Helsinki in 2017: Why I Support the Bid & the Supreme Awesomeness of Finnish Care Packages
If you didn’t already know, I’m a huge supporter of Helsinki’s 2017 Worldcon bid. A huge supporter. I did the whole pre-support thing when I was in London last year, and I intend to go through the whole process of voting for Helsinki at this year’s Worldcon — well, not at the actual con, mind, but you get the idea. I’ve never done anything like this before. But in the last year-ish, I’ve met and talked to numerous folks from Finland or involved in the Helsinki bid (Crystal, I’m talking about you!), I’ve held and taken many pictures with Moomins, and I’ve learned about Helsinki itself. Plus, I love Nightwish: And more Nightwish: Sing it, Tarja Turunen! Anyway. Where was I? Oh, right, so Helsinki in 2017. Big supporter. So there are all kinds of reasons I want the bid to go to Helsinki: First, the idea of a Worldcon in Helsinki just sounds amazing. Finland is a gorgeous country. Don’t believe me? Look for yourself. It’s gorgeous all the time. Summer, spring, winter, whenever. It’s just gorgeous. GORGEOUS. And what about Helsinki? Gorgeous. Plus, I’m told it has great food, good public transport, cool markets, and lots of old stuff for weird old stuff lovers like me to enjoy. If London gets to have a Worldcon because it’s an awesome city, then there’s no good reason Helsinki shouldn’t get one, too. Plus, they have reindeer. And tea. Seriously. Why hasn’t Worldcon been in Helsinki already? Second, Helsinki is, well, different. I’ve never been to Finland, let alone anywhere farther east than England. But the idea of traveling to a new place to meet new folks who love the things that I love is nothing short of amazing. I loved meeting non-US folks at LonCon3. In fact, this is probably my favorite thing about conventions: meeting new people. And I want to meet more Finnish fans. And I want to see what they’ll bring to the Worldcon table if they win their bid. Guaranteed, it will be awesome. Lastly, I think of “Worldcon” in quite literal terms: a WORLD convention. Whether that was its purpose in the beginning is irrelevant. I would much rather have Worldcon hit a country on all 6 of the other continents before it came back to North America — let alone the United States. Don’t get me wrong. I love the U.S., too, but I think the “WORLD” part of sf/f deserves more love than it gets. These are global genres, and I think our two “world” conventions should do their best to move about the world, to bring new fandoms into the fold in a big and significant way. Finnish fandom is important, after all, and it seems high time Finland rock the Worldcon train with some good old fashioned Finnish cool. There are, of course, other great reasons to support Helsinki. If you’re a supporter, let me know why in the comments. Now for the last little bit of fun: If you were following me on Twitter, you’ll have learned that I received what I’m calling a Finnish Care Package from a Helsinki in 2017 crewninja (what is their official title anyway?). That care package included everything in the picture below: The picture contains: A booklet on Finnish customs (super cool) Helsinki in 2017 Stickers Helsinki in 2017 Keychain Gizmos (I think that’s what they are) A Tourist Guide to Helsinki A Food Guide to Helsinki (ah, hell yeah!) A jar of cloudberry preserves (which are very interesting, by the way) A copy of Emmi Itäranta’s incredible novel, Memory of Water (we interviewed her on the Skiffy and Fanty Show, by the way) 3 Bags of Finnish Tea from Forsman Tea: Lakrits Te (Svart te; Indian-Ceylon w/ licorice oil), Mustikka Superior (Musta Lehtitee; blueberry tea, though I’m not sure what the “base” is because I can’t read Finnish), and Citrus Seikkailu (Vihreä Gun Powder Tee; green gun powder tea w/ lemon and orange spices). I’ve already given the licorice tea a spin, and I pretty much loved it. I’m going to review all of them over the next week, since I have a ton of Hugo Awards reading to do. And to make things interesting, I’m going to start comparing teas to characters from Battlestar Galactica, since I drink so much damn tea and should probably be reviewing the stuff anyway. So, there you have it. My reasons for voting Helsinki and the nifty stuff I got in the mail. My week totally got better 🙂
Update: WordPress Move on Hold
Just a quick note for folks who were wondering what was going on: I’ve put the move to WordPress on hold for the moment. It turns out that WordPress.com does not allow the use of iframes or scripts, which means I’d need to do a self-hosted webpage. There’s a good reason WP doesn’t allow these things — security — but I personally prefer using easy iframe or script codes for widgets and the like than trying to find complicated workarounds or using static images that link elsewhere. Since I’m currently in the midst of financial hell as a grad student — student fees, etc. etc. etc. — I won’t be able to move things to my own hosted page for a little while yet. Instead, I’m going to see if I can’t redirect my Blogger blog to my own domain, which is financially viable in these annoying “student fees” months. My apologies if you were expecting a move sometime soon. Wordpress is probably a better option for what I’m trying to do, but without iframes/scripts, it’s just shy of what I need. So…it’s on hold until April at the earliest. And that means I can stop working on this stuff and get back to blogging about things. Coming up: a review of Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) and a Retro Nostalgia piece on Equilibrium (2002).
