Novosti iz sveta Fantastike

[PTY]

     da, da, ne sumnjaj u estetsku sofisticiranost turske kafe, koju i sama negujem preko dekadentno ofucane bakarne džezve i fildžana, recimo da je ovde uzdignuta na nivo japanske čajne ceremonije, uz nemalo forsiranje koje mi drži balans faktu da ne umem ni kajganu pošteno da napravim.   


Nego, kad smo već kod prvorazrednog Svonvika (čiji Dancing with Bears upravo overavam) evo nešto njegovo skroz digresivno kjut:






When I was young, I followed physics closely.  Even when it got extremely weird, I was there on the sidelines cheering it on.  But then by slow degrees it became unmoored from physical consequence.  Branes, dimensions folded in upon themselves, string theory -- famously derided as being "not even wrong" -- and the like were inherently neither provable nor falsifiable.  By their very nature, we were never going to know for sure.  So I let my level of interest downgrade to "casual."

The CERN Super Hadron Collider, however, is Old School in that it involves actual experimental data.  So I was happy to find a short animation explaining the Higgs boson in words so simple that I can follow them.

Mind you, this is not the Higgs boson as physicists themselves know it.  But it's nice to have a glimmer.

You can view the video here.




The Higgs Boson (Sort Of) Explained

[PTY]

REVIEW SUMMARY: Despite good casting and one or two promising scenes, Burton's sendup of the classic supernatural soap opera only manages to be an incoherent mess.


MY RATING:
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: After being chained in a coffin by a scorned lover for two hundred years, vampire Barnabas Collins returns to Collinwood manor.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Well, at least it's better than the trailers; a couple of clever scenes; Burton's juxtaposition of Gothic and 1970s stylings; a good cast...
CONS: ...wasted by an aimless script and, despite frantic action, a complete lack of energy.



Dark Shadows does not continue director Tim Burton's artless swan dive into irrelevance but shows him swimming in a shallow pool of it, petulantly splashing and wailing like an unattended toddler upset that his parents are far too busy wrapped up in their own psychodrama to pay attention.  Or perhaps he doesn't care that audiences lost interest in his underdeveloped sense of narrative and overdeveloped sense of cinematography some time after Mars Attacks! or Sleepy Hollow, for the problems plaguing his pictures from the beginning exhibit themselves painfully in this adaptation of Dan Curtis's Gothic soap opera.  Running at just under two hours, it often feels longer than the ABC-TV series' five-year run.


Although the idea of making yet another movie from a television show often fills me with the kind of dread reserved for trips to the dentist or, worse, a call from relatives, a movie based on Dark Shadows actually seemed like a good idea.  The series crawled at a snail's pace, stretching out two minutes of story—often the same two minutes that would run in front of a modern show's opening credits—into thirty, including commercials, so even a little tightening held the promise of forward momentum.  That the trailers suggested Burton and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith (who co-wrote the story with John August) reimagined everything as a wild comedy didn't bother me, either—yes, those trailers looked awful, but at least they were different from the staid campiness of its source material.  Dark Shadows isn't as bad as the trailers suggest, but that only elevates it into a different level of meh.


It starts, as so many movies do, with backstory.  In the middle of the eighteenth century the Collins family travels to North America from Liverpool with their son Barnabas (Johnny Depp, who chews scenery to mush), who becomes a playboy in Collinsport, Maine (the town created by his father, played by Ivan Kaye) and ultimately becomes master of Colinwood Manor.  When he breaks the heart of servant girl and witch Angelina Bouchard (Eva Green, no less the scene diner), she kills his parents and curses his family and his lover Josette du Pres (Bella Heathcote) before transforming Barnabas into a vampire and burying him in a chained coffin in the woods outside of Collinsport.


200 years later, in 1972, the Collins family, now a shadow of its former glory, occupies the ruined mansion.  Barnabas, accidentally freed by a group of construction workers, returns to Collinwood Manor and meets his dysfunctional descendants: Elizabeth (Michelle Pfeiffer), the matriarch, her brother Roger (Johnny Lee Miller), her teenage daughter Carolyn (Chlöe Moertz), her ten-year-old son David (Gulliver McGrath), and her live-in psychiatrist Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), all of whom greet their long-lost relative with more than a little suspicion.  Also joining the family is David's governess Victoria Winters (also Heathcote), whom Barnabas recognizes immediately as his long-lost Josette.  As Barnabas attempts to restore the Collins name to its former glory, Angelique learns he has escaped from his coffin and hatches a plan to win his love.


Burton introduces interesting, quirky characters in the same Day-Glo Gothic trimmings so common to his movies, but Grahame-Smith's screenplay does nothing with them beyond putting them in a few interesting situations.  Victoria sees ghosts, including the ghost of Josette, during her first night in Collinwood Manor.  Barnabas, searching for a way to capture Victoria's heart, reads Erich Segal's novel Love Story with Carolyn and discusses his romantic feelings while sitting around a campfire with a group of visiting hippies.  ("Love means never having to say you're sorry," he tells them. "However, it is with sincere regret that I must now kill all of you."  And then drinks their blood).  Upon learning that Barnabas is a vampire, Julia hatches a scheme to transform him into a human with transfusions while turning herself into a vampire using his blood.  Any one of these might have produced a compelling story, but as played by the cast and director Burton they trail off without actually going anywhere.  Worse still, Burton simply does not have the energy to make it the kind of comedy he would like.  Gags fall flat despite their potential.  When Barnabas suggests a ball might help boost the family's image, Carolyn suggests hiring Alice Cooper as the entertainment.  "Ugliest woman I have ever seen," Barnabas muses when watching Cooper (playing himself) perform.

Dark Shadows wants to be a joyous romp freed from its camp roots.  It feels more like a parody performed by a group of poseurs who don't get the joke and wind up intermittent laughs by accident.  Reimagining a camp classic isn't a mistake; parodying the camp until it's sapped of all humor is.

[zakk]

ALI ima šarma!

[Mme Chauchat]

Treba da kažeš "Ali ima Džonija Depa, Džonija Li Milera (plavog!) i Mišel Fajfer!!11!" Naravno da je odličan.

[Gaff]

Johnny Depp Doesn't Dance

[zakk]

Elen postaje dečak?

Treba da kažeš "Ali ima Džonija Depa, Džonija Li Milera (plavog!) i Mišel Fajfer!!11!" Naravno da je odličan.

Otprilike... vrlo je šarmantno i udara u srce darkersko; ali je puno rupa, šteta.

