The Hugo Awards vs Sad Puppies
Ever since 1953, receiving one of the Hugo Awards has been a science fiction and fantasy author’s dream. Some of the incredible authors who have lived that dream are Alfred Bester (The first to win “best novel”), Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Robert Jordan, Jim Butcher, Arthur C. Clarke, John Scalzi, Brandon Sanderson, Philip K. Dick, Mira Grant, and George R. R. Martin. You know, just to name a few . . .
Now, it’s no secret that the Hugo awards have, through their long history, been a little biased. The first female winner of a Hugo award was Marion Zimmer Bradley in 1963, 10 years after the Hugo awards started. It took 5 years for the next female author, Anne McCaffery, to win an award. That has slowly been changing. Progress, am I right? But is there a group fighting this change?
Sad Puppies is a group started in 2013 by authors Brad Torgersen and Larry Correia, in reaction to what has been characterized as “niche, academic, overtly [leftist]” nominees and winners in opposition to “an affirmative action award” that preferred female and non-white authors and characters.” This has led many to claim that this group is full of racist and sexist authors who want white supremacy to reign at the Hugo awards. This image is not helped by the fact that most of the nominees Sad Puppies supported were white males . . . and in fact, the 2015 Hugo awards were dominated by white male nominees.
Now it is important to know that Sad puppies broke no rules with their proposed slates, but many authors and fans feel that they “played dirty” and took advantage of a loophole in an “Arcane voting process,” helping to convince more people than ever to pay the membership fee and vote in the 2015 Hugos. 65% more people voted than ever before voted before the voting closed on July 31st. A grand total of 5,950 ballots were cast. In fact, George R. R. Martin, author of Game of Thrones and arguably one of the most popular authors of our time, called it a:
gathering to defend the integrity of the Hugos
He also said:
This will be the most dramatic Hugo night in Worldcon history.
And it would be hard to argue otherwise. However, the night ended without a single Sad Puppies endorsed candidate winning. In fact, there were 5 categories where only Sad Puppies nominees were up for an award, but the Rocket was still denied to them instead going to a “No Award” decision. George R. R. Martin said this in regard to those decisions:
I understand it, yes … fandom as a whole is heartily sick of the Puppies and delighted to see them brought low … but No Award is an occasion for sadness, not celebration.
To read more of his comments click here.
But how much of the Puppies reputation for being sexist, racist, and anti-gay is true? Larry Correia tells it a different way, saying that they are fighting against authors personal beliefs preventing them from being nominated. In fact, he wrote a long message to George R. R. Martin and anyone else who cared to read, stating his feeling regarding the matter and some of the things Martin had said, even going as far as to say; “Mr. Martin, we didn’t start this.” You can read the whole message here.
Whether you support the Sad Puppies, fight against them, or are just hearing about this (as Ozzy would put it) crazy train, it is worth looking deeper than just the surface argument. Do you think that authors are being blocked from being nominated due to personal beliefs? Or do you think that the Sad Puppies are just racists and sexists bent on influencing and ruling the Hugos? Let us know in the comments. The Hugo Nominees for 2016 are being announced later in the month on April 26th, and the Sad Puppies have not, as yet, released a 2016 slate. For all those who are interested, click here for the results of the 2015 Hugo Awards.
Editors Note
Since you didn’t mention it, I wondered if you are aware there is a 2016 Sad Puppies list — http://sadpuppies4.org/the-list/
No, I was not. You could say I got caught up in “drama” of last year ha ha. I will see if we can add it. Thanks!
Looks like a bunch of varied folks, both male and female, of various ethnicities got voted in on the Sad Puppies list. Of course, folks who oppose them will just say they are doing it to “not look like the racist-mysogenistic-cud-gendered pigs they are”… and you can’t say the vast majority of media (which is left leaning) aren’t proving this point.
Oh brother, one of those “balanced” articles….
The reality is simple and drearily familiar to anyone who has EVER been on the receiving end of the kindness and tolerance and decency of the cultural left.
People were being blacklisted and slimed in the most vicious way, just for their politics being different. Larry Correia was painted as a wife beater, so much so that his wife started getting phone calls about people worried for her safety. Brad Torgersen was smeared as a racist – never mind the fact that he has a black wife and mixed children.
And so on. This is the way the SJWs play – lie, lie, lie. Throw anything out there and hope it sticks. And when people have had enough and push back, then they act all hurt and innocent and pretend like all they were doing was trying to defend the victimized. Well, sorry, it won’t wash.
Oh and – some of us actually choose our authors by whether or not they can write well. Not skin colour, sex, or sexual orientation
No offense, but this article is really hard to follow. Probably not so much for someone who’s already familiar with the story, but from the third paragraph on, I totally lost track of who was saying what about whose group. The only thing I learned was that there is a group called Sad Puppies who have something to do with the Hugo Awards and are associated in some way with alleged bigotry.
The link you posted to Correia’s open letter somewhat cleared up what your article was talking about. So, in the interest of genuine feedback outside of criticism, I think it’s fairly clear that The Sad Puppies don’t have an interest in “controlling” the Hugo Awards. If you read Correia’s letter, I think the real point is pretty obvious. The Hugo Awards just aren’t “all that”. Also, the internet gives us all a way to vent our ignorant opinions and our anger without real consequences, so it’s no surprise to read of the incidents that got the Puppies going in the first place. That’s an issue that the Black Mirror tackled pretty damn well in its final episode of the new season.