Obsidian Wings

Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist candidates

by Doctor Science

Continuing from the previous post about the Best Pro Artist nominees, here are the candidates for Best Fan Artist. Four of them are from the Rabid Puppy slate, one is not.

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"Scars", by Matthew Callahan. "A reflection of the fatigue and doubt troopers may have when faced with back-to-back deployments to a combat zone."

Matthew Callahan was nominated by the Rabid Puppies, but is actually doing really good, interesting, novel work. Callahan is a pro photographer and videographer for the US Marine Corps. His SFF art is of posed Star Wars action figures in "realistic" settings, to look like public relations photos or war journalism.

If it weren't for the slate thing, Callahan would definitely be a ranking fan artist as far as I'm concerned. As it is, I'll have him below "No Award" but still on my ballot.

disse86 is a Swedish artist who does brutally ugly digital paintings. He was nominated by the Rabid Puppies and didn't submit any work for the Hugo packet, so he won't appear anywhere on my ballot.

Kukuruyo makes comics and images, mostly soft-core porn and/or Gamergate. He's on the ballot because the Rabid Puppies think we'd hate him, and they're right.

Christian Quinot aka Darkcloud013 is a Filipino artist. Most of his posted work is for game designs. It's not remarkable in any particular way, so I have no idea how he ended up on the Rabid Puppy slate. He submitted nothing for the Hugo packet, either, and won't be on my ballot.

Steve Stiles: "Death Trap", cover for fanzine Askance 35. It wasn't in the Hugo Packet, but I like it better.

Steve Stiles was a Hugo Award nominee as Best Fan Artist in 1967, 1968, 2003 through 2008, and 2010-2015. This year, he's the only Fan Artist nominee who didn't come from the Rabid Puppies slate. He had the highest number of nominations last year, so it's not surprising that he's the non-slate artist to break through the Puppy Wall.

Stiles' work is out of the old fanzine tradition, not the newer web-based art I generally prefer. But he absolutely is getting my vote for Best Fan Artist, as the only "real" nominee. I put down No Award in second place, with Callahan after that as a Not Honorable But Deserving Mention.

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Overall, the Fan Artist category is in terrible shape.

Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist candidates

by Doctor Science

WHOOPS it's almost Hugo Awards voting deadline time! I've been so caught up in politics (and twitter @doctorscience) I completely lost track - the deadline is Sunday July 31!!

I'm going to talk about Best Professional Artist first, Best Fan Artist tomorrow. Each name is linked to their entry on my blog, 2015 Hugo Art.

All the Best Pro Artist nominees are from the Rabid Puppy slate.

Lars Braad Andersen: cover Art for 'There Will Be War' vol. 2, Castalia House.

Lars Braad Andersen is a Danish digital artist who does the covers for the Castalia House versions of the There Will Be War anthologies. The other works on his site (including Watermill in Winter Mood, which is in the Hugo Packet) appear to be "Fan Art" for Hugo purposes -- no professional sales. Much of it is soft-core or gamer porn.

Andersen's images are created using rendering or imaging packages (Vue, Renderosity, Poser, etc.), tweaked in Photoshop: he does not personally create most of the elements in the images, nor does he modify them so much that you can't tell where they came from. If you compare them to, for instance, the paintings of Hugo-nominated John Harris, they aren't comparable. Andersen's work takes a trivial amount of skill, creativity, and thought compared to Harris', and I don't think he deserves to be on the Hugo ballot at all -- aside from the question of whether slated works should be there.

Larry Elmore: Cover for Correia's "Son of the Black Sword"; Castalia House

Larry Elmore is a long-time fantasy artist who I wanted to put on 2015 Hugo Art, but I could only find one work published in 2015: the cover for Larry Correia's Son of the Black Sword, published by Castalia House (it isn't even on his site). That explains his connection to the Rabid Puppies and why he was nominated. He submitted no works to the Hugo Packet, so I won't put him on my ballot.

