Sometimes, when you speak up, things happen

[beatrice_otter]

Remember how two weeks ago at Worldcon, Jeanette Ng won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer and, in her acceptance speech, pointed out that Campbell was a fascist?  She's not the first to point out what a shitty human being he was in so many ways, and I hope she won't be the last, since discussing his influence on the genre and how much fascism, racism, sexism, ableism, and every other sort of ableism is baked into our bones is an important step.  But she was a crucial voice at a crucial time.

Dell Magaines, which sponsors the award (it is not a Hugo, although it is administered by the same people as the Hugos and voted on by the same people) just announced today that henceforth the award shall be known as the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (named after the magazine, and not the man who edited it).

Good on them, and thank you Jeanette Ng for being willing to speak up.

I hope this will refocus discussion from the name of the award, to the bigotry and authoritarianism that shaped the genre's bones.  Jeanette Ng has a lovely Twitter thread on this which you should all go read.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Nice! Go Dell! I really expected that this would be a long, drawn-out battle after Ng's excellent speech, so I am impressed by how quick and painless this was.

[beatrice_otter]

Someone suggested somewhere that given how quick the announcement was, it might have been something already under consideration, and the recipient of the award getting a standing ovation for saying "John Campbell was a fucking fascist" tipped the scale.

[dewline]

A pleasant surprise to see that remedied as quickly as that.

[beatrice_otter]

Indeed! Although as Ng herself pointed out, this is not the first time people have pointed out just how awful Campbell was; this isn't an out of nowhere "guess we'll change it now!" She was the straw that broke the camel's back. "Quick remedy" depends on if you count from the time of her saying it and getting a standing ovation for doing so, or all the previous people who have raised the issue and gotten shouted down or drowned out with "well, actually ..."

[kickair8p]

❤

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