Given how pop’lar my last fisking was, (I even got the International Lord of Hate’s approval) I reckoned that maybe it was time to take anuther pretentious loudmouth down t’ the woodshed. Now this here shinin example of geniusry goes by th name of “Badtux the snarky penguin” and while he aint no professor (least aways not so far as I know) he sure is a pretentious little cuss. His post can be found here, if’n y’all want to read from the jackalope’s mouth. As before, my words’ll be in bold, and his’ns will be in eye-talics.
For as long as I’ve been a reader, there have been two main prizes for the science fiction / fantasy genre: the Nebula Awards, and the Hugo Awards. The Nebula Awards are granted by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), and based on nominations and votes by science fiction writers. As a result, the Nebula has tended to go to works that are appealing to science fiction writers — literate, mind-blowing, and demonstrating a fine control of plot and characterization. It is the more “literary” of the two awards, in other words.
Well I reckon that’s true. I know that lil dinosaur story, which won the Nebyoula’s last year shore did blow my mind. Probably not in the way you meant tho.
The Hugo Awards, on the other hand, is based on votes from voting members of the Science Fiction World Convention (WorldCon), which is a giant science fiction convention that fans put on yearly.
Hmm. I don’t rightly know if you could call wirl-con a “giant” science fiction convention. Hell if’n you compare it to damn near any other con in these here United States I’d reckon its so small as to be downright cute. Now as I explained to Professor Kissyfur last time I caint look into mens minds, but calling wirl-con “giant” brings to mind a lot things men tend to say about themselves if’n theys around people who aint never seen them in the locker room, if you catch my drift.
The Hugos have always been more about popularity amongst science fiction fandom. You had to be good to get a Hugo, but, just as important, you had to be popular. Your work had to be accessible to non-writers as well as to writers. Many SF writers attend WorldCon and vote, so they tend to send up the quality of what’s nominated, but by and large it’s fans of science fiction voting for what they liked last year.
Now I also aint so sure what particylar defintion of pop’lar this here waddling bird is using. If’n hes just saying its pop’lar with that tiny, mostly older than methusalah, and whiter than a mayo sandwich on whitebread, (not that thers anything wrong with that) crowd what calls theyselves “fen” I reckon he might have a point. However if he means pop’lar as in “pop’lar with science fiction and fantasy fans in general” then I think maybe Mr Cobblepot might have to look at the best seller lists for sci-fi and fantasy and see if’n any recent Hugo reward winners were even noticed by the average fan. Oh theres a few, but in general stuff what wins the Hugo reward aint exactly lightning up the charts.
Or, at least, that was the case until this past couple of years, when a group of right-winger authors who call themselves the “Sad Puppies” set out to rig the nomination process by having their fans sign up for voting membership in order to nominate their works — and, this year, apparently succeeded.
As I’ve said in the past I’m just an under edumacated piece of trailer park trash from America’s prick, (and the only state in the nation to have its own Fark tag) but even to me this seems like a fairly biased assessment and a dishonest one to boot. First of all, until SP3 there weren’t no group of Authors, its was just The International Lord of Hate hisself, Mr Larry Correia. This year was the first year there was an actual group of authors involved and many of them weren’t even close to being one of us evil conservytives. B, since its pretty obvious that Messers Correia, Torgersen’s et all are in fact science fiction and fantasy writers, then by defintion theys fans is Sci-fi and fantasy fans. And if the Hugo rewards are supposed to be, as as Mr Happy Feet said above, “voted on by the fans of science fiction” then whats the problem? Were these fans supposed to vote for authors and works theys didn’t like? Or maybe, as other people pointed out, they’s just the wrong kind of fans?
Some of the people on the “Sad Puppy” slate didn’t want to be there, their works were put on the “Sad Puppy” nominating slate by the “Sad Puppy” authors because they were the kind of manly military space sci-fi that the “Sad Puppies” write and enjoy. A couple of those authors have even withdrawn their works from consideration for a Hugo. But given the way the voting scheme works, there is a quite good chance that the “Sad Puppies” will manage to get at least one of their works awarded a Hugo.
Huh, now I aint one to toot my own horn, at least not in public (momma said I’d go blind if’n I did that, but I’s smart so I just did it till I needed glasses) but I did do a lil review of the puppy nominated works in the short fiction cateegory, and out of the 6 stories I reviewed, only two took place in space, and didn’t neither one have a “manly man” in it, and only one of those was mil-fi. Two of em had lady protaguhnists, and one didn’t have no humans male or female a’tall. While it’s true some folks weren’t notified that they was being nominated, I do believe that Mr Torgersen (with a lil help from George R.R. Martin) has addressed that particylar red heron far better than I could. And its true some folks have withdrawn from the ballot, for various reasons, which in some cases may or may not have had to do with the poisonous atmosphere being created by the kinda folks who seem to think that Sarah A. Hoyt is a white mormon male. There was also some who rejected their nomination due to the people leading similar (but different) cam-pain’s, and some who just didn’t like the way the puppies ran their cam-pain even though they feel the puppies got themselves a point. However I must not be as bright as I thought I was cause I don’t really don’t see why’s that’s such a big deal. They was nominated by sci-fi fans on account of those fans liking those works, and even if they chose not to accept said nomynation, that don’t change the fact that they was nomynated the zact same way every other nominee has been since the first Hugo rewards. By fans who paid they moneys and nominated what they liked. Aint that the way its supposed to work Mr Penguin sir?
