I keep an eye on reactions to the Hugo Awards because the same sort of nonsense crops up year after year. For example, on James Bloomer’s Big Dumb Object blog, James complains, “I thought the Hugo awards were for Science Fiction?”. He goes on to roll out the tiresome old theme of:
… originally the Hugos were called the Annual Science Fiction Achievement Award. So they were clearly aimed at Science Fiction and not Fantasy.
So I posted a comment quoting from the WSFS Constitution, where we find:
3.2.1: Unless otherwise specified, Hugo Awards are given for work in the field of science fiction or fantasy appearing for the first time during the previous calendar year.
(My emphasis)
Really, you can’t get much clearer than that. That is, after all, the governing document by which the Hugo awards are run. And Bloomer’s response to this? After several days he has yet to approve my comment.
Because, you know, actual facts have nothing to do with debate, right?
Good Grief. When did ANYONE separate SF & Fantasy when it came to Hugo awards? Fantasy started showing up pretty early in the nominations. Obviously it wasn’t the fans nominating either.
*sheesh*
“…or fantasy”
I don’t remember off the top of my head which year that was explicitly added, to make it absolutely clear, but I do remember it happening, because we got sick of that plaint. After all, “Or All the Seas with Oysters” in 1958 wasn’t exactly hard sf, but wasn’t a controversial award, either. Ditto “That Hell-Bound Train” in 1959. Etc., etc., etc.
“So they were clearly aimed at Science Fiction and not Fantasy.”
In point of fact — and this should come as shocking news — different fans tended towards having different views in one direction or another! Even in the Fifties!
But the voters made clear the opinion of the majority by their votes.
Obviously, of course, there are always going to be far more people unfamiliar with the actual history and “intent” than familiar, of course.
And people are always going to feel that awards are going to the Wrong Choices, and the notion that the Hugos are limited to (their definition of) science fiction, and not also fantasy, won’t ever go away, either, any more than there weren’t at least a handful of fans who objected back in the Fifties.
Let alone when someone with the initials “HE” started winning. A combo!
Then, young ‘uns, let me tell you about how it was when the New Wave came around, and the roars of J. J. Pierce, and Lester del Rey, were heard….
Argh!
Sometimes I wonder the “World Science Fiction Convention” part is what confuses people.
In voting for the Hugos, I choose the best Science Fiction over Fantasy in a close race. I choose Wall-E over Dark Knight for my number one in Best Dramatic Presentation-Long Form because Wall-E was the better piece of Science Fiction.
I also voted Graveyard Book for Best Novel because it was the better book over the other books by a significant margin. Graveyard Book is Dark Fantasy, so I am also not slavish to my first rule. I also understand that Fantasy can be nominated and a Hugo. A related question: Was Fantasy an addition to Section 3.2.1 that is more Recent? Has it been in the Constitution since the beginning of the Hugos?
Bloomer must be expecting the Hugo Awards to suddenly be revoked from the winning fantasy winners. The science fiction genre has so many different types, and so many novels cross types that I’m not certain why Bloomer is whinning.
This is a great article to remind all of the authors of science fiction and fantasy and all of its types that we’re still writing fiction.
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“In voting for the Hugos, I choose the best Science Fiction over Fantasy in a close race.”
People are entitled to chose by whatever criteria they like. People can throw darts, if they like; whatever rings your chimes.
“Has it been in the Constitution since the beginning of the Hugos?”
There hasn’t been a Constitution since the beginning of the Hugos. The first Hugos were in 1953 (and were created as a one-off; it was the 1955 convention that institutionalized them).
I don’t recall every detail any more, but the 1962 Chicon II established a committee to study formalizing how Worldcons were run; the 1963 Discon adopted the new, written, Constitution for the first time. The Business Meeting at the Worldcon long predates a written constitution.
There was an infamous attempt to organize an overall “WSFS, Inc” in the late Fifties, which briefly existed between the 1956 NyCon II, and that was famously ruled out of order at the Solacon (1958 Worldcon) by chair Anna Moffat, putting an end to the idea of any overall organization above or beyond an individual Worldcon for a good many years.