[PTY]

This project will fund a speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, & horror) anthology devoted to feminist themes. Editing the book will be Hugo Award winner Ann VanderMeer and World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer. Together respected and successful team has edited such anthologies Steampunk Reloaded, The New Weird, Best American Fantasy, and, most recently, The Weird Compendium, a 750,000-word, 100-year overview of weird fiction including writers from over 20 countries.

Release of the book will be a co-publishing arrangement with PM Press, an independent press devoted to provocative and engaging books, CDs, and DVDs via any means available, including distribution to the book trade (bookstores, libraries, etc.).



The anthology will emphasize women's speculative fiction from the mid-1970s onward, looking to explore women's rights as well as gender/race/class/etc. from as many perspectives as possible. The contributors are not yet established so we hesitate to name names, but rights  to reprint stories from Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, Joanna Russ, and James Tiptree Jr. would be sought in addition to a wealth of newer voices in the field. Ann and Jeff consider the anthology "to be an opportunity to contribute to the existing conversation about feminist speculative fiction, a conversation that has taken many forms over the years and has a long and established history." Funding covers the editors' fee, contributor fees/advances, book design, printing, as much advertising and promotion as possible. To help the project get off the ground the editors have agreed to take a small honorarium as their fee, with no share of royalties.



Links:
GeekRadical

[PTY]

obratiti paznju na bolodovano! 



In the Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle novel Footfall, as it is clear that the aliens are coming, the U.S. Government whisks away a bunch of fantasy and SF writers to an undisclosed location to wargame and plot out strategies and ideas about what the aliens are like, what they want and how the Earth should deal with them.


I've always thought that was a brilliant conceit, and so my question for this week's panelists is this:Q: The Aliens are coming, and the Secretary-General of the UN, taking a page from Footfall, has decided to gather a group of F/SF writers and genre types together to form a brain trust to deal with the First Contact.  Who should the Secretary-General invite? What skills do they bring to the table?

David Louis EdelmanDavid Louis Edelman is the John W Campbell nominated author of Infoquake, MultiReal and Geosynchron.

Clearly we need to have China Miéville on the first contact team, because he has shown a knack for imagining strange and improbable monsters and aliens. If the aliens intend to graft us onto household machinery as fascistic punishment for expressing our innate political freedoms, China's got us covered.

We need Harrison Ford, because the aliens will recognize that he will shoot first. (You hear me, George Lucas? Even aliens from another galaxy know that HAN SHOT FIRST.)

We need Christopher Priest, since his recent rants have demonstrated that he will be immune to any rectal probes that the aliens will attempt to deploy on us.

We need Tom Cruise, because he already knows all about the Emperor Xenu and his plans for intergalactic conquest. You can't get anything past those Scientologists.

We need Joss Whedon, because aliens will need to be put at ease with snappy human dialogue.

We need Nick Sagan, because the aliens will have already heard his voice from the Voyager spacecraft.

We need Cory Doctorow, in case the aliens have come to impose their draconian copyright laws and restrictive DRM software on us.

We need Sigourney Weaver in one of those walking cargo loader things, because the aliens will clearly recognize that you do not fuck with Sigourney Weaver in a walking cargo loader thing.

We need Stan Lee. because he is Stan Lee.

We need Ursula le Guin, because in addition to being a brilliant SF/F novelist with an unparalleled imagination and empathy for the human condition, she is actually an android/wizard/vampire/ninja capable of firing laser beams from her eyeballs, shooting acid from her fingertips and decapitating aliens at thirty paces by throwing pencils, which are not actually pencils but special CIA-designed precision-guided exploding ninja stars.

And we need Newt Gingrich, because the aliens will instantly recognize him as one of their own. And hopefully they'll want him back.


Read the rest of this entry

[PTY]

VIDEO: *This* is Why Neil Gaiman is a Rock Star (#MustSee)

[Gaff]

VIDEO: *This* is Why Neil Gaiman is a Rock Star (#MustSee)

"And You don't even need all three... two out of three is fine!"

Dobar je!

[PTY]

Nego, kad vec svi ovde citamo Blackbirds, evo i vesti za Chuckove nove naslove:

http://angryrobotbooks.com/press/ARpr-New-Two-Book-Deal-Chuck-Wendig.pdf

[PTY]

Mira Grant's Feed and sequels optioned for film

Ahem. From today's announcement at Publishers Weekly:
"Film rights: Mira Grant's trilogy, Feed, Deadline, and Blackout, optioned to Rachel Olschan, producer at Electric Entertainment, by Pouya Shahbazian of FinePrint, on behlf of Diana Fox at Fox Literary."

WE OPTIONED THE FILM RIGHTS TO FEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, this doesn't mean this will necessarily be a movie (although I hope there will), but it takes us a huge, huge step closer to that becoming a reality. Everyone I've dealt with has been amazing, supportive, and enthusiastic, and now there's a beautiful chance that maybe, we can see Shaun and Georgia Mason on the big screen.

[PTY]

Night Shade puca od ponosa preko cirkularnog imejla  :

Three awesome Night Shade novels have been named finalists for the 2012
John W. Campbell Award! Soft Apocalypse, Seed and Dancing With Bears all made the shortlist, have you read them yet?

[Mme Chauchat]

A šta se inače zbiva sa njima? Oni su pre koju godinu već imali problema sa neredovnim plaćanjem pisaca, a vidim da je Ket Valente upravo raskinula ugovor sa njima zbog nepreciziranih ali očito finansijskih razloga... malo strepim.

[PTY]

Pravo da kazem, ne znam za takve frke sa piscima, mada nije novost da svi izdavaci malko grcaju. Ako ista, imaju zestoke naslove u katalogu, a i daju vrlo dobre opcije pretplate korisnicima, tako da su mi nekako u vrhu.

[PTY]

Ridley Scott has said the market has become so flooded with monster and action films, that the science fiction genre is becoming tired.

The director of Alien and Blade Runner said he had to work hard to make sure his new space epic Prometheus is something completely different.

Ridley said: "Over the past few decades, we've been 'action filmed-out' and 'monster filmed-out' and almost 'science fiction filmed-out'. So the baseline question is: how original are you going to be?"

The 74-year-old triple Oscar nominee sat down with screenwriter Jon Spaihts and Lost veteran Damon Lindelof to hammer out an original idea which used Alien as a springboard to examine one very simple, universal question: where did the human race come from?

Ridley revealed: "Out of the creative process in developing the picture emerged a new, grand mythology, in which this original story takes place.

