In January of 2013, Larry Correia, author of the series Monster Hunter International, posted a blog post about "How to get Correia nominated for a Hugo." It was a post about ethics within voting for the Hugo Awards for World Science Fiction Society Achievement. It was essentially Correia and a handful of authors versus an established Leftist front within Science Fiction. From that one post, Correia and his allies started what would become the movement that is now known as Sad Puppies. The movement has led to a liberal backlash that has the most leftist of them going insane.
The Hugos have generally been a big deal in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Notable names like Asimov and Heinlein have won the award. To get a Hugo award is to say that you hit in that weight class. It's the Oscars of Science Fiction and Fantasy--both books and movies.
Five years ago, author Larry Correia dismissed the Hugos as being nothing but a "circle jerk" of Social Justice Warriors and leftists. According to Correia, like the Oscars, the Hugos have been slowly consumed by liberals over the course of the past 25 years. The names they nominate are less about good, entertaining fiction, and more about politics.
Imagine if Steven Spielberg only made blockbusters like Indiana Jones and never got an Oscar.
For example, everyone has at least heard of Game of Thrones. The books have sold millions, but the author, George R.R. Martin, has only received a single nomination. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling won a Hugo once, and was nominated one other time, and was never allowed on the slate ever again. Many other bestsellers within SF have been left by the wayside and completely ignored. If you are unfamiliar with names like David Weber or Timothy Zahn, just know that they have been bestsellers for over 25 years, and have never even been nominated for a Hugo.
It's like the Oscars ignoring The Lord of the Rings entirely (which nearly happened).
As Correia has stated, Hugo nominees in recent years are the "correct" people. What people? One person, Ann Leckie, got an award for her first novel, Ancillary Justice, and her only claim to fame is that she had a blurb from the former President of the Science Fiction Writers of America, John Scalzi. This is the Hugo equivalent of a good review from the head of the Screen Actors Guild netting you get an Oscar. Leckie won, though her competition was the entire ten-book epic known as the Wheel of Time, which has a fanbase comparable to that of Lord of the Rings.
In movie terms, this is like an independent art house film winning over the entire works of Alfred Hitchcock.
When Correia pointed out that the Hugos did not represent SF, but merely a small clique at WorldCon SF convention, there was a massive leftist backlash from the establishment SF authors and publishers. There have been articles declaring him a racist, misogynist homophobe exercising his white privilege. He has received death threats. One of the larger names in SF publishing, Tor Books, went after Larry Correia's publisher on their blog. The Nielsen-Haydens, editors for Tor (one former, one current) fully support the Hugos, stating that there's nothing wrong with them at all--but Tor has had 40 nominations for best novel from 1986-2015.
At the same time, the former President of Science Fiction Writers of America John Scalzi waged an internal purge of their membership.Former members--such asSarah Hoyt--andcurrent members protested the ideological litmus test SFWA was using.
Imagine if Peter Jackson asked why the first two Lord of the Rings films didn't get many nominations, and in response Universal Studios and the Screen Actors Guild called for his head (and the heads of his supporters).
Correia was told no, the Hugos represent all of Science Fiction. At which point, he said, "You want to bet?"
Enter Sad Puppies.
The movement is officially titled "Sad Puppies Save the Children Campaign"--a title chosen to deliberately make fun of leftist causes (the tagline is: "Because boring message fiction is the leading cause of Puppy Related Sadness"). Correia's stated goal is to promote good SF--books that are fun, enjoyable, and not necessarily approved by the "correct" people. He has been joined by Brad R. Torgerson, among others (there is another version, led by Vox Day, called "Rabid Puppies").
Sad Puppies is simple. The supporting members have their fans vote for who they want in the Hugo categories. The nominees for the Hugo are assembled from the voted collected. From there, the supporters push those books (and tv shows, and movies, and editor, et al).
Sad Puppies is now in its third year, and the name-calling and death threats its members are being attacked with have gotten worse. There are even authors like K. Tempest Bradford declaring that one cannot be a fan of SF unless you're the correct kind of reader, enjoying the correct kind of SF by authors of the correct gender and/or ethnicity.
Then, less than a month before the Hugo nominations were posted, a former editor of Tor Books insisted that the Hugos only represent the people who attend World Con. But, to quote the SF TV show Babylon 5: The avalanche has already started, and it is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Also, given the statements made by that former editor of Tor, that means Tor knew the outcome of the initial voting ahead of time, which is against the rules.
When the Hugo award nominations came out, it looked like the Sad Puppies slate, including apolitical authors like Jim Butcher (author of The Dresden Files), as well as conservative Catholics like John C. Wright (author of ... a lot). Even better, right wing writer Vox Day had elements of his Rabid Puppies slate nominated (his own version of Sad Puppies, only where he picks his own candidates personally).
Forces in establishment SF have not taken this well. Since the Hugo voting ballot operates by rank (voters rank their preferences for awards), the author and former SFWA President John Scalzi went on his page and suggested a campaign to "No Award" the Hugos over Sad Puppies. This is basically a leader in the SF community telling the voters to say, "We don't want anyone to win."
John Scalzi has even gone on his twitter account and accused Correia of starting Sad Puppies in order to get himself a Hugo. That might be a valid point ... if Correia hadn't refused his Hugo nomination.
