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greygirlbeastThe cool weather is still with us. A mere 71F Outside at the moment. It's cool enough inside that I can actually wear pants. But the heat's supposed to make a comeback in the next day or two, I think.
All of yesterday was spent on the editorial pages for "The Maltese Unicorn." But I saved all the really hard stuff for today. And today is the very last day I have to work on the story, so it's going to be a long, long afternoon. Speaking of long, did I mention this is probably my longest short story since "Bainbridge" back in December 2005?
I've been alerted (thanks, John Glover et al.) to the fact that Amazon.com is now saying that The Ammonite Violin & Others won't be shipping for 1-2 months. No, I don't know why. But I have just emailed Bill Schafer to see if he knows, and I'll pass the news along as soon as I have it.
---
There's an announcement I need to make, and I see no point in putting it off any longer. This will likely be the last year I do conventions. I have Readercon 21, and then another con this autumn, and I don't expect to do any more after that. They're just too expensive, require too much time and energy and time away from work, and my health isn't what it once was. And, truthfully, I've only rarely enjoyed doing conventions. Dragon*Con was fun those years I costumed, and Readercon is nice, because it's laid back and feels a little more like an academic conference than a sf/f con. But yeah, consider this my last year for cons.
---
What else about yesterday? I watched an episode of American Experience about the Donner Party, via PBS online. And later, Spooky and I marked the 150th anniversary of Thomas Huxley's 1860 debate with Samuel Wilberforce by watching Jon Amiel's Creation (2009; based on Randal Keynes' 2000 novel Annie's Box).
It's a beautiful, marvelous film. Yeah, it has its share of fictionalized and synoptic history, but it very effectively communicates Darwin's struggles with his own loss of faith, his health problems, the death of a daughter, and the tensions between him and his wife, all leading up to the composition of On the Origin of Species. Both Paul Bettany (Charles Darwin) and Jennifer Connelly (Emma Darwin) are superb in their roles. And Toby Jones was an inspired choice for Thomas Huxley. The film captures all the wonder, confusion, and terror that must have attended Darwin's protracted epiphany. Excellent cinematography, which often makes great use of bright splashes of color against drab canvases. I very strongly recommend this film.
You may recall the kerfuffle that preceded Creation's US release (it was eventually picked up by Newmarket Films; the US was one of the last countries where it found a distributor). To quote producer Jeremy Thomas, "It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America. There's still a great belief that he [God] made the world in six days. It's quite difficult for we in the UK to imagine religion in America. We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the US, outside of New York and LA, religion rules." It is, indeed, unbelievable, and a tragedy that anyone would try to prevent this powerful and powerfully humane film from being shown anywhere. It is unthinkable to me that 151 years after the publication of Darwin's great book, Americans have yet to come to terms with the fact of evolution, and that so many of them cling to the absurdities of Biblical literalism, and, in doing so, contribute significantly to scientific illiteracy in this country. Darwin wasn't wrong in fearing the storm he would ignite, but I don't think even he imagined that we'd still be weathering it this far along.
Now, the mothmen, the platypus, and the dodo are telling me there's a unicorn with my name on it.
All of yesterday was spent on the editorial pages for "The Maltese Unicorn." But I saved all the really hard stuff for today. And today is the very last day I have to work on the story, so it's going to be a long, long afternoon. Speaking of long, did I mention this is probably my longest short story since "Bainbridge" back in December 2005?
I've been alerted (thanks, John Glover et al.) to the fact that Amazon.com is now saying that The Ammonite Violin & Others won't be shipping for 1-2 months. No, I don't know why. But I have just emailed Bill Schafer to see if he knows, and I'll pass the news along as soon as I have it.
---
There's an announcement I need to make, and I see no point in putting it off any longer. This will likely be the last year I do conventions. I have Readercon 21, and then another con this autumn, and I don't expect to do any more after that. They're just too expensive, require too much time and energy and time away from work, and my health isn't what it once was. And, truthfully, I've only rarely enjoyed doing conventions. Dragon*Con was fun those years I costumed, and Readercon is nice, because it's laid back and feels a little more like an academic conference than a sf/f con. But yeah, consider this my last year for cons.
---
What else about yesterday? I watched an episode of American Experience about the Donner Party, via PBS online. And later, Spooky and I marked the 150th anniversary of Thomas Huxley's 1860 debate with Samuel Wilberforce by watching Jon Amiel's Creation (2009; based on Randal Keynes' 2000 novel Annie's Box).
