WWWednesday: January 31, 2018

Ursula K. Leguin:

Here is SFWA’s obituary of Ursula K. Le Guin.

Karen Joy Fowler shares ten things she learned from LeGuin.

LitHub talks about Le Guin’s The Language of the Night.

Conventions:

An act of inclusion and generosity from John Picacio and John Scalzi, who between then funded memberships to WorldCon for four Mexicanx fans and/or creators. The deadline has passed, but it’s a great story and a great gesture. By reading the comments, I learned that Mexicanx, like Latinx, is used to be gender-inclusive since in Spanish these words are gendered. I’m sure everyone but me knew that, but I found it helpful.

Books and Writing:

McSweeney’s posts an essay in which Cara Michelle Smith wonders if Lord Voldemort is merely misunderstood.  After all, we shouldn’t judge him merely on his words and his actions.

Why is Pree, from Syfy’s Killjoys, not on the Best Dressed Dudes of Genre List?

Jezebel has an article on the Staunch Prize, offered for a thriller novel whose plot does not rely on the rape, murder, stalking, abduction or exploitation of a woman. What do you think? These themes are so prevalent in the thriller genre that “domestic thriller” (woman in jeopardy) is a subgenre. At first I thought, “You just can’t do it,” but then I started thinking about political and medical thrillers, books where it is men who are stalked and targeted, or “town secret” thrillers. It’s do-able. Anyway, it’s an interesting concept. And, if you have a thriller novel that doesn’t count on hurting women to be suspenseful, the contest opens February 22, 2018.

Saladin Ahmed is writing a new comic book called Abbot. Set in the 1970s, it features a black woman reporter, investigating supernatural shenanigans in Detroit.

TV and Movies:

For a small number of you, this will be interesting (the rest may want to skip over it). Here are the Producers Guild of America anti-sexual harassment guidelines. I’m pleased to see them in writing; as someone who worked in the public sector for years I see nothing new here. But it’s good they put something out. John Scalzi linked to them in his blog post, answering the question of whether he would endorse them for any project of is going forward into film or episodic content. It’s an interesting question if largely theoretical since that would probably not be within his control.

Syfy Wire shares those who are (in their opinion) the best-dressed dudes of genre. Well, Jeff Goldblum, obviously. But what do you think of the others? I can’t help noticing that Wynona Earp, which airs on Syfy, had a high percentage of call-outs. Not that I’m disagreeing, especially with Agent Dolls. But, really, no Lucifer Morningstar? Really? And what about Pree from Killjoys?

The Witcher is coming to Netflix! (h/t to Kat for this link.)

DC Entertainment is going to offer a 13-episode streamed series of the city of Superman on its new digital streaming content outlet. Metropolis; is anyone jazzed to see it?

Internet:

I have the same question of Lucifer Morningstar of Fox’s Lucifer.

The Financial Times 404 Error Page Not Found page is funny and educational.

California seems to be the closest to passing a law that will require ISPs who want to work with in the state or contract with the state t provide net neutrality.

Tech:

The Light L16 is the camera of the future, even if it’s not quite ready for prime time in the present. Wired reviews it here. I was infatuated with the idea of this camera until I read the review. I’ll wait for Light 2.0 (and start saving my nickels and dimes now).

Super Blue Blood Moon:

Did you see it this morning? No, it wasn’t a new superhero-urban fantasy-paranormal-romance release, it was the second full moon of January (a blue moon) at the closest the moon comes to earth (a super moon) and a lunar eclipse (reddish or “blood” moon).

Earth:

A newly discovered fossil found in Israel puts the human migration out of Africa much earlier than previously theorized. This could mean that modern humans shared the earth with other archaic human species for much longer than previously believed.

Breaking up is hard to do. Geologists report that a bit of the North American continent still clings to Australia, back from about 1.7 million years ago.