I Give Up

The saga of the Sad Puppies continues over at Torgersen's place. They remain convinced that they are being picked on. In part, this is a "perception is reality" kind of thing. If you think you're being picked on, anything less than getting handed All The Awards (in this case) is proof of the picking-on-ness. (Yeah, just made a word there. If it's good enough for Bill Shakespeare, it's good enough for me.)

I mentioned in a previous round of this game the obscure Hugo winner Way Station. The more I think of it, the more I see the relationship. Way Station was published in 1963, but if you'd handed it to me and asked me to guess, I'd have picked no later than mid-1950s. What I suspect happened in '64 is a bunch of old fans decided to award one of their own, recognizing, at least implicitly, that science fiction was moving on.

Sad Puppies is a throwback to that effort. Science fiction, at least the kind that wins awards, has moved on. Sad Puppies is trying to pull it back.