"The keen fan will recognise strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak, but the ideas tackled in this film are unique, far-reaching and provocative.




"Prometheus is the singular genre tale I'd been searching for."

He explained: "The film's central metaphor is about the Greek Titan Prometheus, who defies the gods by giving humans the gift of fire, for which he is horribly punished.

"When you talk about the myth on which the title is based, you're dealing with humankind's relationship with the gods - the beings who created us - and what happens when we defy them."

:: Prometheus is released in cinemas on Friday, June 1.

[PTY]

The Horror Writers Association is proud to announce prolific anthologist John Joseph Adams as the Editor Guest of Honor for the World Horror Convention (WHC) 2013. In 2013 the HWA is hosting WHC as part of the Bram Stoker Awards™ Weekend in New Orleans from 13-16 June.

John Joseph Adams is the bestselling editor of the horror anthologies The Living Dead, The Living Dead 2, By Blood We Live, and Wastelands. He is also the editor of the new horror magazine Nightmare.

His other anthologies include Other Worlds Than These, Armored, Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom, Brave New Worlds, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and The Way of the Wizard. Forthcoming work includes The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination (Tor Books, Jan. 2013), Dead Man's Hand (Titan Books, 2013), and Robot Uprisings (co-edited with Daniel H. Wilson, 2013).

John is a four-time finalist for the Hugo Award and a three-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award. He has been called "the reigning king of the anthology world" by Barnes & Noble, and his books have been lauded as some of the best anthologies of all time. John is also the editor and publisher of Lightspeed Magazine, and is the co-host of Wired.com's The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast.

For more information, visit his website at johnjosephadams.com, and you can find him on Twitter @johnjosephadams.



HWA President Rocky Wood said, "John Joseph Adams is the type of anthology editor readers love – they know each of his books will be filled with well written, interesting tales to captivate them during their precious reading hours. We are very pleased that John has accepted our invitation to be World Horror Convention Guest of Honor, where he is likely to find 300 horror writers, all eager to impress him with their wares!"

Adams joins previously announced Guest of Honor Ramsey Campbell and Toastmaster Jeff Strand on the Guest list. Further Guests will be announced shortly.

[PTY]

Knjiga je trenutno besplatna na amazonu:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0085HK48I/sfsi0c-20?tag=sfsi0c-20

[PTY]

A spirited game of musical release dates took place in Hollywood on Thursday, as Steven Spielberg's "Robopocalypse" was bounced back a year into 2014, clearing its July 3, 2013, slot  --  which Disney quickly claimed for "The Lone Ranger." Twentieth Century Fox also announced that it will release a 3D version of Roland Emmerich's 1996 pic "Independence Day" on that day.

Fox also set Memorial Day (May 23) 2014 for "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," Rupert Wyatt's follow-up to the 2011 hit "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." Studio also announced that it will unspool the next installment in its "X-Men" franchise on July 18, 2014.

Other Fox release dates for next year include the Christmas rollout of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "Walking With Dinosaurs," the latter of which shifts from Oct. 11 to Dec. 20. Chernin Entertainment's untitled Paul Feig comedy will unspool April 5 while "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" hits theaters Aug. 16, 2013 (pushed from March 15). Studio will release toon "Epic" (formerly titled "Leafmen") on May 24. Disney's "Lone Ranger" announcement came shortly after news that Alan Horn had been tapped to head its film studio. Gore Verbinski's live-action adventure will open against Universal's "Despicable Me" sequel. The Mouse House also moved Marvel's "Thor 2" up a week to Nov. 8, 2013  --  a date already occupied by Sony's "One Direction" concert film. Lionsgate has slotted "Ender's Game" for Nov. 1, 2013.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118054867.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews

[PTY]

Grand Opening Celebration!
To celebrate the launch of our new online bookstore, we're giving away books, and offering a limited-time discount on BVC anthologies. The Grand Opening Giveaway runs from June 1 – June 7; you can enter here and on member sites for multiple chances to win—details below the fold.

   
• Browse the bookstore and find the book you'd like to win. Eligible works are marked with a gold star.
• Leave a comment here telling us which book you would like and why (both are needed to qualify). Multiple comments will be disqualified. A valid email is required—it will not be displayed.
• By entering, you agree that your comment may be used for promotional purposes.
• You can also visit the member sites listed below and enter in a similar fashion, as specified on that site.
• At the end of the promotion, one winner will be selected at each site (here and on each author site). Winners will get a free coupon for the book of their choice.

http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/grand-opening-celebration/

[PTY]

Clive Barker Writing Zombies Vs Gladiators Movie!!!





Unlikely as it may seem, horror legend Clive Barker has been hired by the fledgling Amazon Films (yep, they're making films now) to rewrite – and possibly direct – Zombies Vs Gladiators, reports Shock Til You Drop.

Based in ancient Rome, the story kicks off with a shaman – who's about to die in the Coliseum – casting a spell that unleashes the world's first zombie plague. (Were there shaman in ancient Rome? Feel fee to correct us on this point, but wouldn't a druid mystic be more likely?)

"Zombies Vs Gladiators is now in the hands of someone who has written genre-defining material throughout his career," says Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios. "We are excited to see how Clive will add his unique narrative to capture the essence of this story and propel the project into something unique and original that could one day be enjoyed by all audiences."

Barker adds, "I'm excited by the opportunity to interweave two very rich narrative threads. One of them concerns itself with the reality of the decadence of Rome and its rise and fall. The other is a fantastical narrative element – the living dead. My brief to myself on this project is to give the audience not only zombies they have never seen before but also a Rome they have never seen before."

He continues, "Amazon Studios offered up the dream ticket with this project. In 25 years of working in this town, I've rarely had people listen to what I had to say as closely and as carefully as they did and then simply give me the freedom to go do it. Amazon Studios is an innovative creative concept. I am looking forward to providing my own perspective to make Zombies Vs Gladiators a highly commercial and entertaining movie."

[PTY]

The Hobbit to premiere in New Zealand in November!!

The world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will take place in New Zealand on 28 November.

The screening at Wellington's Embassy Theatre will take place two weeks ahead of the film's release on 14 December.

Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson said it was fitting to hold the premiere "where the journey began."

Based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit is set 60 years before the Lord Of The Rings trilogy of films.

In An Unexpected Journey, Bilbo Baggins attempts to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from Smaug, the dragon.

The film's cast includes Sherlock's Martin Freeman, who takes on the lead role of Baggins.

Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett and Sir Ian McKellen, who all starred in Jackson's Oscar-winning trilogy, also appear in the movie.

