ANSIBLE(R) 429
APRIL 2023

From DAVID LANGFORD, 94 London Road, Reading, Berks, RG1 5AU, UK. Website
news.ansible.uk. ISSN 0265-9816 (print); 1740-942X (e). Available for SAE
or the arithmetical total ejaculated in a leaky flow.

[NET NOTE. See https://news.ansible.uk/a429.html for the nice HTML version;
https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/a429.pdf for a printable PDF. Mailing list
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requests to my own e-mail address. DRL]

### THE PRYING FAN ###

JOHANN GRECH, not a name previously on the tip of my tongue, has seemingly
used his role as Malta's film commissioner to inflate his IMDb page with
links to many productions -- including _Jurassic World_ and the tv
_Foundation_ -- whose credits did _not_ as claimed thank him or list him as
additional crew. All this 'completely unethical' stuff was deleted from the
page and replaced with links to critical articles. (_Times of Malta_, 13-14
March) [DL]

ADAM ROBERTS's Amazon blurb for _Stealing for the Sky_ has an 'About the
author' coda that after the mention of his being a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Literature ends: 'His science fiction has been praised by many
critics both inside and outside the genre, with some comparing him to genre
authors such as Pel Torro, John E. Muller, and Karl Zeigfreid.' [JB]

R.L. STINE'S best-selling 'Goosebumps' children's horror series has been
sanitized like the works of Roald Dahl: 'more than 100 edits such as a
character being described as "cheerful" rather than "plump", references to
villains making victims "slaves" have been removed and "crazy" has been
changed to "silly". (_Times_, 3 March) The initial _Times_ report accused
Stine of self-censorship, but he protested that 'the stories aren't true.
I've never changed a word in _Goosebumps_. Any changes were never shown to
me.' (MSN, 8 March). It seems that Scholastic Books, determined to 'keep
the language current and avoid imagery that could negatively impact a young
person's view of themselves today, with a particular focus on mental
health', did all this without bothering to tell the author.

COLSON WHITEHEAD received a US National Humanities Medal from President
Biden on 21 March, for his 'celebrated novels'. [L]

### CONTRABASSO ###

7-10 Apr [] CONVERSATION (Eastercon), Hilton Metropole near the Birmingham
NEC. Advance booking closes 31 March. At the door: GBP100 reg or GBP50/day;
GBP50 concessions; GBP40 supporting or online only; under-18s GBP20 or
GBP10/day; under-13s GBP5. _Main hotel convention room block now filled._
More information at conversation2023.org.uk.

7-10 Apr [] _STAR WARS_ CELEBRATION, ExCel, London. Mostly sold out; Monday
or Friday pass GBP65 plus fees. See www.starwarscelebration.com.

14-16 Apr [] CONPULSION (games), Teviot Row House, Edinburgh. Tickets
GBP15; GBP8 for Saturday or Sunday only; see conpulsion.org.

22-23 Apr [] SCI-FI SCARBOROUGH (multimedia), The Spa, Scarborough. GBP30
reg; students GBP20; 'kids' GBP10. See scifiscarborough.co.uk.

13-14 May [] STEAMPUNK FAIRYTALE, Belvoir Castle, Grantham. Tickets GBP40;
under-17s GBP15; family (2 adults, up to 3 children) GBP55; carers GBP20.
See www.belvoircastle.com/castle-book-tickets/.

16 May [] TOLKIEN LECTURE by Maria Dahvana Headley, Pichette Auditorium,
Pembroke College, Oxford. 6pm. See tolkienlecture.org.

26-28 May [] SATELLITE 8, Crowne Plaza, Glasgow. GBP70 reg; under-25s
GBP60; under-18s GBP20; under-12s GBP5; under-5s GBP2. _Rates are valid to
17 April 2023 and may rise thereafter._ See eight.satellitex.org.uk.

27-28 May [] SURREY STEAMPUNK CONVIVIAL, Stoneleigh, Epsom. See
bumpandthumper.wixsite.com/steampunkconvivials. Further 2023 'convivials'
are on 5-6 August and 21-22 October.

