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sSafe Space as Rape Room: Science Fiction Culture and Childhood’s End (Part 3 of 5)
Thursday , 17, December 2015 Uncategorized 15 CommentsDefining the “Safe Space” Group silence can be very noisy. A useful tactic in a mass cover-up of unpleasantness is for the participants to become as loud as possible…about something else. Ed Kramer’s molestation news was generating all sorts of media attention in 2013, but when John Scalzi, president of the SFWA, launched his personal […]
It’s difficult to find a stopping place with something like Appendix N. The forty-three installments of this series delve only into the books that Gary Gygax singled out in particular, and for the authors that he recommended their entire body of works, I only covered a single novel. Then there are the series that he […]
Five months after the book publication of The Ginger Star, The Hounds of Skaith was out in October 1974 from Ballantine Books. There was no magazine version this time. The Hounds of Skaith came out at 182 pages, so almost the same length as The Ginger Star. Jim Steranko painted the cover specifically for this […]
Safe Space as Rape Room: Science Fiction Culture and Childhood’s End (Part 2 of 5)
Thursday , 10, December 2015 Uncategorized 7 CommentsIn Part 1, it was established that the science fiction community has a serious, half-century long problem with pedophilia that ranges from its outlying fans to its inner circle. Even two of the “Big Three” have major scandals associated with their names. Because it is estimated that 60% of child sexual abuse offenders are acquaintances, […]
Unplugging members of the Millennial Generation and introducing them to real world hex and counter wargames is good for them, good for you, and (let’s not engage in any false humility here) good for western civilization and all of humankind. This week let’s take that idea beyond the easy question of “why” and delve into […]
The authors of Appendix N had a far greater impact on the design of D&D than they get credit for. The scope of Andre Norton’s influence even spilled over into Tunnels & Trolls, Gamma World and Traveller, but the debt that gaming owes her is largely unrecognized. Far from gaining an appreciation for the roots […]
Tomorrow, December 7th is the 100th birthday of Leigh Brackett. Leigh Brackett’s science fiction output dwindled with the death of the pulp magazines. She produced three stories per year 1950-54 for the science fiction magazines. She had two stories in 1955, the year most science fiction pulp magazines died and one of those stories was […]
Announcing Castalia House’s New Audiobook Division
Thursday , 3, December 2015 Production 7 CommentsMany of our readers have requested audiobook versions of their favorite Castalia House titles; yet thanks to our small size and runaway success, we’ve been unable to dedicate the time and resources it takes to create the audio required. No longer. As of last week, I have been asked to take charge as audio producer. […]
Safe Space as Rape Room: Science Fiction Culture and Childhood’s End (Part 1 of 5)
Thursday , 3, December 2015 Uncategorized 6 CommentsSPECIAL NOTE (5/26/2016): For those visitors looking for the fully compiled edition of this post as it had been intended to appear in the Hugo Packet, download the following PDF: Safe Space as Rape Room – Banned from the Hugo Packet version- [PDF] For the full story on the exclusion of this Hugo Award-nominated work from the […]
To continue the Wednesday series on wargaming we will explore the question of what is wargaming like as a hobby: What is a Wargame? How is it different from playing other games? Why is it separated from other sorts of gaming? Who are Wargamers? How expensive is getting into Wargaming?