Memories of Tonight’s Hugo Ceremony

While I was in an elevator leaving the Hugo ceremonies, Frank somebody looked me in the eye and said “How’d you like that. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it,” in a surly voice. Since he was being rude I told him to get off my case.

But let me answer Frank’s question now. The whole situation is a tragedy. It would have been a worse tragedy if any of these slate nominees had been rewarded with a Hugo. For that reason, yes, the outcome was what I voted for.

That should not detract from the accomplishment of Hugo ceremony hosts David Gerrold and Tananarive Due in pulling off a ceremony that was often funny, rich in creativity, and somber when appropriate (Gerrold was reduced to tears by seeing Nimoy on the in memoriam list).

Things began with a giant grim reaper figure lumbering onstage accompanied by an evil assistant. Three Star Trek redshirts, led by Due, battled with them and the lone survivor, Due, cleared the stage so that a reluctant David Gerrold could follow her out.

Some other highlights were Robert Silverberg’s “blessing of the Hugos” — a reminiscence of the “tension, apprehension and dissension” that plagued the 1968 Worldcon, including intermittent clouds of tear gas drifting up from downtown Berkeley, and to dispel similar tensions in 2015 he ended by taking out a tambourine and performing the Hare Krishna chant sung by street-roaming initiates back then.

Later, Connie Willis took a turn on stage, talking about her experience being bitten by a bat, and a mild concern about possible vampirism. Then she reassured Gerrold and Due about the challenges of emceeing the Hugos, remembering half a dozen things that have actually gone wrong at Worldcons, and suggesting a couple more that haven’t gone wrong yet but could, all of which despite being comedy seemed to leave Gerrold and Due a little more shaky than before she started.

During the introduction, Linda Deneroff of Sasquan’s WSFS Division laid the foundation for Hugo voters exercising the no award option. And it came up several times in the pro categories, as you know, though at the beginning there was a whole string of fan categories which had winners and the night seemed darned near normal for a little while.

TAFF delegate Nina Horvath was the presenter of all the fan categories. Gerrold personally handled most of the categories where there was no winner (though not ONLY those categories, so it wasn’t entirely a tell.) And for the dramatic categories he was assisted by a lifesize Dalek, which provided considerable amusement.

The acceptances were fun, best of which was Pat Cadigan reading Thomas Heuvelt’s speech from a tablet, with her characteristic asides and humorous timing. Campbell winner Wesley Chu obviously enjoyed himself, spontaneously falling to his knees before the bearer of the Campbell tiara so it could be placed on his brow.

Although I had a press seat in the balcony, the house lights were so low I couldn’t see a screen or write a note. Thus the File 770 Hugo coverage was provided by commenters watching the livestream — you all did a hell of a job, and extra credit for finding links to the voting stats and other commentary!

Definitely buying a tablet or something before I tackle another Worldcon though. This hotel computer is so limited — can’t edit or post photos, can’t copy between windows, etc. etc. But I will recharge my Kindle and be back at work in the morning.

795 thoughts on “Memories of Tonight’s Hugo Ceremony

  1. “I think that “theft” actually refers to Sasquan declining to allowing the boorishly offensive flyer produced by “Captain Comic” to be distributed from the free materials table. Sarah RequiresHoyt has been getting very worked up about this “crime”.”

    ooo
    Forgot about that.
    But surely any organization has the right (and, indeed, the responsibility) to monitor things being distributed under their aegis, and weed out anything egregiously offensive.
    And, really, can removing things from a “free” table constitute theft?
    But, whatever.

  2. @Lauowolf

    I think you are taking too much of a consensus reality approach to understanding the Puppies and their “grievances”.

  3. @Lauowolf also there were apparently puppy-themed ribbons on the free table that were confiscated by the con, sparking Hoyt’s now-infamous “socialist-cock sucking whores” comment.

  4. I’m not sure if it’s a public post or a friends-only post, so I’m not going to link or pull-quote from it, but will paraphrase. Eric Flint is responding on his Facebook wall to the rumor that Baen editor Toni Weisskopf “walked out on” the Hugo ceremony.

