Sunday, August 30, 2015

Hear the Drums

Have you run across articles like this one for RealClearPolitics about the teapot tempest concerning the Hugo Awards? The Hugos are the Oscar-type awards for science fiction, fan-driven in large part.

The basic battle is between SJWs who require science fiction and fantasy to advance a "progressive" agenda and those who find this tiresome and want sci fi to be good stories about specuative ideas, even if the protagonists in them (or the stories' authors) might be straight or white or male or even, God forbid, all three.

The solution to this dilemma can be found in what has happened in web-based political commentary, two micro-universes now exist in which conservatives write for a conservative audience, and progressives write for a progressive audience.

I see no reason, given the lack of cost constraints in the on-line environment, why this bifurcation cannot occur for sci fi authors and fandom. Very likely, it is what will happen, downstream. Sci fi fans, pick your drummer and march to him (or her or it ... whatever).