comment

[calimac]

This is only for people who are interested in and care about the Hugo Awards.

Read John Scalzi's "On Being Denounced, Again (Again)" and the editorial to which it replies.

Here's my comment:

Oh dear. I know the author of that editorial personally, and I've often had major disagreements with her. I have also been an active member of the elitist sub-group of fandom which she represents, and on behalf of it I wish to apologize for the attitudes she expresses.

I do bear some resentment when new fans come in and tell old-timers how WE should change our behavior and established customs to suit THEM, but this is different. We don't own the Hugos, we never have, and by the standards she's using, the Best Fan Writer Hugo was broken in 1968, so don't worry about it.

Comments

[lydy]

Of the many, entirely weird-assed conflicts that fandom has indulged in, the periodic flailing about how pros are stealing the fannish cookies is the weirdest. It's been a while since I've seen an instance in the wild. It never did make sense, though. Pros and fans have been overlapping circles since the very beginning. A friend just commented that back in the day, when he was pubbing his ish, it was widely accepted that trying to argue that Terry Carr wasn't eligible for Best Fan Writer were nincompoops. And seems to me Siverbob did a fair amount of fannish writing, and as far as that goes, Langford has published novels. The permeability of the fan/pro boundary has always been one of the most charming aspects of fandom, FFS.

Who won in 1968?

[calimac]

Ted White, already a professional editor and writer as well as a noted fan writer. Two other pro/fen, Alexei Panshin and some guy named Harlan Ellison, were nominated but withdrew. The system was already broken in the sense that Ulrika says it is.

[bibliofile]

Yeah, pretty much.

Not that I consider the system broken: the flaws came built in, more or less. It's those pesky FANS who insisted on also being PROS (and vice versa). Some people just don't know how to exist in other people's somewhat arbitrary categories!