    Eric says, nope, that is not what happened, and Toni Weisskopf finds the rumor exasperating. She had a good time at the Hugos, was in very good spirits when Eric saw her at the after-party, has no complaint about the ceremony, and completely understands the “No Award” was not about her but rather about the ballot-stuffing controversy.

    And btw, other seasoned pros among the nominees that night also understood this. Real pros in this business do not fly into hysteria, descend into whining, utter unfounded accusations, storm off in huff, or start issuing threats because they don’t get an award. Real pros shrug off the disappointment, have a laugh at the after-party, and then get back to work.

  5. @Hypnotosov – Ops confiscated ribbons that said “Strawman Larry: That Guy’s a Jerk” and its accompanying “Ask Not For Whom the Puppies Bray” from the freebies table. In case anyone asks, items on those tables are identified with the convention so they had a perfect right to do so for this sort of inflammatory item. If you’ve made ribbons like that, you’re expected to hand them out yourself to people.

    @Laura – The version I heard about Toni leaving the ceremony was not that she had stormed out because she lost but rather because she did not agree with the asterisks. Thanks for the news that both rumors are false!

  6. Edwin —

    Torgersen is right now in battle against ISIS.

    Then he needs to stop fapping around with blogs and Hugos and Puppies and concentrate on doing his job: staying alive for his wife and family.

    Also, he should really keep clear in his mind the difference between bullets and words, and the differences between the respective people who wield them.

  7. Torgersen is not in battle with ISIS, he’s rear echelon. It’s an important job and he’s supporting the troopers who do fight, but he’s in no direct danger unless things go very wrong.

  8. Torgersen is right now in battle against ISIS.

    He’s not though is he? I don’t mean to denigrate support services, postmen play a role in keeping those who are in the front lines sane and effective, but it’s not the heroic pose being suggested.

  9. Torgersen continues to have much higher standards for people who aren’t him, I see. Altering comments is a childish tantrum, in my opinion. I hope we’ll see some of his oh so dedicated to free speech friends criticise him… But after the “how dare you threaten anyone’s livelihood!” posts (even when people hadn’t) followed a week later by “fire Irene Gallo!” I’m not going to hold my breath. Can you imagine what they’d say if Mike Glyer edited comments..?

    Saying No Award is a suppression of free speech is a nonsense. We read their Hugo packet contributions (well, started them at least), we read many, many blog posts about Marxists and SJWs and other such straw enemies, none of their eligible nominees were disallowed, no-one stopped them speaking. No Award was an expression of free speech; the free speech of wider Fandom.

    Puppy definition of free speech seems to be that they can say or do whatever the hell they want and any dissent isn’t allowed.

    Re: conservative

    We have conservative regulars here. Puppies don’t represent conservatives as a whole. (Has anyone else noticed the simultaneous narratives of: Worldcon fandom is old and out of touch and going to die off any minute now, and Worldcon fandom is anti conservative old white men? Hmmmm.) Now, far-right, maybe they can claim that. It certainly describes some of the main Puppies.

    @Daveon

    I’m glad you commented – if you hadn’t I was going to confirm that you’re a regular and caps isn’t your style at all. I’m almost sure I’ve seen a KA too, but initial pseuds are difficult to keep straight.

  10. It is a strange old vision of reality that both claims to value free speech and to be unable to face even the possibility of mockery.

    Silly old SIW! Mockery, to Cedar, is just like insults, to Brad. It’s perfectly okay when it happens to other people, but totally unacceptable when directed towards them.

    And yes, poor Cedar – it turns out that when you declare war on fandom, we don’t say, ‘Thank you sir, may I have another?’

  11. @Meredith

    Can you imagine what they’d say if Mike Glyer edited comments..?

    Taking a wild guess here, but I think it would involve the phrase:

    YOU MADE ME DO IT!

  12. For people suggesting that the long-form editor nominees submit before and after works, um, do you know any writers? Can you imagine any writer letting that happen? Yikes, just yikes.

  13. @Lydy Nickerson

    “Sir, the post office is refusing to deliver John C Wright’s unedited manuscript again. They say they don’t have enough trucks!”

