Tag: Pink SF

The brighter side of Pink SF

Of course, these are Democrats in general, once we limit the discussion to the SJW subset you can be certain that far more than a paltry 34.4 percent of them are suffering from depression or some other mental health issue. These people are not sane or healthy, they are quite literally sick in mind, body, and soul. Case in point: our friends at File 770.

Tasha Turner:

Any trigger warnings for Seveneves? One of the few things I still need to read to finish off my Hugo voting. I’ve had a couple things trigger my PTSD over the last couple weeks and am trying to avoiding books with of my major issues: abuse, suicide, torture, fridging, loads of graphic violence…

Paul Weimer:

RE: Fifth Season. I concur with many above. Not a happy book, and if I was in one of my down depressive cycles, definitely not the book I should be personally reading. Fortunately I read it when I was on an even keel and so was able to absorb the book’s bleak tone (Starting WITH the apocalypse, and not getting happier from there) with equanimity.

Sounds like a fun, upbeat, and totally stable group of people, doesn’t it? I may have to rethink my Hugo voting order; if N.K. Jeminsin’s Hugo-nominated The Fifth Season is inspiring SJWs to off themselves, maybe there is something to this award-winning Pink SF sewage after all!

The Disney bait-and-switch

Disney is now making use of the same trick to sell its movies that the Pink SF crowd has been pulling for decades, in this case, selling princess movies to the public under the guise of a film for boys.

The first teaser trailer for Disney’s new animated musical Moana has been released online, and it’s a little short on… Moana. The film’s titular heroine is a Polynesian princess (voiced by native Hawaiian teenager Auli’i Cravalho, in her film debut) who journeys across the sea to find a legendary island, with the help of demi-god Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson). When the film opens in November, Moana will be the newest Disney princess and is expected to be absorbed into the multibillion-dollar Disney Princess franchise. So why is the trailer (below) all about Maui?

It’s not because Dwayne Johnson is the biggest-name star in the film, although that is true. It’s just the latest example of a very specific Disney marketing strategy, designed to broaden the appeal of its fairy-tale movies by making them appear less girl-centric. Because a movie for the female half of the population is a “niche” film, whereas a movie aimed at boys is fun for the whole family! Or so the thinking goes.

This all began after 2009’s The Princess and the Frog underperformed at the box office. That film had a few notable issues — like a meandering story, in which the princess spent most of her time being a frog — but per the Los Angeles Times, Disney execs came to the conclusion that The Princess and the Frog didn’t attract an audience because boys didn’t want to see a movie about princesses. 

Which brings us to Moana. To its credit, Disney hasn’t excluded the main female character in its marketing to the extent that it did with Frozen and Tangled. The first image released from the film featured the princess and the demi-god side by side and a video posted online in October introduced actress Cravalho to the world. So it’s disheartening that the first teaser essentially excludes Moana. Maybe the full-length trailer will be a little more balanced?

The bait-and-switch of the trailers is also indicative of an issue with the princess films themselves: Since 1989’s The Little Mermaid, male characters have had the majority of dialogue in Disney fairy-tale movies. Even though the protagonists of these movies are girls, they exist in a world of male sidekicks and supporting characters who get the last word.

Boys don’t want to see movies about princesses. Boys don’t want to read books about romances either. But rather than simply making movies that boys want to see and publishing books that boys want to read, the SJWs in Hollywood and in publishing think that the secret to success is making princess movies and publishing romances, then deceiving everyone as to the content.

It’s remarkable what contempt they have for their customers; one imagines they must understand that even the most dimwitted boys and parents are going to eventually figure out the bait-and-switch and simply stop buying anything from them.

SJWs always lie. Always.

The inanity of Pink SF/F

It goes well beyond that, of course, but it serves as a useful example. John Wright explains how what he calls “the Twenty Firsters” cripple their own entertainment:

These are basic rule of psychology that everyone knows, or should know, if his brain is not gummed up with political correctness.

