James Nicoll

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James Nicoll
Born (1961-03-18) March 18, 1961 (age 63)
Nationality Canadian
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Searchtool.svg James Nicoll, 2001 photo

James Davis Nicoll (born March 18, 1961) [1] is a Canadian freelance game and speculative fiction reviewer, former security guard and role-playing game store owner, and five-time Hugo nominee, who also works as a first reader for the Science Fiction Book Club. [2] [3] As a Usenet personality, Nicoll is known for writing a widely quoted epigram on the English language, as well as for his accounts of suffering a high number of accidents, which he has narrated over the years in Usenet groups like rec.arts.sf.written and rec.arts.sf.fandom. He is now a blogger on Dreamwidth and Facebook, and an occasional columnist on Tor.com. In 2014, he started his website, jamesdavisnicoll.com, dedicated to his book reviews of works old and new; and later added Young People Read Old SFF, where his panel of younger readers read pre-1980 science fiction and fantasy, and Nicoll and his collaborators report on the younger readers' reactions.

Contents

Background

Nicoll was born March 18, 1961, and grew up in rural Ontario. He wrote on Usenet that "[b]efore it exploded one night, I went to a four grade, two room schoolhouse and we had textbooks from the 1940s." He attended Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School, which he described as "a very rural high school, where 'alternative life style' meant 'Not Old Order Mennonite'".

Influence on SF genre

In addition to his influence as a first reader for the Science Fiction Book Club, a book reviewer for Bookspan , Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times , and a juror for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, [4] Nicoll often offers ideas and concepts to other writers, primarily through the medium of Usenet. After winning the 2006 Locus Award for his novella Missile Gap , Charles Stross thanked him, writing that Nicoll "came up with the original insane setting [5] —then kindly gave me permission to take his idea and run with it." [6]

"The Purity of the English Language"

In 1990, in the Usenet group rec.arts.sf-lovers, Nicoll wrote the following epigram on the English language:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary. [7]

(A followup to the original post acknowledged that the spelling of "riffle" was a common [8] misspelling of "rifle". [9] )

The epigram has also been quoted, with proper attribution, in books by professor of rhetoric and communication design Randy Harris. [10] Amateur linguists Jeremy Smith, [11] Richard Lederer, [12] the Chinese newspaper Ming Pao [13] and Anu Garg [14] have also referenced Nicoll's quote.

Professional linguists who have referenced the quotation online include Professor of Linguistics Mark Liberman of the University of Pennsylvania and Language Log ; [15] Associate Professor of Linguistics Suzanne Kemmer [16] of Rice University, [17] who also posted her research into the quote at the LINGUIST mailing list; [18] and Second Language Acquisition Ph.D. student Rong Liu. [19] [20] There are also amateur philologists who have used the quote, including journalist Suw Charman [21] and journalist Vale White. [22]

"Nicoll events"

Nicoll relates a number of life- and/or limb-threatening accidents that have happened to him, which he has told and retold on various science fiction fandom–related newsgroups. Over the years these stories have also been collected into Cally Soukup's List of Nicoll events. [23]

Inspired by Nicoll's collection of accidents, as well as his tendency to take in any stray cat that comes knocking, fantasy author Jo Walton wrote him a poem in 2002. [24]

"Brain eater"

A post on soc.history.what-if credits Nicoll with coining the phrase "brain eater" [25] which is supposed to "get" certain writers such as Poul Anderson [26] and James P. Hogan. [27] Nicoll claims the 'brain eater' affected Hogan, because of Hogan's expressions of belief in Immanuel Velikovsky's version of catastrophism, [28] and his advocacy of the hypothesis that AIDS is caused by pharmaceutical use rather than HIV (see AIDS denialism). [29] The term has been adopted by other Usenet posters, [30] [31] [32] as well as elsewhere on the Internet [33] [34] [35] and use of the term within Usenet has been criticised. [36] [37]

Nicoll-Dyson Laser

Nicoll proposed the Nicoll-Dyson Laser concept where the satellites of a Dyson swarm act as a phased array laser emitter capable of delivering their energy to a planet-sized target at a range of millions of light years. [38]

E. E. Smith first used the general idea of concentrating the sun's energy in a weapon in the Lensman series when the Galactic Patrol developed the sunbeam (in Second Stage Lensmen); however, his concept did not extend to the details of the Nicoll-Dyson Laser. The 2012 novel The Rapture of the Nerds by Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross uses the Nicoll-Dyson Laser concept by name as the means by which the Galactic Federation threatens to destroy the Earth.

