A helpful graphic about unfairness in the Hugos.

It's a WORLD-CON so - the potential set of writers of sf books in the world based on population demographics, books published in a year, online estimates for novels published in year, and rule of thumb guesstimates(tm) about % of novels that are sf and rates of translation into English (because no sf novel not in English has ever won yet), gives us a set of parameters for how the Hugos nominations might look *if they were shared out fairly*.  [This is an impossible ideal as 5 nominations don't split to fractions.] Comparing 2014 to this we see a reasonably close 'fairish' match - true it favours the US, over the rest of the world and historically it favours the UK within the rest of the world - but the puppies weren't complaining about that.

What it doesn't do using 2014 as a comparator is unfairly reject from nomination right-wing US work. Possibly it favours US liberal/other over non-US, more than it favours US right wing over non-US : but you'd need actual work to test this.

Now compare the sad, and rabid puppy slates (now I'm willing to be corrected about Kloos, because he withdrew and I'm reading his trilogy at the moment and while its military-knows-best MiltSF 1 1/2 books in, maybe there's going to be an entirely justified marxist uprising against the useless Government in book 3, and we never actually (so far) see the SinoRussians so maybe they're capitalist oligarchs, but their slates are either all 5 nominations from right wingers, or 4 right wingers and a not obviously non-right wing Military SF writer.)

The effect of the slate(s) was to produce a set of nominees more unfair (against the populations, books, published, sf published, english-language translated data) than the 2014 nominees that the puppies felt were so bad they had to make an extra effort in 2015.

Only the fact that (Kloos) withdrew, let back in a nominee not from the US.

I think the only rule change the World-con needs is a guaranteed non-US slot out of the 5.  It need not harm the puppies after all they can always block vote Vox Day.

A helpful graphic comparing religious symbolism in C.S.Lewis and John C. Wright

I've read the Hugo nominee novella 'One Bright Star To Guide Them'  - as a non-voter in the Hugos I bought it and read it on my kindle.  It strives to be a work that builds on the numinous in children's religious fiction (Narnia, Susan Cooper's Dark Is Rising, etc) and bring it to an adult and satisfying conclusion.

I don't object to such a plan for a novella in any way, and in theory there's no reason why it should not have been a good or even great story.  [A good novel that does this is The Magician King, btw - and maybe it needs a novel length, and to be a sequal to work?]

However there are substantial difficulties with the novella as written - because its built on evocation, by naming things we haven't seen (but which are like things we have read of) a lot of the back story and naming comes off as derivative, and the reason why things are like X rather than Y is quite simply presented on a take it or leave it 'because the author says so' basis.  This extends to the action of the story itself - whole sections of which occur off stage and are then recounted. Thus it demands a 'buying in' by the reader that it hasn't earned.  A charitable reading would say this might be intended to be representative of faith, but a comparison with Narnia suggests how C.S.Lewis generates acceptance by appropriate choice of symbols, whereas John C. Wright here - to my mind does not.

For these reasons I think the novella a failure.
[Note, I know Jesus didn't ask the Disciples to Crucify him, that's why the resemblence is negative in the graphic. Yes, I know - the old testiment story of Abraham and Isaac, but to parallel that God would have needed to appear and offer an alternative to Tybalt's death, once it was clear Tommy would obey orders.]

Here's a graphic I hope will explain this:

A helpful graphic comparing Vox Day with Nazis

People watching the contretemps about the Hugo awards will be aware of the fact that this year the nominees have been skewed in favour of right wing US military / and or religious sf, that considered rationally isn't technically very good 'as writing', this is annoying because works that were better have been pushed off the nomination lists by these 'dog-in-a-manger' groups who call themselves the sad puppies and the rabid puppies.

The rabid puppies are lead by one Vox Day (Theodore Beale) who believes (or chooses to post as if he believes - and lets give him the benefit of the doubt that he's not lying) a lot of very right wing things.  These have lead to the sad puppies and the rabid puppies being called "extreme right wing to neo-nazi respectively", and the woman who said that - the art director for Tor books has been upbraided by people who don't understand the 'to' and 'respectively' in that description, and seemingly have read nothing by Vox Day.

So to help clarify matters here's a simple diagram with footnotes:

(1) http://voxday.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-neanderthal-theory-of-intelligence.html and other posts)
(2) http://voxday.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/ending-gay-defect.html
(3) http://voxday.blogspot.co.uk/2005/08/why-dont-women-have-to-vote.html (and others)
(4) Vox Day believes that it is rational for Islamic fundamentalists, and for Andreis Breviek given their aims, to shoot children in the head for (a) wanting to go to school, (b) being children of liberals respectively.  He pretends that this isn't being in favour of shooting children in the head - only calling it rational given certain aims, but it is rational only if it is rational in war to abandon moral codes.  http://wehuntedthemammoth.com/2013/10/23/vox-day-the-talibans-attempt-to-silence-malala-yousafzai-was-perfectly-rational-and-scientifically-justifiable/
http://archive.is/Nf2o1
(5) Vox Day believes Western Civilisation is endangered by barbarians within and without and the faster breeding of stupid people see (1) also  http://voxday.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/how-civilizations-fall.html
(6) As far as I know Vox Day does not wear a Nazi uniform.

I hope this helps.

Time to transhuman AI, if neuron mapping capacity doubles per annum

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