins’ tips is:

3. Pay attention

Writing is a way of filtering the world. The best writers are the ones who make an art of paying attention, who find joy in being curious. Curate a notebook (to be honest, in my case it’s mostly in the notes app on my phone). Make a note of anything that strikes you. One of the best feelings about being in the midst of a project is how you can become a tuning fork, alive to the material that wants to find its way in. Everything is copy, as Nora Ephron said.

Episode 1 of How To… Write A Book is available at Apple Podcasts and many other places.

Sara Collins is the bestselling novelist and screenwriter currently serving as a judge for the 2024 Booker Prize. Her debut novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton, won the Costa book awards in 2019 and she later wrote the TV screenplay. Nelle Andrew is a literary agent and former Agent of the Year at the

British Book Awards, and Sharmaine Lovegrove is the co-founder and managing director of Dialogue Books, an inclusive imprint at a major publishing house. Each of them is an expert in one stage of the publishing journey…. and all are literary nerds (in the best possible way).

(6) SMOKED PENGUIN WILL NOT BE ON THE MENU. “’The Penguin’ Comic-Con Activation Evacuated After Fire Breaks Out” reports Variety.

A fire broke out in the building hosting the San Diego Comic-Con activation for the HBO series ”The Penguin,” causing the venue to be evacuated on Friday evening. The alarm was sounded in the midst of the press preview for the activation. Members of the media, including reporters from Variety, were escorted outside by officials at roughly 7:30 PM. Update: The activation is now back up and running. There were no injuries.

A representative for the San Diego Police Department confirms that a three-alarm fire was reported at the venue on 5th Avenue and E Street in the city’s downtown area. The fire began in a Brazilian steakhouse that was also in the building….

… The multi-level installation for “The Penguin” involved an elaborate, immersive experience that put attendees inside the seedy and cavernous criminal hang-out dive known as the Iceberg Lounge, first seen in the 2022 film “The Batman.” The HBO crime series is a spin-off of the Matt Reeves-directed blockbuster, with Colin Farrell reprising his role as the villainous gangster Oswald Cobblepot. The Comic-Con activation represents the most lavish promotional push yet for the DC Comics series….

(7) STAR WARS AUCTION ITEMS GO FOR UP TO SEVEN FIGURES. Variety listens to the cash register chime as “’Star Wars’ Y-Wing Miniature, Princess Leia Bikini Sold at Auction”.

A filming miniature of a Y-Wing Starfighter helmed by Gold Leader, who aided Luke Skywalker in destroying the Death Star in 1977’s “Star Wars: A New Hope,” sold for a whopping $1.55 million Friday at Heritage’s July Entertainment Auction.

Another highlight of the collection was a Princess Leia gold bikini costume from Jabba the Hutt’s scenes in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi,” which sold for $175,000. The ensemble includes seven pieces from Industrial Light & Magic chief sculptor Richard Miller’s collection–a bikini brassiere, bikini plates, hip rings, an armlet and bracelet….

… Other items featured at the Heritage auction included final movie poster artwork for “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” by Bob Peak, which sold for $106,250. Paramount’s 1986 sci-fi film was directed by Leonard Nimoy, who also played Spock. Additionally, a piece of John Alvin’s concept art for his 1982 “Blade Runner” movie poster fetched $100,000….

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

July 27, 1968 — Farah Mendlesohn, 56.

By Paul Weimer: I would not say that Farah Mendlesohn is twice the science fiction reviewer and critic that I am. I would say that she is perhaps three or four times the science fiction reviewer and critic that I am. Mendlesohn has a strength and depth to her analysis and writing that I can’t even approach even on the best of days. She remains and will probably always remain the lightspeed barrier of criticism that I will never ever reach, but I will still try.

Farah Mendelsohn. Photo by Scott Edelman

Her best work, her deepest and perhaps her most essential work is her book on the work of Robert Heinlein, The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein. Although many on the far right hate it for not being hagiographic enough about Heinlein and his work, I have found her views instructive, interesting, and more than one occasion has caused me to reassess what I had just read myself. I got into a pattern over on the SFF Audio podcast where we were doing Heinleins regularly. Each time, I dipped into the Pleasant Profession to see what Farah had to say, and each time, I came away with a new perspective and new point of view, even with books such as Farnham’s Freehold. The Pleasant Profession is a mandatory read if you want to dig deeper into any Heinlein title that you are thinking of reading or re-reading. It amazes me that it had to be crowdfunded to come into existence, Mendlesohn has done plenty of other publications, of course, including the Cambridge Guide to Science Fiction, works on Diana Wynne Jones, A short history of fantasy and plenty more. I think of her work as my gateway (and perhaps yours, reader) into the academic side of science fiction, a country I will never enter, but perhaps can wave at from not far from the border.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

(10) BRINGING UP BABY. A snippet of fascinating comics history in “The Strafford – 777 West End Avenue” at Daytonian in Manhattan.