Then there came an Entertainment Weekly article, headlined: "Hugo Award nominations fall victim to misogynistic, racist voting campaign." It was an article written without talking to a single Sad Puppy supporter, and the headline is a good example of the tone of the entire article.
Even better, seven other news outlets published nearly the exact same article. At the same time.
EW has since changed the headline.
Let us ignore that the new Hugo slate includes women and Hispanics. Since this began, the Sad Puppy people have undergone accusations of being evil white men. It's what makes "racists" of Vox Day (though he's Native American), or Larry Correia (who's Portuguese). It makes misogynists out of Sarah Hoyt (from Portugal) or Cedar Sanderson ... and no, they are NOT transgender, they were born women, and remain women.
Then there's the EW correction, which noted that the EW author, one Isabella Biedenharn, didn't talk to anyone on the Puppy side. In the tradition of Rolling Stone, one need not complicate a strong narrative with facts.
However, we can all take some advice from Sad Puppies. It took a few years (this is Sad Puppies 3, after all), but it has taken over. Correia and Co. simply rallied the troops to the polls, and got out the vote. It took time, but they eventually won.
In short: in a battle between the establishment leftists and the "outsiders" of many stripes, the leftists lost. The culture wars are winnable. A little sarcasm, a little reason, and the war is over. The left is nothing but a pile of steaming, impotent rage. The more they lose, the more twisted up they become. The more they lose, the more they lash out and alienate everyone around them.
In Graham Greene's short story, A Hint of An Explanation, he noted that evil always overreaches, and breaks its own hands. The overreach is palpable at this point. The prime example is when Puppy supporter Brad Torgersen posted a picture of his family on Twitter to show that he's human. After that, someone called his wife (who happens to be black) a "human shield."
Evil overreaches.
For further updates on the Sad Puppy ordeal, you can visit CedarWrites, AccordingToHoyt, Monster Hunter Nation, Novel Ninja,Tom Knighton's blog, and Brad Torgersen's blog.
Declan Finn is the author of the anti-Dan Brown "The Pius Trilogy," centered around WW2 Pope Pius XII, and the co-author of the sci-fi thriller, Codename: Winterborn, set in 2093, during a mission into the Islamic Republic of France.
Review by Ferran
Apr 22 2015
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Good summary for this public
Personally, I'm not so sure it'd be the right telling in other venues.
That said, GRR Martin DID win a Hugo. _Those_ novels didn't. "A Song for Lya" and "Sandkings", for instance. A long time ago... And yet, he likes it this way.
Take care.
That said, GRR Martin DID win a Hugo. _Those_ novels didn't. "A Song for Lya" and "Sandkings", for instance. A long time ago... And yet, he likes it this way.
Take care.
Review by Egarimzo
Apr 21 2015
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It's not just the "Left"
A peculiar absence
I can't say I've read "all" science fiction, nor even a large segment of the genre. But in all that I've read, I cannot recall any mention of a Republican Form of Government. Even Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" was far off the mark, though closer than most other authors, with his emphasis on civic duty of federal service as a prerequisite for citizenship, voting and holding public office. There are plenty of references to democracies, direct or indirect. Or the various forms of democracy, especially socialist.
Let me point out that a republican form is NOT a "constitutional republic" nor is it synonymous with "a republic." The People's Republic of China IS a republic, but not a republican form. And the republican form predated the U.S. Constitution, so it cannot be a "constitutional republic."
Makes one wonder why the Republican Form cannot be depicted in Sci-Fi literature.
I can't say I've read "all" science fiction, nor even a large segment of the genre. But in all that I've read, I cannot recall any mention of a Republican Form of Government. Even Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" was far off the mark, though closer than most other authors, with his emphasis on civic duty of federal service as a prerequisite for citizenship, voting and holding public office. There are plenty of references to democracies, direct or indirect. Or the various forms of democracy, especially socialist.
Let me point out that a republican form is NOT a "constitutional republic" nor is it synonymous with "a republic." The People's Republic of China IS a republic, but not a republican form. And the republican form predated the U.S. Constitution, so it cannot be a "constitutional republic."
Makes one wonder why the Republican Form cannot be depicted in Sci-Fi literature.
Review by pclayton
Apr 20 2015
1 of 1 liked this
Good summary of puppies problem
Thank you for that. I have long been suspicious of the Sci/fi/fantasy market AND the nominating scheme. I sent story after story to the remaining pulp mags only to get the same form rejections, then pick up an issue to find nothing special inside, surely nothing that tops what I've done (bragging, no, not really. Just tooting my own horn a little. And I worked with a woman who used to go to all the World Cons (actually, she put me on a panel in SJ CA once.) and she told me that anyone (in the organization) can nominate for those awards. I found this odd. But, regarding the takeover of sci-fi, I read Animal Farm, Brave New World, and 1984 long before most of the people writing for and reading sci-fi were born and I'm not surprised. It's just affirmative action for certain writers and is disgusting, but so is much of what passes for publishing these days. And, to plug one of my LI posts a bit, check out my: Economy Forces Publishing Houses To Focus More on Bottom Line piece. Best!