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A New Role for PPSs?
I've written before about my fears relating to the ability of a new Conservative government to drive forward its agenda in the face of opposition from recalcitrant civil servants. These fears are exacerbated by Conservative plans to halve the number of political advisers. Many people think that this is a decision which could come back to haunt David Cameron.
Labour has doubled the number of special advisers since 1997. Clearly this has gone too far, but the Conservatives shouldn't underestimate the role they have been able to play in driving through Labour's agenda. If the Tories haven't got the same resources available to them, they shouldn't be so naive as to think that ministers will be able to do it all by themselves.
So here's an idea. If there is a Conservative government with a reasonable majority, it is important to find things for backbenchers to do, if only to keep them out of mischief. So my suggestion is this. Instead of appointing one PPS to a Cabinet Minister, each one should have two. They would be unpaid (as now), but one of them would effectively fulfil the role of a second special adviser. The advantages to a Cabinet Minister are clear, but it would also be good for more backbenchenchers to gain experience of how government operates. These PPS's should be carefully chosen, rather than the random process which exists currently. Ideally, they should have some knowledge of the subject area of the department they would be working within.
PPSs need to be more than the proverbial bag carrier. They also need to be more than a Minister's eyes and ears in Parliament. A second PPS in a department will need to augment the work of the Minister's SPAD and to take on an light enforcer and progress chasing role.
UPDATE: Some interesting comments. The way to avoid increasing the payroll vote is to reduce the number of ministers in the first place. Also, Jimmy's point is (as usual) fatuous as nowehere was I advocating that each and every Minister should have their own dual PPSs. PPSs are normally only allocated to Cabinet Ministers and perhaps five or six senior Ministers of State.
Posted by Iain Dale at 11:05 am
Johnny Norfolk said...
Perhaps the MPs should select their own over the first year when they can see whos who.
Enlightened Despot said...
Recalcitrant civil servants = providers of inconvenient truths that do not suit a party political agenda?
James Mackenzie said...
Eminently sensible and practical.
And (if I were a Tory whip worried about legions of climate-change denying sub-Dan Hannanites) a good way of increasing the quasi-payroll vote.
I'd do it if I were them.
Walsingham's Ghost said...
Excellent idea, Iain.
I know from my own experience the extent to which the civil service has been politicised over the last decade or so. I have commented ad nauseum on various blogs as to how the civil service under an incoming Cameron government will 'leak like a sieve' and that there will be no such thing as 'private and confidential'.
In the first 12 months of New Labour coming to power in 1997, virtually all the Directors of Communications across all government departments were replaced by Labour friendly alternatives. These top appointees have had 10 years or more to ensure their entire team now consists of wannabe apparatchiks - all of whom will be vehemently opposed to a Conservative government.
I recall entering a certain Secretary of State's office in the run-up to the last General Election. The entire open-plan office of around 80 staff was festooned with 'Vote Labour' posters. When I asked why this was being allowed, I was told "welcome to the real world..."
Unless Cameron undertakes a root and branch culling of the senior and middle-ranking Labour apparatchiks that now infest the British civil service, his first term is doomed from the start.
I think James Mackenzie has found the sticking point. This will increase a potential Government's powers of patronage. Carswellite-Ultras both in HoC and in the wider party won't like it at all.
Another potential problem is that in an abstract sense it doubles the chances of PPSs resigning. This very rarely produces news stories that the government wants to hear.
Tom King said...
Yeah, what we really need is a bigger government.
Jimmy said...
There are 127 ministers. 2 pps each means a payroll vote of 381. assuming a landslide (as you clearly are) what would constitute being "carefully chosen"?
Exactly. It increases the pay roll vote with all the implications that has for public perception of the value of MPs. And this effect will be all the greater if (rightly) the Tories reduce the size of the House of Commons. Here we go again with an over-mighty Executive, when Major, Blair and Brown have demonstrated how incompetent or crooked Executives turn out. Of course, there is a link. The less pressure on the Executive from a strong legislature, the more incompetent or crooked it's likely to be.
Richard Manns said...
@ Childprotector
Or, perhaps, Recalcitrant Civil Servants = foot-dragging, nay-saying, self-protecting public-sector bureaucrats?
It's the civil servants' job to advise. It's the politicians' jobs to decide. Because the buck stops at the politician. If things go pear-shaped, the politician takes the chop, not the senior civil servant, who is practically impossible to remove for the minor crime of utter incompetance.
Lobbydog said...
While I appreciate Iain, that you want to see a strong Tory Government – what we should be doing now is focussing on creating a strong system. That means giving the legislature more power to hold Government to account, not robbing it of independence by bringing yet more MPs into the executive's "circle of trust".
Goodwin said...