British actor Andy Serkis has reprised his motion-capture animated role of Gollum.

The film is split into two parts, with the second instalment - The Hobbit: There And Back Again - due for release in December 2013.

The 3D movies were shot at a rate of 48 frames per second, compared with the industry standard of 24 frames.

Following a preview of unfinished footage at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas in April, some critics claimed it "looked like a made-for-TV movie".

Jackson admitted: "It does take you a while to get used to," adding, "Ten minutes is sort of marginal, it probably needed a little bit more."

He wrote the screenplay with partner Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Mexican director Guillermo del Toro.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18339087

[PTY]

Stephen King's IT To Be Made Into Two Films



One of Stephen King's most acclaimed and best loved novels, 1986's IT, is set to be made into not one, but two movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Warner Bros has hired director Cary Fukunaga (last year's Jane Eyre) to direct and co-adapt the mammoth, decades-spanning story of a serial killer clown who lives in the sewers of a small town called Derry in... well, you can probably guess where. Chase Palmer will co-write the script.

The book was previously made into a mini-series in 1990.

Considering the narrative structure of the novel it's interesting to speculate on how the story may be divided up between the two films. [Spoilers ahead]

It deals with a group of kids – the Losers' Club – who defeat the killer clown in the '50s, but make a promise that if he ever returns, they will regroup and face him again... no matter where their lives have taken them.

So, one film set in the '50s, the other in the '80s? Because you couldn't have what was the present day stuff in the book set in present of now... the characters would all be pensioners (which isn't impossible but very unlikely considering Hollywood"s general attitude towards old-timers). And that way, both films would have naturally occurring decent climaxes (a face-off with Pennywise the clown... although he takes a rather bizarre alternate form by the end of the novel).

Or could the time period be shifted with the "childhood" sections set in the '80s so the present day stuff could be contemporary? Possibly, but it would be a shame to lose King's wonderful evocation of the '50s.

Or maybe Warners and Fukunaga have another plan entirely. Hollywood works in mysterious ways...

[PTY]

Ovaj Kirkus Indie potez sokirao je mnoge, Elen Datlov pogotovo:

BOOK REVIEWS FROM KIRKUS INDIE:
Since 1933, Kirkus has been one of the most trusted and authoritative voices in book discovery. Our Indie program curates the self-published segment of the industry to help consumers and industry influencers (such as publishers, agents, film producers, librarians and booksellers) discover books they may otherwise never find.
HOW THE KIRKUS INDIE PROGRAM WORKS

   
• Simply request a review by clicking the link above. You'll give us as much information possible about your book, choose whether you want standard service (7-9 weeks) or express service (4-6 weeks) and pay for your review (standard service $425, express service $575). When you submit your order, you'll get a response from the Kirkus Indie team confirming receipt of your request.
• You'll send two copies of your published book or completed manuscript to the Kirkus Indie office in New York. If you are publishing exclusively in eBook format, you will have the option of emailing a PDF of your manuscript to the editor after completing your order. (You'll find both the physical mailing address and the editor's email address on the order form.)
• Upon receipt of your book or manuscript, our editor will assign your project to a qualified reviewer who will read the complete book and write a full review (approximately 250-350 words). Our reviewers include librarians, business executives, journalists from national publications, PhDs in religion and literature, creative executives in entertainment and publishing industries as well as other professional reviewers.
• Kirkus Indie will send you the review via email, at which point you can use it however you choose—on the back cover of your book, in marketing collateral, on your website or in a letter to an agent or publisher. You may also choose to publish your review on KirkusReviews.com where it can be discovered by industry influencers, agents, publishers and consumers. If it is a negative review, you can request that it never see the light of day.
• If you choose to publish your review on our website (at no extra charge), we will also distribute it to our licensees, including Google, BN.com, Ingram, Baker & Taylor and more. On top of that, our editors will consider it for publication in Kirkus Reviews magazine, which is read by librarians, booksellers, publishers, agents, journalists and entertainment executives. Your review may also be selected to be featured in our email newsletter, which is distributed to more than 50,000 industry professionals and consumers.

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/indie/about/

[PTY]

Doktorov najzad doktorirao! 



http://craphound.com/?p=4043

[PTY]

Announcing The Fierce Reads Anthology: A Tor.com Original (FREE!)



In support of the awesome collective of YA authors in Fierce Reads, Tor.com has just released a new, free ebook anthology. Authors from the Fierce Reads tour have published original fiction here on Tor.com, and now you can get all five stories in this ebook anthology. Of course, you can always read the stories for free right here, whenever you'd like, but for those on the go, The Fierce Reads Anthology is available in the U.S. starting today for Kindle and Nook, iBooks and other e-book retailers.

[PTY]

REVIEW SUMMARY: A touching romantic comedy supported by a great cast, Derek Connolly's smart script, and Colin Trevorrow's understated direction.
MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Three Seattle magazine reporters cover a story on the man who placed a classified ad calling for time travelers.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Winning performances by all involved, but especially Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass; intelligent, taut, and unpredictable script.
CONS: Directorial missteps at the movie's opening; liminal treatment of genre content might turn off some viewers.



At first glance, Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass) looks like the stereotype of the loner losers populating most American indie fare: tall, somewhat hunched, attractive in a vague way despite a prosthetic ear that keeps slipping from the side of his head.  When Kevin talks about multiverses and quantum physics with his grocery store coworker Shannon (William Hall, Jr.), he even sounds like somebody who wound up on the cutting room floor of a pretentious Little Miss Sunshine–inspired strip of celluloid crossed with a forgettable X-Files–obsessed geek making a brief appearance on The Big Bang Theory.  He's the kind of character on whom dispassionate hipsters love to bestow affectionate contempt.


But something is wrong with this picture: Kenneth possesses a complete earnestness and utter lack of irony and self-consciousness that makes his eccentricities more endearing than insufferable.  Yes, body language and guarded demeanor suggest old wounds that never fully healed, and his paranoia has the potential of being very scary (as when Kenneth pulls a shotgun from the trunk of his car when he believes someone is following him), but his absence of genuine anger and innate honesty betray something those hipsters simply won't tolerate: he's harmless and, as hipster wannabe Darius (Aubrey Plaza) learns, actually quite sweet.