…Iancu Urn Liber was born in Eastern Romania where he suffered intense antisemitism.  Upon immigrating to America, he changed his name to Jack Lieber.  In the spring of 1920, Jack married Celia Solomon and they moved into The Strafford.  Two years later, on December 28, 1922, they welcomed their first son, Stanley Martin Lieber.  Like his father had done, Stanley would change his name, becoming Stan Lee–the creative leader of Marvel comic books….

The same article includes an unrelated bit of interesting Titanic history.

(11) STAR TREK NEWS. Variety was at Comic-Con when they unveiled “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Section 31, Lower Decks First Looks”.

The “Star Trek” Universe uncloaked a litany of first looks during its epic panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, including panels for the third season of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” the fifth and final season of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” and the first television feature film in the franchise, “Star Trek: Section 31.”

(12) CREATURE COMMANDOS. “Creature Commandos Teaser Unveiled, New DC Studios Logo” – Deadline sets the frame.

James Gunn beamed in from the Superman set Friday at Comic-Con to show off the new teaser for Max’s animated series Creature Commandos, which he wrote all seven episodes on. Premiere date is December.

In the footage… Viola Davis reprises her role as Amanda Waller. She walks Captain Flag down to inner prison areas where we’re introduced to a bunch that’s crazier than the Suicide Squad: Weasel, The Bride, G.I. Robot, Dr. Phosphorus, Frankenstein and Nina Mazursky.

“These assholes aren’t human,” Waller tells Rick Flag. G.I. Robot later pops up, “It’s been oh., so long since G.I. Robot sent Nazis back to hell!”…

(13) SDCC’S SIMPSONS PANEL FEATURES VIDEO OF KAMALA HARRIS QUOTING LINE FROM SHOW.  It’s not a new video, as you can learn from reading beyond the clickbait headline. “Kamala Harris Surprises ‘Simpsons’ Fans With Message at Comic-Con” in The Hollywood Reporter.

The Simpsons panel at San Diego Comic-Con saved a final surprise for last, as the event ended with a resurfaced video message from Vice President Kamala Harris.

After introducing the final clip as coming from a “super fan,” Matt Groening — who created the animated Fox series that is soon to launch its 36th season — set up footage of a laughing Harris delivering a well-known line from a previous “Treehouse of Horror” episode. The clip was recorded years ago by a group of University of Chicago students who were tasked with getting an elected official to recite the Simpsons quote.

“We must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom,” Harris said in the clip. It led to big cheers from the crowd, who appeared to assume that the moment was filmed for the panel, given that no context was given about the clip.

The quote is from season eight’s “Treehouse of Horror VII” that aired Oct. 27, 1996, just ahead of that year’s presidential election between then-President Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. The episode’s segment features aliens Kang and Kodos impersonating the two candidates, with the Clinton imposter delivering the muddled message during a public event….

(14) KEPLER’S LEGACY. Phys.org explains how “Kepler’s 1607 pioneering sunspot sketches solve solar mysteries 400 years later”.

“Kepler’s legacy extends beyond his observational prowess; it informs ongoing debates about the transition from regular solar cycles to the Maunder Minimum, a period of extremely reduced solar activity and anomalous hemispheric asymmetry between 1645 and 1715,” Hayakawa explained.

“By situating Kepler’s findings within broader solar activity reconstructions, scientists gain crucial context for interpreting changes in solar behavior in this pivotal period marking a transition from regular solar cycles to the grand solar minimum.”

“Kepler contributed many historical benchmarks in astronomy and physics in the 17th century, leaving his legacy even in the space age,” said Hayakawa.

“Here, we add to that by showing that Kepler’s sunspot records predate the existing telescopic sunspot records from 1610 by several years. His sunspot sketches serve as a testament to his scientific acumen and perseverance in the face of technological constraints.”

Sabrina Bechet, a researcher at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, added, “As one of my colleagues told me, it is fascinating to see historical figures’ legacy records convey crucial scientific implications to modern scientists even centuries later.

“I doubt if they could have imagined their records would benefit the scientific community much later, well after their deaths. We still have a lot to learn from these historical figures, apart from the history of science itself. In the case of Kepler, we are standing on the shoulders of a scientific giant.”

(15) THAT EYE GUY. “’Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Trailer: More Sauron” is Deadline’s simple verdict.

Amazon Prime, once again, spared no expense in banging the drums –literally– for its hit series, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power at Comic-Con. Today’s Hall H panel fired up with composer Bear McCreary leading a big drum percussion and choir with themes from Season 2 of the hit series.

That’s not all — an orc stormed on stage screaming his support of Adar. Also, you know it’s a special moment in Hall H when they open up the massive wrap-around 180-degree-plus screens.

Last night, Amazon celebrated the Aug. 29 launch of Season 2 with a cast and showrunner reception decked out ala Lord of the Rings with a golden flowers and dark forests theme at Venue 808 last night before stirring up a 6,500-strong filled Hall H with the new trailer….

As for the trailer – the YouTube blurb says:

About The Rings of Power Season 2: Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season 1’s epic scope and ambition, Season 2 of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Paul Weimer, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Daniel Dern.]

