Fri, 16:05: RT @SJAMcBride: The story of how brave firefighters saved The Bank Buildings in 1975 – despite the IRA callously claiming that there were 3…
Sat, 10:12: RT @KeohaneDan: Please note: the UK is not being “barred from Galileo”, it can still use the system after Brexit, including the secure sign…
Sat, 10:45: How Can Writers of Color Reconcile H. P. Lovecraft’s Influence with His Racist Legacy? https://t.co/i9S87jj8mv Well worth reading.
You have every right to vote for whatever reason you want. But don’t pretend that eligibility questions are not political. The Wheel of Time series has been ruled eligible, by the people whose job it is to make that judgement, on the basis of rules and procedures that were drawn up by a political process. You disagree with those rules and how they have been applied, and you are entirely entitled to do so, but that is your political judgement. The fact is that the rules are what the people whose job it is to interpret them say that they are, and by those rules and by their judgement Wheel of Time is eligible.
I have never pretended that politics do not enter into my own assessments. But I’ll take a step back and point out the wider picture. I value the Hugo awards and don’t want them to be embarrassed by picking poor winners. For me, that means inter alia works of poor literary quality, works that are not sfnal enough (in my own entirely subjective judgement), or works by misogynist racists or that appear on the ballot as a result of campaigns in support of misogynist racists.
If you don’t think that it matters whether or not Hugos are won by works which aren’t actually sfnal, that’s your affair. If you don’t think it matters that some of the works on the ballot paper are there because of a campaign in support of a misogynist racist, that’s your affair. If you do think it matters that a work was published over a period of two decades rather than in some shorter space of time, and that’s more important than either of the points I mention above, that’s also your affair. But don’t expect me to approve of your priorities.
You have every right to vote for whatever reason you want. But don’t pretend that eligibility questions are not political. The Wheel of Time series has been ruled eligible, by the people whose job it is to make that judgement, on the basis of rules and procedures that were drawn up by a political process. You disagree with those rules and how they have been applied, and you are entirely entitled to do so, but that is your political judgement. The fact is that the rules are what the people whose job it is to interpret them say that they are, and by those rules and by their judgement Wheel of Time is eligible.
I have never pretended that politics do not enter into my own assessments. But I’ll take a step back and point out the wider picture. I value the Hugo awards and don’t want them to be embarrassed by picking poor winners. For me, that means inter alia works of poor literary quality, works that are not sfnal enough (in my own entirely subjective judgement), or works by misogynist racists or that appear on the ballot as a result of campaigns in support of misogynist racists.
If you don’t think that it matters whether or not Hugos are won by works which aren’t actually sfnal, that’s your affair. If you don’t think it matters that some of the works on the ballot paper are there because of a campaign in support of a misogynist racist, that’s your affair. If you do think it matters that a work was published over a period of two decades rather than in some shorter space of time, and that’s more important than either of the points I mention above, that’s also your affair. But don’t expect me to approve of your priorities.