So the Hugo awards happened. And last night was a pretty decisive defeat for the would-be awardwreckers behind the Sad and Rabid Puppies’ slates, and for Rabid Puppies ringmaster Theodore “Vox Day” Beale in particular: not only did his slate fail to crack the awards (aside from two nominees who didn’t need his help to win), but he also saw his longtime nemesis N.K. Jemisin take the top award for her novel The Fifth Season.
Teddy Baby is trying his best to spin the defeat as a victory (“we have the SF-SJWs exactly where we want them at this point in time”) but even the fake sci-fi boys on Reddit’s gamergate hangout KotakuInAction can see what happened. And they are indeed sad little puppies about it.
Here are some of their highly edifying reactions:
![YESmovementLaci Green raped me. 5 points 12 hours ago So was NK Jemisin the best author this year or are they doing exactly what they're shitting on the Puppies for doing? permalinkembedsavereportreply [–]BulbasaurusThe7th 9 points 10 hours ago No, she is the best black woman of the year. That is what matters. permalinkembedsaveparentreportreply [–]alexdrac 4 points 8 hours ago Black woman writes about "climate change". What more could they want ? I stopped caring what other people think of sci-fi writers when i gave Ursula le Guan (?) a try. The internet was all "omg, such great sci-fi. and from a woman, no less". Well, i couldn't be bothered to finish the book, because it was painfully obvious that it was a book written by a woman for women. The main character (a guy) was going through all kinds of shit, but it seemed his only concern was with the feelings of someone or another. 90% of his inner dialogue was what women think men should be thinking about more.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/urs2.png?ssl=1)
(I had to cross out YESmovement’s Reddit flair because it was a rape joke.)
And then there was this ever-so-slightly ironic comment.
Hey, speak for yourself, dude. The only science fiction, er, books I’ve read in ages have been Chuck Tingle’s Pounded By The Pound: Turned Gay By The Socioeconomic Implications Of Britain Leaving The European Union and My Billionaire Triceratops Craves Gay Ass.
But I do like the irony inherent in lambasting unnamed authors for not being able to “write a coherent sentence” in a group of words that is not actually a sentence.
Hey, don’t knock Captain Homo’s Gay Adventures on the Planet Diversity until you’ve gotten at least three volumes in.
Ooh, I like the look of “The Fifth Season”; I must add it to my list of books to get at some point. And if it helps to upset these illiterate people all the better.
On my ballot I had such a hard time choosing between Fifth Season and Ancillary Mercy. I would have been totally happy with either, but seeing Day defeated by Jemisin was nice poetic justice. Not to mention that novella went to Nnedi Okorafor and novelette to Hao Jingfang. Not just losing to women, but women of color.
I am a little sad about Heaven Sent, that was a great episode of TV. Movie was a really strong category and I would have been happy about any of them, other than Avengers 2 winning.
Said no one ever in the middle of complaining about their hurt feelings over SF not pandering to them specifically.
They must have missed Heinlein, with his fluidity of persona. And Spider Robinson. And the whole Star Trek/Star Wars ‘don’t judge beings by appearance’ First Directive.
And Tanith Lee.
Jessica Jones won a Hugo for an episode about the sexism of telling a woman to smile. A show that explores themes of sexual violence and predation, sexism, abortion, divorce, PTSD and triggers, drug abuse, self hatred, platonic love between women, and the time Luke asked if it was a racial thing. I savor the entitled male tears. Their salty leakages replenish my own. Cry Vampire!
@Thiazin
And I’ll pretend I didn’t read that /s… mostly 😀
Standing ovation for that alone!! Jemisin is a great author, by the way. Very proud of her accomplishment and love that Vox Day is crushed by her win.
As the saying goes, the best revenge is success.
That’s their opinion of Ursula Le Guin, one of the greatest SF writers of all time?
Once I was on a tram and saw a bloke reading the latest Peter F Hamilton, fairly hot off the press. I asked him how he was finding it. To my astonishment, he shot me a wounded look and said ‘I thought only men read science fiction’. I had, apparently, undermined his masculinity by being a girl SF reader. He was genuinely hurt and confused.
I read “The Fifth Season” recently and it was really great. But then again, I also like Ursula LeGuin.
I heard some pretty cool things about The Fifth Season. I wish I lived closer to a library or had money to buy it.
I caught this on NPR yesterday:
Hugo Nominee Nnedi Okorafor: ‘I Love Stories — And So I Write Them’
http://www.npr.org/2016/08/20/490771640/hugo-nominee-nnedi-okorafor-breaks-down-her-sci-fi-writing
Spoiler alert: Nnedi Okorafor won for Binti!