How about just letting the senior civil servants do their jobs properly, in the best interests of the country, rather than in the best interests of the party who happens to be in power? It did work quite well for quite a long time and we might not be in the mess we're in now.
Little Black Sambo said...
To sum up then, No.
Village Bookworm said...
It loked good, until we thought about it...
The policy role should be handled by more than one PPS [the words Zack and Goldsmith come to mind for a good reason why not an individual].
So then it comes to the 'getting things done' role, or arse-kicker - it could be done by a PPS, but wouldn't a decent select committee do a better job? As a senior civil servant, who would you rather face, a minster's new boy/girl or a Select Committe in public session.
We would cut down the payroll vote [state] and strengthen the legislature [people]. Not perfect, but then we are all seeking the least imperfect, anyway!
Bad idea - PPSs are required to support the government's position i.e. they will be stripped of their ability to perform their primary function which is to scrutinise the government's actions and policies.
Paddy Briggs said...
"I've written before about my fears relating to the ability of a new Conservative government to drive forward its agenda in the face of opposition from recalcitrant civil servants"
What "agenda" is that then? Did you see the Newsnight 30 year retrospective where, I précis, Neil Kinnock and Chris Patten both agreed that there isn't an ideology in sight from Labour or the Conservatives and that as a consequence there isn't a hair's width between them? Indeed, as I think it was Patten who said, put a declared party policy on the table without its party label and you wouldn't have a clue, these days, whether it was a Tory or a Labour policy!
So the Conservative Agenda, such as it is, cannot be controversial – so why should the Civil Service try and block it? Once again Iain I think that you are nostalgic for the days of the Blessed Margaret when it was her constant complaint that the Civil Servants were blockers – no surprise that her favourite TV programme was "Yes Minister"!
I'd love to see ideologically driven policies from the Tories pre Election (even if I disagreed with them) - but I won't. The centre ground is the only place post-modern politicians want to be seen and that's why election turnouts are so low and politicians sit even behind Estate Agents and Bloggers in the public esteem.
Scary Biscuits said...
Jimmy and Oliver, as PPSs are unpaid, I don't think they count as part of the payroll vote.
However, the real point Cameron and I think you are making is that government has got over-large. Maintaining PPS numbers to match is hardly helpful. The radical solution, which I am afraid the centre right like Dale are shying away from, is not that SpAD or PPS numbers should be redoubled but that the Civil Service should be cut in half. This has two benefits: 1, it puts Ministers in charge (if Civil Servants know they won't all have jobs it gives power to the Minister to choose between them and therefore to find ones that are willing to go onside); 2, it cuts direct costs proportionately making the tax rising that Ken Clarke et al keep warning about less likely; and 3, the saving to the taxpayer is not only the direct costs of their gold plated packages but also the cost they impose on us all by their activities - fewer civil servants mean less red tape and gold plated regulations - basically there are less of them to get in the way of people trying to earn money and paying the taxman (e.g those traffic Wombles always closing the motorways).
Dramatically reducing the size of the Civil Service is the pre-requisite for everything the Conservatives want to achieve in government. If they don't do this, they'll end up like Boris (putting the cost of public services up) and voters will see little improvement over Labour. Osbourne's failure to promise this (for fear of frightening the horses) is probably one reason only about 27% of the electorate intend to vote Conservative at the next election (based on Conservative support at 40% and turnout at 67%). Cameron, like the rest of the political class, needs to reconnect with the people of this country and stop paying so much attention to 'opinion formers'. Like Sarah Palin, he should be seeking the support of the people not of other politicians and journalists.
Did Maggie Thatcher's government fail to push through change because of a lack of PPS's or SPADs?
If a minister is not compenent to do the job, an extra flubky won't help. And if a minister is competent, an extra flunky will get in the way.
Some interesting comments. The way to avoid increasing the payroll vote is to reduce the number of ministers in the first place. Also, Jimmy's point is (as usual) fatuous as nowehere was I advocating that each and every Minister should have their own dual PPSs. PPSs are normally only allocated to Cabinet Ministers and perhaps five or six senior Ministers of State.
Excellent idea and one that would work much better if the number of not just Ministers but Ministries were cut.
Why for example, do we need a Ministry for Transport could not it be combined with DEFRA.
Not a good idea!
It is right to reduce number of Ministers and also if possible number of MPs as has been suggested by David Cameron. But an increase in number of PPS's (so called payroll!!) would not be good for increasing the relevance of Parliament as a check on the Executive (something very much in the news at the moment). Recalcitrant civil servants are only such if they serve inadequate Ministers. So in summary less but better Ministers, many fewer political advisers, and PPS's probably only for Cabinet Ministers.
PT (Ex PPS!)
I had not noticed your qualification and stand corrected. It's actually rather difficult to put a precise number on your proposal as there is no current official pps list. The last number I found was 47. If one includes such things as assistant whips you still seem to be proposing a payroll vote north of 200.
