WorldCon - Death Is Bad

This Year’s Hugo Awards are the Decree of Three People = Victory for Democracy!

Apr 052015

So spent a couple hours last night talking about Sad Puppies. These are just my opinions, and probably not of interest to anyone, but hey, it’s my blog. :) Other people’s objections are in bold.

I started with my statement equating the Sad Puppies with the Vandals, and when asked why I’d used that term I followed up with my Why “Vandals”? explanation that’s now its own post. In brief, it explains that WorldCon is a party for WorldCon goers, in which the participants give an award to the fiction they really like at the end. It’s a party that takes a lot of effort to organize, and has been built over the course of decades. The Sad Puppies don’t like it, and won’t care to keep it going after they’re done destroying it (despite their “take back” rhetoric), and so they are little better than looters, taking fame and attention for a few years and then leaving ruins in their wake.

Yes, the Hugos have liberal tendencies. There were a few nominations in the past few years that were obviously bad and I strongly suspect were simply there because they were pushing the right message. But its different when it’s an internal matter with one or two cases per year, as opposed to someone else coming in and wiping the entire conversation away.

Just because a book is popular and is purchased by the ignorant masses like me doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of a Hugo.

Writers of popular fiction already have their own award, called PILES OF MONEY. :) Michael Bay is incredibly rich, and good on him. But when a bunch of people manage to game The Oscars to get Transformers 4 all the awards, the people who run the Oscars and who traditionally enjoy them and participate in them are gonna be a bit annoyed. Michael Bay already has the PILES OF MONEY award. Why do his fans want him to have the Oscar too? Why are they so desperate for the validation of a group of artsy snobs that they say they don’t even like? I am boggled.

So I’m not a real fan?

I’ve never said anything about you not being a real fan. Did I say anything about you not being a real fan? Why would you even think I said that? I’m just saying your taste is different for the normal WorldCon-goer’s taste, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But why are you trying to take the WorldCon award and give it to someone that that group of people don’t care for? It doesn’t mean anything to either side! Give your own award from the people who have your taste in fiction to them. They’ll appreciate it more, and so will you!

If the people at the party are only giving out awards to other people at the party that they like, then great! But don’t say that and then spout off about this being the SFF Top Award in the same breath. It’s the top award for a closed group in which not everyone is allowed to play.

I’m pretty sure WorldCon never called itself “the most prestigious award” or whatever. That name was given by others, over time, since I guess being around for a long enough time gets you that sort of cred. Once Sad Puppy Con (or whatever) is around for a few decades it will also be known as one of The Most Prestigious Awards.
And come on, all groups always say the award is for “The Best XX of the Year.” Everyone knows it means “in the opinion of the group.” Do the Oscars really need to come with the disclaimer “Best Movie Of The Year (*assuming your are one of the elite few people in the industry that spends most of their lives on this, if you’re just an average Joe this may not be as appealing to you) Of 2014!”

Your kind killed the prestige by boosting message fiction over Good solid SciFi!

If that’s so then the con will die a slow death of becoming more and more irrelevant. Not sure why you feel the need to be validated by such a fading entity.

Who are you to say who can and cannot be a member of worldcon? Why do you get to decide who has the right to vote and whose opinion matters? Either the Hugo is supposed to represent the best of sf and is open to everyone, or its a self-congratulatory award for an insular group that means absolutely nothing, and soon that group will age out and die.

I only have one vote in the matter, so I’m not one to decree it. It used to be just Tradition (which I thought the other side was big on?) – those people who had the same kind of taste got together and decided who they liked best. And yes – WorldCon is pretty grey.

It’s interesting to consider what the award actually means. I mean yeah, it is a self-congratulatory award for an insular group. The group prided themselves on being very widely read and having what they considered to be refined taste. And apparently that means a lot to some people. I mean, the yearly Awards for Wine (I don’t even know what they’re called) are the same thing – a few elite people decide what THEY think is the best, based on THEIR fancy refined palette, and the rest of us make fun of them for being such snobbish ass-hats. But a lot of people still pay attention. Winning the Wine Award is considered a big deal, and the wines can charge more afterwards, etc.