Pixel Scroll 7/8/24 Listen, Billy Pixel’s Come UnScrolled In File

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(1) MAAS AND YARROS DOMINATE THE MARKET. “With Fantasy on Fire, Print Book Sales Are Catching Up to 2023” reports Publishers Weekly.

…Results for the first half of 2024 leave no question about what is driving sales: adult fantasy sales skyrocketed 85.2% over the first six months of 2023 thanks to a huge increase in interest in romantasy. Combined with increases of about 20% each in the science fiction and suspense/thriller areas, unit sales of adult fiction rose 6.3% in the first half of 2024. Sales of graphic novels continued to recede from record highs in 2022, falling 16.1% in this year’s first six months.

Books by Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros are leading the fantasy charge. Yarros’s Iron Flame and Fourth Wing combined to sell about 1.1 million copies, while Maas had seven books selling in big numbers, led by her latest, A Court of Thorns and Roses, which sold more than 740,000 copies. Her seven current bestsellers combined sold more than three million copies…

(2) THE EXTRA FILES. [Item by Steven French.] David Duchovny answers some readers’ questions in the Guardian: “David Duchovny: ‘I’m not just throwing on a kilt willy-nilly’”

Do you believe? TurangaLeela2

The proposition that Earth is the only planet in the universe that has managed to sustain intelligent life seems an impossibility. On the other hand, do I believe we’ve been contacted or are in contact with aliens? I don’t believe that, no. How often do I get asked if they are going to reboot The X-Files? I mean, that’s the default question people like to ask. If I was going to do it, I’d let y’all know. You wouldn’t have to ask me. I wouldn’t keep it a secret. Nowadays, I think people believe in conspiracies we never would have aired because they were just too stupid.

(3) WHAT COMES OVER THE DIGITAL TRANSOM. Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas belts out “The Ballad of the Slush Reader: What I’ve Learned (And What I Want to Know) about Reading Slush” at the SFWA Blog.

… I’m not the self-appointed slush reader representative of the short fiction genre publications, nor do I pretend to be one. I write these lines, first and foremost, from my own brief but fulfilling experience as a slush reader for Clarkesworld Magazine, as well as from what I’ve gathered in conversations with friends, who are also part of editorial teams. This essay is unapologetically, a personal generalization that hopes to start a discussion somewhere, sometime….

Communication is a two-way affair. Editors should be clear about the specific kind of commitment expected from slush readers: amount of stories read, level of detail in recommendations’ comments, etc. It is expected from them to be approachable and open to answering our questions on submission guidelines, as well as offering guidance on handling problematic stories, protecting author privacy, and giving advice on trusting our editorial instincts. First readers should write concise, unambiguous notes for the submissions we read and share any concerns we may have about them. We shouldn’t ghost our editors or make unilateral decisions based on our interpretation of the magazine’s guidelines if something is not clear in them. We’re members of a team, after all.

As the first ones to interact with a submission, we must treat the authors’ privacy with respect. A little decency goes a long way. Markets have the responsibility to delineate confidentiality specifications for the team and make sure authors know they exist. I believe that having better practices during recruitment, selection, and training can help identify and avoid the few people who might try to misuse the authors’ private information before they can even have access to it.

We’re supposed to read slush to support and advocate for other people’s work, but that doesn’t mean that we have power over them or that they owe us anything. We shouldn’t even think about rejecting a story on the basis of an author we don’t like, or recommend our friend’s work just because we know each other. We’re professionals. We do this for the stories, for the end readers. At Clarkesworld, for example, I don’t make final decisions but suggestions that have to be reviewed and approved by a senior member of staff.

(4) WILL MERGER AFFECT THE FEDERATION? “Paramount Global Officially Agrees To Skydance Merger, With Potential Big Impact On Star Trek’s Future” – and TrekMovie.com tries to foresee what that impact might be.

Today, Paramount Global announced that Shari Redstone’s National Amusements (which owns a controlling share of Paramount) will be sold to David Ellison’s Skydance Media and RedBird Capital  for $2.4 billion, leading to a $4.5 billion merger of Paramount Global with Skydance. The deal will offer voting and non-voting shareholders a premium on their stock as well as inject billions into “New Paramount” coffers to help pay off debt. A new leadership team has been announced, with Skydance’s David Ellison to be Chairman and Chief Executive Officer with RedBird exec (and former NBCUniversal chief) Jeff Shell named as president….

…Since the 1960s when Desilu was purchased by Paramount, the Star Trek franchise has seen its way through multiple corporate changes. It is too early to know what this announcement means for the Star Trek franchise, but this deal was seen as one of the better potential outcomes. Unlike other potential bidders, Skydance is committed to keeping Paramount relatively intact, avoiding any potential division of the Star Trek rights that occurred during the Viacom/CBS corporate split years before they were remerged in 2019. The most positive indication for Star Trek is that Skydance previously partnered with Paramount on the production of the last two Trek feature films, and they were committed to backing the next movie currently in development. Skydance CEO David Ellison, who will run the new Paramount, was credited as an executive producer for both Into Darkness and Beyond. These movies were mentioned by Ellison in a call with investors this morning….

