Sad Puppies, Hugos, Entryism, and Social Cliques

So, yeah, it's stupid season in the land of sci-fi.

A relatively minor kerfuffle in fandom has blown up out of all reasonable proportion. Let me sum up one side: Oh, noes! People are voting in the Hugo awards in a fashion we don't like! And they're people we don't like! This is awful! They must be ! We should do somethings!

Wait. I think I summed up both sides. I tend to agree more with one side than the other, but I'm not entirely sure how much I care. Honestly, the last time I cared that someone had won a Hugo was when Ursala Vernon won for Digger. I can say truthfully at this late stage of my existence, I don't generally notice who wins the Hugos. Of the awards/nominations handed out this millennium, I read the ones I did completely irrespective of the awards.

Let's back up for a moment and talk about the Hugos. I'm going to talk about the Best Novel awards from here out, because it's the marquee award. Yeah, there's those other categories, but the novel is the big enchilada. What's there to say about it? A fandom popularity contest! Most prestigious award in sic-fi! Determined by very few people! Long and storied history! Not representative of the genre at any given time! Only award that affects sales! A list of sci-fi's great works! All of these things are, to a greater or lesser extent, true.

It's always been run by fans. Fans vote on it, fans run it, and ultimately fans are what make the Hugos possible. But only those fans that attend or pay money to Worldcon. It's not open to the rest of the vastly larger community of people who are sci-fi fans. The number of nominating ballots last year (2014, since the web is forever and the most recent data available, btw) was 1923 with 3587 ballots cast in the final voting. This is a tiny, tiny subset of the body of people who can be called sf/f fans.

Let's take me as an example. I've read, from a quick count, at least 123 of the novels that won or were nominated for the Hugos. Hell, I've got most of those on the bookshelf, including some Hugo winners I haven't read yet. But, despite my having been raised on and reading science fiction since I was knee high to a duck, I've never been to Worldcon, nor do I plan to go. That would involve leaving the house and interacting with large numbers of people, neither of which are on my shortlist of fun things to do. In the minds of a certain group of people, my not going to cons makes me a lesser fan than them. I don't support the community*. I should keep my mouth shut and let real fans, who go to cons and stuff, decide what the best works of sci fi are. In short I am not of the clique, so how dare I have an opinion on what the clique does. This attitude is a large part of the current problem, along with the idea that the 'real' con-going fans are the true arbiters of good sci-fi. It doesn't bother me, because who the fuck are these people and why should I care? There are, however, apparently a lot of people out there who resent this attitude.

But seriously, it's cliquish popularity contest all the way down, and more importantly, always has been. Look at the past Best Novel nomination lists: 64 years of nominations, usually 5 nominations per year, and a grand total of 136 authors. Either some of these people just happen to write one of the 5 best books each year they publish, or it's got more to do with popularity. Some people are a lot more popular with the fanbase than others, it appears. Bob Heinlein could have crapped on a ream of paper and they'd have nominated it for something. More recently, look at Short Form Dramatic Presentation awards where Dr. Who episodes written by Moffat take the award entirely too many times for the quality of his work. But hey, the fans liked Heinlein and they like Moffat, so that's great sci fi! Seriously, ask yourself if there's another industry where the fanboys & girls hand out the most prestigious award. I'm unaware of it.

Now let's shift gears and talk about entryism. There's some larger background you can go research, but in general, the left in America has been on a decades long crusade to infiltrate every organization in America and shift the paradigm to one more favorable to their worldview. This can be seen most notably in academia and journalism. Apparently, at some point when I wasn't paying attention, this process started in the sf/f fandom world. The 'personal is political' crowd crept in while nobody was looking. These are the people who think everything is an extension of your politics. Did you write an entertaining story? You might think that should be important for sf/f, that doesn't matter to them. What matters more are your views on everything else under the sun. The perceived politics of a work and its author are now critical, and this has bled over into the fans as well. You need to slavishly conform to the dominant progressive groupthink of the day or you are, again, not a real fan and generally an unperson. Certain people who have a long and storied pedigree in the industry were exempted from this, mainly because you can't kick out somebody like Jerry Pournelle. But new authors and incoming fans? Fuck 'em. Conform or die, bitches.

