Tag Archives: Hugo Awards

#BaenAwardsStories

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Tim Hall

Baen Logo Everyone loves a Twitter hashtag game. But this one does need a little context in order to make sense.

Science Fiction publisher Baen Books, who specialise in military and action-adventure SF with a decidedly conservtive-libertarian bent, have announced a Fantasy Short Story Award. The way it’s come so soon after the highly controversial Hugo Awards right-wing block-voting slate that included a number of Baen authors has raised eyebrows, and there have been suggestions that it’s not entirely a coincidence.

Worse, it’s being judged by none other than Larry Correia, who put together that slate and promoted it along with the virulent racist, homophobe and rape apologist Vox Day, whose work also appeared on that slate. Correia may be a fine writer, but from his blog he comes over as an unpleasant egotistic bellend. And he doesn’t seem the least bit bothered that association with Vox Day might damage his career. It makes you wonder just how radioactive someone needs to be before people refuse to associate with them.

The rules of the contest make it clear what sort of stories they’re looking for.

What We Want To See

Adventure fantasy with heroes you want to root for. Warriors either modern or medieval, who solve problems with their wits or with their sword–and we have nothing against dragons, elves, dwarves, castles under siege, urban fantasy, damsels in distress, or damsels who can’t be bothered to be distressed.

What We Don’t Want To See

Political drama with no action, angst-ridden teens pining over vampire lovers, religious allegory, novel segments, your gaming adventure transcript, anything set in any universe not your own, “it was all a dream” endings, or screenplays.

Yes, it does seem to emphasis a certain somewhat clichéd type of story, with rather a lot of implied sexism.

The satirists of Twitter were very quick off the mark with a hashtag game that mercilessly mocked all of Baen Books’ tropes. Here are a few of the highlights.

Spot the parody of Vox Day.

And while on the subject of Vox Day, Stephanie Zvan has reviewed his Hugo Award nominated Opera Vita Aeterna, and concludes the story is indeed truly, truly awful, Eye of Argon without the unintentional humour. It’s impossible to escape the conclusion that it was nominated for the sole purpose of trolling the awards.

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Jonathan Ross, The Hugos and the Twitterstorm

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Tim Hall

Jonathan Ross - Photo from Wikimedia CommonsSo Jonathan Ross was invited to host the Hugo Awards at WorldCon in London, but was forced to withdraw following a storm of outrage on Twitter. Since a tweet of mine got quoted by Bleeding Cool and makes it look as though I was part of the Twitter mob with torches and pitchforks, I thought I needed to make it clear where I stand.

The way so many people had a problem with a household name TV presenter from hosting a major science fiction awards ceremony must be seen in the context of the SF world’s ongoing civil war. On one side there are those believe the genre needs to be made more inclusive towards people who are not white and male, and it’s time to end the racism and sexism that has bedevilled the genre for years. One the other side are those who are concerned about threats to freedom of expression, and witch-hunts against individuals. It doesn’t help that there are a few unpleasant and poisonous individuals on both sides, whose behaviour reinforces the other sides’ conviction that they’re right.

I am not a fan of Jonathan Ross. Given some of his past behaviour, including his reputation for cruelty-based humour and his apparent attitude towards women, inviting such a divisive figure to host a flagship event was always going to be problematic. When one of the organising committee resigned in protest to his invitation, that ought to have been a warning sign that he might not have been quite the right person.

But the way events panned out, nobody comes out of this with any credit. The decision to invite him as host was spectacularly tone-deaf given the ongoing divisions in the SF world. But that doesn’t excuse the people who went on Twitter and attacked him personally with quite unnecessary levels of vitriol. And Ross himself didn’t respond to those attacks with good grace. The whole affair from beginning to end is a spectacular fail by the SFF community as a whole.

The public face of the SFF community is diminished by this. Anyone gleefully celebrating “victory” rather than seeing the whole affair as a tragedy needs to take a long hard look at themselves.

Addendum: There’s a lot of (mostly) level-headed discussion on the subject on Charlie Stross‘s blog.

Further Addendum: And a very insightful post from Foz Meadows laying a lot of the blame on the LonCon committee for the ham-fisted way they handled the initial announcement,

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