Michal Karcz: Cover for album, "Unicorn Dreams of Electric People"

Michal Karcz aka Karezoid is a Polish digital artist. He appears to combine stock photos and his own photography with other digital effects to create his images, which are exceptionally smooth. Most of the images he submitted for the packet aren't "Pro", as far as I can tell, and those that are (e.g. "Unicorn Dreams of Electric People") are for music, not books. I see no reason for him to be on the Hugo ballot, and he won't be on mine. He's still much better than Andersen, though.

Abigail Larson: Monster in my Closet

Abigail Larson is the only one of the Rabid Puppy nominees I had already included in 2015 Hugo Art. I have no idea what moved them to put her on the ballot.

To me, Larson's work isn't outstandingly good compared to other horror art, so I'll be putting her on my ballot but below No Award.

Larry Rostant: cover for Elliott's "Black Wolves"; Orbit

Larry Rostant is another digital artist, by far the most professional of the digital-art nominees. He takes top-flight photographs of athletes and models, and combines them with digital imagery: heavy on equipment, light on landscape and setting. If you consider this a legitimate form of SFF art, and if you don't mind the fact that he got on the ballot from a slate, I could see putting him above No Award. I won't, but I'll probably still have him on my ballot lower down.

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Overall, this is a very poor set of choices. Three are digital artists, none so skilled or creative that I'd call them Artists of the first rank. Elmore is a very good artist who's almost entirely retired (possibly ill), and Larson is what I'd call an Artist of the second rank: skilled and professional, but not transcendent.

My ballot will be No Award, Larson, Rostant.

Your Post-Convention Pre-August Open Thread of Blah

by Ugh

Well, now that that's over with let the real campaign begin!  Or whatever.  

Here's a NYTimes article on deference given to police officers when it comes to the use of force, in particular deadly force. ISTM that a standard "was it reasonable to reasonably fear for your safety" is a bit too loose.  And some more sunlight on the internal investigations.  Plus vigorous prosecution for lying on police reports and in court (both of which are distressingly common it seems in cases of potential officer misconduct).

Also, and perhaps not quite on the same topic, what's happened to Bryce Harper?  And does anyone care about the Olympics anymore?

Open thread.

Kaine's big advantage is with Republican women

by Doctor Science

Since Hillary Clinton announced (via text message!) her choice of Tim Kaine as her running mate, I've seen people say that he was chosen for governing experience, not for what he brings to the campaign; or for some sort of general "pivot to the center" policy quality, without the ability to fire up the Democratic base.

What no-one seems to be pointing out is that Kaine appeals to a specific demographic, and that choosing him is part of a coordinated effort by the Clinton Campaign.

That demographic is Nice White Republican Women. They're risk-averse and conflict-averse, they try hard to be nice, and they're only happy with a political choice if they can say, "they seem like a nice person."

Donald Trump is not a Nice Person. He's angry, he shouts, he insults people, he's crude. He's also specifically threatening to white women because he's almost a caricature of The Guy Who Will Dump You, the man whose loyalty only extends as far as he thinks you're "hot".

Most NWRW will still vote for him, out of party & tribal loyalty or because they hate Hillary even more. But some of them are "Dem-curious", willing to consider breaking their usual habit of voting Republican.

Tim Kaine is, by all accounts, really nice. Notably, many Senate Republicans like him and have worked with him. NWRW hate conflict and wish people could just get along, and they'll find Kaine's collegial track record very reassuring.

Kaine's contribution to the ticket, for NWRW, isn't so much his policies or experience as his personality. He reassures them that Democrats can be nice people, and his niceness makes Trump's nastiness more obvious by contrast. He's also reassuring, frankly, because he's a white male, so will come across as more "normal" and safe to NWRW who are twitchy about breaking ranks.

Samantha Bee saw some of this right away:

@FullFrontalSamB pic.twitter.com/93tk3wMmwf

— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) July 23, 2016

source

I'm pretty sure the Clinton Campaign, no fools, is targeting NWRW voters with ads like April's Love and Kindness and the recent Role Models. The message expressed here isn't "Hillary will fight for you" or "Hillary will work with you", as she says to progressive supporters. Instead, these ads say "Hillary values what you do: kindness, children, getting along. Being nice."

