Wednesday Morning Sasquan Pixel

There’s a strong forest fire ash scent in the air — when we flew in last night and encountered that suspicious burning paper smell passengers started looking around to see if something had gone wrong aboard the plane.

This morning I emerged from the elevator and there was Dennis Miller with his bicycle, setting a good example for the rest of us. I also met Amy Thomson who filled me in about the Ranquet location.

Dennis and I headed for registration. En route we got to say hi to Larry Niven, and Michelle Pincus gave us some gag ribbons for our badges. Mine says “48% Sith, so don’t push it.” I’ll let you know when somebody gives me the ribbon that answers what the other 52% is….

Although the reg line was advancing at a shuffling pace, which is good for the first morning of a Worldcon,I decided that would be too long standing on a hard surface. So wandered back til I found a spot to crash on a bench, which happened to be next to Colin Harris, a past Worldcon chair and Journey Planet coeditor.

While working on this post I’ve said hello to Jo Walton, Dave McCarty, Morris keesan and James Bacon.

And somebody just walked by wearing an “Occupy Mars” t-shirt, which kind of symbolizes why I come to these things.


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355 thoughts on “Wednesday Morning Sasquan Pixel

  1. Well, I’m glad he dropped in. He has reminded me to do some research on a vanity plate I saw a couple of days ago.

    Even though there are less fraught alternative definitions, I’m still wondering how a plate saying ONE DROP got through the offensiveness check.

  2. I’m just going to assume they’re a One Direction Original Pairing RPfic person.

  3. I absolutely adore you for this story. I did not know such a thing existed.

    Neither did I. Join me in today’s 10,000, Laura.

  4. @Jack Lint
    Jan Svankmajer’s Squirrel Girl

    See, that I would pay to see… His take on Alice was… Unique.

  5. It’s on YouTube. Geniusness established within two minutes.



    I should say, probably NSF some work environments. (But then, who is ever watching movies at work?)

  6. Pretty far along in The Use of Weapons now, and I have to say it’s one of the best John LeCarré novels of the post-cold-war era. It’s got a feel somewhere between The Honourable Schoolboy and A Perfect Spy.

  7. It seems to me that Buwaya is hinting at what could actually be an interesting question, if we think of it as a thought experiment rather than a setup for a pissing contest.

    What works of written SF were essential to the historical development of the field, but are not necessarily well-known to non-fans? The wonderful alphabet poem that Kyra (I think ?) posted a few weeks ago was certainly along those lines.

    The first few things that pop into my head, without referring to any external source, are:

    Asimov, Robot books
    Asimov, Foundation series
    Clarke, Childhood’s End (Black protagonist, BTW)
    Heinlein, Starship Troopers AND Stranger in a Strange Land (funny how fans of the former ignore the latter), and the story “All You Zombies”
    LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness, and probably also The Dispossessed
    Niven, Ringworld (and its sequels, but especially the original book)
    Card, Ender’s Game (though that might have become so well-known through the movie that it is eliminated on the grounds of “too well known,” as in the case of, e.g., Frankenstein, and the works of Verne and Wells)
    Delany, Dhalgren
    Gibson, Neuromancer
    Haldeman, The Forever War (and sequels)

    Just for starters.

    But surely someone, somewhere, has already posted a list of suggested foundational SF reading? Of course, there is also the question as to whether to limit the list to works before a certain date—and if so, when—and whether or not to include fantasy and horror as well as SF.

  8. Well it appears to be a lie that Shaun King lied about being black. So.

    Ah. Anyone have a link to Day’s apology for spreading this lie then?

    No?

    How sad. Just another case of a puppy who has high standards for everyone else.

  9. With the caveat that under no circumstances would I want this to be used as some kind of literacy test for SF or to make someone “prove” their credentials, because I think that is the purest sort of bullshit–

    I have a strong urge to add in “It’s a Good Life” by Jerome Bixby. Not sure I could articulate why, and I’d accept an argument that that’s horror. And maybe Bierce’s “The Difficulty of Crossing a Field.”

  10. …Anthony who?

    If it’s Saint Anthony, no. Other Anthonys on a case-by-case basis.

    ETA: NVM, just remembered. *headdesk* I’m bad with names.

  11. VD, as long as you’re here, I just wanted to tell you that I appreciated that joke you made last year, when there was a thread on your site for liveblogging the Hugos.

    Some of your commenters were amused by the fact that not all of the winners for the fan Hugos had made it to LonCon, and were speculating that this meant that they did not value the Hugos. One said that what would be really significant was if the winner for Best Novel didn’t show up.

    And you said:

    In fairness, I expect he’s dead.

    Very amusing! Well done.

  12. Niven, Ringworld (and its sequels, but especially the original book)

    I might substitute Protector for Ringworld. And I’d add some of the Beowulf Shaeffer and Gil Hamilton stories.

