The Hugo Post I Promised Myself I Wouldn’t Write

The other day I was in the bookstore and overhead two people talking about this year’s Hugo Awards. One guy was telling his female compatriot all about how some people cheated the voting process and hijacked the awards in attempt to push their own right wing conservative politics…or something like that. Truth was, and he admitted this in the next breath, he didn’t really understand what was going on. But hot damn if that didn’t stop him from having an opinion on the matter.

It seems like every Joe who’s seen Star Wars and owns a keyboard has an opinion on the matter. That’s fine, but increasingly what I’m seeing is that most people involved haven’t really thought through the situation for themselves. Instead, people are lining up, rank and file, behind respective figure heads and just copy/pasting their arguments for themselves. Which, ironically, is precisely what lead to this whole fiasco in the first place (slate voting).

In the past weeks we’ve seen some big name people (George R.R. Martin, John Scalzi, Brad Torgerson, just to name a few) throwing their hats into the ring and going toe-to-toe over a subject that, quite frankly, is a moot point. What’s done is done.

We are, as a community, literally crying over spilt milk.

I’ve sifted through a dozen or so pages worth of arguments from both camps on this topic and what’s really frustrating is that everybody is more or less spouting the same rhetoric. It’s all wheel spinning nonsense and it’s getting us nowhere.

One side keeps saying, “Yeah, we did this because of these reasons.”

The other side says, “Those are bad reasons, and the reason we feel that way is because of these reasons.”

To which the other fires back, “Ha, you call those good reasons? Take a gander at these reasons!” At this point George ‘Roid Rage’ Martin gestures seductively at a list of reasons splayed out in an overtly sexual manner on his exact replica Medieval bed spread.

I’ll be honest, that part of the conversation has been fun. What can I say, I’m a fan of old Grr “I’m a Bear” Martin. But I can’t help but feel like this is all just a big friggin’ waste of time. Not only mine, which admittedly isn’t very valuable, but for guys like Martin who really needs to start putting some words on the page if he’s gonna finish that Dragon book before that Grim Reaper fella decides to kill off his own main character.

Seriously, don’t die before you finish GOT, Martin. Fandom would rip itself apart from the inside.

Meh, that’s probably where the series is headed anyhow.

But then again, fandom is already sort of ripping itself apart, and it’s all because of a stupid award that in the grand scheme, matters very little. Ya know, I might amend that opinion if someday I ever get nominated for an award, but that’s precisely the point. The only people who really care are divided amongst two sorts of people: those who may or may not have stood a chance of winning, and those who have won in years past and don’t want to see the long Hugo tradition, and their awards by extension, denigrated by association with this years cluser-fuck.

I get why their upset, truly I do. Were there some really great books I’d rather have seen get nominated? Absolutely, but complaining about how I didn’t get my picks is counter-productive. All that can be done now is to read the books that made the list and decide based on merit which book deserves to win. It’s that simple.

Or atleast, you would think so. As it turns out, it’s not so simple at all. ‘Cause now we have people who were nominated, who legitimately stood a chance of winning the most coveted prize in their genre, pulling out of the competition. Marko Kloos who had a book up for best novel announced earlier today that he was declining his nomination. The day before Annie Bellett withdrew for best short story.

Kloos cited the fact that he didn’t want to get nominated, or have his nomination overshadowed and tainted, because he was unknowingly supported by Vox Day’s slate. Think about that. Kloos probably wrote a damn fine book, but because somebody else decided to use him to make a political point as to the fucked nature of voting in the Hugos, he has taken his toys and gone home.

And you know what, I don’t blame him. Shit, I only wish I had the balls to do something similar if I were in his position. (But hey, I’m weak and will be a puppet for whoever, whenever. Use me!!!)

Roger, Roger.

People are so busy slinging mud across party lines that nobody seems to be noticing the ones they’re hitting are the poor saps who are simultaneously experiencing career highs, and lows, by the mere fact they were nominated for this years award. Listen, I respect guys like Charles Stross and John Scalzi who have both come out and said, “Man, I am so glad I don’t have a horse in this race.” But that’s the problem: the majority of the people arguing about this don’t have a horse in the race. And they’re glad of the fact because nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to win a Hugo this year.

Because the damn thing has been sullied. It’s toxic. An automatic asterisk on any person’s resume.

Unfortunately, it’s not being sullied by ‘slate voting’ itself. It’s being sullied by the community of writers that I look up too. People who’s professional approval would mean more than I care to admit, (because in my own mind I like to think that the only approval I need is my own, but shit, who am I kidding. If Scalzi or Stross threw me an ‘atta boy, I’d straight tinkle myself.) But when these luminaries come out and admit they are glad not to have been nominated, well, how’s that supposed to make the people who are nominated, who do have horses in the race, feel.

I try and put myself in the place of Kloos or  Bellett and I figure neither one of them would point a finger at anybody else and say, “You’ve cheapened this award and now I don’t want it,” but it sorta feels like that’s what has happened. We’ve cheapened this years award by even contemplating the scorched earth tactic of voting “No Winner”.

I’m not saying either side of the argument is right or wrong, because what is getting overlooked in this conversation is the fact that there is no such thing as right and wrong. Right and wrong is a perspective. You want an absolute? Go be a Sith Lord. Otherwise deal with the fact that both sides of this conversation are simultaneously right and wrong.

Hm… sure have been a lot of Star Wars references. Wonder what’s up with that….

Wait, since I’m on a soap box, let me wish-wash and flip-flop a bit (John Kerry made that shit look fun back in the day).

There is an absolute right and wrong here and it has to do with who is getting screwed. It’s the people who are up there on the nomination list right now looking down the barrel of an award that will forever haunt their professional career. That’s wrong. They didn’t ask for that, and they certainly don’t deserve it, but that’s what this whole damn thing has become.

Not that it’ll ever make it to them, but to Kloos and Bellett, I’m sorry that your moment in the sun was overshadowed by something so ugly. You’re both talented artists and will probably be nominated for more awards in the future, but still… this sucks for you. You made hard decisions and people are tearing into you for it claiming your discrediting the opinion of those fans who voted for you. That’s bullshit and I think we all know it.

To the rest of the community: let it go.

*Insert Obligatory Frozen Meme Here*

Well, try.

Move on and let’s figure out a way to fix the problem, to reach a compromise so that both sides can feel valued and accounted for, rather than engaging in finger pointing and name calling. We’ve tried that. Jesus, for the past two weeks we’ve tried that. It’s not working. It’s just making the whole damn thing too ugly to look at.

On a lighter note: Look! The new Star Wars Trailer!

Harrison Ford you sexy man, I’m glad you didn’t die in that plane accident. Mostly ’cause I wouldn’t be able to deal with all the tears from my girlfriend and her sister. Seriously, they have an unhealthy obsession with you. Please never die.