Posted on 01/17/2021 9:27:58 AM PST by tbw2
The Hugo Awards turn into a participation trophy of sorts ...
Of course, members of “marginalized communities.” You throw that term in there and you’re REALLY sorry. It took me awhile to figure out what the heck they were doing which was so outrageous to such marginalized peoples, but I found out after some research.
Apparently, when a short story magazine or whatnot gets an award they have a max of 4 contributors listed on the ballot and/or receiving the actual phallic object they give out as a trophy.
In 2021 participation trophy era, now ALL people who worked on it in any capacity must get a trophy. That means the person in the office who got coffee for the person who packed the magazine to ship must get their award. I mean you can’t get much more marginalized than that, can you?
The spiral continues toward making this even more culturally irrelevant. That said, last I heard, Baen Books is really pushing to make a presence at this convention if it actually happens (remember, these are mostly geriatrics deathly afraid of the sniffles). It seems they put up a white flag and want to be accepted by the establishment more than fight them. Sounds a lot like Mitch McConnell.
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They should do that for Oscars too.
Science fiction groups talk about the “brain-rot” that get to science fiction writers as they age.
The way that works is that the great SF writers often start with a great new book, and the greatest ones can follow it with several more great books.
But, almost without exception, the later works are mediocre and in some cases just awful.
It seems to work that way for any organization.
Creative and idealistic people work really hard and set up the organization.
For some years it has a high standard of excellence and accomplishment.
Then the brain rot sets in and it gets worse and worse every year...
Although there are always some bright spots here and there, in general I think the last 20-30 years have been a cultural wasteland. Not that the previous 20-30 period was all that wonderful either. But I think it was better than today. Now we have very little to offer in term of culture and it’s just going to get worse.
I miss Heinlein
We lost John W. Campbell.
Now ‘Who Goes There’?
Gone back to old timey SF. Been so long sense I’ve read most of these authors that they seem like new books too me. Vance, Heinlein, Poul, Lem, Anderson, Asimov, anyone 30 years back or more. Some books. More books on tape. There are some good books on tape on Youtube if you can stomach the place. Search around.
One of my hobbies is collecting hard copies of old science fiction books.
I have thousands of them.
As you say, every time I pick up one it is a new adventure—incredible stuff.
The one writer who continues to blow me away is Jack Vance. Anything he wrote is just amazing.
(btw, if you click on my name I discuss many science fiction novels and short stories...)
I used to be a big Sci-Fi fan. Then, about 10 years or so ago, more and more Sci-Fi authors were coming out as gay and the characters in their novels were gay. Sci-Fi seemed to be a way to get gay literature under your radar and into your home, with the fantasy part acting as a sort of sugar coating. I don’t see my favorite authors putting out books any more, and I don’t enjoy the twisted stories coming out now.
Your post is correct—there are fewer and fewer new SF books worth your time.
The other “politically correct” infection of science fiction was having black scientists, entrepreneurs etc lead the way to the new future....
The pandering just got over the top...
Vox Popoli has been talking about this for some time.
Vance had an absolutely incredible command of the language.
Thank God for backlists...
Some authors, perceived as right-wing, are shunned or even barred.
5 years or more ago there was a big stink up from the angry millennials upset about so many old white guests being celebrated.
Their own ageism and sexism and racism was ignored by the media and convention organizers.
Set Phasers to Kill! SJWs Burn Down The Hugo Awards To Prove How Tolerant And Welcoming They Are
Breitbart ^ | August 23, 2015 | Milo Yiannopoulos
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3328665/posts
At the seventy-third annual Worldcon science fiction convention on Saturday night, social justice warriors did their best impression of the nightmare firemen of Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451, choosing to burn down the Hugo Awards and damage science fiction instead of seeing works of heretical authors outside of their exclusive clique winning awards.
Earlier this year, Breitbart reported on the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies voting slates, which swept many major categories for the Hugo Awards, science fiction’s coveted fan-voted awards. This year’s Hugos were hotly anticipated: fans and industry insiders alike were curious to see if social justice could come together to act with the uniformity of thought of the Borg to overcome the Puppy’s nominations.
