Starship Fonzie #41 Transcript

Greetings, all my fellow Milwookies, homo-sapiens, and all other sentient lifeforms of the Planet Earth. This is Starship Fonzie, the official podcast of the Milwaukee Science Fiction and Fantasy League. I’m your host, Eric J. Hildeman, and we’re going to let you know what’s going on in the world of sci fi in Milwaukee, and in the SFF world more generally.

This podcast is being pre-recorded live from the headquarters of UNIT in central London, where the Doctor has defeated Sutekh for the second time.

Actually, it's coming to you from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or as Milwaukee businesses are calling it, “That city where the economic windfall predicted by hosting the RNC is not materializing.”

Seriously. Restaurants aren’t getting their private bookings, other local businesses are not getting any special orders ahead of the convention… it’s just not materializing. Catering? Not really materializing. So right now, it looks like the only businesses that will be making any money off this are the hotels and the pizza delivery joints. Maybe some of the local restaurants, too. But to be honest, it’s not really happening. I’ve heard that some businesses aren’t even going to be open during the RNC. They just don’t want the headache of dealing with those people. And most of the profits from the hotels won’t go to the city, they’ll go to some corporate headquarters in New York or London.

So, looking like it’s a big, fat dud. Some other city can have it next time.

Welcome to the 41st episode of Starship Fonzie. Episode #8 in our fourth year of existence. We’ve got a lot to talk about, so let’s get started.

Let’s start with some news!

Sci Fi World near L.A. is STILL not open!

Over two weeks after the museum was slated to open, the doors remain closed. Accounts of what happened on opening day revealed that the museum pulled some of its exhibits outside and they had their opening day bash out in the parking lot. But so far, that’s been it. Nothing doing on that front.

This from Locus Magazine:

Le Guin Home to Host Writers Residency

Portland OR non-profit Literary Arts has announced that the home of late SF Grandmaster Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) will become the site of the Ursula K. Le Guin Writers Residency, in accordance with Le Guin’s wishes.

The Le Guin family donated the home in Northwest Portland to the organization. Le Guin wrote many of her most famous works in the second floor writing studio of the house, which she and her husband purchased in the early 1960s. Literary Arts is raising funds for house renovations and to provide an endowment, among other plans.

Hilary Harwell used to be a literary agent at KT Literary. She got fired from that agency two weeks ago. Why? Well, she posted a tweet that resulted in a tidal wave of negative response, and deservedly so. 

Here's what her Tweet said:

"Just read a query that was essentially THE ROAD meets DELIVERANCE (#YA) and now I want someone to write this for me, please?"

In other words, "I'm rejecting the manuscript I was given, but I like the idea enough to ask someone else to steal the premise and run with it."

Now, when you send a query letter to an agent, you typically include the first few chapters as a sample to give the agent an idea of the quality of your work. Hilary claims to have read these because she said the opening wasn't strong enough. But instead of critiquing those sample chapters and asking the author to improve upon their idea, she asked anyone else in the literary world to write the concept. And the reaction to this has been nothing but sour.

One respondent wrote: "With respect, do you not see how it's actually kind of insidious for an agent with industry influence to reject a querying writer with no power and then try to get someone ELSE to write THEIR concept but "better," just because they didn't use those specific comps?"

Another respondent said, "I'd rather pitch my story straight into the heart of the sun rather than to this person."

Steve Hill probably had the best reaction to this when he said, "To those who are out there querying and receiving their fair share of rejections, take solace in the knowledge that an agent may like your concept enough to request another author to write it."

She had to delete her X.com account after she posted the tweet.

Shortly afterward, the KT Lit agency put out an announcement that one of its agents had been let go, and the agent wasn't named, but I think we can all guess.

Here's the announcement:

We at KT Literary have decided to part ways with an agent whose recent public statements directly contradict our values and the trust we work to build with our clients. We are reaching out to affected clients to discuss their representation options and ensure continued support. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The season finale of Doctor Who is out. Did you find it disappointing? Apparently some people in the U.K. think so, at least according to the Evening Standard and The Independent. Paradoxically, Ncuti Gatwa is emerging as the most beloved of the Doctor Who incarnations. The Guardian says "This is the new golden age of Doctor Who."

