Finalists: 2015 Hugo Award

[tompe]

Originally Posted by shalym

You seem to be like my 10th grade literature teacher who thought that every single book had to be analyzed for symbolism and meaning. She also told our class that if we were reading for fun that we were wasting our lives.

I am not saying that at all. Symbolism is not the common way to read SF. SF is usually read literally. What I am saying is that SF is a literature of ideas. So they are kind of important. Even if the idea is just giving you sense of wonder.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by dickloraine

Haven't read the book, but I think he doesn't mean that the reader should do that, but the author. That was an answer to someone else, who said there is morality in the book. He just seems to say, there is not much about moral in it, if it didn't problematised it.

Exactly. The author is treating it very simple minded.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Why are you an avid SF reader, if it's no different to anything else?

For me, it's about imagination. Flights of fancy. Interesting ideas. Fresh takes on the world. Exaggerations and explorations.

All the above plus I like explorations of philosophical ideas also.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by shalym

You seem to be like my 10th grade literature teacher who thought that every single book had to be analyzed for symbolism and meaning. She also told our class that if we were reading for fun that we were wasting our lives.

It's teachers like her that are the reason why people think that they hate reading.

Shari

Yep. Driven away I tell you.

[scottken]

Originally Posted by rkomar

....Having people select books that they haven't even read makes it even worse. It turns the exercise into a competition rather than a census, and makes it useless as a polling and marketing tool. Perhaps you thought it was always useless for that, and feel no loss at the destruction of the census. To me, it is sad, especially because it was done for such a pathetically small power grab.

Exactly. When you reach out to gamergaters to vote on books/stories/blogs they haven't even read, you're destroying the value of the award, in that it no longer represents any kind of reading popular consensus, merely a motivated faction.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tompe

Exactly. The author is treating it very simple minded.

Actually, he's not. One of the more interesting twists in the MHI series is the idea of leave no one behind and how complex this apparently simple minded idea really is.

[bgalbrecht]

One of the rabid puppies nominees for best novelette was disqualified for being originally self-published in 2013 on his website, John C. Wright's "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus". Replacing Wright’s novelette on the ballot is “The Day The World Turned Upside Down” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2014).

The sad and rabid puppy professional artist nominee Jon Eno did not produce any qualifying work in 2014, so he has been replaced by Kirk DouPonce, who is a rabid puppy nominee.

[DiapDealer]

Marko Kloos has withdrawn his nomination for best novel.

I also wish to disassociate myself from the originator of the “Rabid Puppies” campaign. To put it bluntly: if this nomination gives even the appearance that Vox Day or anyone else had a hand in giving it to me because of my perceived political leanings, I don’t want it. I want to be nominated for awards because of the work, not because of the “right” or “wrong” politics.

Annie Bellet does the same for her Best Short Story nomination.

I am withdrawing because this has become about something very different than great science fiction. I find my story, and by extension myself, stuck in a game of political dodge ball, where I’m both a conscripted player and also a ball. (Wrap your head around that analogy, if you can, ha!) All joy that might have come from this nomination has been co-opted, ruined, or sapped away. This is not about celebrating good writing anymore, and I don’t want to be a part of what it has become.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Marko Kloos has withdrawn his nomination for best novel.


Annie Bellet does the same for her Best Short Story nomination.

Excellent!

[DiapDealer]

I think things are going to snowball from here. People withdrawing their noms; Connie Willis declining to present--definitely going to be an asterisk year.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I think things are going to snowball from here. People withdrawing their noms; Connie Willis declining to present--definitely going to be an asterisk year.

Good for her. Knowing her a bit from a writers group and readings here in Colorado, I would have expected as much.

[tompe]

Will be interesting to see what happens since there are no rules for withdrawing. The administrator have to accept the withdrawal.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

Will be interesting to see what happens since there are no rules for withdrawing. The administrator have to accept the withdrawal.

I was going to ask whether the Hugo rules allow this. It would be rather unusual to give authors any say in whether or not their book was nominated for a literary prize. An author can certainly decline to accept the actual award, but surely not the nomination?

[meeera]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I was going to ask whether the Hugo rules allow this. It would be rather unusual to give authors any say in whether or not their book was nominated for a literary prize. An author can certainly decline to accept the actual award, but surely not the nomination?

There is precedent to people declining Hugo nomination/withdrawing themselves from consideration - Neil Gaiman (more than once), the Squeecast podcast, I believe John Scalzi and Jim C Hines for fan writer also (from memory), and a handful back in the 60s also. I don't know that anyone who has ever asked to be withdrawn has been overridden by the committee.

[meeera]

And from the horse's mouth:

http://www.thehugoawards.org/the-voting-system/

Declining nomination

As a courtesy, Worldcon Hugo Administrators always approach the successful nominees before announcing the final ballot. Sometimes people do withdraw, for all sorts of reasons. If a successful nominee does withdraw, the work/person with the next highest number of votes is elevated to the final ballot.