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Vox Day

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Vox Day
Vox Day 2007 promotional photo
Born
Theodore Beale

(1968-08-21) August 21, 1968 (age 56)
Minnesota, United States
EducationBucknell University
Known forWriter, computer game designer, publisher, musician
ParentRobert Beale
Websitevoxday.blogspot.com

Theodore Robert Beale (born 21 August 1968), professionally known as Vox Day, is an American publisher, activist, science fiction writer, journalist, musician, and video game designer.

Early life

Vox Day grew up in Minnesota, the son of Rebecca Beale and entrepreneur and jailed tax protester Robert Beale.[1] He states that he is of English, Irish, Mexican, and Native American descent.[2] He graduated from Bucknell University in 1990,[3] where he studied economics, history and Japanese language.

Music career

In 1987, Day, still using his birth name, was playing in a cover band called NoBoys. He met Smilehouse lead singer Paul Sebastian at The Underground in Minneapolis and the two men put together a band with Day on keyboards and Sebastian on guitar and vocals. They found a drummer, Michael Larson, and a production engineer, Daniel Lenz. The band Psykosonik began recording electronic music at Sebastian's apartment where he had a recording studio and performed in Minneapolis clubs such as First Avenue, 7th Street Entry, and Glam Slam.The band signed with Wax Trax! Records.[4]

Day was a member of the band between 1992 and 1994, during which time Psykosonik recorded two Billboard Top 40 club play hits: "Silicon Jesus" in September 1993 and "Welcome to My Mind" in February 1994,[5][4] and he appeared in the band's video for "Welcome to my Mind".[6] Psykosonik also operated a music company called Power of Seven that provided music for video games by Raven and Bungie.[7][8]

Video game and writing career

Day and Andrew Lunstad founded a video game company in 1993 named Fenris Wolf. They developed the game Rebel Moon in 1995, and its sequel Rebel Moon Rising in 1997.[9] Fenris Wolf was developing two games, Rebel Moon Revolution and Traveler for the Sega Dreamcast, when it closed in 1999 after a legal dispute with its retail publisher GT Interactive Software.[10] In 1999, under the name Eternal Warriors, Day and Lunstad released The War in Heaven, a Biblical video game published by Valusoft and distributed by GT Interactive.[11] Day holds the design patent for WarMouse (known as the OpenOffice Mouse until Sun Microsystems objected on trademark grounds[12]), a computer mouse with 18 buttons, a scroll wheel, a thumb-operated joystick, and 512k of memory.[13][14][15] Day was an early supporter of Gamergate and hosted the GGinParis meetup in July 2015 with Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Cernovich.[16]

Day first began writing under the name Vox Day for a weekly video game review column in the St. Paul Pioneer Press,[17] and later continued to use the pen name for a weekly WorldNetDaily opinion column. In 2000, Day published his first solo novel, The War in Heaven, the first in a series of fantasy novels with a religious theme titled The Eternal Warriors. The novel investigates themes "about good versus evil among angels, fallen and otherwise".[18]

Day served as a member of the Nebula Award Novel Jury in 2004[19] and in 2007.[20]

In 2008 Day published The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, a book devoted to criticizing the arguments presented in various books by atheist authors Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Michel Onfray.[21] The book was named a 2007 Christmas recommendation by John Derbyshire in the online conservative magazine, National Review Online.[22] Day's 2008 book, Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy, was nominated for an American Christian Fiction Writers award in 2009.[23]

In 2015 Day released a book about activists online concerned with social justice, commonly referred to disparagingly as "social justice warriors", in a book titled SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police, which was billed as a "guide to understanding, anticipating, and surviving SJW attacks." The book was positively reviewed by the conservative online magazine American Thinker.[24]

Day currently publishes a blog called Vox Popoli, which translates as "voice of the people" after the aphorism Vox populi, vox dei. He also publishes the blog Alpha Game.

