ANSIBLE(R) 406
MAY 2021

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 nine half-crowns wrapped in grease-proof paper.

[NET NOTE. See https://news.ansible.uk/a406.html for the nice HTML version;
https://news.ansible.uk/pdf/a406.pdf for a printable PDF. Mailing list
subscribe/unsubscribe information appears below -- please don't send such
requests to my own e-mail address. DRL]

CONFUSION. This year's virtual Eastercon suffered from many technical
problems but fun was nevertheless had. I myself carried out a careful
at-home simulation -- with no streaming software involved -- of my usual
convention practice of sitting in the bar drinking too much and missing all
the panels.
_Eastercon 2022:_ the unopposed Reclamation bid won with 98 votes, 3
abstentions. See the events list below.
_Eastercon 2023:_ decision held over by 69% of the vote (16%
Persistence 2023, 10% 'Alison Scott please' -- who argued for holdover and
to do so had to enter an unnamed bid because only bidders were allowed to
speak -- 4% abstain, 1% experimental error). [JB]
_BSFA Awards._ NOVEL N.K. Jemisin, _The City We Became_. NON-FICTION
Adam Roberts, _It's the End of the World: But What Are We Really Afraid
Of?_ SHORT Ida Keogh, 'Infinite Tea in the Demara Cafe' (_London Centric_).
ARTWORK Iain Clarke, 'Shipbuilding Over the Clyde' (Glasgow in 2024
Worldcon bid).
_Happy Daze_, official con newsletter, can be read at
confusion2021.uk/publications/newsletter/.
_Doc Weir Award:_ Alison Scott, who dedicated it to the 'awful lot of
people who've worked incredibly hard this weekend in ways they may not have
expected, and definitely weren't what they signed up for ...'

### THE BLOWPIPE LAUNDRY ###

GUILLERMO DEL TORO emerged triumphant when the US Ninth Circuit federal
court confirmed a lower court's decision that his film _The Shape of Water_
(woman bonds with sea chap vaguely reminiscent of the Creature from the
Black Lagoon) was not plagiarized from the1969 stage play _Let Me Hear You
Whisper_ (woman bonds with dolphin) by the late Paul Zindel, whose son's
attorney had claimed 69 points of similarity now accepted as coincidental.
(_Entertainment Weekly_, 5 April) [F770]

ALAN DEAN FOSTER is optimistic about his long-outstanding royalties (see
_A401_): 'The irritating imbroglio with Disney, which you may have read
about, is moving rapidly toward a mutually agreeable conclusion.'
(alandeanfoster.com, 1 April) [W] But SFWA has found several other creators
similarly defrauded by Disney of their contractual rights.

GEORGE R.R. MARTIN has been in the news, both for his boast that 'I wrote
hundreds and hundreds of pages of _The Winds of Winter_ in 2020' (blog, 2
February) and for being mentioned -- not in a good way -- in the Hugo
shortlist, where Best Related Work includes Natalie Luhrs's rant about his
Hugo MC performance: 'George R.R. Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun, Or: The
2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony (Rageblog Edition)' (pretty-terrible.com, 1
August 2020). It has been wickedly suggested that the 2021 Worldcon, by
having to publish this hurtful-to-GRRM title in the usual places, may thus
be in violation of its own Code of Conduct.

J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI opened up submissions to _The Last Dangerous
Visions_ to unpublished authors only, for just one day. Unfortunately for
eager _Ansible_ readers, the day is or was 30 April 2021. [F770]

### CONGOHELIUM ###

ONLINE. 6 May [] VIRTUAL FIRST THURSDAY, 6-10pm, replacing the usual London
pub meeting. See tinyurl.com/uow6hqn.

POSTPONED. 15-16 May [] HORRORCON UK, Magna, Sheffield. _New dates 18-19
September 2021._ See horrorconuk.com.

ONLINE. 16 May [] LAWLESS: THE BUNKER (comics). For further details see
www.facebook.com/groups/1417073338554565/.

ONLINE. 29-31 May [] GRIMMFEST MAY MADNESS (film), GBP23.50. Details and
other rates at grimmfest.com/2021/04/may-madness-event/.

