Stuff we're reading / watching / listening to

[Digit]

Nice. Bill Gates personally tries water made from human feces by a purification machine in Africa.

[Digit]

Hilarious John Oliver bit on televangelists.

[Digit]

Funny.
Either you are conceited or you are inconsistent.
Proof: You hold finitely many beliefs. Unless you are conceited, you know that some of your beliefs must be false. Yet you believe each one, so you think they are all true. Therefore you are inconsistent.
From What Is the Name of This Book? by Raymond Smullyan

[mic0]

What if one of my beliefs is that I'm inconsistent?

[Digit]

Are you consistently inconsistent or inconsistently inconsistent?

[Whistler]

I'm enjoying the sequel to The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear. Yeah, it's a little indulgent at times... oh well.

[mic0]

Hmm, I consistently know that I'm inconsistent, but without keeping a log it is hard to say if I'm consistently inconsistent or the other.

[Tally M.]

I know I'm behind, but I finally listened to Serial this week (it is in fact possible to get sick of watching Netflix). Why do these kinds of stories always fascinate me? I love stuff like "Forensic Files" and those kind of shows.

[Portia]

Who Won Science Fiction's Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters

Somehow my boyfriend hadn't heard of PuppyGate. Scalzi, George RR Martin, reactionaries, and the changing face of SF/F: what more could you want? (I know we have a lot of this community on this board.)

I think it's interesting some of the parallels between this brouhaha and those who think that this board—and by extension, Church culture—is being "infiltrated" by women/people of color/queer people, etc. Somehow this seems to miss the point, to me: there are plenty (a lot) of straight white male apostates and always have been—the boyfriend comes to mind—and plenty of marginalized groups trying to struggle through to gain recognition within the mainstream LDS.

I also find it odd, the knee-jerk painting of anyone who's not a reactionary as a "Social Justice Warrior." (I've wondered if that's how others may perceive me, which is hilarious to me, but hey, I guess feminism is one movement that's always been dominated by straight white educated privileged women.)

For the record, I too have no problem with populist literature authored by straight white men. (I've only heard raves about, say, The Martian. And sort of by default, most of my favorite books and films are created by white men. But see how that works?)

I'd be interested to hear from any other SF/F fans on this controversy.

[Whistler]

I don't really want to know all the gorey details, but I think it's stupid when people started voting in support of a cause and not based on whether or not they liked the actual books.

[Cognoscente]

I don't know a lot about Sad Puppies, but from what I do know it seems like the literary version of Gamergate.

I don't have enough swear words in my vocabulary to describe the absolute contempt I have for those people.

[Katya]

I don't really want to know all the gorey details, but I think it's stupid when people started voting in support of a cause and not based on whether or not they liked the actual books.

Is that an Edward Gorey-influenced typo? (If so, I approve. )

[Katya]

Most of what I know about Sad Puppies is secondhand, but the people I know of who are against it are people I generally respect, and the people I know of who support it aren't.

[Portia]

OH MY GOSH
O HENRY LIKE PLOT TWIST
LARRY CORREIRA AND BRAD TORGERSEN ARE ACTUALLY MORMON
OMG
#whoisinfiltrationwhomnow

[Portia]

"NRA-member from Utah" and "Brad Torgersen" should have tipped me off.

[Portia]

In happier news, the fourth Ferrante novel is out (but unhappily I still have to work, this is b.s.)

[Whistler]

In happier news, the fourth Ferrante novel is out (but unhappily I still have to work, this is b.s.)

huh, I've never heard of her until now. Do you have a favorite of hers?

I'm reading Dragonflight right now... it has some cool world-building but it's also got some heavy-handed-ness.

[Katya]

I finally saw Up in the Air and I can see why everyone liked it so much but it was also kind of emotionally devastating.

[Digit]

Having seen Rocket Science, I admit I committed performer transference in my head, assuming at first that when Natalie Keener burst into tears at the airport, that it was a trick to get Ryan Bingham to let down his guard, Anna Kendrick being the same actor who played Ginny Ryerson, who was not above using emotional manipulation tactics to get her way.

[Portia]

In happier news, the fourth Ferrante novel is out (but unhappily I still have to work, this is b.s.)

huh, I've never heard of her until now. Do you have a favorite of hers?

I've read The Days of Abandonment and the Neapolitan tetralogy. I think the "My Brilliant Friend" series really is one long novel and they're all amazing. This latest entry was probably my favorite of them all, though.