The annual T-Rex race in Washington State ended in a photo finish, but the winner was sorted out eventually.
The venerable and respected print Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has spent the last few weeks in very choppy waters. First came reports of excessive delays—like, months/years—in sending contracts. Last week, a new controversy popped up when David A. Riley, a British writer, announced he’d sold a sword and sorcery story to the magazine. Riley was previously associated with Britain’s National Front organization, well known for its racist rhetoric and central role in various incidents of community violence. While editor Sheree Renee Thomas has made one statement (and then closed her social media), publisher Gordon Van Gelder has been completely silent on the matter. I don’t know how this one will turn out.
Oh, wait, here’s how it turned out.
The 2023 Gamescom awards were announced on Saturday, August 25 in Cologne, Germany.
This article about North Korean SF left me thinking!
Nerds of a Feather recaps the first two episode of Ahsoka, and they like it.
Arleen Sorkin, who played Calliope Jones on Days of Our Lives a long time ago, was better known for voicing the animated version of Batman antagonist Harley Quinn. She passed away this week at the age of 67.
Heather Wolf has written a really nice article—really an excerpt from her book—about how to find more birds where you live.
Publishers Weekly looks at the way bookstores area addressing the changes in author events, from online to in-person.
The writers strike has halted production on the final season of Stranger Things, but the actors are ready to talk about their feelings as they anticipate the final episodes of the show.
The clouded leopard kitten born last month is doing well, according to this Smithsonian article.
Of course a magazine (like F&SF) can publish whomever they wish to, but the echoes of the McCarthy era and the Hollywood blacklist are quite ironic to those of us who were alive back then. Obviously it was the choice of targets, not the tactics themselves, that we should have been critical of…or that seems to be the logic of recent times.
Is anyone else concerned that the outcome of the writers’ strike may be studios saying, “AI will author all our scripts from now on” (with minor human tidying up)? Is today’s movie dialogue really a Hard Problem for AI?
Paul, frankly I’m more concerned about payment and contract delays from F&SF. In my limited experience, that is NEVER a good sign for a market.
I think the film/TV model you suggest is exactly what many/most studios are thinking. Frankly, as shallow as a lot of mainstream films are, AI *could* do it now, with humans “tidying up” as you say. I don’t know where the markets for innovation, originality and solid characterization would go. For a couple of years there, pre-and -during-pandemic, it seemed like streaming services were taking a chance on the original and the new. Sadly, Netflix’s latest direction (market-driven, apparently) killed that hope. Disney+ is going to suck every drop of marrow out of an old, nostalgic franchise, with little room for exploration.
At the same time, there is an adaptation of Victor Del Valle’s THE CHANGELING, and some other original works coming down the pike, so I guess there still some hope?