other Hugo business opinions
Aug. 20th, 2018 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraReferring here to the Hugo Study Committee Report - these are (as I understand it) proposals that are "out there" for consideration but have not yet made it as far as the formal agenda item/amendment phases.
There's a proposal for a Best Translated category. I really dislike this, as a first reaction - right now works in translation are nominated to the appropriate length categories, and I think that's where they belong, competing as equals and not sequestered off to a less-prestigious category. I hear the argument that a special category would help welcome and recognize international and marginalized fans and creators, but I think the "ghettoization" risk outweighs that. Like, it clearly would not have been better for international sff fandom for Three-Body Problem to win some special Translated Work Hugo instead of the big one, that was such a powerful moment for internationality. Also if the Hugo is meant to honor *the work of translators*, I don't feel remotely qualified as a voter to say whether something was "a good translation" as opposed to a good story. To me that feels more appropriate for some kind of professional society/peer award, or maybe a juried award.
There's a proposal to reorganize/replace Semipro and the two Editor categories with Magazine, Anthology/Collection, and Publisher/Imprint. In contrast my kneejerk reaction here is that it's terrific and they should totally do it. Semipro and Short Editor are, although not entirely, significantly redundant; the "four installments" requirement for Short Editors means that I can't nominate the editors of outstanding one-off anthologies (I mean, I keep trying to, but I think they're not actually qualified); and I don't nominate for Long Editor despite reading plenty of novels because there's no easy/straightforward way to figure out the name of the person who edited any given work, unless I guess they happen to be thanked by name in acknowledgments which I happened to read and write this information down, which has never all happened so far but theoretically could. Anyways, the proposal to turn this into Magazine/Anthology/Imprint would solve all of these problems (publisher, unlike editor, is right there in the Goodreads header) and seems so clearly superior to the current state of affairs that I suspect there's some major catch I haven't noticed yet. Possibly Tradition but we've only been doing this Long and Short editor business since 2007, and Semipro since 1984 but honestly the magazine world is so different now (and also evolving) that it feels overdue to me for an overhaul. I don't really see it happening though, I don't think there's enough unhappiness with the current situation to drive it.
There's a discussion re monkeying with the Dramatic categories. I definitely have some horses in this race, a, I like to watch and vote for Movies but am uninterested (or, well, more accurately, logistically unwilling) to watch Serieses, and b, Clipping is the most interesting thing to happen to the Dramatic Hugos in ages and I don't want to see the categories codified in a "TV vs Movies" split such that albums/radio/theater end up out in the cold. I see how there are frustrations in various directions with the current situation but the tentative proposal here, to add two more categories, such that there would be Short, Episodes, Long, and Serieses, doesn't really feel coherent to me, and it's too many dang categories.
There was a proposal to split Best Novel into Fantasy and Science Fiction, which is a terrible idea and fortunately seems to have been decisively shot down, thank you Hugo Committee.
There's a proposal for a Best Translated category. I really dislike this, as a first reaction - right now works in translation are nominated to the appropriate length categories, and I think that's where they belong, competing as equals and not sequestered off to a less-prestigious category. I hear the argument that a special category would help welcome and recognize international and marginalized fans and creators, but I think the "ghettoization" risk outweighs that. Like, it clearly would not have been better for international sff fandom for Three-Body Problem to win some special Translated Work Hugo instead of the big one, that was such a powerful moment for internationality. Also if the Hugo is meant to honor *the work of translators*, I don't feel remotely qualified as a voter to say whether something was "a good translation" as opposed to a good story. To me that feels more appropriate for some kind of professional society/peer award, or maybe a juried award.
There's a proposal to reorganize/replace Semipro and the two Editor categories with Magazine, Anthology/Collection, and Publisher/Imprint. In contrast my kneejerk reaction here is that it's terrific and they should totally do it. Semipro and Short Editor are, although not entirely, significantly redundant; the "four installments" requirement for Short Editors means that I can't nominate the editors of outstanding one-off anthologies (I mean, I keep trying to, but I think they're not actually qualified); and I don't nominate for Long Editor despite reading plenty of novels because there's no easy/straightforward way to figure out the name of the person who edited any given work, unless I guess they happen to be thanked by name in acknowledgments which I happened to read and write this information down, which has never all happened so far but theoretically could. Anyways, the proposal to turn this into Magazine/Anthology/Imprint would solve all of these problems (publisher, unlike editor, is right there in the Goodreads header) and seems so clearly superior to the current state of affairs that I suspect there's some major catch I haven't noticed yet. Possibly Tradition but we've only been doing this Long and Short editor business since 2007, and Semipro since 1984 but honestly the magazine world is so different now (and also evolving) that it feels overdue to me for an overhaul. I don't really see it happening though, I don't think there's enough unhappiness with the current situation to drive it.
There's a discussion re monkeying with the Dramatic categories. I definitely have some horses in this race, a, I like to watch and vote for Movies but am uninterested (or, well, more accurately, logistically unwilling) to watch Serieses, and b, Clipping is the most interesting thing to happen to the Dramatic Hugos in ages and I don't want to see the categories codified in a "TV vs Movies" split such that albums/radio/theater end up out in the cold. I see how there are frustrations in various directions with the current situation but the tentative proposal here, to add two more categories, such that there would be Short, Episodes, Long, and Serieses, doesn't really feel coherent to me, and it's too many dang categories.
There was a proposal to split Best Novel into Fantasy and Science Fiction, which is a terrible idea and fortunately seems to have been decisively shot down, thank you Hugo Committee.
