18<\/div>SHARES<\/span><\/div>

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For \u200bthe second time in 10 years, insiders of the World\u200b Science Fiction Convention (colloquially known as \u201cWorldcon\u201d) have bent their own rules in an attempt to police\u2063 the bounds of what books and\u2063 writers are to be seen as\u2063 acceptable science fiction and fantasy. This time, they\u2019ve done so on behalf\u200d of the Chinese Communist\u2064 Party.<\/p>\n

Worldcon is an annual\u2062 convention held in a different city every year. At each Worldcon, attendees, in addition to people \u2063who pay for \u2064non-attending \u2063memberships, vote on where the convention will be held in the future and also vote to determine\u2062 who will receive the awards, most famously including the once-prestigious Hugo Awards. Despite this peripatetic nature, Worldcon has \u2063a core group of\u2062 participants who return year after year. These\u2064 participants often refer to themselves as \u201cfans\u201d and, collectively, as \u201cfandom.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fandom leans\u2062 left and can be very cliquish.\u2064 Many fans have been attending Worldcon for decades and see it as something like their science fiction family reunion. Since Worldcon has always been attended by industry professionals \u2014 \u2063writers, \u2062editors, and agents \u2014 as well\u2064 as fans,\u2063 the convention has been a useful networking event for\u200d aspiring creatives,\u200d but always within the social context of\u200d fandom.<\/p>\n

However, there is a clique \u2063of insiders that has unusual sway \u200bover what happens at \u2064Worldcon \u200cand the Hugo Awards.\u2062 It is comprised of \u200bwriters and editors associated \u2063with a small number of the\u2064 largest science\u200c fiction and fantasy\u200d publishers, as well as their\u200b friends and allies who\u200c work \u200cbehind the scenes organizing conventions.\u200c The insiders\u2064 don\u2019t want you to think \u2062the turf-war games they gleefully engaged\u2062 in have now gone awry on them. For instance, science fiction novelist John Scalzi informed\u200c commenters on his blog post on the subject that\u200d \u201cAttempts to re-litigate the Sad Puppy nonsense in the comments here will be Malleted.\u201d But why \u200cwould anyone connect the events of Worldcon 81 in Chengdu, China, with the Sad Puppy conflicts?<\/p>\n

Degrading the Hugo Awards<\/h2>\n
The previous beating of the bounds took place over a series of Worldcons and is\u2062 generally known by some reference to the \u200c\u201cSad Puppies,\u201d a faction of Worldcon \u200dparticipants who tried to make the awards more reflective of \u2064the tastes of the broader science fiction community<\/a>. Naturally, this internal battle had political overtones, and there was a big\u200b effort to excommunicate the\u2063 Sad Puppies \u2062at the time. The events \u2064of the Sad Puppies conflicts became complicated, \u200cbut at their heart, they\u2019re simple,\u200b and in their origin, they\u2019re personal.<\/p>\n
Fantasy and science fiction novelist and former gun\u2064 store owner Larry Correia writes heroic \u200caction stories about honorable people fighting monsters. When he first \u200bbroke into publishing with Monster Hunter\u2064 International<\/em>, a cheerful story about private companies hunting monsters for government bounties in rural America, he\u200b found himself a finalist for the John W. \u2063Campbell Award\u2063 for Best\u200d New Writer to be awarded at Worldcon 69 in Reno.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nThe\u200c Campbell is one of the awards given out at\u2064 Worldcon. (The\u2063 award has since been\u2064 renamed to \u2064avoid\u2064 honoring John W. Campbell, a man whose influence \u200don science fiction is undeniable \u2014 \u2062he wrote the novella that \u2064was the basis for \u201c The Thing<\/a>\u201d \u2014\u200c because he had controversial politics Worldcon insiders no longer approve of.) Correia expected\u200c to go to Worldcon\u200c and \u200chang out with like-minded nerdy writers, but \u2063even\u200b before\u2064 the\u200c event, he\u2064 found himself\u200c socially snubbed\u2063 by a \u2062wall of sneering \u200bleftism. \u200bHe was called \u201can NRA stooge\u201d and a \u201cmerchant of \u2064death\u201d who \u200bliked to \u201cdance \u2062in the blood of children.\u201d Most famously, he was told he was \u201cnot a real writer,\u201d a jibe that Correia\u2019s fans to this day repeat with ironic delight.<\/p>\n
