Nick Mamatas's Blog, page 21
April 27, 2015
The Incredible, Edible Huh?
There's a nice place near our house called Summer Kitchen. One thing they sell is a pizza with an fried right in the middle. This past week we all had stomach bugs and I was a little tender, so I wanted a normal pizza. Olivia wanted the egg. So when I ordered the pizza I asked for the egg to be put on the pizza on one side. I drew a little diagram with my finger to show that rather than plopping the egg down in the middle, it should just be on the left side of the pizza. I said that the egg should be arranged assymetrically, on the pizza.
Pizza came, there was an egg in the shell in the box, on the side. We laughed and laughed.
This morning, when cracked it open and it also happened to be raw.
Pizza came, there was an egg in the shell in the box, on the side. We laughed and laughed.
This morning, when cracked it open and it also happened to be raw.
April 20, 2015
Looking for the Sad Puppy Counter-Reading List
I've been asking around in a variety of places, so may as well try here:
If the Hugo Awards have really been dominated by leftist material that prized message over story since the mid-1990s (Brad’s timeline), it should be very simple for members of the Puppy Party to name
a. one work of fiction
b. that won a Hugo Award
c. while foregrounding a left message to the extent that the story was ruined or misshaped
d. per set of winners since 1995.
That’s all. Just a list of twenty books or stories—a single winner per year. Even though a single winner per year wouldn’t prove domination, I’m happy to make it easy for the Puppies.
Any Puppy Partisan want to start naming some names?
If the Hugo Awards have really been dominated by leftist material that prized message over story since the mid-1990s (Brad’s timeline), it should be very simple for members of the Puppy Party to name
a. one work of fiction
b. that won a Hugo Award
c. while foregrounding a left message to the extent that the story was ruined or misshaped
d. per set of winners since 1995.
That’s all. Just a list of twenty books or stories—a single winner per year. Even though a single winner per year wouldn’t prove domination, I’m happy to make it easy for the Puppies.
Any Puppy Partisan want to start naming some names?
April 13, 2015
AWP
I went to the conference of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) in Minnesota—first time in that state!—this past weekend. I'd say this about sums it up:
I was actually on that Blue Line streetcar when the accident happened. Literally didn't feel a thing, though obviously the car was smashed and the person in the passenger seat had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
AWP is a weird hustle, just like a fat guy nearly killing himself against the nosecone of a Mall of America bus is. There are essentially two tracks in the American writing life—the academic track, which is state-subsidized, and the commercial track, which is dominated by several large corporations. Of course, this means that American letters is largely a useless mess. Even forgetting the connection between the CIA and MFA programs , the art of the state is the art of the middle class: neuroses, a false choice between propaganda ("realism") and nonsense ("postmodernism") and an utterly paternalistic relationship to money. More than one conversation about paying writers (my Storify on submission fees was widely discussed) ended with someone stating, definitively, "Grants!" We dare not cultivate the idea that either a. some fraction of readers might wish to pay for writing or even b. if writing and publishing is an expensive hobby, that it should simply be a slightly more expensive one and writers paid.
I got this button at AWP:
A good sentiment that turned horrifying once the editor of the journal explained that they charge SIX DOLLARS to submit a piece, for the chance to be published and then paid. (Imagine pinning a $5 to every resume you send out when seeking a job.) But, for AWP, they were halving the cost to only $3. Every issue also comes with a "transparency index" to explain where the money goes—and yet, how much is a table, hotel, etc. at AWP? Easily a couple grand, and whatever few copies the journal sold wouldn't have put a dent in those costs.
Or, let's put it another way: I had my plane ticket booked paid for, and my AWP membership and hotel reimbursed by WestConn, where I teach. I was sent because WestConn's MFA program is launching a journal, Poor Yorick, and the rule is that is students travel on the college's (and state of Connecticut's) dime, a faculty member must attend, and I was asked to go. Journals table at AWP primarily to cultivate a pool of submitters, which may sound strange to those in Real Publishing, where the main issue is burdensome slush piles of submissions. So, WestConn was happy, or at least willing, to spend thousands on a table, a few plane tickets, and hotel rooms...and Poor Yorick is as of yet a non-paying venue. I sat down with the students and came up with a budget: we could buy a year's content at $100 per story or essay, $25 per poem, $50 per photo, and $300 per video for just around $2000. We'll be doing an Indiegogo to make this happen soon...or we could have just stayed home and writers would be beating a path to our door for the sake of a C-note. But the college won't pay for non-college contributors...
Despite the commitment to producing material nobody reads, AWP is a celebrity culture and the famous writers get all the attention. T.C. Boyle read a new story before a full house, "The Five Pound Burrito" that meandered into a wild, interesting fantasy, before being drawn back in by an ending that denied all the implications of the mimesis of the story. It was the sort of thing I rejected at Clarkesworld all the time. If your story is going to go crazy, it has to stay crazy, at least. When asked by a nervous audience member how such a story would be classified, Boyle said something like "As a story that'll make me some money." One could almost smell the synapses melting. And yet, the lines for Boyle and the other major writers, the ones who don't have to pay submissions fees or depend on grants to feel like writers, were the longest. Even among poets, there was a clear demarcation between those who won contests with small presses, and those published by somewhat larger publishers (WW Norton, etc.)