Incidentally in my searches I noticed the PM has already adopted your proposal, albeit only for himself.
@ Richard Manns
"If things go pear-shaped, the politician takes the chop, not the senior civil servant, who is practically impossible to remove for the minor crime of utter incompetance"
Name one Minister in the past decade who has 'taken the chop'. And which Minister of the past decade would you regard as competent, and why?
As to 'if things go pear-shaped', well, I can't think of a single thing which hasn't. Care to list a few?
neil craig said...
I think it is a decent idea - in fact as Parliament has become more of a rubber stamp the idea of a Parliamentary PS is less important & the need for somebody on the Minister's side able to look at the detail of the department becomes more important.
However I doubt if it would have much effect in keeping backbenchers obedient. Traditionally the PPS is getting the hint they will, if they keep their noses clean, become Ministers in time. If there are twice as many as ministers the chances of them doing that are similarly reduced so the attraction of the job becomes merely the long hours & no pay - and whether they actually get to change something in the ministry. This might make them more bolshy rather than less & knowing how things work - which would be a good thing.
Mad idea. My memory of Special Advisers is taht they work 80 hour weeks. Let's assume that 50% of this is wasted time. Try telling an MP that he/she has got an extra 40 hours of unpaid work each week.
I don't know where you get your figures from - presumably you pluck them out of the air. The payroll vote is nowhere near 200, and if I had my way there would be 60 government ministers plus 2 PPSs for each Cabinet Minister.
The PM has always had 2 PPSs. Thatcher and Major had two as well.
Southerner said...
Wise in many ways though you are, your constantly expressed fears about the civil service faithfully implementing a Conservative Government's agenda are completely misplaced. They reflect both lack of experience and understanding. What civil servants want and need is a a Government with a clear set of policies and the courage and ability to see them through. It will then deliver. If we have a Government with no clear idea of what it is there for and changes policy on a daily basis at the whim of the latest tabloid headline then it makes implementation impossible. The politicisation that has occurred in some areas in recent years is not the norm nor is it welcome by most civil servants. The irony is that one of Labour's concerns on entering office was that a civil service that had only know a conservative Government would not delver for them!
OldSlaughter said...
"Clearly this has gone too far, but the Conservatives shouldn't underestimate the role they have been able to play in driving through Labour's agenda. If the Tories haven't got the same resources available to them, they shouldn't be so naive as to think that ministers will be able to do it all by themselves."
Aside from the suggestion. I found the thinking in this quote a little unnerving.
If you think it has gone too far but you think it successful, seek to reform the civil service. If the influx of special advisers is formalised rather than reversed then so will be the diminishment of an independent civil service.
The game is above the team. The Left never accept this, the Tories are supposed to.
javelin said...
Cameron simply needs to cut the budget. QED
As far as I can tell the budget is totally arbitary.
The civil service needs to understand that the budget was, is and will be, a political decision. If you work for the Government you undertake the risk that a new political party may cut your job. It has always been this way and always will.
Civil service jobs are political appointments dependent on political agendas and political priorities.
Nich Starling said...
it says little for MPs that they ahve to be "kept out of trouble". Here's an idea, why not make them do more constituency casework and prove themselves to be champions for their constituencies ?
Tom Mein said...
rather than the random process which exists currently. Ideally, they should have some knowledge of the subject area of the department they would be working within.
Does no one else find that comment really depressing? That it is a good idea to have some knowledge of what they are working with.
Iain. It's simple. I took 127 ministers, 47 pps (most recent figure I could find), 9 asst whips and added in your additional pps (22). I make that 205. I hadn't realised you planned on culling the ministers.
Martin S said...
This sounds like a good idea, Iain.
Don't forget that the former British (Home)civil service is semi- formally split into four. eg the civil service in Scotland is effectively the Scottish civil service and the senior civil servant in Scotland has specifically said this is the case.
Really, you are talking about the English civil service only and should be better understood than it is at present.
The politicisation of CS is another problem and one which needs dealing with. Gus O'Donell the head of CS has always been close to Brown and has never taken care to keep sufficient distance from Labour. He is very close to them. his role in facilitating the transition of Balls from supposedly an impartial civil servant to highly divisive MP all within a month ot two has never been put under the spotlight.
I bet he tries to head this off.
Francis Turner said...
I suggest a slight modification
PPS1 is responsible for new stuff
PPS2 is responsible for cutting old stuff.
And PPS2 will get paid a bonus based on the budget reduction of the ministry/department
['These PPS's should be carefully chosen, rather than the random process which exists currently. Ideally, they should have some knowledge of the subject area of the department they would be working within.']
They 'should have knowledge of [etc]'. Snort! What other jobs, careers could you land a fat job in, whilst having no knowledge of it? Such is the state of British politics. And this is why most people despise politicians and their gravy train...
