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I would like to state for the record that I am an SF/F writer (however unpublished) and reader, and the Hugo Awards have very little to do with me.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

[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.