  14. Edwin says: “The contempt armchair SJWs have toward soldiers like him is telling.”

    The contempt that people have shown Brad has exactly *nothing* do with him being a soldier – a fact that I would guess most if not all of the people who object to his point of view are completely unaware of, as I was until this very discussion thread. The contempt that people have shown Brad is specifically because of his instigation of, and public statements on, this issue.

  15. @Laura – Ah, thank you.

    It certainly made a good story, especially after she called me a ‘fugghead’ last year in that crazy essay, but if it isn’t true, I shall stop believing it.

    Tuomas, BrianZ, please read those last ten words above and consider their applicability to your lives.

  16. ‘and John C Wright seems to be declaring (though it’s a little unclear) that he won’t write for Tor anymore.’

    Wow, so after telling his followers to go ahead and pirate books to make sure the publisher doesn’t get any money, he won’t be working with them again?

    I’m sure that it was 100% his decision, too!

  17. @Laura Resnick

    The Sunday Business Meeting thread seems to be “teaching the controversy” on that topic as of now.

  18. Every time Wright describes how reasonable and gracious his characterizations of his opponents as “Christ-haters” and Sodom-worshippers is, I expect him to burst out with, “Oh, so I’m the bad guy!”

  19. Lorcan Nagle on August 24, 2015 at 12:16 am said:
    Torgersen is not in battle with ISIS, he’s rear echelon. It’s an important job and he’s supporting the troopers who do fight, but he’s in no direct danger unless things go very wrong.

    I have a friend who MET those who are fighting Daesh. She herself was within a km of Daesh. Newsflash: most of the people fighting Daesh are Muslim, are not Americans, and their families and friends are currently drowning in the Mediterranean trying to get the fuck away from Daesh, and get called a swarm of marauding invaders by our splendid government.

    Last I heard the US army largely left Iraq, after creating by engaging in a totally unnecessary war and mismanaging it in a way that was either creative genius or total criminal incompetence the very situation people fighting Daesh now find themselves in.

    So, sorry, not bowled over by admiration of the brave American warrior here, no matter what echelon he’s in.

    Also, there are active service people and vets all over fandom, and a lot of them are not on the Puppies side. And they don’t go whingeing about how heroic they are at the drop of a hat, either.

  20. Went over to see what the hell Wright was going on about.
    Riddle me this, batfolks:

    “My fans voted for the works of mine they read and judged worthy in record numbers. (In terms of raw votes, my nominated works received more votes than some of the masterworks mentioned above.)”

    This was following his list of some previous Hugo winners, presumably those he approves of.
    Is he really congratulating himself for having had more votes this year than were received – he says – for those previous Hugo winners?
    Is this right?
    Am I reading this correctly?
    And what are those “record numbers” he mentions?
    Lots of works on this very ballot – all of the winners and even many that did not win – got more votes than his works did.
    I mean, and I have admitted as much, I’m not necessarily good with numbers.
    But this is screwy.

  21. Anna Feruglio Dal Dan on August 24, 2015 at 12:51 am said:

    Lorcan Nagle on August 24, 2015 at 12:16 am said:
    Torgersen is not in battle with ISIS, he’s rear echelon. It’s an important job and he’s supporting the troopers who do fight, but he’s in no direct danger unless things go very wrong.

    So, sorry, not bowled over by admiration of the brave American warrior here, no matter what echelon he’s in.

    Also, there are active service people and vets all over fandom, and a lot of them are not on the Puppies side. And they don’t go whingeing about how heroic they are at the drop of a hat, either.

    I’d be of the attitude that one should respect the position rather than the person. I’m not saying that Torgersen deserves respect, but his fellow workers certainly do.

    It’s also worth noting that combat soldiers generally become displeased when they discover REMFs claiming they fight (not that Torgersen has claimed he’s a combat trooper, but he’s not corrected anyone who’s assumed as much). And it’ll be one more thing he’ll cry about and blame someone else for.

  22. @Lauowolf –
    I assume he means record #s for times he has been nominated?

    But the “I’ve got more votes than the masters” bit is especially funny. This was a record setting year for amount of participation. The real question is how the percentage of people who voted for him compares to the percentages for the masters he wants to compare himself to.

