I have mentioned before that the Hugo’s were going to be interesting this year. (the final list is here)A controversy exploded fueled by a couple of groups who felt that the Hugo’s were being nominated and rammed through the system by “persons with agendas.”
From my point of view, I can respect the opinions of anyone who wants to write/read a certain kind of science fiction/fantasy. What I can’t respect is an unwillingness to allow others the same choice.
In reality, science fiction/fantasy is no longer the bastion of the geeky guy with “no one with cooties allowed.” The first changes literally to the face of SciFi weren’t recognized by many. They started in 1975 with the publication of Ursula Le Guin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness” which deliberately dealt with the issues of gender identification and conflict of cultures.
Since then, women have become increasingly both fans and authors. It isn’t just vampires and it is not romance. Both fantasy and hard science fiction have expanded beyond being the bastion of white males. Personally, I like having a variety of authors and perspectives from which to chose. Not everyone feels the same way and let us just leave it at that. The end result this year is that there were categories in which the nominations had been “stuffed” but when it came to the final vote, many of those entries just weren’t high enough quality to win.
Back to Discworld
Death today –
One of the Wee Free Men got loose
Nanny Ogg made an appearance
and finally – the sign in front of some of the most fantastic hats I have seen in a long time….
I was wondering about your take on the Hugo’s craziness. There is a long story in Wired under today’s date that fills in lots of background. But seriously, I’m so tired of insecure little boys who can’t share (across so many aspects of modern society) that I’m just not engaging anymore.
I feel much the same way. Personally I think it is wonderful that scifi and fantasy feature characters other than those of the 1950s (adolescent to early 30s white male) effectively taking their whole gestalt with them in a “alien skin” or at some far flung area of the universe…
It is very very hard on those who have always thought them selves masters of the universe to realize that they are actually not the majority of the world’s population….