So, why does it matter, if it’s just a group of self-proclaimed elites? Fuck if I know. I just enjoy the bickering. If you don’t give a damn about the snobby elites, don’t pay attention to their stupid award, right? I know I always get the cheapest wine that still tastes good, cuz I don’t care. I don’t even know what the wine award is called! Why are people so determined to crash the Hugos? What’s with the hate-boner?

From my friend Aaron:
You say the wishes of a thousand artsy snobs were defeated by a couple hundred Sad Puppies and declare that a victory for democracy.
As I said at the outset, I don’t care if your politics are different from mine (they’re likely not), and I don’t care that your reading tastes are different from mine. I care that the group you’re defending gamed the system to defeat the preferences of most of the Hugo voters. I would have contempt for that effort, even if I thought all the nominated works were terrific.

For the first time in a long time, the preferences of most of the Hugo voters are FINALLY being recognized. The insular group of self congratulators has been exposed, and by doing so, the average SFF reader like me has seen the truth – that this award was not truly given to the best SFF of the Year.

The preferences of most of the Hugo voters are obviously not being represented, I think you meant to say that the preferences of the majority of *SF readers* are finally being represented. I suppose that could be true, as long as you trust Brad & Larry to know who is the most popular writer? But then why not just stick with the Best Seller List, and give awards to the Top 5 Selling SF Authors every year?

How are you defining “best”? Because the Hugo’s defined it as “The works that our con-goers were most impressed with.” Are you saying that it’s instead “what sells the most” or “What Brad and Larry like” or… what? I mean that’s what this all comes down to, isn’t it? If you don’t like the criteria of WorldCon voters, there are other awards, or Best Seller lists.

Shout outs to Prometheus Award and LibertyCon

See, there we go. Why the hate-boner for WorldCon specifically? Is it just because Larry got snubbed that one year? Dude has incredibly thin skin…

The “worldcon inner circle” aren’t the Lords of SF. They’re just a few thousand people. There are quite a few OTHER inner circles which do, in fact, honor people like Larry. And for that matter, Larry was nominated for a Hugo several times, he just didn’t win (and, having read his works, rightly so. They were good, but they weren’t as good as the competition he was up against those years)

You keep arguing that we should just let the Hugo awards go on being a meaningless circle jerk. That we shouldn’t be take someone else’s toy away from them. It’s not about that. It’s about making the hugo’s actually mean something again like it used to. We’re increasing membership and voter turnout, and boosting diversity of opinion. How is that a bad thing?

I think the Hugos still mean quite a bit. Just because the barrier to entry is high doesn’t mean its meaningless. Possibly the opposite?

Regardless, maybe this is a bit of an elitist attitude, but I don’t think that letting Brad & Larry give out the award will make it better.

Why should their be ANY barrier to entry AT ALL?? (sic)

Because then you get Transformers 4 winning all the awards

Most of us will agree that Michael Bay’s stuff is shite. But the SP slate was not full of Transformers. Even Van admitted that it was likely that some of the SP recommendations were good – and the point is that the criteria should be “Is it GOOD?” versus “Does the Inner Circle think it checks the box?”

Yes, and how do you determine what’s “good”? It used to be done by a couple thousand people coming together, talking a whole lot, and then voting. Now it’s done by Brad & Larry [edit: and Vox Day] deciding what works they like best. That’s going the wrong way IMHO.

How is that different from Scalzi or Crouse deciding what’s best?

They never did.

