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jon_chaissonFirst off, the happy news. HUGE congratulations to Cixin Liu for winning the Best Novel Hugo for The Three-Body Problem. It's one hell of a great novel, definitely one you should all read.
Now, let's get this off my chest.
Let's talk about the SFF genre for a moment, just for what it is--a subcategory of fiction that leans less towards literary (though can include variants of it) and more towards the imaginative (although it doesn't always need to be a requirement). Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, which is about a potential alien invasion, though framed in the context of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and math and science nerdiness. Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, which has little to no overt SFF components other than a young boy's overactive imagination. Rachel Hartman's Seraphina and Shadow Scale, which deal with dragons as the excluded Other, and a young girl trying to return peace to her land. Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni, at its heart a Jewish love story based in Manhattan that happens to feature the titular characters. Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto series, which a bumbling outcast ninja grows from a knucklehead goofball to his village's leader by sheer determination and crystal-clear focus on his goal--to protect everyone in the same village that hated him for his past history. Yasutaka Tsutsui's Paprika, in which a female neurologist and her team find a new method to combat neurological disorders, only to end up fighting a disturbed fellow scientist bent on using their method for mind control. Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, in which a man must try to keep his sanity while fighting an alien war he doesn't fully understand. Mark Z Danielewski's House of Leaves, in which the physical dimensions of a house literally become the amplifier of a couple's disintegrating marriage. Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, in which a terrorist act turns San Francisco into a police state, and a teenager committed to personal freedom.
These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of stories out there in this genre that I write in. One could easily argue what is and what isn't genre, but that's completely a matter of opinion. Some of these are filed in YA, others in comics, others in literary fiction, while some are completely at home in the SF/F section of your local book store. Point being, there's all sorts of stories out there, covering all sorts of subjects, in all sorts of settings.
Yes, there are also the military SF stories and the classic space operas. There's also the vampire stories, the steampunk stories, the alternate reality stories, the New Weird stories. The only reason I don't mention them here is merely because I'm not a fan of them. I acknowledge they exist, I'm sure they're well-written, and I have nothing bad to say about them at all. I just don't read them because I'm not interested in them.
The issue I find the most irritating about the Puppies is that my and others' disinterest in those subjects is perceived as a legitimate reason that the Hugos are politically rigged. Even more so that I apparently have to explain to many of them that I'm not saying that I think the stories suck and that they should all be thrown in a fire and burned to a crisp at a toasty 451°F. I just don't like them. I don't like whiskey either, but that doesn't mean that I demand all distilleries be closed forever. I just happen to like vodka and rum instead.
There's a lot of life to be lived out there. It's too short to waste time forcing myself to like something that doesn't jive with me at all. Someone else will like it, I'm sure. Hell, I'm pretty sure I'll have detractors with A Division of Souls, if it ever gains any traction. And I'm cool with that. It's not for everyone.
What fascinates me in a car-crash sort of way is the reaction that this sometimes just doesn't seem to be enough for the Puppies. In a very short, unscientific version of this manufactured War On Genre:
--Certain writers (many rightwing conservatives) (no, really, I'm not making that up) complain their works aren't getting nominated, or are passed over for more "liberal" stories (such as the Cixin Liu novel, which in reality is FAR from being a liberal story).
--Fault is then placed on the readers, who are obviously being given the Kool Aid of said 'liberal' writers*
--Writers then realize that via a loophole in the voting process, they can stack the deck by getting a bunch of people to purchase the voting fee (a reasonable $40 this year) so they can throw in all kinds of distinctly right-wing and conservative-leaning stories and writers.**
--Many fans who are annoyed and angered by this disgusting stacking of the deck "to prove a point" decide that instead of voting for stories that may or may not even be quality, a No Award response is given instead.***
--Honest voting, honest vote counts, and rule abiding show conclusively that a majority of the readers would rather vote for quality over personal politics.
--End result 1: Absolutely NONE of the Puppy-backed stories win a single award.
--End result 2: Nearly all of the Puppy-backed followers are, appropriately and predictably, violently upset that their nefarious plans did not work, and said nomination riggers state loudly and angrily that This Only Goes to Prove That The Hugos Are Rigged.