    Bet you a dollar the numbers aren’t nearly so pretty there. Especially with the ‘losing to No Award’ problem. 😉

    Edited to add: makes me wonder f he just doesn’t know how to math and thinks his is a useful comparison, or if he’s hoping that none of his followers will bother to reality-check him.

  23. See, here’s why I find it hard to respect a lot of the Puppies who turn up here. They come in with the assumption that everyone who opposes slates is an SJW, and they assume that all SJWs are a particular kind of person.

    – Anti-slate people are all SJWs
    – No SJW would be in the armed forces
    – Therefore no-one who opposes slates could ever have been in the armed forces

    Applies also to: Gamers, programmers, accountants, and any number of other professions and hobbies that numerous Puppies have decided SJWs can’t possibly be. And that’s leaving aside the bizarre assumption that “anti-slate” is somehow the same thing as “radical left-wing”! Its a logical fail based on faulty assumptions in the absense of evidence.

    And we’re supposed to be the illogical ones!

    (Puppies who just want their type of fiction to get recognised more often: None of that applies to you. I disagree with your methods greatly, but that’s all.)

  24. I think John C Wright could learn a little something about modesty from Noah Ward. That guy absolutely crushed the masters in votes and Hugos won – but you don’t hear him bragging about it.

  25. Among the soldiers and veterans respected in sf fandom:

    Glen Cook
    William C. Dietz
    David Drake
    Joe Haldeman
    Robert A. Heinlein
    Cyril M. Kornbluth
    Elizabeth Moon
    Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
    Gene Wolfe

    Men and women, liberals and conservatives, leftists and libertarians, the list goes on and on. Military service of many kinds is widely respected in fandom, as an honorable undertaking and as a valuable source of inspiration. It looks like something else is the problem, for some of the Puppies and their ilk, something that sounds a lot like “arrogant jerks”.

  26. What serving in the armed forces isn’t: A get-out clause for any and all bad behaviour.

  27. Given the Wright family’s apparent financial difficulties, I feel very sorry for JCW’s children. JCW and his wife – they’re adults, so not so much.

  28. @RedWombat

    Isn’t it time for all the dramatic reveals? Isn’t somebody gonna pop off their mask and yell that they were a stealth Puppy all along?

    I’m surprised that nobody has picked up on the fact that “Benjanun Sriduangkaew” is a pen name for… John C. Wright. Shouldn’t the prose be pretty much a giveaway?

    cf:

    They found her in Onsakit the Red Capital, which she had helped conquer, where an army led by mathematicians and blade-artists had disemboweled a dynasty five centuries old. It was a baking day, the sun in apex; royal bodies cast to the sand were quick to cook.

    In a palace shaped like bromeliads Yin Sanhi sat sipping a liquor of fermented cactus essence and sand persimmon. The chamber was papered by scrolls of proverbs on statecraft.

    vs:

    All was dark. In the west was a blood-red sunset, and in the east a blood-red moonrise of a waning moon. No lamps shined in the towers and minarets, and all the widows of the palaces, mansions, and fanes were empty as the eyes of skulls. All about the walls of the city were the fields and houses that were empty and still, and all the gates and doors lay open.

  29. Shouldn’t the prose be pretty much a giveaway?

    I’d say that Wright specializes in repetitious cliches, while Mad Empress Benjanun specializes in tormented metaphors and semi-literate syntax.

  30. @Jim Henley

    @Jay Maynard doesn’t have an argument in his piece.

    If this is truly about conservatism, I don’t know what he could be complaining about.

    The best novel winner features humanity girding for war against an alien invasion, with bonus denunciations of the horror of the Cultural Revolution.

    The second place novel features a monarch (Shout out to the Dark Enlightenment) who prays a lot (Shout out to conservatives) and thinks the concerns of the merchants should be taken more seriously (Shout out to libertarians).

    In contrast, the last place, no-awarded novel features a single father who rails against mining interests who did not heed his warnings that their greed was destroying the planet.

    Will the REAL conservative novels please stand up?

