The third story I read from the Hugo Packet is a blunt parable about being a young person who can only get a call center job. Three out of three nominees that I've read so far are blunt parables. Is "Blunt Parable" the theme of the Astounding Award this year? #Worldcon#SFF#astounding2024
Dreamed I was in charge of taking an oil tanker ship to the Bering Strait with a load of blueberry Pop-Tart filling. Did I mention yesterday that my dreams are getting really surreal lately?
I'm up and have eaten breakfast. Soon will feed Ginza hers.
I hope today the weather will be more amenable. Feel really grumpy about day after day of clouds with showers or rain. Of course what scares me is I know that's basically what it will be here in the late fall and wintertime.
By Ersatz Culture: (Note: All the following text extracts are machine translations from Chinese, using a mixture of Google and DeepL tools. Some minor manual edits have been made, but there a…
Finally bought my airfare for #Glasgow2024#Worldcon. It was a big chunk of money, but thankfully I don't actually have to pay until July. Of course I did have to spend half an hour listing to BofA's insipid hold music to talk to someone to manually authorize the transaction because Visa sucks.
@darkling If I may recommend something I learned at my second #Worldcon?
Try to stay at a hotel near the venue. (There are several.) I like the ability to go back to my room and decompress after I get overstimulated, which definitely can happen at a 10,000+ person event. When I've stayed even a moderate distance (say, a 20 minute walk) away, like I did at BucConeer, that felt less like an option.
I seems if you say "Hugo Awards" three times into a mirror another scandal pops up.
"Appalling as it is, the choice to screen English-language nominees for ideological compatibility may, in fact, be a sideshow to the real scandal, which is that hundreds of Chinese voters have been disenfranchised. And—barring even more revelations—this disenfranchisement cannot be blamed on PRC sensibilities and censorship."
#Callforpapers
Academic Programme | Glasgow 2024
The 82nd World Science Fiction Convention #worldcon
Glasgow, 8–12 August
Glasgow 2024’s Academic Programme will bring together scholars from the humanities, social sciences, & adjacent disciplines to launch an exploration of how #sciencefiction / #fantasy / #horror fiction & media in their myriad forms address the theme of futurity
News from #hugoawards#chengdu#censorship scandal:
"WIP officials announced that director Dave McCarty and board chair Kevin Standlee have resigned " The linked article also gives an overview on the developments that led to the resignation.
For reasons I dont understand my older flawed stories seem more popular with folks than my newer better written ones but if you wanna hear weirdness and then me take apart and mock my own early work have at ot and enjoy
I went to #Worldcon 80? #Chicon8 we called it. I'm still surprised that anyone thought it a good idea to host the #Hugo#Scifi & #Fantasy awards as well as all sorts of author talks in the country with the single largest censorship infrastructure in existence. All Chinese authors publish at the will of the government. Only government approved stories can be published or authors risk imprisonment and death. Why would ANYONE take any part in that, at all? Oh, big market...
With the news that has subsequently broken, I fear this item that I submitted to Mike Glyer at File 770 will get overlooked.
Please remember that there are many, many more victims of this mess, and who don't have large followings on English-language social media to hear their anguish.
EDIT: Any chance of some boosts on this plz? It bothers me my posts about censored posts & big biz dodginess get lots of engagement, but not the human side
This is a lovely short(ish) film about a class of primary school kids discovering the Govan Stones, and learning more about their own history. It's rather lovely: https://vimeo.com/294109808
And for #WorldCon folks, Govan Old (where the Stones live) is only a half hour walk (or 10 minute taxi ride) from the con venue, I definitely recommend visiting, if you get the chance.
Due to life circumstances, I won't make it to WorldCon Glasgow this year. Looking to hand on my ticket (Attending First Worldcon Membership, GBP 105 / EUR 120).
(You'd have to have or purchase the regular/voting membership separately for GBP 30)
The best solution for the Hugo/World Con fiasco is simple.
Change the constitution so that starting with Chengu, any nation that censors for "compliance with local laws" gets on a list that must be presented for FIFTY YEARS of "Before you vote for this finalist know that this nation has engaged in previous censorship of the awards."
Let China wear the cone of shame for two and a half generations
World Con was among the worst experiences in my life, where the formal writers event told me, literally "Stop writing dude" from two professionals. in the writing program I paid for for ritual humiliation, so to find out these vain glorious turds are now (like the WHO) owned lock stock and barrel by the CCP makes me feel vindicated.
Well well well, saw the nomination stats for the 2023 Hugo Awards today and guess what? The numbers are whacky and works by authors who have been critical of the CCP were declared ineligible for no reason. Can't say I'm too surprised.
Anyways, I'll brb; gotta go out and get Babel by R.F. Kuang.
@soonleenz@neilhimself you know, if it wasn’t a case of external influence on the #worldcon#HugoAwards, it would be extremely easy for #DaveMcCarty or someone else to just state that, without commenting on the actual reason for ineligibility (if, for some reason, that wasn’t to be shared): “I can emphatically state that neither China, nor any other external force had any influence on the decision”. Not stating that in itself already raises eyebrows.
The Hugo Awards voting results have been released and some eyebrows have been raised by patterns in the data and the disqualification of works by RF Kuang and Xiran Jay Zhao. The discussion on File770 has been interesting:
There are no WSFS administrators. WSFS has no officers or staff. It consists of the membership of the current Worldcon, and we members only act via the Business Meeting held at Worldcon itself, and by voting for the Hugos and in Site Selection. #WSFS#Worldcon
The Pidu District of Chengdu Announces a 10-Year Science Fiction Plan (file770.com)
By Ersatz Culture: (Note: All the following text extracts are machine translations from Chinese, using a mixture of Google and DeepL tools. Some minor manual edits have been made, but there a…