Loose-leaf Links #23

[calissa]

Loose-leaf Links is a feature where I gather together the interesting bits and pieces on sci-fi and fantasy I’ve come across and share them with you over tea. Today’s tea is the Tea Centre’s Pomegranate & Blood Orange. It’s a nicely fruity tea that doesn’t overwhelm. Plus, I love any blend that has orange peel.

Awards News

The shortlists for the 2016 Mythopoeic Awards have been released and look fantastic.

The shortlists for the British Fantasy Awards have also been released. Congratulations to Alisa Krasnostein and Alexandra Pierce for the nomination of Letters to Tiptree in the Best Non-fiction category.

While not strictly awards news, votes are now being taken on the location of the 2018 Worldcon. If you are a member (or supporting member) of this year’s Worldcon, don’t forget to vote.

During her Guest of Honour speech at WisCon 40, Nalo Hopkinson announced the creation of the Lemonade Award to celebrate acts of kindness in the SFF community. Donations to the award are currently being accepted.

On Equity

I’m a bit late to the party on this one, but N.K. Jemisin refutes the “Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t” argument as it applies to racism and bigotry in literature.

K. Tempest Bradford has some thoughts on WisCon and how creating a safe space for PoC makes the convention better for everyone. She does not mince words.

Tor.com have published a new essay from Kameron Hurley’s forthcoming book The Geek Feminist. This particular essay looks at Joanna Russ’ arguments from How to Suppress Women’s Writing and updates them with current examples.

Now that SF Signal is shutting down, Catherine Lundoff is republishing her posts on LiveJournal. She has started with this article on LGBT science fiction and fantasy written before 1970.

Her fellow SF Signal columnist A.C. Wise has a series of posts recommending non-binary authors.

Over at the Book Smugglers, Carlie St. George takes a look at waving away disability and chronic illness in fiction.

For Writers

Jim C. Hines discusses the problems with Inkitt’s publishing contest and strongly warns writers to steer clear. Rachel Sharp has chimed in with some of the Twitter accounts the company has been using to spam writers.

Over at Fantasy Cafe, Janny Wurts rails against the current trend towards grimdark fiction and cynical outlooks.

Gin Jenny from Reading the End has a guest post at Lady Business that gives a fantastic taxonomy of unreliable narrators.

Ann Leckie discusses the current aversion to omniscient POV.

For Readers

N.K Jemisin has started a Patreon account (and was astonished by the support, which will allow her to pursue full-time writing).

Fantasy Faction has done likewise and has some ambitious goals.

Speculative Fiction Showcase looks at indie spec fic released in May.

 

And to close out on a positive note, Jim C. Hines has started a new feature he calls SF/F Being Awesome which highlights acts of charity organised by SFF communities.

 

Mirrored from Earl Grey Editing.

Comments

[clare_dragonfly]

The N. K. Jemisin link (the first one, under "On Equity" doesn't work for me!

[calissa]

Thanks for letting me know, Clare. That should be fixed now.

[clare_dragonfly]

Thanks! It's working now :D

[davidgillon]

I got one of the Inkitt spam tweets, took them for over-enthusiastic amateurs and pointed out the rights issue. They did actually reply but ignored my point, so I wrote them off. Just as well, it seems.

[calissa]

They seemed to be quite good at not answering the question. I'm glad you weren't taken in.

[just_ann_now]

*waves from the Network*

Melissa Scott has started a Patreon account as well.

[calissa]

Thank you for letting me know!

[onewhitecrow]

Whilst I'm glad to see a God who's equally over the whole "reality is greyish brown (and probably fascist), and sf/f should be 'realistic'" thing, I was a little disappointed that her vantage doesn't let her suggest a soloution specifically for those of us who grew up in a world where we've only seen an increase in senseless violence, nuclear armament and ecological catastrophe (I suspect the soloution is actually steampunk, but we need to wrest that out of the hands of the Imperialist aesthetic): as it stands it's basically the middle of Tolkien's On Fairy Stories from 1939, with "and try harder". It's like being a god doesn't make people super-smart and infinitely wise or something...

[calissa]

Steampunk could be an interesting solution, though you make an excellent point about the Imperialist aesthetic.

Given the article's slant on creativity, proposing a solution may run counter to the argument.

[onewhitecrow]

Reviving the severed connection between humanity and artifice would go a long way towards unlocking folks' potential for creativity - and hope, even, if we can create hope in and begin to decolonise the past, since we build always upon the idea of ancestral achievement (myths being more effective than history).

On the contrary, I strongly believe starting off the discussion with a few words of God-wisdom to argue over would elevate it from complaint to the start of dialogue, potentially even the foundation of a movement. When Tolkien urged people to do the same back in the 30s, he laid the foundations for the fantasy genre in a single speech - imagine a world where all-out worldbuilding, "subcreation" had never been invented, nor "just escapisim" validated as of not only literary but spiritual value: if Tolkien had stopped in the middle and offered forth no theories (and not everyone agrees with Tolkien, which has given rise to more creatvity), that's where we'd live.

[gestures at preceeding paragraph] You see here, though: as a result of what we were given to work with, we're discussing the author's blogging choices rather than her theories for progress. I consider that that is probably less stimulating to creativity in the fantastic sphere than even dissecting something deliberately ridiculously radical (like the time Tilley turned the world of archaeological theory sideways by suggesting we stopped excavaing anything for a decade).

[calissa]

You make a good point that disagreement can lead to more creativity.

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying about the severed connection between humanity & artifice. Has it been severed?

[onewhitecrow]

As does chaos in general...I suspect a literary view to apocalypse, ironically enough, is born of a desire for final order imposed on troubled times - for the religious, and end to secular power; for the scientist, a removal of artificial habitat, for the Western man with a prejudiced heart, an end to concern for anyone else etc.

Sure - consider whether the average citizen can fix or reprogram a smartphone, a car, the machines that make cars, bioengineer crops, make a motherboard, make cleaning fluids, make a drone...the skill and manufacture involved in all these everyday things is not the purview of the People; increasingly there are folk left behind, bewildered and afraid of new technology, science out of democratic knowledge or control. That disconnect is what spawns our dystopias and tales of corporate paranoia - the rational fear even our limbs might be beholden to the few with the arcane means of production, in contrast to the Steampunk ideal, which cuts Time back to the split and says: "we'll help make you one. It'll be beautiful, bespoke, and our pride lies in that it will last".