And yet...have you seen the state of commercial fiction lately? Oh dear, I'm sure anyone reading this has already Googled "Sad Puppies", or doesn't need to. One reason I've stopped attending most SF conventions is to get away from weekends with writers where none of them ever speak of writing. (Publishing is not writing.) One bright spot at AWP were the Bizarro-themed offsite events. I went to readings every night, and loved the Bizarro and post-Bizarro* stuff for its verve and its professionalism. Instead of endless muttering into microphones and giggling excuses and endless recitations of poems about alcohol and vaginas and the leaves on the wind—I made the mistake of going to a restaurant where between two events over thirty people read as long as they liked and as poorly as they could—the performances were short, fun, diverse, and sometimes extremely raunchy without ever being malevolent or hateful, and the writers and readers were excited. This is just a step over micropress stuff, but the audience has been found, cultivated, and is happy to pay for these strange little books. Some bizarro titles sell a couple hundred copies, some sell around 10,000 copies, and it seems to be working without either devolving into academic writing or diluting into popular writing.
As far as me...well, I was both in place and out of place at every event. I went to a meeting regarding founding a journal about creative writing instruction, and was the only MFA faculty member there, and I'm only an adjunct doing it as a lark. A lot of what I experienced at the readings, I could just not take seriously. People would come up to the Poor Yorick desk and either a. get excited "because Shakespeare" as the kids on the Internet say, or b. skulk about, looking for submission guidelines. One kid didn't even know the phrase "poor Yorick"! (Grad students in writing, mind you.) I got to meet a few people, including
jtglover
, who turned me on to the new-to-me Nelly Arcan. I got a free lunch from Brooke Wonders, who wrote down stuff that I said, which is a very strange experience!
That's AWP.
*Post-bizarro because as bizarro leaks into alt.lit and crime fiction respectively, they are finding new aesthetics. Plus, as the original bizarros age and do things like get married and have kids, the dumb-ass goofiness is giving way to a more thoughtful surrealism. Barton Fink or Blue Velvet rather than Surf Nazis Must Die.
I was actually on that Blue Line streetcar when the accident happened. Literally didn't feel a thing, though obviously the car was smashed and the person in the passenger seat had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
AWP is a weird hustle, just like a fat guy nearly killing himself against the nosecone of a Mall of America bus is. There are essentially two tracks in the American writing life—the academic track, which is state-subsidized, and the commercial track, which is dominated by several large corporations. Of course, this means that American letters is largely a useless mess. Even forgetting the connection between the CIA and MFA programs , the art of the state is the art of the middle class: neuroses, a false choice between propaganda ("realism") and nonsense ("postmodernism") and an utterly paternalistic relationship to money. More than one conversation about paying writers (my Storify on submission fees was widely discussed) ended with someone stating, definitively, "Grants!" We dare not cultivate the idea that either a. some fraction of readers might wish to pay for writing or even b. if writing and publishing is an expensive hobby, that it should simply be a slightly more expensive one and writers paid.
I got this button at AWP:
A good sentiment that turned horrifying once the editor of the journal explained that they charge SIX DOLLARS to submit a piece, for the chance to be published and then paid. (Imagine pinning a $5 to every resume you send out when seeking a job.) But, for AWP, they were halving the cost to only $3. Every issue also comes with a "transparency index" to explain where the money goes—and yet, how much is a table, hotel, etc. at AWP? Easily a couple grand, and whatever few copies the journal sold wouldn't have put a dent in those costs.
Or, let's put it another way: I had my plane ticket booked paid for, and my AWP membership and hotel reimbursed by WestConn, where I teach. I was sent because WestConn's MFA program is launching a journal, Poor Yorick, and the rule is that is students travel on the college's (and state of Connecticut's) dime, a faculty member must attend, and I was asked to go. Journals table at AWP primarily to cultivate a pool of submitters, which may sound strange to those in Real Publishing, where the main issue is burdensome slush piles of submissions. So, WestConn was happy, or at least willing, to spend thousands on a table, a few plane tickets, and hotel rooms...and Poor Yorick is as of yet a non-paying venue. I sat down with the students and came up with a budget: we could buy a year's content at $100 per story or essay, $25 per poem, $50 per photo, and $300 per video for just around $2000. We'll be doing an Indiegogo to make this happen soon...or we could have just stayed home and writers would be beating a path to our door for the sake of a C-note. But the college won't pay for non-college contributors...