31 May - 6 Jun [] SCI-FI LONDON (film festival); London venues include the
Picturehouse Central. See sci-fi-london.com.

2-4 Jun [] CYMERA SF FESTIVAL 2023, Edinburgh and online. GBP70 or GBP40
digital, _rising to GBP80/GBP50 on 2 April_. See www.cymerafestival.co.uk.

3-4 Jun [] PORTSMOUTH COMIC CON, Guildhall, Portsmouth. Weekend tickets
GBP26.50, _rising on 1 April_. See portsmouthcomiccon.com.

24-28 Aug [] FRIGHTFEST (film), Cineworld, Leicester Square, London.
Tickets should be on sale from 15 July at frightfest.co.uk/tickets.html.

21-22 Oct [] FINAL FANTASY FESTIVAL, ExCel, London. Weekend tickets
GBP159.99. See fanfest2.finalfantasyxiv.com/2023-24/eu/.

3-5 Nov [] ARMADACON 2023, Future Inns, Plymouth. Guests TBA. GBP35 reg;
GBP30 concessions. More at www.armadacon.org.

2 Dec [] DRAGONMEET (gaming), Novotel Hammersmith, London. 9am-11pm.
Tickets GBP15.50 at www.dragonmeet.co.uk.

8-10 Mar 2024 [] MINAMICON (anime), Novotel Hotel, Southampton. GBP65 reg.
Further details _circa_ July 2023 at www.minamicon.org.uk.

8-12 Aug 2024 [] GLASGOW 2024, Glasgow SEC. GBP170 reg; concessions GBP125;
YA (under 26) GBP110; under-16s GBP75; under-11s GBP45; under-6s GBP5.
_These rates will rise on 1 May 2023_. See glasgow2024.org.

RUMBLINGS. _Dead by Dawn_, the Edinburgh horror film festival, is homeless
since the Filmhouse venue -- host to many events but closed last October --
will not, despite lingering hopes, be rescued by a grateful Festival City:
it's 'boarded up and for sale'. (Facebook, 17 March) [ML]

### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###

BLURBISMO. 'Reading these poems feels like ingesting semantic MDMA, the
ectoplasm of a Victorian ghost trying to reach her lover through an
unstable wifi connection.' (Nadia de Vries on the jacket of _The Lunar
Erratum_ by Maria Sledmere) [PE]

AWARDS. _Academy Awards_ (Oscars): _Everything Everywhere All at Once_ won
in seven categories, for Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actress,
Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Film Editing.
_Romantic Novel Awards_, fantasy category: _I Let You Fall_ by Sara
Downing.
_SFWA Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award:_ Greg Bear, Cerece Rennie Murphy.

THE CRITICAL HERITAGE. 'I don't know who needs to hear this but most of the
1-star Amazon reviews for _The Princess Bride_ by William Goldman are
people absolutely IRATE that it isn't "the original book" and is instead an
"abridged version" by "the screenplay writer."' (Lauren Thoman, Twitter, 3
March) Fans of S. Morgenstern demand justice!

CANCEL CULTURE. The Hong Kong debut of the slasher film _Winnie the Pooh:
Blood and Honey_ (IMDb: 'Pooh and Piglet embark on a bloody rampage as they
search for a new source of food.') will not take place despite advance
ticket sales of $4.1 million. (_The Register_, 22 March)

A SMEERP BY ANY OTHER NAME. Query to the _SF Encyclopedia_: 'Would you like
to acquire the domain name ScienceCartoons.com?' If only Peter Nicholls had
called it _The Bumper Book of Science Cartoons_ back in 1979, the sf world
would have been so very different.