I would suggest as a better starting point, sacking half of all MPs. After all with 85% of UK law comes from Brussels, they are ALL pretty pointless these days aren't they? Then take it from there and slash it more....
Sorry Iain, you've got this totally wrong.
Special advisers are civil servants, all are subject to vetting (unlike MPs), most to a fairly high level, and some are subject to the very highest level, even higher than DV.
They are governed by strict rules on what they can or cannot do. SPADs are the most regulated part of the civil service. As such, they are 'trusted' by the system (perhaps tolerated would be a better word).
You can't have MPs doing the same job for the same reason you can't just scrap all SPADs and leave the job to party officials. By doing that, you broaden the circulation list of sensitive papers beyond the civil service and make the job of governing harder. The job that you say could be done by a PPS needs to be done by a creature which is in part a civil servant.
No, if an incoming Tory govt has any sense it would maintain the number of SPADs and even increase them. I don't believe that the number of SPADs would actually fall under current proposals.
I have read several articles suggesting that the Tories will appoint one SPAD per Cabinet Minister and also appoint one to shadow each department in Number Ten. Again this is a real mistake.
You need political direction in departments, that's where things go wrong - not in Number Ten, where the personal prestige and mandate of the PM is sufficient. SPADs are effectively Ministerial force multipliers, they are visible and human reminders to the civil service that Ministers's policy wishes are to be implemented - and they are useful players who can make Ministers consider other policy options, and reconsider others which the civil service might prefer for their own reasons.
Remove those and the civil service will smile, and go back to pursuing its own agenda for even more of the time than it does now. That's fine if you want to live in a country which is run by a permanent government machine, but if you actually want a government which is driven by political aims (which is essential to democracy), then you need special advisers.
SPADs can also take pressure off over-worked Ministers (and the civil service overworks all of them, packing their diaries, and making them as dependent as possible on the machine's advice) by sifting, by advising the civil service what a Minister might want or prefer, and by just acting as sounding boards in what can be a lonely and difficult job.
Remember, so-called impartial civil servants are really servants of the permanent secretaries. they have their own agendas - not necessarily an agenda which is aligned with any political parties, it's more subtle than that - and could be based on issues like maintaining departmental prestige, personal preferences and the inevitable bureaucratic political agendas which arise in large organisations and which often relate to resource allocation in one way or another.
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Where I Went Wrong With Lord Pearson...
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Guest Post: What Scott Brown Means for America
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Tag: NBA
NBA 2K21 Next-Gen Trailer And Screens Show Off Balling On PS5 And Xbox Series X
We've finally had our first look at NBA 2K21 on PS5 and Xbox Series X. A first-look trailer has shown off the visual and environmental improvements introduced for the next-gen version, including updated player models and various new court details. The trailer, captured on a PS5, shows of both of these improvements before and during a game.
Prior to this we'd seen just a tiny snippet of the PS5 version; this is much more extensive, offering some gameplay segments in a game between the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors. One of the standout elements, aside from the impressive lifelike look of the individual players, is how crowded the court and crowd appear, particularly during the pregame segment.
In the next-gen version, every single person on screen in the lower court will have their own AI routines, including the audience. In the footage, the movements of everyone in the arena–not just the players–looks extremely natural.
A direct comparison between 2K20 and next-gen 2K21
Improved lighting models, animations, and physics will also make for a more realistic basketball experience. 2K and developer Visual Concepts is promising a rebuilt player movement system, with new on-court animation and collision engines, as well as a greatly expanded soundtrack featuring 202 tracks.
This trailer is the first of several drops of information about the next-gen version of NBA 2K21 in the lead-up to release, 2K has promised, so more information about the different modes in this version will be available soon.
NBA 2K21 will be available on PS5 and Xbox Series X at launch. However, it won't be a free update for owners of the PS4 and Xbox One version by default–only if they bought they more expensive Mamba Forever edition. The base game costs $70 on next-gen systems. Take-Two's CEO has defended the price
NBA 2K21 Release Date For PS5 And Xbox Series X Confirmed
NBA 2K21's next-generation edition for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X now has a release date. 2K Sports has confirmed that the next-gen edition will begin its rollout on November 10 as a launch title for the Xbox Series X and S consoles.
The professional basketball game will then arrive for the PS5 as a launch title on November 12 in the console's launch markets, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. The game will then arrive in other markets around the world on November 19 when the console is released in those places.
NBA 2K21's next-gen version is a new edition of the game "built from the ground up" for those consoles. Because of that, there is no cross-gen multiplayer support. The game costs $10 more on PS5 and Xbox Series X, and Take-Two's CEO has defended the price increase.