How well is this going to work? We'll see, of course, but yesterday I noticed a comment at Balloon Juice by Kay, a regular from Ohio IIRC:

I sometimes listen to Right wing religious radio in the car when I'm driving around for work. Our "local" FM station is very popular- it's listener supported with donations- some kind of local franchise of a national company.

Anyway, they were doing a wrap up of the convention and a lot of the religious Righties calling in hate Trump and say he's taken over the GOP and made it godless. The callers were like 90% women- one after another. They don't believe he's anti-abortion and they hate, hate, hate that he has multiple ex-wives. Several said his grown children didn't talk about their mothers at the convention. Obviously they probably can't talk about their mothers at the Trump Show with Melania sitting there, but these women thought that was hugely disrespectful- that they didn't mention their mothers.

Most of those callers will NEVER vote for Hillary, they're too strongly anti-abortion. But some of their friends might (though without telling anyone) because they're so repelled by Trump and reassured by That Nice Tim Kaine.

I also noticed this tweet from James Fallows:

Very interesting to watch Fox right now.
They are *all* saying Kaine did very well, and voters want to hear some hope.

— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) July 23, 2016

Roger Ailes is barely out the door, and Fox News is already becoming less all-Republican-all-the-time. If they start to reflect the values of conservative women where they diverge from conservative men--a preference for compromise over anger, for instance--this change could be enormously consequential. Policy is still important, of course, but what voters respond to first is personality and emotional style. Kaine's personality is going to draw some Republican voters over to the Democratic side, and that's a powerful reason he's on the ticket.

"Storm System" by James Lahey, 2006. Maybe our storm is passing.

What Went Right? -- Weekend Open Thread

by wj

For those of you who are heartily sick of politics, here's your chance to change the subject. (But you are going to have to do it yourselves.)

We had lots of fun pointing fingers at the things that went wrong (from our point of view, at least) in last week's convention. But here's an opportunity to do the opposite.

Assume that the purpose of a convention is to improve the chances of winning the election in November. What happened this week that would increase the Republicans' chances?

A few opening thoughts:

• There were a fair number of minority folks speaking. Almost as many as there were delegates, but what people at home see are the speakers.
• They actually had an openly gay (and not ashamed of it) guy speaking. He was clear that he disagreed with parts of the platform, but at least he was up there. (Will the Democrats do likewise?)
• Ivanka Trump gave a speech that sounded like she was channeling the Democrats platform, rather than the one adopted by the Republican convention. But nobody except total politics wonks actually reads the party platform anyway.

None of those things may sway a lot of voters. Then again, they might -- or at least convince them to take a look.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up -- 2016 Republican National Convention Open Thread

by wj

The anti-Trump forces have failed in their attempt to force a roll call vote on the convention rules. Featured during the attempt: the person chairing the convention up and walked off the stage for 10 minutes. Didn't bother to try to gavel things back into order. Just left.

Just caught on the radio, this from a delegate on the whole roll call vote effort: "Trump is our nominee. We should just do it, without messing around with rules or anything." Because why should rules, whether Rules of Order or any other kind, be given any notice when what is important is doing what we want? Good to know.

HBO's "Vice Principals": Clueless, Cynical, or Trumpist?

by Doctor Science

Tonight is the start of a new HBO series, Vice Principals. I'm not privy to the screeners given to pro reviewers, but based on their reports it's the most blatantly racist show that's been on TV in my adult life (and I was born in the 1950s). It sounds like the fictional counterpart to Donald Trump's campaign: against "political correctness" and for the honest, open expression of anti-black, anti-woman, anti-immigrant hostility. The only question is whether the show's racism is due to ignorant cluelessness, honest Trumpism, or cynical courtship of the Trumpist population.

This post contains spoilers, which is OK by me because the show is already rotten.