Correia didn\u2019t win the Campbell, but that defeat wasn\u2019t \u2063enough for the hardcore lefties of fandom, who continued to go after him online (as they still do today). In the flame wars that ensued, Correia made the point that Worldcon was a small convention and its insiders didn\u2019t reflect the thinking of\u200c all \u200breaders of science \u200dfiction and fantasy, so their social snub was \u2062unimportant.<\/p>\n
The\u200d convention was small \u2063enough \u200dthat it took only a \u200bmodest number of votes for a book to win one of the convention\u2019s \u200dcoveted Hugo Awards and even fewer for a book to become a finalist. \u200cCorreia confidently predicted\u2063 that he and his readers could get one of his books in as a finalist for Best Novel, though \u200bhe expressed doubt \u200cthat he had enough pull with fandom to make any\u200d book a\u200b winner. \u200bHe duly made good on his prediction, and \u200bhis book Warbound<\/em> was a finalist for the\u2062 Hugo Award for Best \u2064Novel at Worldcon 72 in London.<\/p>\n
At \u200cany \u2063point,\u2064 Correia could have walked away. And at\u200b any point, the lefty insiders of science fiction could have stopped insulting and threatening him. Neither\u200b happened. Instead, with \u2064the Worldcon insiders leaning\u200c hard \u200binto the banner of \u201cdiversity\u201d while giving awards to white \u200cliberals, Correia put forward a slate of recommendations for Worldcon 73 in Spokane. He called his nominees\u200b the\u200d \u201cSad Puppies\u201d slate in a tongue-in-cheek cartoon as a reference to a Sarah McLachlan\u200d animal charity commercial<\/a>,\u200d because \u201cboring message fiction is the leading cause of Puppy Related Sadness.\u201d <\/p>\n
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Correia maintains he had no idea what the skin color or \u2062sexual orientation of his nominees were. \u201cWe were \u200bjust picking people who were popular or good but who\u2019d normally \u2062get\u2064 ignored \u200bby the leftist cliques.\u201d His slate nevertheless\u200b included women, ethnic\u2062 minorities, and people we might today call \u201cLGBTQIA+.\u201d<\/p>\n
Correia\u2019s fans \u2062and \u200csympathizers voted finalists into multiple categories for the Hugo\u2063 Awards set\u200b to\u200b be handed out at\u2062 Worldcon 73 in Spokane.<\/p>\n
This \u200bwas a looming disaster. The Worldcon \u2064insiders couldn\u2019t bear the thought that any of Correia\u2019s slate might win and took action to stuff the ballot box. This was possible \u2064because Worldcon allows people who purchase\u2064 non-attending \u200dmemberships to vote along with people who attend the convention. Presumably, the idea was originally that someone who regularly came to Worldcon \u200cbut couldn\u2019t \u2063in a particular year could still support the event by purchasing a (relatively cheap) non-attending membership, and that person should\u2064 be allowed to vote.<\/p>\n
The Hugo voting in\u2062 2015 was flooded with non-attending memberships. You can see it \u2062in the number of total\u2063 votes cast. Worldcon 72 (in cosmopolitan London): 3,587, Worldcon 73\u200c (in backwater Spokane): 5,950. Insiders \u200cdidn\u2019t \u200cwant any\u200d of Correia\u2019s\u2064 candidates to win,\u200c and insiders bought\u200d enough bogus memberships to ensure it\u200d didn\u2019t happen. One result was that No Award, a previously little-used ballot option, was the winner in \u2063five categories. In five categories, confronted with a list of five eligible finalists, many preferred by hundreds of voters, the ballot-stuffers \u200bchose\u200b to give the prize to no one.<\/p>\n