2K has only provided the briefest of snippets of NBA 2K21 for PS5, but what we saw was extremely impressive and the load times were basically non-existent. 2K has yet to provide a full rundown of what the next-gen edition of NBA 2K21 is all about, however.
NBA 2K21's PS4 and Xbox One edition, which launched in early September, will be playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X through backwards compatibility. This will not, however, come with the upgrades of the new consoles. There also isn't an easy way to pay for these upgrades. People who want to upgrade from the current-gen edition to next-gen must buy the $100 Mamba Forever edition.
GameSpot's review of NBA 2K21 for PS4/Xbox One scored the game a 6/10. "NBA 2K21 shows that the lone basketball sim we have now has largely stagnated. It's a full package, for sure, but one that demonstrates little-to-no motivation to meaningfully improve
Pot Website Offers Free Weed for Life to Los Angeles Lakers if They Win NBA Title
Press release content from Newswire. The AP news staff was not involved in its creation.
https://apnews.com/press-release/newswire/sports-nba-toronto-basketball-los-angeles-lakers-ca99b87bee0eaf2f0f434b927c2fdbc7
LOS ANGELES – September 30, 2020 – ( Newswire.com )
By Victoria Omega of The Marijuana Journal
The Los Angeles Lakers will have some extra motivation tonight when the NBA Finals begin. Lebron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will be playing Pat Rileys Miami Heat in a best of 7 match-up and if they win the world's largest cannabis platform BudTrader.com will give "free weed for life" to every player on the Lakers active roster and the Lakers coaching staff.
In a letter to the editor published by the Santa Monica Daily Press BudTrader CEO Brad McLaughlin, a self-described Lakers "Super Fan" stated he felt compelled to 'do his part' to contribute to a Lakers NBA title this year. "I don't possess the celebrity star power that someone like Drake has up in Toronto, but what I do have is an abundance of God's greatest gift to mankind… WEED!" said McLaughlin.
This isn't the first time BudTrader has made a publicity splash. In the summer of 2017 BudTrader had a 3-day yacht party at San Diego Comic-Con and in 2019 they offered free pot to government workers during the federal workers government shutdown.
BudTrader is the largest cannabis platform in the world with millions of users in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Press Release Service by Newswire.com
Original Source: Pot Website Offers Free Weed for Life to Los Angeles Lakers if They Win NBA Title
NBA 2K21 PS5 And Xbox Series X And S Release Dates Confirmed
Credit: NBA 2K – presented by Brian Mazique
NBA 2K21 will be a launch title for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. On Tuesday, 2K tweeted the confirmed dates for release on its next-gen version that coincides with the launch day for the new consoles.
Along with confirming November 10, 12 and 19th as the big days globally, 2K also slid in what is presumably the first real screen shot of the game.
This image of Zion Williamson yelling appears to be on par with the visual quality of some of the celebrity recreations we've seen on next-gen hardware.
The release of the date and the screenshot suggests the first trailer should be coming pretty soon. The latest patch that impacted current-gen might be the last major update before the next-gen release.
It tackled most of the first versions most pressing issues, though there are still members of the community that are dissatisfied. At some point, there needs to be a transition to offer the proper support to the next-gen launch.
2K devs are likely working feverishly to prepare the next-gen version for its debut, and hoping to head off any potential game-breaking issues that could hurt gamers' experience on their first day with their brand-new system.
It will be interesting to see if Madden and FIFA are also launch titles for both the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, because it will make for a monumental week in sports video gaming.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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I was excited to have a chance to meet Locus Award winner and Hugo nominee Mimi Mondal at Worldcon this year, and thrilled when she agreed to come on the show. We talked about a world that she has been working in, in which features something called the Majestic Oriental Circus. Her use of the word Oriental is deliberate, and a hint of the early 20th-century semihistorical setting.
Mimi told us she has worked in this world on and off over a long time, starting when she lived in India. In India there was not a large market for science fiction and fantasy, she says, and at the beginning she was unsure whether to write a novel or whether to write a short story to "test the waters."
Mimi attended a college writing workshop in 2008. She told us that by that point she'd written the beginnings of several novels. The world of the Oriental Circus stayed with her. She started writing vignettes about characters in the world with no plan. In the first published story about this world, the circus was part of the backstory. The story took place in an underground jazz cabaret club in 1960's India. It was one of those murder mysteries where everyone looks like a suspect and no one knows anyone else's background, and the police haul them all together for questioning. Some of the characters in this story had been affiliated with the circus in their past.
In 2013, Mimi wrote a self-contained story in the circus. She calls it her "most accepted story," because it was published by Podcastle, and got her into Clarion West and into an MFA program.
