science fiction

Fritz Lang’s Woman in the Moon

This entry was posted in Movies and tagged music science fiction silent movies on by

The 1929 film, Frau im Mond or Woman in the Moon, was the first feature film to present space travel realistically. I’m amazed at how much it got right, considering Fritz Lang released it 40 years before the first human stepped on the Moon. Of course, it has some errors that are obvious today, but a lot of modern space movies don’t do as well.

The best part is the trip to the Moon, which occupies about 40 minutes of a film which is 2 3/4 hours long. Once the hatch opens and the travelers step out onto the Moon, the science goes bonkers. So I’ve created a video with my accompaniment of that sequence. It starts with the call to stations 50 minutes before launch and ends when the hatch is opened on the lunar surface. The video contains German intertitles with English translations below them.
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Balticon 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged conventions fandom science fiction on by

With Balticon coming around again, I took another look at their code of conduct. It still has some disturbing features, and I’m not going, although it’s within a day’s driving distance and will likely have a good filk program.

There is a blanket prohibition on “Slurs and derogatory comments about a person, group, or category of people.” That presumably includes, just to come up with some examples, the Chengdu con chair, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, the Russian army, billionaires, Neil Gaiman, and the new Pope. It will be one dull convention if no one can say anything bad about any of those people! When attendees can be accused without eyewitness testimony, it’s even worse. This isn’t just hypothetical; in 2022 Balticon used this provision to make life miserable for one of its program participants.
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Silent film: A Message from Mars

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The silent film era had quite a few movies about Martians. It’s fun to look at how filmmakers of the early 20th century envisioned them. I’ve uploaded the 1913 film A Message from Mars to YouTube, with my improvised accompaniment.

The film, based on a stage play, concerns a man whom the Martians have dubbed “the most selfish of mortals.” He’s a middle-aged man named Horace who likes being left alone and is stingy with his money. One of the Martians, as penance for an unspecified crime, is sent to Earth to reform Horace. His technique consists of bullying him into having a sudden, inexplicable change of character. A 1903 short film with the same title may have been the earliest movie to feature Martians; it’s currently assumed lost.
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: The 1916 film

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The latest in my series of accompanied silent films on YouTube is an early Universal picture: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It mixes two Jules Verne novels: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Mysterious Island. It’s a breakthrough movie on a technical level and an exciting tale, though the plot is a mess. Be warned there are spoilers below the cut.
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Future SFF conventions under Trump

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged conventions fandom liberty science fiction on by

There has been discussion of whether science fiction/fantasy conventions in the US should be considered human rights risks along with countries like China and Uganda. Some people are already panicking. A post I came across on Bluesky said, “I’ve lost all my desire to attend Seattle Worldcon. Fully aware this is a first world sort of problem but wondering if other non Americans are felling the same?” Steve Davidson, the editor of Amazing Stories, has written: “For at least the next four years the United States will not be a suitable country for hosting Worldcon. It will not be a country that is generally reflective of Fannish values. It may very well become a country that is hostile to those values.” He recognizes that there’s no way to revoke the Seattle and Los Angeles Worldcons.

Giving in to worst-case assumptions this soon is a mistake, but it’s never too soon to consider the risks. What dangers might come to US cons in the next few years raise, and who would be at risk?
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Yet another Hugo Award scandal

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Someone tried to buy a Hugo Award by buying a bunch of Glasgow Worldcon memberships and having them vote. Fortunately, the attempt was brain-dead stupid and the Hugo administration team caught it. Details are on File 770.

The stupidity consisted of using obviously fake names for the fake members. “These included, for instance, a run of voters whose second names were identical except that the first letter was changed, in alphabetical order; and a run of voters whose names were translations of consecutive numbers.” 377 votes out of 3,813 were disqualified. The nominee that was being pushed did not win, and the Glasgow committee says there’s no reason to believe that the nominee was responsible for the campaign.
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An update on the Glasgow Worldcon code of conduct 2

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In an earlier post, I discussed the Code of Conduct of the Glasgow Worldcon. There have evidently been some changes since I wrote the article, perhaps in response to criticisms. My post quoted and criticized the following statement in the code: “In particular, exhibitors should not openly display sexualized images, activities, or other material, although this content may be kept out of sight and offered based on a customer’s inquiry, in keeping with the Indecent Display (Controls) Act 1981. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment.”

That text isn’t currently present. Instead, there is this:
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Buffalo NASFiC code of conduct 1

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Continuing my irregular series on convention Codes of Conduct, here’s one on the North American Science Fiction Convention, coming up this month in Buffalo. Compared to some others, the problems of the NASFiC code of conduct are minor. There’s nothing like “Don’t say anything negative about anybody” or “Don’t offend anybody.”

BUFFALO in all caps means the convention, not the city.
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Readercon’s code of conduct

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Time to dissect another code of conduct from a fan-run convention. This one’s for Readercon, which is coming up in July in Quincy, Massachusetts. It’s got some of the usual problems but could have been worse.

The most pervasive problem is taking good ideas and inappropriately elevating them to rules. “Moderate the volume of your voice and the expansiveness of your gestures.” How much hand-waving constitutes a violation? “Be willing to learn new things and admit when you’re wrong, including offering apologies.” Is the con going to judge when someone has been proven wrong and mandate an apology? “If you’re not certain someone is enjoying your company, end the interaction yourself.” A lot of fans deal with self-doubt about whether others like them; this rule, if taken seriously, would practically shut down their social interactions.
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Analyzing the 2024 Worldcon code of conduct 4

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged censorship conventions fandom science fiction on by

A lot of science fiction conventions have codes of conduct that put severe restrictions on speech. They aren’t always enforced, and never fully and consistently, but they can be an excuse to embarrass or eject someone a concom member doesn’t like. For instance, Balticon pulled a program participant out of a panel and subjected her to humiliating treatment for vaguely defined violations of its speech code. The con apologized but dumped all the blame on one volunteer.

Conventions need to say what behavior is acceptable and unacceptable, but we have to look closely at each one’s rules to see how much it values open discussion. So let’s get a look at the Glasgow Worldcon’s rules.
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