I first heard about "Vice Principals" when I read Sonia Saraiya's review at Variety. This "dark comedy" from showrunners Danny McBride and Jody Hill, creators of Eastbound and Down, is about Neal Gamby (McBride) and Lee Russell (Walton Goggins), incompetent high-school vice principals who think they've been passed over when Belinda Brown ( Kimberly Hebert Gregory), a competent Black woman with a doctorate, is appointed Principal instead. Saraiya says:

In the second episode, the two break into her house, smash her possessions, and eventually set her house on fire.

I was so appalled that I went looking for a fuller description, which I found from Willa Paskin at Slate:

Neal and Russell break into Brown's house to try to get some dirt on her. Finding nothing, Russell starts to break stuff: a plate, a mug. He bullies Neal into breaking things too until Neal is overcome by a kind of bloodlust. In a slavering frenzy, the two lay waste to the house, smashing televisions and tables, sticking chairs into walls, slashing a portrait of Brown and her two sons. And then Russell takes a lighter to the curtains; the house burns to the ground. Where Gamby is acting on animal instinct, Russell understands they can't leave the house as is: too much evidence.

In this scene, violence acts as a respite for the violent, a few minutes when they don't have to think, when they answer to no one, when they are kings and can be as destructive as they please. By asking its audience to get caught up in this delirium, Vice Principals wants to demonstrate the lure of this kind of destructive power. I admire the gambit, but I couldn't go for it. Witnessing a temper tantrum that's nearly a hate crime is about as funny on TV as it is in the news.

Nearly a hate crime?!? No, arson against black people's homes is a traditional, all-American tactic of extra-legal terrorism to push African-Americans out of places white people don't think they belong. Of course it's a hate crime, they shouldn't have to burn a cross for you to get the point.

Let me emphasize again: burning the home of a black person to "encourage" them to leave town isn't "outrageous", "unbelievable", or "over-the-top" -- as it ought to be if it's the stuff of comedy. And it's not a historical relic of the distant past, either: such arsons continue into the 21st century, though at least they're rare, now.

Skimming through reviews of "Vice Principals", most critics don't even mention the racism, and those who do say things like "may be arriving at a less than ideal time for its particular brand of humor" or "utter cluelessness about the times in which we live" -- as though there might have *ever* been a time when "hilarious hate crime" was OK or at least unremarkable.

The obliviousness of most reviewers[1] does lend credence to the idea that McBride & Hill are simply clueless and unreflective about what they've put together. It's also quite possible that they're closeted Trumpists, who share their views without admitting it (possibly to themselves). McBride said, in a Rolling Stone interview where Jonah Weiner tried to push him toward self-awareness:

the idea is that there's this image of alpha-male masculinity that back in the day people aspired to, but in the current social context it's seen as oppressive and narrow-minded. So these characters are trying to behave in the way they think they're supposed to, but the seat at the table for guys like them is disappearing.

It's very like what Nicholas Confessore sees in Trump's supporters:

The resentment among whites feels both old and distinctly of this moment. It is shaped by the reality of demographic change, by a decade and a half of war in the Middle East, and by unease with the newly confident and confrontational activism of young blacks furious over police violence. It is mingled with patriotism, pride, fear and a sense that an America without them at its center is not really America anymore.

There's a pretty good chance that "Vice Principals" will appeal to such people -- Saraiya says that it seems to be aimed at them:

... in a world where there doesn't seem to be enough empathy to go around, choosing to give these two men in particular so much consideration feels like wasteful confusion, like the most basic kind of carelessness. The focus makes an obvious implication about the intended audience of this comedy. This is a show pitched at the Neals and Lees of the world, not the Belinda Browns.

There's a streak of angry malice running throughout "Vice Principals" that comes out in odd outbursts of slur-ridden insults or especially heinous examples of workplace manipulation. It feels often as if the show cannot contain the anger and resentment it is trying to tap into, and instead of doing the work of converting it into comedy, it has just unleashed unpleasantness into the ether.

Maybe McBride & Hill are cynically appealing to Trumpists. After all, even if Trump True Believers are only 30% of the population and not destined for political dominance, that's one hell of a large demographic by TV standards, a tempting target.