I asked Mimi about the intersection between her stories and the science fiction/fantasy genre. The connection is actually quite fascinating. Mimi says she reads a lot of history and likes it. There was a big flourishing circus scene in India from the 1890's to the 1930's. Circus as a form was developing all over the world. In India, it took in many traditional performers. It has a Steampunk aesthetic to some degree, but is later than the Victorian period, because the values of the Victorians trickled into the colonies later. Mimi describes the circus as a very interesting social space, breaking traditional structures. There is space for mystery, and she uses it to explore Indian folklore. There are nonhumans here, pretending to be human. In the circus environment, you don't ask questions because no one else is normal either. If you worked in an office, you would need paperwork, but the circus is not even grounded in one place because it travels. She started writing a long sequence of events, "chunk by chunk." Her focus is on using parts of Indian mythology that are not well known. While she was writing these pieces, she was learning craft skills and working on her awareness of gaze.
The question of gaze is an interesting one. Mimi told us about how there are distinct differences in the expectations of Indian and Western readership. A murder mystery relies on what audiences take for granted. If it doesn't, it's not a good mystery. Her murder mystery story got rejected by some US magazines who said "this mystery is not working out," but it sold in India, where people said, "this mystery is very cool." As she learns to control gaze, she says, she's considering rewriting the story so that it will work for US audiences.
Next, Mimi told us about her story, "The Sullied Earth, Our Home," which was recorded by Podcastle. She said it was a story that helped her realize how theoretical things can fall into place when you are not thinking about them. It features a person telling a story to two children. This format allows for a degree of explanation about the world etc. because the person is telling the story to two circus kids who are new and don't know the history of the place.
Mimi says she grew up reading Indian magical realism, including Salman Rushdie. In these works, a lot of the background history isn't on the page, and you are just expected to know it.
One of the hurdles Mimi faced was that of people in the US not understanding. In her MFA program, the others were all American. She discovered that they would read historical aspects of the story as if they were secondary world aspects of the story. Because they had no idea of the actual history, they would call it Steampunk. Mimi explains, "My world is quite close to the primary." But at this point she writes it with the awareness that it is a secondary world.
In the West, people are so familiar with fiction based on the Medieval history of Europe that a lot of the world has already been set up, which spares people a lot of work.
There are certain stereotypes of what a god would be like. A local god from India doesn't necessarily resemble either an American god or any of the Indian gods we are familiar with.
Mimi told us about some things she has noticed as an editor, while looking at the history of South Asian science fiction and fantasy. She looked up authors from Pakistan, India, and the UK and US, and discovered that many works don't translate from the home country to the UK and US audiences. Some authors, faced with this difficulty, choose a particular audience. Mimi says she always tries to reach both, explaining that "a large number of my old friends and contacts are back in India." She says she ends up looking at Salman Rushdie's technique, even though she doesn't like his perspective. She says he has a lot of mansplainers in his work, and infodumps. It's hard to separate the perspective from the craft, but it's worth trying.
Mimi used to work at Penguin India, and explains that they did so many books, all in English. The numbers don't look large because the books are half the US price, but the number of books is huge.
Mimi told us she doesn't write her fiction in Bengali or Hindi.
Paul asked Mimi if her editing had influenced her writing. She told us that it has made her writing slower. "I write a line and then I look at it for five days." She has done comparative analysis on her own stories, going back to a story of hers that was accepted and comparing it to the rejected stories, asking what it was doing structurally that the rejected stories weren't doing. She says she has definitely improved as an editor, but that it's hard to say if it has changed her writing.
When choosing details to include in worldbuilding so the reader isn't confused, it's important to ask what to explain, and what not to explain.
In her Circus world, nearly everybody is the Other in one way or another. There are lots of people meeting for the first time.
In each of her stories in this world, Mimi writes from a single first-person perspective. The point of view character has a sense of what is normal from the inside of their head, but when you run into them in another story told from another point of view, it turns out they are weird as well. She says this is like hidden mirrors, and talks about bringing out the parameters of an unreliable narrator. Flipping the narrators provides a different perspective, even though the stories themselves stand alone and they are not parallel narratives of the same event.
We also spoke about her story, "The Trees of My Youth Grew Tall." In this story the narrator comes from a group of people who used to live in the trees. This character sees city-dwelling humans as "ground humans." City people are weird to her. In the story, her son alienates everyone in their tribe and then disappears. She is not the kind of person who has ever been alone in the world. Her son is not very nice for abandoning her. Mimi explains, though, that she has a novelette forthcoming at Tor.com, which is from the son's perspective. The son left and joined the circus. Mimi says "clearly he forgot to say bye so he's a jerk," but he does learn a lesson. He loves people and hurts them for toxic masculine reasons. He holds on to old-school masculine codes of honor which don't work very well. He doesn't think of himself as a bad person.
Most of us are good human beings, she says, until there's someone in our lives we don't care about.