Darius, too, easily could come from an indie picture.  An intern with Seattle magazine, young, fresh from college, she blows an interview at Starbucks by giving an elaborate answer to a simple question (in a funny scene that feels out of place), and wraps cynicism around her like a cold, comfortable blanket.  She comes to Ocean View, Washington, with reporter Jeff (Jake M. Johnson) and fellow intern Arnau (Karan Soni) to run a story on Kenneth after reading the classified ad Kenneth placed in an alternative newspaper: "WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me.  This is not a joke.  You'll get paid after we get back.  Must bring your own weapons.  I have only done this once before.  SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED."  Posing as somebody responding to the ad, she initially confronts him with a caricature of what she believes he must actually be like, and eventually softens as he leads her through "training."  She cannot believe he's for real, but falls for him precisely because he is devoid of pretense.


So, in turn, is the rest of Safety Not Guaranteed.  Its premise offers screenwriter Derek Connolly (whose screenplay won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival) and director Colin Trevorrow myriad alternatives stories—from archly knowing and self-conscious art flick to slob comedy—yet the movie unfolds in refreshingly unexpected ways, helped by Treverrow's understated direction.  Jeff uses the assignment as a pretext to hook up with a high school girlfriend he has never been able to forget; when he sees Liz (Jenica Bergere) again he backs away from introducing himself, though perhaps not for the stated reason.  When he finally does arrive at Liz's home for a visit, it becomes fairly obvious that his motives may not be that simple.  At one point, Kenneth asks Darius why she wants to travel back in time.  Her reason, when given, reveals an inner pain that steers clear of melodrama.  Throughout the movie, Kenneth insists people are following him.  Jeff and Arnau treat the news relayed by Darius with bemusement...until they discover that Jeff is being followed.  The government agents keeping tabs on Kenneth, coincidentally, seem bemused by their assignment.


Is Kenneth delusional?  He would seem to be.  He watches a faceless office building that might house parts he needs for his time machine; when he enlists Darius's help in stealing lasers, his gimcrack scheme appears rife with amateurishness. "Their security is full of holes," he tells her.  His heist (one of the movie's funniest moments) suggests that the building isn't the hotbed of scientific research he thinks...or that, perhaps, he's right about their security.  Other revelations point to evidence of his break with reality, but also hint at other possibilities.  Genre fans who prefer more overt explanations won't like the seemingly liminal use of time travel tropes.  Even the movie's ending, as logically and emotionally satisfying as it is, eludes the typical genre elements.


Yet focusing on Kenneth's sanity and the realities of time travel in the narrative misses the point, in much the same way that focusing on whether or not the title character of Karen Joy Fowler's Sarah Canary is in fact an extraterrestrial is irrelevant.  Time travel, real or not, pervades every scene, in dialogue, in motivation, in action.  Toward the beginning of the movie, Darius asks Arnau where he would go if he could go back in time.  Arnau replies he wouldn't; he's happy, he says, where he is.  When Jeff helps Arnau pick up a young woman, Arnau expresses his insecurity about the situation and makes a case for inaction.  Jeff argues that, even if Arnau has regrets later, he will have done something.  Without action, he seems to imply, time freezes into a perpetual now.  Life, like time travel, has no guarantee of safety; with risk comes the possibility of pain, and, sometimes, joy.  Safety Not Guaranteed also tells us, as it concludes, that it helps to have a traveling companion.

[PTY]

http://www.scificool.com/george-orwells-1984-gets-a-remake/

[PTY]

Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) firmly positioned himself as the finest Soviet director of the post-War period. But his influence extended well beyond the Soviet Union.  The Cahiers du cinéma consistently ranked his films on their top ten annual lists. Ingmar Bergman went so far as to say, "Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." And Akira Kurosawa acknowledged his influence too, adding, "I love all of Tarkovsky's films. I love his personality and all his works. Every cut from his films is a marvelous image in itself."Shot between 1962 and 1986, Tarkovsky's seven feature films often grapple with metaphysical and spiritual themes, using a distinctive cinematic style. Long takes, slow pacing and metaphorical imagery – they all figure into the archetypical Tarkovsky film. (Watch the scene from Stalker above.)

You can now watch Tarkovsky's films online – for free. Each film is listed in our collection of Free Online Movies, but here you can access each major film in the order in which they were made.

NOTE: if you access the films via YouTube, be sure to click "CC" at the bottom of the videos to access the subtitles.


http://www.openculture.com/2010/07/tarkovksy.html

[PTY]

J.J. Adams podigao sajt za antologiju OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE:

http://www.johnjosephadams.com/other-worlds-than-these/

[PTY]

Blade Runner: Which predictions have come true?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18026277

(najbolji deo mi je "robot morality"  )

[PTY]

MakeUseOf has a post discussing how to use UK-based crowdfunding site Unbound, which represents itself as a Kickstarter exclusively for books. The site acts as both a fundraider and a publishing house all in one, allowing you to get people to fund your project and then to publish it in one convenient location.

We've mentioned Unbound a few times before, such as here, and we've talked about Kickstarter a lot lately. It's good that there are more funding options for people who want to get their books or e-books published. What this article doesn't make clear is why people would want to use this rather than the more widely-known Kickstarter, which has already been used to fund the publication of quite a few books itself. At a guess it's because Unbound handles everything in-house instead of the crowdfundee having to go find a different publisher to produce the actual book, and perhaps UK-based projects would reap benefits from being local. But for people who're more concerned about raising money and already know how they're going to publish it afterward it seems that using the more-widely-known Kickstarter would lead to more publicity.

http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/unbound-is-crowdfunding-site-exclusively-for-books/

[PTY]

 
The Godless World trilogy got optioned for film/TV development a little while ago.  That's nice, don't you think?

Not nice because I assume it means we'll ever actually see Orisian, Aeglyss and co. marching across our screens – going from selling an option to any moving pictures actually getting made is a gigantic, probability-defying leap – but nice in that someone liked the books enough, and saw enough filmic potential in them, to put a little bit (and it really is a little bit, at this stage) of their money into buying the right to talk to other folks about it.  That's all an option really means: the author rents out, for a limited time, the right to explore possibilities for film/TV adaptation.

So I won't be drinking champagne from gold-plated glasses or anything, but it's a pleasant vote of confidence in the books.  And I can amuse myself by wondering what Daniel Craig's filming schedule looks like a few years hence.  As also mentioned in the last post, he's the man to play Adam Quire in any adaptation of The Edinburgh Dead, but I'm sure he could do a fine job of Taim Narran in Winterbirth, too.

http://www.brianruckley.com/2012/06/26/news-in-which-we-talk-film-options/

[PTY]

DeNardo je na Kikrus stavio Guide to Finding the Best SF and Fantasy Collections, sve sa detaljima, kaze "antologije su najbolji nacin upoznavanja novih autora i sticanja novih dozivljaja", a sa time se svako naprosto mora sloziti. 