Basic rules of storytelling 101: the tale cannot violate the basic rules of psychology 101. (See Mark Twain’s description of Leatherstocking Tales for details.)

The writer can have the characters in odd situations, and, in a superhero yarn, the oddness can involve countless impossible absurdities of time travel, cloning, robots, talking apes, necromancers, mind readers, secret societies, immortals, revenants from the dead, parallel dimensions, millionaire playboys dressed like Robin Hood, and anything else you like: BUT the character’s reaction to these impossible things, no matter how absurdly impossible, must not only be possible, but likely and reasonable for a real human being in the unreal situation, or otherwise the writer shatters the suspension of disbelief.

A man can be a superman with ninescore ninety and nine impossible super powers plus one, but he has to act like a man, and not like a cardboard clockwork robot or a sockpuppet yanked out of his established character to go through a jerky, awkward pantomime to make today’s public service announcement on behalf of politically correct obsessions about problems solved before I was born.

If eccentric billionaire wants to build a supersuit out of dwarf star matter so he can shrink down to atom-size and fight very small crimes, I will buy that and come back for more, bringing my friends with me, and throw money at the writer. But if smoking hot computer genius girl kisses the first kiss, that breaks me out of the spell of the story, and I sit glowering at how unbelievable the writing is.

Women make all the first moves in Twenty Firster mythology, because the simple truth that weak men drive women insane, and insane women make men weak, has simply been ignored.

First, the notion of female pursuit is directly related to the socio-sexual rank of the male writers. To the Gamma, women are inexplicable. They have no idea why the woman abruptly decides to take her clothes off, so anytime you read of an attractive woman, who has hitherto exhibited absolutely no interest in the intelligent protagonist who has been intensely respecting her by showing absolutely no interest in her, suddenly crawling into the sleeping bag of said protagonist, you can be 100 percent certain that the author is a Gamma.

Second, most writers of Pink SF/F, in any format, are not only ignorant, but proudly so. The battle scenes in the most recent episode of A Game of Thrones were so shockingly inept and historically ignorant that I found myself wondering if Kameron Hurley had been hired as the historical consultant.

As one wag put it on Twitter: A cavalry charge? I’d better put my pikes in reserve!

And while I’m at it, I’ll refrain from ordering my archers to fire at them as they approach. Then I’ll send my infantry in to surround the survivors, so they can’t break and run, thereby preventing my cavalry from riding them down and slaughtering them from behind. And when the totally predictable enemy reinforcements arrive just in the nick of time, because I’ve been busy posturing rather than simply destroying the surrounded enemy, instead of withdrawing my army and retreating to my fortress, I’ll just stand around and watch them get entirely wiped out before fleeing by myself.

It was the second-most retarded battle scene I’ve ever seen, topped only by Faramir leading Gondor’s cavalry against a fortified position manned by archers in The Return of the King. I was always curious about what the cavalry was intended to do if they somehow managed to survive the hail of arrows and reach the walls that no horse could possibly climb.

Anyhow, the Twenty Firster inanity goes well beyond psychology, because both logic and history are mysteries to them as well.

Pink SF will ban itself

MidAmericaCon II refuses to include a Hugo-nominated work in the Hugo Packet:

As the World Science Fiction Convention, MidAmeriCon II has members from 35 countries. Safe Space as Rape Room quotes extensively from a written work containing explicit descriptions of children engaged in sexual activities. This material may be illegal in some home countries of  members. MidAmeriCon II does not wish to put any member at risk of inadvertently violating the law in their country of residence by downloading it in the packet without intent. As such, under legal advice, we are not  hosting or distributing this material directly. 

The “written work” referred to in the above is the novel Hogg, by the SFWA’s Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Samuel R. Delany.

The WorldCon convention has also issued at least two other “warning labels” to two other Hugo-nominated works in the packet, one a Best Related Work by Moira Greyland, the other a Best Short Story by Chuck Tingle.