It's a beautiful, marvelous film. Yeah, it has its share of fictionalized and synoptic history, but it very effectively communicates Darwin's struggles with his own loss of faith, his health problems, the death of a daughter, and the tensions between him and his wife, all leading up to the composition of On the Origin of Species. Both Paul Bettany (Charles Darwin) and Jennifer Connelly (Emma Darwin) are superb in their roles. And Toby Jones was an inspired choice for Thomas Huxley. The film captures all the wonder, confusion, and terror that must have attended Darwin's protracted epiphany. Excellent cinematography, which often makes great use of bright splashes of color against drab canvases. I very strongly recommend this film.
You may recall the kerfuffle that preceded Creation's US release (it was eventually picked up by Newmarket Films; the US was one of the last countries where it found a distributor). To quote producer Jeremy Thomas, "It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America. There's still a great belief that he [God] made the world in six days. It's quite difficult for we in the UK to imagine religion in America. We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the US, outside of New York and LA, religion rules." It is, indeed, unbelievable, and a tragedy that anyone would try to prevent this powerful and powerfully humane film from being shown anywhere. It is unthinkable to me that 151 years after the publication of Darwin's great book, Americans have yet to come to terms with the fact of evolution, and that so many of them cling to the absurdities of Biblical literalism, and, in doing so, contribute significantly to scientific illiteracy in this country. Darwin wasn't wrong in fearing the storm he would ignite, but I don't think even he imagined that we'd still be weathering it this far along.
Now, the mothmen, the platypus, and the dodo are telling me there's a unicorn with my name on it.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 04:54 pm (UTC)And once again you manage to write a sentence that had never been written before. Well done. (You also did that with "'Twenty-five,' Scarborough replies unhelpfully.")
Re: announcement of stopping going to cons: I hope that helps your health. I want you to be around for awhile, and for you to be around Spooky for awhile. (I've heard she'd like that, too.)
Best of the good luck, as I say, since it seems appropriately Irish to specify good luck.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 04:56 pm (UTC)And once again you manage to write a sentence that had never been written before. Well done. (You also did that with "'Twenty-five,' Scarborough replies unhelpfully.")
This is something I strive to do at least once every day.
Re: announcement of stopping going to cons: I hope that helps your health.
It will certainly relieve stress and help financially.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 05:07 pm (UTC)It is easier than believing six impossible things before breakfast.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 05:09 pm (UTC)It is easier than believing six impossible things before breakfast.
I'm not so sure about that.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 04:57 pm (UTC)and its got a tattoo or two, and hangs out in a museum.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 04:59 pm (UTC)and its got a tattoo or two, and hangs out in a museum.
It's sort of a punk, this unicorn.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 06:05 pm (UTC)Then again, I'm getting sick of arguments basically going, "Well, how ELSE could the grape be in the center of the jello brick without a divine plan?!"
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 07:10 pm (UTC)The unknown is a good thing to be afraid of.
Well, I'd say the unknown is a good thing to have a healthy respect for, and then set about making known, full in the knowledge that, no matter how much we learn, the quantity of that which is unknown remains effectively the same.
Not much sympathy for religion here, much less religious insularity.
Spanking Amazon
Date: 2010-07-01 06:20 pm (UTC)I am glad I am attending this year’s Readercon. My first, your last. I look forward to the “Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary F&SF” panel but feel sad that it’s at the same time as the “Lovecraft” panel.
Re: Spanking Amazon
Date: 2010-07-01 07:07 pm (UTC)I don’t like that you need to “approve” the delay or else they will cancel the order. The procedure seems awkward. What if I simply skimmed the email, thought “OK, it’s going to be late” and never did anything? Hmph.
That's troubling, and I was unaware of it.
I look forward to the “Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary F&SF” panel but feel sad that it’s at the same time as the “Lovecraft” panel.
Am I on the gender and sexuality panel? I know I'm (inexplicably) not on the HPL panel.
Re: Spanking Amazon
Date: 2010-07-01 11:49 pm (UTC)Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary F&SF
Kiernan, Laity, Lewitt, Rosenbaum, Valente
Re: Spanking Amazon
Date: 2010-07-02 12:00 am (UTC)Yep. There I am.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 06:26 pm (UTC)Anyway, I made it public. Very public. I let the con chairpeople at the previous year's conventions know that I wasn't going to be doing any in 2001 at all. Thank you very much for asking, and I thank you very much for having me in the first place, but I'm not doing any more. Most understood.