Despite the commitment to producing material nobody reads, AWP is a celebrity culture and the famous writers get all the attention. T.C. Boyle read a new story before a full house, "The Five Pound Burrito" that meandered into a wild, interesting fantasy, before being drawn back in by an ending that denied all the implications of the mimesis of the story. It was the sort of thing I rejected at Clarkesworld all the time. If your story is going to go crazy, it has to stay crazy, at least. When asked by a nervous audience member how such a story would be classified, Boyle said something like "As a story that'll make me some money." One could almost smell the synapses melting. And yet, the lines for Boyle and the other major writers, the ones who don't have to pay submissions fees or depend on grants to feel like writers, were the longest. Even among poets, there was a clear demarcation between those who won contests with small presses, and those published by somewhat larger publishers (WW Norton, etc.)
And yet...have you seen the state of commercial fiction lately? Oh dear, I'm sure anyone reading this has already Googled "Sad Puppies", or doesn't need to. One reason I've stopped attending most SF conventions is to get away from weekends with writers where none of them ever speak of writing. (Publishing is not writing.) One bright spot at AWP were the Bizarro-themed offsite events. I went to readings every night, and loved the Bizarro and post-Bizarro* stuff for its verve and its professionalism. Instead of endless muttering into microphones and giggling excuses and endless recitations of poems about alcohol and vaginas and the leaves on the wind—I made the mistake of going to a restaurant where between two events over thirty people read as long as they liked and as poorly as they could—the performances were short, fun, diverse, and sometimes extremely raunchy without ever being malevolent or hateful, and the writers and readers were excited. This is just a step over micropress stuff, but the audience has been found, cultivated, and is happy to pay for these strange little books. Some bizarro titles sell a couple hundred copies, some sell around 10,000 copies, and it seems to be working without either devolving into academic writing or diluting into popular writing.
As far as me...well, I was both in place and out of place at every event. I went to a meeting regarding founding a journal about creative writing instruction, and was the only MFA faculty member there, and I'm only an adjunct doing it as a lark. A lot of what I experienced at the readings, I could just not take seriously. People would come up to the Poor Yorick desk and either a. get excited "because Shakespeare" as the kids on the Internet say, or b. skulk about, looking for submission guidelines. One kid didn't even know the phrase "poor Yorick"! (Grad students in writing, mind you.) I got to meet a few people, including
jtglover
, who turned me on to the new-to-me Nelly Arcan. I got a free lunch from Brooke Wonders, who wrote down stuff that I said, which is a very strange experience! That's AWP.
*Post-bizarro because as bizarro leaks into alt.lit and crime fiction respectively, they are finding new aesthetics. Plus, as the original bizarros age and do things like get married and have kids, the dumb-ass goofiness is giving way to a more thoughtful surrealism. Barton Fink or Blue Velvet rather than Surf Nazis Must Die.
April 6, 2015
The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Star
The Hugo Award nominees were announced over the weekend, and as long whispered the Sad and Rabid Puppies slate had a huge influence.
I think my first tweet regarding the ballot is still the best:
On the plus side, a non-Puppy victory goes to Edge of Tomorrow, which is on the ballot for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form! (The Captain America sequel is also a non-Puppy pick.)
And who could resist?
The Puppy movie picks were much less ideological than the rest of their slates, and it was the one obvious ideological pick—The Maze Runner, that got knocked out. It was an incoherent film, and not even a huge summertime hit or a critical darling (63% on Rotten Tomatoes, and fan ranks oat 69%). It was pretty obviously selected because the novel upon which the film was based was written by James Dashner, a Mormon.
Anyway, see you all in Spokane! Vote early, and vote often, for Edge of Tomorrow!
I think my first tweet regarding the ballot is still the best:
I guess getting all those Hugo nominations in one year proves that John C. Wright is just as good as Seaman McGuire.
— Nick Mamatas (@NMamatas) April 4, 2015
On the plus side, a non-Puppy victory goes to Edge of Tomorrow, which is on the ballot for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form! (The Captain America sequel is also a non-Puppy pick.)
And who could resist?
The Puppy movie picks were much less ideological than the rest of their slates, and it was the one obvious ideological pick—The Maze Runner, that got knocked out. It was an incoherent film, and not even a huge summertime hit or a critical darling (63% on Rotten Tomatoes, and fan ranks oat 69%). It was pretty obviously selected because the novel upon which the film was based was written by James Dashner, a Mormon.
Anyway, see you all in Spokane! Vote early, and vote often, for Edge of Tomorrow!
April 3, 2015
Literary Journals and Epistemic Closure
I am a big fan of the Los Angeles Review of Books and have even published there. I was very interested then, when they announced that The Offing would be an associated literary journal (fiction, poetry, essays) channel. The magazine got written up in the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post's book blogs. This is not at all typical of the launch of yet another online literary magazine, regardless of its mission (in this case, "the marginalized"), so I decided to submit. They pay a little ($20-50) for submission.