Speaking of Pink SF, now that John Scalzi’s new book has been announced, it’s time to congratulate everyone who had “Isaac Asimov”. I’m sure we all look forward to reading the adventures of Eli Seldom and her psychic predictions of how the Galactic Empire would collapse as a result of interplanetary menstrual synchronization.

The decline of science fiction literature

He raises a significant question I haven’t seen: why is it that science fiction editors talk so much about politics, and so little about books they’ve read? He also hammers McRapey for his corrupt little arrangement with Cory Doctorow and BoingBoing.

He also found over a dozen voting slates and determined that there was only  one difference between the Puppy success and the lack of success of the rival slates: the Puppy slates – which, in the case of the Rabid Puppies were of course not even slates at all – were put forth by more popular blogs.

In other words, the only reason for all the fandom histrionics is that our writers are considerably more popular – or even worse, more influential – than theirs are. That is why they are constantly changing the rules and appealing to the media in order to continue their affirmative action campaign of destroying science fiction in order to improve it.

Earlier this week, a rousing headline shot at warp-speed across browsers and Twitter feeds: Women Swept The 2015 Nebula Awards, taking home the prestigious science-fiction and fantasy prizes in the categories of Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story and Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy work.

The news might’ve come as a surprise to — or, at least, to the chagrin of — a boisterous group of science fiction writers and fans who’ve taken up the cause of restoring the genre to its tenants of yore: lighthearted adventure that’s sleek, zippy, fun, and — oh yeah — comprised of shelves’ worth of white male writers.

The ostensible platform of the Sad and Rabid Puppies, whose name is meant to mock heartfelt liberalism, is meant to support action stories sans political or moral message. And the cost? Last year, they rigged the voting for a similarly lauded set of prizes, the Hugo Awards, favoring white male writers and effectively quelling women and authors of color. Unlike the Nebulas — which are voted on by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, an organization comprised not just of writers but editors and publishers — the Hugos are controlled by readers, so the Puppies were able to leave their mark.

They didn’t succeed entirely. The categories they stocked with their own nominees received “No Award” due to voters rejecting their white male nominees. But for writers whose books were unfairly overlooked, the damage was done.

This year, the conversation howls on, especially in light of the woman-centered Nebula slate. Nnedi Okorafor, who won for her novella Binti, an interstellar story about a girl who leaves her people to attend the prestigious Oomza University, worlds away from her home, says she’s thankful that issues of prejudice in the industry are being discussed.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Okorafor said, “Honestly, I love hearing people arguing out in the open, not hidden away in their own echo chambers. That’s what I want to see more of: Dialogue. The issues swirling around the Hugos are merely manifestations of the growing pains this country is experiencing as a whole,” she added. “Growing pains are painful, awkward, annoying, sometimes destructive in order to create. What I hope will be the outcome of the Hugos is an airing out, an addressing, a debate, and a moving forward.”

Naomi Novik, who took home the 2016 Nebula for her novel Uprooted, a fantasy book about a girl whose taken from her beloved community by a seemingly harmless dragon, feels differently. For her, the Sad Puppies’ rhetoric has been damaging, manipulative and unreflective of true fandom.

“I am glad to trumpet my disdain for this loudly,” Novik told HuffPost. “What I very much hope will come out of this year’s Hugo Awards is that the rules will be changed. [The Puppies] need to just go away.”

Both women agree that prejudiced lines of thinking have been historically damaging to women and writers of color working in the genre, who have both been recognized in their time, but largely forgotten by history. Kate Wilhelm’s suspenseful speculative fiction has won multiple Nebulas and a Hugo; Vonda N. McIntyre, whose longstanding attachment to the “Star Trek” franchise rocketed her to acclaim, won both awards as well. Yet neither is discussed alongside Orson Scott Card or William Gibson.

If Maddie Crum had ever read Kate Wilhelm’s or Vonda McIntyre’s books, or Card’s and Gibson’s, for that matter, she would know perfectly well why the former are not discussed alongside the latter. They’re neither as good nor as important and influential. They’re just not. It’s not even debatable.

