giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles) (03/28/84)
(where'd I leave my fissionable material?)
I hereby nominate the editorial staff of *Analog* magazine, and the two
authors of the story "Valentina" (my copy is at home, otherwise I would
name names; I *had* regarded both of them highly) for the uncoveted
[1632 bytes deleted] OF THE YEAR AWARD
in the category of uncalled-for `ethnic' slurring.
Their crime, for those of you fortunate enough not to have read the
article, is protraying all "hackers" as (1) self-centered, (2) anti-
social, (3) criminal, (4) ignorant of hygiene, (5) having numerous
personality defects, and undoubtably several other dubious traits I
have been too incised to notice.
If they had used any other `ethnic' group, i.e. jews, blacks, white
anglo-saxon blond women, lawyers, .... there would be an immediate
uproar over the portrayal given. But everyone knows `hackers' are
those creeps that break into NATO's computers for fun! How could
they be anything other than self-centered, anti-social, criminal,...
[interlude while I push my relaxation techniques to their limits]
The story is technically well written, exciting (although questionable
in a number of points beside the one mentioned above), and deals with
a matter near all of out hearts, A WORLDWIDE NETWORK WITH INTERUSER
COMMUNICATION.
But the fact that BOTH main characters who were "hackers" were portrayed
as cultural miscreatins has no value whatsoever to the rest of the story!
It was, pure and simple, a gratuitous groin kick at "hackers."
Example: here are descriptions of both "hackers" in the story
HIM HER
-------------------------- ---------------------------
long, greasy hair extremely overweight
dressed in decrepit clothes anti-social (computer room scene)
fast-food junkie, who keeps has difficulty communicating to
all of the wrappers anything but a computer terminal.
. .
. .
. .
[there goes my blood pressure again...]
Finally, I have included "hackers" in quotes because neither the authors
or editors seem to understand what a hacker is, even though they used the
term quite liberally. The male hacker was an employee of a prestegious
law data-base firm (what he was supposed to be doing there is anybody's
guess) and the female hacker was a (graduate?) student at MIT(?).
As I have been called a hacker by fellow graduate students, I know from
first hand experience that there is no way in [153 bytes deleted] that
anybody could continue to have access to such powerful computers with
behavour as revolting as was in the story. What's more, the one critical
personality flaw required in the female "hacker" would have prevented her
from continuing her education!
Finally, I should mention that the [85 bytes deleted] lawyer was also
portrayed in highly undesirable tones. As in, he likes little girls,
enjoys power trips, has no self-confidence behind a Machivelli exterior,
.... Furthermore, the two "hackers" are the only ones who seemed to
know what was going on (even while they tried to kill one another).
Well, thinking about the story in order to write this article has made
me so mad that I can't think coherently anymore (as though I ever can :-))
so, does anyone else feel the same way I do? Does anyone have the
phone number of *Analog*'s editor? I don't feel like a hate letter, I
want a real live "responible" person on the other end to shout at!
(On second thought, that would probabily only reinforce their [523 bytes
deleted] opinions).
ave discordia going bump in the night ...
bruce giles
decvax!ucf-cs!giles university of central florida
giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay orlando, florida 32816mwm@ea.UUCP (04/01/84)
#R:ucf-cs:-121200:ea:11700007:000:2794 ea!mwm Apr 1 15:12:00 1984 ***** MINOR "VALENTINA" SPOILER ***** [Insert usual disclaimer about working from memory.] I read "Valentina," and no, I'm not greatly disgusted/angered. First, the lawyer - he was, indeed, a pretty slimy character. Reminds me more of a court reporter than a lawyer :-). The thing that bothered you about him was that he liked young girls, and our two hackers were the only ones who noticed. Unless I'm badly mistaken, this was a new twist to his live (we saw the start of it, remember), and he happened to leave clues were our greasy-haired hacker would find them. Now, about the two hackers. You are correct, all hackers aren't that like that. If they had been blacks/women/<choose your favorite downtrodden group>, the story would have resulted in a long, loud, righteous outcry. It would also have been as silly as yours was. The current trend to display everybody in glowing colors stinks. Doing so is spreading disinformation as badly as propagating stereotypes. Worse yet, it handicaps an author. Now, in this specific case, Celeste needed to be ugly (plot line, ya'know). I don't know about the flaw that would have kept her out of grad school. The two flaws in her character I found wouldn't necessarily have been sufficient, especially if she is (as we are told) the "best in the world" when it comes to hacking. Gunboat is a slightly different case. I can believe a hacker working for a law firm - especially one with the traits he displayed. I hope he'd be thrown out of anything that calls itself a school in short order; and not because of his lack of hygiene, but because he's nearly as slimy a character as the lawyer. Or aren't people outside of the Ivory Tower Universities allowed to have hacker-level interest in computers, and (maybe even) skills to match? Given that he's not in a school, he could wind up hacking for almost anybody. Making gunboat the greasy-haired character he was wasn't needed, but I think it was appropriate. It makes him that much easier to hate. Besides which, the majority of the hackers I've run into lean more towards gunboat than towards the three-piece suit flavored hackers you (almost) never see. Given that people like to gunboat actually exist (I've met them; I'm not to far away myself. Long hair, slovenly dress, and addiction to junk food. I do try and keep the dirt to a minimum, though.), I think that Delaney and Stiegler were justified in their characterization. Personally, I was *much* more upset by the "backdoors" in "WarGames." I don't do such things, and don't know of anybody who ever let a product out the door that had backdoors (in house, yes. But never to the public.) "Valentina" gives the world a possibly biased view of hackers. "WarGames" stooped to slander. "Tim! Dave! Cheese! Tim! Dave! Cheese!" <mike