Finalists for the Hugo \u200cfor Best Editor, Long \u2062Form included Anne Sowards, Toni Weisskopf, and Sheila Gilbert, all powerful and respected\u2064 women in the field. It also included Vox Day, a right-wing\u2062 provocateur who was drafting \u2062in\u2062 Correia\u2019s wake with his own slate of candidates and further muddying the waters. \u200dWeisskopf was Correia\u2019s suggested candidate. I\u2019m slightly simplifying the complicated voting process, but Weisskopf won more votes \u2062than any previous winner of the\u200c Hugo for Best Editor, Long Form at 1,216 \u2026 but\u200b \u201cNo \u200bAward\u201d won 2,496. By comparison, Ginjer Buchanan won the award in 2014 with 359\u200b votes. To prevent Vox \u200cDay from winning the Hugo, \u2064and to show Larry Correia\u2064 who \u200cwas boss, the Worldcon insiders threw the award\u200b away.<\/p>\n
I attended Worldcon 73 and was in the amphitheater when \u2063the awards were announced. I was stunned at the morons who cheered at the \u200dNo Award for Best\u200d Editor, Long Form, patting themselves on \u2064the back for snubbing three of the genre\u2019s best editors, all women, for reasons of (ironically) progressive politics and sheer cliquishness. \u200dA \u2062\u201cboo\u201d was offered in response to the\u200b No Award \u2064result and the cheer, and host\u200b David\u200d Gerrold, possibly befuddled or possibly simply in cahoots with the \u2062ballot-stuffers, admonished us\u2064 that it was not appropriate to boo.<\/p>\n
Well, I booed \u200bthen, and I boo\u2064 now. \u2063Boo \u2062on\u200b you silly people who think that science fiction \u2063and fantasy \u200bliterature is your personal plaything. Boo on you \u200cfools who think you are virtuous for\u200d shouting down and excluding those who disagree with you. Boo \u200bon you who decided to rig the voting. And\u200b boo on you, David \u200bGerrold, who went along with it, who \u200c literally handed out wooden asterisks<\/a> to finalists and participated in degrading the Hugo Awards into meaninglessness.<\/p>\n
China Games the Hugos<\/h2>\n
Fast\u2063 forward to Worldcon 81, held in 2023 in Chengdu, China. Worldcon sites are chosen by vote two\u2064 years in advance. In 2021, Worldcon \u200dwas again flooded\u200d with non-participating\u200d memberships, and \u2064Chengdu, China,\u2064 was\u200c selected as the site for Worldcon 81. It clobbered Winnipeg, 2,006 to 807. More than 1,900 of\u2063 Chengdu\u2019s\u2064 votes were from non-attending members \u2014 i.e., mail-in ballots\u2063 \u2014 \u200dand more than 1,500 of those didn\u2019t even\u200b give\u200c a street address for the \u200cputative voter. The ballot box had been stuffed again,\u200c this time\u200b to get the convention to \u2062China.<\/p>\n
Why would China want Worldcon? Danielle Ranucci of the \u200bHuman Rights Foundation has \u2062suggested that the Chinese state \u2064was behind\u2064 the ballot-stuffing and that it wanted to host Worldcon to \u201claunder its reputation, \u2064legitimize its genocide, and\u200c promote dubious research.\u201d Whatever the reason, someone in China wanted Worldcon, and they followed the playbook of the\u2062 Worldcon insiders to get it.<\/p>\n
The in-person \u2062event apparently went well, but the scandal doesn\u2019t \u200bend there: The 2023 Hugo Awards were rigged. Leaked emails and other documents reveal that the Hugo administrators for \u200bWorldcon 81 \u200cremoved from consideration authors and works they deemed not eligible for a Hugo. Eligibility turns out to have\u200c depended on suitability \u200bfor publication under \u2064Chinese censorship laws, with Hugo administrator Dave \u200bMcCarty emailing the rest of the committee to watch out for \u201cmentions of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, negatives \u2064of China.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear whether the\u200d administrators were acting at the direction \u200cof \u200dthe Chinese state or simply taking it upon themselves to act as if they were. In an interview after the committee\u2019s actions became public, McCarty maintained that he acted\u200b within the parameters of the World Science Fiction Society Constitution. If so, it was \u200ban unprecedented action.<\/p>\n
So China didn\u2019t choose who won the 2023 Hugos, but\u2063 Chinese rules determined who wouldn\u2019t be\u200c allowed to compete.<\/p>\n