*guffaw* Yeah, Scalzi NEVER campaigned or tried to manipulate ANYTHING! *guffaw*

Like, for serious. Sure, he let people know he was eligible, and obviously he’d like to win. But when people like Scalzi would get a lot of attention, its because they thought like most of the WorldCon attendees do. They were representative of the group. That’s why there was no outcry when the works they liked got nominated – for the most part people agreed that this is the kind of work we really enjoy.

That’s also why when someone else comes in and pushes through a full ballot they DO get the sort of blowback you see – because they are NOT representative of the population. Before the various people could argue “Is Scalzi right here? He seems off. I think this work is better.” and so on and so forth. Typical kvetching. When someone comes in and forces in a ballot that wouldn’t even be on the typical con-goer’s Top 20, that is when people get annoyed

What I’m against is the SP Slate, not any particular person or their opinion.

What you are missing is that the works you have been voting on in the past were vetted well before you came along to cast your ballot. You’ve been duped, hon. You may not vote that way on your own, but the decision on the choices you had to select from had been taken out of your hands LONG before it got to your vote. The Soviets used to hold elections too, and the people voted. But it doesn’t make it democratic. Wouldn’t you rather have legitimate choices?

I don’t think the voting in the past was vetted nearly as much as you think. When it was “vetted” at all it was due to waves of group-think that sometimes came or went. There isn’t actually any sort of High Council that makes these decisions, just a bunch of people talking to each other online and off. The vetting is FAR FAR more vetted this year, where 100% of non-Novel literature (and 3 of the 5 Novels) was picked by the Sad Puppies or the Rabid Puppies offshoot – in effect three people made almost the entire nominating decision this year.

Brad and Larry have ONE VOTE EACH. You are making the assumption that all of the SP RECOMMENDATIONS were blindly and stupidly voted for en bloc by some zombie horde. We are not sheep. We don’t blindly follow ideology. I am always willing to listen to recommendations by folks who may be more in the know than I am.

I didn’t say anyone was sheep. I think unity IS strength. The SPs united, and won. But they *obviously* voted as a block, as the nominations are item-for-item 100% the Sad Puppies or Rabid Puppies slate (with the exception of 2 novels).

Then I went to bed, because it was late and we were starting to go in circles. Perhaps one of the most eyebrow-raising parts of this discussion was when someone came in shouting that If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love was revenge porn and hate speech. “the narrator has a good laugh over the carnage delivered to thinly veiled ideological enemies by her dinosaur lover”. I was at a loss for words. I guess “Life Is Beautiful” was revenge porn too, then.

Why “Vandals”?

WorldCon 4 Responses »

Apr 042015

I’ve had a few people ask why I called the Sad Puppies campaign “vandalism”. Some of this will be restating what I said before, but –

Because the organizers of the Sad Puppies won’t care for WorldCon after those who did care for it are driven away.

Organizing and running a con like this is a massive amount of work. People do it for the love of the work. And you know what drove that love? The SF literature. Specifically – for a group of people who read widely and deeply in SF to get together every year and argume amongst themselves “What is the absolute best out there? What pushes the frontiers? What is genre-defining?”

And yes, these people tend liberal. It’s an admitedly somewhat intellectual/ivory-tower sort of passtime. They’ve spent decades creating a garden for them to all gather in and discuss and kvetch. And they even give their own neat little award to the guys and gals they like best.

Then an outside group says “What the hell is this shit? This is not the fiction we like!” But they can’t be bothered to organize their own party, and put in the decades of work building up their own infrastructure. Instead they crash this party.

And the key thing here is, the WorldCon people are used to being very splintered and fractious about their fiction. That’s where the MAJORITY OF THE FUN is. That’s why its very easy for someone who wants to get a concentrated block to vote together smash the party. They simply took advantage of the fact that they were willing to unite in solidarity while the WorldCon attendees were having fun bickering

But the problem is that this concentrated block is still a minority in the absolute sense. They don’t attend the party – they just spent their money to throw a turd in the punch bowl. The people who come to the party will be upset and refuse to vote for them. So they will get a bunch of No Award results.