Not being entirely dim, certain people within the community noticed how things were going. So, they decided to game the system. They called themselves Sad Puppies and mounted a successful insurrectionist campaign against the Hugos, completely according to the rules. The Sad Puppies did a demonstration/proof of concept last year, and got a few things nominated. This year they went for broke and, along with another group called Rabid Puppies, swept the nominations. Somewhat predictably, the world went nuts. The old-line fandom cliques are totally distraught while the newer progressive wing is just calling everybody racist. Strangely enough, the main instigator of the Sad Puppies called the reaction before it happened. As always with progressives, dissenting voices must be silenced. So the campaign against these horrible people who dared interfere is in full swing. Too bad they paid their money and get to vote now, huh?

I don't really have to take a side, but if I do, I'll come down on the side that doesn't contain a mendacious racist and a fascist censor. See, this insulting people thing is so easy anyone can play! Of course, now most of you have no idea which side that is because of all the mud being slung about. For the uninitiated, that means I'm more philosophically inclined to agree with the Sad Puppies because of some shitty past ( and continuing!) behavior by people on the opposite side.

What's it all mean? I dunno. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Most of my reading recommendations come from reading things by people who are known to me from previous work and actual humans I know, not a bunch of random con attendees. There's lots of talk about how the system is broken and we shouldn't tolerate this sort of behavior and blah blah blah. One thing the Puppies have going for them is that they did the whole thing out in the open for everybody to watch. They're more than happy to tell you why they did it. The other side? No real coherent point, just insults and whining.

Some random closing thoughts, in no particular order:
Democracy is what it is. You let people pay $40 bucks and vote, you get what they decide. Sucks for you if you don't like it.

The implicit assumption that all of the people who voted for the Sad Puppies slate aren't 'real' fans is hilariously broken from the get go. Would people who didn't give a shit pay the $40 bucks to vote?

Valid nominating ballots this year as opposed to last year? 2122 vs. 1923. If 200 people are enough to break your election as thoroughly as some claim, your election was weak to begin with. There are a lot of things going on here somebody with more time than me could unpack.

I have little or no sentimental attachment to the Hugos. If they die, they die. Times change, the world moves on. Adapt or die.

*I figure I'm supporting the community by buying books new at retail. By my doing so, authors get paid, which means they keep authoring. Going to cons doesn't get authors paid.

Boom

65 years ago today, we unleashed the power of the atom. We remain the only country to have turned our enemies into radioactive ash.

So much for all the post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Piggy's a middle manager at a bank, Heiro is probably taking his ass down to the Quickie Mart for a slushie, Leibowitz toils away dutifully on his military engineering, Vault-Tec went bankrupt back in the 60s, and here we all are.

Doesn't mean it still can't happen, though.

One Sentence Review: Market Forces

Some Brit disenchanted with globalization and the free market rewrote The Cold Cash War for the 21st century.

Paper Rules

I was just reading an article over at New Scientist about the ephemeral nature of all digital data and how this might, in the short or long-term, end up screwing us all if we don't get better archival storage systems. We're currently coping with a variation of the problem at YPS Manor. We have stacks and stacks of 3.5" floppies around, and absolutely no idea what's on them. We have one machine left that even has a 3.5" drive, and its reliability is suspect. So added to the list of things to do is check out the 3.5" disks once we get a drive.

The article also notes the best material for archival purposes is still paper, if kept and stored correctly. Acid-free paper, I assume, but the article makes no mention. I recall somewhere near the end of Schismatrix a similar conclusion being reached about the need for paper as archival storage.

Of course, since I'm not giving up my books anytime soon (read that as "before death") it's not really relevant for me personally. However, it does add to my distrust of the Kindle and other e-books.

Found Philosophy

The advantage to reading books is that you find that single phrase which perfectly encapsulates something you were already thinking but couldn't quite express.

Choice is the singular moral act and all one chooses can only be considered in a moral context if that choice is free.

Of course, I don't usually expect such a nice summation of the morality of choice from a sentient lizard soldier in a fantasy novel, but you take what you find.

