[amphibian]

I talked to my cousin in Melbourne a couple weeks ago about the fires. His response was that it wasn't a big deal, the fires were mostly near Sydney. I was shocked at that level of denial, especially since he's there to do a PhD and has a family there.

Glad that you're taking this seriously, sad that it is a necessity.

[Tsundoku]

Australia wide

https://www.unorthod...=1578008049&v=1

NSW specific - showing areas burned out. Updates within 24 hours.

https://www.rfs.nsw....n/fires-near-me

Just got word my Dad, Annette and the grandkids got out of Tathra (on the coast just east of Bega, far south NSW coast) and are now up at Bungendore just east of Canberra now. So that's good.

EDIT: and then I put the TV news on and there's massive flash flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia. 30 dead so far.

Quite literally it never rains - it pours.

And whatever doesn't burn this summer is just fuel for next summer.

EDIT2:
Obligatory donation pimping:

https://www.news.com...f281ea6be204421

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 02 January 2020 - 11:47 PM

[Tsundoku]

BfuckinK, on 03 January 2020 - 08:20 AM, said:

Stuck inside at night while it’s pouring down. Ugh I’m supposed to be burning my small piece of nightly stump as my ambien slowly kicks and makes me stumble to bed about 3 hours after taking it.

Doesn't the sound of rain on the roof help you sleep? Works for me. I love it. We'd gladly take the rain off your hands if we could.

In other news, I never really thought how far debris could go with fires. I mean we all know about radiation plumes but this is a bit different:

https://www.news.com...c05f7d12d9fedf3

[Mezla PigDog]

It was Mr PigDogs dads funeral yesterday. At around 7pm I left the wake to take the sprog back to our Airbnb place. Mr PigDog and his sister and their childhood friends were right on course for a messy night in the pub. Our Airbnb only had 1 key so I had to stay up until he came home. Safe to say he got back well after midnight and stricken with beer enhanced grief. The sprog also decided to be awake and crying half the night so I was up until about 2am failing to console a pair of irrational people and trying to convince them to just go to friggin bed. Then I woke at 5am to the sounds of vomiting. We had to be out of our Airbnb so I then got to drive 2 grumpy sleep deprived people 200 miles home after only 3 hours sleep myself.

Just got to get to bedtime without killing each other.

The funeral was decent though. Gave the old boy a good send off.

[Maark Abbott]

Trying to write a segment in which a character finds themselves inside what you could describe as a gothic cathedral but with weird geometries and surrealist aspects (such as sudden changes of orientation that they can't quite perceive). It's pushing the boat a bit...

[Aptorian]

Eat more mushrooms.

[Abyss]

The stories popping up on twitter about Azimov and Bradbury's misogyny and general grabbiness. Allegations about Clarke too.

I knew about Heinlein and Hubbard, but this... feh.

[amphibian]

Abyss, on 08 January 2020 - 08:42 PM, said:

The stories popping up on twitter about Azimov and Bradbury's misogyny and general grabbiness. Allegations about Clarke too.

I knew about Heinlein and Hubbard, but this... feh.

I was going to make that a discussion topic because there's a really good article about it.

Is that the right move?

Sci fi absolutely needs to reckon with this darker past instead of pretending that it was all good.

[Traveller]

I'll post this here too.

The Poop thread... bothers me.

It might seem stupid as we have dozens of threads on random odd subjects - I just try to imagine what happens when someone who has just discovered the Malazan series comes to this site to look for answers or discussion, and finds at the top of the recent posts - a thread devoted to how people shit.

If it's just me though I'll not say any more.

[Mercury]

Absolutely agree with that.

[amphibian]

Traveller, on 08 January 2020 - 10:57 PM, said:

I'll post this here too.

The Poop thread... bothers me.

It might seem stupid as we have dozens of threads on random odd subjects - I just try to imagine what happens when someone who has just discovered the Malazan series comes to this site to look for answers or discussion, and finds at the top of the recent posts - a thread devoted to how people shit.

If it's just me though I'll not say any more.

I am extremely in agreement with this.