…During today’s call, incoming Paramount president Jeff Shell talked about seeing Paramount+ as part of an “ultimate bundle.” He also indicated they will be looking at more licensing deals and “windowing” strategies for Paramount-owned content, which could lead to Star Trek streaming originals showing up beyond Paramount+. Today’s investor presentation noted Star Trek as one of the key franchises for the new Paramount, including a plan to “reevaluate” franchises to fuel a “powerful and repeatable IP ecosystem.” Today Ellison also talked about unifying franchises across TV, film and interactive media, which could potentially lead to a more comprehensive Star Trek Universe….

(5) HE MADE IT SO. “Patrick Stewart Is Ready To Engage” at the Washington Free Beacon.

…Stewart represents a fascinating mix of working-class ethics, having grown up poor but hard-working, and upper-class aesthetics, which he refined first in amateur plays and then in acting schools. This occasionally led him to mildly awkward encounters. My favorite story in his memoir comes on the set of Dune, where Stewart (who was playing warrior-poet Gurney Halleck) was introduced to the musician Sting.

“Do you … play in a group?” Stewart asked.

“Yes, with The Police,” Sting replied.

“I broke into a broad grin,” Stewart writes. “‘You play in a police band?’ I said. ‘Wow! How marvelous!’ I have never fully recovered from the sheer embarrassment I suffered when word got out on the set about my exchange with one of the world’s biggest rock stars.”…

(6) LANTHIMOS TURNS TO SFF. According to The Mary Sue, “Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone’s Next Is a Sci-Fi Comedy”. Lanthimos’ 2023 picture Poor Things got a lot of awards attention this year.

… The movie, titled Bugonia, is set for a November 7, 2025, release date in the US. Jesse Plemons, who featured in Lanthimos’ recent release Kinds of Kindness, has been announced as the co-lead alongside Stone…. 

…A fifth collaboration between Stone and Lanthimos, the film is an adaptation of the 2003 South Korean sci-fi comedy Save the Green Planet!, directed by Jang Joon-hwan and starring Shin Ha-kyun and Yun-shik Baek. The plot follows two conspiracy-minded men who kidnap the powerful CEO of a major corporation, assured that she is an extraterrestrial being determined to end Earth’s existence. It remains to be seen whether Lanthimos’ rendition will be similar to the original or whether he tweaks the story to introduce some of his own elements….

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Cat Eldridge.]

July 8, 1951 — Anjelica Huston, 73. The first role that I clearly remember Anjelica Huston from was as Mortica Addams in The Addams Family  thirty-three years ago. She was every bit was ghoulishly fascinating as was Raul Julia as Gomez Addams. She inhabited that role as if she’d been born to play it. A perfect couple they were.

Anjelica Huston in 2014.

It’s worth noting that she always had a ghostly glow around the eyes, which became most noticeable when she was standing or lying in dim light. Bela Lugosi in 1931’s Dracula had the same effect. That meant all were her scenes were filmed with a light in her face. 

So being Morticia required Huston to wear a truly tight dress on top of an already tight corset to give her the character’s distinctive, slim silhouette. (Director Barry Sonnenfeld aimed for a cartoon-like figure, so hence that metal corset which restricted her movements and caused quite severe headaches. She reported that she gleefully burned all of the dresses when shooting finished.) 

In addition, she had to wear custom makeup to lighten her skin to create the look of  Morticia, have her hair painfully scraped so that she could wear a wig and then on top of all this, had to wear regular makeup, fake nails and eyelash extensions to complete the look.

Despite all of this I think that, Huston’s portrayal of Morticia captured both warmth and macabre humor. She was a perfect mother to two rather unusual children, and a loving wife to Raul. 

She’d reprise her role in Addams Family Values. The first film was nominated for a Hugo at MagiCon, the second at ConAdian.

Her first genre role, and yes I’ve seen it but I’ve honestly long since forgotten everything about it, was in Ice Pirates as Maida, one of the pirates. I really need to show you what she was outfitted there as it is, errrr, well, I think kind of silly. 

So what else did Angelica appear in? Good question. She would appear in The Witches based off of the Roald Dahl work as the Grand High Witch. Her makeup here is a work of art so here it is.

Yes, I know the film has fallen into let us say disrepute among certain groups, but I still like it.

I’m not seeing anything else this genre but she did one interesting animated work, one of which I wish to point out which is then let me spell this correctly in English A Cat in Paris.  In French it sounds oh so much better as Une vie de chat. A cat’s life. Black cat with red stripes leads a double life. During the night, he accompanies a car burglar named Nico (who calls him Mr. Cat), who performs heists to steal jewels. She voices the English version of Claudine.

She’s in John Wick, Chapter 3, Parabellum as The Director about which the John Wick wiki helpfully says “The Director is a crime lord and leader of the New York branch of the Ruska Roma. She is also the adoptive mother of John Wick and a mentor at the Tarkovsky Theater.” 

(8) COMICS SECTION.