And then The Offing decided to charge $3 for submissions, in order, they say, to pay their writers. Though I was grandfathered in, I withdrew my submission and complained on Twitter. This was captured on Storify. But, yesterday and this morning, the arguments continued. Yesterday, one of The Offing's editors got into it, and basically led to a long discussion about the importance of Submittable, a for-pay submissions manager that also allows for easy collection of submission fees from slush. Cheaper solutions, like a free gmail account (which worked fine for Clarkesworld back in the day, which handled many more submissions and much more correspondence than The Offing likely gets) were pooh-poohed as unrealistic. As for reasons why, and the response was basically "thank you for you input" and flaming people over typos and their choice of Twitter avi.
Over on Facebook, the poets took a swing. And today, there's another Twitter thread which I've not time to Storify right now, but this should help pick up the discussion. (Extra bonus this time—the use of Silicon Alley lingo like "disrupting" and "spaces.")
Finally, I've come to the conclusion that I'm dealing with complete epistemic closure. There has not been one novel statement made by any of the supporters of literary journals charging submitters, because they literally cannot conceive of a large literary journal not charging writers to submit! The claims they make fall into three types:
1. editors work on a volunteer basis for free, thus writers must pay.
2. Submittable and web space and other elements of running a magazine cost money, thus writers must pay.
3. Audiences cannot or should not or will not pay, thus writers must pay.
4. Various fund-raising techniques can only be used partially and casually—they will not function systemically in a lit journal context—thus writers must pay.
5. Our projects are designed to publish writers from marginalized demographics, thus writers must pay.
6. Lit journals exist outside the market, thus writers must pay.
7. Lit journals are victims of capitalism, thus writers must pay.
Both 6 and 7 often took the form of the Post Office analogy—writers used to have to pay for paper and stamps. Now they can just pay us the same amount and in exchange get...[blank stare]. (Related: "It's only three dollars!" when out of the writer's pocket; "We must have three dollars!" when it enters the editor's pocket.)
Whenever one thread fails, another is picked up. Generally #5 exists primarily to guilt a presumptive non-marginalized rhetorical opponent, but is quickly put down when it is brought up that these lit journals are asking marginalized people to pay for the production of marginalized work. When that fails, it's back to #1. When asked about funding, we're off to #4. When that fails, the tsk-tsking of #6 is unleashed. Then there's the tired sigh of #3.
Even the very basic counter-argument of, "If you're paying out of pocket, just pay more out of pocket!" is unreasonable because, well, pick one of the seven arguments. Just kiddin', at that point, the editors declare that they are being disrespected and disengage...only to re-engage a moment later with one of the other arguments, seemingly selected randomly. Epistemic resetting!
Is there a class dimension to this? Of course there is! Marginalized people still exist in class society, and it is no surprise that as lit journals are generally emergent from the academic milieu that marginalized people in that milieu tend to be heavily assimilated into middle-class norms.
In the middle class, one does not speak about money.
In the middle class, one is always fearful of being knocked down one level to the endless horror of working class life (especially and legitimately true in marginalized communities).
In the middle class, one is always very wary of confrontation. Activism should involve letter-writing campaigns or tsk-tsking at the television.
The the middle class, harmony ideology is axiomatic. Thus, conflict is necessarily exogenous—by definition anyone arguing with them, like me or
fantasyecho
or Silvia Moreno-Garcia is outside the community, even when marginalized or with many literary journal credits etc.
In the middle class, inclinations toward cultural production are a sign of virtue regardless of talent or results.
In the middle class, the idea that there are lower classes that could benefit from commercial transactions is nonsensical.
Most annoying to me were the repeated claims that I was somehow being consumerist or commercial. For the middle class, the ABCs of class consciousness (i.e., I shall be paid for my labor; it doesn't matter if my "boss" is profitable first or comfortable with paying me first) is recast as a sort of vulgar libertarianism. It's not as though the people I've been arguing with are saying this to be mean or get a rise out of me: they literally cannot perceive anything that exists outside of their middle class bubbles. Of course it is ethical to set up a system of transfer payments from the 99 percent of submitters who'll go unpublished to pay for the 1 percent of solicited work from already-famous writers. (Even Ron Charles of the Washington Post asked a few questions about this in the link above.) Why does that feel normal to lit journal editors? Well, how does the management class get paid again? Oh yeah...
A few weeks ago, author Ryan Boudinot published a controversial essay on MFA programs. When I read it, I lamented that he didn't save it till this week, so everyone would be properly riled up at next week's AWP conference. Well, it looks like I found something else for everyone to talk-about not-talk-about next week.
See you all in Minneapolis!
And then The Offing decided to charge $3 for submissions, in order, they say, to pay their writers. Though I was grandfathered in, I withdrew my submission and complained on Twitter. This was captured on Storify. But, yesterday and this morning, the arguments continued. Yesterday, one of The Offing's editors got into it, and basically led to a long discussion about the importance of Submittable, a for-pay submissions manager that also allows for easy collection of submission fees from slush. Cheaper solutions, like a free gmail account (which worked fine for Clarkesworld back in the day, which handled many more submissions and much more correspondence than The Offing likely gets) were pooh-poohed as unrealistic. As for reasons why, and the response was basically "thank you for you input" and flaming people over typos and their choice of Twitter avi.