We asked Mimi if she was planning to collect these stories into a book. This is indeed the plan! One of her plans was initially to start with short stories and then stitch them together into a novel. However, when she was at her MFA program she tried to write them into an overarching narrative, and found lots of elements didn't match up. She says that Hinduism is such a large religion that it has a great many diverse practices that somehow stick together, but are not necessarily internally consistent. She has struggled with that question of consistency. These characters, who are struggling and trying to survive, don't really have a common goal. Many people expect a consistent magic system, and get thrown off if the framework gets violated.
She says the feedback she gets from a lot of fantasy readers is vague. They will say something doesn't feel believable, but it's hard to tell what that means.
She says many science fiction readers believe that anything outside a very narrow norm must have a purpose in the story.
I told Mimi that the way she describes her magic system reminded me of the magic systems of Nnedi Okorafor and Laura Anne Gilman, which are not highly regulated and internally consistent, and work wonderfully without needing to.
She told us that her point of view characters don't have to know the logic of the magic they are using. She says, "I borrowed a lot of lessons from Nnedi Okorafor and Nalo Hopkinson." A lot of SFF from non-western cultures, she says, is very close to magical realism. Gabriel García Marquez doesn't have a magic system. The historical events in these stories are things you can look up if you want.
Mimi theorizes that the further you get toward secondariness in a world, the more it will become important structurally to have a consistent system.
Mimi told us a story about a plan she had for a new novella. She did a chapter by chapter outline so the world was consistent and narrative tension was spread out. She intended to do a free write thereafter, but it worked badly for her, because she lost the feeling of joy. That lack of joy will show in the text. She said, "It turned into homework for me. The story does not have any spontaneity left."
The Circus stories didn't work out as a single narrative at her MFA, but they did work as a story collection.
Thank you so much, Mimi, for coming on the show! This week, Dive into Worldbuilding will meet on Thursday, September 6 at 4pm Pacific, and we'll talk about Attraction, Affection, and Love, and how we talk about them. I hope you can join us!
Posted by Juliette Wade at 5:29 PM


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School of Celtic Studies
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Adams, Stefan and Bru, J.-B. (2003) A new theory of superfluidity. (Preprint)
Bru, J.-B. and Dorlas, T. C. (2003) Exact solution of the infinite-range-hopping Bose-Hubbard model. (Preprint)
DIAS, Council (2003) DIAS Annual Report 2003. Communications of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Datta, Nilanjana and Dorlas, T. C. (2003) Random Walks on a Complete Graph: A Model for Infection. (Preprint)
Dolan, Brian P. (2003) Non-commutative Complex Projective Spaces and the Standard Model. (Preprint)
Dolan, Brian P. (2003) The spectrum of the Dirac operator on coset spaces with homogeneous Gauge fields. (Preprint)
Dolan, Brian P. and O'Connor, Denjoe (2003) A Fuzzy Three Sphere and Fuzzy Tori. (Preprint)
Dolan, Brian P. and O'Connor, Denjoe and Prešnajder, Peter (2003) Fuzzy Complex Quadrics and Spheres. (Preprint)
Dorlas, T. C. and O'Connell, R. F. (2003) Quantum Zeno and Anti-Zeno Effects: An Exact Model. (Preprint)
Dorlas, T. C. and Pulé, J. V. (2003) Calculation of the Invariant Measures at Weak Disorder for the Two-Line Anderson Model. (Preprint)
Nagasawa, T. and Sakamoto, M. and Takenaga, K. (2003) Supersymmetry in quantum mechanics with point interactions. (Preprint)
Nahm, Werner and Tchrakian, D. H. (2003) Localization of fermions to branes: codimension d ≥ 2. (Preprint)
Tsukioka, T. and Watabiki, Y. (2003) Quantization of Bosonic String Model in 26+2-dimensional Spacetime. (Preprint)
Ó Macháin, Pádraig (2003) Poems by Fearghal Óg Mac an Bhaird. Celtica, 24. pp. 252-263. ISSN 0069-1399
Ó Macháin, Pádraig (2003) Tomás Ó Iceadha's translation of the Roman Missal. Celtica, 24. pp. 264-269. ISSN 0069-1399
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THETIKICOLLECTIVE.COM
The latest offering from The Tiki Collective is actually more of a teaser than an anthology as two of the six albums featured are still in planning and recording stages. This album contains 2 songs from 6 albums they are working on - and in 2021 they plan to release "Spy Jazz" (original songs and spy film theme songs); "Go West" (a tribute to Ennio Morrricone); "Eno Tiki" (songs composed by Brian Eno in the 70s) and "Classic Exotica" (featuring tunes like Poinciana, Bali Hai and Taboo). Various producers on each concept are featured, including: Jono Grant, Drew Jurecka and George Koller.
