Should the World Fantasy Award be Changed?

[Ran]

I agree that if the WFC organization decides it needs to change, it shouldn't be a person at all, otherwise you run the risk of having to go through this again down the line. It's a shame, but that's how it is.

[mormont]

mormont,

That you or I don't know or don't understand doesn't mean that they were not widely known and understood at the time, or that those who have been active participants in the convention across its history aren't aware.

I've no doubt that they were understood at the time: if there was a reason, people must have understood it, after all! And as you say, it's not ancient history or anything.

My point is that the association, wherever it came from, simply hasn't stuck as the award has gone on. And that's not just about you or me: if you read around the discussion, lots of people involved in this discussion, on both sides, including people who've actually won the award, were unclear on the reasons for the association also.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - the intentions of the founders don't change the facts of the case. They may have meant for the award to be deeply and intrinsically linked with HPL in the public mind. But it isn't.

It seems to me, also, that the founders had in mind a largely different kind of 'fantasy' than the stories to which the award is regularly given these days. Which I mention merely to highlight the point: things change.

I get where you're coming from: you're of a mind that there should be a justification for change. My feeling is, though, that nobody has really yet made a case for what would be lost from the award by a change. What is it that the caricature of HPL actually brings to the award? A link to its origins? That's not nothing, I guess, but it seems like those origins aren't terribly relevant to what the award is now.

At least, that's my impression. For what it's worth, which may not be much. :)

[Zorral]

Besides, that WFA hunk of whatever is one of the UGLIEST things ever designed. UGLY. Grossly ugly. Which was deliberate to evoke the stuff Lovecraft wrote?

[Ran]

I think it's quite eerie and disquieting, which I think was quite deliberate. In The First World Fantasy Awards, when Wilson's suggestion of Lovecraft is accepted, he remarks that he was of course familiar with Lovecraft's appearance but he went on to "study once again that lean and kindly, yet sinister cranial appendage."

[Darke]

The World Fantasy Award was conceived as an award to honor the fields of fantasy and horror, not science fiction. There are several very good posts by the Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi on his blog on this subject. Joshi is a polarizing figure, but he does a pretty good job knocking down the arguments that the award should be changed because of Lovecraft's racism. Joshi is an Indian-American and a pretty hardcore liberal Democrat as well.

He also has one of the most vicious insults I've ever read at the end of his blog post. Whether it is out of bounds or not, I'll let others decide.

http://www.stjoshi.org/news.html

August 23, 2014

It would appear that the satirical screed that constituted my last blog failed lamentably of its prime purpose. That is to say, its intended target—the esteemed Daniel José Older, who had proposed to replace the World Fantasy Award [WFA] bust of H. P. Lovecraft with that of Octavia Butler—did not fully recognise that my document was indeed a satire. I am reminded of Mr. Jonathan Swift, whose satirical pamphlet A Modest Proposal (1729), which wryly advocated that economically oppressed Irish people send their children to be eaten by wealthy folk was taken seriously by a number of those who read it. Alas, what is a satirist to do when such a flop occurs? Who is at fault—the satirist for being too subtle, or the reader for being too thick-witted? This is a delicate issue; but whatever the case, I shall do my best to wipe the smirk off my face and deal with Mr. Older’s latest riposte [http://ghoststar.net/blog/on-butler-and-lovecraft] with the seriousness and gravity it deserves.

[Night's_King]

Although I have some problems with the tone in which the post is written (since I would consider myself a rather polite person), but I can understand how people can get worked up, when a no-one (who has a book forthcoming) critizes the bust.

Miéville has proven many times that he is a clown, so I have no problems with the insults adressed at him.

And I think this shows, why the bust doesn't need changing.

[Myshkin]

There is so much wrong with that post that it's hard to know where to start.

[Darth Richard II]

There is so much wrong with that post that it's hard to know where to start.

I prefer publication order whenever possible. :P

[Larry.]

There is so much wrong with that post that it's hard to know where to start.

Which one? Both of them are ridiculous in their own way, although I'm more sympathetic to the calls for a change. Just not to another writer, especially one who has much less involvement in fantasy/horror. Too bad the Shirley Jackson Awards exist already, as the stones they give to the winners would have been perfect for a replacement, in that they would be recognizable and not represent a person, but instead a powerful story.

[Myshkin]

Which one? Both of them are ridiculous in their own way, although I'm more sympathetic to the calls for a change. Just not to another writer, especially one who has much less involvement in fantasy/horror. Too bad the Shirley Jackson Awards exist already, as the stones they give to the winners would have been perfect for a replacement, in that they would be recognizable and not represent a person, but instead a powerful story.

The Joshi one. I admit to not reading the Jose Older one, but regardless of what it contains Joshi's rebuttal is hugely flawed.

[Larry.]

Indeed it is. The Older petition I think has some grandstanding elements to it, but Joshi's response is beyond the pale.