Will Shetterly's Blog, page 55

Step It Out, Nancy vs. Step It Out, Mary —on the folk process and Holly Near's misstep with a Robin and Linda Williams' song

Back before the internet, many songs effectively had no writers. If a song seemed traditional, people shared it assuming that's what it was. Albums were sometimes released with songs miscredited as "traditional" or with no credits at all. Two of my favorite writers ran into this problem. Charles Vess decided to do The Book of Ballads, a graphic album with adaptations of folk songs written by

Why The Last Jedi is a director's movie, not a writer's movie, the Spoilery AF version.

This is the very spoilery explanation of what I said elsewhere: The Last Jedi: a director's movie, not a writer's movie. The moments are fine; the story is full of holes. I give it a B because I like Star Wars. Emma and I agree it's better than Rogue 1, not as good as The Force Awakens. My problems: 1. The decision to turn Poe Dameron into an idiot who repeatedly disobeys orders and doesn't

Blame Harlan Ellison for everything that's gone wrong with Star Wars?

When Emma and I lived in Los Angeles, a friend told us Harlan Ellison was the person who told George Lucas that "Darth Vader" sounded like "dark father". I don't know if that's true—Hollywood gossip is no more reliable than any other gossip. But sometime after the first Star Wars movie was finished, and most likely after Leigh Brackett finished the first draft of the second movie, Lucas decided

Dear readers who are disappointed that I'm a democratic socialist who believes in free speech, civility, and the presumption of innocence

I periodically get angry messages from people who say they loved my novels and hate that I oppose identitarianism, censorship, and mobbing. Okay, they don't use those words. Here's the most recent example. On Twitter, Chorizo Oh No! (who identifies as "DOTA 2 player, feminist, non-binary habitual ne'er-do-well and raconteur" sent me this: It's really depressing when you find out that someone

Three men falsely accused after Weinstein's fall: Sam Seder, Matt Taibbi, Mark Ames

In times of moral panic—which often begin with a valid concern—the worst people exploit the panic to attack their opponents, knowing guilt will be assumed by everyone caught up in the panic. At least three men have been falsely charged. The Destruction of Matt Taibbi focuses on one but provides background for the others. Perhaps the most outrageous fact: Despite how widespread the story was,

Woody Allen and Soon Yi Previn: basic facts

Dylan Farrow's Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen? asks a question that implies an answer she does not want to hear. Abusers tend to have more than one victim. When no one else is speaking out now, in a time when victims are being supported, the odds increase that Allen is innocent. Before deciding, read Woody Allen, Sex Abuse Allegations, and Believing the Victim, which includes

This video about editing the first Star Wars has good points about effective storytelling in all forms

Lucas, like most of us, was at his best when he had to carefully consider the opinions of other people. The first Star Wars would have failed if he hadn't had a smart producer, Alan Ladd Jr., who forced him to go through many drafts of the screenplay, and a smart wife who may deserve a co-writer's credit, Marcia Lucas. As this video points out, he also got solid advice from fellow directors on

What Samantha Geimer says about Roman Polanski and why his haters ignore her

My curse is to see a third side in polarizing issues. The result is getting hated or ignored by people on both sides. I'm saddened to see the same thing happens to Samantha Geimer: the people who claim to be her champions have no interest in what she says, and the worst defenders of Polanski say that because she was sexually active, she must have consented. She's told her story many times, and

On Douglas Williams, The Guardian, and the DSA, or Why identitarians hate context

If I wrote like Douglas Williams and so many people online, I would first tell you what to think, then share screen caps or links so you would read them with my interpretation in mind. It's an ancient trick that should have a name and probably does. It's a way of pretending to be objective while promoting your bias. And I suppose I've already done that by associating Williams with people who do

A black man and a white woman fight, or Will identitarianism destroy the DSA?

Two people I've admired from a distance are fighting. One's Amber A'Lee Frost who writes for The Baffler; the other's R. L. Stephens, who wrote The Birthmark of Damnation: Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Black Body. In a public post on Facebook yesterday, Stephens wrote: Someone named Kate Hudson just threatened to punch me when she sees me. This is how some people in DSA get down, and please believe