The biggest shoot-little-old-ladies-in-the-face convention was a local one called A-Kon. Due to the implosion of several other local conventions, it was pretty much the only game in town, and its staff knew it. The 2000 show was the one where my car blew out a water pump, the head gasket, and the head itself the day of the con, and since the con staff didn't have the schedule ready earlier in the week, I managed to get another car to go out that Friday to find out my obligations for the weekend. I discovered when I was there that amazingly (a) all non-anime guest schedules had been wiped in a computer crash, (b) all non-anime guest listings in the program guide "accidentally" weren't included in the guide, and (c) nobody had backup plans. However, I was told by the con chair to look through the existing schedule and crash any panels I thought sounded interesting.
With the con crews at the other conventions, they understood. However, after the announcement, I got a letter from the A-Kon con chair, asking "I know you said you're not going to do any more conventions, but are you going to be at A-Kon?"
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 07:06 pm (UTC)and very expensive conventions.
The cost really is a significant part of this. Even a local con costs me hundreds of dollars that need to be spent elsewhere.
However, I was told by the con chair to look through the existing schedule and crash any panels I thought sounded interesting.
I have actually been handed this line myself.
With the con crews at the other conventions, they understood. However, after the announcement, I got a letter from the A-Kon con chair, asking "I know you said you're not going to do any more conventions, but are you going to be at A-Kon?"
Don't you just love morons?
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 01:07 pm (UTC)(As for the A-Kon crew, the even funnier part is that I'm persona non grata because I dared quit the whole Dallas convention scene. Not like it's a big loss: speaking from experience, I've noticed that the anime crowd, by and large, is so cheap that its members use both sides of the toilet paper. They're also incredibly high-maintenance, and I've already had to tell one such character that I'm not going to spend hours trying to help her save her Wal-Mart Venus flytraps when I've already referred her to the care resources I use. Just because we bumped into each other at a goofy con a decade ago doesn't mean that I owe her anything, and I have less inclination to do so when she brags about buying her plants from someone else.)
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 06:39 pm (UTC)Understood. I hope this last year is a good one.
The film captures all the wonder, confusion, and terror that must have attended Darwin's protracted epiphany.
I am very glad to hear this; I wanted very much to see it when it was first released and then of course it never played anywhere in the Boston area that I could find. I shall hunt up a copy.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 07:03 pm (UTC)Understood. I hope this last year is a good one.
Me, too.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 07:48 pm (UTC)Every time I log in you've got another exotic species trying to boss you around. Can't Hubero earn some soft food by doing a little predation now and again??
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 08:41 pm (UTC)Can't Hubero earn some soft food by doing a little predation now and again??
Hubero is far too tolerant a beast. And he accepts bribes.
This is terrible!!!
Date: 2010-07-01 09:44 pm (UTC)If the mothmen have something else in their warchest and can outbid you, I'm even more appalled.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 12:55 am (UTC)But I suspect HPL would be disappointed -- a scion of the tribe that crushed the Zoogs and filibustered on the dark side of the moon should be made of sterner stuff. And from the other side of the family, I thought Nebari were supposed to be scary tough? It's a declining age we live in, I tell you.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 08:19 pm (UTC)The stranglehold Christianity has on so many facets of our lives gives me gorram migraines.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 08:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-01 08:43 pm (UTC)The stranglehold Christianity has on so many facets of our lives gives me gorram migraines.
And yet we find time to condemn Islamic nations for their repressive theocracies...while failing to deal with our own.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 01:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 02:08 am (UTC)Respectfully, ma'am, you can't condemn other religions while supporting the rise of Cthulhu. Because he is very mean.
Cthulhu is not mean.
He is perfectly indifferent.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-02 03:16 pm (UTC)stenographers for the half-buried
Date: 2010-07-02 04:24 am (UTC)~Jacob
Re: stenographers for the half-buried
Date: 2010-07-02 05:28 am (UTC)are we in decline?
Better question: Were we ever not?
no subject
Date: 2010-07-03 07:50 am (UTC)Also, the new Sirenia is beautiful and I hope to get to read it this weekend or at the latest next week. Not enough waking hours...