Now, how many years are people willing to keep showing up at a party for an award that is always given to “No Award”? How many times are the people who created WorldCon and love it willing to keep throwing that party?
When they quit, will the Sad Puppies step up? Are they willing to do the work themselves? Or will this just crow about how great it is that the liberal oppressors have been smashed, and go home?

So they have grabbed a lot of fame, glory, and controversy for several years, and won the adulation of their side. Rah, rah, go our side!! And when it’s all over they don’t bother to rebuild, they only leave the ruins of a garden that took decades to build up. They destroy what others created with love for their own short-term profit and/or kicks.
That is why I call them vandals. It has nothing to do with taste in ficton, and everything to do with what happens to the con at their hands. But I’d love to be proven wrong.

EDIT: I originally used the term “Sad Puppies.” I should have specified “Sad Puppies 3/Rabid Puppies.” Since this was first posted, the Puppies have split into distinct not-so-odious “Sad Puppies 4”, and truly-vile “Rabid Puppies” groups. Nowadays the criticism in this post applies primarily to the “Rabid Puppies,” and not nearly so much to the “Sad Puppies 4” group. That latter group should seriously considering changing their name next year to distance themselves from the Sad3/Rabid debacle of 2015.

To Larry Correia: We Want A Sad Puppies Awards!

WorldCon No Responses »

Apr 042015

While I would like to see Larry at WorldCon this year, I no longer think “taking back the Hugos” is viable path. As mentioned in my previous post, it would mainly lead to wasteful culture-wars that accomplish nothing and leave everyone worse off. To recap the last bit of that post (because it was long and most people won’t care about everything leading up to the final paragraph) –

“I think the best option is for Larry Correia to create a new awards convention. He has proven that there is interest in one. He has a large contingent of fans who can’t wait to have their own party, where they can decide which work the best among those that appeal to their tastes. He’s mobilized them, and shown that they are willing to work in concert and spend a fair amount of money and effort to make this come together! Plus it would be a huge win for him. AND then he wouldn’t have the ignominy of becoming the Conservative SF Reader’s Pope, who chooses what books they will vote for in the Hugos every year. Instead he would be the founder of their own space, forever remembered as a Creator of Something Awesome.”

It wouldn’t be easy, of course. But Larry has HUGE name recognition. Tons of people would love to work with him on something like this, either for the love of the work itself, or for a chance to work with Larry and boost their own careers. He could reach out to any of hundreds of con organizers across the country who’ve been doing this for years and start something amazing. And the fan would come in droves! Why is this not already a thing? He could even include a “Sad Puppy” category, where they mock the worst piece of liberal drivel that somehow is popular for political-signaling reasons. :)

Prediction – Within one year, Larry will announce a new con, for the more conservative-minded reader, and it will be a huge success. I will be sad if he doesn’t, because this is something that really should happen. It has the potential to be the next ComicCon phenomenon.

Barbarians At The Gates

WorldCon 2 Responses »

Apr 042015

So it’s obvious at this point that the traditional WorldCon audience should no longer sit back and hope that the Sad Puppies will go away. Larry & Crew just spanked the Hugo nominations, getting a majority in every category that matters, and fully taking over two of them.

The Hugos have been, for at least as long as I’ve been interested in them, a liberal playground. This isn’t really an accident – liberals and conservatives have different taste in art. But it has been unstated. And now, this free-form garden where liberals would gather and kvetch and finally choose one best work from those that appeal to them, has been invaded by a well-organized force. One thousand liberal readers, splintered and used to arguing amongst themselves over which tulip has the finest form, is overwhelmed a block of a few hundred that have pre-committed to voting for a rose that they may not even think is the best rose, but it’s good enough if they get to beat the tulip-lovers.

As Eliezer said a number of years ago “communities die primarily by refusing to defend themselves.”