It will be interesting to see how Novik’s disdain will be affected if we give her book Best Novel, just as we gave it to Three-Body Problem last year. Uprooted isn’t a great book, nor is it an important one, but it’s not a bad little fairy tale either. It’s a lightweight book more akin to Among Others than Redshirts or The Quantum Rose. It’s rather amusing that fendom is so caught up in the nominations game that they have failed to recognize that while they decide if anyone wins or not, the Rabid Puppies now decide who will win whenever there is more than one contestant in play.

The thing is, neither Novik nor Okorafor are bad writers. I generally like their works I’ve read. In historical terms, they write competent midlist fantasy and science fiction, respectively. But the fact that they are the best Pink SF has to offer is sufficient evidence of both the decline of the mainstream science fiction infrastructure as well as the general mediocrity of female SF/F writers.

What female SF/F writer today can compete with Tanith Lee at her best? If you compare Novik’s take on fairy tales to Lee’s, well, it’s not even close. There is still Lois McMaster Bujold, of course, but even she has lost her fastball when it comes to her novel-length works. Fat Seanan? N… K… Jemisin? Kameron “We Have Always Invented History” Hurley? Ann “Tea in Space” Leckie?

Please. There are better women writers working in the game industry than are getting nominated for awards in SF/F literature these days. Forget the awards, half these women couldn’t get published traditionally or self-publish and sell in the Amazon top 100,000 if they used a male pen name.

I’d very much like to see one of them try to prove me wrong. And as for the converse, well, are you absolutely certain I haven’t already done so?

How to save science fiction

Brad Torgersen explains how the Tor Cabal is going to save science fiction from the badthinkers:

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: Back when I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, the Hugos represented something special in this field. They were the yearly culmination of the collective Fannish spirit. Our communal celebration of what is best in this genre. We did this together — the many, come to unite as one.

AUDIENCE: (tepid applause, some straining forward in their seats, not quite sure where this is going)

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: Now, it’s all well and good to get rid of the Bad People™ because Lord knows I’m as sick of them as you all are.

AUDIENCE: (a spontaneous roar of agreement)

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: Our genre has never, ever been about Bad People™ nor should we ever be forced to tolerate the intolerant, who of course were never real Fans in the true meaning of Fannishness anyway, because we say so.

AUDIENCE: (collective orgasm of hearty ascent)

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: But this has to be done very politic-like. Why do you think all the great Socialist reformers of the past hundred years, have always staged elections? It didn’t matter if they were at the pinnacle of a one-party system, and gave themselves titles like “President.” What mattered is that their subjects — excuse me, citizens — were able to vote. That is the basis of the Republic — allowing people to pretend that there is actual democracy happening.

AUDIENCE: (murmurs, a few shouts, some scattered golf claps)

MODERATOR: (coughs nervously) But, sir, how are we to preserve and protect our glorious accolades?

SHRIMPY FAMOUS-ON-THE-INTERNET AUTHOR: I know nobody included me in this conversation, but I am going to include myself anyway, because everybody knows it’s all about me, in the end — me, me, and me. In fact, the only reason the Bad People™ exist at all, is because they are out to get me. That’s why there’s trouble in the Peoples Republic of Science Fiction. There are individuals who don’t like me, and have decided to get militant about it.

MODERATOR: (fawning over Shrimpy Famous-On-The-Internet Author) Well, please, by all means, have my chair! We would love to hear more.

AUDIENCE: (cheers, laughter)

SHRIMPY FAMOUS-ON-THE-INTERNET AUTHOR: I agree one hundred percent with my lovely and esteemed colleague, who is wealthier and more famous than me, so I will suck up to him at every opportunity — just like I do with that rock star Sandman guy. We of the pure and true fold, don’t need to tolerate the intolerant. Diversity means ensuring that a rainbow spectrum of ethnicities, genders, and sexualities — who all vote the same in national politics, have the same ideas on economics, and also literary taste — are afforded the opportunity to come celebrate with us, this most wonderful thing we call Science Fiction and Fantasy.