The NPR host, Farai Chideya, mentioned that the right-wing Rabid/Sad Puppies had organized to defeat diversity in sci fi/fantasy. (Okorafor is a Nigerian American [her word is Nigeamerican] woman.) Boo-hoo, you people who definitely aren’t puppies!
The excerpt that the author read sounded so much like the way I headed off to college (in the middle of a flood; and I don’t know about Binti, but emotionally I was completely unprepared for life on my new planet) that I had to laugh.
And Binti sounds terrific! I’m going to see if my library has a copy.
Thrilled that Jemisin won, although I also loved Leckie’s “Ancillary Mercy.” I love the fact that the Hugos have a “No award” option, and that all the “puppy” nominees came in behind it, including Day’s entry with the oh-so-edifying title “SJW’s Always Lie.”
And the whining that a SF writer would tackle an issue like global warming! News flash: SF has always dealt with real-world issues. See: Orwell’s “1984,” Marge Piercy’s “Woman on the Edge of Time,” Phillip K Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, Jack London’s “The Iron heel,” and pretty much every episode of “Star Trek.”
@Dr Space Junk
Snort!
That reminds me of a radio interview I heard with a graphic novel illustrator, talking about how he drew in high school. “Well, guys, you know. We draw.”
Boy, was I offended!
I drew a comic strip for my high school paper. I learned what I knew from my mother. Unlike the guys in my house, we always drew.
Ursula le Guin is a goddess, so screw them. I bet ‘Always Coming Home’ would make them feel inadequate.
Time for a brief story – I know someone who got asked to work with their darling, Orson Scott Card. After a few interactions, she asked her agent to drop it – the guy is basically as unethical as fuck in the publishing industry and had massive, entitled demands. He was so painful to work with the cash couldn’t entice her – and it wasn’t much cash either. The draw was somehow supposed to be JUST working with him.
Not related to anything, really? But scifi IS the genre of ‘what if things were different’. It can never be the same forever.
@Tara, the Antisocial Social Worker
I love that book!
Also, Piercy’s He, She and It deals with climate change in a very sobering way. This 1991 novel was all too accurate in its predictions. It’s a huge and wonderful book.
It’s Ursula le Guan. Stop pretending to like SF in order to get attention from men!
It’s Ursula le Guan. Stop pretending to like SF in order to get attention from men!
…awarding Hugos based on sex and skin colour…
Doubly ironic, seeing it’s the Puppies that are trying to fix the awards based on the skin colour and sex of the author…
@Tosca, its like that Christies Auction dude who said women couldn’t create good art because ‘art’ by definition was done by men.
OH NO! A man with FEELINGS and (ugh) EMPATHY! Science fiction is Ruined! RUINED I SAY!
One Chuck Tingle’s loss: https://twitter.com/UnburntWitch/status/767190008058949632
I was there at Worldcon this year since it was held close to where I live. Just by having casual conversations with people it was obvious that there was very little Puppy support and everyone just wanted to get their tantrum over with so everyone could go on with their lives.
With that said, I attended a panel where Dave Truesdale really showed his ass. Like he started the whole thing off with a rant about PC culture and pearl clutching and how for god’s sake, people lose their jobs over this arglebargle!!11!!eleventy!
It wasn’t pretty and Truesdale got his membership revoked. Jim C. Hines has written a little about it and linked others talking about it.
I had fun. I networked, went to some great panels, and even got to hang out with one of my favorite authors. The food was hella ‘spensive though.
Holy shit, I so want to buy “Captain Homo’s Gay Adventures on the Planet Diversity” now. That sounds like the best series ever.
(But really, do these human pieces of tissue paper think that gay people don’t read sci fi? Or black people? Or, I don’t know, disabled people? Don’t answer that, because of course they think that.)
Man, I need to read more science-fiction. I could just go raid the husband’s bookshelves (there’s three for him, three for me, and a shared ‘overflow’ bookshelf). But I have a huge backlog of my own books I need to read as well. I’ll have to read Ms. Jemisin.
I picked up Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice shortly after it came out because it won the Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke awards – the first novel to win all three, and despite it being SJW messagefic about murdering all men (or whatever narrative the Puppies have this week), I loved it. I’ve recommended it to plenty of friends, and they all loved it bar one – who happens to be a staunch feminist and activist, of course.
While literally clutching a necklace he declared to be pearls, of course.