After 1963, there was still much debate over acceptance of the authority of the new WSFS constitution, and the right of any year’s Business Meeting to impose its will in any way on any future Worldcon. The 1967 Worldcon Nycon III, briefly announced it would ignore any such claims, but then backed down, and thereafter, the Constitution was pretty much accepted, and gradually grew more elaborate and more formalized, as did the Business Meeting, which naturally began to turn more and more into a forum for discussion the Constitution, rather than just the Hugos or aspects of the specific Worldcon.
Fandom has always been like herding cats, and fans in those days were deeply suspicious of the idea of an overall organization, just as to this day it’s not infrequent for members of a local Worldcon committee to be wary of Smofs And Outsiders Taking Over Their Worldcon.
Meanwhile, the annual Worldcon Business Meeting long pre-dates the written Constitution, as does the original Rotation System, and even WSFS, unincorporated. (The Rotation System became semi-formalized by the early Fifties, and was more formalized, if still just custom, by the late Fifties.)
See here for an example perspective from 1961 of the WSFS, Inc. debacle. For more weeds, the 1958 Solacon Program Book.
WSFS remains an unincorporated non-profit organization, while each Worldcon nowadays becomes an independent non-profit corporation according to the laws of the country it’s in.
Tom S: Following up to Gary’s comment, it appears that the terms “science fiction or fantasy” in reference to eligible works for the Hugos have been part of the WSFS constitution since the constitution was adopted in 1963. So fantasy has been eligible for the Hugos at least since then, and more likely longer based upon the determinations of the relevant committees before 1963.
See here for information about the original WSFS constitution.
Not having seen Cheryl’s post here about it before seeing the BDO post, I also posted a comment quoting the WSFS Constitution, and my comment hasn’t been approved either.
Thanks, Joshua, for the link to Scither’s overall Con-Committee Chairman’s Guide, which I haven’t reread in a bunch of years; I recall picking up my first copy in 1973, and had forgotten that Tim put it online a while back.
It’s a shame no one has scanned in, as well, by now, all the past Worldcon Program books; at least, those up to 1975, before Kansas City’s MidAmericaCon took to producing Monster Works that completely changed the function of the program book thereafter; prior to that they were only small things, like Solacon’s, and easy enough to scan, although to be sure, somewhat destructive to the one copy unstapled, which may be why no one wants to volunteer their copy, even though the early years tended to consist of only 2-6 pieces of paper, but even the later years up through 1975 were still only a few dozen folded sheets, all relevant to the convention, rather than including additional fiction, etc.
(MAC made a number of revolutionary changes, in reaction to the Giant Growth at the previous North American convention, Discon II in 1974, which was a dizzying con for those of us there, and which strained the ability of the con runners, due to the size, and complications, in what was necessary to do to keep it running, and thus led to the invention of an informal “operations” department, as well, in ’76 led by Ross Pavlac and the Columbus Mafia, carrying on what in ’74 had mostly consisted of Ron Bounds running his ass off, and which further led to the formalization of an Operations Department in 1977 and 1978, and so on and on. But I digress. Scithers reminds me of the whole punctuated evolution of schemes of organzing worldcons.)
“…and my comment hasn’t been approved either.”
He may just be having HTML problems in general; his whole template seems to be screwed up as I glanced at it just now.
Not sure why I’m different from anyone else, but I managed to post a comment including that WSFS Constitution quote over at {chuckle} Big Dumb Object. Let’s see if it stays.
I submitted a comment there a bit ago, which included a link and some italics tags, and got “Your comment has been received and held for approval by the blog owner.”
But, on a hunch based on experience with blog software, I tried a version without any links or HTML, and it appears to have posted. So it looks as if the only actual problem is that comments with HTML, or at least links, are held, and he doesn’t get around to checking his withheld comments file.
Try reposting any comments with no HTML or links, and see if they post, I suggest.
Hello all.
Wow, you all seem very angry!
Posts weren’t approved due to my spam checking and the fact that I’ve been away. Although I can’t see Cheryl’s comment anywhere, what user did you post it under?
I’ve replied over at Big Dumb Object http://bigdumbobject.co.uk/2009/08/the-hugos-not-just-s.html
I never found your comment Cheryl, did you post it as yourself?
I always post comments as myself.
I thought you might have had an alternative OpenId login. But sorry, can’t find your comment, it must have got lost in submission.
De nada, the important point is that the Hugos are not, and have never been, only for science fiction.