SF Signal has kindly chosen to include me in one of their Mind Meld columns again. This one is on the value of awards, which is rather embarrassing in a way, but I took up the opportunity because it was a chance to plug some awards I care about, and to make the point that award wins don’t mean the same thing to everyone. You can read what I had to say (right at the bottom) here.
Elsewhere someone managed to trot out the “not qualified to vote” meme (and once again it was a woman). Anyone who isn’t up to speed on this should read this, which I posted in January last year. I think I need to make a separate page for that argument and point at it every year.
Thank you for your participation. 🙂
Honestly, I think a couple of the people who turned me down to answer, period, feel that they aren’t qualified to vote on awards, much less talk about them. It’s bollocks, and you have done good work on your earlier post why it is so.
And I see from your comment thread that we now have people complaining that awards results are wrong because the best books (i.e. the ones they like) don’t win. *sigh*
Alas, yes, I saw.
Sometimes, I think even if I asked an innocuous question for a Mind Meld, I’d get some contentiousness and people complaining.
To say nothing of the topic of awards, which is a hot button issue for some people. I’d like reasoned discourse in the comments, not whining.
I’d blame the internet, but even the old printed fanzines from years ago have this sort of dynamic in their discourse It was ever thus, Cheryl.