There’s a number of ways this could go from here. The first is that the traditional WorldCon goers organize as well in response. The Happy Hippogriffs would do all their kvetching and cajoling and convincing beforehand, and once they’ve decided on a final slate of their own, they put it forward to counter the Sad Puppies slate. This basically just moves the current process back one step, and results in the Hugos becoming a struggle between two major parties, with the winner decided by which side has more money. Much like our current political process! This would be a damned shame. If it were to happen though, the liberal side would need a figure to rally behind. Scalzi is the obvious choice, but it sounds like he doesn’t want the role. Also, the nomination period should be lengthened by a few months, since that’s where all the real deciding would happen.

A second option is to change the rules to keep WorldCon a place that liberals can gather without invaders showing up to smash the scenery. I kinda like this option, because I’m low-brow and I suck at subtlety. But the only viable way to limit membership would be to say that only people who actually attend WorldCon get to nominate & vote. And that would also be a shame, because it would limit membership to only those people with enough time and money to travel to a SF lit con! The demographic would get significantly older overnight.

A third option was mentioned by Scalzi – don’t cast a vote for anything on the Sad Puppy Slate, and vote for No Award as your final choice. There are more of us than there are them, so this should work. But how many years are people willing to keep showing up at a party for an award that is always given to “No Award”? If current trends continue, the Hugo Awards could turn into the What Larry and Brad Like awards, with their side spending a lot of money to nominate works, and our side spending a lot of money to attend WorldCon, and in the end both sides being frustrated as the night ends with a bunch of No Awards being given out. That just seems stupid.

I think the best option is for Larry Correia to create a new awards convention. He has proven that there is interest in one. He has a large contingent of fans who can’t wait to have their own party, where they can decide which work the best among those that appeal to their tastes. He’s mobilized them, and shown that they are willing to work in concert and spend a fair amount of money and effort to make this come together! Plus it would be a huge win for him. AND then he wouldn’t have the ignominy of becoming the Conservative SF Reader’s Pope, who chooses what books they will vote for in the Hugos every year. Instead he would be the founder of their own space, forever remembered as a Creator of Something Awesome instead of a Vandal of WorldCon.

Decisive Win For Larry Correia

WorldCon 9 Responses »

Apr 042015

Wow! I expected him to get on at least one work in each category, but I did not expect this! A majority everywhere that it matters, and a few sweeps!

Sad Puppy Slate vs Hugo Nominations

Three out of Five for Best Novel (there’s a possibility it could have been 4 out of 5, we won’t know until the full numbers are released after WorldCon, because Larry declined his own nomination)

All Three that they picked for Best Novella. Not terribly surprising, as those are the least read & have the least nominations cast, so they’re the easiest to take if you get a coherent block of voters working with you. But still impressive.

All Four that they picked for Best Novelette! Plus John C. Wright for the fifth pick! Daaaaamn!

Three out of Five for Best Short Story.

ALL FIVE for Best Related Work. I almost skipped this, because I don’t really care about “related work,” but I’m glad I checked because I wasn’t expecting that!

And they got in their one pick for Best Graphic Story.

I didn’t check the rest, because I don’t particularly care, but I imagine the Sad Puppies did similarly well.

Note that this year you cannot vote against the Sad Puppies Slate in at least one category. I find that fascinating.

It only took three years for the Sad Puppies to get to this level of influence. If this keeps up, Correia’s blessing will be as valuable as the Pope’s in the SF-writing circle. He probably doesn’t want that power thrust upon him. But from now on, every aspiring writer will have in the back of their minds “I wonder if this is something Larry & Brad will like?” And that will inevitably alter the field, at least a bit.

I still REALLY hope that Larry comes to this year’s WorldCon. It would make for one of the most memorable WorldCons ever. If his fans show up with him, it could be the start of the “retaking” of the Hugos that they’ve been talking about.