At which point, the Hugo award becomes meaningless. The reason is that if a few disgruntled misogynist closet cases compensating for their small guns by writing about big guns can rig the Hugo, then any organization with sufficient pull and money can rig the Hugo. Such as publishers. At the point where the Hugo becomes a case of who has the most money to rig the elections, it becomes worthless.
Shazam, Shazam, Shazam! We got us anuther mind reader up in here! Now I can’t say for certain that none of the puppy lovers is a misogynist, but considering that about 40% of the nominees were wimmen’s, that many of the stories nominated by puppy lovers featured wimmen protaguhnists, and that many of the authors involved in promoting SP3 are lady authors, it surely don’t seem like the most logical hipothohsis to me. But then I’m just a shit-kicker what spent too many nights drinking shine. Now speaking of deep pockets rigging the Hugo rewards, well it turns out there’s this lady author by the name of Mary Robinette Kowal who raised a bunch of money from anonymouse donors to literally buy one hundred supporting memberships for readers of her journal and I don’t see you getting you panties in a twist about that Opus. Whereas the puppies merely convinced they fans to go and spend they own money, this woman is lit’rally buying them for her readers. Now its true that she claims she will recuse herself from being nominated next year in th interest of ethics, but I still find it odd that all y’all “ethics in nominations” types don’t seem a’tall bothered by this. I’d also point out that she is, so far as I know, the only person on either side who is doing anything similar. All the puppy related authors did was motivate their own fanbases. Now earlier you said that fans voting for what they like was what this was supposed to be about, and yet somehow fans doing zactly that have “made the Hugo rewards meaningless” You might have had a point about publishers trying to rig the nominations except that if a publisher, such as say Tor, were to exhort its readers to read and nominate certain works, it wouldn’t be rigging anything now it? It would just be doing what George R.R. Martin, and Harlan Ellison (among others) have been sayin has been going on for years. Now if Tor started buying memberships for its readers, well that would be different. But agin, the puppies didn’t buy no one no memberships no how. And as for our little guns, I caint speak for no one else but I aint never had no complaints. Considering Mr Torgersens got two kids and been married for over two decades I reckon his wife aint complaining too much either. Though I’ve never talked to Ms Correia one look at his picture would suggest she didn’t fall in love with him on account of how purty he is, so he must have something going on. Agin I aint no mind reader, but are you sure you aint maybe whadayacallit? Projectin?
So it appears the “Sad Puppies” may win the battle, and lose the war. It may be that science fiction only has one prestige award in the future — the Nebula Award. SFWA membership requirements make it impossible for the “Sad Puppies” or anybody else to rig Nebula awards. In the end, what makes libraries (who account for most publisher profits) buy Hugo Award winners is the notion that winning a Hugo Award means it’s popular and high quality. Once it’s demonstrated that winning a Hugo Award means only that the publisher spent more money to rig the election this year than other publishers did, the Hugo becomes meaningless to libraries — and to anybody else, for that matter.
You keep confusing several authors motivatin they’s fan base with rigging something. And you keep implying that money’s got something to do with it. But so far, the only person buying memberships for anyone is Ms Kowal. As for the notion that winning a Hugo means its pop’lar and high quality, well we done discussed pop’lar already, and as for high quality that there is subjective aint it? Lots of us think there haint been too much qualitee involved for a dogs age as things stand. Finally I’d point out that the numbers of Hugo supporting memberships is skyrocketing, and doesn’t seem to show any sign of slowing down. I mention this on account of the more people who become members, the larger the pool of voters, the harder and more expensive it is for anyone to rig anything. So instead of getting up on your high horse and declaring the Hugos rewards killed by puppies, maybe you should instead be trying to get more people to sign up, telling them how to sign up, letting them know how long they have to sign up, and trying to bring in enough voters that can’t nobody ever rig nothing again. Y’know like I and many others have been doing for a while now. Or you could just sit there and whine like a bitch while we do all the heavy lifting for you. That seems to be about more your speed. I mean, why soar with the eagles when you can sit on your eggs and complain huh?
rachelloon said:
It’s like the only criticism these people know how to use is ‘WHITE MEN! WHITE MEN! WHITE MEN!’, whether the people they’re complaining about really are white men or not. Christ.
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Zsuzsa said:
It does make you wonder if some of these people could pass the Turing test…
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marsultor13 said:
Oops, your christian privilege is showing. 😉
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Greg said:
What does that even mean in this context? Your entire post seems to be a slap in the face of the general sf/f fan who is apparently too plebian to know what is good and what isn’t without some “artiste” telling him which is which.
Attitudes like yours remind me of a great Mel Brooks line: “With the birth of Art came the afterbirth…the Art Critic.”
