The Hugos are happening right now. There’s already been a (horror!) straight white male winner for best fanzine.
Feel free to comment on winners, non-winners, commentary, whatever Hugo-related.
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81 responses to “Hugo Semi-Live Comments Thread”
Very inclusive, Are there going to be safe space for us guys?
Are you kidding? Of course not.
I think that it’s passed the point already where the boundary-pushing is going to be science fiction where men dominate. I like me some butt-kicking heroines, babes in battle armor, chicks in chain mail, mystic mammaries… okay, gone off the deep end there… But I’m seriously starting to consider if I could write manly-men drop-kicking evil, buckling some swash, muscle rippling goodness…. just to be DIFFERENT.
It’s the only rebellion left in fiction now, isn’t it? They’ve spent the last 40 years praising themselves for how daring and transgressive they were . . . 40 years ago. They want to rage against The Man, but they *are* The Man.
Just watched a couple of the awards. Lots of white guys so far.
Cue the outrage.
Leftist white guys get a special dispensation, but must be kept under strict observation at all times.
(Popcorn–make that popcorn chicken “breaded” with Parmesan cheese; low carb dontcha know.)
Game of Thrones for the Red Wedding episode.
Suddenly thinking of a variant on the Billy Idol song….
Aaannnd the best short did NOT go to “Dinosaur,” but to a Tor.com piece “The Water that Falls on You from Nowhere” by John Chu. The live-text-stream commenters love it. *shrug* I’m glad its not “Dinosaur.”
Dang. “Lady Astronaut” won best novelett. I was so hoping for You-Know-Who or Brad T. to win.
Arrrrg. A PC sweep. Ancillary Justice won Novel. Grrr.
Crap. Was hoping Wheel of Time.
While all of the winners were disappointing, the one that I find absolutely crazy is Stross winning for Novella. His story was absolutely the worst out of the whole list. Even the story that wasn’t even sci-fi/fantasy (the Springs one) would have been a better winner.
The PC crowd got their wish as well with Vox falling behind “No Award”
I personally felt Vox’s and Kowal’s stories were at the same level and both behind Brad ‘s.
Damien G Walter’s Twitter feed is a torrent of overweening obnoxiousness right now. I mean, more than normal. Example:
“And Ancillary Justice heroically slays Wheel of Time to protect the honour of scifi. #hugoawards WELL DONE!”
And also:
“Many fine and deserving winners. And two equally deserving losers ;)”
Of course, all the PC stuff won, so can you really say Larry lost?
Thehonor of sci-fi? Chortle
The only Honor of SF i know hasn’t been nominated for a Hugo . . . yet.
Yeah, but when Weber gets done with it, the whole blasted series is eligible. 😀
That would be . . . glorious. 🙂
Probably make a few heads explode as well.
The Hugos proved his points, in spades. Everything he said about the Hugos, they demonstrated.
Looks like a win to me.
And his opponents are demonstrating it in spades right now.
My response was redundant. Redundant was my response. 😦
“Of course, all the PC stuff won, so can you really say Larry lost?”
No.
🙂
From anything people have said, Ancillary Justice is an excellent novel. Of course that doesn’t stop anyone from mocking the people who put so much importance on the non-binary check-list. The idea that science fiction, I mean science-fracking-fiction of all things, has a problem with imagining different social arrangements or playing with counter-cultural tropes or even counter-biological tropes, deserves all the mocking it gets.
And of course, they *still* believe Larry actually wanted the award. I guess they really didn’t bother reading his blog. It’s not that hard, really, unless you’re afraid of being exposed to differing viewpoints.
I think that Larry will laugh all the way to the bank.
I tried to read it. Seriously tried. Made my brain hurt. Might try again……
I couldn’t do it, either.
Oh I wish I were somewhere with popcorn :-d
Just wait until they get a load of Sad Puppies III. The Revenge!
This time, it’s personal.
I hope somebody does the same next year. They think they’ve “won” now. 😉
If more people get involved and more people nominate a wider variety of stories, I think that’s a good thing for everyone.
Sadly, next year I fear they’ll ensure there’s even *less* diversity than before. To preserve the “honor of the Awards”, of course.
It’s amazing how many people on Twitter are all announcing this as a victory against “fascist”. Not only are they groupthinkers, apparently none of them actually know what the word means. Words have meanings. “Fascism” has a specific meaning. It’s not a catchall synonym for anything or anyone you don’t like. Get it straight!
It means exactly what they mean it to mean at that moment, nothing more, nothing less. *dry*
Even if it isn’t understood by anyone else – logic is a tool of the patriarchy remember?
(My head hurt a LOT when I leaned about that particular piece of idiocy…)
If words don’t have meanings, then language is just noise.