EDIT: It was pointed out to me that the remaining nominations in Short Story, Novellette, and Novella categories all went to the Rabid Puppies slate. It’s impossible not to vote for a Puppies nominee in any non-Novel fiction category. Won’t this be a fun year?

Sad Puppies’ Next Move

WorldCon No Responses »

Mar 102015

Last year, when the Sad Puppies scored their first hit against the Hugos, I was of the opinion that Larry Correia shouldn’t come to the ceremony. I felt that “While his attendance may irritate some people, it will give them the opportunity to either shun him, or show their good graces by accepting him anyway. Either option will be a bit of a loss. Showing his contempt with a pre-emptive rejection of the entire affair is the best possible play, as far as I see it.” Larry must have been thinking something along the same lines, because he didn’t attend.

That was true for last year’s Hugos, when the Sad Puppies first sallied forth to strike a blow for their side. You don’t stick around after something like that. Catch ‘em off guard, hit ‘em, then dance out of reach. This year is different. Because this year the narrative has changed. It’s no longer “Screw those elitist jerks. Let’s show ‘em what-for, ha!” It’s now “We’re taking back the Hugos! For fandom!”

I won’t comment about the narrative itself, as much more articulate people have already said it better than I can. But this obviously implies something very different for Larry’s personal involvement. Specifically – he should attend WorldCon this year.

Last year was a proof of concept, or a display of strength if you will. A magnificent Counting Coup. But all that gets you is praise and glory. You can’t hold ground with a hit-and-run attack, you have to actually occupy the territory. In the realm of fancons, occupying territory consists of getting people from your side to show up physically at the con (and hopefully enjoy themselves). Literal boots on the ground. And how do you get people to show up to a con? Give them what they want. You are their admired leader, they would love to see you in person, to watch you treading upon the newly-conquered land of the enemy. Go to the con.

Maybe organize a dinner event. Maybe contact the con organizers and ask for several panels. Larry is a huge draw. You know how thrilled the programming department would be to have a best-selling author volunteer to talk for an hour? They’d be ecstatic! And Larry’s fans would love it!

More importantly, word would spread that yeah – Larry, Brad, and the rest of the Sad Puppies are actually serious about this. The number of people on Larry’s side who are willing to go to these cons would grow yearly. If they enjoy themselves, they’ll keep coming back. And that’s really the key: people held together by a sense of community, that want to keep coming back and seeing each other, and the leaders they admire, year after year. That’s how you create a demographic shift, so that the Hugos represent your side just as much as the other side – get your side to want to show up.

Sure, it’ll be uncomfortable for the first year or two. Was retaking territory from a hostile force supposed to be easy? Nothing worth doing was ever done without struggle. You can hang back and hope the troops set up a nice comfortable green zone for you to walk into. Or you can lead from the front.

I love watching this play out, and I’d like to see it continue. I hope Larry Correia comes to Sasquan.

2014 Hugo Nominations

Book Club Review, WorldCon 1 Response »

Mar 052015

The deadline for the 2014 Hugo Nominations is almost upon us. I really should get to this a little earlier one of these years. Anyway, as is tradition, here are my noms.

Short Stories

Economies of Force, by Seth Dickinson.
I wrote an entire blog post about why this story is amazing and pushing the cutting edge of SF forward, so this is obviously my favorite. How do we react when we become the component parts of a super-human agent?

Kumara, by Seth Dickinson.
I really like Seth Dickinson. A beautiful post-singularity transhumanist story. And murderous too.

Kenneth: A User’s Manual, by Sam J. Miller
A heart-tearing story of desire and super-stimulus. “When it comes to beauty, we are insatiable. Art does not make us feel better. Love songs and Virtual Kenneths and Rembrandts only feed the fire that consumes us.”