Worldcon insiders have been \u2064very upset\u2062 about all of this, and I would be, too. \u2062However much they might have disliked him, Correia played fair \u2014 the insiders were the ones who bent the rules to win. They managed to defend their playhouse against\u200d Correia and his conservative insurgents,\u200b only to have China run their own plays back at them, using non-attending memberships \u200band collusion to delegitimize dissenting voices.<\/p>\n
Larry Correia\u2019s comment on the 2023 Hugos scandal \u2064was, \u201cThe\u2064 Chinese communists quietly did the same thing the American\u200c lefties did loudly. To the Chinese it wasn\u2019t personal, just business as usual. To the Worldcon woke, it was deeply personal, and \u200dthey gleefully \u200ctry to ruin\u2062 the \u200dcareer of any authors who step out of line.\u201d<\/p>\n
As icing on a very sad \u2062cake, McCarty has also now been accused on social media by at\u200c least two\u200b women of sexual \u200charassment and groping. This story is yet to finish unfolding, \u200cbut\u200d if the allegations are \u2064true, it wouldn\u2019t\u2062 be \u200dthe\u2062 first time that the freak-flag-friendly and even sometimes kinky \u200dwaters of fandom have turned out \u2062to conceal a lurking predator.<\/p>\n
Does any of this really matter? Probably not. Correia\u2019s original point stands:\u200d Worldcon\u2019s fandom is a small community, not to be confused with\u2063 science fiction readers in general. Whatever agents and editors still attend, Worldcon\u2019s \u2063fandom doesn\u2019t control access to publishing, now \u2063less\u2062 than \u200dever as indie publishing continues to explode and bookstores struggle. A writer could sell tens of thousands of books\u200d now and \u200dbe invisible to\u200c fandom.<\/p>\n
For anyone who is \u200dpaying attention, the Hugos first went woke and then \u2064bowed the knee to authoritarian China. Fandom may wish to act as the gatekeepers of science fiction and fantasy, but they\u2019ve crippled their credibility. Precious few \u200dpeople going to see \u201cDune: Part Two\u201d\u2063 this \u2062week are going to know \u200bor care where the next Worldcon will be\u200d held and what works might win Hugo Awards there. The writers deemed ineligible under Chinese censorship \u2063rules\u200d are still writing and publishing; not only are\u200c their careers not harmed, but they may have gotten \u2063some promotion out of the\u2064 experience.<\/p>\n
I hope Worldcon survives. I hope they\u2062 can find a way to reclaim their dignity and \u200bcredibility\u200d and \u200ba mission that is suitable for the community they serve. They don\u2019t police the\u200c bounds of science fiction and fantasy anymore, if they ever really\u2064 did. There are no bounds, \u200band maybe\u200b the world is\u200b better for it.<\/p>\n
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rnrn <\/p>\n
To what extent did\u2062 China’s influence impact the \u200dHugo Awards and the reputation of Worldcon<\/h2>\n
Title: Worldcon Insiders and Chinese Influence: The Scandalous Controversy \u2064Surrounding the Hugo\u2063 Awards<\/p>\n
Introduction:<\/p>\n
In a shocking\u2063 turn \u200bof events, the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon)\u2064 has once again been at the center of controversy regarding the\u2063 regulation of science fiction\u200b and \u2064fantasy literature. This time, the organization has been accused of\u2064 bending its own rules to cater \u2062to the Chinese Communist Party’s interests. This article delves into the details of \u2062the issue, highlighting the\u200d impact of\u2062 insider cliquishness and\u2063 the questionable influence of external players \u2062on the prestigious Hugo Awards.<\/p>\n
The Worldcon and Its Core Group of Participants:<\/p>\n
Worldcon is an annual convention that brings together avid fans and\u200b industry\u200d professionals, including writers, editors, and agents. With its peripatetic nature, taking place in a different city each year, Worldcon \u2064boasts a dedicated group of participants who refer to themselves as “fans” and collectively as “fandom.” \u2064Its reputation as a networking event for aspiring creatives has been a driving force behind its success over the \u200cyears.<\/p>\n
