A late word on the Hugos
I meant to post about my Hugo picks, but never got past the first post, where I gave my choices for Graphic Story and Related Work (and a summary of my reasons for those picks).
Well, it's sort of beside the point now ...
I was at the Hugo ceremony. I was lucky enough to be near the front.
I don't know what anybody else felt, but to me the anticipation, that feeling of tenterhooks, was palpable ... through the First Fandom awards, the Big Heart (congratulations to a very deserving Ben Yalow), the Campbell, the fan Hugos ... up until the first "No Award" was announced.
And it was a No Award. Followed by four more.
Wow.
Up until it actually happened, I wasn't sure it was going to fall out that way. Maybe I hadn't talked to enough people. Or maybe nobody really knew, until we all knew.
I had voted No Award in all of the short fiction categories and in Related Work, on principle. Doubly so. The first principle was to strike my own small blow against the gaming of the nomination system by the two gangs of Puppies.
But when the packet came out, I had decided that I was going to be honest and judge the work on its merits. I then proceeded to read (almost)* all of the nominated works.
*(I think I can be forgiven for giving up on Wisdom from My Internet after a mere sampling of its myriad wonders. I didn't finish Letters from Gardner either, but the several unremarkable chapters I did read was enough. I did, however, read all of the John C. Wright nominees, including Transhuman and Subhuman. Gods help me. What kept me going was morbid fascination ... well, I suppose I can say I read his so-called "awful truth" so the rest of you don't have to, but Wright, you fucker, that's a small chunk of my life I'll never get back. Meh.)
Well, I read the nominated work and judged it on its merits. And it all merited No Award.
Including, in my opinion, the non-Puppy nominated work that did win for best Novelette, "The Day the World Turned Upside Down." Chacun à son goût, I suppose ...
Anyway, back to the ceremony. A total repudiation of the Puppies. I do feel for some of the editors who were nominated (mainly Mike Resnick, Sheila Gilbert, and Toni Weisskopf), who, in a less polarized year, where they hadn't been smeared by Puppy shit, might have had a real chance at a rocket.
And we have more of this to look forward to next year?
I really hope the Sad Puppies abandon this pointless exercise. I don't expect the Rabid Puppies to do so. They hate fandom ... they hate the Hugos ... they want to destroy us, and have explicitly said so.
Well, it's sort of beside the point now ...
I was at the Hugo ceremony. I was lucky enough to be near the front.
I don't know what anybody else felt, but to me the anticipation, that feeling of tenterhooks, was palpable ... through the First Fandom awards, the Big Heart (congratulations to a very deserving Ben Yalow), the Campbell, the fan Hugos ... up until the first "No Award" was announced.
And it was a No Award. Followed by four more.
Wow.
Up until it actually happened, I wasn't sure it was going to fall out that way. Maybe I hadn't talked to enough people. Or maybe nobody really knew, until we all knew.
I had voted No Award in all of the short fiction categories and in Related Work, on principle. Doubly so. The first principle was to strike my own small blow against the gaming of the nomination system by the two gangs of Puppies.
But when the packet came out, I had decided that I was going to be honest and judge the work on its merits. I then proceeded to read (almost)* all of the nominated works.
*(I think I can be forgiven for giving up on Wisdom from My Internet after a mere sampling of its myriad wonders. I didn't finish Letters from Gardner either, but the several unremarkable chapters I did read was enough. I did, however, read all of the John C. Wright nominees, including Transhuman and Subhuman. Gods help me. What kept me going was morbid fascination ... well, I suppose I can say I read his so-called "awful truth" so the rest of you don't have to, but Wright, you fucker, that's a small chunk of my life I'll never get back. Meh.)
Well, I read the nominated work and judged it on its merits. And it all merited No Award.
Including, in my opinion, the non-Puppy nominated work that did win for best Novelette, "The Day the World Turned Upside Down." Chacun à son goût, I suppose ...
Anyway, back to the ceremony. A total repudiation of the Puppies. I do feel for some of the editors who were nominated (mainly Mike Resnick, Sheila Gilbert, and Toni Weisskopf), who, in a less polarized year, where they hadn't been smeared by Puppy shit, might have had a real chance at a rocket.
And we have more of this to look forward to next year?
I really hope the Sad Puppies abandon this pointless exercise. I don't expect the Rabid Puppies to do so. They hate fandom ... they hate the Hugos ... they want to destroy us, and have explicitly said so.