Never the Same, by Polenth Blake
Strange Horizons does a great job with fiction starring non-neuro-typicals, IMO. Last year’s Difference of Opinion (by Meda Kahn) with an autistic protagonist was fantastic, I posted about it then. This year’s Never the Same has extremely good characterization of what are commonly termed “psychopaths” (or “sociopaths”). The storyline itself isn’t as good as Difference, but the characterization is just so strong and delightful to read I have to include it. It’s about morality and hypocrisy.
“Empathy wasn’t as simple as a mango. That’s why I needed my rules. I should have hugged her, not tried to reason with her. But the therapists wouldn’t accept that I was never going to understand. It wasn’t enough to follow the rules. They wouldn’t be happy until I could feel the rules.”

Jackalope Wives, by Ursula Vernon
I’m not sure what exactly to say here. The stories of shape-shifter-animal brides… what would they be a metaphor for, if you thought about for a while? Yeah. Ursula Vernon thought about it for a while, and then wrote a story that is about strength of character in a broken world, rather than the simple moralizing it could have been. Powerful.

EDIT: I originally hadn’t included the following, as it wasn’t publically available – it was a bonus story given for those who’d contributed to the Women Destroy SF Kickstarter. I was just informed that Lightspeed did make it available to all in December! So now I add:

They Tell Me There Will Be No Pain, by Rachel Acks
As story of warfare in the future, where killing is done at a distance with layers of drones between you and your target. I want to say foremost that this is a very strong story, with good exploration of drone warfare and its cultural impacts. It’s also hit a very personal note for me, because my brother came back from Afghanistan with very bad PTSD, and I saw him in every word and action of this story’s protagonist. It hurt to read.

Unfortunately that makes six stories, and I only get five nominations. I’ll have to think on who to cut. :(

I first heard Thirty-Six Interrogatories Propounded by the Human-Powered Plasma Bomb in the Moments Before Her Imminent Detonation on Toasted Cake in 2014, but it looks like it was published in 2013, so I guess I can’t nominate it. That makes me sad.

Novelettes

The Study of Anglophysics, by Scott Alexander
An amazing story of scientific discovery in a universe that runs on different physics. Also of obsession and arrogance. And anagrams. Lovecraftian overtones, but with a ton of humor. Seriously, this story has everything! :)

The Colonel, by Peter Watts
It is Peter Watts’s brilliance compressed into short form. If you liked Echopraxia and/or Blindsight, you’ll likely like this. Awesome exploration of neat ideas, as the human race stumbles towards making itself obsolete.

Novels

The Metropolitan Man, by Alexander Wales
A story of Superman, as it would be written by someone who took Superman’s powers and ethics seriously, and wanted Lex Luthor to actually be a viable threat. Told from the POV of Lex Luthor. I love good villain stories, and this is a particularly good one. I eagerly anticipate Alexander Wales first original-universe work, which I hear he’s working on now!

Echopraxia, by Peter Watts
The book HP Lovecraft would write if he was writing today. I loved it so much I posted about it twice. It is horror, so be warned, but it’s not gory. And it is extremely intelligent.

No Lasting Burial, by Stant Litore
Again, I had to write a full post about it. A retelling of the gospel story of the calling of Simon Peter, James, and John; with zombies. It’s good. If my childhood church had half of Litore’s understanding of the forgiveness message of Jesus, and even a fraction of his ability to convey it, maybe I would still be some flavor of Christian today.

BTW, if you’re interested in Rationalist Fiction, please note that my first selection in each of these categories would count as Rationalist IMHO.

Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

The Study of Anglophysics, by Scott Alexander
It’s available in audio! :)

MLP – Pinkie Apple Pie. My Little Pony seriously needs a Hugo nod already, I can’t believe it hasn’t gotten one yet. While this may not have been the best episode of 2014, it holds a special place in my heart because it was so damn heart-warming, and a ton of fun. Good times, adventure, humor, and friendship. Everything I want in an episode. Plus a lot of Pinkie Pie! :)

Welcome to Night Vale – A Story About Them. I can’t imagine this show won’t get Hugo recognition this year, it seems to have gained enough critical mass to finally come into everyone’s awareness. A Story About Them was my favorite from last year. I’m a sucker for good structure-play. :) And the story well exceeded WtNV’s quota of weird, and creepy. Great times.

