science fiction

Yet another Hugo Award scandal

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Someone tried to buy a Hugo Award by buying a bunch of Glasgow Worldcon memberships and having them vote. Fortunately, the attempt was brain-dead stupid and the Hugo administration team caught it. Details are on File 770.

The stupidity consisted of using obviously fake names for the fake members. “These included, for instance, a run of voters whose second names were identical except that the first letter was changed, in alphabetical order; and a run of voters whose names were translations of consecutive numbers.” 377 votes out of 3,813 were disqualified. The nominee that was being pushed did not win, and the Glasgow committee says there’s no reason to believe that the nominee was responsible for the campaign.
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An update on the Glasgow Worldcon code of conduct 2

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In an earlier post, I discussed the Code of Conduct of the Glasgow Worldcon. There have evidently been some changes since I wrote the article, perhaps in response to criticisms. My post quoted and criticized the following statement in the code: “In particular, exhibitors should not openly display sexualized images, activities, or other material, although this content may be kept out of sight and offered based on a customer’s inquiry, in keeping with the Indecent Display (Controls) Act 1981. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment.”

That text isn’t currently present. Instead, there is this:
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Buffalo NASFiC code of conduct 1

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Continuing my irregular series on convention Codes of Conduct, here’s one on the North American Science Fiction Convention, coming up this month in Buffalo. Compared to some others, the problems of the NASFiC code of conduct are minor. There’s nothing like “Don’t say anything negative about anybody” or “Don’t offend anybody.”

BUFFALO in all caps means the convention, not the city.
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Readercon’s code of conduct

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Time to dissect another code of conduct from a fan-run convention. This one’s for Readercon, which is coming up in July in Quincy, Massachusetts. It’s got some of the usual problems but could have been worse.

The most pervasive problem is taking good ideas and inappropriately elevating them to rules. “Moderate the volume of your voice and the expansiveness of your gestures.” How much hand-waving constitutes a violation? “Be willing to learn new things and admit when you’re wrong, including offering apologies.” Is the con going to judge when someone has been proven wrong and mandate an apology? “If you’re not certain someone is enjoying your company, end the interaction yourself.” A lot of fans deal with self-doubt about whether others like them; this rule, if taken seriously, would practically shut down their social interactions.
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Analyzing the 2024 Worldcon code of conduct 4

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A lot of science fiction conventions have codes of conduct that put severe restrictions on speech. They aren’t always enforced, and never fully and consistently, but they can be an excuse to embarrass or eject someone a concom member doesn’t like. For instance, Balticon pulled a program participant out of a panel and subjected her to humiliating treatment for vaguely defined violations of its speech code. The con apologized but dumped all the blame on one volunteer.

Conventions need to say what behavior is acceptable and unacceptable, but we have to look closely at each one’s rules to see how much it values open discussion. So let’s get a look at the Glasgow Worldcon’s rules.
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This entry was posted in Movies and tagged science fiction silent movies on by | Open »

Tomorrow as I post this (April 10, 2024) at 8 PM Eastern Time I’ll accompany Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent film, Metropolis, on Twitch. It’s one of my favorites, with a futuristic city, an evil robot, and probably the first full-blown mad scientist’s lab in a movie. Twitch left my last two shows up for on-demand playing for about a week, and I assume they’ll do the same with this one, so you can catch it even if the show time is inconvenient. This is the restored 2 ½ hour version, and there will be a 10-minute intermission to give my arms a rest.

If you’re near Plaistow, NH, you can catch me accompanying it in person at the Plaistow Library at 1 PM on Friday, April 12.

A preview scene with my accompaniment is up on YouTube.

The trouble with fannish gatherings

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged COVID-19 fandom filk science fiction on by

The latest SMOF News (Volume 3, issue 30) discusses the post-pandemic decline of in-person fan-run science fiction conventions, with Outlantacon being the latest casualty. It’s a situation I’m familiar with, since I’ve negotiated hotel contracts for several filk conventions and more recently couldn’t find a suitable hotel at a reasonable cost for NEFilk. Two factors make up the problem: rising hotel costs and decreased attendance.

Fan-run cons have always worked on the periphery of more lucrative events, such as weddings and gatherings of large organizations. To get space, we have to find a weekend that the other customers don’t want or fill up the space that they aren’t using. COVID killed a lot of hotels, and the ones that are still around want to make up for a couple of years of lost revenue. This means fewer discount deals. If we paid rates comparable to the big customers, we’d have to charge a membership rate of a couple of hundred dollars for a weekend con.
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Dubious choices in SFWA scholarships

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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is offering “scholarships” for “members of underserved communities.” I put the word “scholarships” in quotes because they’re really free memberships in the 2024 Nebula conference, not educational grants. (The deadline to apply has gone by, sorry.) This sounds admirable, but some of their ideas of what constitutes a “community” make the scheme very disturbing. The categories are:

  • “Black and/or Indigenous creators in the United States and abroad.”
  • “Asian creators, Asian American creators, and creators from the Pacific Islands.”
  • “creators with backgrounds in Spanish-speaking and/or Latin American cultures.”
  • “creators with disabilities.”
  • “creators whose financial situations may otherwise prevent them from participating.”
  • “creators who live outside the United States.”
  • “creators who identify as LGBTQIA+.”

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Samantha Mills repudiates 2023 Hugo

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Samantha Mills, winner of the 2023 Hugo Award for “best short story,” has repudiated her award in the light of the censorship scandal. She wrote:

Looking at the information we currently have, it’s hard for me to conclude anything other than: I shouldn’t have been on that ballot. …
 
I spent this morning logging into my various accounts and taking “Hugo” out of my bio. There are almost certainly going to be places it was printed that I miss, so my apologies for that. Here’s the most embarrassing one: my novel already went to the printer and it has “Hugo winner” on the cover. Fucking mortifying!

Update, Feb. 23, 2024: Adrian Tchaikovsky has repudiated his Hugo. “I cannot consider myself a Hugo winner and will not be citing the 2023 award result in my biographical details, or on this site.”

The Hugo cover-up

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It’s out in the open now: Legitimate Hugo Award candidates were disqualified because of Chinese censorship. A collection of internal email, posted on Document Cloud, shows that the committee reviewed “anything of a sensitive political nature.” Dave McCarty was specific about the reasons:

In addition to the regular technical review, as we are happening in China and the *laws* we operate under are different … we need to highlight anything of a sensitive political nature in the work. [Ellipses in the original]

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