worldcon – Moe Lane

This mess was eminently avoidable, starting with the no-brainer of not hosting the Hugos in a totalitarian, repressive state like the People’s Republic of China:

The 2023 Hugos were mired in controversy from the beginning. It started with a pall being cast over Chengdu’s decisive site selection win over Toronto coming with accusations of ballot stuffing, something that plenty of authors had ideas about…

…Controversy was ignited anew with this week’s long-delayed release of the full nomination statistics. Science fiction and fantasy fans from in both East and West are up in arms over several candidacies being listed as “ineligible” without explanation, and fear for the reputational damage done to the region and Eastern fandom as a result.

I was already disgusted, but not particularly surprised, that they decided to hold WorldCon in the totalitarian regime known as the People’s Republic of China. I am not that surprised that they chose Liu Cixin for a GoH: if you’re going to curry favor with slavemongers, then by all means ‘honor’ an apologist for (and facilitator of) slavery. I am only mildly surprised that Sergi Lukyanenko’s defense of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (and dislike of that country’s very existence) did not have more pushback. A lot of the people involved aren’t used to putting any real weight on their principles, you dig?

But I expected just a little bit better of Robert Sawyer. Although, on reflection: I’m not entirely certain why. Cultural chauvinism, I suppose. Besides, he’s old enough to remember the Cold War, which means he should know better than to do [expletive deleted] like this.

Tag: worldcon

I’m never getting a Hugo. The Chengdu Worldcon reminds me why I’m okay with that.

This year’s WorldCon Guests of Honor are appalling.