Castalia House publishing

In early 2014 Day founded Castalia House publishing in Kouvola, Finland. He acts as lead editor and has published the work of such writers as John C. Wright, Jerry Pournelle, Tom Kratman, Eric S. Raymond, Martin van Creveld, Rolf Nelson, and William S. Lind.[25][26][27] Castalia House works have been finalists for 12 Hugo Awards.[28]

In 2016 Castalia House works had two wins at the Dragon Awards.[29][30]

Controversies

Feud with John Scalzi

Since 2005 Day has engaged in an exchange of online criticism with science fiction writer John Scalzi. According to Day, this resulted from Scalzi's response to a Day article blaming the lack of female hard SF writers on the lack of STEM courses and the popularity of Women's Studies among women.[31][32] In February 2013, Scalzi attracted media attention with a pledge to pay $5 to various charities and nonprofit advocacy organizations every time Day mentioned him. After others echoed this pledge, over $50,000 was pledged in under a week.[31]

Expulsion from the SFWA

In 2013 Day ran unsuccessfully against Steven Gould to succeed John Scalzi as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). African American writer N. K. Jemisin, during her delivery of the Guest of Honour speech at 2013 Continuum in Australia, complained that 10% of the SFWA membership voted for Day in his bid for the SFWA presidential position and called him "a self-described misogynist, racist, anti-Semite, and a few other flavors of asshole".[33] Day responded by calling Jemisin an "ignorant half-savage".[33] In the resulting interactions, Day also called writer and editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden a "fat frog".[34]

Day tweeted a link to his comments about Jemisin on the SFWA's official @SFWAAuthors Twitter feed. The SFWA Board subsequently voted to expel him from the organization.[35] In 2015, the Wall Street Journal described Day as "the most despised man in science fiction".[36]

2014 Hugo Awards

Main article: Sad Puppies

In 2014 Day's novelette, "Opera Vita Aeterna", was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette,[37] as a direct result of Larry Correia's "Sad Puppies" ballot-manipulation campaign.The Hugo voters ranked "Opera" sixth out of five nominees, behind No Award.[38][39][40]

2015 Hugo Awards

In 2015 Day implemented a slate of candidates for the Hugo Awards called Rabid Puppies, which successfully placed 58 of its 67 recommended nominees on the ballot. Two of the nominations were for Day himself, and eleven were for works published by his small Finnish publisher Castalia House,[41] where Day acts as lead editor.[42] Of those other nominees, two authors, an editor, and a fanzine subsequently withdrew their own nominations; three of these four explicitly cited the wish to dissociate themselves from Day as being among their reasons for doing so.[43][44][45] Withdrawals from the Best Novel category allowed space for Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem to move into a finalist position,[46][47] and it went on to win the Best Novel Award.[48] Based on the Hugo voting statistics, some sources credited the win to Vox Day's backing of the novel.[49]

Day was nominated as a finalist in the categories Best Editor, Long Form and Best Editor, Short Form. When asked why he included himself in the nomination, and what it meant that the voters preferred that no one win the award rather than give one to either Day or a Day-endorsed entry, Day stated, "I wanted to leave a big smoking hole where the Hugo Awards were. All this has ever been is a giant Fuck You—one massive gesture of contempt."[50]

2016 Hugo Awards

In 2016, Day, in collaboration with the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies movements, implemented a slate of finalists for the Hugo Award, including all finalists in the Best Short Story category.[51] Day was nominated in the category Best Editor, Long Form, the Castalia House Blog edited by Jeffro Johnson in the category Best Fanzine, and his own non-fiction release SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police by Vox Day, published by Castalia House, in the category Best Related Work.

Other Vox Day recommendations of note which became Hugo Award finalists included Chuck Tingle's short story "Space Raptor Butt Invasion" and Hao Jingfang's "Folding Beijing" which went on to win in the Best Novelette category.[52] All nominated works associated with Castalia House ranked below No Award.[53]

Hugo Award nominations

Day has been a finalist five times for a Hugo Award; in all cases, his nominations have been ranked below "No Award" in the final vote.[38][54][53]

Personal life

Day is married and has a son.[61] He states he is a member of Mensa.[62] Day speaks English, Japanese, French, German and Italian.[63]

Political views

Day describes himself as a Christian nationalist.[64] Milo Yiannopoulos, writing for the right-wing conservative network Breitbart, called Vox Day an "alt-right figurehead".[65] Writing for Publishers Weekly, Kimberly Winston described Day as a "fundamentalist Southern Baptist",[18] but other journalists have made more pointed characterizations, such as Mike VanHelder's assertion in Popular Science that Day's views are "white supremacist."[66] Similarly, an article by Jeet Heer in The New Republic says that Day "has written that women should be deprived of the vote",[67] an interpretation of comments in Day's article "Why Women's Rights are Wrong." Day also engages in social and political debates in the media as an alt-right representative.[68]