Over on Facebook, the poets took a swing. And today, there's another Twitter thread which I've not time to Storify right now, but this should help pick up the discussion. (Extra bonus this time—the use of Silicon Alley lingo like "disrupting" and "spaces.")
Finally, I've come to the conclusion that I'm dealing with complete epistemic closure. There has not been one novel statement made by any of the supporters of literary journals charging submitters, because they literally cannot conceive of a large literary journal not charging writers to submit! The claims they make fall into three types:
1. editors work on a volunteer basis for free, thus writers must pay.
2. Submittable and web space and other elements of running a magazine cost money, thus writers must pay.
3. Audiences cannot or should not or will not pay, thus writers must pay.
4. Various fund-raising techniques can only be used partially and casually—they will not function systemically in a lit journal context—thus writers must pay.
5. Our projects are designed to publish writers from marginalized demographics, thus writers must pay.
6. Lit journals exist outside the market, thus writers must pay.
7. Lit journals are victims of capitalism, thus writers must pay.
Both 6 and 7 often took the form of the Post Office analogy—writers used to have to pay for paper and stamps. Now they can just pay us the same amount and in exchange get...[blank stare]. (Related: "It's only three dollars!" when out of the writer's pocket; "We must have three dollars!" when it enters the editor's pocket.)
Whenever one thread fails, another is picked up. Generally #5 exists primarily to guilt a presumptive non-marginalized rhetorical opponent, but is quickly put down when it is brought up that these lit journals are asking marginalized people to pay for the production of marginalized work. When that fails, it's back to #1. When asked about funding, we're off to #4. When that fails, the tsk-tsking of #6 is unleashed. Then there's the tired sigh of #3.
Even the very basic counter-argument of, "If you're paying out of pocket, just pay more out of pocket!" is unreasonable because, well, pick one of the seven arguments. Just kiddin', at that point, the editors declare that they are being disrespected and disengage...only to re-engage a moment later with one of the other arguments, seemingly selected randomly. Epistemic resetting!
Is there a class dimension to this? Of course there is! Marginalized people still exist in class society, and it is no surprise that as lit journals are generally emergent from the academic milieu that marginalized people in that milieu tend to be heavily assimilated into middle-class norms.
In the middle class, one does not speak about money.
In the middle class, one is always fearful of being knocked down one level to the endless horror of working class life (especially and legitimately true in marginalized communities).
In the middle class, one is always very wary of confrontation. Activism should involve letter-writing campaigns or tsk-tsking at the television.
The the middle class, harmony ideology is axiomatic. Thus, conflict is necessarily exogenous—by definition anyone arguing with them, like me or
fantasyecho
or Silvia Moreno-Garcia is outside the community, even when marginalized or with many literary journal credits etc.In the middle class, inclinations toward cultural production are a sign of virtue regardless of talent or results.
In the middle class, the idea that there are lower classes that could benefit from commercial transactions is nonsensical.
Most annoying to me were the repeated claims that I was somehow being consumerist or commercial. For the middle class, the ABCs of class consciousness (i.e., I shall be paid for my labor; it doesn't matter if my "boss" is profitable first or comfortable with paying me first) is recast as a sort of vulgar libertarianism. It's not as though the people I've been arguing with are saying this to be mean or get a rise out of me: they literally cannot perceive anything that exists outside of their middle class bubbles. Of course it is ethical to set up a system of transfer payments from the 99 percent of submitters who'll go unpublished to pay for the 1 percent of solicited work from already-famous writers. (Even Ron Charles of the Washington Post asked a few questions about this in the link above.) Why does that feel normal to lit journal editors? Well, how does the management class get paid again? Oh yeah...
A few weeks ago, author Ryan Boudinot published a controversial essay on MFA programs. When I read it, I lamented that he didn't save it till this week, so everyone would be properly riled up at next week's AWP conference. Well, it looks like I found something else for everyone to talk-about not-talk-about next week.
See you all in Minneapolis!
April 1, 2015
Lovecraftian Things—No Platform for Fascists
Back when I was doing some research for my SFSignal essay on Lovecraft and racism, I came across an essay on a fascist website lauding Lovecraft's views, written by one David Riley. There is also a David Riley involved directly in the Lovecraftian/weird small press whose public utterances I would characterize as normal UK Tory and not hardcore racist, so I asked a friend (lj's own
lokilokust
), who keeps up on this sort of thing more closely than I do, if they were the same.
Nah, they were different people, he told me.
Then this week, he contacted me again. David A. Riley*, who is a major part of re-launching Weirdbook, has come under renewed scrutiny, and indeed, as it turns out he was involved in the whites-only fascist organization National Front, including running for office. A pro-fascist blogpost from 2006 identifies him as one-time regional organizer as well. As a rule, we do not link to fascist websites*, but you can Google as well as anyone else.
Riley, for his part, explained to a few people that he was young, and naive, his politics have changed, and that he may even vote Labour to preserve the NHS this time around etc.
