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Final Thoughts on the Hugos
Aug. 28th, 2015 01:16 pmResults at the Hugo Awards were more or less how I expected them to be, and more or less how everyone reasonable expected them to be. The Puppies were placed below No Award in every category they dominated except BDP:LF, and in all categories with non-Puppy options, one of the Non-Puppies won. Worldcon fandom as a whole made clear its disapproval of slate nominations.
Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem won Best Novel. As I wrote before, I thought The Three Body Problem was an interesting novel, but not a great one, and it was a novel with some significant weaknesses. I do not begrudge it its Hugo, but I do not think it takes its place among the great Hugo winners. I do think that as the first translated winner, it is of historical importance, and that's pretty neat. But look, I rarely agree with all the Hugo winners, and that's okay.
I thought the Hugo Ceremony itself was pretty remarkably accomplished. David Gerrold and Tananarive Due managed to keep the whole show positive and affirmational while making it clear how much Worldcon fandom disapproved of the Puppy trolling. The Asterisk was marvelous, framing the unusual circumstances of the Awards as a net positive for the attention it brought to the Hugos, telling the people who've been grumbling that this year's Hugos have questionable legitimacy that the important thing about the Hugos isn't the results, it's the celebration of fandom. Connie Willis and Bob Silverberg's hilarious speeches about past Hugo Awards fiascos brought valuable perspective, and again highlighted the value to be found in Worldcon as an institution with a lot of greying. Willis is 69, Silverberg is 80, and nobody could argue that their presences were anything but a boon to Worldcon. And I would seriously watch the David Gerrold and a Dalek show till the end of days.
Originally this post had a rather extended takedown of some of the arguments made by the Puppies in the wake of the awards ceremony, but I realized that was missing the point. I've seen some people acknowledge that some of the things the Puppies say are partially true, but that is exactly missing the point. Their most successful trolling tactic is to clothe toxic ideas and toxic actions in half-truths, so that they can try to pretend that they are the ones acting reasonably. It's not all that difficult to separate the lies from the half-truths, but it's an effort and it's not really an effort worth dignifying the trolls with. When Larry Correia mentions that a handful of the No-Awarded Puppies were women, he doesn't sincerely mean that he believes that the Sad Puppy slate didn't stand in the way of the sustained trend toward more women on the Hugo ballot. He just means that the Puppies made sure there were a few women on their slate so they could concern-troll about gender balance, while making offensive cracks about affirmative action winners out of the other side of their mouths.
The real point is this: Worldcon is a really massive and joyous celebration of a sustained SFF community. It is the remarkable result every year of hundreds of volunteers putting in massive amounts of time, money, and effort. The Hugos are one of the ways we celebrate our fandom, and thanks to the efforts of Gerrold, Due, the whole Hugo Subcommittee of Sasquan, and all the fans who participated in the Hugo voting process, we managed to affirm the power of Worldcon in the face of the ludicrous Sad Puppy attacks.
Cixin Liu's The Three Body Problem won Best Novel. As I wrote before, I thought The Three Body Problem was an interesting novel, but not a great one, and it was a novel with some significant weaknesses. I do not begrudge it its Hugo, but I do not think it takes its place among the great Hugo winners. I do think that as the first translated winner, it is of historical importance, and that's pretty neat. But look, I rarely agree with all the Hugo winners, and that's okay.
I thought the Hugo Ceremony itself was pretty remarkably accomplished. David Gerrold and Tananarive Due managed to keep the whole show positive and affirmational while making it clear how much Worldcon fandom disapproved of the Puppy trolling. The Asterisk was marvelous, framing the unusual circumstances of the Awards as a net positive for the attention it brought to the Hugos, telling the people who've been grumbling that this year's Hugos have questionable legitimacy that the important thing about the Hugos isn't the results, it's the celebration of fandom. Connie Willis and Bob Silverberg's hilarious speeches about past Hugo Awards fiascos brought valuable perspective, and again highlighted the value to be found in Worldcon as an institution with a lot of greying. Willis is 69, Silverberg is 80, and nobody could argue that their presences were anything but a boon to Worldcon. And I would seriously watch the David Gerrold and a Dalek show till the end of days.
Originally this post had a rather extended takedown of some of the arguments made by the Puppies in the wake of the awards ceremony, but I realized that was missing the point. I've seen some people acknowledge that some of the things the Puppies say are partially true, but that is exactly missing the point. Their most successful trolling tactic is to clothe toxic ideas and toxic actions in half-truths, so that they can try to pretend that they are the ones acting reasonably. It's not all that difficult to separate the lies from the half-truths, but it's an effort and it's not really an effort worth dignifying the trolls with. When Larry Correia mentions that a handful of the No-Awarded Puppies were women, he doesn't sincerely mean that he believes that the Sad Puppy slate didn't stand in the way of the sustained trend toward more women on the Hugo ballot. He just means that the Puppies made sure there were a few women on their slate so they could concern-troll about gender balance, while making offensive cracks about affirmative action winners out of the other side of their mouths.
The real point is this: Worldcon is a really massive and joyous celebration of a sustained SFF community. It is the remarkable result every year of hundreds of volunteers putting in massive amounts of time, money, and effort. The Hugos are one of the ways we celebrate our fandom, and thanks to the efforts of Gerrold, Due, the whole Hugo Subcommittee of Sasquan, and all the fans who participated in the Hugo voting process, we managed to affirm the power of Worldcon in the face of the ludicrous Sad Puppy attacks.