(9) RINGS OF POWER WILL BIND COMIC-CON. “‘Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power’ Season 2 To Conquer San Diego Comic-Con” says Deadline.

This year at SDCC, ahead of the series’ Season 2 premiere on August 29, the streamer will host an exclusive press and influencer reception by invitation only on Thursday, July 25, in San Diego. It will be followed by The Rings of Power panel in Hall H on Friday from 11:05 a.m.-12:15 p.m. featuring the series’ showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay as well as cast giving fans a inside look at Season 2 in Middle-earth.

Afterward, at 1:45 p.m. at Venue 808 in San Diego, a fan meet-and-greet with cast will be held in conjunction with the official Lord of the Rings fan site TORn (TheOneRing.net). On display will be a curated collection of Season 2’s costumes and props….

(10) MAD, YOU KNOW. “Americana meets meshuggeneh at a museum exhibit about MAD magazine” – Jewish Telegraphic Agency takes you there.

There’s a delightful “what if” moment at the start of “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine,” a new exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum here. 

In 1964, MAD commissioned Rockwell himself to paint a portrait of Alfred E. Neuman, the humor magazine’s gap-toothed mascot, as he might have looked in real life. Correspondence featured in the exhibit suggests that Rockwell — grand master of gentle, folksy, even cornball Americana — was close to signing on with what MAD called its “usual gang of idiots”: goofball masters of sophomoric, anti-establishment satire.

In the end, Rockwell turned down the offer. “I think I better back out of this one,” he wrote. “After talking with you, and my wife who has a lot more sense than I have, I feel that making a more realistic definitive portrait just wouldn’t do. I hate to be a quitter, but I’m afraid we would all get in a mess.”

We didn’t lose just a marriage of comic sensibilities, but of ethnic ones: the “goyish” and the Jewish, mid-20th century style. Rockwell’s world is full of farmers and fishermen, country folk and small-town shopkeepers. MAD seemed to have been born on the Lower East Side, come of age in the Bronx, and found its voice somewhere between Brooklyn and Broadway….

(11) WORLDS WITHIN MURPHY’S LAW. Feeling mellow? Let’s fix that. The Mary Sue presents “The 10 Best Dystopian Novels, Ranked”.

…Authors have dreamed about all the countless ways the future can go wrong and will go wrong, so much so that a new genre was born from the collective unease: dystopian fiction. These novels are the worst—meaning they’re the best in their field…

This one’s new to me:

6. The Giver

The Giver [by Lois Lowry] may seem like a utopia on the surface, but it’s a dystopia like all the other cities on this list. Set in a peaceful society where people’s bad memories of the past are wiped away, only one person known as the Receiver of Memory is privy to the secrets of the human race. In order to maintain peace, the elders of this society eliminate the free will of everyone else. A good idea on paper? Not even in the pages of this book. You’ll soon find out why.

(12) SHIFTING GEARS. Ever heard that phrase, “Stop the Earth, I want to get off!”? Well, who knew — “Earth’s core has slowed so much it’s moving backward, scientists confirm. Here’s what it could mean” at WSVN.

Deep inside Earth is a solid metal ball that rotates independently of our spinning planet, like a top whirling around inside a bigger top, shrouded in mystery.

This inner core has intrigued researchers since its discovery by Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann in 1936, and how it moves — its rotation speed and direction — has been at the center of a decades-long debate. A growing body of evidence suggests the core’s spin has changed dramatically in recent years, but scientists have remained divided over what exactly is happening — and what it means.

… One promising model proposed in 2023 described an inner core that in the past had spun faster than Earth itself, but was now spinning slower. For a while, the scientists reported, the core’s rotation matched Earth’s spin. Then it slowed even more, until the core was moving backward relative to the fluid layers around it.

At the time, some experts cautioned that more data was needed to bolster this conclusion, and now another team of scientists has delivered compelling new evidence for this hypothesis about the inner core’s rotation rate. Research published June 12 in the journal Nature not only confirms the core slowdown, it supports the 2023 proposal that this core deceleration is part of a decades-long pattern of slowing down and speeding up…

(13) RASMUSSEN Q&A. [Item by Steven French.] An interview with astrophysicist Seven Rasmussen who has published in Clarkesworld under the pen name C.M. Fields: “’All things that wander in the heavens’: how I swapped my ivory tower for the world of science fiction” in Nature.

Through golden hive minds, dreaming androids and interstellar alien worlds, astrobiologist and speculative science-fiction author Seven Rasmussen explores humanity within the unfamiliar and strange. Rasmussen writes short stories that often feature space and the distant future — topics that her work as an astrobiologist at Tacoma Community College in Washington often touches on. Her debut non-fiction book, Life in Seven Numbers: The Drake Equation Revealed, is due to be published in June 2025. The book explores the seven variables of the Drake Equation, which estimates the number of intelligent, communicating civilizations in our galaxy.

Rasmussen spoke to Nature about writing science fiction as a scientist, her experience as a community-college professor and the importance of storytelling in science…

(14) WITCH WAY IS UP. “Agatha All Along Trailer: Kathryn Hahn Returns as WandaVision Witch” – The Hollywood Reporter sets the scene.

