“And when the three puppy astronauts — Ray, Isaac, and Frank — observed the lay of the alien land on Hugo World, they let out a forlorn howl. For they saw nothing but tedious ‘message’ fiction, depressing talk-talk stories about amoral people with severe ennui, and literary MFA novels. Not a rocketship nor a ray gun in sight. ‘Can someone please give us some explosions?’ the puppies cried in unison. ‘I mean, we were promised explosions! And kick-ass laser battles! And all we got were some lousy t-shirts that said, This is what a feminist looks like! We don’t want that stupid crap! We came to have fun! At least give us loud bowling shirts with babes on them; like the one that comet guy wore!'”
Yes, friends, the time is near — for you to put your money where your instinct for rambunctious irreverence is. January 31 is your final day to register as a member of Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention. Of course, you don’t have to be a Sasquan member to participate in the Hugo award voting and nominations. You can also be a member of either Loncon 3 (last year’s Worldcon) or MidAmeriCon II (next year’s Worldcon.) If you have a membership for any of these, you’re good to go for the Hugo nomination period. Otherwise, if you’re new to SAD PUPPIES and you want to join the pack effort, sign up for Sasquan now! It’s your chance (as a science fiction or fantasy fan, of any type, any style, any age, or any interest) to make your voice heard — to put some genuine prestige back into SF/F’s self-branded “most prestigious science fiction award.”
As noted in earlier SAD PUPPIES 3 posts, the point of the PUPPIES campaign 2015 is to try to get both people and works onto the ballot who are both a) wholly deserving and b) unlikely to ever be there, due to Worldcon’s ever-skewing and ever-more-politicized voting trends. There is also c) the push to expand the Hugos to include SF/F gaming in one or more categories — a project that will take multiple Worldcons to effect.
So, please don’t hesitate. The door slams shut at midnight in eleven days. And if you don’t have the cash for a full membership, no worries. Supporting memberships cost less, and are just as valid at the ballot box. So add your voice to the din, and help combat puppy sadness! This is YOUR genre and YOUR award. Not the trophy of a secluded club. Yours. The tie-in novel fan, the gamer, the anime enthusiast, Star Wars and Star Trek fans, Marvel comics (and comics movies) fans, and so forth. EVERYBODY deserves a seat at the table, and a chance to be heard.
(NOTE: the PUPPIES 3 campaign patch was generously and wonderfully created by Lee “Artracoon” Madison!)
Brad R. Torgersen 
Reblogged this on The Worlds of Tarien Cole and commented:
It’s that time! We, the happy warriors, begin our Evil March of Evil once again.
Reblogged this on Cedar Writes and commented:
Looking for fun science fiction and fantasy that is enjoyable to read? Add your vote to the Hugos, and let’s make the award great and meaningful again!
Now. THAT is a logo that makes me smile. Gonna sell tee shirts? I would buy one.
And your appeal is well-written and cogent. Thank you for stating your case with class and humor.
In agreement with “twilaprice” – please make tee shirts!
For Sad Puppies 4, I suggest adding a pug puppy (puglet).
The SJWs are going to bitch (see what I did there) that none of the puppies are obviously LBGT, transsexual, feminist, neo-sexual, or progressive.
EVIL
Dear rhinorog,
Who can tell with puppies? In spacesuits? They could be intersexual progressive puppies for all we know (and if they are, what could be more science-fictional than puppies who are sapient and able to read the internet?! I ask you. Perfect. The only problem I have is that none of them are Belgian Malinois. The better to eat bad things.)
Well, my house puppy looks a lot like the middle puppy. I didn’t let her see it because vain as she is, shed have to lick it. Puppy slobbers on the screen, no thanks. Since I won’t get to Oregon this year, guess it’s support member for me. I can’t let my pup down, can I.
Just a suggestion, but pitching this on the EVE Online, Warcraft, or HALO forums, or perhaps reaching out to the particularly irate gamergate folks might provide fertile soil as well.
Can we get physical patches?
The emblem would be awesome as a unit or mission patch…Freedom 7, Apollo 11, Sad Puppies 3…
Some people in #GamerGate got the word today:
https://twitter.com/Daddy_Warpig/status/557992681121386496
And yes, I am registered as a Supporting member. Awaiting nomination suggestions with bated breath. (MH: Nemesis for best novel. Because obvious reasons.)
So if we have last years membership is there anything else we have to do at this time? Nominations are later yes?
“Who can tell with puppies? In spacesuits?”
That’s the problem. For instance, all human beings not otherwise specified are white, male, etc, and the same applies to puppies. We are, after all, talking about people who will complain that Asimov’s Foundation has only white characters when in the entire series, one character is described as having a beard, and there are no other physical descriptions at all.
Nominations opened last Friday. If you have any sort of membership from last year, you can nominate without joining for this year or next. (There is been a delay in mailing out the PINs you’ll need, but you can look up your PIN on the web site.) If you want to vote for your favorite nominees, however, you’ll need a membership in this year’s Worldcon. The cost of an attending membership goes up the end of this month, but the cost of a supporting membership remains fixed at $40. If you don’t plan to make it to Spokane you could wait until the nominees are announced to decide whether to join and vote.