My own take? I liked the finale. It hearkened back to the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who, and I always love when that happens. I honestly don’t know what the critics are talking about with this one.

Speaking of people who are hating our fave shows without cause, have you been liking The Acolyte? The latest Disney Star Wars series has really been amazing, especially with regard to the last two episodes. But apparently, a bunch of people have been review-bombing it, and I can’t see why. I've been enjoying it immensely. It's unlike other Star Wars productions, and yet is similar enough to the traditional lore to be really captivating. Yet bad reviews are rolling in, and they're obviously politically motivated, because the sheer number of reviews outpaces all the other movies combined. It quadruples the number of reviews given to The Clone Wars, which is the longest running Star Wars series to date. The only thing even remotely close to the number of reviews being given to The Acolyte is The Mandalorian, and even that falls far short. When I last researched the numbers, The Acolyte had about 25,000 reviews so far. The Mandalorian received only 17,500 reviews. So there's already 30% more reviews that Acolyte has vs. The Mandlorian, and that's just absurd. Plus, The Mandalorian has three seasons over five years. Six, if you include this year. And now a series with only a few episodes is supposedly the worst ever? Somebody's clearly stuffing the ballot.

And what's really bizarre is that this series is perceived to be some sort of left-wing, politically correct tome, and that's part of what's fueling the negative reviews. But honestly, six episodes in, I just don't see it. There is an LGBTQ cast, but it's not overt about it. I mean, are these review-bombers watching an entirely different show? That's remotely plausible because there's a 2008 Australian horror film called Acolytes, and apparently some of the bad reviews confuse this series with some sort of remake of that earlier film. But in my opinion, that can't account for all of it. No, this is just plain people on social media getting worked up over absolutely nothing - which is the plague of our era.

What do you think? Do you like The Acolyte? Did you like this new season of Doctor Who or not? Write to MKESciFi@gmail.com and let me know.

And send me questions! Ask me anything. I want to have an “ask Eric” segment.

Here's a story that isn't exactly science fiction news, but it's certainly sci-fi adjacent. NPR reports that a trip to “Mars“ has ended for 4 NASA crewmembers. For over a year, they lived in isolation in a simulated Mars habitat—including an up to 22-minute one-way time delay to communicate with their base “back on Earth.” 

Four volunteers spent more than a year living in a 1,700-square-foot space created by NASA to simulate the environment on Mars.

They were all members of the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog mission — or CHAPEA. They walked through the door of their habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston last Saturday to a huge round of applause.

The mission commander was Kelly Haston, who led her team of Anca Selariu, Ross Brockwell and Nathan Jones.

They entered the 3D-printed Mars replica on June 25, 2023... (Wait a minute, how do you 3D print a planet? I really want to know more about that!) ...June 25, 2023 as part of a NASA experiment to observe how humans would fare living on the Red Planet.

The volunteers grew their own vegetables, maintained equipment, participated in so-called Marswalks and faced stressors that actual space travelers to Mars could experience, including 22-minute communication delays with Earth.

The 378-day endeavor was the first of three NASA missions the space agency has planned to test how humans would respond to the conditions and challenges of living on Mars, where it says it could send astronauts as soon as the 2030s. NASA’s second CHAPEA mission is scheduled for the spring of 2025, and the third is slated to begin sometime in 2026.

And now, here’s a special segment:

A lot of people have weighed in on a very special edition of Journey Planet called Be the Change: For The Future of the Hugos. And big kudos to the editorial staff of Journey Planet for putting this together.

There are a lot of suggestions on how to improve the Hugos in the wake of the disaster at Chengdu, and I don't have time to go into them all, but I do want to focus on one of them, and that's the article written by Paul Weimer. Paul was one of the eligible candidates who was wrongly ruled out by the Chengdu committee, so he has a unique perspective I think is worth looking at. So I'll quote his suggestions here and give my take on these ideas as I go.

Step One he calls "Locking the barn door."