AUDIENCE: (massive, outlandish, squeeing approval)

SHRIMPY FAMOUS-ON-THE-INTERNET AUTHOR: But we have to be careful about how we go about ensuring that the Baen people, the FOX News viewers, the homophobes — did I tell you this hour how much I love and adore all gay people, for all time, everywhere? Because I, like, totally do! — and the transphobes, islamophobes, and other assorted Heinlein devotees, are kept out of the awards process. Do it too bluntly, and we risk sacrificing the public face of the field. We have to be sure we can say to the world — with straight faces — that Science Fiction and Fantasy is still a field that celebrates all ideas. Even though we want to make damned sure that SF/F’s power people and core literary prizes remain firmly on the side of the right ideas. Progressive ideas. For all definitions of Progressive which include, “Whatever Jon Stewart is being cute about this week.”

AUDIENCE: (murmuring wonderment at the great man’s epic intellect)

MODERATOR: (crying) My God, that was so beautiful . . . (reaches for tissue)

GRUMPY OLD FAT RICH FAMOUS AUTHOR: (steeples fingers) We’re kind of stating the obvious at this point. So, since we agree that we can’t be direct in addressing the problem of Bad People™ meddling in our business, what’s your proposal?

EDITOR TO THE SHRIMPY FAMOUS-ON-THE-INTERNET AUTHOR: (clears throat) Actually, it’s not his proposal, it’s mine. Because when it comes right down to it, we all know you writers would sell your souls for the right offer; from my house specifically. I can make or break any of you, any time I want. Same goes for people like that chump moderator over there, licking the hand of the caterer who’s putting out the lavish spread of food and treats — a spread my company is of course paying for, because the best way to win the hearts and minds of Fandom, is to give them free shit. Anyway, you all will rubber stamp whatever I want, in the end — just like when we split the editor category — so I’ll have my wife draft something on our blog later in the week. We can assume it will pass with flying colors at the business meeting, right?

It’s funny because it’s true. A lot of people don’t realize that EPH is a mandate straight out of the Nielsen Hayden family blog, previously known for creating the Best Editor Long Form award so I could be nominated every year Patrick Nielsen Hayden would finally get a few Hugos and stop crying about always losing out to Gardner Dozois.

Meanwhile, the second stage of my master plan is rapidly coming to fruition.

To the CEOs of Penguin Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster

We, the undersigned, are writing on behalf of the Black community, which has long supported the publishing industry despite being shut out of it. College-educated Black women are the group most likely to read books in the U.S., and Black people read more of every type of book. People of color make up 37% of the US population. The publishing industry cannot continue to shut out and ignore the literary interests of communities of color.

Black authors, reviewers, and editors are being shut out of the publishing industry. Despite pledges and commitments from the most influential institutions to rectify this imbalance, little progress has been made. The 2015 Diversity Baseline Survey, conducted by Lee & Low books, shows just how racially homogeneous the publishing industry is. 79% of publishing and review journal staffers are white. A full 86% of executives are white. The dearth of racial inclusion within the publishing industry is reflected in the books that are accepted, produced, and sold. Only 10% of children’s books published since 1994 have been by, or about, people of color.

Major publishers have been historically averse to publishing books by or about Black individuals, averaging fewer than four African-American biographies a year. Journalism outlets like the New York Times and NPR regularly publish reading lists comprised almost exclusively of white authors. In majority non-white cities like New York, more than 60% of the cultural sector, which includes museums, theaters and other organizations, are white. And lack of editorial insight into sensitive historical and cultural issues can lead to harmful, ignorant books by white authors being published despite protest from Black communities.

The reality is that people of color often come from low-income backgrounds and have less access to professional opportunities or mentorship networks within the publishing industry. Unless the publishing industry makes a concerted, well-resourced effort to lower barriers that keep out minorities, the status quo will never change. Participating in voluntary diversity surveys or pledging to pay more attention to racial demographics is only an acknowledgement of the diversity crisis. Large publishing institutions should fund initiatives that foster inclusion and create opportunities for authors, reviewers, and editors of color to thrive within the industry.

