Hugo Awards under attack

[Bob78164]

Apparently a couple of groups with an agenda that appears to me to be political have created slates for the Hugo nominations and have obtained enough nominating votes that the actual nominations are a mirror-image of the slates. At least two nominees have withdrawn their nominations. Story here. --Bob

[Beebs52]

This has been going on for awhile. SJW group berating the other side. Scalzi has been strongarming the agenda, versus Vox Day, blah blah blah.

[Beebs52]

It might have been better if you'd couched it as a controversy, rather than attack, cause I guarantee you aren't as up to date as you think you are.

[Bob78164]

There's a proposal, called E Pluribus Hugo, to fix the problem that enabled slates to dominate the nomination process. It looks like it will work. --Bob

[silverscreenselect]

Apparently a couple of groups with an agenda that appears to me to be political have created slates for the Hugo nominations and have obtained enough nominating votes that the actual nominations are a mirror-image of the slates. At least two nominees have withdrawn their nominations. Story here. --Bob

Bob:

Does anyone who doesn't have a Captain Kirk or Michonne action figure on his dresser really care about this?

[SpacemanSpiff]

Bob:

Does anyone who doesn't have a Captain Kirk or Michonne action figure on his dresser really care about this?

What about Major Matt Mason?

[Bob78164]

Apparently a couple of groups with an agenda that appears to me to be political have created slates for the Hugo nominations and have obtained enough nominating votes that the actual nominations are a mirror-image of the slates. At least two nominees have withdrawn their nominations. Story here. --Bob

Bob:

Does anyone who doesn't have a Captain Kirk or Michonne action figure on his dresser really care about this?

There's a lot of money in science fiction and fantasy nowadays. Perhaps you've heard of Game of Thrones? --Bob

[silverscreenselect]

Apparently a couple of groups with an agenda that appears to me to be political have created slates for the Hugo nominations and have obtained enough nominating votes that the actual nominations are a mirror-image of the slates. At least two nominees have withdrawn their nominations. Story here. --Bob

Bob:

Does anyone who doesn't have a Captain Kirk or Michonne action figure on his dresser really care about this?

There's a lot of money in science fiction and fantasy nowadays. Perhaps you've heard of Game of Thrones? --Bob

If people like right wing sci fi, they'll buy it. If they don't, they won't. It doesn't matter how many awards they win or don't win.

Take a look at the box office receipts of the Oscar winning films each year.

[Bob78164]

Does anyone who doesn't have a Captain Kirk or Michonne action figure on his dresser really care about this?

There's a lot of money in science fiction and fantasy nowadays. Perhaps you've heard of Game of Thrones? --Bob

If people like right wing sci fi, they'll buy it. If they don't, they won't. It doesn't matter how many awards they win or don't win.

Take a look at the box office receipts of the Oscar winning films each year.

What does right wing have to do with anything? Although it is true (at least as I understand it, not having read the works myself), that the slate that succeeded this year in boxing out all other nominees was backed by right-wing groups in response to increasing pluralism in award-winning science fiction.

But awards (particularly the Hugo) often bring works and authors to my attention. It's likely, for instance, that I'd never have read anything by Paolo Bacigalupi if The Windup Girl hadn't made such a splash. I suspect I'm not alone in that. --Bob

[silverscreenselect]

But awards (particularly the Hugo) often bring works and authors to my attention. It's likely, for instance, that I'd never have read anything by Paolo Bacigalupi if The Windup Girl hadn't made such a splash. I suspect I'm not alone in that. --Bob

If you're like me, you probably try to check out reviews before plunking down money and, more important, wasting limited free time on any books. I wasn't aware that the Hugo Awards were fan based (I don't read much sci fi), but if I was, I'd give them about as much weight as I give the MTV Movie and TV Awards. Namely none.

