Dragon Awards 2019: AAR

I waited a couple of days to do this so I could get a read on the post-Dragon Award reactions to Sunday’s winners being announced.

To no one’s surprise, the usual suspects have been in full “REEEEEEEEEEEE” mode ever since. So much so that they do two things: Expose their hypocrisy and prove once again that the Sad Puppies won the debate that night in 2015 in Washington State at WorldCon when the Hugos basically committed seppuku.

Our good friend, the Great Lady Cora Butthurt – canonized in the Divine Trolls Comedies – led the charge. You see, the Dragon Awards are misogynist. Wymen can’t win. Don’t bother telling her that women have won at the Dragon Awards over its four-year history. Her “truth” trumps your facts, you racist, sexist, ableist, etc, etc.

She took her vile hatred a step further by attacking the race of one of the winners, Larry Correia (Best Fantasy Novel) by claiming he’s actually a white man who “identifies as Latino.”

Honey, Larry doesn’t just “identify”, he is 100% Latino by birth, by heritage and by his life. He was born near Merced, California – about 30 miles south of where I was born and grew up – and worked on his family’s dairy as he grew up. Go to Merced – hell, anywhere in the Central Valley – and tell people the Correias are “white people” and you’ll get laughed at so hard every single one of your ancestors will leap from their graves and commit seppuku out of shame.

Frau Butthurt, she hails from Germany (yes, a country with such a great record of race relations that only tried to gas an entire race into extinction) is a man-hater. That much can be seen from her blog posts. She cheers the Hugos and Nebulas on as they go full sexist and to an extent racist if the man being targeted is white. She would be delighted if every category of those two awards were women-only nominees every year from now on.

Then, of course, we have our good friend, the Australian Asshat. (Nope, Cam, I won’t use your fake name again).

On his blog there is a post – and I would not be surprised to learn he posted it under another fake screen name to make it look like people actually go to his blog – claiming the Dragon Awards are sexist and they have the numbers to prove it!

You see, the top two awards (I feel all of the categories are equally special, but they have to segregate two of them to justify their hate) have gone to – GASP! – men “10 times out of 10”.

Pause here for a second. The claim is 10 times out of 10 the Best SciFi and Best Novel Awards have gone to men at the Dragon Awards.

10.

In two categories each year.

In four years.

Do the math. 2 awards per year for 4 years = 10? Maybe if you are using Common Core math. In the real world, it doesn’t work, does it?

Yes, in each of the four years, a male writer has won both the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novel awards. But that isn’t the desired result programmed into the award, unlike the Hugos and Nebulas. It just worked out that way.

UPDATE: (8/3/2019 2:12 PDT) The aformentioned dodo brain has backtracked and is now claiming he meant that 10 men have won all of the Dragon Awards in the top two categories over the four years. Sure. Because no one would ever think that saying 10 out of 10 meant 10 separate awards were won by 10 separate men, right? Look, pal, you either bungled the math or you tried to inflate the numbers to make it look even worse. Either way, you got caught. Just own up to it and move on.

By the way, the Hugos combine Sci-FI and Fantasy into one award for Best Novel. Out of ALL of the writers in those two genres, a female writer has won the award in each of the last four years. Including one writer winning three straight years.

I think that is more statistically improbable than the Dragons’ results. At least, without the vote being influenced, which we know is the case with those other two awards.

How do I know? Look at the history of those awards. They are exclusive, closed to outsiders unless a poll tax is paid to participate. The Nebulas require membership into the SFWA, a hefty sum that also requires an applicant to survive a strict set of qualifications. These are designed to filter out all but those desired to be a member and thus ensure the status quo remains in place. There are also allegations of publishers and major authors buying memberships for people to go and vote for their benefactor.

The Hugos? A membership is also required and the minimum amount to get to nominate and vote is $50. Oh, and if you are voting for a *wrongthinker* the Hugos have a firewall called No Award. This club was used in 2015, which helped keep the award from going to the *wrongwriter*. It also helped show to the whole SF/F world that what the Sad Puppies had been saying all along was absolutely true.

I mentioned the phrase “poll tax” earlier. That’s exactly what it is. The old Jim Crow Poll Tax designed to keep a certain group from being able to participate. And it has worked. Voting numbers for both awards are down. Funny, how the folks claiming to be “inclusive” act like the racist, sexist, bigots they falsely claim others are.

The Dragon Awards? Absolutely free, to nominate and to vote for the finalists. While the Hugos drew a paltry 1,800 nominations and less than 3,100 votes for the finalists, the Dragon Awards are reported to have exceeded 10,000 votes last year and I’m willing to bet had even more this year.

SF/F readers would much rather spend their $50, $100 or more on books and other memorabilia than waste it voting for an award run by people that despise them.

So, to wrap it up for this year, long live the Dragon Awards. They are, and may they forever be, the premier award in all of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Congratulations to all of the winners over the first four years. And well done to all of the finalists from all four years as well. We are all of us in good company.

And, more importantly, thank you to all of the readers and fans who purchase our works and vote in the Dragon Awards.

In the final analysis, it is all of you who are the true winners today.

*     *     *     *     *

Like what you’ve read so far? Be sure and sign up for Richard’s newsletter, “Postcards From Infinity“, and if you’d like to become a patron you can do so right here. Any amount you choose will be appreciated and will help keep this blog, these weekly serials and Richard’s podcast, “A Scribe’s Journey” up and running. Thank you for reading and for your support.