Wubba lubba dub-dub mo fo’s!*

Subtitle: An examination of the third episode of the second season of “Rick and Morty” entitled “Auto Erotic Assimilation” with an eye towards encouraging nominating this episode for the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form, to be presented at MidAmeriCon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention.

Note: This is packed full of spoilers.
For the tl;dr folks, it is also not short.
You Have Been Warned.

I’m glad that I held off writing about Rick and Morty until Season 2, Episode 3, “Auto Erotic Assimilation“, which you can watch by clicking right there (or elsewhere), written by Ryan Ridley, produced by J. Michael Mendel, directed by Bryan Newton, created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. I was frankly a little worried. I initially found the first two episodes a bit lacking, probably because the bar had been set so fracking high throughout season 1. My finding was dead wrong. Thinking back to the episodes in season 1 and comparing them to season 2, I think I can safely say that a lot of season 1 was about the creators / writers / directors proving that they had the deep knowledge of science and science fiction to intelligently pull off a series like this without falling into the realm of easy SF clichés, unless it’s done on purpose.

Season 2 was if anything, even more brilliant, because in season 2 the poo hits the squantchy fan. That shizzle got real. And episode 3 was the fracking most real, at least up until that point in the season. I believe I have identified the episode I’ll nominate for this year’s Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Hugo.

You might be asking yourself, “What’s a Hugo?” Simply put, the Hugo Awards are science fiction’s most prestigious award, are awarded annually, and are voted upon by both attending and supporting members of the annual World Science Fiction Convention, a.k.a. Worldcon.

Not sure if you can nominate for this year’s Hugos?

• On or before January 31, 2016 11:59 p.m. PST, were you:
  • an attending or supporting member of MidAmeriCon II, the 2016 World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Kansas City, MO, USA?
  • an attending or supporting member of Worldcon 75, the 2017 World Science Fiction Convention to be held in Helsinki, Finland?
  • an attending or supporting member of Sasquan, the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention which was held in Spokane, WA, USA?

Answer “yes” to any of the above and yes, you can nominate and vote. If you would like to print out and mail your nomination form, download it here. If you want to vote online, contact the MidAmeriCon II Hugo Administrators Dave McCarty and Will Frank.

All of that being said (yes, yes, I know) what to my mind makes”Auto Erotic Assimilation” a Hugo worthy episode? Well, what’s the episode about?

Introduction – While traveling through space in Rick’s home made spaceship, Rick, Morty, and Summer come across a distress signal from an alien starship. Rick intercepts and boards the starship with the intention of looting it, but instead he comes across the ship’s surviving crew members, who explain their planet has been taken over by an assimilating hive-mind, before the aforementioned hive mind attacks and assimilates the rest of the crew.The hive-mind knows Rick, who awkwardly admits that he and the mind, named Unity, used to “date.”

Main Plot – On Unity’s planet, Rick and Unity passionately rekindle their relationship while Summer and Morty ponder questions of free will, sin, redemption and senseless hatred. As the planet descends first into an exotic drug fueled orgy, then into an exotic race hate fueled riot, Unity realized exactly how bad a couple it and Rick make and dumps him.

Sub-plot – Simultaneously, on Earth, Morty and Summer’s parents, Beth (Rick’s daughter) and Jerry (Beth’s husband), discover under their house, Rick’s underground lair. Inside of the lair, they discover Rick’s monstrous imprisoned alien creature. They soon begin vicious bickering, to the point that the creature, fed up with their arguing, breaks free of his restraints and berates them both before leaving.

Epilogue – Losing Unity devastates Rick, leaving him in a state of mind so broken that he attempts suicide. Yes, on screen.

You can read the complete plot here – http://rickandmorty.wikia.com/wiki/Auto_Erotic_Assimilation#Plot

From this single episode we can see that Rick and Morty is steeped in deep science fiction lore. Within the first couple of minutes not only does this episode build upon every book / movie / television episode we’ve seen where the protagonists decide that exploring a derelict spaceship is a good thing to do, we’re also given a very Ricksonian reason for going ahead and doing so. Of course, the proof that no matter the rationalization it’s still a bad idea comes in this case straight out of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Well, that and a telenovela filtered through Futurama.

The concept of hive minds has been examined in science fiction at least as far back as 1930, as seen in Olaf Stapledon’s “Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future.” We’ve feared them as presented in the book, “The Midwich Cuckoos” later adapted as “Village of the Damned.” Perhaps we envied them a bit as the Over-Mind in “Childhood’s End.” We’ve used their name as a pejorative, like the Borg from “Star Trek.” I’m pretty sure I’ve never considered the possibilities presented by having them (it?) as a lover, especially if it (they?) had no interest in adding me to their collective but was interested in the singular me.

“Auto Erotic Assimilation” continues science fiction’s long tradition of using the genre’s unconventional settings to explore the more and less conventional aspects of the human condition. For example, sexuality. If you’re quick on the uptake, you soon understand that Rick considers the variety of species and genders unified by Unity to be a sexual feature, not a bug. If you don’t get it at first, the screenwriters have included a short, uncomfortable and hilarious scene to make sure you understand. Also explored: utopias, politics, dystopias, parenting, warfare, free will, personal pronouns, capitalism, exo-virology, marriage, p.t.s.d., and many more. All extremely skillfully packed into 23 mind bending minutes.