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/blog/science-fiction-and-fantasy/sf-signals-guide-finding-best-sf-and-fantasy-colle/

[PTY]

 
NOTW editor 'spiked paedophilia scoop on Arthur C Clarke for fear of Murdoch'       

Ex-reporter claims story never ran because the sci-fi author was the proprietor's friend


The News of the World spiked an exclusive story exposing the science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke as a paedophile, according to a new book about life inside the newspaper whose closure was announced a year ago today.

  In Hack, an account of his nerve-shredding days as a reporter on the News of the World and then the Sunday Mirror, Graham Johnson claims that although the NOTW prided itself on outing pederasts, editors made an exception for Mr Clarke because he was a friend of Rupert Murdoch.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/notw-editor-spiked-paedophilia-scoop-on-arthur-c-clarke-for-fear-of-murdoch-7920816.html

[PTY]

What happens when dinosaurs have to defend the Earth against alien invasion? That's the premise of the Dinosaurs vs. Aliens Motion Comic, a joint project between director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black) and comic book writing legend Grant Morrison. Here's the trailer for their new project, which will be available July 10th...

[PTY]

Evo sta juce Niall Harrison:

So far, 2012 has been a busy year behind the scenes here at Strange Horizons. We've been advertising for new staff in a number of departments, and the response has been tremendous: so much so, actually, that it's taking us a while to sort through the applications we've received. To those who've applied but haven't heard back yet, thank you for your patience.

But bringing in new staff, and therefore new perspectives, also makes it an energizing time to be working on the magazine. Over the last couple of months, it's been a pleasure to announce that Brit Mandelo and Julia Rios have joined the fiction department: and today we can confirm the final shape of the new fiction editing team.

That means there are multiple announcements today. First, we are welcoming a third new fiction editor, with An Owomoyela joining Brit and Julia. You may well have already read some of An's own stories, which have appeared in Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine and Lightspeed, among others (not to mention a couple of Year's Best anthologies), which means you may well already know how widely ser interests range across the continuum of speculative fiction, and beyond. It's safe to say we're all thrilled to have An on board, and have no doubts that se will be a great member of the editorial team.

Second and third are two linked changes. After twelve years as a fiction editor, Jed Hartman is standing down; and in his stead, Brit Mandelo is taking on the role of senior fiction editor.

As Jed relates in his blog post today, his decision has been a long time coming, and it marks the end of an era. During the time that Jed, Karen Meisner and Susan Marie Groppi were running the fiction department, Strange Horizons had stories nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, Locus, Aurealis, BSFA, and World Fantasy awards, and honor-listed for the Tiptree Award; and had over forty stories selected for reprinting in Year's Best anthologies. Jed, Karen and Susan presented us with astonishing new writers, and exceptional stories from established talents, and I'm sure I speak for everyone reading this when I say I'm profoundly grateful for all they've contributed to the magazine over the years.

And yet I can't feel anything other than excited about completing the transition to a new fiction-editing team. Strange Horizons is among other things about finding the new, finding speculative fiction that embraces the challenges of writing in the twenty-first century; and it's good that we get new guides from time to time. Which means that so far as I'm concerned, the best thing I can tell you about Brit, Julia and An is that I trust their sense of direction.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2012/20120709/renewal-e.shtml

[Melkor]

Uf, ovo moze na vise topika

Terry Goodkind publicly names and shames ebook pirate by Adam WhiteheadTerry Goodkind has, for reasons unknown but open to speculation, chosen to self-publish his latest Sword of Truth-related novel, The First Confessor: The Legend of Magda Searus (not the sequel to The Omen Machine, which will apparently follow next year from Tor, but a new prequel to the series).

This new book was released as an ebook exclusive several days ago. As an ebook-exclusive, it is little surprise that the book was heavily pirated on release, even after Goodkind posted a message to his website explaining how the economics of ebook publishing worked and politely requested that people refrain from doing so. So, on his Facebook page, Goodkind named and shamed one of the alleged pirates, posting their personal information and several websites where he was active. The alleged pirate apparently withdrew several of his pages and 'attempted' to offer an apology, according to a Goodkind fan monitoring the situation (posting on Westeros.org in this thread). Apparently, this was after several private overtures to the individual were ignored.

An surprising situation. Sharing someone's personal information on the Internet without their permission, even in this situation, is highly dubious (although Goodkind allegedly took legal advice before proceeding with this move). The individual appears to have admitted culpability, which helps, but it is still a bold step to take. At the same time, 'naming and shaming' can be an effective tactic in discouraging piracy. It could also backfire and result in even more piracy and negative publicity for the author. Seeing how this unfolds over the next few weeks should be very interesting.

[PTY]

   odoh da na brzaka izbrisem isti taj post na drugom topiku, a ovde ostavljam ovo:



















Crack the crypto in Agrippa, win every William Gibson book ever publishedBy Cory Doctorow at 9:23 pm Tuesday, Jul 10
Quinn DuPont writes in with "A cracking challenge to cryptanalyse a William Gibson poem ('Agrippa', written in 1992). The winner will receive a copy of every William Gibson book published. Project is academic (non-commercial)."
Gibson's poem is a beautiful work, and it came on a floppy disk that erased itself after displaying the poem's text a single time. Of course, it was cracked almost immediately (..f. all DRM, ever) but that wasn't really the point. The challenge site includes a System 7 emulator, an image of the floppy, some of the sourcecode for the app (which was apparently written in Lisp?!), and more.

Based on the pioneering work of Alan Liu and his team at The Agrippa Files, working in collaboration with Matthew Kirschenbaum at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities and the Digital Forensics Lab, a a bit-for-bit copy of this

application

has been recovered, along with numerous archival documents.

The first person to successfully crack the code will win a copy of every William Gibson book ever published (except Agrippa). Every runner-up will have their name (if provided) posted on this website. To win you must submit a technical description of

your

cryptanalysis below, under Creative Commons usage rights (the results of which will be used to further research on Agrippa). The technical description should explain what kind of encryption is used (if any), how it functions, and how it was reversed or cracked (and what the key is, if there is one). Should there be no encryption at all (a possibility), or should the application merely "scramble" or "destroy" the data, this must be technically demonstrated or proved. Since the plain text is known, the cryptanalysis is purely for fun and academic curiosity, and thus the description should provide technical details.

http://boingboing.net/2012/07/10/crack-the-crypto-in-agripp.html

[PTY]

Neil Gaiman is returning to "The Sandman," a decade after closing the book on the graphic novel and influencing how the comicbook community tells stories.