On Facebook, I launched this blind item:
Anyone can turn their act around. I really believe this. But if your act was "regional leader and candidate for office of a fascist party", a proper turnaround requires public repudiation of past politics, and turning "people's evidence" by publicly detailing any crimes or thuggery you and your fash pals may have participated in.
Literal organized fascism is not something one can just casually leave behind as part of a political evolution. Well, one hopes not anyway—the mainstream right used to guard itself against close connections to the fascist right, but these days they seem far more amenable toward accepting anyone who talks a good game, has a few bucks, or is willing to do political scut work. At any rate, it hardly matters in this case: David A. Riley was spotted posting to white-supremacist message boards as late as 2012.
Anyway, the upside is that he is now out of Weirdbook:
is noted white supremacist (and three time political candidate for the national front) david a. riley still involved with 'weirdbook' in any capacity?
Weirdbook Magazine: No.
Good. Fascism is the line. There is enormous room for political disagreement, and I'm not one of these middle-class moralists who seek to exclude people from the publishing world based on libertarianism or trolling or slurping up to dangerous cults*** or anything else. Just being a literal fucking fascist for years and years. (And also being a shitty writer, but that battle was lost at the dawn of time.) No platform for fascists!
I also have some other news. I was interviewed on the Miskatonic Musings podcast and I have complaints! And shout-outs, and mostly complaints! Shout-outs include Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland, and Borderlands in SF, both of which are great if you would like a signed copy of The Nickronomicon.
And speaking of my collection, it's on sale! Hard copies direct from the publisher are only ten bucks for the next two weeks! Not signed, but cheap! The choice is yours, and whether you go for Diesel, Borderlands, and Innsmouth Free Press, you're supporting local, independent, non-Nazi businesses!
*There is also a David B. Riley and a David M. Riley participating in genre publications in the small and micropress. Both are American and not to be confused with the British David A. Riley.
**This is not an invitation to tell me about donotlink.com or other methods to bring traffic to a fascist website without it registering as traffic.
***Did you see Going Clear on HBO? Join me in my Clear Puppy slate to get it on the Hugo Award ballot next year for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form!
lokilokust
), who keeps up on this sort of thing more closely than I do, if they were the same. Nah, they were different people, he told me.
Then this week, he contacted me again. David A. Riley*, who is a major part of re-launching Weirdbook, has come under renewed scrutiny, and indeed, as it turns out he was involved in the whites-only fascist organization National Front, including running for office. A pro-fascist blogpost from 2006 identifies him as one-time regional organizer as well. As a rule, we do not link to fascist websites*, but you can Google as well as anyone else.
Riley, for his part, explained to a few people that he was young, and naive, his politics have changed, and that he may even vote Labour to preserve the NHS this time around etc.
On Facebook, I launched this blind item:
Anyone can turn their act around. I really believe this. But if your act was "regional leader and candidate for office of a fascist party", a proper turnaround requires public repudiation of past politics, and turning "people's evidence" by publicly detailing any crimes or thuggery you and your fash pals may have participated in.
Literal organized fascism is not something one can just casually leave behind as part of a political evolution. Well, one hopes not anyway—the mainstream right used to guard itself against close connections to the fascist right, but these days they seem far more amenable toward accepting anyone who talks a good game, has a few bucks, or is willing to do political scut work. At any rate, it hardly matters in this case: David A. Riley was spotted posting to white-supremacist message boards as late as 2012.
Anyway, the upside is that he is now out of Weirdbook:
is noted white supremacist (and three time political candidate for the national front) david a. riley still involved with 'weirdbook' in any capacity?
Weirdbook Magazine: No.
Good. Fascism is the line. There is enormous room for political disagreement, and I'm not one of these middle-class moralists who seek to exclude people from the publishing world based on libertarianism or trolling or slurping up to dangerous cults*** or anything else. Just being a literal fucking fascist for years and years. (And also being a shitty writer, but that battle was lost at the dawn of time.) No platform for fascists!
I also have some other news. I was interviewed on the Miskatonic Musings podcast and I have complaints! And shout-outs, and mostly complaints! Shout-outs include Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland, and Borderlands in SF, both of which are great if you would like a signed copy of The Nickronomicon.
And speaking of my collection, it's on sale! Hard copies direct from the publisher are only ten bucks for the next two weeks! Not signed, but cheap! The choice is yours, and whether you go for Diesel, Borderlands, and Innsmouth Free Press, you're supporting local, independent, non-Nazi businesses!
*There is also a David B. Riley and a David M. Riley participating in genre publications in the small and micropress. Both are American and not to be confused with the British David A. Riley.
**This is not an invitation to tell me about donotlink.com or other methods to bring traffic to a fascist website without it registering as traffic.
***Did you see Going Clear on HBO? Join me in my Clear Puppy slate to get it on the Hugo Award ballot next year for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form!
March 30, 2015
The Hugo Awards in the Era of Slates
This weekend, the ballot for the Hugo Awards will be revealed. It is already controversial, as it is clear that the Sad Puppies slate (Google it) will dominate several categories. This has some people very upset, and the SPs are being accused of cheating, though their response is that they're only doing what everybody does—telling people what they liked this year and whom one might consider voting for.
