Oh, SF/F, you stay classy

[megwrites]

I'm seeing some links around the old f-list about how the Hugo shortlist sucks this year, but more than that, I keep seeing this phrase about the Hugo shortlist representing SF/F or SF/F fandom.

Uh, no.

I would like to state for the record that I am an SF/F writer (however unpublished) and reader, and the Hugo Awards have very little to do with me. They certainly don't represent what I read or like, nor what most of the people I know who are SF/F fans read and like. In fact, in the circles I've been running in for quite some time, they're sort of irrelevant.

I noticed at the bottom that there were 799 nomination ballots cast. That should tell you all you need to know. I would wager that the amount of people who enjoy SF/F, either in literary or TV/movie form, numbers in the millions in the USA alone. Never mind worldwide. Judging by book sales, there are certainly more than 799 people buying and reading SF/F works.

So, say all you like about the Hugo Awards. I don't tend to pay attention to them. But please stop saying they represent SF/F. They don't. I have no bloody idea who they represent, but it's not me, and it sure ain't SF/F as a whole.

Comments

[ithiliana.livejournal.com]

As I'm recalling, the people who buy memberships for the next Worldcon? or some con? are the ones who can nominate for the Hugo.

Or maybe it's for the Worldcon this year, and they just published the lists for this year?

So, yeah. As in all things fandom, it means "this little group of people in this specific corner of fandom."

What I can say about teh Hugos (which I had to research when I was doing the encyclopedia, along with all the other prizes), they're one of the reasons the Tiptree Award exists!

[cericonversion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the balloting is open to people with Worldcon memberships, so that's attendees and those motivated enough to vote to buy a membership even if they aren't going.

I was struck at Charles Brown's death by the recurring sentiment to the effect of "fandom can be defined as the set of people who read Locus and know its importance", phrased with various nuances. That never was true for me, and I've actually been a members of Horror Writers of America on earned credits and could have joined SFWA at several points, subject to the whims of membership boundaries.

So yeah, it's really worth remembering how little of fandom at large we're talking about here. The Dead Bro Walking check-in all by itself was a large fraction of the Hugo voting number.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

The Dead Bro Walking check-in all by itself was a large fraction of the Hugo voting number.

THIS THIS THIS.

I'm amazed at how many people think that such things as Locus and the Hugo Awards and the SFWA are actually representative of the actual population of the SF/F fandom, of the people who are actually buying the books, reading the comics, watching the TV/Movies. Because it's not.

[cericonversion.livejournal.com]

Why, Miss Fiction, you're all worked up. Here, have some lemonade. :)

Seriously, though, yeah. One of the things about the LJ-etc spread of fandom is that it's much more like fandom at large, as well as diversified in itself.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

As I'm recalling, the people who buy memberships for the next Worldcon? or some con? are the ones who can nominate for the Hugo.

Yeah, I vaguely remember something like that as well, which bothers me. Because as past experience has already shown, cons are kind of self-selecting for a very specific, very elite subsection of fandom - namely the white, upper-middle class subsect that can afford a con and the time to go.

So there are a lot of fans, particularly fans of color, who are sorely underrepresented. Thus, the books they read and love are also sorely underrepresented in the awards.

Not to mention those of us who just plain ol' don't care about cons and couldn't afford to go and don't pay attention to who is supposed to be considered a "great" SF/F writer and just go ahead and read what we like.

[quivo.livejournal.com]

When I was reading John Scalzi, the times when the Hugos came around where the times when I started skimming posts. Because 9 times out of 10, I had never read and was never going to read the books on the Hugo shortlist. Then again, I was still going through my weird phase of, "well, I don't really belong because of X", where I didn't realize that I didn't feel like I belonged because so much of the seminal work sucked and I didn't feel like slogging through it.

Now, when Hugo talk comes up, I listen only until I am sure an author I like isn't on there, then I skim, skim, skim. I think I know who the Hugos are supposed to represent; they are supposedly the REAL SF/F fans, the ones who go to the BEST CON EVER (??), and er, yeah. It's just one of those stupid vestiges of the mentality that most older SF/F people seem to hold with an iron fist - if someone doesn't go to cons, they're not a real fan. If they don't know you, you're definitely not a real fan.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

if someone doesn't go to cons, they're not a real fan. If they don't know you, you're definitely not a real fan.

Yes. This. I'm so tired of this old school con mentality in which you must go and present yourself at a very expensive gathering in order to count.

Because for me, being an SF/F fan means simply that you enjoy SF/F, that you read the books (even if you can only afford to borrow them from the library or get them second hand) or comics or TV and movies that are SF/F.

And I resent the idea that you have to do something which by it's nature is only available to certain groups of people to "count" as a fan.

And it sucks that you felt like you didn't really belong, because you do. If you like SF/F, if you read it or write it, you belong. Period. End of story.