--End result 2.5: Puppies are also outraged that the genre is full of Social Justice Warriors and that we're now being forced to read about Asians and Blacks and Queers and Girls and (gasp!) Feelings! How DARE they tell us what to do! This is a free country! Rights! Morality! USA! USA! Whatever Amendment I can use for this one!****
--End result 3: Many level-headed fans shake their head at all this nonsense and happily continue reading whatever the hell they like to read.
Genre writing is always evolving. Did Wells and Shelley expect Tolkien to be such a huge thing? Did Bester and Doc Smith expect Gibson and Stephenson to be such a huge thing? Probably not, but I'm sure they embraced the change anyway. Fans read whatever captures their interest, then and now, and that includes new stories, uncharted territory, and even stories of Other People.
Really, that's all this boils down to--fear of change, which in America tends to be a very conservative world view. [Actually I'm sure it's like that everywhere. I'm currently reading a history of 70s UK that shows members of Parliament reacting the same way to "liberal permissiveness".] Sure, tempering change with responsibility and a reasonable amount of attention is always a good thing, but let's be realistic: things change whether we want them to or not. Nothing gold can stay. *****
So let's accept that there are Things We May Not Like Out There, and Things We Like That Aren't Popular, AND THAT'S OKAY TOO and move on.
* Yeah, I know using the old Jim Jones bit here is in poor taste, but I'm proving a point. Their reaction to 'liberal bias' in SF/F does in fact tend to lean towards such tasteless descriptions.
** In a fascinating turn of events, this move actually kind of backfired on them, as many of their suggested writers pulled themselves out of the running--some of them first-time nominees--simply because they felt this was a ridiculously petty move. Integrity over politics, yay!
*** My favorite responses thus far on Twitter have been "I don't even care about the Hugos/I don't even read SF, but good on them for ruining the party for the liberals!" So scorched-earth damage is better than a decisive win? I guess?
**** Actually, that's a bunch of bullshit, and I'm pretty sure they know it. They just don't like to read about Asians and Blacks and Queers and Girly Things, and I'M OKAY WITH THAT. I'm not about to piss in your cornflakes because you dare to read something I don't like.
***** I too have learned to embrace this. There are quite a number of places and things in my life that I wish I could revisit but no longer exist, at least not in the way I've known them. And I've made my peace with that.
Now, let's get this off my chest.
Let's talk about the SFF genre for a moment, just for what it is--a subcategory of fiction that leans less towards literary (though can include variants of it) and more towards the imaginative (although it doesn't always need to be a requirement). Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, which is about a potential alien invasion, though framed in the context of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and math and science nerdiness. Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, which has little to no overt SFF components other than a young boy's overactive imagination. Rachel Hartman's Seraphina and Shadow Scale, which deal with dragons as the excluded Other, and a young girl trying to return peace to her land. Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni, at its heart a Jewish love story based in Manhattan that happens to feature the titular characters. Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto series, which a bumbling outcast ninja grows from a knucklehead goofball to his village's leader by sheer determination and crystal-clear focus on his goal--to protect everyone in the same village that hated him for his past history. Yasutaka Tsutsui's Paprika, in which a female neurologist and her team find a new method to combat neurological disorders, only to end up fighting a disturbed fellow scientist bent on using their method for mind control. Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, in which a man must try to keep his sanity while fighting an alien war he doesn't fully understand. Mark Z Danielewski's House of Leaves, in which the physical dimensions of a house literally become the amplifier of a couple's disintegrating marriage. Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, in which a terrorist act turns San Francisco into a police state, and a teenager committed to personal freedom.
These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of stories out there in this genre that I write in. One could easily argue what is and what isn't genre, but that's completely a matter of opinion. Some of these are filed in YA, others in comics, others in literary fiction, while some are completely at home in the SF/F section of your local book store. Point being, there's all sorts of stories out there, covering all sorts of subjects, in all sorts of settings.
Yes, there are also the military SF stories and the classic space operas. There's also the vampire stories, the steampunk stories, the alternate reality stories, the New Weird stories. The only reason I don't mention them here is merely because I'm not a fan of them. I acknowledge they exist, I'm sure they're well-written, and I have nothing bad to say about them at all. I just don't read them because I'm not interested in them.