ONLINE. 4-6 Jun [] CYMERA: Scotland's Festival of SF, Fantasy & Horror
Writing. See www.cymerafestival.co.uk.

ONLINE. 18-20 June [] PUNCTUATION 2. See punctuationcon.uk.

2-4 Jul [] LAVECON (sf/fantasy/gaming), Sedgebrook Hall Hotel,
Northants.Tickets are on sale at www.hwsevents.co.uk/shop-1.

ONLINE. 3-4 July [] TOLKIEN SOCIETY SUMMER SEMINAR. See
www.tolkiensociety.org/events/tolkien-society-summer-seminar/.

15-18 July [] EUROCON 2021, Fiuggi, Italy. Euro50 reg. Now confirmed as an
in-person event with COVID-19 vaccination or pre-testing required
(Facebook, 24 April). Further details awaited at eurocon2021.it.

POSTPONED. 25-29 Aug [] DISCON III (Worldcon), Washington DC, USA. _New
dates 15-19 December._ Physical event still planned, $200 reg; virtual
memberships $75 from 1 May; other rates at discon3.org.

24-26 Sep [] FANTASYCON 2021, Jury's Inn, Broad Street, Birmingham.
Memberships (various rates) at www.hwsevents.co.uk/shop-2.

ONLINE. 1-3 Oct [] OCTOCON, normally held in or near Dublin. Free? All
existing physical event memberships carried over to 2022; refunds also
available. Further details awaited at octocon.com.

10-13 Mar 2022 [] CHILLERCON UK (horror), Grand and Royal Hotels,
Scarborough.GBP130 reg; HWA members GBP120. Day rates GBP25 Thur or Sun,
GBP35 Fri, GBP55 Sat. See chillercon-uk.com.

15-18 Apr 2022 [] RECLAMATION (Eastercon), south-England venue not yet
named. GoH Zen Cho, Mary Robinette Kowal, Philip Reeve and Nicholas Whyte.
GBP70 reg; GBP40 concessions; accompanied under-18s GBP25; under-5s free;
GBP35 supporting. See reclamation2022.co.uk.

RUMBLINGS. _Worldcon 2023_. Kevin Standlee argued that DisCon III's failure
to reopen site bidding (closed in February) conflicted with the WSFS
constitution's bid filing deadline of 180 days before the con, now 18 June
2021. A new bid for Winnipeg, Canada, emerged in April -- see
winnipegin2023.ca -- and, 'Using our discretion' (that is, following the
rules), DisCon is allowing Winnipeg to appear on the site selection ballot.

### INFINITELY IMPROBABLE ###

AS OTHERS SEE _ALIEN_. Elle Hunt (a freelance features writer, mostly for
_The Guardian_) crushingly refutes the film's accepted classification: 'My
argument: horror cannot be set in space.' (Twitter, 6 April) [OP]

MAGAZINE SCENE. Steve Davidson of _Amazing Stories_ announced that the
print magazine is on hiatus because an unnamed licensee of the title has
failed to make required payments or honour other contractual obligations.
(8 April) This presumably refers to NBC, who had agreed in 2017 to pay for
the right to use the name for further instalments of the Spielberg-created
tv series _Amazing Stories_ (see _Ansible_ 364).
Andy Cox of TTA Press, after his first fiction-only double issue of
_Black Static_, decided against doing the same with _Interzone_: #290/#291
will be a double issue but, he hopes, with the usual nonfiction
departments.

A WARNING TO THE REVIEWER. Huge letters filling the front cover of the very
fat ARC of Jay Kristoff's _Empire of the Vampire_ (September): 'THOU SHALT
_suffer_ FOR THIS /// AND IT _shall_ BE LEGENDARY'.