I also note one of the three great doorstop fantasy epics is drawing to a close with this book. One more, and Erikson is done with the Malazan Book of the Fallen. That leaves Jordan's successor to finish up the Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin to finish up before he kicks off.

The Future Is Still Late

Occasionally at YPS we bemoan the lack of the future we were promised. Having taken academic courses in the study of the future, I can confidently say that's because 95% of the promises were hot air. Of course, some of the futures we were promised are probably not ones you'd want to live in. Anything ever imagined by Philip K. Dick comes to mind, as does John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar.

Which brings us to Geoffrey Hoyle. His version of the future is delightfully odd. Imagine a future where your living space has to make use of every square inch, but you can take the bus down to the Sport and Social Center, which will take you weeks to walk around and has 500,000 seat stadium. As an extra bonus, everyone is wearing jumpsuits. Hmm. Yeah, that's the future from a an early 70s English socialist, all right. I would spoil more, but you really do need to look at his system of distribution yourself to appreciate the totality of his vision.

Most future predictions fail because no one can predict which technology is transformative. A very old Asimov story is about training men to perform calculation rapidly so they won't use computers. The military generals immediately seize upon the concept as a way to guide missiles to their targets. Yeah, Isaac kind of missed the boat on the whole minaturized electronics bit, didn't he? Of course, looking back on much of Asimov's works, computers in their modern form blindsided his future completely. He literally never saw them coming.

Meanwhile, out here in the real world, some of us continue the slightly less fascinating task of making the world run.

How Many?

So, being a bit amiss in keeping up with my book series, I note the new Robert Jordan & posthumous collaborator book will be out soon. I also note instead of a final volume, we will get a final 3 volumes, bringing the grand total up to 15 volumes if you count the prequel.

15 volumes, each the size of The Lord of The Rings. Seriously, was all the verbiage necessary? Surely some editing could have trimmed it all down to a more manageable number. Deleting the endlessly repeated bromides on women vs. men would have been a great start.

Anyhow, 4 also answers the titular question in regards to dogs. We will have 4 puppies if all goes well.

Book List

So, the keen-eyed and observant follower of little corner of the Web may have noticed an update to our sidebar. Off to the side under Previous Posts is a section called The Library. The link below, cleverly titled "Our books", goes to the Library Thing account.

A while ago I did an import from Readerware into Library Thing and got 1260 books into LT. Most of the books are there, but with some odd quirks. Given that Readerware reports around 1400 books, obviously they didn't all make it from one database to the next. At some point in my copious free time, I'll try to figure out why. I think getting my Readerware database straight takes priority, though.

In the meantime, you can peruse a list of many of the fine volumes we have at YPS Manor. Didn't some body once say something about what you read determines who you are? If so, have a little insight into what makes us tick.

Feed the Beast

Have you voluntarily complied with the intrusive questioning and money grubbing of your federal government today? Do you feel good you're helping pay for the bailout? I know I do.

Anyhow, here's an article about book thieves for no reason other than I thought it was interesting.

Cheap Sous Vide, Part 1

So, I mentioned I got Under Pressure recently. I have been reading it, and I will freely admit I'm both intrigued and intimidated. The intimidation comes from two somewhat related issues. This is a book for foodies and professional chefs. The recipes are technically demanding, have absurd ingredient lists, almost requires a brigade de cuisine, and some specialized equipment. I'm fine with the first two. I can either do it, or I'll take a swing at it and fail spectacularly. Ingredients are readily available in a town with 4 million people. The last two are more an issue.

This is what I refer to as sous-chef cooking at it's finest. WTF does Keller care that it takes 200 steps and 7 people to do it? He's got staff. Me? I have J and a dog, only one of whom actually wants to be in the kitchen when I'm doing serious cooking. The dog has figured out I'm clumsy and drop things that are occasionally tasty. J has figured out out other people get in my way and make even more peevish and irascible than normal. Needless to say, this cuts down on the amount of prep work that can be done for any single recipe if it's all going to be eaten at the same time. I have learned to accept this limitation and work around it. I do a fair amount of mise en place and bastardize recipes to get where I need to go.