Discography

Video games

Game name First released System name(s) Role(s)
X-Kaliber 2097 1994 SNES Music (Psykosonik)
CyClones 1994 DOS Audio
Rebel Moon 1995 DOS Game designer, co-producer
Rebel Moon Rising 1997 DOS Game designer, co-producer
Rebel Moon Revolution Planned 1999 Windows Game designer, co-producer
The War in Heaven 1999 Windows Game designer
Traveller[69] Planned 2000 Sega Dreamcast Game designer
Hot Dish 2007 Windows Game designer

Bibliography

  • SJWs Always Lie: Taking Down the Thought Police (2015) ISBN 978-952-7065-68-6
  • The Altar of Hate (2014) ISBN 978-952-7065-23-5
  • The Last Witchking (2013) ISBN 978-952-7065-04-4
  • The Wardog's Coin (2013) ISBN 978-1-935929-97-0
  • A Throne of Bones (2012) ISBN 978-1-935929-82-6
  • A Magic Broken (2012) ISBN 978-1-935929-79-6
  • The Return of the Great Depression (2009) ISBN 978-1-935071-18-1
  • The Irrational Atheist (2008) ISBN 978-1-933771-36-6
  • Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy (2008) ISBN 978-0-9821049-2-7
  • The Wrath of Angels (2006) ISBN 978-0-7434-6982-1
  • The World in Shadow (2002) ISBN 978-0-671-02454-3
  • The War in Heaven (2000) ISBN 978-0-7434-5344-8

As contributor

  • Cuckservative: How "Conservatives" Betrayed America (2015), John Red Eagle, ASIN B018ZHHA52
  • Quantum Mortis: A Mind Programmed (2014), Jeff Sutton, Jean Sutton. Castalia House. ISBN 978-952-7065-13-6
  • Quantum Mortis: Gravity Kills (2013), Steve Rzasa. Marcher Lord Hinterlands. ISBN 978-952-7065-12-9
  • Quantum Mortis: A Man Disrupted (2013), Steve Rzasa. Marcher Lord Hinterlands. ISBN 978-952-7065-10-5
  • Rebel Moon (1996), Bruce Bethke. Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0-671-00236-7
  • The Anthology at the End of the Universe (2004), Glen Yeffeth (editor). BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-932100-56-3
  • Archangels: The Fall (2005) ISBN 978-1-887814-15-7
  • Revisiting Narnia: Fantasy, Myth, and Religion in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles (2005), Shanna Caughey (editor). BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-932100-63-1
  • Halo Effect (2007), Glenn Yeffeth (editor). BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-933771-11-3
  • You Do Not Talk About Fight Club (2008), Chuck Palahniuk (Foreword), Read Mercer Schuchardt (Editor). BenBella Books. ISBN 978-1-933771-52-6
  • Stupefying Stories October 2011 (2011), Bruce Bethke (Editor). Rampant Loon Press. ASIN B005T5B9YC
  • Stupefying Stories March 2012 (2012), Bruce Bethke (Editor). Rampant Loon Press. ASIN B007T3N0XK

References

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  2. ^ Day, Vox (August 1, 2014). "Did not see that coming". Vox Popoli. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  3. ^ "Bucknell Magazine Summer 2008" (PDF). Reviews and Criticism. Bucknell University. p. 17. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
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  62. ^ "Vox Day". WND Books.
  63. ^ Johnson, Greg. "Greg Johnson Interviews Vox Day". Counter-Currents Publishing. Retrieved 27 Jan 2016.
  64. ^ Day, Vox (December 15, 2015). "Why John C. Wright is not a libertarian". Vox Populi. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  65. ^ Yiannopoulos, Milo. "Twitter Shadowbanning 'Real and Happening Every Day' Says Inside Source". Retrieved 17 Feb 2016.
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  67. ^ Heer, Jeet (April 17, 2015). "Science Fiction's White Boys' Club Strikes Back". The New Republic.
  68. ^ Should Women Vote? Vox Day vs Louise Mensch: ‘Conservative Feminism’, 14 May 2016, retrieved 19 June 2016
  69. ^ "Traveller". Retrieved 24 June 2016.
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