AWARDS. _Philip K. Dick_ (US paperback original): _Road Out of Winter_ by
Alison Stine; special citation to _The Book of Koli_ by M.R. Carey. [GVG]
_Hugo_ shortlists (selected): NOVEL _Black Sun_ by Rebecca Roanhorse;
_The City We Became_ by N.K. Jemisin; _Harrow the Ninth_ by Tamsyn Muir;
_Network Effect_ by Martha Wells; _Piranesi_ by Susanna Clarke; _The
Relentless Moon_ by Mary Robinette Kowal. SERIES The Daevabad Trilogy by
S.A. Chakraborty; The Interdependency by John Scalzi; The Lady Astronaut
Universe by Mary Robinette Kowal; The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells;
October Daye by Seanan McGuire; The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. DRAMATIC: LONG
_Birds of Prey_; _Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga_; _The
Old Guard_; _Palm Springs_; _Soul_; _Tenet_. LODESTAR (YA, not a Hugo):
_Cemetery Boys_ by Aiden Thomas; _A Deadly Education_ by Naomi Novik;
_Elatsoe_ by Darcie Little Badger; _Legendborn_ by Tracy Deonn; _Raybearer_
by Jordan Ifueko; _A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking_ by T. Kingfisher.
See all the categories at
discon3.org/whats-on/hugo-awards-wsfs/hugo-awards/. Voting is now open and
will continue until 19 November.
_Oscars:_ _Soul_ for animated film and original score; _Tenet_ for
visual effects.
_Prometheus_ (libertarian) shortlist: _Who Can Own the Stars?_ by
Mackey Chandler; _Storm Between the Stars_ by Karl K. Gallagher; _The War
Whisperer, Book 5: The Hook_ by Barry B. Longyear; _Braintrust: Requiem_ by
Marc Stiegler; _Heaven's River_ by Dennis E. Taylor.

AS OTHERS RESPECT US. 'Once dismissed as frivolous children's literature,
science fiction now commands the attention of all kinds of enterprises
designed to profit from its popularity: film studios hungry for screenplay
fodder, universities setting up sci-fi research institutions, talent
agencies eager to jump on the bandwagon, tech companies keen to borrow the
genre's aura of profundity, and even government officials looking to
ennoble the national project of innovation. / It's not surprising, then,
that people are turning to shamans -- and science fiction.' (Profile of
Chen Quifan by Yi-Ling Liu in _Wired_, April.) [MMW]

On 4/30/21 12:04 PM, David Langford wrote:
> GEORGE R.R. MARTIN has been in the news, both for his boast that 'I wrote
> hundreds and hundreds of pages of _The Winds of Winter_ in 2020' (blog, 2
> February) and for being mentioned -- not in a good way -- in the Hugo
> shortlist, where Best Related Work includes Natalie Luhrs's rant about his
> Hugo MC performance: 'George R.R. Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun, Or: The
> 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony (Rageblog Edition)' (pretty-terrible.com, 1
> August 2020). It has been wickedly suggested that the 2021 Worldcon, by
> having to publish this hurtful-to-GRRM title in the usual places, may thus
> be in violation of its own Code of Conduct.

This sort of nastiness isn't unusual anymore.

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

Gary McGath <garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com> wrote:
> David Langford wrote:
>> GEORGE R.R. MARTIN has been in the news, both for his boast that 'I wrote
>> hundreds and hundreds of pages of _The Winds of Winter_ in 2020' (blog,
>> 2 February) and for being mentioned -- not in a good way -- in the Hugo
>> shortlist, where Best Related Work includes Natalie Luhrs's rant about his
>> Hugo MC performance: 'George R.R. Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun, Or:
>> The 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony (Rageblog Edition)' (pretty-terrible.com, 1
>> August 2020). It has been wickedly suggested that the 2021 Worldcon, by
>> having to publish this hurtful-to-GRRM title in the usual places, may thus
>> be in violation of its own Code of Conduct.

> This sort of nastiness isn't unusual anymore.

I doubt that would bother the 2021 Worldcon's chair, who, as I publicly
predicted he'd do nearly a year ago, publicly expelled his own guest of
honor on some pretext, something that had never before been done in the
Worldcon's 82-year history. He thrives on humiliating people.

As for the Hugos, I lost interest in them when someone's embarrassing
anti-Campbell rant while accepting the Campbell Award won a Hugo Award,
rather than causing her to be shunned by all fandom.

Did Tesla denounce Edison while accepting the Edison award? Of course not.
Due to his feelings about Edison, he quite rightly refused the award.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.