The author will pen a comicbook miniseries based on the title; DC Entertainment's Vertigo will publish the books next year to celebrate "The Sandman's" 25th anniversary.  J.H. Williams III (DC's "Batwoman") will illustrate the books, which will be available day-and-date in print and on digital platforms.

"There's nothing like a Neil Gaiman story," said Karen Berger, executive editor of Vertigo. "And there's nothing like having Neil back home on 'The Sandman,' his dark, soulful, literary epic that transformed comics and continues to captivate countless new readers year after year."

Announcement was made during Vertigo's Comic-Con panel late Thursday, with Gaiman appearing in a video. Project does not yet have a title. "The Sandman" follows the adventures of the character Dream, who rules over the world of dreams and how he deals with his dysfunctional family Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny. Praised by critics, the books were among the few graphic novels to wind up on the New York Times bestseller list. They've sold 7 million copies worldwide.

"When I finished writing 'The Sandman,' there was one tale still untold: the story of what had happened to Morpheus to allow him to be so easily captured in 'The Sandman #1,' and why he was returned from far away, exhausted beyond imagining and dressed for war," Gaiman said. "It was a story that we discussed telling for 'Sandman's' 20th anniversary ... but the time got away from us. And now, with 'Sandman's" 25th anniversary year coming up, I'm delighted, and nervous, that that story is finally going to be told."

Gaiman has also written "Coraline," which Laika adapted as a stop-motion pic; "Stardust," adapted by Paramount; "Neverwhere"; "American Gods"; and "The Graveyard Book." He's also penned kidlit books "The Wolves in the Walls" and "The Day I Traded My Dad for Two Goldfish."

"As accomplished as Neil Gaiman is in other media -- whether it be novels, film and even music  --  he still has an incredible passion and love for comics," said DC Entertainment co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio. "It's exciting to have him back. J.H. Williams will be the perfect complement to Neil's writing. He has a history of creating art that pushes the boundaries of the medium."


http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118056513.html?cmpid=RSS%7CNews%7CLatestNews

[PTY]

I... eto nam ekranizacije filma Horns, iz pera Kingovog sina.


http://litreactor.com/news/daniel-radcliffe-to-star-in-film-adaptation-of-joe-hills-horns


It was announced today that Daniel Radcliffe—best known for playing Harry Potter and romping around naked with a horse in Equus—will be taking the lead in the film based on Joe Hill's 2010 international bestsellerHorns. Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha 3D, Mirrors) is directing.
Radcliffe plays Ignatius, a man accused of killing his girlfriend. On the first anniversary of her death, Ig gets completely wasted...as you do when all your friends think you're a murder and rapist. When he wakes up, he has developed horns and the power to make people confess to things they'd rather not say. And by that, I mean serious sin type stuff, not "I can't stop staring at your unibrow" type stuff. In short, his morning-after makes any pain you've ever had after a big night look like Baby's First Hangover by Playskool.
Horns was Joe Hill's second novel. The author, who comes from the solid writerly stock of Stephen and Tabitha King, discusses his book in this video:


Joe Hill Talks Horns

[PTY]

Neil Clarke, editor of Clarkesworld has announced that he suffered an heart attack at Readercon and is currently in the hospital waiting to hear his prognosis.

[zakk]

w00t za Rogove, ijao  za Klarka

[PTY]

Producer Richard D. Zanuck (b.1934) died on July 13. Zanuck produced the films Sssssss, Jaws, Cocoon, Deep Impact, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Reign of Fire, Alice in Wonderland, and Dark Shadows. His non-genre work included The Sting and The Sound of Music. He won an Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. His father was producer Darryl F. Zanuck.

[PTY]

Kazuje DeNardo  : When John Scalzi stopped in Houston for his book tour, I made a point see him. In case you haven't been to see Scalzi on tour, you should; he gives a good performance and makes it more than worth your time.

Witness, for example, this video from Comic Con where John and Pat Rothfuss (and a special guest) gave a reading of a short story aligning with Scalzi's Redshirts book (which you should totally read, by the way). When I saw it, the wonderful Karen Burnham did the Rothfuss part.

My advice: Make time to watch this as soon as you can. Life is a little bit better after you do.

[Gaff]

Skit ne bi bio isti bez Wheatona!

FIAWOL!

[PTY]

Scalzi u gik elementu :

Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be!


The other day CNN let some dude named Joe Peacock vomit up an embarrassing piece on its Web site, about how how awful it is that geekdom is in the process of being overrun by attractive women dressing up in costumes ("cosplaying," for the uninitiated) when they haven't displayed their geek cred to Mr. Peacock's personal satisfaction. They weren't real geeks, Mr. Peacock maintains — he makes a great show of supporting real geek women, the definition of which, presumably, are those who have passed his stringent entrance requirements, which I am sure he's posted some place other than the inside of his skull — and because they're not real geeks, they offend people like him, who are real geeks:

They're poachers. They're a pox on our culture. As a guy, I find it repugnant that, due to my interests in comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and role playing games, video games and toys, I am supposed to feel honored that a pretty girl is in my presence. It's insulting... You're just gross.

For the moment, let's leave aside the problem of a mentality that assumes that the primary reason some woman might find it fun and worthwhile to cosplay as one of her favorite science fiction and fantasy characters is to get the attention of some dudes, to focus on another interesting aspect of this piece: Namely, that Joe Peacock has arrogated to himself the role of Speaker for the Geeks, with the ability to determine whether any particular group of people is worthy of True Geekdom. This on the basis, one presumes, of his resume and his longtime affiliation as a geek.

Well, fine. Hey, Joe: Hi, I'm John Scalzi. I am also a longtime geek. My resume includes three New York Times bestselling science fiction books, three books nominated for the Best Novel Hugo, six other Hugo nominations (as well as Nebula, Locus, Sideways and other award nominations), one novel optioned for a science fiction film, a stint consulting for the Stargate: Universe television show, a long history in video games as a player (Atari, yo) and as a writer, including writing for the Official US Playstation Magazine for six years and currently writing a game for Industrial Toys. I wrote a column on science fiction film for four years and have two books on the subject. I've been writing this blog for fourteen years and was one of the early adopters of self-publishing one's books online; additionally three books of mine (including one Hugo winner) have been of work originally published online. I was a special guest at this year's ComicCon. I am the toastmaster of this year's Worldcon. I am the sitting president of this. Here's a picture of my peer group. Here's another.