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The Hugo Awards: How to Fight Back in the Culture War
The Federalist ^ | April 8, 2015 | Robert Tracinski
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3276995/posts
This is the era in which we are all being drafted in the Culture War. It doesn’t matter if you’re secular or religious, political or apolitical, frat boys or geeks, hipsters or bros. Nobody gets to be neutral or sit on the sidelines, because we’ll all be expected to make our obeisance to the latest politically correct opinion handed down to us by a Twitter mob.
By now, we know the basic ingredients of a typical skirmish in Culture War 4.0. It goes something like this: a) a leftist claque starts loudly pushing the “correct” Culture War position onto b) a field previously considered fun, innocuous, apolitical, purely personal, or recreational, and c) accusing anyone who opposes them of being a racist, sexist, bigot who relies on oppressive “privilege” to push everyone else down, while these claims are d) backed up by a biased press that swallows the line of attack uncritically and repeats it.
Any of that sound familiar? It’s just daily life for anyone on the Right, and it’s slowly becoming daily life for everybody else. Ask Comet Guy.
The innocuous field in which the personal is suddenly discovered to be very political might be fashion, music, toys, sports, or sex, not to mention weddings, flowers, cake-baking, and pizza.
Or video games. Or science fiction.
Which explains the latest, wide new front of the Great Social Justice War: Gamergate and its latest outgrowth, the battle over the Hugo Awards, a prestigious annual fiction award for science fiction and fantasy writers...
... I know what it’s like to love an author despite his or her controversial statements about real-life political issues. And I also feel that this year’s Hugo slate is an unmitigated outrage that has serious implications for the future of speculative fiction. Next week, on Aug. 22, voters will decide if these awards are still about celebrating excellent writing and innovative ideas, or if they are just another blood-drenched battleground in the conflict between white male traditionalists and everyone else.
For those who don’t follow the genre-fiction awards circuit, here’s what’s going on. A shifting contingent of science fiction authors, editors, and fans—led by Larry Correia (author of the Monster Hunters series, among others) and Brad Torgerson (author of “Ray of Light,” “The Chaplain’s Legacy” and other Hugo-nominated novelettes)—has spent the last several years fighting against what they perceive to be an escalating liberal bias in the Hugos. Dubbing themselves the Sad Puppies, this group has engaged in an annual effort to mobilize fans into voting for a specific slate of nominees, usually headlined by authors of a conservative political persuasion. The Hugos are vulnerable to this sort of manipulation because fans purchase the right to nominate works of fiction onto the ballot and vote—anyone who has bought a supporting or attending membership in the World Science Fiction Convention (aka Worldcon) can do it.
Historically, the Sad Puppies have not been successful in their efforts to swarm the Hugos, but this year it worked ...
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3325356/posts
Vance will always be #1. I live cow country Nevada and our local library is under Covid closure so I’m doing old SF. Just got through listening to the Lyonesse books on tape and I am just finishing the reading of Nightlamp. Next reading will most likely be the Demon Princes novels. Haven’t visited them in awhile.
Whenever a profession switches from predominately male to predominantly female it loses status... pay goes down... and quality suffers.
When men like Isaac Asimov were writing and editing the best and brightest were drawn to the profession...not so much anymore.
Liberals have quotas for everything and conservatives are not part of the quotas.
I have many older science fiction books, short stories but not much from the 90’s. All before and going back to EE Doc Smith and his “Skylark” books from the 20’ and 30’s. Many of his story ideas ended up in the original Star Trek.
The star trek books that I saw in the 90’s were for the most part badly written and other science fiction writers were pushing the sjw type stories. Think Star Trek, the next generation early tv episodes.
I ended up throwing them out.
With the demise of bookstores I have not bought any science fiction books. I have downloaded some older books from decades ago for the kindle so I can read them as I have pretty much stopped buying paper books as I have too many now!
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