- Realms of Fantasy back from the grave again…again? Naturally, there’s lots of reason to be dubious.
- Also dubious: this “apology” from Cooks Source. (First mentioned here Monday.) When you’ve been demonstrably proven to have a history of stealing your content from other sources, and your only excuse is an indignant cry of “the internet is public domain and you should be thanking us!” — a bizarrely dumb thing to hear an editor say — then you really don’t get to paint yourself as the wronged party, much less complain that your “issues and photos [were] used without [y]our knowledge or consent.”
- Editing Monty Python & the Holy Grail:
I would like to get back to the Censor and agree to lose the shits, take the odd Jesus Christ out and lose Oh fuck off, but to retain ‘fart in your general direction’, ‘castanets of your testicles’ and ‘oral sex’ and ask him for an ‘A’ rating on that basis.
- Is Stephen King America’s favorite author?
- And finally, from someone else who made that “favorite authors” list, a look at how J.K. Rowling plots. [via]
various
Tuesday various
- Peter Sagal on the difference between an opinion and a bias:
A bias doesn’t mean that you think that what a certain candidate says is idiotic; a bias means that not matter what he says, you’ll attack him. Or, if it’s a bias in favor of him, no matter what he says, you’ll forgive him, or simply choose not to draw attention to what doesn’t make him look good. You know your opinion after you read the day’s paper; you know your bias before you open it.
- Maybe it’s just me, but I bathe every day. [via]
- In case you were wondering: what happened to the Doctor Who companions?
- Original estimates of the untapped oil reserves in Alaska only off by…oh…about ninety percent [via]
- Amal El-Mohtar on a steampunk without steam:
I submit that the insistence on Victoriana in steampunk is akin to insisting on castles and European dragons in fantasy: limiting, and rather missing the point. It confuses cause and consequence, since it is fantasy that shapes the dragon, not the dragon that shapes the fantasy. I want the cogs and copper to be acknowledged as products, not producers, of steampunk, and to unpack all the possibilities within it.
I think I like the idea of calling this subgenre “retrofuturism,” with steampunk just one sub-subgenre of that. While, of course, differentiating the whole thing from alternate history, since that posits a specific branching point, a moment in history — the Nazis win, the South doesn’t lose, etc. — rather than an historical era. It’s only the ubiquity of steampunk that, to my mind, is the problem — insofar as this is a problem; it’s the fact that it chokes out other retrofuturistic viewpoints, necessitates a very specific and limiting aesthetic, keeps retrofutrism tethered (much like steampunk’s zeppelins) to specific countries, eras, worldviews.
If steampunk were just one type of story, rather than the all-consuming and defining aspect of retrofuturism, I think we’d be seeing less backlash against it.
Monday various
- Glenn Beck vs. Science Fiction [via]
- Gosh, if watching The Office means that I’m smug and think I’m better than other people, what does it mean that I think the show isn’t quite as good this season? Is that a double-reverse smugness?
- Publishing good: Apex Magazine’s Special Arab/Muslim Issue. The impetus for the issue can be found here.
- Publishing bad: Cooks Source claims Internet is all public domain, acts like big jerk.
- And finally, I give you: the birth of Kitty Pryde.
Thursday various
- Alien’s Ellen Ripley almost played by Meryl Streep. Really.
- So apparently there wasn’t a time traveler at the premiere of one of Charlie Chaplin’s movies. This is disappointing on so many levels. [via]
- Harry Potter fans in India have been asked to stop kidnapping owls. That’s good advice, no matter who it’s directed at.
- There are two skating with celebrities shows in the works? Even one seems like overkill.
- And finally, “Hi, I’m a Tea Partier.” I feel like I should have posted this Tuesday night or before, but I only saw it afterward. Still, it should give you a sense of where political discourse is in this country these days. [via]
Wednesday various
- Yeah, I think John Scalzi pretty much sums up how I feel about last night’s election results:
But as I’ve noted before, the GOP may have put a gun to the head of the Democratic majority in the house, but it’s the Democrats who said, “dude, you’re holding it wrong,†jammed the gun into their own temple, and then pulled the trigger. The most accurate word I have for my feelings about the Democrats right now is disgust; disgust that they could get elected on a platform of substantial change, execute on many of the changes they campaigned on, and then allow the GOP and its allies to turn those actions in liabilities — well, again, disgust is not too strong a word.
Dear Democrats: You managed to lose the House in historic proportions to a party whose strategy was to harness the inchoate anger of old white people so stupid that they don’t sense the inherent contradiction of screaming about a smaller government whilst cashing their federal checks. You are morons. Please find someone who can play this game and put them in charge of your electoral strategy, because what you’re doing now isn’t working. Also, henceforth, every time you whine about Fox News and shadowy financiers of the Tea Party, we get to beat you with a hammer. This is the political landscape now. Deal with it
- Not to knock a cure for the common cold, or the research that will have gone into it, but it seems to me there are significantly larger health risks that we face than sore throats, runny noses, and sneezes. Is the common cold the holy grail just because of its ubiquity? Is the idea that if we can cure that, we can cure anything?
- I continue to find the story of Randy Quaid and his wife sad and strangely fascinating.
- But at least Quaid’s just starring in movies I don’t want to go see. Some people divorced from reality actually got elected last night. It would almost be amusing if Rand Paul didn’t think there were any poor people, if he wasn’t now an elected representative.
Frankly, it’s like Scalzi also says in that post above:
And oddly enough, most people aren’t the whole package of white, male, heterosexually-paired and well-off. I’m puzzled that enough of you keep looking out for me, even when I really don’t want or need the help. Really, folks, I and people like me are fine. Take care of yourselves, please.
- And finally, the Monolith Action Figure. Zero points of articulation! [via]