"Muse Re-Imagined" is more than a remix. Walt Zweifel worked with Jaymz Bee, Look People, Royal Jelly Orchestra and even The Barenaked Ladies. He's based in Switzerland and perhaps it's the altitude that caused him to create a celestial and almost psychedelic feel to songs from the original TTC debut album. 8 tracks from Muse were re-imagined and this album is available online and on vinyl!
"Muse" is the debut album from The Tiki Collective, a large ensemble of musicians and singers from across Canada, based in Toronto. This impressive collection of jazz, pop and exotica music is the type of music that you can enjoy by the pool, in the car (it's bee proven to prevent road rage), at a cocktail party, over dinner or with headphones and a spliff if that's your thing. This CD features over a dozen of Toronto's most respected female vocalists on 13 tracks.
JOHNFINLEYMUSIC.COM
In the fall of 2020, John released his first solo record with Vesuvius. Produced by Lou Pomanti, this record contains an impressive collection of rnb, blues, jazz, funk and soulful ballads. John's all-star band includes: Larnell Lewis, Danny Weis, Davide DiRenzo, Marc Rogers, Alison Young, William Sperandei and Tony Carlucci; and more! The album has received rave reviews from around the world and John continues to make new fans and friends on a weekly basis.
Everything that there was to shake was shaken, and everything that could be stirred was stirred at the launch for the MUSE CD by Toronto's The Tiki Collective on a recent balmy August night. Florid songstresses and torrid musicians (the always exploratory Ernie Tollar, above, was especially smooth) generated a lounge-y tropical atmosphere under a waxing moon in an air-conditioned harbour of song, courtesy of Vesuvius Records and host Jaymz Bee.
- Corby's Orbit
A new look at lounge from a crew that loves lounge/exotica but hates clichés and tropes that have been beaten to death. Mixing originals with the Bergmans, overlooked oldies and BOC, the gumbo is a low fire thing just right to heat up the frozen north this comes from. Nu lounge but not for the lounge on Mars, it's fun stuff you don't have to be a musical tourist to get charmed by. You don't even need martinis to enjoy it. Well done.
- Chris Spector - The Midwest Record
The name Muse carries with it two meanings: Firstly as a noun, "to honour a person who is a source of artistic inspiration", and secondly as a verb, because they "mused" over how to create a fresh new sound. The album is a blend of exotica, jazz, and pop music that will have you dreaming of beaches, palm trees, and wondrous sunsets. The melodies are timeless, while the production is modern and seamless.
- The Republic of Jazz
With seductive vocals, lush and layered instrumentation and a production quality that is sublime and polished, this release is destined to create a new genre in jazz-exotica.
- Marty Delia – The Jazz Music Blog
For the Tiki Collective's opening salvo, producer Jaymz Bee has assembled a conflagration of noted musicians and chirps that could rival Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. Tenuously classified as "Exotica Lounge Music," the 13-track project is essentially an ensemble of friends (led by musical director Eric St-Laurent) exploring various musical sub-genres, including snippets of surf, retro, jazz, pop and South Pacific Island influences of the 50s Tiki Culture. The tune menu contains a couple of standards such as Chelsea Bridge, rock anthems (the electric-sitar drenched Don't Fear the Reaper) as well as pop hits, including a version of Nigerian/British chanteuse Sade's mega-hit Sweetest Taboo.
- Lesley Mitchell-Clarke
The twelve member Tiki Collective includes a wide variety of instruments including strings, reeds, sitar and a rotating collection of vocalists on lush and romantically exotic readings of jazz material and beyond. There's lots of Ellington interpreted here, with Tyra Jutai on a saucy "Mood Indigo," Mingji Chen oohing on "Chelsea Bridge" and Jocelyn Barth languishing during "All Too Soon." Most intriguing is an exotic take of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Melissa Lauren and the Willows that is wonderfully alluring, while their read of "Hypnotized" is seductively sultry. Rich romance exuded by Genevieve Marentette" make "I've Never Left Your Arms" a lush delight and Denielle Bassels has fun on "The Wanderer." Mixing and match with sensuality.
- JazzWeekly
If I had to describe the atmosphere engendered by listening to this album, this scene comes to mind: a dim room (with mid-century modern decor, of course), lit only by a fire, an adult beverage to hand, a sunset skyline out the window. If you're in the mood for that level of cool, this is the album for you.
- Lesley Carter – Great Dark Wonder
The support from Lorenzo and Vesuvius Music was instrumental in making the Caravan of Music fundraiser a huge success. It was an incredible night bringing music-makers and music lovers together to raise $25,000 for programs supporting the well-being of our music community. The funds raised directly benefit Canadian music-makers, and ensures individuals and their families continue to have access to life-changing counselling services and emergency financial assistance in times of crisis. Thank you Lorenzo and Vesuvius Music for their help to keep the music flowing!!!!!!!
- Amanda Power - Unison Benevolent Fund
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