Dr. Shaun Duke, Professional Nerd

Editor. Writer. Professor. Host.

Conventions: The Simple, Step-by-Step Approach for Handling Disability at Cons

I posted a truncated version of this on Rose Lemberg’s post about some of accessibility problems at Worldcon this year.  Apparently one of the Worldcon staff members thought blaming people with disabilities was a better idea than simply saying “yeah, we screwed that up and we’re sorry and here’s how we’re going to fix it.” Well, […]

The Rubric of Apologies: Demanded Apologies

Here’s a context-less story to set the stage for this post: Recently, I got into an argument regarding a popular SF/F character and sexism.  From my perspective at the time, certain features associated with that character were undeniably sexist and, by extension, ridiculous.  I still think there’s a lot of sexism involved with this character, […]

Worldcon Recap: The Nonsensical Version

I got back from Worldcon yesterday night.  Things are still a bit of a blur.  My mind has been dragged every which way by so many good feelings.  Truly.  Honestly.  So what follows is a recap of things I can remember right now, in a completely random and nonsensical order.  If I forgot you for […]

The Fan: Discussing a Definition (in Dialogue w/ Jonathan McCalmont & Justin Landon)

I’ve been inspired, you might say, to talk about something I’ve had the itch to talk about since I started reading the Hugo Awards voting packet.  I blame Justin Landon and Jonathan McCalmont for daring to talk about stuff, especially since they have a skill for ruffling feathers (with love, of course).  Over at Staffer’s […]

Jim Carrey, Guns, and Kick-Ass 2 (Late Thoughts)

I said I would throw in my two-cents on this Jim Carrey story.  I realize I’m late to the party on this one, but I feel compelled to talk about the entire issue.  Instead of trying to summarize the whole damn situation, I’ll just block quote something from the Guardian: Carrey, who has been an […]

The Vigilante in American Mythology (Brief Thoughts) #monthofjoy

(Note:  due to an inordinate amount of spam comments, I’ve disabled comments on this post.  If you really want to post a response, you can send me an email and I’ll figure something out.  It’s irritating, but the other option is to have to deal with 100+ spam comments a day on this page alone…) […]