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marsultor13 said:
Its called sarcasm. Ever hear tell of it?
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Greg said:
Am I the only one darkly amused by the accusation that the already suspected to be overly dominated by the literati Hugos is being accused by mars of permitting TOO MUCH fan input (as opposed to the Nebulas, COMPLETELY dominated by literati, and hence assigned the position of superior judge of quality)?
Who appointed sf/f WRITERS the decisive judge of quality in the field?
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marsultor13 said:
Buddy. My comments were in BOLD. I reckon you might be criticizing the other guys positions.And If not, I have no earthy idea how you came to that conclusion.
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Greg said:
Yeah, I went back and re-read and thought that might be the case.
I apologize.
I’ve also been reading a lot of other posts and such (like the one you Fisk-ed) and I may have been letting “tone bleed” color my perceptions.
Again, I apologize.
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marsultor13 said:
No Worries.
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T.L. Knighton said:
Nice fisk, good sir. Nice fisk indeed.
Am I the only one alarmed by the idea that libraries are counting for most book publisher’s profits?
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Greg said:
At least libraries have a formal “neutrality” policy when it comes to selecting works by content and author. Though I’m sure it gets “shaded” a little from place to place. My local library system has a nice balance overall, just slightly tilted to the right.
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T.L. Knighton said:
That’s not the issue for me. It’s the idea that tax dollars are indirectly supporting a system that can’t find it’s own butt with both hands, a map, and a GPS.
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marsultor13 said:
I find that quote disturbing as well but for very different reasons What bothers me is how unhealthy publishing is. I certainly understand that libraries as a group would be a very large market, but shouldn’t individuals buying books outweigh all the libraries in America? And if not, why not? To me, the idea that libraries compose the the bulk of publishers revenues would seem to indicate that people aren’t buying what the publishers are selling.
And that should scare anyone who likes reading books shouldn’t it?
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T.L. Knighton said:
That too.
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Greg said:
A lot of people get their reading books FROM libaries. The libraries aren’t buying them just to have them after all.
I get 99% of my reading material from libraries because I can’t afford my own personal copies. The other 1% (the ones I just HAVE to have) I get from used book stores/buy used on Amazon.
The book publishers get paid either way.
You’re also forgetting e-pub. If anything, reading diversity is at an all time high at the retail level.
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marsultor13 said:
But still, shouldn’t the sheer mass of readers outweigh the libraries? Even in a small county, where the library serves just a few thousand people, I would expect that the number of books bought by the people in that county each year would far outstrip the number of purchases libraries make.
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Greg said:
True enough, and I’m not sure I have an answer.
I DO remember a parallel situation that might offer some explanation. Back in the ’80 and early part of the 90’s, it was common for new movie/tv releases on video to debut at an extremely inflated price (sometimes as much as $80-100). It would stay at that price for sometimes up to 6-7 months then the $20 version would come out.
I asked at my then video rental place why that was, and I was told that the first price was the “rental” price. Most of the initial sales were made to video rental chains under a commercial use license.
Now, applying that to libraries, it stands to reason that book sellers aren’t stupid. Selling a handful of books to a library that will be read by 100s of people each or more at “retail” price is a money loser compared to selling each person their own copy. Therefore they would sell to libraries at a higher price than they would to the general public. This is also why, if you’ve ever lost or ruined a library book you probably had to pay a higher price than it would take just to go down to the book store and buy a new copy.
So each book sold to a library brings MORE per copy to the publisher than a “retail” sale would. This would explain why libraries make up more of their profits.
Mind you, I’m not sure that’s the ONLY reason, but I’m pretty certain it’s at least part of it.
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marsultor13 said:
hmm. interesting point.
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Greg said:
More to consider: According to the American Library Association, there are just under 120,000 libraries in the US. If they bought, on average, just 2 books, that’s 240,000 books. Now obviously not every library is going to do that. Some might buy 10 copies, and some might buy none if the book is the wrong type of book (say, for a medical school library).
Now, for comparison consider that (depending on whose numbers you choose to believe), you can be a “best seller” on some lists with 5,000 copies/week (260,000 a year), and in some cases/categories lower than that. Hard numbers are difficult to come by though, because publication numbers are considered “trade secrets”.
I was able to find one actual literary agent who would use real numbers from real authors (not disclosing who they were of course). His estimate for the “average” book is about 10,000 copies sold for books by major publishers.
http://www.stevelaube.com/what-are-average-book-sales/
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Shadowdancer Duskstar / Cutelildrow said:
Re: taxpayer money.
I got shown this thing today, and O_O holy crap wtf and I gotta put in a trigger warning : beware your blood pressure may be up somewhere near lunar orbit after reading this.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/25/why-a-one-room-west-virginia-library-runs-a-20000-cisco-router/
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marsultor13 said:
Sadly that just sounds like par for the course.
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Greg said:
I understood that. I’m just suggesting that despite that, at least libraries have a formal mission to serve ALL the community, and generally do. They may take the Hugo winners, but they will also take OSC, Correia, Torgeson, et al.
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