On Procrastination: The Evil One
It’ll come as no surprise to anyone that I have a procrastination problem. As you may well know, I’m working on my PhD in English, which requires me to write a 200-250 page dissertation. My dissertation is mostly pretty awesome: my first few chapters explore the work of Tobias Buckell, Nalo Hopkinson, and Karen Lord; the last few chapters explore early Caribbean writings in dialogue with contemporary Caribbean science fiction (particularly Michel Maxwell Philip’s Emmanuel Appadocca and Mary Seacole’s Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands). Needless to say, I’m actually stoked about the project as a whole, even if I’m having the hardest time actually writing the bloody thing.
Reminder: Patreon + Voting Rights
In case you missed out on what is happening with my Patreon page, here are a few fun facts: Being a patron at any level grants you voting rights on the content of this blog (usually two polls a month) Most patron levels let you suggest at least one topic each month, which would then be voted on by everyone There are 5 different levels of support, and each has something special — the highest tier involves a monthly Google Hangout just with patrons, which should be fun! $1 gets you the vote; $5 makes you a member of Congress (or some equally amusing analogy — bring on your laws, darnit!). I’m also going to change the voting structure soon to make the levels more pronounced and to make distribution of votes a little more interesting. So stay tuned! Thanks again to those of you who are currently my patrons. You rock!
Retro Nostalgia: Silent Running (1972; dir. Douglas Trumbull) and the Heroism of Environmental Madness
Undoubtedly, the 1970s was one of the most important decades for environmental issues. At the start of the decade, the environmentalist movement had become so influential that the United States government felt compelled to amend the Clean Air Act (in 1970) and the Water Pollution Control Act (1972). This action expanded the scope of the law and gave the government greater enforcement capabilities. Not long after, the Environmental Protection Agency was born. It should come as no surprise, then, that David Trumbull’s Silent Running (1972) appeared in this era. Praised for its visual effects, Silent Running tells the story of Lowell, one of four crew members aboard the Valley Forge, a commercial spaceship carrying several massive biodomes which house some of the last remaining natural wildlife known to man. Earth, it turns out, is not so much barren as artificial; its people consume processed cubes of nutrients, and the Earth’s surface is devoid of forests or other natural environments. When the crew of the Valley Forge receive orders to detach the domes and destroy them, Lowell, the lone environmental idealist, murders his crewmates and conspires to flee with the remaining dome and a trio of clunky robots. Silent Running most certainly has a lot to say about environmentalism, but what I found most fascinating about the narrative were its attempts to grapple with the question of Lowell’s sanity. From the start of the film, Lowell is portrayed as the outsider — the one weirdo who eats naturally grown foods, who believes in the forestry project, and who finds life back on Earth utterly horrifying. In one of the most pivotal moments in the film, he rants at his crewmates after they tease him for eating a cantaloupe. In that speech, he reminds us that Earth is polluted and synthetic: its temperatures are controlled all across the globe, its food is drawn from processors, and its new generations are growing up without natural environments to appreciate. This moment strikes at the core of the film. For Lowell, life in the domes, as artificial as they are, represents a life that might be on Earth; he’s an idealist of the highest order because he exists in a reality where these domes are, ironically enough, the only natural environments left for humanity. That Lowell strikes out on his own near the middle of the film is not insignificant. For much of the film, Lowell’s outsider status is not just a simple difference of opinion — an environmentalist versus the contented. His outsider status is a division of humanity. His crewmates are the faces of a “new” humanity who have discarded an evolutionary relationship to the natural world in exchange for an intellectual relationship with product. Lowell is the “old” face, the humanity which appreciates the natural world, not just because of its splendor