I Heart Awards
Adam Roberts is a man with a mission: total internet domination. By my count, he already has eight blogs of his own and that isn’t counting the myriad other venues where his views and reviews appear. Anyway, to further his aims he has just started a new column at Futurismic. His first column is entitled SF Awards – rubbish and it does exactly what it says on the tin (except it doesn’t, really.) As is my wont, I have already reduced this issue to its fundamentals elsewhere but perhaps I should actually say something a bit more substantive. I think awards are great for much the same reason lists are great. These are:
- They generate debate and get people talking about books
- They bring attention to work that people might not otherwise be aware of
- They always pick the wrong work and therefore provoke slapfights
- They satisfy my anal retentive urge to impose order on the universe
- They are brilliant poll fodder
Everything Is Nice 
yeah, there’s something deep in the human heart that desires ranking, voting, glory and fame. Awards provide all that and more :-)
ggw_bach
30 January 2009 at 14:35
I hate ranking, am ambivalent towards voting (although I feel it’s my national obligation – even on LJ *hehe*), and a ambivalent towards glory and fame.
I think awards are rubbish, and are also great. Slapfight that!
Peter Hollo
31 January 2009 at 05:51
I’ve only got eight blogs if you count the courseblogs I run for the specific university courses I teach. And surely we don’t need to count those. Take them out of the equation and I’ve only got five. That’s a much more reasonable number.
Peter H. has it right: the Futurismic piece should really have been called ‘SF Awards — Rubbish and Good’. But that lacks punch, as a title.
Otherwise, I’d say your bullet points (2) and (3) together recapitulate point (1); and that the idea of running all these awards to impose order contradicts the urge to provoke slapfights. But apart from that I agree with everything you say.
Adam Roberts
31 January 2009 at 15:43
I’ve only got eight blogs if you count the courseblogs I run for the specific university courses
I didn’t know about those ones. You’ve tipped your hand!
‘SF Awards — Rubbish and Good’ is exactly what I got from your piece. I would go for ‘SF Awards — Wrong and Good’ myself.
Martin
2 February 2009 at 12:55
‘Wrong and Good’ might well be a better title.
Adam Roberts
2 February 2009 at 16:59