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| My Hugo mood today. |
They say revenge is best served cold, but I like my schadenfreude piping hot. It seems that the WorldCon at Chengdu suffered some irregularities in the voting for the Hugo Award in 2023. How shocking. [This is my shocked face. o_o ]
The only reason I mention it is because this news made it to the greater world outside the tiny fish bowl of Science Fiction fan-wankery. The weenies at Slashdot noticed this one because it was reported in The Guardian.
The actual crime committed here? I don't care. Seriously, I don't. I haven't read a book since 2019, I think. I just don't read anymore. Because they're awful. Horrendously depressing shite with questionable plots and characters dragged from a landfill.
But for people who do care:
Recently released documents showed that several works or authors – some with links to China – had been excluded from the ballot despite receiving enough nominations to be included on their respective shortlists. The excluded nominees include Kuang and Zhao, authors who were born in China but are now based in the west.
Concerns have been raised that the authors were targeted for political reasons, connected to the fact that the ruling Chinese Communist party exerts a tight control on all cultural events that take place inside its borders.
Dave McCarty, the head of the 2023 Hugo awards jury, wrote on Facebook: "Nobody has ordered me to do anything … There was no communication between the Hugo administration team and the Chinese government in any official manner."
If you look at the documents in question, (which I did, briefly,) it is quite obvious that people with more votes got dropped. There is no question. And there is no explanation forthcoming. Therefore one can only assume the Chinese government told them to drop those winners from the lists, and that WorldCon saluted and dropped them.
The last time I spoke about WorldCon was December 8th, 2021, on the occasion of Jon Del Arroz winning his defamation lawsuit against them. It cost the sons of bitches $100K to call him a racist. Also in that post I mentioned that Chengdu was most likely going to be the location for the 2023 WorldCon, that it would have been basically purchased outright by the Communist Party of China for the price of 800-some-odd supporting memberships, and that the Great SMOFS of WorldCon were going to take the money.
Which they did. And now here we are, after-action report, some guys sold out their hobby for money, some fancy dinners, and maybe a little fun excitement time where maybe pictures got taken they wouldn't want everybody to see. Or maybe not, some of those tools would probably roll over just for a fancy dinner and a little flattery.
Bottom line, Communist China got themselves a nice little propaganda coup here. On the one hand, famous guys like Neil Gaiman got a slap-down. They were all shown that if you don't play nice with the PRC, you don't get to play at all. All of Hollywood is seeing that message today, you better believe it.
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| You know what she's saying. |
And on the other hand, all the little "Middle Managers" and "Cultural Gatekeepers" of the publishing universe were just shown how sweet a deal it is to be friends with the PRC. You get a nice free trip to Chengdu, where they built a whole hotel and a whole event venue brand new, just for you. You get wined and dined by Important People. You get driven around town to see the sights. You maybe get some "company" for your stay if you are an "important" SMOF type, or maybe even just for asking. So many friendly people to pet you and make a fuss.
But the Sad Puppies are the true enemies of life my friends. They're -still- going on about it.
Hold up. You stopped reading any books in 2019?
ReplyDeleteOr did you just stop reading Hugo finalists?
Regards,
Dann
Nothing succeeds like undress - Dorothy Parker (12 years late)
Yep. Just stopped. It is possible to put someone off so badly that they just stop buying the product, you know?
ReplyDeleteHappened to me three times now. Comics, movies, novels. I used to read two to three SF novels a week. My basement is full. Now? No. Nothing. Maybe Correia when he puts out a Monster Hunter. That's it.
I write them instead. Harder than reading, takes longer, but at least the story goes the way I want.
If you want to see a story go the way -I- want, buy that Alice Haddison story. Nintey nine cents. Wadda deal.
Sasquan proved unquestionably that logrolling and shameless party hacks would overrule any Worldcon supporting membership that refused to hew to the part line. John C. Wright (huuuuuge fan favorite - albeit favorite of fans on the CCCP unapproved list - like Gaiman today) and Toni Weisskoff got the kibosh. The fix was in.
ReplyDeleteMore interestingly, the Worldcon membership that year overwhelmingly voted to have the nominating ballots reviewed. All parties: the Puppy Kicker Party Elite, the tiny honeybadger bunch of Rabids, the Campaigners to End Puppy-related sadness (Do it for the puppies, man! Preachy commie SF makes puppies cry!) and the vast crew of irritated normie-fen, all agreed.
Check the nominating ballots and prove that they cheated - or were innocent.
The powers behind the scene - like the Chinese Authorities - quashed it.
HIGH-larious.
Side note: You can NOT let those professional turds in the punchbowl win, Mr. Phantom. If nothing else, your writing will suffer.
Writers like Mr. Wright are making great stuff, andypu can learn loads from the old masters. Cordwainer Smith, C. S. Lewis, Pournelle, Vance, Schmitz, Henderson...
Cheer up! If the gutted Institution cannit be saved, at least the skin suit was exposed.
@Phantom
ReplyDeleteWell, that's regrettable. I have a wealth of excellent writers that continually entertain me. Some big, some small. Frequently not-Tor, but just as frequently not-Baen as well.
I did pick up (and read) Alice Haddison a while back. Generally a net positive impression on me.
I read the John C. Wright stuff that was nominated a while back. I was unimpressed. I've been told that his earlier work is much better, but I've not been willing to wade in.
FWIW, I've been increasingly using "no award" when reading for the Hugos. Easily 1/3 to 1/2 of the works really are substandard. I think it is a mistake to abandon the awards. All the normies have to do is avoid slating or otherwise breaking the rules.
It isn't enough to nominate great works, we also need to discount sub-standard work.
Regards,
Dann
* <- After the Hair Club for Tribbles . <- Before hair club
Dann665, thanks for reading and thanks for the net-positive impression. I'll take it.
ReplyDeleteHobbit, the contrast between the still-continuing Sad Puppies denunciation and the profound lack of interest regarding -obvious- CCP cheating is quite stark.
Leading us all to the knowledge that really, all WorldCon professions of Commitment to Quality!!! and "Diversity!!!" and "Scrupulous Honesty!!!" and "Transparency!!!" is just lying. Plain old lying.
As to the old masters, they are safe in my basement, awaiting any whim of mine to pull them out and read them again. It is always nice to know that my old copy can't retconed to include Sauce Of The Day by the publisher.