[Aptorian]

amphibian, on 08 January 2020 - 09:39 PM, said:

Abyss, on 08 January 2020 - 08:42 PM, said:

The stories popping up on twitter about Azimov and Bradbury's misogyny and general grabbiness. Allegations about Clarke too.

I knew about Heinlein and Hubbard, but this... feh.

I was going to make that a discussion topic because there's a really good article about it.

Is that the right move?

Sci fi absolutely needs to reckon with this darker past instead of pretending that it was all good.

More threads, more activity on the forum.

[Aptorian]

Kink shaming? I'm disappointed in you people!

[Macros]

It's a bodily function, stop poop shaming!

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 08 January 2020 - 08:42 PM, said:

The stories popping up on twitter about Azimov and Bradbury's misogyny and general grabbiness. Allegations about Clarke too.

I knew about Heinlein and Hubbard, but this... feh.

I mean why would any of that be news to ANYONE? Bradbury AND Asimov were both born in 1920 (and Clarke in 1917)...that era is RIFE with this stuff across all walks of life.

I think we would all be better off if we just assumed out of the gate that most males born in the early 20th were very likely sexist, or in (likely a LOT) of bad cases unwanted gropers and whatnot. Discovering it like this all these years later is like "Well duh."

I would wager less than 5% of males born in 1920 would be as progressively minded as we are or try to be today. The vast majority of them probably thought all this stuff is no big deal. Recall that a scant 50 years before these dudes were born MANY women were still being treated as property to be married off and dowried.

I mean it's fine to look back and point and go "That's bad"...but I feel like we might be better served to go in assuming.

[Abyss]

Aptorian, on 09 January 2020 - 04:48 AM, said:

amphibian, on 08 January 2020 - 09:39 PM, said:

Abyss, on 08 January 2020 - 08:42 PM, said:

The stories popping up on twitter about Azimov and Bradbury's misogyny and general grabbiness. Allegations about Clarke too.

I knew about Heinlein and Hubbard, but this... feh.

I was going to make that a discussion topic because there's a really good article about it.

Is that the right move?

Sci fi absolutely needs to reckon with this darker past instead of pretending that it was all good.

More threads, more activity on the forum.

Agreed.

QuickTidal, on 09 January 2020 - 02:47 PM, said:

I mean why would any of that be news to ANYONE? Bradbury AND Asimov were both born in 1920 (and Clarke in 1917)...that era is RIFE with this stuff across all walks of life.

I think we would all be better off if we just assumed out of the gate that most males born in the early 20th were very likely sexist, or in (likely a LOT) of bad cases unwanted gropers and whatnot. Discovering it like this all these years later is like "Well duh."

I would wager less than 5% of males born in 1920 would be as progressively minded as we are or try to be today. The vast majority of them probably thought all this stuff is no big deal. Recall that a scant 50 years before these dudes were born MANY women were still being treated as property to be married off and dowried.

I mean it's fine to look back and point and go "That's bad"...but I feel like we might be better served to go in assuming.

Because there are males born then who did not go around grabbing young girls in elevators and using their fame as a shield.
Because it's important to realize that for all their talent and contribution to literature, these men also contributed to an atmosphere of misogyny and entitlement that pervades lit, comics, tv, film, gaming, etc to this day, and giving them a pass because of their contributions and when they were born isn't making things better.
Because in 2006 Harlan Ellison grabbed Connie Willis' breast at a Hugo Awards presentation and he thought that that was ok. In 2006.
Thus, the fact that any of this is news to me... or anyone... is enough reason to not leave it at 'Well duh'.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 09 January 2020 - 03:17 PM, said:

Because there are males born then who did not go around grabbing young girls in elevators and using their fame as a shield.

Absolutely there were. But I think we could agree that they were very likely in the minority. Men really just assumed they could do whatever. And I mean, they obviously got away with it back then.

Abyss, on 09 January 2020 - 03:17 PM, said:

Because it's important to realize that for all their talent and contribution to literature, these men also contributed to an atmosphere of misogyny and entitlement that pervades lit, comics, tv, film, gaming, etc to this day, and giving them a pass because of their contributions and when they were born isn't making things better.

