The Sad Joke That Is the 2015 Hugo Awards

May 5, 2015 By Mercy Pilkington 21 Comments

Imagine working your tail off to become a writer, to hone your craft, to connect with audiences who clamor for your work, then let your mind be transported to the bliss of being nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in your genre. Then imagine finding out you were only nominated because a handful of people with a hate-filled agenda rallied behind your work in order to edge out other titles whose compassionate worldview they despise.

It’s like being voted as the Homecoming Queen, only to find out later you’re the butt of a school-wide joke. Except in the case of this year’s Hugo Awards, it’s much, much worse.

In order to be nominated for this award–whose previous winners have included Anne McCaffrey, Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin, Harlan Ellison, and George R.R. Martin–titles are suggested by Worldcon members, then tabulated. The highest numbers of suggestions results in the nominees’ lists for each category. The ballots then go on to be voted on, again by Worldcon members, literally anyone who’d signed up to attend any of the conferences in 2014, 2015, or 2016.

Unfortunately, this year’s nominations have allegedly been shanghaied by a small collective of people under the name “Sad Puppies” and a rival group “Rabid Puppies” who are disheartened with the “touchy feely” decline of science fiction into a genre that allows gay couples and women who don’t have giant breasts to exist. The groups have garnered enough voting support to send their favorites to the top of the lists, then have seemingly been quite open about achieving their goals.

Sadly, one of the key members of Rabid Puppies is believed to be the owner and editor of a publishing house that now has several titles on the shortlist. The editor himself, Vox Day, is also shortlisted for two top editor awards. Basically, the groups managed to shift the lists not only towards their own agenda, but towards the financial gain of one of the groups leaders. Day is also one of the names associated with the now infamous Gamergate saga that pitted the video game world against three female game developers and resulted in threats of rape and murder of these women.

The groups’ fight against recognizing diversity in both science fiction titles and science fiction authors has led to a serious backlash against this year’s Hugo Awards, with two authors withdrawing their works from nomination (refusing the honor, essentially), one fan writer nominee withdrawing from the awards, and one presenter stepping down from the awards event itself. The authors took this stance after learning that their works were in the slate of titles pushed by the groups, and have decided that no recognition is better than being used in this way.

Mercy Pilkington (2165 Posts)

Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.

News Items of Interest

Good E-Reader

This is a sad state of affairs.
Karl

Kudos to you for writing about this cluster-bleep in the SF world.
Michael Kozlowski

Been hearing about discontent from many writers I know and then heard about the sheer craziness happening this year.
Alexvdl

Enjoyed your write up, and I certainly hope that you don’t get puppy droppings strewn about your comment section.
Kevin Standlee

You’re welcome to (an in fact encouraged to) use the actual Official Hugo Awards Logo when writing about the Hugo Awards, rather than one of the other logos that people proposed for the Award that was not selected for it.
Jono

Strangely, when I was one of the young college students registering new voters in the South, we were hailed as heroes. Only the entrenched power structure – the few who already voted in the elections and their uniformed representatives – talked about the destruction of a fine old tradition, and ballot-box stealing, and shifting the vote away from the established agenda. Apparently, Ms. Pilkington regards the large number of new voters selecting the books they think worthy of honoring much the way Bull Halsey looked at the blacks and whites crossing the bridge.
Jeanne Tomlin

Are you so sure that since this started most of the new voters share your misogynistic, homophobic agenda? I wouldn’t bet on it. We’ll see when the balloting finishes.
Jordan Bassior

Would that be the misogynistic homophobic agenda of Sarah Hoyt?
Jeanne Tomlin

Oh it might just possibly be the racist, misogynistic, homophobic agenda of Vox Day.

“Homosexuality is a birth defect from every relevant secular, material, and sociological perspective…”

“It is absurd to imagine that there is absolutely no link between race and intelligence.”

“Ironically, in light of the strong correlation between female education and demographic decline, a purely empirical perspective on Malala Yousafzai, the poster girl for global female education, may indicate that the Taliban’s attempt to silence her was perfectly rational and scientifically justifiable.”