I've long been an opponent of what used to be called vote-begging and what is now called "obligatory eligibility posts" regarding Hugo and other awards, such as the Locus. It's more acceptable when people do it for the sake of others, though a friendship society passing along the responsibility for rallying the troops isn't quite the same as enthusiasm for some book or story. Plus, I'm sure nobody else actually voted for Brock Lesnar versus The Undertaker. (Well, maybe Chris Garcia.)
The Hugos being a product a fandom, much of the discussion around "fixing" the issue boils down either angry blog posts about white people (ie, admissions of pathetic whining defeat) or statistical wonkery (ie foolishness). These are all wrongheaded—slating is essentially a political issue, and political issues need political responses. There are three possible ones:
1. Suck It Up.
Probably a pretty good idea. This bed was made some years ago when blogging culture sparked a shift from significant social sanction when people tried to get votes by asking publicly for consideration to "obligatory" posts promoting their own work, and later, the work of their friends. Loud Blogs win; Loud Blogs Plus Online Workshop-Clubhouses win more; and Loud Blogs plus political discipline win even more. Why should only the Loud Bloggers people have decided that they personally like and are "friends"* with win? Eventually, it'll all even out, especially as what is most likely to happen is that the SPs get nominated and then lose decisively year after year.
2. Castigate all campaigning, not just the campaigning you don't like
Pandora's Box isn't necessarily open forever. However, you can't close half a lid. It would take significant effort to change widespread attitudes, but it is not as though those attitudes have not changed before. If campaigning was always met with eye-rolling or even outright disgust, it would stop being so effective. Some people would betray and try to promote, but if the audience was inured to such appeals, it just wouldn't work and hopefuls would eventually stop.
3. Counter-slates
We'll almost certainly see attempts at counter-slates. I'm against the idea, but the current cry to vote "No Award" in all SP-dominated categories is itself a counter-slate after a fashion. Someone will come up with Happy Kittens and stump for non-binary PoCs or stories with lots of scene breaks or or or...well, that's the problem. One counter-slate would likely thwart the SPs, more than one would not. And we're sure to see more than one. Disciplined slate voting works best when only one side does it and the other side isn't even a side. Two slates split demographically. Three or more, uh... At any rate, it all comes around to political discipline again. If some party were to launch a counter-slate next year, would others who found that slate imperfect let it by without critique and another alternative slate. (There are actually two Puppy slates, but they are largely similar.) There can be slates that are so attractive that many more people sign up to vote for the Hugos, but I strongly suspect that people overestimate the amount of outside "pull" these slates have; general Hugo chatter across blogs and Twitter in general is driving increased education about supporting Worldcon memberships, and then there are all the free books voters might receive, which is also a new thing. One counter-slate would be effective, though of course the cure could be worse than the disease, and more than one would likely not.
So aggrieved Hugo Award followers, which shall it be?
*It is odd, the number of people who think occasional commenting on this blog makes us "friends." Sometimes I literally don't recognize them when I meet them in person.
I've long been an opponent of what used to be called vote-begging and what is now called "obligatory eligibility posts" regarding Hugo and other awards, such as the Locus. It's more acceptable when people do it for the sake of others, though a friendship society passing along the responsibility for rallying the troops isn't quite the same as enthusiasm for some book or story. Plus, I'm sure nobody else actually voted for Brock Lesnar versus The Undertaker. (Well, maybe Chris Garcia.)
The Hugos being a product a fandom, much of the discussion around "fixing" the issue boils down either angry blog posts about white people (ie, admissions of pathetic whining defeat) or statistical wonkery (ie foolishness). These are all wrongheaded—slating is essentially a political issue, and political issues need political responses. There are three possible ones:
1. Suck It Up.
Probably a pretty good idea. This bed was made some years ago when blogging culture sparked a shift from significant social sanction when people tried to get votes by asking publicly for consideration to "obligatory" posts promoting their own work, and later, the work of their friends. Loud Blogs win; Loud Blogs Plus Online Workshop-Clubhouses win more; and Loud Blogs plus political discipline win even more. Why should only the Loud Bloggers people have decided that they personally like and are "friends"* with win? Eventually, it'll all even out, especially as what is most likely to happen is that the SPs get nominated and then lose decisively year after year.
2. Castigate all campaigning, not just the campaigning you don't like
Pandora's Box isn't necessarily open forever. However, you can't close half a lid. It would take significant effort to change widespread attitudes, but it is not as though those attitudes have not changed before. If campaigning was always met with eye-rolling or even outright disgust, it would stop being so effective. Some people would betray and try to promote, but if the audience was inured to such appeals, it just wouldn't work and hopefuls would eventually stop.
