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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The 75th World Science Fiction Convention (commonly known as WorldCon) is being held this weekend in Helsinki, Finland. The convention is where the annual Hugo Awards are presented, and today, the convention announced the latest recipients.
This year, women almost completely swept the Hugo Awards, taking home the top prizes for literature in the science fiction community. That's particularly notable, given how the awards have been increasingly recognizing works from female and minority creators. The trend prompted a counter-movement from two group of fans, the self-described "Sad Puppies," and their alt-right equivalents, the "Rabid Puppies." These groups gamed the awards and forced a slate of nominees onto the Hugo ballot in 2015, prompting widespread backlash within the wider genre community. Another award, the Dragon, faced similar issues earlier this week when several authors asked to pull their nominations over concerns about Puppy interference and the award's integrity.
This year's sweep by female creators seems to be a strong repudiation of anti-diversity groups. 2017 also marked the year the ceremony earned its own award: a representative from the Guinness Book of World Records certified that the Hugos are the longest-running science fiction awards ever.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @10:27AM (17 children)
Or, women are just better at writing science fiction, and always have been. The Sad Puppies have only served to make that manifest! Poor Sad Puppies! Maybe they could win a "Red Pillar" award, instead?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @10:43AM
Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, to suggest her work stood the test of time merely by the non-virtue of having being written by an individual without a Y chromosome is stupid. To suggest there was not always equality of opportunity at the Hugo awards is stupid and to force equality of outcome by politicising the awards is stupid. If females are "just better at writing science fiction" then why would it be newsworthy that women win the majority of awards? And if that were the case, wouldn't neo-marxists be looking to force women out to ensure their precious equality of outcome?
(Score: -1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 16 2017, @10:54AM (11 children)
Your trolling aside, that's actually a good idea. The SJW fix is so firmly in at the Hugos that there's nothing for it but to ignore them and start an award actually based on merit.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @11:04AM (10 children)
Except the "Sad Puppy" criteria of "merit" sucks! Or at least wishes it could.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @01:27PM
And, you wish you could suck a sad puppy, right?
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday August 16 2017, @03:01PM (8 children)
Yeah, that's the problem here: reactionism. When you have one group that turns extremist, other people join another reactionary group on the opposite, but also extreme side. Then the reasonably people in the middle get sick of the bullshit and leave.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 16 2017, @03:16PM (7 children)
Seems to be like the problem would be the original group turning extremist then, no?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday August 16 2017, @04:20PM
Yeah, but that's not uncommon. There's always extremists. I guess the problem is when you give the extremists too much attention instead of just ignoring them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @04:45PM (4 children)
Your intellectual acuity couldn't cut a wet noodle.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Wednesday August 16 2017, @06:24PM (3 children)
Buzzards are better at tearing fetid carcasses. Don't know what to do with noodles, or real literature.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 16 2017, @07:01PM (2 children)
I do so. You hang the literature on a nail in the outhouse and hope it has softish pages.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Wednesday August 16 2017, @09:17PM (1 child)
That's the Sears & Roebuck's Catalog! But if that is your standard for literature, I can see why the Hugo Awards disappoint you so. (Does Sears even print a hardcopy catalog anymore? I tried wiping with Amazon, and it seemed to just spread it around.)
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday August 17 2017, @11:47AM
Nah, I like those nice, thin-paged books you get at religious establishments. You can also roll a cigarette with them if you're in a bind.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @06:28PM
No! there is bad writing on both sides! Didn't you see those Happy Kittens that attacked the poor sexist/racist Sad Puppies? So sad, so sad! I know that no one is going to say it, no one besides TMB is going to say it, but David Duke wrote a fine book, too!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday August 16 2017, @01:26PM (3 children)
In your wildest fucking dreams. Or, in my worst nightmares. Once again, there have been excellent female authors all along. Those authors wrote SCIENCE FICTION. Today's authors are writing something different and new. They maybe deserve awards, but not SCIENCE FICTION AWARDS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @02:21PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday August 16 2017, @03:06PM
Just going by that one link someone posted to "The Art of Space Travel", it seems like it's become basically "chick-lit" (e.g., stories about characters exploring their feelings and experiencing drama) set in the not-too-far future, rather than speculative fiction which explores the societal impact of possible new technologies and discoveries.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @06:37PM
Poor, poor Runaway! Why does the world have to keep changing so much?