The issue I find the most irritating about the Puppies is that my and others' disinterest in those subjects is perceived as a legitimate reason that the Hugos are politically rigged. Even more so that I apparently have to explain to many of them that I'm not saying that I think the stories suck and that they should all be thrown in a fire and burned to a crisp at a toasty 451°F. I just don't like them. I don't like whiskey either, but that doesn't mean that I demand all distilleries be closed forever. I just happen to like vodka and rum instead.
There's a lot of life to be lived out there. It's too short to waste time forcing myself to like something that doesn't jive with me at all. Someone else will like it, I'm sure. Hell, I'm pretty sure I'll have detractors with A Division of Souls, if it ever gains any traction. And I'm cool with that. It's not for everyone.
What fascinates me in a car-crash sort of way is the reaction that this sometimes just doesn't seem to be enough for the Puppies. In a very short, unscientific version of this manufactured War On Genre:
--Certain writers (many rightwing conservatives) (no, really, I'm not making that up) complain their works aren't getting nominated, or are passed over for more "liberal" stories (such as the Cixin Liu novel, which in reality is FAR from being a liberal story).
--Fault is then placed on the readers, who are obviously being given the Kool Aid of said 'liberal' writers*
--Writers then realize that via a loophole in the voting process, they can stack the deck by getting a bunch of people to purchase the voting fee (a reasonable $40 this year) so they can throw in all kinds of distinctly right-wing and conservative-leaning stories and writers.**
--Many fans who are annoyed and angered by this disgusting stacking of the deck "to prove a point" decide that instead of voting for stories that may or may not even be quality, a No Award response is given instead.***
--Honest voting, honest vote counts, and rule abiding show conclusively that a majority of the readers would rather vote for quality over personal politics.
--End result 1: Absolutely NONE of the Puppy-backed stories win a single award.
--End result 2: Nearly all of the Puppy-backed followers are, appropriately and predictably, violently upset that their nefarious plans did not work, and said nomination riggers state loudly and angrily that This Only Goes to Prove That The Hugos Are Rigged.
--End result 2.5: Puppies are also outraged that the genre is full of Social Justice Warriors and that we're now being forced to read about Asians and Blacks and Queers and Girls and (gasp!) Feelings! How DARE they tell us what to do! This is a free country! Rights! Morality! USA! USA! Whatever Amendment I can use for this one!****
--End result 3: Many level-headed fans shake their head at all this nonsense and happily continue reading whatever the hell they like to read.
Genre writing is always evolving. Did Wells and Shelley expect Tolkien to be such a huge thing? Did Bester and Doc Smith expect Gibson and Stephenson to be such a huge thing? Probably not, but I'm sure they embraced the change anyway. Fans read whatever captures their interest, then and now, and that includes new stories, uncharted territory, and even stories of Other People.
Really, that's all this boils down to--fear of change, which in America tends to be a very conservative world view. [Actually I'm sure it's like that everywhere. I'm currently reading a history of 70s UK that shows members of Parliament reacting the same way to "liberal permissiveness".] Sure, tempering change with responsibility and a reasonable amount of attention is always a good thing, but let's be realistic: things change whether we want them to or not. Nothing gold can stay. *****
So let's accept that there are Things We May Not Like Out There, and Things We Like That Aren't Popular, AND THAT'S OKAY TOO and move on.
* Yeah, I know using the old Jim Jones bit here is in poor taste, but I'm proving a point. Their reaction to 'liberal bias' in SF/F does in fact tend to lean towards such tasteless descriptions.
** In a fascinating turn of events, this move actually kind of backfired on them, as many of their suggested writers pulled themselves out of the running--some of them first-time nominees--simply because they felt this was a ridiculously petty move. Integrity over politics, yay!
*** My favorite responses thus far on Twitter have been "I don't even care about the Hugos/I don't even read SF, but good on them for ruining the party for the liberals!" So scorched-earth damage is better than a decisive win? I guess?
**** Actually, that's a bunch of bullshit, and I'm pretty sure they know it. They just don't like to read about Asians and Blacks and Queers and Girly Things, and I'M OKAY WITH THAT. I'm not about to piss in your cornflakes because you dare to read something I don't like.
***** I too have learned to embrace this. There are quite a number of places and things in my life that I wish I could revisit but no longer exist, at least not in the way I've known them. And I've made my peace with that.
