(no subject)

[seekingferret]

Oh, two things I am also nominating for Hugos...

Space Sweepers for Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form, which I didn't mention in my last post for obvious reasons but which I thought was an amazing SFF movie.

Rephrase? by CenozoicSynapsid, which I think I am nominating for Best Short Story? I'm not sure how to check the wordcount, let's make that the Hugo Administrator's job. But no writing I read this year more filled me with that sense of "Yes, this is how science fiction can speak to the moment in a way no other literature can."

Comments

Rephrase? by CenozoicSynapsid

[jack]

Oh, that's good!

I was suddenly seized with doubt about the category. I saw someone speculating related work, or video game, but I agree I think it's closer to a short story than anything else. And the way the Hugos work, there's a lot of discretion for things to be in whatever category which people think they should be in, which I think works well.

Then I doubted, are there any restrictions on fanfiction being nominated? There must have been discussions about this but I realised I didn't remember any. But I guess, the eligibility rules make no mention of whether a work is partially derivative, and explicitly don't require that it be published in any particular official capacity. And obviously, stories inspired by out-of-copyright stories are eligible in the normal categories, so there's no reason why the specific copyright rules of any particular country on whether a story can be circulated or sold, should affect whether it's eligible, so I guess it always is eligible, even if not commonly nominated.

Fanfiction might stand a better chance in the shorter categories because there's less competition, and just because most fanfiction isn't developed into a full novel. There's definitely fanfiction I think is at least as good as any other story, but hadn't thought in terms of whether it would be nominate-able. I guess, the ones that *I* think are world-class don't always overlap with the ones that other people do :)

[And of course, it matters less for this story because it mostly stands alone anyway, but presumably if there were rules, they would apply either way]

Re: Rephrase? by CenozoicSynapsid

[seekingferret]

There is no Best Video Game category this year, alas, or that's probably the better place for it. There is no problem whatsoever with fanfic being nominated from a rules point of view, whether people will be willing to vote for it is a different story but I obviously have no problem with recognizing fanfiction.

Re: Rephrase? by CenozoicSynapsid

[cahn]

I could see that if Rephrase was meta that couldn't stand alone without having read STET, it might fit better in Related Work, but honestly I think it can be read very well as a standalone story (though of course enhanced if one's read STET). If YH Lee's "The Mermaid Astronaut" could be nominated in Short Story, I don't see any reason why this one can't be too :)

[cahn]

YESSSS Rephrase forever! Thanks for reminding me that is eligible!