I can lay this at a LOT of those people, perhaps even all from that era though. Realizing it? Sure. But I guess I just assumed they all were like this to some degree because society of that time basically called it "okay" in a broad way. Even his female counterparts of the era (like Julliet Marillier spoke about Asimov; note: she was almost 30 years his junior) basically (at the time) passed it off, avoided him if they could, but didn't do anything more than try to hand it back to him (Marillier apparently would grab his crotch when he patted her ass as a retribution...he found that playful and reportedly she deemed it the same). It was, sadly, accepted behaviour...meanwhile this guy sounds like he was the Weinstein of his day.

Abyss, on 09 January 2020 - 03:17 PM, said:

Because in 2006 Harlan Ellison grabbed Connie Willis' breast at a Hugo Awards presentation and he thought that that was ok. In 2006.

Indeed, and he's literally from that era too (a decade or so later, but still)...he thought it was okay because he grew up with it BEING okay on a social level (I should note, it was NOT okay...but back then it was glossed over...). No doubt he assumed that Connie, a contemporary age-wise, would treat him as women might have treated him about it in the previous decades...not to mention that 2006 was not exactly woke.

The point being that every one of the examples so far have been men of my grandparents era (Baby Boomer parents), and as such they ALL ascribe to the notions of that era as totally okay...even as society and social norms marched on.

Abyss, on 09 January 2020 - 03:17 PM, said:

Thus, the fact that any of this is news to me... or anyone... is enough reason to not leave it at 'Well duh'.

Yeah, I get that. But I mean, is there any viable reasons at this point to not assume that this culture of misogyny wasn't permeating all levels of society during the first 3/4 of the 20th? I think it was, because even Weinstein got to ply his trade well into the 2000's before people rose up and said, "no, this is not cool and you will be held accountable."

I'm not trying to argue the point with you, I agree it's all bad and we do need to pay attention to it to make sure that the next generations continue to grow away from such terrible mentalities...I think I just meant that I expect most famous literary people from the 20th are going to have stains on them/skleletons in the closet...small or large.

Zimmer Bradley was well...you know this probably.
Hunter S Thompson was insane, violent, and terrible.
George Orwell was a member of a group propaganda labelling black, gay, and other minorities to get them blacklisted and thus not a threat to his work.
Gertrude Stein was a pocket fascist who admired Hitler.
Hemingway was....well he was...
JD Salinger was reportedly a super creep who was into Grooming...
Jack London was a disastrous racist.
Roald Dahl = Anti-semetic
William Golding was a sexist and abusive creep who tried to rape young girls.
Norman Mailer was a violent sociopath who almost killed his wife in a rage, and helped a convicted murderer get out of prison (because he thought him a good writer), and that convict murdered again after his release.
David Foster Wallace - Stalker and abusivne creep.
Enid Blyton - racist, sexist, and homophobe.
Anne Perry - murder.
Dr. Seuss: An affair while married that lead directly to the suicide of his then wife.

And if you push even a little further back you get even worse stuff by people arguably even MORE famous...

Dickens was a bigamist, delinquent father, and repeatedly other nasty skeletons.
Mary Shelley - sex on top of her mothers grave...yep...yep.
Victor Hugo liked the red light district to an addictive level.

Basically everyone is awful...LOL. Ugh.

[Abyss]

Marion Zimmer Bradley - don't know how i missed that, but did not know.

...and THAT is exactly why these conversations should be had. People should know, need to know, that their heroes are not heroes. Maybe they're talented as all hell, but they are not role models.




...Shelly totally gets a pass for the sex-on-the-grave thing tho'.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 09 January 2020 - 05:35 PM, said:

...Shelly totally gets a pass for the sex-on-the-grave thing tho'.

I need to know WHY tho.

EDIT: Why she did it, not why you give her a pass on it.

Also, If we are giving out free passes, I would excuse Victor Hugo's penchant for prostitutes...cause honestly, as long as he treated them right and paid them...he ain't harming anyone.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 09 January 2020 - 06:20 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Abyss, on 09 January 2020 - 05:35 PM, said:

...Shelly totally gets a pass for the sex-on-the-grave thing tho'.

Good stuff!

Not that I'm in any way linked to the dead in an amorous way of course...