The specialized equipment, however, would appear to be a deal breaker. Sous vide needs a vacuum packer and an immersion circulator. I'm thinking my cheap FoodSaver will work for the vacuum packing aspect, even though Keller insists they aren't adequate. Maybe not for what he's doing, but I figure it'll work for me. The immersion circulator, though? That's kind of a bitch. A cheap one runs about $900 new, and you don't get much of a discount for buying used. That strikes me as a little much for experimentation. What to do, what to do?

Hey, wait a minute. I'm an engineer. I can figure this out...

Weekend Fun

So, in my slovenly and slothful blogging habits, I have neglected some recent events. Most recent was the Friday night ruckus at the new, improved, statelier YPS Manor. Dog V2.0 came nose to nose with one of these. Yes, a 1 pound snake versus a 20 pound dog. This ended in a draw. Had the referees allowed the match to continue, I'm not sure who would have taken the title. Dog is bigger and theoretically more capable, but has no concept of actual physical agression. He is completely baffled when other canines respond to him agressively, so I'm sure the snake confused him as well. Instead, we separated the combatants and relocated the snake with the help of a pair of welding gloves, a plastic box, and a short trip to the vacant lot behind the new subdivision.

I picked up Thomas Keller's Under Pressure a week or two ago. It has a somewhat singular distinction of being the only cookbook I've purchased recently that has made me feel dumb. I don't have any formal culinary training, but I read a lot of cookbooks. Keller's book is the only one where on average, once a recipe, I find myself going "WTF is that?" in regard to some ingredient, technique, or equipment. I don't know how quickly I will be able to utilize any of the techniques for sous-vide in the book, but it's fascinating nonetheless.

Sir Terry!

One each Terrence Pratchett, beloved author of the Discworld series, has been knighted by E the Deuce for his services to literature. Woo hoo!

This is also my opportunity to plug the above-mentioned series if you have not already read it. Pratchett's work bears a strong similarity to Walt Kelly's. It is absurd, hilarious, painfully satirical, and you get the sense that being a decent human being will get you through everything in the end.

Sun'll Come Out

So, apropos of almost nothing, I note on 20 January 1649 Charles I of England went on trial for treason and other less specified high crimes. Bogarting the weed, maybe? He was executed 10 days later by having his 'ead whacked off in one blow.

In other history, here's an interesting piece on a Republican president who tried to stop a depression by spending all kinds of money and proposing scads of new programs. The parallels are explicit, mentioned, and hopefully will guide the wiser among us to consider treading lightly amidst the current economic troubles.

HAH! I crack myself up sometimes. The government intervention failboat is building up steam to take us off into glorious prosperity amid rainbows and puppies. Right until it sinks and takes what remains of the economy down with it. Hopefully, by then I will be sitting on an even larger pile of guns and ammo and laughing maniacally at the big government types.

I'm also going to take the opportunity for a pre-emptive "told you so". I didn't vote for Obamarama, I don't endorse a single one of his policies I have read about yet, and I don't hold out much hope for anything good to come out of his administration. All you fuckers that voted for him better get used to that phrase, because you'll hear it a lot. Incidentally, here's a handy way to keep score.

While we wait for action on the promises, here's an amusing bludgeoning of Thomas Friedman's new book. It doesn't compare to the rhetorical beatdown Matt Taibbi handed to Friedman last time, but it's still pretty good.

Laziness Rewarded

So, I know I've mentioned Readerware in the past. I still think it's a fantastic program for keeping up with the number of books we keep around YPS Manor. At one point, I was contemplating exporting the catalog to a web page somewhere, based on the disputable fact of what you read determining who you are. Laziness has paid off for me yet again.

Somebody has done an app for me called LibraryThing. I have created an account and will post more after some experimentation.

Bruno

Whilst traversing the series of tubes today, I found an article at Salon on Giordano Bruno. Ostensibly a review of a new biography of Bruno, it goes into detail about his life and times. I find the article of some passing interest because of family history. One of the earliest progenitors anyone has been able to trace was an Italian follower of Bruno's who hightailed his ass to England so as to avoid Bruno's fate. Heresy and subversion go way back in the family tree, apparently. Who would have thought?