[Bob78164]

But awards (particularly the Hugo) often bring works and authors to my attention. It's likely, for instance, that I'd never have read anything by Paolo Bacigalupi if The Windup Girl hadn't made such a splash. I suspect I'm not alone in that. --Bob

If you're like me, you probably try to check out reviews before plunking down money and, more important, wasting limited free time on any books. I wasn't aware that the Hugo Awards were fan based (I don't read much sci fi), but if I was, I'd give them about as much weight as I give the MTV Movie and TV Awards. Namely none.

No, I really don't rely on reviews. I don't trust general book reviewers to understand sf. I'm minded of the Los Angeles Times movie reviewer who criticized The Secret of My Success (a French drawing room farce starring Michael J. Fox and set in Manhattan) as being unrealistic.

And I have found the Hugos a fairly reliable guide in the past, particularly with authors who are unfamiliar to me. I doubt that will be the case this year, because the slate voting means the Hugos will represent a much narrower segment of the electorate than has been the case in the past, but I believe E Pluribus Hugo will fix that problem. --Bob

[gsabc]

Doesn't it take a couple of years before successful proposals take effect? It's been a while since I was even a supporting member of the convention so I don't recall. What I know of this whole brouhaha (brief pause for the Firesign Theater fans to do their thing) comes from "Whatever", John Scalzi's long-running blog.

As an addendum, I discovered Scalzi through his non-fiction book about writing. But Redshirts is a real hoot, and the whole "Old Man's War" series has treated me right.

[Bob78164]

Doesn't it take a couple of years before successful proposals take effect? It's been a while since I was even a supporting member of the convention so I don't recall. What I know of this whole brouhaha (brief pause for the Firesign Theater fans to do their thing) comes from "Whatever", John Scalzi's long-running blog.

As an addendum, I discovered Scalzi through his non-fiction book about writing. But Redshirts is a real hoot, and the whole "Old Man's War" series has treated me right.

It looks like you're right. Under the current constitution, an amendment must be passed at one Worldcon and ratified at the following Worldcon before it takes effect.

A proposal passed at the last Worldcon that would stretch out this process by another year, requiring (a) passage by one Worldcon at its Business Meeting, (b) initial ratification at the next Worldcon at its Business Meeting, and then (c) final ratification by the membership at the following Worldcon. So I guess if that passes, E Pluribus Hugo can't take effect until voting for the 2018 Hugos. --Bob

[Spock]

Doesn't it take a couple of years before successful proposals take effect? It's been a while since I was even a supporting member of the convention so I don't recall. What I know of this whole brouhaha (brief pause for the Firesign Theater fans to do their thing) comes from "Whatever", John Scalzi's long-running blog.

As an addendum, I discovered Scalzi through his non-fiction book about writing. But Redshirts is a real hoot, and the whole "Old Man's War" series has treated me right.

This post highlights one of the great attributes of the Bored through the years. Now I have to add "Old Man's War" to my reading list.

[Bob78164]

Doesn't it take a couple of years before successful proposals take effect? It's been a while since I was even a supporting member of the convention so I don't recall. What I know of this whole brouhaha (brief pause for the Firesign Theater fans to do their thing) comes from "Whatever", John Scalzi's long-running blog.

As an addendum, I discovered Scalzi through his non-fiction book about writing. But Redshirts is a real hoot, and the whole "Old Man's War" series has treated me right.

This post highlights one of the great attributes of the Bored through the years. Now I have to add "Old Man's War" to my reading list.

I read and enjoyed the Old Man's War series, but not so much as to put Scalzi on my list of must-read authors. --Bob

[Bob78164]

Apparently a couple of groups with an agenda that appears to me to be political have created slates for the Hugo nominations and have obtained enough nominating votes that the actual nominations are a mirror-image of the slates. At least two nominees have withdrawn their nominations. Story here. --Bob

Bob:

Does anyone who doesn't have a Captain Kirk or Michonne action figure on his dresser really care about this?

Yes.

None of the nominees backed by the Sad Puppies or the Rabid Puppies won. In the categories where the slates scarfed up all of the nominations (including Best Novella and Best Short Story), the winner was No Award. --Bob