World Fantasy Award
David Hartwell announced at the World Fantasy Award ceremony on November 8 that this will be the last year that the award trophy will be in the form of the traditional — and controversial — H.P. Lovecraft bust designed by Gahan Wilson.
#WFC2015 #wfcon2015 David Hartwell just announced this is the last year the World Fantasy Award will be the H.P.Lovecraft statue!
— Ellen Kushner @ellenkushner.bsky.social (@EllenKushner) November 8, 2015
Last year Daniel Jose Older collected over 2,500 signatures on a petition calling for the replacement of “avowed racist and a terrible wordsmith” H.P. Lovecraft on the World Fantasy Award.
The Guardian reported last September that the “board of the World Fantasy awards has said that it is ‘in discussion’ about its winners’ statuette”.
When Sofia Samatar won in 2014, she made a statement about the controversy in her acceptance speech, which she later expanded into a blog post —
- The Elephant in the Room I think I used those words. I think I said “I can’t sit down without addressing the elephant in the room, which is the controversy surrounding the image that represents this award.” I said it was awkward to accept the award as a writer of color. (See this post by Nnedi Okorafor, the 2011 winner, if you are confused about why.) I also thanked the board for taking the issue seriously, because at the beginning of the ceremony, Gordon van Gelder stood up and made an announcement to that effect: “The board is taking the issue very seriously, but there is no decision yet.” I just wanted them to know that here I was in a terribly awkward position, unable to be 100% thrilled, as I should be, by winning this award, and that many other people would feel the same, and so they were right to think about changing it.
In May, File 770 reached out to the WFC Board about the status of the Lovecraft image but received no acknowledgement.
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@Red Wombat
Definitely At The Mountains of Madness. Perhaps the Dunwich Horror?
I read “At the Mountains of Madness” when pretty young. I remember rather liking it, but it’s been a long, long time since I read it.
“The Whisperer in Darkness” was sufficiently interesting to me that it was one of several reasons why I moved to Vermont in 2005.
RedWombat: No, that’s the right one. It’s just so…Clyde Caldwell-esque.
You have a point, though I didn’t recognize the reference until I googled Caldwell, just now. Bit Vallejo-ish, too, I suspect? Anyway, it reminded me of an Art Deco piece that an aunt of mine once owned, and that I loved when I was a child. Hence my more positive response, though I suspect I might re-think the association if I saw the Spectrum award in person.
How tall is it, do you know? I wasn’t kidding about also thinking that it would make a very effective blunt instrument.
I remember “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” was effective, but rather upsetting because it was set in a fictional version of where I lived.
I used to love Clyde Caldwell’s Dungeons and Dragons illustrations.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth for me, because it was my first one, but I haven’t read any Lovecraft in ages.
Mark Taylor: By this yardstick we would have to toss the images of Abraham Lincoln (who was racist), and George Washington, (Who was decidedly racist, and misogynistic).
Oh? Which genre awards are giving out busts of Lincoln and Washington?
Oh, The Dunwich Horror is partially because I’d been to Dunwich (UK version) repeatedly for very tasty fish and chips and the name tickled me.
The Colour from Outer Space was my favourite.
I’m not into HPL enough to have favorites, but here are a couple stories that spring to mind that have stayed with me: “Iranon” and “The Statement of Randolph Carter”.
If there are any Wodehouse fans in this thread, you need to find yourself a copy of Scream For Jeeves.
JJ: Oh? Which genre awards are giving out busts of Lincoln and Washington?
Not a genre award, but the University of Illinois-Northwestern football teams annually compete for the Land of Lincoln trophy. Of course, it isn’t a bust of Lincoln, either–it’s a bronze stovepipe hat (designed by Dick Locher of Dick Tracy fame, which is something I didn’t know until I looked it up just now).
The Land of Lincoln trophy replaced the Sweet Sue Tomahawk. I’ve no idea what all that is significant of, but there it is.
I think this thread is looking awfully good for the Georgies next year!
Another vote for The Colour Out of Space.
For one thing, it always seemed a bit more coherent than much of the rest.
And it is genuinely scary.
I love Lovecraft. “The Cats of Ulthar” is fun and CATS! but as much as I will forever love it because of that, it’s not my favorite.
The favorites I have to mention, in order of their becoming my favorites:
At The Mountains of Madness
The Call of Chthulhu
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Music of Erich Zann
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in the Darkness
The Colour Out of Space (which I hated when I was a kid)
Pickman’s Model
Okay, I give up. I keep remembering other stories and novellas I need to mention. Basically, I have a favorite, maybe, and then about 20 tied for second place.
