Sandman Creator Neil Gaiman Outraged At Chengdu Worldcon Hugo Award Ineligibility Debacle
By Jon Del Arroz
Worldcon 2023 in Chengtu, China, is embroiled in yet another controversy over the Hugo Awards, with several authors and works getting removed from their balloting under the pretext of being “ineligible” by the local convention committee. This includes a Sandman episode of the show adapted from Neil Gaiman’s comic, which has made the author launch at the convention committee on Facebook. Another work, written by an Asian woman, was replaced by a novella by woke activist John Scalzi to further uproar.
The World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, has been no stranger to controversy over its lifetime. Rumors of child abuse and “groom rooms” at the convention have been circulating for decades after Walter Breen was banned from a convention following his conviction. In 2018, authors like Patrick S. Tomlinson took charge to counter-protest against an anti-pedophilia group outside.
But no controversy has struck Worldcon and the Hugo Awards like the Sad Puppies incident, where Larry Correia unsuccessfully banded several authors together to try to win Correia an award. Several woke activists involved in the convention then branded those supporting Correia as “Nazis.” Eventually, the Sad Puppies was usurped by The Rabid Puppies, led by Vox Day, which triumphed by destroying the credibility of Worldcon’s awards forever, showing that it’s a rigged farce of identity politics.
Now, with several works being declared ineligible by the Chinese committee, Worldcon finds itself embroiled in new controversy with polyamory fetishist Neil Gaiman questioning why an episode of Sandman is no longer eligible.
Neil Gaiman wrote to Facebook, “Is there anyone who could actually explain WHY Sandman episode 6 was ineligible? I don’t recall any politics in the episode. It was “SF or Fantasy” and had not been previously released. And if Sandman 6 was ineligible then why didn’t that reinstate Sandman as a whole series, given that it was ineligible as there were too many individual episodes.”
A convention representative replied, “It was a judgment call on my part whether to list both the same way or note that per the WSFS [Worldcon] constitution, only one could be considered. I thought it more appropriate to do it the way it appears. The only statement from the administration team that I can share I already have, after we reviewed the constitution and rules we must follow, we determined the work was not eligible.”
Neil Gaiman further replied, stating it makes the entire Hugo Award voting process “appear illegitimate,” not seeming to recall how Worldcon already changed its rules in 2017 just to force out people they didn’t like getting award nominations.
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After another interchange, Neil Gaiman bragged about his Hugo Award wins, claiming the Sad Puppies process was “transparent” in rigging the awards. However, he called this “obfuscatory” now that his work was removed via perceived rigging. The post implied the current Hugo Award process is unfair, with Worldcon to blame.
Other than Neil Gaiman, author R.F. Kuang had her "Babel" removed, and what transpired was even more head-scratching as Chengdu Worldcon moved to place a novella by John Scalzi on the ballot instead. An uproar of the woke occurred, pointing out that it’s ridiculous an Asian woman was removed for a white man.
Prometheus Award winner, Travis J.I. Corcoran, better known as Morlock online, found the situation amusing. “an Asian woman was kicked off the Hugo ballot, and Scalzi ends up filling the open slot. God has a supreme sense of humor,” he tweeted.
With Neil Gaiman riling up the establishment against Worldcon and their Hugo Award process, convention volunteers scramble to devise a solution to appease the mob they created. Ironically, several of these authors were wholly for blacklisting authors like Vox Day from awards nominations, but now that it’s come to their political team, they’re outraged.
What do you think of the Worldcon Hugo Award Controversy and Neil Gaiman’s whining? Leave a comment and let us know.
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