Even if McBride & Hill want to show their protagonists eventually seeing the error of their racist ways, they're doing it wrong. I keep thinking of what the fan lierdumoa said last year in a tumblr discussion of "Mad Max: Fury Road":

there's a great lie we've been told -- that in order for an audience to understand that a character is sexist, women must be humiliated on camera.

The truth is this:

When a male character calls a female character a bitch in a movie, that is not the filmmaker's way of showing the audience the character is sexist; that is the filmmaker's way of showing the audience that the character's sexist point of view is worth hearing.

What McBride & Hill are doing is showing their audience that the POV of violent racist misogynists is worthwhile, and comically amusing. McBride says "my character, Neal, as much as he's a jerk, has a solid heart."

"A solid heart" -- because he didn't really mean to commit a hate crime, it just sort of happened. Please. This is Lee Atwater-ism, and just because McBride isn't saying the N-word doesn't mean his audience can't hear it.

In a Promised Land, painting by Shawn Michael Warren about the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.

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[1] I haven't seen *any* review from an African-American, as far as I can tell.

It's been a really really messed up week - open thread

by Ugh

Jesus people.  WTF?  

But against the awful carnage of the past fortnight we have the DJIA hitting an all time high!  So, all is well?

Also, too, I give you former Mr. Third In Line for the Presidency and, apparently, current runner-up for the GOP Vice Presidential nomination Newt Gingrinch:

“Let me be as blunt and direct as I can be,” the former House speaker said. “Western civilization is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported. Sharia is incompatible with western civilization.”

And open carry is allowed at protests outside the GOP Convention!  But funds for Zika?  Eh, maybe later.

To quote Yakov Smirnoff - what a country!  

Open thread.  

UPDATE:  Freudian typo unintended.

 

Wednesday Reading Including Hugo Novelette, Novel, Short Story nominees

by Doctor Science

Delayed again, this time because the AC needed fixing and my brain melted. Now we're back in relative cool so I can do my roundup.

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Non-Hugo reading: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. One thing I learned: I can no longer read paperbacks, at least ones not by major publishers, because the fonts are consistently too small to be comfortable for my aging eyes. Aggravating, because sharing e-books with family is difficult.

The cover makes "Ninefox Gambit" look like a bog-standard interstellar MilSF, but it's anything but. The world-building is very dense and complex, and it's never really explained: you're just dropped in, and have to be prepared to go with it, piecing together a picture of the world without any As-you-know-Bob explanations. A lot of what goes on is more or less magic -- but it's Clarke's Law Magic: controlled by mathematics, studied with simulations. Or is it all supposed to be Quantum, But Not As We Know It?

The plot, too, is complex and multi-layered -- and of course it's the first part of a trilogy, "The Machineries of Empire". This is the third book after "Lovecraft Country" and "Too Like the Lightning" to have nailed a place on my longlist for next year's nominations.

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Hugo reading:

Novelette: Well, I read "What Price Humanity" to the end, and I'm very sorry. I should have quit when the one (1) black character is described and immediately named "Token".

"And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead" by Brooke Bolander: I guess I can see why some people like it, but no. Too many of these stories are basically about video games, and not terribly interesting ones, either.

"Obits" by Stephen King: Suitable as a gripping introduction to a longer story. OKish in current state.

"Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang: the only one of these stories that really deserves to beat No Award, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not reading "Flashpoint: Titan" unless one of you tells me I really, *really* ought to.

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I finally started Seveneves, and guys, I just don't know if I'm going to be able to do this. On the third page:

the word "Agent" ... [t]he closest match for how the word would be used forever after was the sense in which it was used by fencers and martial artists. In a sword-fighting drill, where one participant is going to mount an attack and the other is to respond in some way, the attacker is known as the agent and the respondent is known as the patient. The agent acts. The patient is passive.

WTF? I double-checked with Mr Dr Science, a fencer (competitor, teacher, referee) and he's never heard this terminology, though he thinks it possible it might have been used in the 18th century or earlier.

