Surely, by this point, no one is surprised by the news that the Sci Fi Channel doesn't give a damn about science fiction?

By now you've probably heard from about a dozen sources about the death of Ellen Datlow's SciFiction. I'm not a big fan of reading fiction on the computer, so I never became a regular visitor of the site, but the news still rankles. That said, whenever I visited SciFiction it was always with the sense that the site's days had to be numbered--a completely free resource for new and classic science fiction, offering authors four or five times the next highest rate-per-word in the genre, sponsored by the same people who pulled Farscape off the air and replaced it with cheesy monster flicks and an armada of psychic-phenomenon reality shows?

I imagine someone out there is organizing a write-in campaign and I wish them luck in their efforts (as someone who lives outside the US and couldn't subscribe to the channel if she wanted to, I can't imagine my contribution would be of any help) but right now what I'm really wondering is whether SciFiction's archives will remain available after January 1st.

And, just in case the news wasn't bad enough, any opinions on what this means for the future of Sci Fi Wire and Science Fiction Weekly? I'm not a regular reader of either, but any platform that offers free access to the reviews of John Clute and Paul di Filippo is an invaluable resource.

If you're looking for a pick-me-up, read this delightful article (link via The Leaky Cauldron): Severus Snape: One Teacher's Hero
My students receive a happy, free-of-charge smile face sticker on exams scoring 95 percent or above, whereas if you scored an A with Snape, you might be rewarded with merely a medium-sized withering glare rather than the usual Super Sized one. I have much to learn from his methods, as I doubt that Snape is often besieged with students screeching at him that of course they should have gotten an A on this essay, as they have gotten As on every single possible evaluation since gaining the ability to breathe independently. Their mothers scored 100 percent in Lamaze classes! Thanks to their own excellence as a fetus! None of this would work on Snape, who majored in Being Sinister and seems to fear the sun and all its evil, melanin-producing properties.

Comments

Dotan Dimet said…
I assume that paying Clute and di Filipo for reviews is an order of magnitude less costly than employing Ellen Datlow to find, edit and buy short fiction at rates that are better than nearly anywhere else in the market.
So while this is a scary sign, I think the pro reviews are relatively safe from the cut.
November 12, 2005 11:59 PM

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