You and I know that, and refuse to play their game (unless it’s to mock it, in which case Larry’s really good at that…) but it’s one of the tactics they use to try derail any discussion. My usual response to that kind of Alinskyite tactic is ‘No, it means this and f— you.’ Not polite, but someone who is resorting to that kind of thing isn’t being polite anyway.
And really, ‘language is just noise’ to them, that’s why they’re trying to enforce that rule on us.
I’m kinda surprised at Scalzi’s twitter response. I would have figured on something more mature……
However, I’m a bottom line kind of guy. I’m pretty sure that Larry is winning the battle that counts, how heavy is bank account is……..
Scalzi? Mature? Maybe 50% of the time. The rest of the time he’s just as much of an obnoxious SJW as Damien.
His last post involves him happily geeking out about his new ‘unlocked achievement’ regarding his hobby and about his wife buying a ton of Ikea shelving to help support said hobby. That hobby is NOT a cheap one.
So yeah, he’s definitely won on the bottom line kudos. *grin* For a ‘D-list author.’
I was informed, by someone who sadly is no longer my friend, that conservatives can’t be geeks. You may be able to guess why we are no longer friends.
*stares at text, jaw drops* ……. *closes mouth*
*starts snarling out swearwords*
Well, jokes on the ex-friend. My house is full of social and fiscal conservative-leaning geeks, and we’re raising the next generation.
And I’m sorry you had to deal with hearing that. *hug*
Yeah. I may be Canadian and super-polite and all, but once in a while there comes something that I just can’t ignore.
Western monasticism was created to protect the geeks from the rough and tumble of “normal” life. Not to mention, I know so many counter examples it’s not even funny. Sadly, reality is what it is, no matter what people want, reality will continue to be what it is. So the willfully ignorant will continue to shoot themselves in the foot. It’s a shame they have to take the rest of us with them.
But… geeks need to do math. Certainly your former friend meant “nerds”. 😉
More seriously… that’s tragic. The chance to enjoy common interests gives way to division because someone decided to view politics as representative of the whole man and what ought to be a delightful mix of interests becomes “I am All Good Things that the Other is not.”
I can’t help but thinking after the fuss, and chuckling madly, that this one will blow up in their faces, too. “Geek” used to be something of a perjorative after all.
They’ll come up with another name for us. Or names. Chances are, we’ll own it, make it cool, they’ll get jealous and try to take it back again. If they happen to succeed, the cycle may well repeat. *shrug* Seems rather pitiable that way.
Oh yeah, or they’ll double-down on “geek.” I’ve seen heated discussions in the comments on a usually pretty mild blog about whether “geek” should be dropped because it is derogatory and demeaning to the mentally retarded and physically deformed, or should be “reclaimed” and used as a badge of honor by nerd girls. I’m running out of scorecards to try and keep up with the kerfluffle of the week.
Oh dear… “logic is a tool of the patriarchy” just NEEDS to be on a T-shirt.
And I just know some braindead SJW will wear it.
…
There’s a money-making opportunity for anyone who has the resources to do this…
“You’re wearing that ironically, right?”
“Ironically?”
*wicked little giggle*
A fanatic is someone who believes that irony has something to do with metals.
“No, I’m not wearing it ironically, I’m allergic to iron. I’m wearing it cuprically.”
University classes start tomorrow… my core Geology class this semester is taught by a… nice lady… and I just don’t know if I’d dare. On the one hand, it might break the ice and everything would be *better*… on the other hand, if she didn’t have a sense of humor over it my whole semester would get terribly awkward. And I’m not actually very brave. 😦
Geologists are Gneiss, Tuff and a Little Wacke.
Geologists will chuckle at this.
Meh, I wore a Judge Dredd T shirt to jury service here in the UK – go for it 🙂
Oh, I’d wear a “Logic is a tool of the patriarchy” t-shirt too.
For preference, the back would say “And so are irony and sarcasm.”
Of course “fascism” has a specific meaning.
Fascism: something a leftist dislikes, usually because it’s defeating his causes.
Stephen M.
St. Onge
Founder and Supreme All-Highest Leader, Known Fascist Society
Holy crap, I had no idea how bad Scalzi’s meltdown was. Full-caps screaming on Twitter, ranting about Larry without ever using his name. And here’s his blog post, where he continues being dickish:
Sounds like Correia isn’t just living rent-free in his head, but has installed a swimming pool, gym, shooting range, and golf course.
Maybe that’s what’s driving Scalzi nuts – hearing Larry’s voice yelling “Pull!” at the sporting clay range. *evil grin*
Actually, it’s the Larry in his head’s love of shooting IPSC courses of fire at 2 in the morning.