  31. At least JCW stays classy in his faith, unlike Christ-hater, Archmorlock, Corrupter of Awards, Deceiver, Father of SJW Lies, etc., etc. “Smaegol Nielson Haydn”. Who will no doubt burn for all entirety in the fiery pits of Hell… unless he makes amends with Almighty God and his loyal servants John B. Wrong and his little wife L. Yogi Gaslighter.

  32. Nice to know that according to Mr. Wright many Catholics (including myself) will soon be burning in Heck.

    Also, this: “It seemed that the monster known as Vox Day is a creation entirely of Mr. Patrick Nielsen Hayden.”

    O.K., now we know who to blame. We have found our Victor Frankenstein.

  33. @SocialInjusticeWarrior

    I’d say that Wright specializes in repetitious cliches, while Mad Empress Benjanun specializes in tormented metaphors and semi-literate syntax.

    Ah, I must defer to those whose literary palates are more discerning of the nuances of bad prose writing than mine is.

  34. Fred Kiesche on August 24, 2015 at 3:23 am said:

    Also, this: “It seemed that the monster known as Vox Day is a creation entirely of Mr. Patrick Nielsen Hayden.”

    I liked his claim that he only recently learnt of that phase of the feuding. It is like claiming to be a big fan of Doctor Who and saying very loudly at a Doctor Who convention “There was a Doctor before Christopher Eccleston?”

  35. @Camestros: Ah yes, but they were Silent Doctors! They never passed on their teachings to disciples hang on maybe I’m getting this confused with Buddhism.

  36. Brad T has opened his comments again. Doubling down now – we are terrible people for posting YOU MADE US DO IT on his blog. He seems to have forgotten that he was the one who wrote that…

  37. @Camestros Felapton

    That Brad Torgersen is so smooth and classy. Why, he could run for the Republican nomination!

  38. SocialInjusticeWorrier on August 24, 2015 at 4:22 am said:

    @Camestros Felapton

    That Brad Torgersen is so smooth and classy. Why, he could run for the Republican nomination!

    It is like an episode of Mythbusters – you know where they keep trying to make something explode and they keep ramping things up, and changing the conditions and maybe it will explode this time…and it doesn’t. So by the end of the show they have to make something explode so they just blow up some C4 in a quarry.

    It is like that but without the cool gadgets.

    Dave Freer’s turn on Mad Genius for a whatishegoingonabout moment. Apparently after months of them calling it a war it wasn’t a war and we were stupid for calling it a war (um, we didn’t) and anyway 3500 people isn’t that much anyway and the Puppies are really so much bigger and also imagine a string quartet in a pub in Liverpool (I’m guessing he has never had a drink in the Philharmonic) because it is like that and the Puppies are singing ‘Danny Boy’ (and now I’m humming Chumbawaba) and we are all awful people again.

    I thought the problem with the Hugos was that not enough people vote? Now the Puppies got their wish and lots of people voted.

  39. @Camestros Felapton

    imagine a string quartet in a pub in Liverpool

    “You’ll Never Dork Alone….”

    Brad Torgersen really is set on making a jackass of himself. I wonder how long it will be before Eric Flint intervenes to save The Little Puppy That Couldn’t.

  40. I can’t say I have ever seen somebody troll their own blog. To be honest I wouldn’t have thought it possible by definition. OK – got that out of my system now.

  41. @Camestros Felapton

    Hey, I am not to blame. As you know HE MADE ME DO IT!

  42. “It is like claiming to be a big fan of Doctor Who and saying very loudly at a Doctor Who convention ‘There was a Doctor before Christopher Eccleston?'”

    Wait, WHAT?

    😉

  43. JCW got even more smarmy in the comments on his blog. Denying Nielsen Hayden not only entry into the Kingdom of God, but also a say on his own last name*.

    * Note: contrary to what JCW says his beliefs don’t actually trump the law or democracy.

  44. I just think it’s worth saying that the last TruWho was Tom Baker. I think all good and reasonable people who are not Christ-hating adherents of Sodom Boulevard can agree on that.

  45. the last TruWho was Tom Baker

    [dons headscarf, produces crystal ball]

    You were born in 1964.

  46. @Niall McAuley

    [dons headscarf, produces crystall ball]

    I’d stick with that day job, if I were you.

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