This came across the transom and via various email strings…
The Campbell award is no more. First, the winner this year did this…
Author Jeannette Ng labeled the late sci-fi author John W. Campbell as a “fascist” during her acceptance speech after winning the award bearing his name at the 2019 Hugo Awards ceremony.
Article, HERE.
And less than a week later, we have this…
As we move into Analog’s 90th anniversary year, our goal is to keep the award as vital and distinguished as ever, so after much consideration, we have decided to change the award’s name to The Astounding Award for Best New Writer.
Full article, HERE.
And in doing some digging around, I found that there is more than one Campbell award! HERE. I’ve got to say I honestly never knew KU had a center for the study of science fiction. Learn something new every day!
And speaking of judges, Wiley’s cartoon for today is just TOO perfect not to share. Mr. Wiley nails it, as usual!
The Gunn Center at the University of Kansas is named after James Gunn who founded it. Gunn was a long time professor of English at the school as well as a highly regarded author of science fiction. Now 96, he’s still with us and likely disgusted by the renaming of the award to the Astounding Award. Campbell never liked that and that’s why he renamed the magazine Analog. One of the best parts of the magazine was Campbell’s editorial page, and readers often read that first. Sometimes his topics were controversial. His objective was to get readers to think. Was he a “fascist”? I very much doubt it. Most on the left these days use it simply as a synonym for “someone I disagree with.”
I posted there: “Campbell liked to challenge people to think. Astounding/Analog flees from challenge to vacuous virtue signaling. The last gasp of a dead publication. RIP”
Political correctness is just another form of bigotry, IMO.
Jim- Thanks for the info, I didn’t know that!
SPQR- Good point…
WSF- Agreed!
If you’d like to sample Campbell’s editorial style, here’s a link two editorials along with an introduction.
http://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625793171/9781625793171___8.htm
Campbell was also well regarded as a writer of fiction. His best known story was one entitled Who Goes There written under the pen name Don A. Stuart. Campbell was new to editing at Astounding at the time and wanted to demonstrate the type of stories he wanted. The story was later adapted by Hollywood The Thing. If you’d care to read it, here’s a link.
http://www.goldenageofscifi.info/ebook/Who_Goes_There.pdf
So now they are going after little statues. Isn’t this what President Trump warned would happen.
And, last time I checked, it was the real fascists and socialists-national and international, that loved to destroy history in order to rewrite it.
‘John Cambell was a fascist.’ No. He wasn’t. He was a man of astoundingly wide views, who in a previous time would have been one of those fellows who argues all sides of a subject at the local pub. Because he was smart and reasonably well educated.
Well, the Hugo Awards have been dead to me for a while. Used to be I’d look for a Hugo Award book to read. Now when I see a Hugo Award book I back away, and usually grab something from Baen…
Stupid fascists, ruining everything good.
Jim- Point!
Beans- Yeah, no longer the ‘go to’, more like the ‘run away from’… sigh
‘Hugo Award Winner’ has become an anti-version of ‘Banned in Boston.’
And now I just dated myself, in a non-Californian way…
Beans- That you did… LOL
Great cartoon
Umm, I won’t dispute that it is an amusing cartoon.
It does display an ignorance about the purpose of a jury though.
The whole trial-by-jury-of-peers system is supposed to be about the facts of the case, and whether the prosecution has proven that the defendant committed the crime. Most definitely it is NOT meant to be about the character of the defendant.
Leaving aside the issue of jury nullification related to the implementation and application of the law, the jury component of the legal/justice system (yes, I know they aren’t the same thing) is based on:
– do the facts allow that he could have done it?
– did the prosecution prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he did it?
– were there exonerating/extenuating circumstances that justified doing it?
I would hate to be tried on character – most people think I’m an a**hole.
I have subscribed to Astounding/Analog since the late ’50s. I’ve subscribed to Azimov’s for my son, and we exchange issues. I find Azimov’s to be less interesting, but then my latest Analog isn’t as interesting as it was.
Looks like awards are given out by the WorldCon award selectors. For the like-minded in-group.
Rick- Isn’t it 🙂
Sam- Agreed!
I had a subscription to Analog for years and years but finally dropped it when the stories stopped being interesting. That was also the era when only stories published in Asimovs would win awards..
Sad Puppies shone the bright lights on how Worldcon award voting was/is rigged, now I read from Baen’s output or specific authors like Our Host.