The Undertaker v Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania XXX. As the Hack The Hugos post points out – better TV than Dr. Who! Let’s do it.

EDIT: I completely forgot about graphic novels! I’m nominating Rat Queens Vol 1, which is a delightful romp; and Pretty Deadly Vol 1, which I haven’t actually finished reading yet but which so far has blown me away with it’s density, and the story it is promising.

To Larry Correia: Well Played!

Musings On Present Day, WorldCon 2 Responses »

Apr 212014

Larry Correia had a problem – he was getting what he wanted. For years he’d been whining about the “liberal intellectual elite” that run the Hugo awards (which is laughable to anyone who’s seen the sausage made… but I digress), and how they would never give a conservative down-to-earth guy like him a fair shake.

Fortunately for him, Larry is a popular guy. Say what you want about his politics or his attitude, he’s got some major online charisma. I may disagree with some of his politics, but his blog is a great read. This man can lead and inspire. So he does what any popular guy who wants to win a popularity contest does – he told his fans to vote for him.

Larry runs on the same formula that a lot of the “persecuted majority” use – anger at what they view to be an authority figure for failing to give them the recognition they feel they deserve, combined with contempt for that authority figure and constant crowing about how much better he is than them (he often brings up that he’s in the top 1% of authors based on royalty income). It’s the classic inter-generational conflict story, anyone who’s had an asshole father can relate to it. It inflames the passions and makes you want to cheer for the young challenger, and we all love it.

The problem comes in the winning. Once the challenger marshals his resources and overcomes the haughty authority figure it becomes apparent to pretty much everyone that he is now the institution he hated. Now that he can point his legion of followers at the works he most wants to promote and have them respond, HE gets to wield the power of approval to decide who should get the coveted acknowledgement from on high. Oops.

Moreover, all that talk about how they’re a bunch of dicks and he doesn’t care about their stupid approval anyway, cuz fuck those guys, is shown to be a sham. Obviously he did care about their approval, because he went to great lengths to secure that approval. Before he was all Groucho – “I wouldn’t want to be part of that club even if they would have me,” now he’s all Honey Boo Boo “I should be getting this prize!!!” Makes him look like a kid with daddy issues. Double oops.

But Larry ain’t dumb. In fact, Larry is a friggin genius. Because Larry has a secret weapon. Larry had his fans get Vox Day nominated! As Larry knows, the majority of the SF community *hates* Vox Day. Mainly because Vox Day is a neo-reactionary and loud about it. He’s famous for his racist, sexist, anti-liberal rants. He’s the guy that shows up at the party with a giant sack of ripe dog shit and starts throwing shit at everyone. Predictably, the SF-blogosphere has a collective seizure. Instantly all attention is off Larry and onto Vox Day. Success!

Moreover, this thumb-in-the-eye probably feels awesome for Larry. All those stuck-up pricks now have to include this guy they hate, because they were dumb enough to trust in their stupid system which they thought would exclude people they didn’t like! Their party will be, well, probably not ruined… but certainly marred! This will stick in their craw for a long time. Vengeance has been achieved. Double success!

And, of course, there is both the prestige of receiving a Hugo nomination, and the increased sales it will generate. And the validation that one gets when successfully pulling off a move like this. Quadruple success.

In the social status game, Larry manage to strike a decisive victory this year. I doff my hat to him, it was a master stroke. I assume that for the coup-de-grace he will shun this year’s Hugo ceremony. While his attendance may irritate some people, it will give them the opportunity to either shun him, or show their good graces by accepting him anyway. Either option will be a bit of a loss. Showing his contempt with a pre-emptive rejection of the entire affair is the best possible play, as far as I see it.

I’m excited to see what the next move in the game will bring. :)

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