…A spinoff series from Disney+’s 2021 show WandaVision, Agatha All Along hails from creator Jac Schaeffer and premieres on the streaming service Sept. 18 with the first two episodes….

…Hahn reprises her WandaVision role as Agatha, who finds herself without her powers after a teen breaks her from a spell and urges her to attempt a dangerous gauntlet of trials known as Witches’ Road.

“I miss the glory days,” Hahn says in the trailer. “She took every bit of power I had, and I can be that witch again.”

(15) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by Danny Sichel.] Alan Becker, creator of 2023’s “Animation vs Math”, which starts with simple arithmetical concepts and quickly devolves into an all-out battle with lasers and mecha, has done it again. “Animation vs Geometry” begins with the concept of the line segment and somehow becomes a thrilling chase scene with a giant monster from beyond reality.

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Danny Sichel, Daniel Dern, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Teddy Harvia, and Kathy Sullivan for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]

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(1) RARE APPLAUSE. George R.R. Martin says he found an exception to the rule in “The Adaptation Tango” at Not A Blog.

…Everywhere you look, there are more screenwriters and producers eager to take great stories and “make them their own.”   It does not seem to matter whether the source material was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen, or… well, anyone.   No matter how major a writer it is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and “improve” on it.   “The book is the book, the film is the film,” they will tell you, as if they were saying something profound.   Then they make the story their own.

They never make it better, though.   Nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they make it worse.

Once in a while, though, we do get a really good adaptation of a really good book, and when that happens, it deserves applause.

I came across one of those instances recently, when I binged the new FX version of SHOGUN.

…The new SHOGUN is superb.   Better than Chamberlain’s version, you ask?   Hmmm, I don’t know.   I have not watched the 1980 miniseries since, well, 1980.   That one was great too.…

(2) EATING THE FANTASTIC. Scott Edelman invites listeners to polish off paneer biryani with Tobias Carroll in Episode 226 of the Eating the Fantastic podcast.

Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll is the author of the novels Ex-Members, Reel, and In the Sight, the short story collection Transitory, and the nonfiction book Political Sign. …He writes a column on notable books in translation for Words Without Borders. Plus he has a podcast of his own — Framed & Bound, in which bookish people discuss movies set in the literary world.

We discussed which punk rock music made him a fan, why his heart belongs to novella-length works rather than massive epics, the artistic motivation for sometimes not giving readers what they’ve been taught to expect, the reason Ann Nocenti’s run on Daredevil was meaningful to him (and why he believes it aged so well), his fascination with deteriorating physical media, why Edward Hopper’s classic painting Nighthawks would have made the perfect cover art for one of his books, how you know when you’ve stuck the landing with a short story, and much more.

(3) SETTING THE STANDARD. C. E. Murphy did a lot of writing during a “Milford writing retreat” and makes that fact into an interesting story of its own.

I was afforded the unexpected opportunity to go on a writing retreat in mid-May. It was a great success, but I have to start by telling you about the first time I went on this retreat, in 2019, which MIGHT have been the first year this retreat was held.

That week, I wrote 41,000 words. Which is a lot. In fact, it’s enough that they said “we’re now going to use ‘murphy’ as our unit of measurement for this retreat forever,” which I thought they were joking about, except it turns out they’re not. :laughs: So, yeah. Wordcounts at this retreat are measured in “murphys,” although it turns out that they thought I’d written 33k that week so a “murphy,” technically speaking, is 33k. 🙂

That, however, was evidently not the legendary bit.

The legendary bit is that, because I was driving in with a friend and her van broke down, and we had to wait for the AA(A)* guy, I said, “Well, we might as well get some writing done” and made her take out her laptop and got my laptop out and we got some writing done.

I THOUGHT THIS WAS A PERFECTLY NORMAL REASONABLE THING TO DO! I now understand, at least intellectually, that…it was not. 🙂

Anyway, so that’s kind of the level of expectation I had/have for myself, going into a retreat. Nothing less than ‘legendary.’

Well, mes amis, I did not achive legendary.

Which is to say, I ONLY accomplished a Full Murphy by Retreat Standards: ie, I did about 32,000 words, which is Close Enough, sez I. I ONLY finished one novella and did 80% of another. (Well, 90%. I finished that one yesterday.) And also I edited a friend’s book, which probably should give me some kind of writing credit but is too hard to figure out in terms of wordcount….

(4) REGISTER FOR TALABI Q&A. FIYAH Literary Magazine will host an online interview with Wole Talabi on June 23. Connect at the link.

(5) NO SILVER LINING IN THIS CLOUD FOR “GOLD STANDARD OF FAMILY FILMS”. “Pixar Hit With Layoffs as 175 Staffers Cut” reports Variety.

Pixar was hit with layoffs on [May 21] as approximately 175 employees, or 14% of its workforce, were let go….