There have been myriad discussions on the necessity of diversity, on the importance of inclusion, on the value of equitable racial representation in not just publishing, but every industry. But we have come to a point where those words and sentiments must be matched with actions. When presidential candidates feel comfortable spewing hateful rhetoric to their supporters, it is a sign that all of us must do more to fight back against ideas and beliefs that divide or endanger people of color. Books shape our perceptions, give us insights into different experiences, and teach us lessons that we carry our entire lives.

Will you support a future that recognizes and values the literary voices and talents of Black people and people of color?

Yes, yes, absolutely yes! I could not agree more and I signed the petition. I absolutely support it, in fact, I will go one step further and demand that the CEOs of Penguin, Random House, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster publish ONLY black WOMEN and women of color and/or diverse sexual orientations and identities. After all, “black people read more of every type of book.”

You can’t argue with that.

This year’s Nebula Awards, where 24 out of the 34 works nominated for the award were written by women from multiple racial and cultural backgrounds and a spectrum of sexual orientations, and only 5 works were written by straight white men, is a step in the right direction. But we’re not there yet! Not yet!

We must not stop until Pink SF is 100 percent SJW-converged, and 100 percent of the authors, editors, and awards are black women and women of color!

UPDATE: And you thought I was kidding.

Dear Vox,

Thank you for taking action and adding your voice to the demand that the “Big Five” publishing houses create internships specifically for Black people and people of color. With your help we can ensure that diversity is more than just a buzzword used by companies. We can ensure that racial inclusion and equity become a reality, and that we are included in the portrayal of our stories.

Sincerely,

Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Bernard, Brittaney, Evan, and the rest of the ColorOfChange team 

SJWs never learn

This brilliant and totally new idea that has never been thought before by anyone in the science fiction world amused me when it was broached on Rape Rape’s blog:

mrjoshuaspeaks
Is it not time for a simple “Bannishment” of the Pet Leech? I realize that nobody wants to open up a “BlackList” situation but why not just say “you are done” to V.D. and his publishing house and obvious cohort saboteurs. If that is to much at least cut out V.D..

As a diverse and open fanbase it is completely justified and to our collective benefit to say you are a problem and we do not acknowledge you. Let him prove his point on the web by spewing hate speech and gibberish, nobody but his little niche of followers would care. It may leave out a small sum of quality works that sadly will not be recognized but that is a small price to pay for the quality we lose with his contributors sweeping the votes.

Simply saying we do not want V.D. and his views and actions as a representation of fandom as a whole sounds “great” does it not? Let him slaver and spew from afar.

Duly noted. I acknowledge SF fandom’s refusal to acknowledge me, accept it at face value, and for my part, promise to continue to ignore their opinions, feelings, and perspectives. As for “bannishment” that is a tactic that has clearly worked out very well for Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, SFWA, and others. I would absolutely welcome another banishment, not because I am a gamma male engaging in the customary public posturing, but because the most recent one resulted in a one-million monthly increase in my average pageviews. I expect a Martin-inspired Worldcon banishment could prove even more productive in this regard than the Scalzi-driven SFWA “expulsion” was.

  1. Nielsen Haydens condemn VD’s presence on a Nebula jury 
    • Nebula juries canceled
  2. SF SJWs proclaim VD will never be published by mainstream SF publishing houses
    • Castalia House launched.
    • Multiple bestselling authors join Castalia House.
    • VD writes and publishes four category bestsellers in nine months (with assistance from John Red Eagle, Dr. James Miller, and Dominic Saltarelli.)
  3. SFWA Board votes to expel VD from SFWA
    • John Wright joins Castalia House
    • VD’s average monthly pageviews grow from 1.2 million to 2.2 million.
    • VD collects first Hugo nomination
  4. SF fandom votes to No Award “Opera Vita Aeterna” in 2014.
    • Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies take 57 nominations.
    • VD collects second and third Hugo nominations
  5. SF fandom No Awards the Puppies in 2015
    • Rabid Puppies take 69 nominations (5 games DQ’d)
    • VD collects fourth and fifth Hugo nominations
    • Hugo rules changed: EPH and 4 of 6 pass.
    • “Space Raptor Butt Invasion”

Apparently SJWs aren’t gifted when it comes to pattern recognition. By all means, open up your hate and let it flow into me. Who could possibly doubt if they redouble their efforts one more time, just this one more time, their exclude-and-disapprove-and-refuse-to-acknowledge tactics will finally succeed!