I outrank you as Speaker for the Geeks.

You are overruled.

Your entire piece is thrown out as condescending, entitled, oblivious, sexist and obnoxious.

And no, you can't object (well, you can, but you'll be summarily overruled). You made the decision based on your life experience as a geek that you could tell other people who is welcome as a geek and who is not. Based on my life experience as a geek, I have made the decision that I am qualified to tell you to suck eggs. You want to slap down people who you don't feel qualify for geekdom? Then I get to slap you down for being wrong, on the basis of being higher up in the geek hierarchy. You don't like it? Then you shouldn't have played this game to begin with. You  played your cards, and I now I've played mine. This round goes to me. I have the conch. And now I will speak.

Who gets to be a geek?

Anyone who wants to be, any way they want to be one.

Geekdom is a nation with open borders. There are many affiliations and many doors into it. There are lit geeks, media geeks, comics geeks, anime and manga geeks. There are LARPers, cosplayers, furries, filkers, crafters, gamers and tabletoppers. There are goths and horror geeks and steampunkers and academics. There are nerd rockers and writers and artists and actors and fans. Some people love only one thing. Some people flit between fandoms. Some people are positively poly in their geek enthusiasms. Some people have been in geekdom since before they knew they were geeks. Some people are n00bs, trying out an aspect of geekdom to see if it fits. If it does, great. If it doesn't then at least they tried it.

Many people believe geekdom is defined by a love of a thing, but I think — and my experience of geekdom bears on this thinking — that the true sign of a geek is a delight in sharing a thing. It's the major difference between a geek and a hipster, you know: When a hipster sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say "Oh, crap, now the wrong people like the thing I love." When a geek sees someone else grooving on the thing they love, their reaction is to say "ZOMG YOU LOVE WHAT I LOVE COME WITH ME AND LET US LOVE IT TOGETHER."

Any jerk can love a thing. It's the sharing that makes geekdom awesome.

Let's take these women cosplayers, who Mr. Peacock is so hand-flappingly disgusted with and dismissive of. Let's leave aside, for now, the idea that for those of this group attending ComicCon, spending literally hundreds and perhaps even thousands of dollars on ComicCon passes, hotels, transportation, food, not to mention the money and time required to put together an excellent costume, is not in itself a signal indication of geek commitment. Let's say that, in fact, the only reason the women cosplayers are there is to get their cosplay on, in front of what is likely to be an appreciative audience.

So what?

As in, so what if their only geekdom is cosplay? What if it is? Who does it harm? Who is materially injured by the fact? Who, upon seeing a woman cosplaying without an accompanying curriculum vitae posted above her head on a stick, laying out her geek bona fides, says to him or herself "Everything I loved about my geekdom has turned to ashes in my mouth," and then flees to from the San Diego Convention Center, weeping? If there is such an unfortunate soul, should the fragile pathology of their own geekdom be the concern of the cosplaying woman? It seems highly doubtful that woman spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars to show up in San Diego just to ruin some random, overly-sensitive geek's day. It's rather more likely she came to enjoy herself in a place where her expression of her own geekiness would be appreciated.

So what if her geekiness is not your own? So what if she isn't into the geek life as deeply as you believe you are, or that you think she should be? So what if she doesn't have a geek love of the things you have a geek love for? Is the appropriate response to those facts to call her gross, and a poacher, and maintain that she's only in it to be slavered over by dudes who (in your unwarranted condescension) you judge to be not nearly as enlightened to the ways of geek women as you? Or would a more appropriate response be to say "great costume," and maybe welcome her into the parts of geekdom that you love, so that she might possibly grow to love them too? What do you gain from complaining about her fakey fake fakeness, except a momentary and entirely erroneous feeling of geek superiority, coupled with a permanent record of your sexism against women who you don't see being the right kind of geek?

These are your choices. Although actually there's a third choice: Just let her be to do her thing. Because here's a funny fact: Her geekdom is not about you. At all. It's about her.

Geekdom is personal. Geekdom varies from person to person. There are as many ways to be a geek as there are people who love a thing and love sharing that thing with others. You don't get to define their geekdom. They don't get to define yours. What you can do is share your expression of geekdom with others. Maybe they will get you, and maybe they won't. If they do, great. If they don't, that's their problem and not yours.

Be your own geek. Love what you love. Share it with anyone who will listen.

One other thing: There is no Speaker for the Geeks. Not Joe Peacock, not me, not anyone. If anyone tells you that there's a right way to be a geek, or that someone else is not a geek, or shouldn't be seen as a geek — or that you are not a geek — you can tell them to fuck right off. They don't get a vote on your geekdom. Go cosplay, or play filk, or read that Doctor Who novel or whatever it is you want to do. Geekdom is flat. There is no hierarchy. There is no leveling up required, or secret handshake, or entrance examination. There's just you.

Anyone can be a geek. Any way they want to. That means you too. Whoever you are.

Anyone who tells you different, you send them to me.

[PTY]

Statement from the Readercon Board of Directors
July 27, 2012

We want to thank everyone who came forward - both in person and via email - to report a harassment incident at Readercon 23. We followed up those reports with interviews with the target of the harassment, various witnesses, and Rene Walling, the harasser. The information we collected and reviewed was consistent, consequently, we feel the facts of the incident are not in dispute.

When we wrote our zero-tolerance policy in 2008 (in response to a previous incident), we were operating under the assumption that violators were either intent on their specific behaviors, clueless, or both.

During the course of our conversation with Rene it became immediately apparent that he realized what he had done and was sincerely regretful of his actions. It was that recognition and regret that influenced our decision, not his status in the community. If, as a community, we wish to educate others about harassment, we must also allow for the possibility of reform.

Our decision was suspension of his membership for at least two years. In the three years between Readercons 23 and 26 we will actively look for evidence of real and permanent positive change in his behavior. It was made very clear to him that if we receive any substantiated reports of continued inappropriate behavior at any venue - during or after the suspension period - his suspension will become permanent.

Should any other incidents occur, we encourage witnesses to report them to us at info@readercon.org.

We want to reaffirm our continued support for all members of the community who are the targets of harassment, and our continued determination to make Readercon a safer space.



Bob Colby, Merryl Gross, B. Diane Martin, David G. Shaw, Eric M. Van

Readercon Board of Directors




(bogami se zakuvalo... )

[zakk]

i nastavlja da ključa, kolko videh

[Gaff]

Ključa, ključa... a ovako je počelo:

http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/340623.html

http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/341417.html