    Card, Ender’s Game (though that might have become so well-known through the movie that it is eliminated on the grounds of “too well known,” as in the case of, e.g., Frankenstein, and the works of Verne and Wells)

    Also Speaker for the Dead.

    Delany, Dhalgren

    I’d go with Nova and Babel-17 instead.

    Add The Stars My Destination by Bester. Probably something by Burroughs and “Doc” Smith too. Even though they aren’t “obscure”, there should be some Verne and Wells on the list.

    The list needs some Sturgeon as well, maybe Slow Sculpture. Also some Simak – I’d pick The Big Front Yard. I’ll think of some more things later.

  13. Babel-17 is probably more “classic” than Nova, but damn I like Nova better. It’s interesting, BTW, how much science there is in Nova for a book by a “soft” science-fiction writer. For that matter, Trouble on Triton is the only book I’ve read that bothered to explain how the artificial gravity worked.

    But Dhalgren is the masterpiece and appears to have been influential on cyberpunk and its descendants.

  14. Being Basque (in part) I have genuine cave-painting Cro-Magnon genes, that trump any barbaric Neandethals.

    So does everyone else with any European ancestors.

  15. So does everyone else with any European ancestors.

    That’s one of the kind of funny things about Beale’s claims of Native American and Mexican heritage: By the standards he is using, it is likely that a majority of residents in the U.S. would qualify as either Native American or Hispanic. Certainly almost anyone whose ancestry was in the southwestern part of the country would.

  16. Southeastern, too. There’s a reason so many of the 1/16th claimants say their great-great-grandmother was a “Cherokee princess”. Princess – no. Cherokee – possibly. Mine was an Alabama farmer’s wife, and more likely to be Creek than Cherokee given where they lived. It wasn’t a thing to brag about then, and really, 1/16th is nothing to brag about now. I mostly forget about it until the VDs of the world start throwing it around as if it gives them some oppression creds; it has absolutely no effect on my life.

  17. The urea must flow !
    OK, ok, doing it straight now.
    I don’t know, maybe being of a certain age some of the choices below seem a bit popular or standard, but maybe also its just because I remember them from when they were new. Or newer than they are now anyway. In any case they are mainly from my day. I also suspect a lot of this may still be showing up in College reading lists (imagine my amazement when I heard that in America they had university classes on Science Fiction).
    Asimov, Robot books

    – OK, these are certainly old and maybe forgotten by now.

    Asimov, Foundation series

    – Still a standard cite, so maybe still not quite forgotten ?

    Clarke, Childhood’s End (Black protagonist, BTW)

    – Still not forgotten ? There are other Clarke’s that probably are lost in time.

    Heinlein, Starship Troopers AND Stranger in a Strange Land (funny how fans of the former ignore the latter), and the story “All You Zombies”

    – “All You Zombies” maybe, but the others are extremely well known. As of ten years ago “Starship Troopers” was still on some rather cool HS reading lists)

    LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness, and probably also The Dispossessed

    – Standards I think, though “Left Hand” maybe not quite so.

    Niven, Ringworld (and its sequels, but especially the original book)

    – Still standard

    Card, Ender’s Game (though that might have become so well-known through the movie that it is eliminated on the grounds of “too well known,” as in the case of, e.g., Frankenstein, and the works of Verne and Wells)

    – In High School reading lists all over. Or it was @10 years ago.

    Delany, Dhalgren

    – ? Just me I think, but I can’t imagine anyone reading this.

    Gibson, Neuromancer

    – Damn, this is from 1984. Amazed its that old. I suspect the thing has skipped a generation or so.

    Haldeman, The Forever War (and sequels)

    – Yeah, maybe. Post-Vietnam and not terribly popular afterwards. Until very recently I suppose, with sequels.

    If you were thinking foundational maybe you may want to go further back. There is too much to choose of course. And there is the matter of short stories.
    40’s -50s-60’s –

    Van Vogt (Just too, too much, truly foundational and truly forgotten I think. Slan, Space Beagle, Weapon makers, Null-A, lots more),
    E.E.Smith (Its often awful but damn its foundational. Galactic Patrol I guess),
    Jack Vance (maybe not Dying Earth, still too popular maybe, Dragonmasters or the Last Castle – there’s no end of choice),
    P.Dick is still too trendy
    Wyndham (Triffids) ?
    C.L.Moore (Vintage Season – pity about the short stories),
    Fritz Leiber (The Wanderer),
    L Sprague De Camp (Lest Darkness Fall),
    Heinlein (Glory Road, Citizen of the Galaxy, Puppet Masters or Starman Jones – too much choice of course, much of Heinlein seems cited but unread),
    Simak (Way Station)
    Clarke (The City and the Stars)
    Fred Brown (The Light in the Sky are Stars)
    Not complete by any means – there is so much 50’s-60s stuff there thats “foundational” that the building foundation analogy doesn’t work – Its more like an ocean in which things evolved. I’m sure the people here can add a hundred more, and I will be slapping myself “oh yeah, that !”.

