Sigh. Just in case you need another reason to roll your eyes out of your head, some professors think "academic grievance studies" (read: race and gender studies) are ruining scholarship, so to prove it, they published a bunch of hoax papers.

areomagazine.com/2018/10/02/aca… I'm sure I don't need to explain why this is bullshit, but in case you don't feel like reading their whole article (which is smart of you), I present: Why This Is Bullshit.

Hollywood keeps threatening to remake The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. IF YOU LAY A FINGER ON THIS PRICELESS CINEMATIC GEM... Buckaroo Banzai is the story of a brain surgeon/particle physicist/racecar driver/rock star who saves the earth from aliens from the 8th Dimension who invaded under the guise of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds. He also falls in love with his dead wife's long-lost identical twin.

I've done nothing but riff on Avril Lavigne all week. He was a hater boy. She said "See you later, boy."

gq.com/story/trump-st…

I rarely hear sci-fi people discuss the ethics of terraforming. The impact on plants, animals, and people rightly dominates discussions of large-scale engineering projects on Earth, but does that really mean there are no ethical implications to altering a lifeless planet? For instance, presumably rather few creatures are dependent for their survival specifically on Utah's Delicate Arch. But I think most would agree that blowing it up to make room for human development would be a major loss. Terraforming is that writ large.

This Is A Very Bad Idea.

motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/… Sure, go ahead, take what this dude gives you and inject it into your arm. That sounds smart.

Gather round, friends, and let me tell you a tale of artists, occult rituals, and sexy bird-men. (Image: Grandmother Moorhead's Aromatic Kitchen by Leonora Carrington) #FolkloreThursday In summer 1937, a group of surrealists including Max Ernst (bottom left) and Leonora Carrington (bottom center) went into the woods of Cornwall to perform occult rituals. (If it isn't obvious from the photo, they were also hooking up in every combination.) #FolkloreThursday

Protest signs: Glasgow vs London Who makes the best protest signs?

I'm starting a meme. It was funny in my head.

I find most timing arguments specious. If something genuinely needs to be said, it needs to be said regardless of timing (eg "that guy who just died was a real asshole"). Timing is usually used as a convenient justification for something they didn't want you to say, ever. I'm talking about stuff like gun control after a school shooting, not stuff like announcing you're engaged at your sister's wedding.

Let's talk about character motivation. Stories can suffer either because the main character has too much motivation to accomplish the goal or because they lack motivation and don't want to accomplish the goal. Let's call these "overmotivated" and "undermotivated." Overmotivation and undermotivation are not necessarily mistakes; they are both common hallmarks of certain genres. But if your story's conflict feels flat, the plot feels contrived, or there's a disconnect between character and plot, you may have a motivation problem.

I spend so much time correcting hoaxes and misinformation because I see in the community a complete lack of concern for facts. As long as we like the narrative, we seem to not care if it's true or partly true or technically true but misleading or an outright fabrication. At all. If the narrative appeals to them, people will en masse promote any story regardless of how false or misleading it is, from "these random people on an airplane are soulmates" to "this photoshopped picture is totally real" to "everyone call this senator who doesn't represent you!"

All right, we're doing this. This is The Bunny Museum. They only put up the sign two weeks ago. Before that, it just looked like a bike shop with very unusual decorations.

"I'll read this random self-published fantasy book written by a friend of a coworker," I said.

"Maybe it'll be good," I said. In retrospect, the first page should have been a tip-off.

Quite a lot of excellent books out today! A THOUSAND BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS is sure to be one of the best anthologies of the year with @ElloEllenOh and @elsiechapman at the helm!

indiebound.org/book/978006267… BAKER THIEF by @ClH2OArs looks so neat! It's amazing to get a fantasy book with an aromantic character in the lead.

indiebound.org/book/978177531…

I am reading a thread of people complaining about #ownvoices and it is the cringiest thing. The term "SJW" appeared. A male author is insisting that he is living proof that it's possible for a male author to write an authentic female protagonist.

Here's a quote from his first page.