Science-fictional Lysenkoism

In a discussion on rec.arts.sf.written about why Golden Age science fiction so often uses aliens said to derive from short-lived but well-known stars such as Rigel whose lifespan is probably too brief to ever allow the rise of life due to the long-established mass-luminosity relationship for main-sequence stars, Nicoll identified what he termed the "SFnal Lysenkoist Tendency when actual, tested science contradicts some detail in an SF story, attack the science." He expanded on this idea in an article for online science fiction and fantasy magazine Tor.com. [39]

Awards

Nicoll was a finalist for the 2010, 2011, 2019, 2020, and 2024 Hugo Awards for Best Fan Writer. [40] [41] [42] He served as a judge for the 2012 James Tiptree Jr. Award. [42] In 2021 and 2022, he was nominated for the Aurora Award for Best Fan Writing and Publication, for the series "Young People Read Old SFF" published on his review website. [43] [44]

Nicoll has also been a Fan Guest of Honor (GoH) at SF conventions, including ConFusion 2013 in Detroit [45] and Arisia 2014 in Boston. [46] In 2020, he was nominated for the Down Under Fan Fund, to visit science fiction fandom in Australasia as a representative of their North American counterparts. [47]

Related Research Articles

A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web. Newsreader software is used to read the content of newsgroups.

The Baen Free Library is a digital library of the science fiction and fantasy publishing house Baen Books where 61 e-books as of June 2016 can be downloaded free in a number of formats, without copy protection. It was founded in late 1999 by science fiction writer Eric Flint and publisher Jim Baen to determine whether the availability of books free of charge on the Internet encourages or discourages the sale of their paper books.

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with the database being open for moderated editing and user contributions, and a wiki that allows the database editors to coordinate with each other. As of April 2022, the site had catalogued 2,002,324 story titles from 232,816 authors.

Kirshenbaum, sometimes called ASCII-IPA or erkIPA, is a system used to represent the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in ASCII. This way it allows typewriting IPA-symbols by regular keyboard. It was developed for Usenet, notably the newsgroups sci.lang and alt.usage.english. It is named after Evan Kirshenbaum, who led the collaboration that created it. The eSpeak open source software speech synthesizer uses the Kirshenbaum scheme.

The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is given each year for theatrical films, television episodes, or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. Originally the award covered both works of film and of television but since 2003, it has been split into two categories: Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) and Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form). The Dramatic Presentation Awards are part of the broader Hugo Awards, which are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, and was once officially known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award. The award has been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugo Award for Best Novelette</span> Annual award for science fiction or fantasy stories

The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of between 7,500 and 17,500 words; awards are also given out in the short story, novella and novel categories. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing".

The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of fewer than 7,500 words; awards are also given out for pieces of longer lengths in the novelette, novella, and novel categories. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist</span> Annual award for science fiction or fantasy

The Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist is given each year for artists of works related to science fiction or fantasy which appeared in low- or non-paying publications such as semiprozines or fanzines. A Hugo Award for professional artists is also given. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing".

The Pre-Joycean Fellowship, abbreviated PJF, is a collective identification that was semi-seriously adopted by several writers known for fantasy and science fiction, to indicate that they value 19th-century values of storytelling. An example of such values is clarity, which was called by Jane Yolen the "lovely limpid quality" of writing.

<i>Babylon 5</i>s use of the Internet A study of science fiction fan interactions in the early Internet

Beginning around 1991, the creator of the television series Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, participated in a number of Internet venues to discuss elements of his work with his fans, including the rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 Usenet newsgroup, where he continued to communicate as late as March 2007. This flow of information and feedback had a substantial impact on Babylon 5, as well as Straczynski's other shows and his fan base. This interaction pre-dated the coining of the term "blog", but is functionally similar.

Shoujocon was an American fan convention for anime and manga which focused on the shōjo (girls') subgenre. The convention was founded in 2000 by then-anonymous women identified as "Nora" and "Katchan", and initially financed through eBay sales of fan-donated merchandise. Shoujocon quickly grew from 456 attendees to a peak of 1,252. In addition to its unique audience, Shoujocon attempted many other organizational and programmatic innovations during its time, such as an international staff which held meetings entirely online, support for doujinshi artists and writers, and cultural workshops.