“a few acid-burned faces is a small price to pay for lasting marriages, stable families, legitimate children, low levels of debt, strong currencies, affordable housing, homogenous populations, low levels of crime, and demographic stability.”
Riiiight. Sure, the Puppies have no agenda. Ha! Try again.
Jordan Bassior

So wait — guilt by association trumps actual statements and behavior? Or are you unaware that Sarah Hoyt is a female Latino science fiction writer who has written stories including homosexual romances on the part of protagonists which have led to happy endings?
J. R. Tomlin

There have been romances with LGBT protagonists (or ‘homosexual romances’ as you call them) with happy endings for more than half a century, so I am hardly impressed. So you think mentioning Hoyt invalidates every nasty thing that VD and the other ‘Puppies’ have ever said. Not even close.
Jordan Bassior

Not trying to “impress” you (why should this “impress” anyone anyway?) — merely pointing out that the Sad Puppy leader I mentioned, Sarah Hoyt, is very unlikely to be either misogyistic or anti-homosexual, given that she is a woman who writes homosexual romance plots and has them come to happy endings. Plus, her being nonwhite puts the lie to your claim that the Sad Puppies are against nonwhites qua nonwhites.,

I’m not sure why you believe that Sarah Hoyt somehow controls or is controlled by Vox Day, as they are two separate individuals. They’re also in different factions of the movement to get the Hugos loose of the Tor clique. Sarah’s a Sad Puppy, Vox is a Rabid Puppy.

As I said, it’s clear that in your mind guilt by association trumps any other facts about the individual in question. I’m not sure WHY you think this way, but it’s fairly obvious.
Jordan Bassior

Horrid, that some fans are starting to think for themselves instead of as their betters dictate. Tsk, tsk.
J. R. Tomlin

They wouldn’t be ROMANCES if they didn’t have a happy ending. Look up the definition of the genre.

Although I don’t know anyone other than you who considers Hoyt a ‘leader’ of the Puppies rather than a token, I once again I recommend that old saying: Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent.
Jordan Bassior

The stories are not primarily romances. And romantic plots can very often have unhappy endings. I direct you to “The Ballad of Lost C’mell,” to mention one VERY famous sf romance tale which had an unhappy ending, which you might even have read despite the fact that the author was an Evil White Hetero Cismale. Who worked with the CIA, yet.

You apparently don’t know very many Sad Puppies, then. She’s friends with all the other leaders and has a highly influential blog.

Many of the Sad Puppies’ leadership are female or non-white. No “tokens” about it.

Yes, I get your saying. Lie down with dogs, etc. An expression of guilt by association. Thank you for admitting to this logical fault.
J. R. Tomlin

No, if they don’t have a happy ending they are not romances. The Balad of LostC’mell is Science Fiction with romantic elements, an entirely different genre. Sorry for your ignorance. I have no clue and don’t care who she is friends with, but she is not recognized as one of the leaders of the Puppies.

The saying I quoted, by the way, is an expression that you choose your associations and live with the reputation you’ve earned thereby.

Now it is time to wait for the RESULTS of the voting. Goodbye.
Old_NFO

Wow, about the only thing Tomlin left out was the Nazi comment… Nothing like drinking the koolaid and spouting the ‘corporate’ line…
Donald Campbell

You must be living in the past. My dogs take NexGard (afoxolaner) chewables once a month. Fleas are last millennium. Can we call you a Puppy Killer token? Since the days of ‘token blacks’ the word is considered a term of opprobrium. I bet you voted for NO AWARD.
SDN

I’m sure Romeo and Juliet agree.

And Tomlin is a pathological liar, who’s had his head handed to him so often by Sarah, I’m not surprised he’s a little unhinged.
Jordan Bassior

No, if they don’t have a happy ending they are not romances …

Until the 19th century, most romances were romantic tragedies. You are using a very narrow definition of the genre, and further defining it in circular, tautological terms rather than by actual analysis of romantic tales or plots.

“Not recognized as one of the leaders of the Puppies” by WHOM? The Sad Puppies themselves, including I, look up to her and see her as a “leader.” Since when do you get to decide who leads other people?