AnneTheWriterFeb 20, 2024

1/đŸ§” You might have heard there's been a #censorship scandal rocking #ScienceFiction literature's biggest award, the #HugoAwards.

The annual ceremony was held in #Chengdu, #China. Although no evidence has been found linking any direct Chinese govt influence on the Award Committee's actions, leaked emails prove that the Hugo Committee DID remove potential nominees before they could be considered, because they were anticipating possible offenses against Chinese govt policies.

(This is how #Fascist governments work-- not only because govt cronies enforce their own authoritarian laws, but because ordinary people join in and support their policies.)

Now, author #SamanthaMills (who won the Hugo for her #ShortStory "RabbitTest," about abortion access) has posted that she has refused her Hugo and removed mentions of her award from her website and books.

#HugoAward #TheHugoAwards #Hugos #SciFi #SciFiFandom #ScienceFictionBooks #Fascism #Censored #HugoAwardsDebacle

https://samtasticbooks.com/2024/02/17/rabbit-test-unwins-the-hugo/

“Rabbit Test” unwins the Hugo

I cannot convey the supreme depths to which I’d rather be doing anything else with my Saturday afternoon other than writing this blog post, but here we are. If you have been blessedly insulat


SAMANTHA MILLS
Show threadAnneTheWriter

2/đŸ§” For anyone wanting to read more about the backstory to this #HugoAwardsDebacle, this article gives more details about the specific authors, books, and short stories which were blocked from consideration and about the Committee's leaked emails.

Something which should also be scandalous on some level, imo, is that the Committee was voting on works they say they had never read. How can you fairly evaluate and compare stories you've never read?

Apparently, the Hugos are decided on book sleeve blurbs and social media posts.😠â˜č

[The linked article says it is "Free for a limited time." I generally try not to post articles if they are behind paywalls.]

#HugoAward #TheHugoAwards #Hugos #SciFi #SciFiFandom #ScienceFictionBooks #Fascism #Censored #CensorshipIssues #ScienceFictionLiterature #ScienceFictionLit #ScienceFiction #HugoAwards #Literature #WritingCommunity #WritersLife #Writers #AuthorsLife #Authors #Writing

https://www.vulture.com/article/hugo-awards-china-censorship-controversy.html

Feb 20, 2024 at 2:50pmWeb
Show threadAnneTheWriterFeb 20, 2024

3/đŸ§” More fallout from the #HugoAwardsDebacle includes a number of resignations...

https://file770.com/cheryl-morgan-dave-mccarty-resign-from-wsfs-hugo-award-marketing-committee/?fbclid=IwAR1wMcng_IQnJw7nJTe2mU4EVIvNyeLDfhrP9BetRRhY9GacMr9OXjkYSoc

#HugoAward #TheHugoAwards #Hugos #SciFi #SciFiFandom #ScienceFictionBooks #Fascism #Censored #CensorshipIssues #ScienceFictionLiterature #ScienceFictionLit #ScienceFiction #HugoAwards #Literature #WritingCommunity #WritersLife #Writers #AuthorsLife #Authors #Writing

Cheryl Morgan, Dave McCarty Resign from WSFS’ Hugo Award Marketing Committee - File 770

WSFS’ Hugo Awards Marketing Committee (“HAMC”) members Cheryl Morgan and chair Dave McCarty have resigned. New chair Linda Deneroff says, “We are currently in a holding pattern. I have taken over leading the HAMC, but I still need to contact the other members of the committee to see if they wish to remain on it.”

File 770 - Mike Glyer's news of science fiction fandom
Show threadJenna 🇹🇩Feb 20, 2024

@AnneTheWriter1 @hugos

Voting on works they’ve never read?!

The censorship was bad enough, but not even reading the books you award?!

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. The Hugo’s are now completely dead to me. There is no recovery from this.

Show threadAnneTheWriterFeb 20, 2024

@jenna

I kept noticing that so many of the emails (from the people making the award decisions!) had things in them along the lines of, "I've never read it, but it MIGHT be a problem..." and "I've never read it, but I've heard..."

Censorship is always based on ignorance-- not only the desire to remain ignorant of new ideas, but the opinions of people who have never actually read or viewed the books/film/art they are trying to censor.

I guess now we can only *hope* that the people who vote on #TheOscars actually spend a few hours watching all of the nominated films before voting. 😠🙄

#HugoAward #TheHugoAwards #Hugos #SciFi #SciFiFandom #ScienceFictionBooks #Fascism #Censored #CensorshipIssues #ScienceFictionLiterature #ScienceFictionLit #ScienceFiction #HugoAwards #Literature #HugoAwardsDebacle

Show threadAntiqueightFeb 20, 2024
@AnneTheWriter1 @jenna I have often doubted the people who vote on the oscars watch all of the contenders
Show threadAntiqueightFeb 20, 2024
@jenna @AnneTheWriter1 No, they are not voting on books they have never read.
Show threadAntiqueightFeb 20, 2024
@AnneTheWriter1 However - this is not the voting - the members of the worldcon vote and they vote (in theory) on books they HAVE read. This was the dossier creation which should never have happened but these people don't HAVE to have read the books because this isn't the vote.
Show threadTero YkspetÀjÀFeb 20, 2024

@AnneTheWriter1 The committee does not decide the winner, only determines the eligibility of the works. So they weren’t “voting on, evaluating and comparing books they’ve never read” in the sense I think you meant.

Not that it’s any kind of a defense of course – they were doing appalling things they had no business to be doing by evaluating the “suitability” of the candidates instead of just vetting the eligibility by the normal rules.

Show threadAnneTheWriterFeb 20, 2024

@tero
My apologies for any confusion.

Taking China out as a factor completely, it's still infuriating.

They were disqualifying nominated work based merely on assumptions, social media feed, and rumor. If they are willing to disqualify (for any reason) based only on rumor and assumptions, that does say a lot about their voting process to me.

I realize they need to have some criteria for whittling down their reading list, but the amount of "I am assuming this book has _____ in it" without at least some reading of the actual work to check for it, is truly awful.

Years back, when sifting through the slush pile at a traditional publisher I worked for, I still spent more time reading more of each book than these folks apparently do.

No, I never read the whole book before rejecting any of them. But I at least read parts of them all.

Show threadTero YkspetÀjÀFeb 20, 2024

@AnneTheWriter1 No worries!
The job of the committee isn’t to whittle down the list, only to check the nominated works meet the eligibility criteria. So there isn’t any voting among the committee—or at least there shouldn’t be.

And there aren’t any eligibility criteria based on the type of content (well, except the very broad one that the works need to be sf), let alone the character of the author. So their ineligibility rulings were way out of line.