I think Scalzi is still feeling insecure about his Redshirts win. 😉
I dunno, that seemed to be more about he who shall not be named than anyone.
I saw a link to the actual results and I couldn’t make heads nor tails of how they were counting. http://www.loncon3.org/hugos/2014%20Hugo%20awards%20full%20details.pdf
Here’s the voting process explained: http://www.thehugoawards.org/the-voting-system/.
Thanks, I was wondering how they weighted second etc. preferences.
Scalzi’s ranting about “PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE” (irony much?) and guns and such was about Larry. The rest was about Vox.
Scalzi is afraid to name Vox or Larry let alone tag them on Twitter lest he get publicly spanked like last time. He’s hiding in his echo chamber.
Just a few quick words about the Hugo results.
I am in attendance at Loncon 3 (yes, i was at the ceremony last night), and I can say first hand that the results were pretty much what you’d expect not only from a Left-leaning crowd, but from a EUROPEAN Left leaning crowd. While US fans were substantial, the awards IMHO overwhelmingly trended towards modern European tastes, especially the kind that treats the near-Communism of Old Labour with something approaching religious fervor. Keep that in mind when considering the results. I truly do question whether we’d get the same result had this been a US convention.
Despite the results, I did hear some positive things about the Sad Puppy noms (even Vox Days story, tho it did end up placing below No Award). Many fans i talked to seemed to really enjoy The Chaplains Legacy, and even Warbound got generally positive words at the panels (in fact, the only short list novel that really seemed to get a lot of negative criticism was Parasite). So it hasn’t been all bad.
Best thing I can say is, this is going to be a long term fight. By all means, there should be a Sad Puppy 3 (and 4!). The next two WorldCons will be in Tacoma WA & Kansas City, MO (Heinlein’s home!); this ain’t over, not by a long shot.
More details in a few days, if anyone cares for them.
Id pretty much agree with that assessment tbh – I was hoping Brad T would have won something but heyho. The Fan Artist award was a good one (Sarah Webb), but the rest was a triumph of SJW message over story. And god almighty – how many times did they mention “inclusiveness” and “diversity” – I lost count.
I was rooting for Brad Torgensen as well, but I think the odds were stacked against him. Too US-centric to appeal to European tastes.
Looking right now at the results posted in the “Fan Village”, and it looks like Chaplains Legacy came quite close to beating Wakulla Springs for 3rd place (and actually led it though the first two ballots). Warbound led Parasite through the first round, but dropped to 5th thereafter. All the others stayed more or less in their final places throughout.
Warbound, however, got a higher number of nominations than any of the novels save Ancillary Justice and Ocean at the End of the Lane (tho the latter was withdrawn for consideration at Neil Gaimen’s request).
Another thing to note: the audience was pretty civil when the Sad Puppy noms were mentioned: polite claps and no boo’s. Not even a picture of Vox Day himself raised their ire.
Someone said there were a few isolated boos for Vox. I doubt he’d have it any other way.
I didn’t hear any boo’s, just polite applause. Emphasis on “polite”, tho (as in, “You got this far, so we’ll acknowledge your achievement. Now sod off.”).
I didn’t hear any boo’s, just polite applause. Emphasis on “polite”, tho; as in, “You got this far, so we’ll acknowledge your achievement. Now sod off.”
Apologies for the double-post.
Sure, I for one would be curious.
And yeah, I do agree that assessment about the European Left leaning crowd.
Might work for the books but Toni Weiskopf had the most votes on the first pass but as each pass went she got less and less votes. And since the Winner was an editor at Ace and Roc which are American what can one say.
[…] more in-depth commentary, I recommend Dave Freer’s post this morning. Or the commentary here. I really don’t recommend delving into twitter, because while there is such a thing as a […]
XKCD winning a Hugo for “Time” is something we can all cheer for. It’s definitely SF, it’s definitely groundbreaking and edgy, it’s Human Wave in its essentials, and it’s being given to someone who’s been doing good work in several interesting ways, for years and years.
Even on those rare occasions when the artist/writer is being a jerk, he’s an interesting jerk. And usually he’s not a jerk.
The result I find most amusing is “We Have Always Fought” winning for related work. I’d never seen such fact-free history before. Some stuff that’s close (read southern apologists explaining the cause of the Civil War wasn’t what the southerners of the time said it was, Imperial German apologists explaining that the country that declared war on it’s neighbors and invaded them was defending itself, or Commie apologists explaining that a country that intended to impose it’s political system on the world just wanted to be left in peace), but those tend to distorting facts, and omitting them. The winner of the Hugo just invented her “facts.”