{"id":706,"date":"2015-04-06T10:18:22","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T16:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/?p=706"},"modified":"2015-04-06T10:18:22","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T16:18:22","slug":"no-one-owns-sf-this-years-hugo-nominees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrmaresca.com\/wp\/no-one-owns-sf-this-years-hugo-nominees\/","title":{"rendered":"No One “Owns” SF: This Year’s Hugo Nominees"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t typical make any sort of “political” posts on my blog.\u00a0 Not because I don’t have political opinions; of course I do.\u00a0 But I find that, usually, when an issue comes up that pushes my buttons, someone else has already said what I would say, and says it better than I would.\u00a0 So there’s rarely a need for me to through my two cents in as well.<\/p>\n

And that is probably the case with this year’s Hugo nominations.\u00a0 Short version for those of you not in the know: In previous years a group of conservative-minded SF Writers, feeling their voices were being marginalized in the Hugos, organized a united slate called “Sad Puppies”.\u00a0 Last year they succeeded in getting a few things on the ballot. Good for them there; though in the final tally they did poorly, they got some work that might otherwise have been ignored some notice.\u00a0 Frankly, I think that’s how any sort of voted-by-membership award should go.\u00a0 This year, though, instead of “a few things on the ballot”, they and their more destructive-minded counterpart “Rabid Puppies”, utterly dominated the nominations.\u00a0 There are only a handful of nominations across the board that are not<\/em><\/strong> part of their slate.<\/p>\n

This is all allowed by the rules of how it works, mind you.\u00a0 They didn’t cheat.\u00a0 They may have Min\/Maxed and Rules Lawyered their way to a result that only a Chaotic Neutral would call a “victory”, but nonetheless, their campaign “worked”.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, other people in the field are quite upset, and understandably so.\u00a0 The Hugo Awards just got jacked– and perhaps this demonstrated just how jackable they are.\u00a0 Really all it takes is a combination of a rallyable following and money.\u00a0 Hell, maybe just money.\u00a0 I’m not sure what preventative measures there are to keep one person who is willing to spend, say, $10,000 from buying 250 memberships and stuffing the ballot box all on your own.*<\/p>\n

And here I thought it was tacky to give myself a five-star on Goodreads.<\/p>\n

But there’s a somewhat disturbing sense of “we’re the real SF, not you” coming from both sides of the aisles.\u00a0 Which I find disappointing.\u00a0 True, there are people– again, on both sides of this thing– who have said things I personally find extremely odious.\u00a0 I don’t like them as people.\u00a0 Some of them may not like me.**\u00a0 But they have as much right to their opinion of what is or is not good SF.***\u00a0 “We” do not own SF over “you”, whoever you or we happen to be.\u00a0 None of us are Fake Geek Girls.<\/p>\n

All that said, I have every intention of reading the nominees and voting fairly, though I am prepared to engage in liberal***** use of “No Award” where I find it justified.\u00a0 And despite finding the nominations…. odd and troubling, to say the least, there are some bright spots.<\/p>\n