Yesterday

Arthur C. Clarke died. He was probably one of the few genuine optimists working in the sci-fi field. He was definitely one of the greats, and will be missed.

Oral arguments for Heller were heard as well. Legal analysis of the argument is left to more cpabale minds. I found it amusing when Justice Roberts was explaining to the DC lawyer how he interpreted the statute in question and the DC lawyer told him that wasn't necessarily correct.

Umm. I'm not a lawyer and all, but when the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is telling you how he interprets the law, you pretty much agree with him because you can't win this argument. You may be right, but you're still gonna lose.

1892

It's the anniversary of the birth of J. R. R. Tolkien. Go read something in the fantasy genre published after 1955. I can say, without any fear of contradiction, that Tolkien had some effect on the work. There's not a whole lot of authors that influence everything following them.

That Didn't Take

Amongst all the old books I've been going through are some children's books. Some I recall fondly, others not so much. One that doesn't ring any bells is a tome entitle It's Fun to Be Nice.

Hmm.

I don't think that little bit of propaganda did the 'rents much good, either on me or big sis. Somebody should ask for a refund.

RIP Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan has died. I express my heartfelt condolences to his friends and family. Unfortunately, he didn’t finish the final volume of the Wheel of Time first. So I, along with every other person reading the series, am sitting around going AAARRRGH! I mean, I only started reading the series during the Gulf War, so it’s not like I have any time invested or anything.

This is another reason why I am trying to not start any more series until the author is finished. Of course, finished is always debatable. I bet everybody thought Stephen Donaldson was finished when they got to the end of The Power That Preserves. HAHA! Another two trilogies (one still in progress) and you’re not done yet.

So I’m waiting on Steven Erikson and George R. R. Martin at the moment. I’ve pretty much given up on everybody else until the sequence is finished. Exceptions are made for series that don’t have a definite endpoint, but in general, I’m through waiting on authors. I don’t have time to go back and re-read the last volume after 2 years to figure out what’s going on. On that note, I am going to wait impatiently until the big brown truck drops off The Bonehunters tomorrow.

Old Gun Stuff

So the process continues of going through the things my sister has been sending me. She takes all the stuff from my Dad’s house she has no interest in and sends it to me. This is fine, because one of the things my sister has no interest in is old books. Yes, I know, I find it hard to believe she’s related to me, too.

When I say old books here I don’t mean books from 20 years ago, either. I have books published in 1893 and earlier in amongst all of the stuff she’s sending me. Some, obviously, are in better shape than others. What I’ve been doing with most of them is transferring it from the beat up cardboard it was shipped in and putting it in plastic bins and placing it in our climate-controlled storage area. Most of my books are already up there as part of the process to get YPS Manor ready for sale.

A select few items get to stay here in the house, though. One of the keepers is a catalog my great-uncle Clay Herbert kept, which was passed to me through the usual circuituous route things take. Uncle Clay died when I was very young. I remember him as the slightly scary old man who lived in my grandparents’ basement. He was always very nice, but also always frightened me a little. He was my grandmother’s uncle, and I now have a lot of his things. I confess some degree of puzzlement as to why, but that’s neither here nor there.

Anyhow, the catalog is from Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Mfg. Co. in Hartford, Conn. USA. The actual catalog itself is undated, but included with it is a price sheet which was revised on March 8, 1917. Apparently, a Govt. Model .45 was going for $22.00 even. Ivory grips would set you back another $5. Engraving would be done for several prices, but the top of the line was $12.50. $39.50 in 1917 would get you a state of the art firearm complete with bling. For the perusal and amusement of the other gun geeks out there, the Flickr set of my scans of the catalog is here.

I also have the 1957 NRA Smallbore Competition rules, but those don’t strike me as being nearly as interesting as the Colt catalog. I may scan those as well, but it’s pretty dry reading. Anyhow, hopefully someone will get some use and enjoyment out of the pics. That way, when I start blegging for answers about WTF these revolvers I have are, somebody will be inclined to help me out.