3. Counter-slates
We'll almost certainly see attempts at counter-slates. I'm against the idea, but the current cry to vote "No Award" in all SP-dominated categories is itself a counter-slate after a fashion. Someone will come up with Happy Kittens and stump for non-binary PoCs or stories with lots of scene breaks or or or...well, that's the problem. One counter-slate would likely thwart the SPs, more than one would not. And we're sure to see more than one. Disciplined slate voting works best when only one side does it and the other side isn't even a side. Two slates split demographically. Three or more, uh... At any rate, it all comes around to political discipline again. If some party were to launch a counter-slate next year, would others who found that slate imperfect let it by without critique and another alternative slate. (There are actually two Puppy slates, but they are largely similar.) There can be slates that are so attractive that many more people sign up to vote for the Hugos, but I strongly suspect that people overestimate the amount of outside "pull" these slates have; general Hugo chatter across blogs and Twitter in general is driving increased education about supporting Worldcon memberships, and then there are all the free books voters might receive, which is also a new thing. One counter-slate would be effective, though of course the cure could be worse than the disease, and more than one would likely not.
So aggrieved Hugo Award followers, which shall it be?
*It is odd, the number of people who think occasional commenting on this blog makes us "friends." Sometimes I literally don't recognize them when I meet them in person.
March 27, 2015
Friday Quick Notes
My story of professional wrestling Work, Shoot, Hook, Rip, originally from Ellen Datlow's Nightmare Carnival (which you should totally buy for Nathan Ballingrud's "Skullpocket") is now live on The Big Click, which is running a Jason Ridler guest-edited pro wrestling issue. Share with your friends, and subscribe please, thanks! It's not a huge deal as the Click is a hobby, but right now income pays for perhaps a single issue of the six we do a year. Buying ebook issues and subscribing would be a great way to read a few crime stories from writers new and established, and would certainly help me out. We always pay on time!
Speaking of short fiction, this came in three months early:
The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk includes my novelette "We Never Sleep", which is a thematic sequel of sorts of my steampunk novelette "Arbeitskraft" from a few years ago. The book is out in July.
Hugo awards will be announced soon. Looks like the so-called Sad Puppies slate has swept several of the minor/vulnerable categories. As I said last year, this is the clear end result of self-hype for awards and fan-voting for Loudest Blogger, so really the people in knots over it have only themselves to blame. This is especially true of the latest Puppies iteration, which got almost no traction until whiny liberals started making a big deal of it—then the major right-wing bloggers who had been responding with a "there there" head pat to their junior pal got to promoting the slate, even getting it to brietbart.com.
When something is failing, let it fail.
I'm definitely going to start banging the drum for "We Never Sleep" immediately. (I couldn't bring myself to do it for "Arbeitskraft" and it missed the ballot by seven votes if I remember correctly.) It's a Stirneresque war of all against all now.
Speaking of short fiction, this came in three months early:
The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk includes my novelette "We Never Sleep", which is a thematic sequel of sorts of my steampunk novelette "Arbeitskraft" from a few years ago. The book is out in July.
Hugo awards will be announced soon. Looks like the so-called Sad Puppies slate has swept several of the minor/vulnerable categories. As I said last year, this is the clear end result of self-hype for awards and fan-voting for Loudest Blogger, so really the people in knots over it have only themselves to blame. This is especially true of the latest Puppies iteration, which got almost no traction until whiny liberals started making a big deal of it—then the major right-wing bloggers who had been responding with a "there there" head pat to their junior pal got to promoting the slate, even getting it to brietbart.com.
When something is failing, let it fail.
I'm definitely going to start banging the drum for "We Never Sleep" immediately. (I couldn't bring myself to do it for "Arbeitskraft" and it missed the ballot by seven votes if I remember correctly.) It's a Stirneresque war of all against all now.
March 23, 2015
Want to be a writer?
It's increasingly silly, the idea of offering writing classes. Just put stuff on Kindle, follow a bunch of spambots on Twitter, and you do can be terrible and successful. Check out this guy:
He's doing just fine, according to his Kindle store rankings. In fact, he's so successful my whining actually counts as "punching up" on the SJW-o-Meter.
But if you did want to learn how to be a good writer, I might be able to show you. I have forthcoming next month a local course in San Fran with the new San Francisco Writing Institute. We'll be back at it, Writing the Literary Page-Turner for eight glorious weeks. Imagine how much of your awful novel you can inflict on me in two months!
If you're not a Bay Area local, I'm back with LitReactor too, running a four-week class on the Architecture of Fiction.
So, check those out. Or become successful instead!
He's doing just fine, according to his Kindle store rankings. In fact, he's so successful my whining actually counts as "punching up" on the SJW-o-Meter.
But if you did want to learn how to be a good writer, I might be able to show you. I have forthcoming next month a local course in San Fran with the new San Francisco Writing Institute. We'll be back at it, Writing the Literary Page-Turner for eight glorious weeks. Imagine how much of your awful novel you can inflict on me in two months!
If you're not a Bay Area local, I'm back with LitReactor too, running a four-week class on the Architecture of Fiction.
So, check those out. Or become successful instead!
Nick Mamatas's Blog
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