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daveonThe Hugo mess rumbles on and once more I feel like I'm trapped in a bad re-run of NUS Conference 1990. Here's another one from Shaun Duke "To the Hugo Defenders, Check your Financial Privilege at the door" (link removed due to Malware warning)
I replied but bit my lip over my gut response of 'oh grow the fuck up.' And went for some more reasonable stuff. But seriously, if the crux of the argument is that the Worldcon selects against the poor, then yes, yes it does. As do many things which are slightly more fucking serious than not being about to get to a convention to help change the way a Science Fiction award works. How about US Healthcare, or hunger eh?
I'd quite like a Bugatti Veyron, but the man is keeping me down!
Is attending Worldcons on a regular basis something you can do when young? No, not really. I attended my first convention at 24, at least 6 years after being regularly involved in fanish things. I didn't get to a Worldcon until I was 37, since then I've attended 3 others. One where there was a business meeting I could piggy back off, another was fun, a third involved a Business Meeting and sleeping on the sofa. I am fully aware that it's an expensive hobby. And I am pretty sick of people assuming that because you do something you're rich and privileged. And oh yea gods how I am coming to hate the way that word is getting used.
Older people having more money than younger people is not privilege. It really isn't.
Then, in the comments, Jonathon McAlmont turns up complaining about class, age and race.
Class has nothing to do with this. You get fans from all classes and last time I checked money and class haven't been linked for a while. Age? Guilty. It's easier to do these things as you get older. Assuming, of course, you don't have kids, or a partner who isn't a fan, in which case it's fucking hard to get a furlough for an SF Convention, believe me. Finally Race. All I have to say to that is Really you want to go there? Because I'm fairly sure that Jonathon suffers from that about the same way I do.
Where I get annoyed is simply that I suggested a fix. There are ways that improvements and changes could be made. But the Hugo Award is given by the members of the Worldcon and that ain't going to change. And people like Jonathon were clear they didn't actually want change.
You need to want to engage, even if you can't attend. If you want to change things, there are ways and means to engage. Kevin Standlee who has had such a dreadful press stands willing and able to work with people who want his help. But name callings and moaning about privilege is a pretty poor way to get anybody to work with you as anybody who stays in employment in companies or academia will learn.
Having an opinion on something, and an interest in it, doesn't automatically give you the right to be involved with it.
EDIT: In my original post I referenced being poor. And it was pointed out that realistically I'm not poor. Fair enough. I'm not really poor. I am heavily indebted which is causing me a lot of pain at the moment and has happened because I've been starting my own business and will, I hope, be something that changes shortly. And then, yes, I'll be relatively speaking well off.
I'll be clear though, as a student and in the decade that followed being a student I could never have considered going to a Worldcon, and during that period I went through a short period (about 5 months) where I was homeless and relying on family and friends for a roof over my head.
I replied but bit my lip over my gut response of 'oh grow the fuck up.' And went for some more reasonable stuff. But seriously, if the crux of the argument is that the Worldcon selects against the poor, then yes, yes it does. As do many things which are slightly more fucking serious than not being about to get to a convention to help change the way a Science Fiction award works. How about US Healthcare, or hunger eh?
I'd quite like a Bugatti Veyron, but the man is keeping me down!
Is attending Worldcons on a regular basis something you can do when young? No, not really. I attended my first convention at 24, at least 6 years after being regularly involved in fanish things. I didn't get to a Worldcon until I was 37, since then I've attended 3 others. One where there was a business meeting I could piggy back off, another was fun, a third involved a Business Meeting and sleeping on the sofa. I am fully aware that it's an expensive hobby. And I am pretty sick of people assuming that because you do something you're rich and privileged. And oh yea gods how I am coming to hate the way that word is getting used.
Older people having more money than younger people is not privilege. It really isn't.
Then, in the comments, Jonathon McAlmont turns up complaining about class, age and race.
Class has nothing to do with this. You get fans from all classes and last time I checked money and class haven't been linked for a while. Age? Guilty. It's easier to do these things as you get older. Assuming, of course, you don't have kids, or a partner who isn't a fan, in which case it's fucking hard to get a furlough for an SF Convention, believe me. Finally Race. All I have to say to that is Really you want to go there? Because I'm fairly sure that Jonathon suffers from that about the same way I do.
Where I get annoyed is simply that I suggested a fix. There are ways that improvements and changes could be made. But the Hugo Award is given by the members of the Worldcon and that ain't going to change. And people like Jonathon were clear they didn't actually want change.
You need to want to engage, even if you can't attend. If you want to change things, there are ways and means to engage. Kevin Standlee who has had such a dreadful press stands willing and able to work with people who want his help. But name callings and moaning about privilege is a pretty poor way to get anybody to work with you as anybody who stays in employment in companies or academia will learn.
Having an opinion on something, and an interest in it, doesn't automatically give you the right to be involved with it.
EDIT: In my original post I referenced being poor. And it was pointed out that realistically I'm not poor. Fair enough. I'm not really poor. I am heavily indebted which is causing me a lot of pain at the moment and has happened because I've been starting my own business and will, I hope, be something that changes shortly. And then, yes, I'll be relatively speaking well off.
I'll be clear though, as a student and in the decade that followed being a student I could never have considered going to a Worldcon, and during that period I went through a short period (about 5 months) where I was homeless and relying on family and friends for a roof over my head.