He writes: "I am well aware of the very loose structure of Worldcons in general. Nevertheless, given the shocking behavior and actions of those involved, I would like any and all future Worldcon bids to pledge that the individuals involved in the 2023 Hugo Awards are not permitted to be part of their bid in any capacity. I am aware of the small world of “SMOFs” and the limited nature of the tribal knowledge of running cons. However, if, for example, Dave McCarty were to be part of any future Worldcon bid, how could I, or anyone, trust a single thing that he does? And this mistrust is present in any capacity, even if he were not near the actual administration of the award itself."

This suggestion is the one item on Paul's list that I find dubious. I think we can all agree that Dave McCarty is persona non grata right now, but do we really want to rule out people like Tammy Coxen? Or Helen Montgomery? Nobody has more conrunning experience than Ben Yalow, do we really want to rule him out?

There is a general principle I adhere to regarding forgiveness. I might not be a Christian anymore, but I really do think that forgiveness is not just something for scary religious people. It's a general rule for everyday life. We forgive others who demonstrate they deserve it because the time will almost certainly come when the person who needs forgiveness is YOU. And if we lose sight of that, we run the risk of rejecting qualified people who are worthy. People who have learned their lesson and won't repeat it. The old saying goes that good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement, so let's let people learn from their mistakes and then use those hard lessons to not repeat them. If we shut out the best and brightest SMOFs out there (and remember that their high expertise was the main reason China paid for their travel, room & board in the first place), then we consign every future worldcon to absolute newbies, and that's just asking for trouble.

Paul goes on to say: "In keeping with that, and getting to the root of the previous Worldcons’ mistake, I would want any future Worldcons to pledge that they will uphold freedom of speech, expression, and identity (on all axes). This should be written into the Constitution. Works and creators should have their eligibility determined only by the WSFS Constitution, not by perceived or real censorship from local government authorities or influence from outside organizations.

"In cases where government censorship threatens the Hugo Awards, there should be a “kill switch.” Tainted results are worse than no results at all. There are multiple winners of the 2023 Hugo Awards that basically consider themselves not to be winners. When things have broken so badly that multiple winners have stepped back and renounced this honor, you have a serious problem that needs to be addressed. Confidence and reliability in the nominations, finalists, and tabulation of the votes has to be reestablished."

I thoroughly agree with all of this. In particular, there needs to be something in the WSFS constitution that rules out any countries' censorship laws from ruling out a potential nominee. Because that's almost certainly what happened last time.

Step two Paul calls, "Trust But Verify." Borrowing from that old line used on Ronald Reagan by Mikhail Gorbachev.

He writes: "Like the Oscars, I think it is time to employ an outside agency to tabulate nominations and finalists. While I recognize that this will cost money, having an outside auditor do the actual tabulation of nominations and final votes will show the world that the Hugo Awards and Worldcon are serious about reliability and confidence in the results. The upfront and forthright response from Glasgow when they announced the finalists was good. That, too, should be a standard written into the Constitution. The loose rules of the Constitution in reporting Hugo nominations, finalists, and other information were deliberately exploited by the Chengdu Worldcon. That’s a system breakdown; the Constitution must be amended to stop that from occurring. That, and an independent auditor, will completely restore confidence after what happened in 2023.

"I understand that there are some who would object to employing an independent auditor, as opposed to “double checking” the work, but honestly, after the 2023 awards, I’d rather have an unbiased third party do it at this stage."

And I can appreciate that, but how much will this cost, exactly? I honestly don't know, and the margin between a successful Worldcon vs. an unsuccessful one, meaning one that loses money, is already uncomfortably thin enough as it is. Hey, if it's within a reasonable price range, I'm all for it. But I have no idea what that price range would be, and I also have no idea what would even constitute a fair price for a service like that. If it's an auditing service like the one used for the Academy Awards, it could be very expensive indeed.

Paul's third step he calls, "Building Strength."

He writes: "When I first joined Worldcon, I was shocked as to how few nominations are required to get on the ballot. This was, of course, exploited some years ago by the Sad and Rabid Puppies, and efforts were put in place to make such slating more difficult. By and large, those efforts did solve that problem, but they did not address the overall problem: Worldcon, paradoxically, is too small. It costs a lot of effort and money to participate in Worldcon, and when we take into account things like the Business Meeting, it takes a lot of time as well.