yudelson@aecom.UUCP (Larry Yudelson) (04/06/84)
> Date: Wed, 28-Mar-84 00:04:26 EST > I hereby nominate the editorial staff of *Analog* magazine, and the two > authors of the story "Valentina" (my copy is at home, otherwise I would > name names; I *had* regarded both of them highly) for the uncoveted > [1632 bytes deleted] OF THE YEAR AWARD > in the category of uncalled-for `ethnic' slurring. > Their crime, for those of you fortunate enough not to have read the > article, is protraying all "hackers" as (1) self-centered, (2) anti- > social, (3) criminal, (4) ignorant of hygiene, (5) having numerous > personality defects, and undoubtably several other dubious traits I > have been too incised to notice. > It was, pure and simple, a gratuitous groin kick at "hackers." > Finally, I have included "hackers" in quotes because neither the authors > or editors seem to understand what a hacker is, even though they used the > term quite liberally.... > Finally, I should mention that the [85 bytes deleted] lawyer was also > portrayed in highly undesirable tones. As in, he likes little girls, > enjoys power trips, has no self-confidence behind a Machivelli exterior, > so, does anyone else feel the same way I do? Does anyone have the > phone number of *Analog*'s editor? I don't feel like a hate letter, I > want a real live "responible" person on the other end to shout at! > bruce giles I forwarded this letter to Shelly Frier, the assistant editor of Analog. She pointed out that one of the authors in a computer programmer. The other is a lawyer. I haven't seen the May issue yet, so I can't comment on the story, but I remember that Stan Schmidt, the editor, has written in the past about readers assuming that since the villain in the story is Jewish or Italian or a hacker, the authors and editors think that all Jews or Italians or hackers are wicked people who are self-centered, criminal, anti-social deviants who don't bathe regularly. Actually, from your logic, you would be even more offended if the criminals were portrayed as responsible graduate students who had good hygene. That would imply that you were criminal--a far more difficult accusation to disprove than (you are a criminal && you have bad hygene). Actually, from my experience as editor of a (non-s.f.) magazine, I would make all my villains readers who can't read straight and then write in nasty letters. Larry Yudelson "Beware the Frumiest Bandersnatch!" philabs!aecom!yudelson p.s. The views expressed are my own. They are not (necessarily) the views of Shelly Frier, Stan Schmidt, the secretaries in the Analog office, Davis Publications, or even the AECOM computer center.
giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles) (04/07/84)
After I cooled down somewhat (to put it mildly), I had grabbed the previous month's issue and discovered exactly what you mentioned: the authors were a lawyer and a computer scientist. Furthermore, I have read *Analog* for a number years, and am aware of their views on sterotyping. However, I feel that the situation concerning "hackers" falls into an entirely different category. *I* personally perceive the term "hacker" as being a sterotype. But I am also aware that many *others* do not perceive the word as a sterotype. Instead, it is new expression which does not yet have a univeral meaning. When I am called a "hacker" by fellow graduate students at UCF, I take it as a compliment. In this environment it implies I have a strong interest in computers. However, when a local reporter interviewed me as a "hacker", she was looking for computer criminals. The possibility of my interest in computers being purely `scientific' did not appear to have occured to her. So, I would have WELCOMED the malevolent "hackers" in the story being well-groomed, polite, al nauseam. It would have given the term some depth. After all, if not "hackers" are ill-groomed, perhaps not all "hackers" are out to destroy the world. The other point (which got buried) was that there was a logical incon- sistency with having the male hacker dress/act in the manner he did. I can not conceive of any highly prestegious firm employing people who meet their clients dressed like they just crawled out of a sewer. How would you feel if you went to a car dealership and was greated by some- one with a 3-day beard and filthy sweatclothes, with no one else in site. (That was a typo (but a good one)... it should be `in sight'). Would you feel like parting with your hard-earned cash then? The female hacker and the lawyer were also offensive to me, but to a large extent that was triggered by the anger I felt concerning the male hacker. When I stop a story in the middle, and ask myself if (*) has any relevance to the story, and it still wonder why the author(s) included (*) by the time I finish the story; then I strongly believe the author(s) should have left it out. As I mentioned in the original article, I felt that the characters' shortcomings were gratuitous, and this was the criteria I used. I may have entirely misread the story, but I know that in the approximately 10 years that I have been reading *Analog*, none have made me as furious over what seemed to be meaningless reasons. ave discordia going bump in the night ... bruce giles decvax!ucf-cs!giles university of central florida giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay orlando, florida 32816
mlh@abnjh.UUCP (M. L. Holt) (04/10/84)
I read and enjoyed "Valentina". The characters were both interesting and entertaining. Use of hackers and a lawyer as criminals and warped personalities in no way indicates that all hackers and lawyers are such. I see no reason for Giles to be offended; he appearantly didn't understand the story. I've known both lawyers and hackers like the characters, but that doesn't mean I see them all that way. Good story! Mike Holt abnjh!mlh