R.I.P. _Robert Blake_ (1933-2023), US actor in _The Greatest Story Ever
Told_ (1965) and _Lost Highway_ (1997), died on 9 March aged 89. [LP]
_Eric Brown_ (1960-2023), widely liked UK author active since 1987,
whose first collection was _The Time-Lapsed Man_ (1990) and who published
impressively many sf series and standalone novels, died on 21 March aged
62. He won two BSFA Awards for short fiction. [KB]
_Valma Brown_ (1950-2023), Australian fanzine and convention fan long
married to Leigh Edmonds -- they co-edited _Giant Wombo_ 1979-1980 and were
fan guests at the 1991 Australian Natcon -- died unexpectedly on 2 March.
[LE] All sympathy to Leigh.
_Roland F. Crump_ (1930-2023), Disney animator who worked on _Peter
Pan_ and others, and influenced the design of Disneyland, died on 12 March
aged 93.
_Bo K. Eriksson_, long-time Swedish fan and genre bookshop employee
active from the mid-1970s in sf and Tolkien fandom, was found dead at home
in March having probably died in February; he was 70. [J-HH]
_Wally Fawkes_ (1924-2023), Canadian-born jazz musician and cartoonist
who signed his work 'Trog', died on 1 March aged 98. His fondly remembered
fantasy-satire strip _Flook_ ran in the _Daily Mail_ from 1949 to 1984,
followed by a brief revival in the _Daily/Sunday Mirror_. [SH]
_Christopher Fowler_ (1953-2023), much admired UK author of
urban-weird and supernatural horror fiction, best known for the long
'Bryant & May' detective sequence set in a fantasticated London and
sometimes edging into sf territory (as in the 1993 _Seventy-Seven Clocks_),
died on 2 March aged 69. [JC] Note that the other Christopher Fowler, past
editor of _Vector_ and married to Pat Cadigan, is alive and well.
_Ed Fury_ (1928-2023), US actor with genre credits from _The Wild
Women of Wongo_ (1958) to _Dinosaur Valley Girls_ (1996), died on 24
February aged 94. [F770]
_Bert I. Gordon_, prolific US producer/director/screenwriter of genre
films from _King Dinosaur_ (1955) and _The Amazing Colossal Man_ (1957) via
_Village of the Giants_ (1965) to _The Food of the Gods_ (1976) and _Empire
of the Ants_ (1977), died on 8 March aged 100. [LP]
_Paul Grant_, UK actor and stuntman with credits for _Return of the
Jedi_ (1983), _Labyrinth_ (1986) and _Willow_ (1988), died on 20 March aged
56. [AIP]
_John Hale_, publisher at Robert Hale Ltd from 1956 until he retired
in 2010, has died aged 92. (_The Bookseller_, 24 March) [AIP]
_Eve Harvey_ (1951-2023), UK fanzine publisher and convention-runner
active from the 1970s, died unexpectedly on 5 March aged 72. With her
husband John she co-edited _Ghas_, many issues of BSFA _Matrix_,
_Wallbanger_ and multiple fanthologies; she was secretary of the 1979 UK
Worldcon, chaired the 1982 Eastercon and won GUFF in 1985. Eve was also an
old friend. All sympathy to John.
_John Jakes_ (1932-2023), US author best known for historical fiction,
who before 1980 published space opera such as _When the Star Kings Die_
(1967) and sword-and-sorcery with the Conanesque _Brak the Barbarian_
(1968) plus many sequels -- also sending up the S&S genre in _Mention My
Name in Atlantis_ (1972) -- died on 11 March aged 90. [LP]
_Sandy Levy_, US fan who attended and worked on Chicago-area
conventions including Capricon, Windycon and the 2012 and 2022 Worldcons,
died on 13 March. [SHS]
_Javier 'Chabelo' Lopez_ (1935-2023), Mexican actor in _Autopsia de un
fantasma_ (1968), _Chabelo y Pepito contra los monstruos_ (1973) and
others, died on 25 March aged 88. [SJ]
_Joe McNally_, Belfast fan once active in APA-B/The Organization, who
worked for _Fortean Times_ and whose fanzines included _The Flaneur_, died
on 5 March. [SB] He was an occasional _Ansible_ correspondent since the