"Efforts need to be made to broaden the Worldcon Electorate and to improve the Business Meeting.

"For the size of the science fiction readership, a few thousand voters is an astonishingly small number. While numbers for the sake of numbers is not an overall good, a larger and more interesting electorate is good for science fiction. Worldcon should take steps to make virtual participation easier and more attractive, including participation in nomination and voting. Even in this day and age, the Hugo Awards appears as a secret clubhouse; if you don’t expend enormous effort or have someone “already in the know,” you won’t ever get there from here. Worldcons should be engaging with and reaching out to the community. It can and has been done–Helsinki comes to mind. This should be the norm, not the exception. Cities that are hosting Worldcon should be engaged with. These are the World Science Fiction Awards and the World Science Fiction Convention. This is a Big Deal.

"And that brings me to the Business Meeting. Right now the Business Meeting is a small, clannish, and relatively obscure part of a Worldcon. For a body that basically makes Worldcons and the Hugo Awards possible, it is, frankly, a body that does not reflect the 21st century, its norms, or needs. It was one thing when Worldcons were less than 1500 people. Now, Worldcon attendance is routinely triple or quadruple that number, and like it or not, Worldcon and the Hugo Awards have had “greatness thrust upon them.” I’ve seen the arguments that Worldcon and the Hugo Awards don’t have any responsibility or any need to respond to a larger electorate or a larger remit, but the fact of the matter is, for the wide range of SFF readers and the general public, the Hugo Awards are a cornerstone of science fiction. Worldcon, the Hugos, and the Business Meeting may not WANT that mantle, but they have that mantle.

"And it’s high time to start acting like it.

"A Business Meeting that basically is Robert Rules of Order: The Role-Playing Game might be well and fine in a world where the Hugo Awards don’t truly matter, but the thing is, the Hugo Awards DO matter. Careers and publishing lives were harmed by what happened in Chengdu. And a Business Meeting that purposely and deliberately makes it difficult for change and growth to occur is a Business Meeting that is holding Worldcon, the Hugo Awards, and science fiction back.

"To this end, the organization of the Business Meeting should incentivize and improve attendance and participation. This would, I propose, include a virtual component as well as physical attendance. Worldcon is in Glasgow this year. A fan who cannot get to Glasgow should not have their ideas go unheard because of it.

"I think that the two years “King Log” approach to any changes to Worldcon and the Hugos is a brake that perhaps has had its time. However, a Business Meeting that allowed virtual participation would help make “King Log” less of a problem. Consider, a fan from, say, York going to their first Worldcon in Glasgow this year. Even if they have a great idea, attend the Business Meeting, and propose a resolution, if they can’t afford to go to the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, they will subsequently be unable to follow through on their proposal.

"As a result, the proposals and changes that happen to the Hugo Awards and Worldcons are, in practice, restricted to a cadre of dedicated con-goers who can afford to go to Worldcons in far flung locations and have the time and desire to play Robert’s Rules of Order: The Role-Playing Game in order to have any changes done. This fundamentally and practically puts the administration of Worldcons and the Hugo Awards in the hands of a small Oligarchy. As evidenced in the 2023 Worldcon and Hugo Awards, that Oligarchy has failed in its duties.

This is all sentiment I agree with, especially the part about greater online access being needed for business meetings. To that end, I'd like to suggest something that's been floated at many Worldcon business meetings, which is to have online meetings sometime during the year before Worldcon takes place. A lot of observers have noted that the business meeting can only enact things once per year, and everything they do needs to be ratified the following year, so it basically takes two whole years for WSFS to do anything. That needs to change. 

I'd like to point out that "King Log" is a reference from Aesop's Fables, in case you didn't know, where frogs petition Jupiter to send them a king, and Jupiter sends them a king in the form of a log, because they were foolish creatures and wouldn't know the difference. So basically, it's a shorthand way of saying that the governing system really doesn't do anything at all except sit there.