The Insider Clique and the Sad Puppies Controversy:<\/p>\n
Within Worldcon, a select group of insiders wields unusual\u200c influence, particularly in determining the\u2062 outcome of the Hugo Awards. This group consists of writers, editors, and organizers associated with prominent science fiction and \u2064fantasy publishers, and they often work collaboratively behind\u2062 the scenes. The controversy surrounding the Sad Puppies emerges from this insider\u200c clique,\u2064 where attempts were made to alter the awards to reflect the tastes of a larger \u2062community of science fiction \u200benthusiasts.<\/p>\n
Larry Correia and the \u2063Sad Puppies\u200b Slate:<\/p>\n
Fantasy and science \u2062fiction novelist Larry Correia became a central figure in the Sad Puppies conflict. Correia’s entry into\u2063 the\u200b publishing world with \u2064his novel “Monster\u200d Hunter International” led to\u200d him being a finalist\u200b for the John W. \u200bCampbell Award at Worldcon. However, he faced social snubbing and derogatory remarks from left-leaning insiders, creating a rift within the convention.<\/p>\n
Correia, dissatisfied with \u200bthe situation,\u200d put\u2063 forth a slate of \u200crecommendations \u2063for Worldcon 73, \u2064sarcastically naming \u2064them\u200b the “Sad Puppies” \u200cslate. \u200dDespite\u2062 Correia’s claims that his\u2064 nominations were based on\u2062 popularity\u2063 and talent rather than political affiliations, the slate included women, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQIA+ individuals.\u200b Correia’s \u2062move garnered support from his fans, who \u2064voted his nominees into multiple \u200dcategories for the Hugo Awards.<\/p>\n
The Rigging of the Hugo Awards:<\/p>\n
The Worldcon insiders were adamant about preventing any of Correia’s nominees from winning \u2064the \u2064awards. \u2062They resorted to manipulating the voting process, exploiting Worldcon’s provision allowing \u200dnon-attending \u2063members to vote alongside convention attendees. The\u2063 result was an influx \u2063of non-attending memberships in 2015,\u2064 leading to the Hugo \u2064Awards being \u2064withheld in multiple categories, including the esteemed Best Editor, Long \u2063Form Award.<\/p>\n
China and Worldcon 81:<\/p>\n
The next chapter in \u200dthe\u2063 Worldcon scandal unfolded\u200c at Worldcon 81, which took place in Chengdu, China. Chosen\u2064 two years in advance, the selection of Chengdu raised eyebrows due to an overwhelming \u200cnumber of non-attending memberships flooding the voting system.\u200c Suspicions were\u200d raised that the Chinese government \u2062orchestrated this ballot-stuffing to host Worldcon, potentially aiming to polish its international image and promote its narrative.<\/p>\n
Chinese Influence on the \u200cHugo Awards:<\/p>\n
Leaked emails and documents revealed that the \u2064Hugo administrators for Worldcon 81 eliminated \u2062authors and works they \u200cdeemed unsuitable for a \u2062Hugo due to potentially violating \u2064Chinese censorship laws. The revelations left \u200cmany questioning whether the administrators acted under Chinese influence or independently sought to mimic their tactics. Regardless, the actions of the administrators compromised the integrity \u200bof the\u2064 prestigious Hugo Awards.<\/p>\n
Conclusion:<\/p>\n
The recent controversies\u2063 surrounding Worldcon and the Hugo Awards have illuminated\u2063 the flaws within \u200dthe science fiction and fantasy \u200dcommunity. The insider\u2063 clique’s\u2062 manipulation of the awards and \u2062collusion with external entities have marred the perceived fairness and impartiality of the process. As \u200dthe dust settles, it is essential that\u200d measures be implemented to ensure transparency\u200d and inclusivity within \u200cthe Worldcon community, \u2063in order to preserve the integrity of \u200cthe Hugo Awards and protect the spirit of science\u2063 fiction and fantasy literature\u200c as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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