The Rediscovery of Fan [Writer]

[kevin_standlee]

John Scalzi has been thinking about the Fan Writer Hugo Award on his blog. Other people have been discussing it. pnh has made some excellent points, and other people have, in my opinion, completely missed the point of what the Award is intended to reward.

I found it especially amusing to read "I would actually hate to see a published writer of commercial SF/F fiction win a Hugo for fan writing." Followed shortly by Patrick pointing out "...this has happened over two dozen times. Nor were all of those Hugos to Dave Langford."

Some of them sure seem to think there is a bright-line definition between "pro" and "fan" and that one can't possibly be both at the same time. This isn't true. It's sort of sad that there are so many people (both pros and fans) who think it is.

Edit, 22:10: Changed subject line when I realized what I'd overlooked in the title.

Comments

[bovil.livejournal.com]

These days, the Langford Effect in fan categories is kind of like the Whelan Effect in art categories.

There were a lot of people who voted Whelan because they recognized his name in an era when other professional artists weren't as well known. That's not saying he didn't produce some really great art, but I remember a complaint that at least one year he won he hadn't published any new work in professional publications.

There are a lot of fans who aren't into fanwriting, but they recognize Langford's name and vote for him because they don't recognize any of the other candidates (that's not to say he's not a great fanwriter).

I think if there is anything to tweak about the fanwriter category rules, perhaps it should be to qualify fanwriting as writing about speculative fiction and/or fandom, rather than to define it by the venue in which it's published.

Of course, I can see filkers and fanfic writers fighting that tooth and nail (if they showed for the business meeting).