Dorothy Jones Heydt was an American author of science fiction and fantasy. She lived on the U.S. West Coast and was an active participant in the Usenet newsgroups rec.arts.sf.written and rec.arts.sf.fandom, and in science fiction fandom in general. She was the originator of the "Eight Deadly Words", and other fan quotes. She was the originator and first editor of the Star Trek Concordance, an extensive resource guide first published in March 1969.

rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated is a moderated Usenet newsgroup that focuses on the science fiction television series Babylon 5 and the works of writer J. Michael Straczynski. It was spun off from its un-moderated version, rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5, in 1996. The newsgroup counts Straczynski as a frequent contributor, and was among the first internet-based forums where fans interacted directly with a 'showrunner'.

The 65th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Nippon 2007, was held on 30 August–3 September 2007 at the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center and adjoining hotels in Yokohama, Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">11th World Science Fiction Convention</span> 11th Worldcon (1953)

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References

  1. ↑ Silver, Steven. "SF Birthday Calendar: March". Archived from the original on 2021-06-13. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
  2. ↑ Wheeler, Andrew (2006-11-20). "SFBC's Top 50 Books List Goes Walkabout". Science Fiction Book Club. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
  3. ↑ Nicoll, James Davis (2022-01-31). "Five Flawed Books That Are Still Worth Rereading". Tor.com . Archived from the original on 2022-02-01. Retrieved 2022-02-01. Most importantly for me at the time, the paperback fit nicely in my security-guard uniform's inside pocket and helped me stay awake through long night shifts.
  4. ↑ "2011 James Tiptree, Jr. Award". Archived from the original on 2016-02-15. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  5. ↑ James Nicoll (2000-12-11). "Life on the Disk". Newsgroup:  soc.history.what-if. Usenet:   9136ta$414$1@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca.
  6. ↑ Stross, Charles (2007-06-17). "Brief Announcement". Archived from the original on 2007-06-20. Retrieved 2007-06-18.
  7. ↑ Nicoll, James (1990-05-15). "The King's English". Newsgroup:  rec.arts.sf-lovers. Archived from the original on 2012-11-08. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  8. ↑ "Riffle vs rifle – Correct Spelling – Grammarist". 2015-06-08. Archived from the original on 2020-09-26. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  9. ↑ Nicoll, James (1990-05-20). "The King's English". Newsgroup:  rec.arts.sf-lovers. Usenet:   1990May20.184335.4443@watdragon.waterloo.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-11-08. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  10. ↑ Harris, Randy (2004). Voice Interaction Design: Crafting the New Conversational Speech Systems. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. p. 55. ISBN   1-55860-768-4.
  11. ↑ Smith, Jeremy (2005). Bum Bags and Fanny Packs: A British-American, American-British Dictionary. New York: Carrol & Graf. p. 164. ISBN   0-7867-1702-5.
  12. ↑ Lederer, Richard (2003). A Man of My Words: Reflections on the English Language . New York: St. Martin's Press. p.  266. ISBN   0-312-31785-9.
  13. ↑ "John Larrysson Column: What Is English?". Archived from the original on 2022-05-16. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
  14. ↑ Garg, Anu (2005). Another Word A Day: An All-New Romp through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English. New York: Wiley. p. 111. ISBN   0-471-71845-9.
  15. ↑ Liberman, Mark (2005-10-24). "The wordiness of English". Language Log. Archived from the original on 2007-05-03. Retrieved 2007-05-17.; "88 English words from snow". Language Log. 2003-12-07. Archived from the original on 2007-06-25. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
  16. ↑ "Suzanne Kemmer: Associate Professor of Linguistics, Rice University". Archived from the original on 2007-04-20. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  17. ↑ Kemmer, Suzanne (2001-10-23). "The English Language: Past and Present". Rice University. Archived from the original on 2005-11-01. "Words in English: Structure, History, Use (course Web site for Linguistics/English 215)". Rice University. 2006-02-28. Archived from the original on 2007-05-12. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
  18. ↑ Kemmer, Suzanne (2002-02-20). "James D. Nicoll quote - mystery solved". LINGUIST List . Archived from the original on 2007-04-15. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