1990s.
_Walter Mirisch_ (1921-2023), Oscar-winning US producer whose films
include _Dracula_ (1979), died on 24 February aged 101. [AIP]
_Terry Norris_ (1930-2023), former Australian MP and actor in _The
Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ (2010), _Mortal Engines_ (2018) and _Bloom_
(2019/2020), died on 21 March aged 92. [GC]
_Michael Reaves_ (1950-2023), prolific US tv screenwriter and author
of much sf and fantasy beginning with _I, Alien_ (1978) and including
_InterWorld_ (2007) with Neil Gaiman, died on 20 March aged 72. [GVG]
_Lance Reddick_ (1962-2023), US actor in _Godzilla vs. Kong_ (2021)
and genre tv series including _DuckTales_ (2019), _Castlevania_ (2020) and
_Resident Evil_ (2022), died on 17 March aged 60. [LP]
_Tom Sizemore_ (1961-2023), US actor whose films include _Strange
Days_ (1995), _The Relic_ (1997), _Red Planet_ (2000), _The Electric Man_
(2002), _Dreamcatcher_ (2003), _The Immortal Wars_ (2017) and _Night of the
Tommyknockers_ (2022), died on 3 March aged 61. [SJ]
_Valerie (Val) Smith_ (1951-2023), US literary agent whose authors
included John M. Ford and Sherwood Smith, died on 2 March aged 71. [GVG]
_Alfredo 'Pelon' Solares_ (1933-2023), Mexican actor whose films
include _Mi fantasma y yo_ (1988), _El vampiro enamorado_ (1996) and _The
Wailer 2_ (2007), died on 20 March aged 89. [SJ]
_John D. Teehan_ (1967-2023), US author of short fiction from 2003,
co-editor of a 2012 _SFWA Bulletin_, and publisher as Merry Blacksmith
Press, died on 23 February. [SHS]
_D.M. Thomas_ (1935-2023), noted UK author who wrote sf poems for _New
Worlds_ 1968-1979 and used fantastic elements in _The White Hotel_ (1981)
and other novels, died on 26 March aged 88. [DP]
_Bill Tidy MBE_ (1933-2023), highly popular UK cartoonist whose famed
tripe-magnates strip _The Fosdyke Saga_ (1971-1984 _Daily Mirror_) strayed
occasionally into sf territory -- as, more often, did the science-based
_Grimbledon Down_ (1970-1994 _New Scientist_) -- died on 11 March aged 89.
[HB] I loved his work.
_Topol_ (1935-2023), Palestine-born actor whose genre roles include Dr
Zarkov in _Flash Gordon_ (1980), died on 8 March aged 87. [AW]
_Dubravka Ugresic_ (1949-2023), Croatia-born author and translator
whose novel _Baba Yaga Laid an Egg_ (2010) won a Tiptree Award, died on 17
March. [GVG]
_Peter Werner_ (1947-2023), Oscar-winning US director whose credits
include _Doorways_ (1994), _House of Frankenstein_ (1997), _Medium_
(2005-2011) and _Ghost Whisperer_ (2006-2009), died on 21 March aged 76.
[AIP]
_Boris Zhutovsky_ (1932-2023), Russian artist for many genre books
including titles by Calvino and Lem, died on 8 March. [AM]

On 3/31/23 12:06 PM, David Langford wrote:
> R.L. STINE'S best-selling 'Goosebumps' children's horror series has been
> sanitized like the works of Roald Dahl: 'more than 100 edits such as a
> character being described as "cheerful" rather than "plump", references to
> villains making victims "slaves" have been removed and "crazy" has been
> changed to "silly". (_Times_, 3 March) The initial_Times_ report accused
> Stine of self-censorship, but he protested that 'the stories aren't true.
> I've never changed a word in_Goosebumps_. Any changes were never shown to
> me.' (MSN, 8 March). It seems that Scholastic Books, determined to 'keep
> the language current and avoid imagery that could negatively impact a young
> person's view of themselves today, with a particular focus on mental
> health', did all this without bothering to tell the author.

Here are my own thoughts on the matter:

https://garymcgath.com/wp/r-l-stine-bowdlerization/

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com