Of course, no amount of bloviation on my part can replace watching the episode with your own five eyes and judging for yourself. You can either wait until the series goes into re-runs or watch the episode on the Cartoon Network’s [adult swim] website if you are a cable or satellite subscriber. If you’re web savvy, you might even be able to stream it by grabbing a handy link from somewhere.

Please comment and tell me. Have I made a good start on making the case for nominating this episode of “Rick and Morty” for a Hugo? If not, what am I missing? If so, after you’ve watched the episode yourself, will you consider nominating it?

*The title of this post is intimately (see what I did there?) tied into the themes explored in “Auto Erotic Assimilation” in ways not obvious unless you’ve carefully watched Season 1. In particular, season 1, episode 11 “Ricksy Business.”

The Yearly “Future of Worldcon” Kerfuffle

Prompted by “How the growing generation gap is changing the face of fandom” By Gavia Baker-Whitelaw and a Facebook post by David Gerrold.

If I am recollecting correctly, this is at least the fifth year in a row where the just completed Worldcon has prompted a “Why can’t Worldcon be more like Fill-In-The-Blank Con?” discussion. The blank is usually filled with SDCC or Dragon*Con or Pax or another very large convention featuring media / anime / gaming.

Some focus on attendance numbers. Others, like this, or this focus on the aging of fandom. Still others, like Gavia Baker-Whitelaw’s (linked above) focus on cultural / sub-cultural conflicts and issues.

If I may be so bold, I think an answer is condensing out of the stormy aether. I think that some fan run conventions are discovering a way forward. Earlier in this thread, Arisia was mentioned. I’m guessing that before too long, the Arisia model will be applied to a Boston / New England Worldcon and we’ll see how scalable it is. Arisia, Inc. does a remarkable job of balancing an increasingly large array of sub-cultural interests. It would perhaps be wise for the convention committees for Worldcons 2015 and 2016 to contact the officers of Arisia Inc. for their input. I’m serious.

Are there changes that should be avoided, or at least hotly debated?

I believe that Worldcon would be wise to avoid becoming like those other conventions because they already exist. They have their own cultures, their own attendance goals, their own traditions, their own purposes, their own audiences. Worldcon has, or tries to maintain, a specific place in worldwide science fiction fandom. What place is that? In my opinion, over the past 70+ years, Worldcon has created a place for itself as the annual SF convention with the deepest roots into SF’s deep time. Once again in my opinion, more than anything else, the Worldcon-ness of Worldcon arises from its history, its legacy, its memory. Ah, and not just its own, but the history, legacy and memory of science fiction as a particular type of cultural expression. For example, Does any other convention with a worldwide draw have worldcon’s historical perspective? Perhaps even more importantly, does any other convention want that perspective?

So yes, Worldcons have to adapt to the shifting SF landscape. Arguably, they do. Arguably, not fast enough for some. Arguably, not in the manner desired by others. Still, they do change. It is clear though, at least to me, that the changes desired by Worldcon’s most passionate critics will not take place as quickly as desired until those same people apply their fiery passion to bidding for, winning and running a Worldcon themselves. Once again, I think taking a good hard look at adopting the Arisia model for fan run conventions in part or whole would go a long way towards accelerating the evolution of Worldcon without it losing its essential Worldcon-ness. Part of that model is openness. An insular Worldcon cannot survive. See the content about Arisia above.

In my opinion, probably because I’m old (in the eyes of some in this thread) and foolish (in the eyes of others, or the same) I believe that making Worldcon into a genre sales exhibition like SDCC, or into a commercial mega convention like Dragon*Con, would leave us, at least those convention going fans who still think of convention fandom as “us”, unmoored and without a keel. Adrift and directionless.

I would definitely suggest getting to know Worldcon as an institution like the Olympics or the Oscars or Cannes or the Boston Marathon. Why? To understand what is and what isn’t essential for a Worldcon to be a Worldcon. No, what’s essential for a Worldcon to feel like a Worldcon.

I continue to find Convention fandom fascinating. From my p.o.v. US convention fandom is becoming increasingly contentious. Is it perhaps becoming balkanized? I don’t know if the same thing is happening in fandom in other countries. I do suspect that the sub-cultural power struggles in US convention fandom are not easily mapped onto fandoms in other countries. The fact that I don’t know this points to what I feel is one of the major failings of Worldcon. Namely that Worldcon is not nearly as global as its name implies. It’s not a blatant fiction like US baseball’s “World Series”, but it is far too English speaking and North American / Western European centric for its own good and my personal tastes.

BTW – I’m specifying convention fandom because I also suspect that the overwhelming majority of people who consume those cultural products identified as science fiction have never and will never attend a convention. As convention fandom’s internal struggles become increasingly more public, will they be even less apt to attend? I don’t know.

Does any of this make sense? Is it too scatterbrained? Please let me know. Thanks!