Friday, April 10, 2015

So, Larry Correia, an author who combines all the worst personality traits of Richard Nixon and Howard Stern, organized a ballot stuffing campaign and got two rabid homophobes (maybe more) on the Hugo slate for 2015. Why should I care? I've been to exactly one Worldcon. But it really annoys me that people who refer to a part of fandom as "affirmative action," because they think too many awards are being given to authors who are POC or queer, want to re-focus the public's eye on fandom in general. I have been looking for a concise article that is sharply worded enough to explain the situation. The Atlantic offered good coverage that eschews hyperbole but illuminates the salient issues very well. It throws in a healthy dose of optimism, of which I am usually in favor.


I like the Slate article too, as a more-authoritative-than-me explanation as to why the Sad Puppies are narrow minded and regressive.


Author N.K. Jemisin has a good (older) post about why this kind of behavior in fandom is especially smelly, because inertia is blocking authors who are queer or POC from fully participating in fandoms that they love, too. I like this post because it guest stars the nasty behavior of one of the right wing nominees.


There are subtleties to the specifics, but Correia is working very hard to monkey wrench a process in the name of a convoluted ideological purity (ie: Speculative-Fiction-Awards-Should-Not-Be-Given-to-Message-Fiction-Especially-Not-SJW-Message-Fiction). His nose is out of joint because he has been snubbed by people he doesn't like, and he has pointed his fans in the direction of the Hugo to fuck things up. He's very entertained by the mess he's made, gloating about what a mean guy he is (but SJWs were mean first). Larry Correia essentially brought in a bunch of carpet baggers, whipping up fear and paranoia about the "direction" of science fiction and the Hugos (cause there can be only one, and it is his, apparently.)

Larry Correia claims not to be a racist or a homophobe. So be it. You usually can't point out aiding-and-abetting without liminal bigots appealing to guilt by association. But people who go around kicking over other people's setups are harassers. Plainer language may be more damning.