2015-08-30

Hugo Puppies

I heard nothing about Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies until recently, but basically some sci-fi conservatives got fed up with the lefty hipster bent to modern sci-fi and the selections of Hugo Awards in particular and organized into a nomination bloc for the Hugos.  So the leftists organized and got a whole bunch of friends to sign up as final voters and then ensured that no awards were given in the final voting.

Basically, then, a maligned resistance group organized and scored a mini-coup, so the existing regime called in a proverbial board invasion to assist in shutting the whole enterprise almost completely down, giving no awards at all in most categories and ignoring native English-speaking science fiction altogether but for crap like Guardians of the Galaxy.  They call this "victory" and also call the conservatives racist for those insidious racial terms like "ChiCom" (Chinese communist, a term with no racial bent I am aware of).

Don't get me wrong ... I appreciate a good strategic self-destruct.   Those Klingon bastards did kill his son, after all, and Anakin did offer the Jedi Cruiser and all its embarked crew to aid Ryloth.

But in this case the irony is that the leftists have confirmed absolutely everything the maligned resistance group had been saying all along.  Sure, it probably had more to do with like-mind groupthink than an organized leftist conspiracy, but now the leftist conspiracy really and truly exists, openly, and feels sufficiently good about themselves to really turn up the stupid.

So much for the Hugo Awards being a meaningful accolade.  Like with the political nonsense that detracted from the work of the Trekonomics guy, they're too busy applauding needless insertions of shout-outs to modern leftism than focusing on, y'know, the sci-fi.

C'est la vie.

9 comments:

  1. Personally, I think the whole left-vs-right dichotomy is utter malarky. All it really does is facilitate people getting too wrapped up in their my-side-your-side arguments over whose ideology is more right or good or pure, or whatever mystical-feel-good-incantation word you can come up with, and end up bickering and fighting over BS ideological fantasies like toddlers fighting over whose turn it is to play with the toy car, instead of sitting down and working out pragmatic, evidence-based solutions, regardless of which philosophy or political group ideas and solutions come from, like rational adults.

    We've got real-world problems to solve (or in this case, an increasingly large volume of good sci-fi to enjoy), why do we have to get wrapped up in arguments of political ideology?

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  2. In an ideal world, I could see how your point would be agreeable. Folks should logically conclude the best course on any particular topic and it might, from our perspective, appear an ideological mish-mash.

    And there is some truth to that. After all, things that are conservative party planks in, say, Australia, aren't necessarily goals shared by America's more conservative-of-the-two party. There are pieces of historical and legal inertia unique to nations and regions that skew what is considered left and right.

    And yet, common threads run throughout. So, broadly speaking, there really are two different ideologies in play, with different concepts on the nature of man, his rights, and our goals. And things have been changing rapidly at least in the U.S., where the historically more leftist Democrat Party has really put the pedal to the metal in going left over the past 20 years: http://reason.com/blog/2015/08/26/when-the-entire-democratic-party-was-lik

    Incidentally, I have long pondered a post on "The Star Trek Conservative", but frankly it'd be a book. Perhaps that's what I oughta do.

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  3. The American political right frankly terrifies me, but as I say to people, there are very few honest politicians out there from any spectrum.

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  4. The American political right frankly terrifies me, but as I say to people, there are very few honest politicians out there from any spectrum.

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  5. The American political right frankly terrifies me, but as I say to people, there are very few honest politicians out there from any spectrum.

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  6. It's slightly more complicated than left / right. This has been brewing for several years, and I've been watching the rising tension in literary SF&F fandom for several years.

    There are two dimensions: Pro- / anti- politicization of fandom and the genre; and then left / right.

    The first major push was from pro-politicization left-wing forces. Right-wing fans and authors had a fairly hostile response to this (once they started to respond), whether or not they were in favor of politicizing the genre and fandom in their own direction or opposed to politicization. Left-wing anti-politicization fans and authors were left in a very awkward position, as the people in positions of power within traditional fandom tended to be left-wing pro-politicization.

    See, for example, Eric Flint, who stayed mostly quiet until recently and AFAIK is still on the good side of both some of the Sad Puppies and some of the anti-Puppies ("Puppy Kickers," if you will). He's been alternating between conciliatory statements and condemnations of extremism by either side.

    You've got a couple misses in the statement. Five categories were No Awarded (short story, novella, both editor categories, and related work). That left two literary fiction category awards (novel and novelette), the alternate-media fiction categories (graphic novel, "long-form drama" (movie), "short-form drama" (TV show)) and an assortment of other miscellaneous categories.

    No Award WAS ranked over virtually all Sad Puppy and Rabid Puppy nominees, with the main exception being Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a fairly clear case of bloc voting against Puppy nominees.

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  7. " ignoring native English-speaking science fiction altogether but for crap like Guardians of the Galaxy."

    Describing something as "crap" doesn't give the reader any useful information as to what sorts of stories you are referring to. It just makes you sound bias.

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  8. Thanks for bringing in a more expert opinion, JMS. As noted, I'm late to the game, and it isn't my area. Hell, I only just recently had a go of the Foundation audio version by the BBC and just couldn't finish it.

    As for the bias charge from blank… when did personal taste become bias? What exactly does not liking GotG make me biased against? (Hint: I am biased against overproduced nonsensical plots with ridiculous aliens as the main cast trying to make up for a weak story. I don't even care for most superheroes and hate fantasy as a genre, so there you go.)

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  9. JMS has posted informative links here:

    http://www.starfleetjedi.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6804

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