My all-time favorite is The Haunter of the Dark (and yeah, that’s one of the first, after The Call of Chthulhu, where I noticed Lovecraft’s racism). I love the atmosphere, the claustrophobia, the feel that the protagonist has caught something’s attention and now he’s doomed.
ETA If you dig the ghouls or the creepy things in Innsmouth and you haven’t read Caitlin Kiernan, you should. I need to go back and re-read her stuff from the beginning (I got them all out of order back when it was harder to find such things [for cheap]), so I can’t quite remember which to recommend, but definitely Threshold, Daughter of Hounds, and The Red Tree. Some of those are in series, though, so you may want to research that before buying. Sorry for the lack of info, I’m ETAing with less than 30 seconds to E.
Gee, I’m sure feeling the Lovecraft hate around here.
Mary Frances: Not a genre award, but the University of Illinois-Northwestern football teams annually compete for the Land of Lincoln trophy. Of course, it isn’t a bust of Lincoln, either–it’s a bronze stovepipe hat
Well, then, I am sure that when recipients and football supporters of those Illinois teams start finding a stovepipe hat an unpleasant and uncomfortable reminder of Lincoln’s racism and no longer representative of their competition as a whole, they will do something about that.
I can’t see why it is something anyone in SFF fandom should care about. For some strange reason, Mark Taylor thinks we should.
There’s several I really like. Overall, I think I’d probably have to pick “Mountains of Madness” as my favorite, but there’s a couple of others that are close on its heels.
JJ: Well, then, I am sure that when recipients and football supporters of those Illinois teams start finding a stovepipe hat an unpleasant and uncomfortable reminder of Lincoln’s racism
Snicker. Unless you know something about Illinois football (and the University of Illinois’ history with mascots in particular), you have no idea how funny that is . . .
I agree (since I suspect I wasn’t clear, before). Not remotely relevant to SFF.
@JJ – C’mon, it’s a widespread stereotype that SFF fans are huge college football fans.
RedWombat: So, hey, what’s everybody’s favorite Lovecraft, if you actually do like his work?
After years of hearing people rave about Lovecraft, I finally checked out the “Best of Lovecraft” from my library. My response to the stories was “meh”. That’s probably because I’m not much of a horror fan — but even if I had been, I found the stories so dated that it would have been difficult to find them terribly scary.
I’m not dissing anyone else’s love of Lovecraft. I just don’t see the appeal. I do, however, read and enjoy a fair bit of Fantasy, and he’s not at all emblematic of Fantasy for me — so when people are outraged at replacing a statuette of HPL as the World Fantasy Award, I find it extremely hard to get het up about it.
I wonder if those defending Lovecraft by saying “Lincoln and Washington were racists too” have bothered to read much history scholarship. The realities of the nature of American historical figures have been written about at length by historians, who rarely shy away from the ugly bits.
Favorite Lovecraft:
The line that sticks with me is the end of “The Statement of Randolph Carter,” but I think my favorite work is At the Mountains of Madness.
Is anyone using a trophy in the form of a golden apple inscribed with “for the fairest”?
Okay–sorry, you triggered a rant here–this is my problem with Kiernan. I LOVED The Red Tree. There were some marvelously creepy bits. But–sans spoiler–it basically ends with the big catastrophic whatever happening off camera, as a result of the structure of the narrative, and you get the classic wrap-up for that style of story. Fine, no big deal, that’s how it worked, and it was effectively done.
Threshold did it again, except the narrative WASN’T set up for that. It’s as if It ended with everybody holding hands and singing and agreeing never to speak of it again, instead of going back. And that’s when I went “waaaaaait a minute…” Because sooner or later, you have to knuckle down and show the monster. Horror of the unknown is scary, but Cthulhu has to come out of the ocean and the Count has to show his fangs, and this was looking like a trend. And it wasn’t done half so well in Threshold and the end just seemed so anti-climactic that I was left going “You can write a great build-up, but I no longer believe in your ability to write a satisfying climax.”
She may have gotten over this, but I have not bothered to find out. But I’ll still recommend The Red Tree for Lovecraft fans.
The Color Out of Space terrified me as a kid.
Just what we need, the Cultural Trojan War.
Don’t the Discordians have a trademark on that?
