Linking is not advocacy

[james_davis_nicoll]

Theodore "Vox Day" Beale goes on a rant about the Nebula Awards, giving as his examples of injustice times when women beat men. You may remember Vox as the guy whose clarity of vision didn't extend as far as satire.

Comments

[onyxlynx]

If I had a cat, it would know what to do with Mr. Beale's leavings.

[sauscony]

Yes, it's horribly unjust when (women) scientists win science fiction awards! Yes, I am an Asaro fan, but The Quantum Rose wasn't one of my favorites by her, although I think a lot of people criticizing it haven't read it. Also, I believe the author of the diatribe is incorrect, I don't think Asaro was President of the SFWA when The Quantum Rose won the Nebula. And while Asaro may not have won another Nebula for best novel, she has won a Nebula for novella (also in a year when she was not President of SFWA). Asaro was responsible during her tenure as SFWA President for establishing the Andre Norton Award and for honoring Anne McCaffrey with a Grandmaster Award, two things I'm sure further get men like Beale's ire up. Don't even get me started on his whinging about Walton's Among Others, which not only won the Nebula, but also won the Hugo. While McIntyre's The Moon and the Sun only won the Nebula, another book of hers won both the Nebula and the Hugo.

[james_davis_nicoll]

I don't think Asaro was President of the SFWA when The Quantum Rose won the Nebula.

Wikipedia says she was President of SFWA from 2003–2005. She won the Nebula for The Quantum Rose in 2002.

[selidor]

From comments:
the hot white core of real science fiction continues to be 1950s American engineering culture

!
!!.
... o.O

[heron61.livejournal.com]

At first glance, I assumed that the referenced comment was sarcasm, but it's not - I'm both horrified and impressed.

[asyouknow-bob.livejournal.com]

My father was a 1950s American engineer.
My father has also been dead for over a generation.

This might explain why the hot white core of real science fiction might be fairly described as 'flickering' today.

[avram]

Hey, I didn’t notice it earlier, but the guy who made that “white hot core” comment? TJIC? This guy, the Massachusetts comics shop owner whose online response to the Gabrielle Giffords shooting was “1 down, 534 to go”, and turned out to have a large gun collection.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I do like the assertion that only ideological corruption (his words and he's sticking by 'em), logrolling, and stuffed ballot boxes can result in Nebula awards going to books he doesn't like.

[glaurung-quena.livejournal.com]

Not just doesn't like, but (if you steel yourself and wade through his replies in the comments it becomes clear), books he hasn't even bothered to read before deeming them inferior to his favourite white dude authors.

[avram]

Wow, yeah. Every single one of his examples. It’s like he doesn’t even want to maintain the façade of believing that women are human beings.

I might grant him the Asaro, since the one Asaro story I’ve read was dreadful. But Walton’s Among Others beat out Miéville’s Embassytown for the Hugo as well; that’s unlikely to have been the product of Nebula logrolling.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Of course not, it's the product of ideological corruption among the gatekeepers. The gatekeepers are a craven, yet somehow omnipotent bunch, and their corruption is a force that transcends the realm of the merely possible.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I wasn't keen on the McIntyre either (although I like the Ore) but if I cast my eye over the Nebulas there are subpar works by men that just leap out at me, and not just The Terminal Experiment, Forever Peace or Darwin's Radio.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

What a vile idiot, and he definitely gets extra misogyny points for holding up as two of his examples of the best of SF&F as being Martin's Game of Thrones.

[bedii.livejournal.com]

If Scalzi ever loses a Nebula and the other nominees are female, Day's head will explode.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

If I could arrange for that to happen, that would be sweet.

[martin-wisse.livejournal.com]

I wonder what Charlie would think about finding Vox Day slobber all over his novels? More to the point, if he's so worrier about ideological corruption, why does he like Mieville? The dude actually stood as a Socialist Alliance candidate once upon a time, how much more ideologically corrupt can you get?

[sesmo.livejournal.com]

Because penis.

[sesmo.livejournal.com]

This particular piece is merely amusing, but browsing brought me to the horror that is attempting to explain the subjugation of women as a utilitarian positive value: http://voxday.blogspot.ca/2012/06/scientist-beats-up-pz.html

This man is a jackass.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

So nice of Black Gate to give him a soapbox. Speaks volumes about their talent pool.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

He has a novel coming out (not sure where) next year. Swords'n'sorcery.

He is hoping that I will cover blurb it.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Suddenly, I foresee, you will be busier than ever. No, even busier than that.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

The ideological corruption to which I refer here relates to the increase of ideological restrictions in the genre imposed by the various gatekeepers, not any failure to adhere to the pure strains of a particular ideology.

Nothing more need be said than that Beale writes junk like this and imagines he's got an idea as to what the genre should be like.

Oh, and Truesdale (I assume that's him) claims SFWA turns (too many)inherently pleasant people into snarky, mean animals . It wasn't his fault he became an unrepentant asshole, SFWA did it to him.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Has he yet deiced to withhold his essence?

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Like anybody would want his essence.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I am not a member of SFWA, and I never have been.

I think that pretty much disposes of that argument.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

You're using facts and logic there rather than beginning with the proper outcome and looking for confirmation.

I've been waiting for this tag

[(Anonymous)]

I've been waiting for this tag to come up at the right time, so I can post this link to a subreddit where libertarians discuss things that "statists" have said that upset them. Linking is not advocacy, some form of memetic prophylactic may be advisable, not all content at Reddit is good &c &c.

http://www.reddit.com/r/shitstatistssay

(OK, probably most content at Reddit is kind of dodgy actually...)

what

[asyouknow-bob.livejournal.com]

My take-away from all of this is VOX DAY has served on Nebula juries??!!???

a) That's embarrassing.
b) It rather invalidates his thesis: If underserving works have gotten on the Nebula ballot, Vox Day himself is one of the possible culprits.

Re: what

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

He served in 2007. Does that mean his fingerprints are on the 2007 or the 2008 nebulas?

From DW

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I don't think Asaro was President of the SFWA when The Quantum Rose won the Nebula.

Wikipedia says she was President of SFWA from 2003–2005. She won the Nebula for The Quantum Rose in 2002.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

He has posted a foaming-at-mouth blog post in response to my comment calling it "Nebulagate". My first thought was "How charmingly old fashioned". -Gate. It's like seeing a crinoline.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

And launched a campaign for SFWA president, perhaps hoping to win the votes of disaffected Andrew Burt supporters.

[(Anonymous)]

"in some cases almost surely unread due to the timing involved concerning the publication date."

Hasn't this guy ever heard of an ARC?

--Awesome Aud