…Pixar employees have been bracing for layoffs since January, but cuts were smaller than the speculated 20% reduction that was reported at the time.Once considered the gold standard of family films, Pixar has been struggling since the pandemic when its corporate overlords at Disney used the pedigree of the animation brand to prop up its new streaming service. During that period, new offerings “Soul,” “Luca” and “Turning Red” were sent directly to Disney+ and family audiences became accustomed to expect those movies at home. When it reverted to prioritizing theatrical releases, moviegoers rejected the $200 million-budgeted “Toy Story” spinoff “Lightyear,” which marked Pixar’s second consecutive misfire after 2020’s “Onward” (which was released just before theaters shut down due to COVID). Although “Elemental” finished with $495 million globally, much stronger than its disappointing opening weekend would have suggested, it’s far less than past Pixar movies have earned.

(6) BOMBADIL ON BOARD. “Tom Bombadil Finally Steps Forth in ‘The Rings of Power’—An Exclusive First Look” at Vanity Fair.

Tom Bombadil has finally been invited on one of the long and winding road trips through Middle-earth. The mystical character is one of the more offbeat figures in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings saga, a woodland-dwelling man with an ethereal presence and a penchant for nonsense songs and brightly colored clothes, who helps rescue the hobbits from peril early in the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring. As much as he stands apart, his name would likely draw a blank from anyone who hasn’t read the novels since the two primary film retellings—Ralph Bakshi’s animated 1978 opus and Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning live-action trilogy—both cut the him from the narrative completely. Now Old Tom, as the books refer to him, is finally getting his moment in the sun.

The Rings of Power, the Amazon Prime Video series based on Tolkien’s ancient history of his fantasy realm, will break that tradition of exclusion and finally feature Tom Bombadil—along with his jolly songs and his flamboyant wardrobe—when its second season begins August 29. Bombadil was described in Tolkien’s books as “older than the old,” a benevolent entity who began life around the time all life began, so his existence in this earlier era, thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, fits within the canon established by the author. In a 1937 letter to his publisher, mulling a possible sequel to The Hobbit, Tolkien described Bombadil as “the spirit of the (vanishing) Oxford and Berkshire countryside.” The author bristled at the notion that he wrote in allegory, but it’s clear he saw Bombadil as nature personified—right up to the character’s ambivalence about interfering in the larger world around him. That left showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay to figure out exactly how he might turn up in their show—and why.

(7) WHERE THEY’RE WATCHING BRIDGERTON. JustWatch covers one of the most anticipated releases of 2024, Bridgerton season three. Netflix has seen great success with Bridgerton, and as the newest season has just dropped they wanted to see how its release stacks up against the first two. (Click for larger image.) 

Key Insights:

  • Season 2 had the most successful launch, ranking 1st in 93 countries
  • Season 3 has the highest rating out of all three Bridgerton seasons
  • Season 1 is the least successful out of all three seasons, with the lowest IMDb rating and the lowest global popularity 

JustWatch created this report by pulling data from the week following the release of Bridgerton, and compared it to the previous two seasons. JustWatch Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity, including: clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as ‘seen’. This data is collected from >40 million movie & TV show fans per month. It is updated daily for 140 countries and 4,500 streaming services.

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

May 28, 1906 – T. H. White. (Died 1964.)   

By Paul Weimer.

Sure, the only thing I have read of him is the four volumes of the Once and Future King, and I particularly remember best the original, The Sword in the Stone. Yes, I read the book because I saw the animated Disney version on WPIX. So when I turned to the book itself, and found just how different it was, it was an early lesson for me in the perils of adaptations. This was a good lesson to learn, that adaptations could be extremely different than the original source text.  When I saw the animated Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Return of the King, I was prepared for the books to be very different, thanks to the Sword in the Stone and White’s book.

T. H. White

But White’s book was also a lesson in something else. The Sword in the Stone was arguably the first time I came across a book which “extended” a myth I already knew. I knew who King Arthur and the Round Table were from a book of mythology I read when I was young. But it was White’s book that showed me that you could extend a story backwards in time, that you could go “beyond the myth and legend” and invent new stories for a character. And I will bet that most people who aren’t scholars, take the events in the Sword in the Stone as fully amalgamated parts of the Arthur story.  Consider: This is where the idea that Merlin either is living backwards (something Piers Anthony would later borrow for his Incarnations books), or that he is quite aware or is preparing for our modern day (c.f. Zelazny’s The Last Defender of Camelot). Other adaptations of the Arthurian myths from Lawhead to Attanasio to Barron have had to have at least a passing familiarity with White’s ur-Arthur story, even if they take it in very different directions.  

Sure, it’s an anachronism stew, and it left me for years wondering why other books didn’t have Robin Hood and Camelot in the same time period, but the sheer audacity of mixing and remixing history and myth and telling a new story of young Arthur is, and was, audacious and I admire it still for that audacity.

Or, in other words, The Sword in the Stone is the prequel that defies the curse of prequels and in fact fully canonizes the prequel. And the rest of the series feels as fully canonical as Malory, and perhaps even more so. Not a bad legacy, in my book.

