The 2008 Hugos, part II (response to comments)

Wow! I've apparently attracted some attention with my Hugo post. Check out the comments on the previous post.

First, Mary Robinette Kowel has bunches of free fiction online here. Also, catching up a little on her blog after posting my Hugo rundown, I see she just sold a story to Subterranean Press. I, too, love Subterranean Press. Their books are treasures, both because they tend to choose wonderful stories and because they print and bind them with top notch materials and include the most beautiful art work. A Sub Press book is a tactile and visual pleasure as well as a good read. I'm looking forward to reading both Mary's online work and her Sub Press work. (Wow, a Hugo winner commented on my blog! That is so cool!)

I also got a comment from Nadine. I'm not sure who she is, but it sounds like she either knows Michael Chabon professionally or she's a knowledgeable fan. She indirectly pointed out that my rant was a bit harsh. She's right. I'm not sore about Michael Chabon, in particular, publishing SF under a mainstream imprint. To be quite honest The Yiddish Policeman's Union caught my eye even before it landed on the Hugo nominations list. I haven't read it yet simply because I'm a somewhat slow reader (especially during bicycling season) and my to-be-read pile is taking over my house.

Here's the problem: I can't decide if it's in the best interest of the science-fiction/fantasy community to hand a Hugo to a book printed under a mainstream imprint. On the one hand, the Hugo is and always has been a genre award. Is it a good idea to award Hugos to books that aren't publicly considered SF when there's so much excellent SF out there? On the other hand, this sort of thing might attract new readers and writers to the genre. By poking our heads out in the mainstream world and saying "hey, that mainstream novel is actually SF and we really liked it," we might make the literary world aware that a great deal of SF is literary, relevant, well written, accessible, diverse, and worth reading.

Did we award a non-SF work an SF award? Or did we recognize an outstanding SF story wrapped in a mainstream package?

Nadine's comments about alternate history are worth addressing here also. Alternate history has been a popular SF element for quite some time. PK Dick's The Man in the High Castle comes instantly to mind and is probably the most classic strait up example. Mary Gentle's Book of Ash series includes some fantasy elements as well as alternate history. The Axis of Time series by John Birmingham is a recently popular SF alternate history of WWII. I haven't read any Harry Turtledove, but he's known for writing fantasy alternate histories. I've read a ton of Tim Powers. Much of his stuff is considered secret history which I would consider the fraternal twin to alternate history.

I'm not particularly well read when it comes to modern mainstream fiction. If alternate history actually is a fairly common mainstream element, I'm not aware of it. Also, if the alternate history element in The Yiddish Policeman's Union doesn't make it SF, what does? Because if there's no science fiction or fantasy elements, it may very well be an excellent novel, but it shouldn't have been eligible for a Hugo. I don't care how amazing a book is, I think we want to exercise some care about what we set out there as the best sci-fi/fantasy novel of a given year. Anyhow, I'd better go read it before I get myself into any more trouble here.

To be perfectly honest, most of the angst in my rant comes from my brief experience with McCarthy's The Road. You see, when The Road first hit the shelves I was told I must go read this book. "It's SF, you'll love it," I was told. Oprah had just endorsed the book. Oprah's endorsement tends to be the mark of the beast in my mind. I just plain don't like the same books Oprah likes. The novels she endorses tend to be chock full of loneliness, misery, and woe. The Road is no exception. I stood in the middle of the bookstore and popped that book open to the middle (as I often do when I want to sample the flavor of a book) and started reading. I barely got through two pages before realizing that if I didn't set it down right away I was going to send it flying into into the far wall of the store. If mainstream readers think this is a good example of sci-fi... oh sweet lord save us my genre is doomed.

Look, Oprah, if you want to read loneliness, misery, and woe, go ahead, read The Road. If you want to read a well written, literary, post apocalyptic novel go check the SF shelves for A Canticle for Leibowitz by Miller. That's my favorite of the many post apocalyptic novels I've read. The post apocalypse is a super popular old school SF theme. It's been done a zillion times. Don't go thinking The Road is something new and different, because as far as I can tell, it's a miserable example of a well worn theme. It just got stacked on a different shelf.

So my angst about The Road got mixed up with my mixed feelings and reservations about handing a Hugo to a main stream novel that is of unclear sf-ness.

Directly, I apologize for calling Chabon a jerk. That was totally out of line. I'm sorry. I'm sure he's a very nice person and I'm impressed to learn from Nadine that he's a member of the SFWA. Also I don't find any fault with his inability to attend WorldCon. I'm even fairly sure I'll like his book when I read it. While I remain skeptical, I promise to withhold final judgment regarding the book's Hugo worthiness until after I've read it. It's now firmly on my winter reading list and I plan to report back here.