Or it could be a reference to the Robert Graves novel, "I, Claudius," where Emperor Claudius refers to himself as "Old King Log" because he saw himself as a doddering, old fool.

Either way, it's saying that the governing body basically doesn't do much.

Anyway, thanks to Paul Weimer for having written such an interesting article. Again, lots of people contributed to this work by Journey Planet, and I wish I could go into them all, but there just isn't time. Paul's work seemed appropriately representative, so I went with his. And in appreciation for having him be the central person in this segment, we're going to say thank you by Pouring him a Cold One!

Paul Weimer grew up in New York City and currently lives in Minneapolis. For over 30 years he's been a blogger and book reviewer, and has been evaluating RPG's for almost as long. He has also been a podcaster since at least 2013 when he joined the Skiffy and Fanty Show, and expanded into co-hosting SFF Audio. He wrote more than 350 reviews and articles for SF Signal between 2011 and 2015, and has provided reviews to Tor.com and The B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, as well as Nerds of a Feather and File 770. He has also had some of his short fiction works published. He was a Hugo Finalist in 2021 for both best Fan Cast and Best Fan Writer, and is again a Hugo Finalist this year, both as a Fan Writer and for Best Fanzine as a contributor to Nerds of a Feather.

He was the DUFF delegate to the Australian Natcon and the New Zealand Natcon in 2017, and published What I Did on My Summer Vacation as his trip report.

Paul has risen above some adversities. In 2015 he tried talking some sense into the Sad Puppies during the onset of the Puppies "debarkle," and Brad Torgersen eventually accused him of wanting to put him in a Boxcar (yeah, no joke, he actually went full holocaust on him).

Paul also ran afoul of the same online pests that harass Patrick Tomlinson, and occasionally myself, in 2018 when he briefly encountered them on Twitter. He's had zero communication with the scountrolls since.

And, of course, in 2023, he was wrongly ruled out of contention for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer, due to a misunderstanding regarding whether he'd visited Tibet rather than Nepal. (It was Nepal, by the way.)

Despite all these hardships, Paul soldiers on, continuing with his writing, reviewing, blogging, and podcasting, and he's in excellent position to potentially take home a Hugo trophy this year.

When not engaged with his many other hobbies, he is also an avid amateur photographer, with an interest in travel, nature, and architectural photography.

For all this and more, Paul Weimer, YOU deserve a Cold One!

And now a word from our sponsor – sort of.

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You know, that was just a bit, but I really do wish a service like that existed somewhere. Don’t you?

I saved the best for last: Let’s check out the interesting SF stuff happening in Milwaukee:

Follow-up to the news item regarding steampunk enthusiast Karl Klinger’s stolen bicycle. He’s about to get TWO penny farthings!

A man named Rolly, who is a great guy by all accounts, saw the story about Karl’s bike theft on the news and contacted him to offer Karl his own penny farthing bicycle, which was built in 1979. Last Sunday, Karl procured the bike from Rolly, “for a steal.” (The exact dollar figure wasn’t revealed.) Apparently, Rolly can no longer ride his bike, for whatever reason, and he wanted it to go to a good home. I think we can all agree it certainly has! So, while Karl’s new bike is currently being constructed, he now already has another one! 

Rolly apparently modified this bike to go much faster than a normal penny farthing would, which Karl seems to appreciate.

There’s a Facebook link which I’ll include in the show notes:

https://www.facebook.com/carl.klinger.9/posts/pfbid034Vrnob3gEjx4X2Kf19fnS2xYmKs4SQAvAZqeoQfZy4CaUPxWXhMWwmY5bMtVWwpRl

Positive reviews are starting to come in for my book, The Scotty! Gary Banker, author of From a Yellowed Photo, and an official reviewer for the Wisconsin Writers Association, had this to say about it:

“The Scotty! is a brilliant collection of stories crafted by Eric J. Hildeman. He takes a memory for Star Trek enthusiasts – the concept of teletransportation – and builds it into a complex, multi-faceted creation with serious, unanticipated side effects.

“Though each story can stand alone, Hildeman cleverly weaves them together to bring the reader to an unexpected and thought-provoking conclusion. Hildeman reminds us about the wonders of scientific exploration – as well as their darker side.”