    And then we can go further back – I gotta go meet the wife but just a couple of off-the wall things –
    – C Capek – War with the Newts – tell me what its about when you’re done
    – Wylie/Balmer – When Worlds Collide – foundational as can be. Not too great though.

  18. Aaron said:

    “Delany, Dhalgren

    I’d go with Nova and Babel-17 instead.

    Add The Stars My Destination by Bester. Probably something by Burroughs and “Doc” Smith too. Even though they aren’t “obscure”, there should be some Verne and Wells on the list.”

    My own favorite Delany SF is Trouble on Triton (I also love the Neveryon books but consider them fantasy), but I agree with Jim Henley’s assessment of Dhalgren as the really influential one.

    Definitely The Stars My Destination!

    For Sturgeon, I lean toward More Than Human.

    If I had to pick one Verne, it would be 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (being taken as a child to see the Disney movie, with that great proto-steampunk Nautilus interior, probably had something to do with getting me interested in SF in the first place), and for Wells it would be The Time Machine.

  19. “So does everyone else with any European ancestors.”

    Ah, but not quite the same degree, or who knows. Basques are strange.
    Cavalli-Sforzas (History and Geography of Human Genes) charts are very interesting in that regard.

  20. Aaron, I remember hearing a story about a guy who showed up at a genealogy group meeting and announced he’d traced his family back to Charlemagne. He was quite annoyed that everyone laughed at that. (Getting to Charlemagne is easy, compared with proving descent from anyone on the Mayflower or at Jamestown. Much smaller gene pools, much shorter period for spread of those genes.)

  21. Re: Genealogy. My mother’s paternal line can be traced back to when they got off a boat named “The Constant Friendship” in the 1680s in Maryland. But we can’t trace back to where they got on the boat. My theory is that they were dropped onto it, mid-Atlantic, by UFOs…..

  22. @Jim Henley: One of my favourite restaurants back home was Polish. Their food seemed basically to be French cuisine but actually cooked nicely, and without the snooty attitude. Also some strange cabbage-salad concoction that was oddly more-ish.

    And then it closed down and became yet another Italian restaurant, because we really needed a 123,634th one of those in town.

  23. ” Anyone who has dabbled in family history or genealogy has hit the “ancestor in history” story. “

    My grandmother was talking with heir sister who had started to dabble in genealogy. She couldn’t understand why it was necessary as the family had paid quite good money for an expert to do the research and it was unlikely that an amateur would be able to do a better job.

    The sister answered that she started in the other end, she started with Odin and wanted to see if the ends could meet. A few years later she said her work was done, we were now ancestors of Odin.

    Imagination is a good thing to have when researching family trees.

  24. @JJ

    Yay! More details on the meeting if you recall them about the new book by PC Hodgell.

    We are not a cult. We are a movement !

    ETA: God Stalk !

  25. Cassy B. on August 20, 2015 at 8:13 pm said:
    …My theory is that they were dropped onto it, mid-Atlantic, by UFOs…..

    I hear you. I have a great-great-grandfather who was born at sea. It made him a little bit of a challenge to track, as there’s no record of him having emigrated….

  26. Shambles: God Stalk !

    Hampus: A few years later she said her work was done, we were now ancestors of Odin.

    Mission accomplished.

  27. Kurosawa’s “The Powerpuff Girls”

    No, wait, that actually isn’t unthinkable, all things considered… weird, but not inconceivable…

  28. If we’re going back to the original conception of horrible ruinous awful filmmaking decisions, I might have to borrow my Maus misdirector and bid

    Seth MacFarlane’s Powerpuff Girls

    With extra credit for the fact that it seems like exactly the type of horrible decision Hollywood might make (“He’s a big name in animation!”).

  29. at least two things you can do.

    Three. Roast the lamb and serve it with the potatoes.

  30. according to my mother, I’ve got a saint AND a cannibal in the family tree!
    …sadly, they were not the same person.

    but together, they fought crime?

  31. but together, they fought crime?

    One forgives them… the other eats them. It’s like Hannibal meets Touched By An Angel.

  32. Simon Bucher-Jones:

    We will never get an answer for that one, both my grandma and her sister have gone to Valhalla now.

  33. From memory the Kings of Wessex were descended from Odin. And as their descendents include HM the Queen (and every King of England from (I think) Henry II onwards) that’s certainly a fair chance of him turning up near the top of a family tree.

  34. The Kings of Mercia claimed descent from Woden via ” Icel son of Eomer son of Angeltheow son of Offa son of Wermund son of Wihtlæg son of Woden”

  35. @RedWombat:

    I’m 1/16th sun!

    I’m envy you; I’m Welsh, which makes me about one-eighth rain.

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