Mary,
Agreed that the assumed default is often white cis male. I recall Ursula K. LeGuin being frustrated that a lot of her readers did not realize that Sparrowhawk was emphatically not white.
For Sad Puppies 4, the puppy MUST be named Robert or maybe Anson, since Worldcon 2016 will be in Kansas City.
Folks, join and nominate! Sarah Hoyt’s http://accordingtohoyt.com/2014/02/18/my-last-post-on-sfwa-pinky-swear/ is eligible this year! There’s many another great work, too, such as Monster Hunter Nemesis!
So Get Off Your Butt and DO IT!!!
twila, how recently did you read the Earthsea series? There’s nothing “emphatic” about the description of skin coloration. At least, not in the original book. It wasn’t until Tenar was introduced that readers were given stronger references to it instead of the barely-there stuff of the first book.
And as with most YA novels of the era, it didn’t refer to the characters sexual organs or preferred bedroom activities at ALL. Beyond, um, noting that men and women exist among humans on Earthsea. Again, it was the later books that brought this up, with nothing explicit until after the original series with “Tehanu”.
I’ve read essays by LeGuin where she’s claimed telepathy and the ability to read the thoughts of her readers and lay the blame on them for what she now sees as inexcusable weaknesses in the original books. And I think she (and to a lesser extent you) just might be projecting rather than truly understanding.
If information isn’t given, readers will fill in their own conclusions. This isn’t a “cis white male” trait, it’s a HUMAN trait. 🙂
As I recall Le Guin is still angry at how her characters were white-washed in the TV show.
And now cartoons default to cis-white? What I love about this debate is how many people are essentially using new Russian words inserted into our language only in the last 4 years and then going “What Russians?” That is the purest essence of mainstreaming and why its unconsciousness can be so dangerous when it is hate speech.
(This a slightly better version of what I just left in the earlier post.)
For those of you interested, I’m going to take a stab at a short definitive portrayal of what you’re up against. Once you understand this, you’ll be able to read these people like an open book.
First truism: The fundamental ideology of Social Justice Warriors is ’60s-’70s radical lesbian feminism, a splinter of the so-called “Second Wave” of the feminist movement. Around 1990 race (and therefore also colonialism) was added, the so-called “Third Wave,” also called “intersectionalism.” There is absolutely no doubt of this first truism. I have no way of knowing but I would guess at least a simple majority of SJWs are unaware of the origins of their own adopted core ideology.
Second truism: There are two fundamental beliefs that drive gender feminism. The first is the idea that heterosexuality – the “normative” – is oppressive to lesbian feminists in both a real discriminatory sense, but also the sense of moral judgments. These radicals extend that out to mean all women, e.g., the Patriarchy, arranged marriages, etc. That ties in with what’s next.
The second belief is the important one: the “performative.” Although radical feminists believe it is bigoted to talk about a cure for lesbianism, the core belief of radical feminism is that heterosexuality must be cured. When that is accomplished, all will be well. The “performative” refers to the idea that heterosexuality is literally a performance; a social, false and artificial construct. The self-contradiction inherent in this thinking doesn’t seem to faze this ideology; why then isn’t lesbianism false?
So heterosexuals and men by default are both “privileged” and oppressors. With the addition of race, that became “white privilege.” “White privilege” was first promoted by black gay feminist Audre Lorde in the ’70s but really came into it’s own around 1990 with Rebecca Walker (daughter of Color of Purple Walker) and with Kimberle’s Crenshaw’s Critical (legal) Race Theory addition and also Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Judith Butler’s hugely influential book Gender Trouble, which is about the French Queer Theory behind all this, also came out in 1990.
There you have it in a nutshell. This ideology sees itself as an analogy to Jim Crow and straight white men the oppressor. Intersectionalism openly calls for the destruction of gender distinctions, the nuclear family, our current gov’t, the church, heterosexuality itself, marriage, capitalism and paring down the white majority in all arenas, including as a nation. Radical feminism’s icons say that right out in quote after quote, and have done so for 50 years. To say this cult is implacably hostile, aggressive, racist, sexist and supremacist is accurate.
Every single word an SJW says should make perfect sense to you now.
The Sad Puppies are getting tired of people trying to look up their spacesuits while they wait for the explosions, the ray guns, and the rocketships.
While I may disagree with specific nomination choices, I’d like to say that if there are intentions to try to add categories for Hugo works, *please* have a well-constructed proposal for same and have people who can represent the proposal well at the Worldcon business meeting. I’ll make sure I’m at the business meeting to vote.
Lest those of you think I’m being ironic here: I’m not. In general, I support inclusion of categories that the Hugo has not yet addressed, e.g., gaming. My first paid publication was in Computer Gaming World issue 1.
…Not the best designed website I’ve seen recently. I’m also astounded how expensive full memberships are for these things.
Pretty sure I’m registered now. At least Pay Pal thinks so, still haven’t got any confirmation emails from them directly.