Meanwhile, Yagathai not only confirms that Larry Correia was correct all along, but justifies the ongoing campaign against Tor Books:

yagathai
I have not read Between Light and Shadow. I do not plan to. I will nevertheless vote against it. Castalia House is the propaganda organ of an odious white supremacist and obscene misogynist, and I will fight to deny it even a breath of legitimacy.

That may not be all Castalia is. It may also publish serious works of scholarship, but that’s immaterial — lay down with puppies and you get fleas. Any work published by CH is tainted.

You can call this a “political reason” if you like. I don’t. I see it as a matter of common decency.

He has a right to his opinion, as silly as it may be. As do we. Tor Books is the SJW-converged propaganda organ of an unreconstructed Stalinist, feminist, and dyscivilizationist, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and while it may publish a few works that are not Pink SF, that is immaterial. Any work published by Tor Books is tainted.

It is a matter of common decency. Boycott Tor Books. Tor delenda est.

And finally, one of the authors of EPH shows his true colors. Remember, Worldcon kept going on and on about how impartial their very professional statisticians were, right up until those statisticians discovered that the Puppies were not the only slates in play and promptly buried the evidence by refusing to disclose the information they’d previously promised to disclose.

jamesonquinn
I’m the person who put together the ideas for EPH in the first place; a co-author of the analysis that prompted this post; and the person who first suggested a strengthened version of EPH (being called “EPH+” on File 770) for 2018. Clearly I’m not unbiased, but I am an expert on voting systems….

(VD is currently crowing about how GRRM is not a real hard science fiction writer like Piers Anthony was or else he would have realized that EPH wasn’t a panacea, and about how he will always have another plan and thus can never be foiled. As a voting theorist, I can say to him: I may also be no golden age SF author, but I do know how to shut you, and your innumerable plans, down. And what it looks like is exactly like what you’re seeing: an inexorable reduction of your ability to create the chaos you desire, step by carefully-considered consensus step.)

All things are possible, Mr. Quinn. I will certainly welcome adding the scalp of a Harvard statistician to my growing collection. I note there is already one strike against you; I knew, as you did not, that EPH would fail from the start. And I take no small pleasure in being the first to inform you that EPH+ will as well, as you quite clearly do not understand its inevitable consequences.

The Science Fiction Women’s Awards

The SFWA’s Nebula Awards were given out this weekend and offer further proof that allowing women into a men’s club inevitably destroys it over time. The winners in the four major categories:

Novel: Uprooted, Naomi Novik
Novella: Binti, Nnedi Okorafor
Novelette: “Our Lady of the Open Road,” Sarah Pinsker
Short Story: “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” Alyssa Wong

What’s interesting about this is that all the screaming about sexism in science fiction has never been louder. This is despite the fact that women now dominate the SF publishing houses, the editorships, run the SFWA, and are giving themselves literally all the major awards. Consider the winners of the four categories over the last five years:

2015: 4/4 women
2014: 3/4 women
2013: 4/4 women
2012: 2/4 women
2011: 2/4 women


The trend is clear, and what is readily apparent is that very few, if any, men will win Nebula Awards in the future. You might think I’m complaining about this, but quite to the contrary, I very much welcome the transformation of SFWA into the Science Fiction Women’s Awards. The more the SF publishers are influenced by it, the bigger a competitive advantage Castalia House is going to have.


