Two quick things

* It's not often you hear an old school literary science fiction reference on American TV but Bruce Bueno de Mesquita worked one in on Monday's The Daily Show. What I love is that Stewart clearly knows who Bueno de Mesquita is talking about and why it matters.

* Question for y'all: If you could talk to a science fiction/fantasy writer, who would it be and what three questions would you ask them?

How many things can end in "-punk?"

Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum's review of 9 contains a puzzling error about 4 paragraphs in:

"The expanded cast of creatures looks great, dressed and animated in the homespun style Acker calls ''stitchpunk. (Fans of Acker’s original film devised the term ''steampunk'' to describe the machine-y nuts-and-bolts-and-scrap-metal aesthetic that defines the movie’s look and the characters' environment.)"

Commentors, of course, have pointed out that, no, Acker's fans had little to do with the "steampunk" name, since it has been around for quite some time. I'm willing to give Schwarzbaum the doubt-benefit. We all screw up, especially when deadlines are tight. I'd like to see a correction, mind, but won't hold my breath.

Still, her error leads me to think about a couple of things.

Thing one: Cherie Preist (Boneshaker, most recently) seems to be on steampunk's dirigible-filled cutting edge. She's collating a steampunk primer over at the Clockwork Century, which is devoted to information about both her books and the sub-genre at large.

Thing two: What will be the next "-punk" niche? Fuzzypunk? Filkerpunk? Olderwhiteguypunk? Or something else entirely?

back to school in space...?

The last two weeks have been a bit of a typhoon. The kids went back to school. Since my husband and I both teach at a local college, we went back, too. There has been running around like poultry sans heads. There have been tears and agita. There were also two last minute road trips, which have thrown what little school routine we have all out of whack.

In short, the past two weeks have kicked my heinie to the moon and back.*

Which got me to thinking: what are some science fiction titles that best capture the giddy back-to-school season, with all of its excitement and dread? Fantasy does a great job of evoking that sense (think Harry Potter, if nothing else) but SF doesn't seem to be as interested in it. A couple of titles leap to mind, like Ender's Game and Starship Troopers, but my mental list gets thin after that. Are there schools in space? Heck, are there school-aged children in space?

----------------------------------------------

* This is figurative, not literal. Please don't comment that there is no possible way that could actually happen. Although, for extra credit, you could figure out how many kicks it would take to get my heinie to the moon, assuming (heh) that my tuchas is of average size and that the kicker can kick an average length. Show your work.

No one wants a pity Hugo

During the WSFS Business Meeting at Anticipation, blogger yonmei floated a proposal intended to get more women on the Hugo ballot. Yonmei's plan, which has been called the "Joanna Russ Amendment" stated that, in the event of an all-male final ballot, the next highest woman would be moved up into the slate of nominees.*

The amendment didn't pass -- a good thing because it would have created more issues than it would have solved. Yes, there would have been more women on the final ballot but for reasons that had little to do with who voted for their work. The institutionalization of the concept that women can only succeed if the rules are changed would have been a nasty, backhanded message to send.

Still, women** have a way of not turning up in numbers larger than two on the final ballot for best novel. This has little to do with the quality of their work and everything to do with the demographics of the group voting on the award. The more effective way to solve the problem isn't a change in the voting rules. The solution is to get more women involved with fandom so that they are invested in voting for the award.

That's a much harder problem -- and one that I don't know that there's an easy solution for. Women read SF/F, of course, and they write it.*** So why don't they get involved with fandom, which doesn't always mean going to a World Con, since you can participate without ever leaving your living room? And what can be done to increase the numbers of women who want to be involved?

---------------------------------------------

* The opposite would be true, too -- if the ballot was all-female, the next male in line would be anointed.

** and people of color, etc., but that is another argument.

*** The whole "is there a barrier to women getting published in the genre" is, you guessed it, another argument.