  19. ↑ "Welcome to Rong's site-vitae". 2006-09-10. Archived from the original on 2006-09-10.
  20. ↑ Liu, Mike (2005-10-03). "Presentation on Morphology, for the course INDV 101-Language". University of Arizona. Archived from the original (Microsoft PowerPoint) on 2006-09-12. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
  21. ↑ Charman, Suw (2005-01-03). "Re: The purity of the English language". Chocolate and Vodka. Archived from the original on 2005-03-14. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
  22. ↑ White, Vale (2004-10-13). "Words, words, words depurify". Southern Utah University Journal. Archived from the original on 2007-05-21. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
  23. ↑ "Cally Soukup's List of Nicoll Events". dd-b.net. Archived from the original on 2007-01-07. Retrieved 2022-02-01.
  24. ↑ "papersky: James Nicoll Poem". archive.is. 2012-11-30. Archived from the original on 2011-03-26.
  25. ↑ Wilson, Gareth (2002-08-14). "Quick thought on the collapse of the Roman Empire". Newsgroup:  soc.history.what-if. Usenet:   3D5A21D6.DDC8D0E2@ext.canterbury.ac.nz.
  26. ↑ Nicoll, James (1997-09-12). "Fire Upon the Deep and Way Station". Newsgroup:  rec.arts.sf.written. Usenet:   EGEGux.EK3@novice.uwaterloo.ca. Archived from the original on 2007-11-10. Retrieved 2007-10-26.
  27. ↑ Nicoll, James (1999-09-02). "Genetic Engineering?". Newsgroup:  rec.arts.sf.written. Usenet:   7qkttc$1fq$1@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca.
  28. ↑ Hogan, James P. "The Case for Taking Velikovsky Seriously". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2006-06-18.
  29. ↑ Hogan, James P. "Bulletin Board: AIDS Skepticism". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
  30. ↑ McCutchen, Pete (1999-12-10). "Re: A Great New Sci-Fi Novel! (CRIT)". Newsgroup:  rec.arts.sf.composition. Usenet:   2me25scohl2fsvso1p3fppejt7vvvdskaf@4ax.com.
  31. ↑ Palmer, David M. (2006-01-21). "Orson Scott Card: The brain eater takes another bite--Intelligent Design". Newsgroup:  rec.arts.sf.written. Usenet:   210120061300053447%dmpalmer@email.com. Archived from the original on 2012-11-06. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  32. ↑ Bradshaw, Simon (1999-11-14). "NASA and SF". Newsgroup:  rec.arts.sf.written. Usenet:   memo.19991114183450.61989A@sjbradshaw.compulink.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2012-11-06. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  33. ↑ "James_nicoll: Uncle Orson explains how freedom of religion is supposed to work". Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2007-11-21.
  34. ↑ "[Orson Scott Card] Empire - Page 3".
  35. ↑ "Sadly, No! » Raise a Glass for the Ole Perfesser". sadlyno.com. Archived from the original on 2007-11-09.
  36. ↑ M., Omega (2007-06-05). ""Brain eater": A phrase I hate". Hatrack River Forum. Archived from the original on 2007-06-13. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  37. ↑ Wright, David. "For Us, The Living". www.heinleinsociety.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-01. Retrieved 2007-11-21.
  38. ↑ Nicoll, James (2005-03-20). "Re: A Moon base is too far; an asteroid ship better alternative:)". Newsgroup:  sci.space.tech. Usenet:   d1kl0p$c9q$1@reader1.panix.com.
  39. ↑ "Doing the Math: Aliens and Advanced Technology in Science Fiction". Archived from the original on 2019-12-06. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
  40. ↑ "2010 Hugo Award Nominees – Details". The Hugo Awards . World Science Fiction Society. 2010-04-04. Archived from the original on 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2010-04-04.
  41. ↑ "2024 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards . 2024-08-11.
  42. 1 2 "James Nicoll Awards". Science Fiction Awards Database . Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
  43. ↑ "2021 Aurora Award Ballot". Locus Magazine . 2021-05-10. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
  44. ↑ "2022 Aurora Award Ballot". Aurora Award . 2022-04-09. Archived from the original on 2022-04-12. Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  45. ↑ "Fan GoH: James Davis Nicoll Immortal ConFusion". ConFusion . Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association. 2014-01-21. Archived from the original on 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
  46. ↑ "Welcome Arisia 2014". Arisia . 2014-01-21. Archived from the original on 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
  47. ↑ "The 2020 DUFF Race Candidates are announced". Down Under Fan Fund . 2020-01-18. Archived from the original on 2020-04-05. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
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