@RedWombat – Threshold was the first Kiernan I read, on someone’s recommendation as a Lovecraftian novel. I had major problems with the ending, as well, but I enjoyed the sort of updated Lovecraftian vibe, set in the South, up until said ending. I haven’t re-read it, but I’ve been meaning to. I hunted throughout the house until I’d gathered all her books I own in order (which is most of them, excluding short story anthologies), but then never got around to my massive re-read, and eventually that stack of books kind of bled into other stacks of books and now I have to start all over, but with a smaller area to hunt through.
Oh, and wasn’t she still doing that thing where she combined two words into one back when she wrote Threshold? I didn’t like that – reminded me of the kind of thing you’d do in a creative writing class in college – and it completely bounced my girlfriend off of her until years later, when I convinced her to try The Red Tree
Kiernan has pretty much dropped all that “shatterfade” stuff.
I remember reading the sample of the sequel to Threshold (I think?) where she talked about critics hating that…in the book, between characters. That was one of the last nails in the coffin.
Yeah, I don’t think I’ve seen it since Threshold or works before. It didn’t bounce me off of her writing, but I wasn’t a fan. I could see what she was trying for, though. It seemed very “of the time.”
If having the World Fantasy Award not look like Lovecraft is somehow a diminishing of HPL, what horrible injustice has been done over the years that it doesn’t look like Baum? Or Tolkien? Or Dunsany or MacDonald or Lewis or Carroll or or or or?
It’s an award. It’s not required to look like anyone. And awards get redesigned from time to time.
So it doesn’t strike me as a difficult question. Redesigning it doesn’t erase HPL for history or literature, or deny his influence on the field. He’d have all of that even if the award looked like Thumper the Rabbit.
But don’t make it look like Thumper, because that Nazi-sympathizing Disney (who gets his place in history and all whether or not some award is shaped like his head, too) will thaw out long enough to have his modern-day minions sue your ass.
Don’t make it look like any author, because fantasy is a broader field than any author’s output.
Have it celebrate the imagination, which includes the genre’s past, future and lack of boundaries.
A crystal ball. A potion flask held in a tentacle. A grimoire. A big fake gem that could have a different setting every year, a la the Hugos. A gnole, chewing rope (okay, too specific).
My suggestions from Twitter:
https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/663475978472022016/photo/1
https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/663472737034223616/photo/1
https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/663477939892191233/photo/1
https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/663479571497381888/photo/1
https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/663480842421858304/photo/1
https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/663481760542396416/photo/1
https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/663483944533254144/photo/1
https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/663486103370907649/photo/1
https://twitter.com/KurtBusiek/status/663486173390573568/photo/1
https://twitter.com/nashiraprime/status/663488169493549056/photo/1
A hand of glory that doubles as a working candlestick.
A chicken. In armor. with a town of wee men on its back. And they’re manning the cannons.
I do like the idea of getting Charlie Vess to design it, if he’d be willing.
But something symbolic. A sword in a stone. A winged sandal. A ring of power. A magic mirror.
**
To parallel the Hugo, I like the idea of the big fake gem. It’s simple and striking, the setting could be interestingly varied from year to year, and even the gem itself could be different colors and textures, just always the same size and shape.
But I also really like Casa Baba Yaga. And the one that’s an abstract head with city/castle/otherstuff growing from it, signaling imagination.
@Redwombat – Ha! I remember that, now. I had a vague memory of reading her response to critics about that. I’d forgotten the context.
Lovecraft Faves: The Colour Out Of Space, The Dunwich Horror, The Music of Erich Zann, and Pickman’s Model.
Jack Lint on November 9, 2015 at 1:51 pm said:
Is anyone using a trophy in the form of a golden apple inscribed with “for the fairest”?
Just what we need, the Cultural Trojan War.
Don’t the Discordians have a trademark on that?
You’re thinking of this year’s Hugo, I believe.
Thinking about the award-design suggestions: one possibility is to imitate the Hugos by having the award be different, but on the same theme, every year. Like say: always a dragon wrapped around a crystal globe (etched w/ map of world, possibly), but with a different dragon for each con. Same world, different dragon.
“Same world, different dragon.”
The world-weary sigh of knights errant throughout history.
Kurt Busiek: My suggestions from Twitter:
I–kinda like the lamp-post idea . . .
@Mary Frances:
I like the lamppost, too. Perhaps with a small door worked into the base to suggest the Wardrobe in the distance…
If it was a lamppost, the base could change every year to reflect where the con was held.
I wouldn’t go so specific as to add a wardrobe door, too; it’s already a clear reference, and you’d want it to represent the genre, not just one book. So I’d look for ways to broaden the reference rather than narrow it. Lampposts of many worlds…
But would there be Turkish delight?