These days, fencers almost invariably say "attacker" and "defender" -- and the defender is by no means passive. Mr Dr & I wonder if Stephenson is thinking of Japanese seme and uke -- except the uke is only truly "passive" in really bad yaoi fanfic.

Ugh. The third page. I don't know if I'm going to make it to the part with genetics, which is almost certain to enrage me to the point of book-flinging.

Speaking of things I won't read, in Lisa Goldstein's discussion of "Seven Kill Tiger" (Short Story nominee) I commented:

Because humans are native (only) to Africa, Africans have more genetic diversity than all the rest of the world put together. There are plenty of genes that only show up in people of sub-Saharan African descent -- but no genes that show up in *all* of them, and not in the rest of the world.

This story is the opposite of realistic. ugh. I don't have to read it, do I?

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I was having so much trouble getting into "Seveneves" that I picked up The Fifth Season, to see if the trouble was book-specific or a more general "don't want to do homework" feeling. It's definitely the former: I read "The Fifth Season" almost straight through, only stopping reluctantly for meals, sleep. (note: though I was reading the paperback, I had no trouble with the font.) It's *definitely* getting my first-place vote for Best Novel.

I agree with those who found it not really depressing, but more *angry* -- in a completely justifiable way. I guessed the Big Reveal at the end quite early on - starting with the "think about what you're not noticing" Interlude in the middle. And I anticipated why some sections are in second person, which I've only seen well-done in stories (fanfic) about characters with complex or conflicted identities: Ozma, Methos, Clark Kent/Superman/Kal-El, etc.

What I wasn't expecting was that "The Fifth Season" has [rot-13 spoilers] gur fnzr cerzvfr nf frirarirf, n jbeyq jvgubhg gur zbba. Jnf gurer n punyyratr tbvat nebhaq? Na negvpyr gung tbg n ohapu bs crbcyr guvaxvat nobhg gur vqrn? GSF vf fb zhpu orggre guna gur ovgf bs Frirarirf V pbhyq trg guebhtu gung V qba'g guvax V'yy rira obgure jvgu gur Fgrcurafba (fbeel qhqr) (abg fbeel).

As with "Ninefox Gambit", I don't find TFS to be so much "epic fantasy" (as it says on the cover, wtf) as "Clarke's Law-Level SF". The fact that the Science in this SF is geology of course fills me with great glee -- it's one big reason I don't find the book as grimly dystopic as I feared. Like one of the characters, I am distractible by SCIENCE.

We've had an interesting discussion about the differences between SF & fantasy on File770. I said:

I'm not at all sure that [TFS is] any less science-y than, say, the Imperial Radch series. Which would make it space opera, only with less space.

and microtherion replied:

Given the emphasis on geology, wouldn't that make it… rock opera?

ba-dump CHING!

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Short story:

The only nominee that's remotely Hugo-worthy is Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer, so that'll be getting my vote. It's cute, charming, and makes you feel basically good, so I particularly recommend it for days when you need that sort of thing (which is a lot of them, recently).

I read Chuck Tingle's "Space Raptor Butt Invasion", and wow. That's pretty hilariously bad, both as a story and as gay porn. Aren't there any dudes writing *good* gay porn out there? This is just silly.

But at least it *intends* to be funny, and Chuck themself is proving such a masterful performance artist that I'll put it on my ballot below No Award. None of the other stories deserve even that much respect.

Is This the Voice of Moderation?

by wj

Bobby made a request yesterday that I think deserves a thread all to itself:

Please take just one pressing social, political, or cultural issue we debate here all the time and spell out the so-called moderate position.

OK, folks. The banner at the top of the page says "This is the Voice of Moderation." So that's a reasonable expectation. How about we see if we can thrash out what constitutes moderation?

In general might be nice. But I think it's more feasible to start with working out what we think constitutes "moderation" on specific issues. This recognizing that someone might have moderate views on one issue, but not so much on a different issue.

Have at it.