Hugo Entitlement
Posted on April 26, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 21 Comments
Question in e-mail:
Are you upset that you’re not on this year’s Hugo ballot? You’ve been on it a lot recently.
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: No, and also, really? Are you serious? It’s a fine ballot, in terms of the work, and as a special added bonus it’s filled up with a bunch of my friends, all of whom I wish could win, even when they’re up against other friends of mine. There’s not much on the ballot I would change. I like it when I show up on the ballot — it’s nice, you know? — and if I show up on the ballot again some other year I will be delighted. Feel free to nominate me at a later time if you feel the work merits it. But I think being upset that one is not on the ballot would be indicative of the twin diseases of Insufficient Graciousness and Excessive Hubris, and both have at their root a wholly unearned feeling of entitlement. I try really hard not to be that guy.
Beyond that airy, philosophical point, on a practical level, last year my published fiction output was three short stories, and the Short Story category is as I understand it the most competitive fiction category (think about how many short stories are published each year and you’ll see why). While I think the three short stories I wrote last year are pretty good, the number of short stories published last year of equal or greater quality is, shall we say, reasonably large. I also suggested my humor video for the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form Category, and again, I thought it was pretty good. But if I had to choose between it and “Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury,” well. I’m not voting for me in that scenario. I’ve got me an ego, but come on. All of which is to say that this year I wasn’t exactly waiting up for the nomination e-mail.
So: no. Not upset in the least and in fact quite happy for my friends who get their turn in the Happy Fun Anxiety Barrel that is the time between now and the Hugo awards ceremony. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did when it was my turn.
Do you feel entitled to a Hugo Award?
Absolutely!
Whatever makes you feel that way?
Cause….
Now, if you aren’t nominated for a Nebula, that’s a clear sign of mismanagement at the highest levels of SFWA.
Well, and in fact I wasn’t nominated for a Nebula. I suppose I have only myself to blame.
No interest in being the Kanye of Sci Fi authors, eh?
You may not have caught it since you were away over the weekend, but there has been a small discussion over at Tor.com between Gardner Dozois and Jo Walton as to who they would most like to see announce the winner of the Dramatic, Short Form award should a certain YouTube sensation win. Gardner wants Connie Willis, Jo wants Charlie Stross. No matter what, it will be highly amusing should IT win.
Gardner and Jo are missing the obvious choice: Ray Bradbury.
Upset : to trouble mentally or emotionally : disturb the poise of b : to throw into disorder c : invalidate d : to defeat unexpectedly
I think maybe you’re reading more into that word than it denotes or even connotes.
It doesn’t neccessarily mean you threw a tantrum or were in any way ungracious, hubric, or entitled.
It might be something as mundane as “disturb the poise of”. To “trouble emotionally” might be something as minor as not feeling like playing with the dog that afternoon.
Yes, but how will you feel if you don’t win a Pulitzer? Or a Nobel? Or a MacArthur grant?
Greg:
“I think maybe you’re reading more into that word than it denotes or even connotes.”
Greg, I’ll be sure to let you know when I need your advice about words and what they mean.
DGL:
There was the day about ten years ago when someone I went to college with won a Pulitzer, and I was all “Awwww, I want a Pulitzer TOO,” and then I remembered that I hadn’t actually, you know, done the work. Then I got over it.
Don’t worry, y’all: I took all the haikus from the contest John ran a while back, and sent them off to the folks who used to run the International Library of Poetry contests. And guess what– they say you’re now all semi-finalists! How’s that for recognition?
Don’t worry, John, we’ll try and get you nominated for the “Posting Long Answers When Only Short Answers are Necessary to My Regular Readers” Web Award. Because there certainly must be such an award.
SHORT ANSWERS ARE NO FUN.
I remember when my colleague’s son won an Olympic gold medal (Josh Davis, for swimming). That made me humble, for about five minutes. And then I thought about how Josh spent ALL his time training for the Olympics, hours upon hours in the pool and the weight room, and I decided to have another taco and get on with my life.
That said, it was a very cool medal.
Nothing this year, perhaps, but “Shadow War of the Night Dragons…” for Best Short Story for 2011, no question.
Or at least “Best Third Sentence.”
Apologies. I did not mean to offend.
JS @#9: It’s like the time when I found out that the engineer I used to play bridge with on Thursday nights was the CEO of T-Mobile. I started referring to that kind of thing as “Alumni Magazine Moments”, in honor of the bits you see in the back of your alumni magazine: “Joe Random (E ’87) just sold his startup company to Cisco Systems for $1.3B and is taking some time off to hike the Himalayas…”
Funny how no one ever writes into their alumni magazine with things like “Joe Random (E ’87) just took a second job as an assistant manager of the East Podunk TGI Fridays to cover the costs of his divorce settlement with Jane Randomette (H ’88)…”
@John, have you actually met Larry Correia in person? He seems cool and his books are great. Just curious.
I am planning on going to Renovation since it’s on the west coast, and I was looking forward to seeing you win something. Oh well. There is a In-n-Out close by. That almost counts as a win, doesn’t it?
@Daryl, thanks.
I’ve not met John before. Well, I read John’s stuff if that counts. :) He’s had several of my friends on the Big Idea.
-Larry “Super-Dooper Campbell Finalist” Correia
@#17DGL – An astute observation. There’s serious survivorship bias in alumni magazine self-reports. “My career is in the crapper” isn’t the sort of thing that gets passed along.