(9) COMICS SECTION.

  • Baldo has a winner who multitasks.
  • Carpe Diem imagines a future athletic event.
  • Bizarro might remind you of Rorschach.

(10) BIG BONED. The Guardian stands by as a “’Virtually complete’ Stegosaurus fossil to be auctioned at Sotheby’s geek week”.

The largest and most complete Stegosaurus fossil ever found is expected to fetch up to $6m (£4.7m) when it is sold as the star lot in Sotheby’s “geek week” auction this summer.

At 11ft (3.4 metres) tall and more than 20ft long the “virtually complete” fossil, which has been nicknamed “Apex”, is more than 30% larger than “Sophie”, the previously most intact stegosaurus specimen which was on display in London’s Natural History Museum….

…With an auction estimate of $4m-$6m it may become one of the most valuable dinosaur fossils ever sold at auction. The record is held by Stan, a T rex skeleton auctioned off by Christie’s for $31.8m in 2020….

… Apex was discovered by the commercial palaeontologist Jason Cooper in the Morrison Formation, in Moffat County, Colorado, near the town of Dinosaur, in May 2022.

(11) INSECURITY. “Police Biometric Data Leaks In Huge Hack” – Giant Freakin’ Robot has details.

As our world becomes increasingly reliant on computerized data storage, it becomes clearer and clearer that the wars of tomorrow will be fought using leaks, hacks, and online attacks. A widespread hack of police data in India was recently conducted, releasing facial images, fingerprints, and other personal data about Indian police, and those seeking to apply for police jobs. The leaked info has also been compiled into zip files and offered for sale to criminals over the encrypted messaging app Telegram, clearly for nefarious purposes.

This hack of police data is a sign of more cyber crimes of this kind to come, as criminals continue to become better equipped with online hacking skills with each passing day. Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler explained that he’s already uncovered numerous web servers with hundreds of gigabytes of stolen data, targeting victims from multiple countries all over the Earth. This data ranges from basic information such as birthdays, purchase history, and education certificates, to more personal documentation such as birth certificates, bank info, and social security cards….

(12) FIN DE CYCLE. “Orcas are still smashing up boats – and we’ve finally worked out why” says New Atlas.

For four years now, orcas have been ramming and sinking luxury yachts in European waters, and scientists have struggled to work out just why these smart, social animals had learnt this destructive new trick. But it’s not due to some anticapitalist ‘eat the rich’ agenda, nor is it to do with territory and aggression. The truth is, well, it’s child’s play.

Following years of research, a team of biologists, government officials and marine industry representatives have released their findings on just why one particular Orcinus orca group has developed this destructive streak. And it turns out, orcas – especially the kids and teens – just want to have fun. The report reveals that a combination of free time, curiosity and natural playfulness has led to young orcas adopting this ‘trend’ of boat-bumping, which is not at all surprising for a species that has been known to adopt odd, isolated behaviors from time to time.

In recent years, a dramatic recovery in the population of bluefin tuna in the region has been a win for a group of about 40 critically endangered Iberian killer whales that feed exclusively on the large fish. This has meant they’ve cut down their time spent foraging, leaving space for other ‘hobbies.’…

(13) THE BEE SIDE. “A vaccine for bees has an unexpected effect” explains Science News.

The first vaccine designed for insects may make honeybees healthier overall.

Honeybee hives vaccinated against a bacterial disease had much lower levels of an unrelated viral disease than did unvaccinated hives, veterinarian Nigel Swift of Dalan Animal Health reported April 3 at the World Vaccine Congress.

Researchers at Dalan, based in Athens, Ga., designed the bee vaccine to protect against American foulbrood — a fatal disease caused by a spore-forming bacterium called Paenibacillus larvae. Adult bees don’t get sick but can spread spores in the hive, where the disease infects and kills larvae. Spores can remain viable for more than 50 years, so beekeepers with infected colonies must destroy hives by irradiating or burning them to keep the disease in check. A vaccine may save bee lives and beekeepers’ livelihoods….

… Dalan’s vaccine against foulbrood disease doesn’t rely on tiny syringes. Instead, bees are inoculated through a sugar paste that researchers spike with heat-killed P. larvae. Worker bees eat the candy and incorporate it into their royal jelly, which they feed to the queen. Inside the queen’s gut, bits of the bacteria attach to a protein, which in turn transports the vaccine fragments to the ovaries where they can be deposited in eggs. Larvae that hatch from the eggs should be protected from the disease…

… Yet the researchers found a surprising result: Vaccinated hives were protected from a viral disease spread by varroa mites (SN: 3/7/16). Both vaccinated and unvaccinated hives started the study with the same number of mites and a baseline level of virus, as measured by a PCR test. Virus levels continued to rise in the unvaccinated hives but declined in the vaccinated ones. At the end of the study, vaccinated hives had accumulated 83 percent less virus than unvaccinated hives did, Swift said. The number of mites per hive remained the same….

[Thanks to SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Steven French, Teddy Harvia, Cliff, Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Chris Barkley, and Cat Eldridge for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kip W.]