That review is currently up on the Wisconsin Writers Association website. Feel free to take a look. And if you want a great sci fi read, I hope you’ll pick up my book, give it a read, and then leave me a review on Goodreads, Amazon, or better yet, both. And remember, I also do review swaps! So if you want your sci fi or fantasy book reviewed, send it my way and I’ll send mine your way. Especially if you happen to be local to the Midwest. We can create some positive synergy. 

And this pertains to our local shenanagins:

Remember last episode when I reported about how Penguicon sided with the O&A Forums pests and ousted Patrick Tomlinson from the convention? Well, there was an interesting article pertaining to this that Hugo Award-winning fan writer Chris Barkley wrote in File 770. And I'm not exactly sure what got this particular story on his radar, maybe someday I'll ask him in person.

And the article took a point-counterpoint approach, giving one side to Patrick Tomlinson, and the other to Leslie Varney, a literary agent who Patrick got on the bad side of and never recovered. Varney also took the side of the O&A Pests for some reason I cannot begin to fathom. And I understand Chris Barkley was trying to tell the story in an unbiased way, and I understand and respect his commitment to journalistic integrity, but I don't understand how someone can visit the O&A Forums website or Kiwi Farms and see the awful crap they post there, and come away wanting to side with those sorts of people against anyone, much less Patrick, and give equal time to anyone who sides with them. I have great respect for Chris Barkley, he’s a good person, and he was nice enough to come on this show for an interview about a year before he won his Hugo, but I think he kind of “both sidesed” it a little bit. He tried just a little too hard.

And I get it, I disagree with Patrick’s approach to dealing with the Pests of O&A Forums and Kiwi Farms. I’ve told him so. But a victim’s a victim. You don’t blame the victim.

At least he gave Patrick's side the first and last argument. That's not much, but it's something.

The highlight of this article, however, isn’t the both-sides approach. The highlight is that Penguicon put out a poorly worded statement a few days ago to all its members, basically attempting to justify its actions they took regarding banning the unnamed Tomlinson, but also reassuring its commitment to an environment of safety. At least, that's the cliff notes version.

Well, that statement only caused more confusion than reassurance. I won’t read the entire statement here, that would take too long. If you’re willing to read the statement itself, check out Chris Barkley’s article on File 770. But after the statement went out, lots of members of the Penguicon Facebook group had no idea what the point of such a statement was supposed to accomplish.

And since the File 770 article came out, I've been checking the Facebook group and reading everything that people have posted since the statement from the Board left everybody dazed and confused. And the general impression I get is that Penguicon might be in trouble. Calls are going out because it looks like they need board members, a whole bunch of people have weighed in with suggestions on improvements... It looks like there's some disarray, and there's a lot of disappointment from people about how this past year went. So Penguicon is feeling some stress. How much stress is something I intend to keep an eye on, and keep you informed about. Stay tuned.

Hey, here's an interesting bit of local news: Guess what? The 1959 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, "The Hellbound Train," written and published by Milwaukee native Robert Bloch in 1938, the actual Hugo Award itself, is up for auction on Ebay! The trophy shows some signs of wear & tear, but it's in reasonably good shape, and it's a genuine piece of history.

Robert Bloch, for those who don't remember, is the Milwaukee author who is most famous for writing the novel "Psycho," which was the inspiration for the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name. Also his clever writing got an upstart 8th-ranking district attorney named Carl Zeidler elected to Mayor of Milwaukee.

I don't mind confessing, I'm tempted to buy this. I'm really tempted. Can you imagine how awesome it would be if we were to display this trophy at every single Milwaukee convention event? It would be a huge attraction!

But is it worth the money? Right now the bid sits at $660, or at least that was the bid at the time of this writing. So I would have to spend more than that if I were to win. The auction ends at 10:00 PM this Friday, and we all know how to win Ebay bids, right? You wait until the last seconds and then put in the highest bid right before anyone else can do anything about it. So when Friday night rolls around, the price might have risen to about $1000. And even then, I'm tempted. 

I guess we'll see how thrifty I really feel like being when the time comes.