The lamppost certainly resonates with me. Probably the first fantasy I ever encountered – the animated version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
ETA: even though TLtWatW has that ridiculous religious allegory thing wedged into it kinda messing up the plot. Hmm… might not work, now that I think about it, as it won’t be too long now before young Fantasy fans won’t identify with that work (Harry Potter will take that place, I assume) and will probably find Lewis’ message fiction a little hard to swallow.
Uwe: Funny that Tolkien pops up so often, as he was – and is – a great inspiration to people like the British National Party.
And to a number of Aryan Nation/white supremacists.
However, he’s also an inspiration to a lot of queer radical leftist radicals as well.
Many of them women (having some discussion over on FB about Marget Atwood’s “no women in Tolkien” comment)!
Amazingly enough, different people can look at the same text and draw very different conclusions and interpretations from it.
I know when I teach Tolkien I always have some very strong (often evangelical) Christians and even in the midst of rural Texas a few pagans.
They are shocked SHOCKED to learn that the others are also fans of Tolkien’s work.
I read some Lovecraft back in the day.
Cannot exactly remember when, was not impressed (I think it was one of the ones with Elder Gods breaking through?). But then I am not and never have been a horror fan (I’ve read a few horror books. _The Haunting of Hill House_ scared the bejeebers out of me back in the day. A few Stephen King (one scene in _Salem’s Lot_ gave me nightmares for YEARS). _Dead ZOne_ was my favorite King. I have Tepper’s two horror novels because completist fan is completist. And I like Mira Grant. That’s about it.)
I can do ten minutes on the Problem of Susan, War Is Ugly When Anyone Fights You Sexist Ass, and Why Caspian Is An Idiot at the drop of a hat. But I think I ranted my rant for the day already.
I was rather disappointed to discover that Turkish delight was essentially sugared fruit leather.
Lovecraft had a lot of unfortunately nasty beliefs, although toward the end of his short life he had begun to moderate and even liberalize a bit. But you can be absolutely sure that fifty years or a century from now, his work will still be widely read and enjoyed, unlike that of all of his politically correct critics at the World Fantasy awards. “Terrible wordsmith”- hah; L. Sprague DeCamp trashed him the same way in his nasty Lovecraft biography of 1975, while pompously describing how one should write, and write professionally. Mention DeCamp’s name today at an SF convention, or more ironically, at a gathering of young fantasy and SF writers, and people respond with “WHO???”
If the idea is to sanitize the award from any association with any objectionable theme or thought, then don’t tie it to any work.
But if the award had been a bust of Cthulhu, I doubt many people would be complaining. It’s the fact that it’s a bust of Lovecraft that seems to evoke his personal failings rather than his genre. Then again, I could be wrong.
If the idea is to make sure the award never evokes a work that new generations won’t recognize or embrace, don’t tie it to any specific work, because them new generations, they just keep coming.
But I don’t think the problem people see with the award as is is that it references Lovecraft’s fiction. I think the problem is that it’s a bust of an actual person, and that person’s ideas about race were ghastly. So while I wouldn’t have a problem with the award being carefully non-specific in its references, I think it would probably be enough to make it not an image of a person.
But like I say, I could be wrong. It’s been known to happen on rare occasion.
@KBK:
Yeah, that “terrible wordsmith” crack was gratuitous and unnecessary.
Scroll up a bit and you’ll see how many of us are discussing our favorite Lovecraft works. Maybe you could tell us yours?
In the meantime, I think most people here recognize that someone can be a good writer and still a terrible person.
And, as RedWombat so wisely said, if he is dead and unable to care, why persist in pushing his image as an ostensible reward on people who know he said terrible, hurtful things about everyone like them?
KBK: Mention DeCamp’s name today at an SF convention, or more ironically, at a gathering of young fantasy and SF writers, and people respond with “WHO???”
Young fantasy and SF writers, maybe. But if so, I suspect that the same group would say “WHO???” to Lovecraft, too. The average SF convention will definitely contain people who grew up reading The Incomplete Enchanter, Lest Darkness Fall . . . and the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories.
And why does that matter? No one is saying that Lovecraft shouldn’t be read or remembered. In fact, many of the comments upthread are about particular works of Lovecraft that readers have enjoyed and remember fondly. This discussion is about an award–and not even the award itself, really, but the statuette given to winners.
Peace Is My Middle Name: Yeah, that “terrible wordsmith” crack was gratuitous and unnecessary.
Agreed. Also irrelevant and subjective.