Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Now we get to the crux of the matter. So… what is behind Puppygate? What is it the Sad Puppies want? They have been doing this for three years now, three separate campaigns, with a fourth threatened… and presumably a fifth, a sixth, and a seventh if this goes on. That’s a lot of effort,…
Let me begin with the basics: Who owns the Hugo Awards? You know, looking back, I am probably partly to blame for some of the misconceptions that seem to exist on this point. For years now I have been urging people to nominate for the Hugo Awards, and saying things like “this is your award”…
Last August, the Hugo Awards for science fiction and fantasy were swept by a younger group of women and people of color. At the time, we said “This was really a year that underscored that a younger generation of diverse writers are becoming central to the genre.” So maybe it’s not surprising that there was…
George R R Martin said the Hugo awards have been dealt a mortal blow by right-wing writers after they promoted a list of their selections so successfully that they dominated the shortlist. The campaign was started by a group calling itself Sad Puppies as they sought to right the wrong, as they saw it, of the…
One of the false promises we’ve been made that people keep buying into is that the Internet is a “democratizing” force, that the digital world gives us instant access to the real vox populi, that the simple fact that anyone can leave a comment, or answer a poll, or submit an entry to a contest…
I am a novelist. I also have a Master’s degree from MIT. So numbers appeal to me, especially numbers that provide clear data on thorny issues, like, oh, sexism and racism in literature. This year, the Hugo Awards—probably the most famous and visible awards in speculative literature—were hijacked by a coordinated campaign of conservative writers…
Piracy is a serious issue. Live-streaming apps like Periscope and Meerkat have plenty of sticky societal implications. These are two indisputable facts! Let’s not make the mistake, though, of assuming that they overlap. This week, HBO confirmed that it sent takedown notices to Periscope, the Twitter-owned emporium of bored iPhone owners showing off their cats…
On Friday, Marvel released the first for four collaborations with Netflix, “Daredevil,” which follows the trials of a blind lawyer who fights for the rights of the downtrodden in courtrooms by day and back alleys by night. The series superficially resembles Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy, in that it presents a view of urban life whose…
When Captain America: The Winter Soldier came out, it seemed pretty obvious where its sequel was going: Steve Rogers would track down the Winter Soldier, A.K.A. Bucky Barnes. This would wrap up the arc of the trilogy, leaving things open for Barnes or Sam Wilson to take over as Captain America once Chris Evans’ six-movie…
The Turing test detects if a machine can truly think like a human. The Bechdel Test detects gender bias in fiction. If you were to mash the two together to create a particularly messy Venn diagram, the overlap shall henceforth be known as the Ex Machina Zone. In writer/director Alex Garland’s thought-provoking new film—out Friday—we…