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Hugo Detractors - Check your sense of entitlement at the door....
The 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.
no subject
Do the Worldcons cater to the non-poor? Well OF COURSE they do. Because if people want to go, most of the time they have to travel to get there. That is not cheap. And many less-well-off people work jobs without paid vacation time here in the U.S., so even if they save and save for that one big trip, they might not be able to get the time off.
Now. Is there some way to fix it so that the Hugos are more accessible to the fans with less money? Well, sure. There could be an even cheaper Hugo-only membership, with both nomination and voting rights. But what I think that discussion misses is that there are other awards than the Hugo. If this type of thing doesn't appeal to the WSFS, a different award could be made. But then whoever sets that up will have to deal with the utter nightmare of administering it!
I guess personally I have more respect for a juried award than a popular-vote award, though it depends on the jury.
no subject
Where I'm less than sympathetic to many of the people complaining is that, yes, indeed, they can set up another award. But they don't want to, they want the Hugos to look like they want them to but without doing the work of administrating them.
Awards, Conventions and similar are not things that run themselves.
no subject
(The cost of a Supporting Membership is, in turn, set by other factors that probably force it to be no less than about US$30. I'll explain those if you want to know, but won't digress there unless asked.)
I strongly oppose the proposal to place a lower limit on the price of a membership that gives members the right to vote on the Hugo Awards. Although no Worldcon has done so, I want to continue to give Worldcon committees the opportunity to do so if they think they can make it work for them. While I don't think a free or $1 membership is a good idea for different reasons, I also don't want to force a floor price cap onto Worldcon committees by legislative fiat.
But of course, according to the McAlmonts of the world and the people listening to his whinging, I am the person trying to keep them away and impose barriers upon them. By actually showing them where the levers of power are and by offering to help them craft actual working proposals rather than "Wahh, gimme what I want for nothing and you do all of the work," I am "policing the discussion" and oppressing them. Oh, yes, that's a great way to win friends and influence people: tell the folks most likely to actually get anything done that is even close to what you say you want that they are the problem and that we should just die already so that Real Fans like them can have their way.