Men reliably flee female-dominated institutions and activities. There is a reason there are so few lawsuits by men demanding admittance into women’s-only organizations, after all. The 2015 Nebula Awards not only tell us who is probably going to win the Hugo Awards for Best Novel and Best Novella, but also indicate that Pink SF is going to become even more omnipresent in what passes for mainstream science fiction publishing.

Look out, SF fandom

Mike Cernovich is taking scalps:

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska will not be running for President after his connection to pedophiles was revealed by Mike Cernovich of Danger & Play Media. (Read: Ben Sasse and #NeverTrump’s Pedophile Problem.)

This entire election season Sasse has building up his personal brand by attacking Trump. Sasse had not taken a principled stand against anyone else on the right, and thus he’s engaging in showmanship marketing in an effort to run for president.

His campaign for president began gaining momentum, with establishment conservatives hailing him as a hero. He was primed to run, and then I scalped him.

Sasse claimed to be a political outsider, so I began digging. Far
from being an everyman, Sasse was an insider’s insider, working at
companies like McKinsey and Company in between stints in Washington,
D.C. Yet what was not common knowledge was Sasse’s role as a tutor of
underage boys.

Sasse tutored and was sworn to protect underage boys working as
Congressional pages. Yet pages were constantly abused, and I suspected,
were abused under his watch. When I raise those concerns to Sasse, he
went radio silent.

Radio silence is a good way to describe the science fiction’s response to the considerable amount of smoke surrounding Samuel Delaney, just to specifically name one oft-celebrated individual. Notice that despite the science fiction community’s retroactive distancing from H.P. Lovecraft, Marion Zimmer Bradley has not yet been stripped of a single award or honor, DAW still publishes her Darkover books, and Tor Books still publishes her “Light” series.

So why are DAW and Tor Books still publishing Marion Zimmer Bradley in the full knowledge of her crimes? Do they endorse child abuse? It certainly puts a very dark spin on the title of Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s blog, “Making Light”.

So angry

It’s amusing how the SJWs keep relying upon their primary tactic, which is to spin the Narrative no matter what relation it might have to the truth.

Michael Morlock ‏@RevWinfield
The latest tantrum by @voxday has just gone to show that Buttpounding enthusiast @ChuckTingle is both a better man and a better writer.

Great. So vote “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” for Best Short Story. Perhaps I will too.

I am intrigued by Kevin Standlee’s proposal, for a three-stage process
(nomination as now, but leading to a list of up to 15 potential stories,
then an up-down vote on whether a story was worthy, by current Worldcon
members only, then the final ballot as now). The better solution would
be for Vox Day to abandon his childish games, but that seems unlikely in
the near future at least.
– Rich Horton, Black Gate

Angry. Crying. Childish. Tantrum. Toddler.

Those who have read SJW Always Lie will, of course, recognize the tactic for what it is: a rhetorical attack. Their objective is no different than the objective of the fourth-grade girl who calls another girl ugly or fat. They’re simply playing Mean Girl Game, in which the rules are the first person to upset the other person and make them run off crying wins.

Now, you might ask yourself, what is the point of that? Even if I did feel devastated by people calling me names on the Internet and ran off crying, what would that change? In reality, nothing. But in their weird little delusion bubbles, they believe that just the right verbal sally will cause neutral parties to publicly acclaim them and enemies to submit. The fact that this has never, ever happened in their adult lives doesn’t prevent them from relying upon the tactic.

Anyhow, if an SJW someone else is slinging rhetoric at you, there is no need whatsoever to address it directly, to deny their ludicrous accusations, or to defend yourself in any way. Because what it means is that whatever you are doing is upsetting them and you should simply keep doing it. You can respond in kind if you feel like it, but there is no need to do so. The more they emote, the more they project, the more they will inform you where their vulnerabilities are.

For example, it should be readily apparent why so many of their preferred insults this year have a noticeable theme to them. They are projecting their emotional response to the accurate charge that as a community, they are harboring, defending, and celebrating pedophiles and child abusers. They very much dislike being referred to as pedofilers and pedophandom, because, as we know, the best and most effective rhetoric is that which has its basis in truth.