but because being human means being connected to the natural. When Lowell does kill his crewmates — one he kills with his bare hands; the other two he kills after detaching a dome with them inside and then destroying it — it is an act of madness, desperation, and separation. Lowell’s sanity should be drawn into question at this point, not just because he commits murder, but because by doing so, he is severing his ties to his own species. But is he actually mad, or is there something else at work here? From my own perspective, I do not view Lowell as having succumbed to madness. In fact, I think there’s something heroic in what he does to save the natural environment, even if his heroism has no connection to a human worldview — without human recognition, how can he be seen as an actual hero? Lowell doesn’t simply run away. He creates an elaborate plot to convince the other dome ships that the Valley Forge has malfunctioned, sending the ship careening into the rings of Saturn, which the corporation believes will destroy the ship. It’s unclear whether Lowell knows he will die beforehand; the ambiguity is later closed off by Lowell’s suicide (we’ll come to that in a minute). What is clear is that Lowell knows that nothing he can do with words will save the Valley Forge or its last remaining dome from American Airlines (the corporation which owns the dome ships — no joke). His crewmates never accept his rhetoric, and he knows that he has an even worse chance trying to convince a corporation to save the domes when there is no desire for their existence back home on Earth. Lowell has no choice. If he’s to save Earth’s natural world, he has to make the heroic sacrifice: sever his ties with humanity and flee. We’re asked to weigh this against the sacrifice of a few human lives. As you might have guessed, this doesn’t quite work. A search party eventually finds Lowell and the Valley Forge, and Lowell must once more make a decision: allow the dome to be captured and destroyed or do something extreme. His solution: leave one of the robots to tend to the forest, shoot the dome off into deep space, and then use the remaining nukes to destroy himself and the Valley Forge. This scene appears to be foregrounded by the ambiguity I mentioned earlier. Here, there is no ambiguity left: Lowell sacrifices himself to protect the dome. But his sacrifice also means relinquishing to the inner turmoil he has felt since the start of the movie: that he is no longer part of the human race. Lowell’s anti-humanity (or rejection of a new humanity, if you will) is also enhanced by the conclusion’s compelling duality: The human race as we know it is extinct. The salvation of the natural environment must come from the intervention of humanity and its machines. In the concluding shots, we’re shown images of Dewey (the name Lowell gives one of his robots) tending to the forest. These moments disentangle the paradox of the domes — a natural environment reborn
Announcement: The Migration to WordPress
I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve decided to migrate this blog over to WordPress. The reasons are pretty simple: while Blogger gives me more control over the physical space of the blog, WordPress’ features are more functional (better comments, better “read more” function, etc. etc. etc.). I can also easily get a domain name for this blog through WordPress ($26 for hosting and domain registration ain’t too shabby). I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, to be honest, but a lot of things kept me from doing so. For one, I worried it would affect my readership numbers and page rankings. Second, importing Blogger posts into WordPress used to be fairly limited; they are, thankfully, no longer so. These mostly seem like trivial things now; the longer I put off switching over, the more difficult it would be. So…I’m doing it. Let’s get it over with. Let’s get me a proper website and make this site less…buggy. Doing this will mean some changes for the blog — layout, colors, design, etc. If you’re an RSS subscriber, you shouldn’t have to do anything at all because I still use Feedburner. If you’re not subscribed via RSS, then keep an eye out, because eventually this space will redirect to a completely different one. Nothing will happen overnight. I need some time to get things set up over at WordPress. I may post a link to ask for opinions in the near future. Keep an eye out. Until I’ve made the switch, blogging will continue as usual around here. Anywhoodles!