My firmly held beliefs, your didactic nonsense...

[graculus]

I don't know how many people reading this (if anyone is, given the lack of comments on a regular basis, but that's by the by...) but last year I bought a supporting membership for this year's WorldCon. This was mostly to support the Helsinki bid for the WorldCon in 2017, as each location is decided by the members of the convention held 2 years

Comments

[lexin]

I'd get supporting memberships for Worldcons, but I just don't read enough SF to know what I'm voting for (or against). So I read all the stuff about it, but with bemusement.

Interestingly, I'm actually going to the British Fantasy Convention in October, but bought my membership too late to catch the nomination round for that. And that's a genre I might know enough about to vote in.

[graculus]

Contrary to popular belief, the Hugo Awards are for both SF and F, it's just that the former has tended to win them more often. I have a hunch a fantasy novel might well win Best Novel this year (The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison) though I haven't read it yet myself.

[lovellama]

I'm reading this!

I read the article on io9 about the awards being political. :(

[graculus]

It's a natural progression in how to push back against progress from last year, when the lockstep view was 'let's take back the awards by nominating someone' only for that someone to get their arses kicked in the voting.

In one case, said nomination came 6th of 5 nominations, trailing 'no award'. So, how do we avoid that? Make sure to take all the nomination slots if you can, because if you can't have the awards then no-one (literally) can.

And thanks for reading. ;)

[leethet]

Sigh. The whole "White straight male Westerners always succeed on their own merits - everyone else is being coddled" mentality needs to go already. Sheesh.

[graculus]

There are some really deeply unpleasant characters involved in this as well, not that this probably comes as any surprise. But what do I know, not having a penis? ;)

[innocent_lex]

Nobody's ever explained to me how it is that the brain cells in the penis communicate with the brain cells in the head so that men are so much smarter than women, no matter the subject matter. I'm also not clear on how the brain cells in skin pigment work at all, let alone communicate. And don't get me started on where the extra heterosexual brain cells sit.

I expect it's my fluffy, only-in-my-head lady-brain not being clever enough to figure it out.

[graculus]

See, if you were only a man then I could explain it to you, if I were a man as well. So we're stuffed, then. ;)

[jawanderer]

Man, that's screwed up! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised any more at how negatively the historical "majority" reacts when they suddenly aren't the center of attention. Given what they're used to, I suppose they do honestly feel like they're being marginalized or discriminated against. It's really unfortunate that they're not self-aware enough to actually look at how things have been in the past and say "oh, I see. We were getting more than our fair share; it's just more equal now." *sigh* It's also hugely disappointing to have an award for excellence in fiction become not about the fiction.

It's always good to hear what's going on in your life and your head. :) I don't talk much, but I love listening.

Marian

[graculus]

After last year when it was pretty much women and non-White writers across the board despite some effort on their part, it was pretty much inevitable that they were really going to put some effort into the pushback this time around.

For me, though, it's the deep irony involved in this idea that they are somehow 'taking back' something that rightly belongs to them alone, the True Fans who are the arbiters of what Good SFF really is. And of course, they can only do this by running a concerted campaign because of the previous campaigns that have thwarted them from their rightful place in the past, even if those previous campaigns are actually non-existent. Except if you equate 'I really liked this, maybe you'll like it too and nominate it' posts and 'we have these 5 nominations which we will all put forward and squeeze everyone else out'. Which clearly they do.

Good to see you're still out there, Marian. :)

[jawanderer]

Well naturally. Having had their way (been or chosen the winners) for so long, they're certain it's the natural order of things for them to have their way. So if they don't get their way, it must be because someone is acting against them. Anyone acting against them must be in the wrong, therefore however someone else managed to "usurp their rightful place" must have been done in a manner that wasn't appropriate. So it's perfectly fine to do inappropriate things themselves to get back on top.

If the rich white fat cats would do as much in the way of physical acrobatics as they do mental acrobatics to justify their point of view, they wouldn't be so fat.

Also, this reminds me of the people who believe they're so superior that they will naturally win at everything, and if it looks like they're not going to win, they'll cheat. I've never understood how you could feel superior about winning something if you had to cheat to do it.

[graculus]

Yep, they all see themselves as the heirs to the white men folks who used to dominate the awards back in the day. Why? Because they're white men folks, naturally, which is more important than having any actual talent.

It must have absolutely stuck in their craws last year when a book like Ancillary Justice (space opera written by a woman and featuring non-gendered characters) won not just the Hugo but also the Nebula and the Clarke Award, becoming the only novel to win all three in one year.

[morganmuffle]

Someone actually tried to have that conversation with me at last year's WorldCon when I was looking at the percentages after the awards were announced, it's so spectacularly blind and STUPID *sighs*

I hadn't actually noticed this year's nominees were out though so thank you for posting.

[graculus]

Yep, it couldn't be that people who nominate stuff you don't like do it honestly because they like it, it has to be evidence of an Illuminati conspiracy. Because, being the True Fans that they are, everyone who knows the way of SF knows that Real SF is only written by straight white guys.

I follow a bunch of SFF writers on Twitter, so it was kind of hard to miss the cries of 'what the fuck???' and so on. ;)