DragonCon is dropping the military science fiction award

[Lynn McGuire]

From David Weber at

https://www.facebook.com/david.weber.5621/posts/pfbid02GHjKu4QTo4pL4biU4BWd2UWLosQf1WdAMH191gqwNWDxcgjE8fJMUWneUYLBRKdNl

"Okay, so by now a lot of people have heard about DragonCon's decision
to eliminate the military science fiction/fantasy category from the
Dragon Awards and fold it into the Best Novel category.
A lot of those people are upset, even angry, over the decision, and I
understand that. As a multiple Dragon winner in that category, I am
probably one of the pros hearing the most about it from my readership.
And, as I have said before, it is a decision with which I disagree.
Having said that, however, I think it's important for the people who are
upset to understand that so far as I can tell, there is no malign intent
involved in this decision. Like a lot of you, I intend to advocate to
get it changed, to get our category restored to the awards, but angst
and outrage are not the way to go about that.
The Dragon Awards were created by DragonCon for many reasons. One,
frankly, was the perception by a significant portion of fandom that
existing awards — like the Hugo and the Nebula — had been politicized.
That they were no longer voted on the merits of the work itself but
because the work in question had checked off the proper boxes.
DragonCon's answer to that perception was to create a family of awards
which were clearly voted upon by ALL fandom, not by a subset of it which
might be agenda driven. The Dragons were also intended to be a family of
awards which addressed all of fandom's different genres and readerships,
in a format which would incorporate a degree of flexibility that would
allow them to remain current and relevant. At the same time, DragonCon
recognized that the award CEREMONY itself would not be a cost effective
exercise on the convention's part. And, finally, the decision to
eliminate the award for military science-fiction/fantasy was made,
according to DragonCon, because this was the "least-nominated,
least-voted" category, so if something was going to be pruned, it made
sense to prune the award which had had the least support.
Let's look at that one point at a time.
First, the convention worked hard to address an issue which has been
very divisive in fandom for some years, and for that it deserves our
thanks and our commendation. DragonCon's answer to the acrimonious
argument about merit versus ideologically correct was to say "If you
think that a work deserves recognition, this is a place where YOU can
nominate it and YOU can vote for it, and the SOLE CRITERION for the
award will be the number of votes it receives from ALL OF FANDOM, not a
smaller, select group with which you may or may not agree." Think about
that. Without condemning existing, older awards or telling people who
were upset with those older awards processes to shut up and sit down,
DragonCon offered a venue in which those on either side of that debate
would find an open, transparent, even-handed, open-to-all forum in which
to advocate for the works THEY loved.
Second, they always intended for there to be room to "tweak" the
process. The fact that they are now tweaking it should thus not come as
a surprise to anyone Even if we DON'T agree with this particular "tweak."
Third, before people get bent out of shape over the "cost-effective"
metric, think about it for a moment. DragonCon is huge, yet I would be
surprised if more than 350 people have turned up for any of the Dragon
Award presentation ceremonies. Those people who have turned out have
been hugely supportive and very interested in and involved with the
process, but they represent a fairly teeny subset of con's total
attendance. For that matter, the literary portion of DragonCon is only
one of its multifaceted sides, and whether we want to admit it or not,
the "literary" attendees clearly represent an absolute minority of total
attendance. So even though the convention would be paying for the space
the awards ceremony uses whether the ceremony used it or not, even
though all of the audiovisual equipment would already be there, they are
still diverting staff who might have been doing something else to
managing it, and that same space could be programmed for a different
function that might very well attract significantly more attendees.
Given the fact that DragonCon has to pay the bills, that is neither a
minor nor an unreasonable consideration.
Fourth, DragonCon got fewer nominations and fewer total votes in this
category than in the others.
Now, having laid all of that out doesn't mean that I think this was the
best decision ever made, because I don't. Military science-fiction,
whether it is recognized as that genre or lumped into things like "space
opera," is quite probably the biggest single science fiction genre out
there. It's certainly been around a long, long time. WAR OF THE WORLDS,
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, Robert Heinlein, Keith Laumer, Poul
Anderson, Gordon Dickinson, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven . . . . It's a
very, very long list which has been part of the spinal cord of
science-fiction from the very beginning, and it is alive and well today.
Yet the Dragon Award for military science fiction and fantasy was the
ONLY award specific to the genre. The only award that uniquely
recognized that long, long literary tradition. That, coupled with the
fact that the Dragons ARE fan-nominated and fan-voted in a venue open to
EVERY fan, gave it a special value which should appeal to all readers of
science fiction, even if military sci-fi isn't YOUR favorite genre.
There is also the consideration that independently published and
self-published authors are heavily represented in the Dragons in general
and in this genre in particular. Literary awards in general are
dominated by traditionally published authors, of which I am one, and
traditional houses are far better placed to campaign in favor of THEIR
authors (especially in the nominating process) than most indies or
self-published authors. When ALL of fandom can nominate and vote, simply
by registering online to do so, that ability to "game the awards" is
lessened, and (in my opinion) the field as a whole profits. So while I
understand DragonCon's desire to "streamline" the process, I am dismayed
by a decision which will lessen opportunities — especially NOMINATION
opportunities — for those independent presses and self published authors.
But one point which has to be addressed is that if it is, indeed, true
that military science-fiction was the least-nominated/voted category
despite its readership, then readers and its fans have to shoulder their
own share of the blame. This is on us, as much as it is on any DragonCon
decision-maker.
If readers decide they are angry with the con, whether it's because of
masking policies, perceived "wokeness," or any other reason and then do
not participate in the nominating and voting process, they have only
themselves to blame when too few votes are cast in support of their
beloved genre. That's the bottom line.
I encourage anyone who is as dismayed by this decision as I to contact
DragonCon directly. Express your concern and your disappointment. But
this is neither the time nor the appropriate place for any attack dog
mentalities. When you address DragonCon, you will be addressing one of
the largest conventions in the country. Indeed, in the world. And it is
a convention which created the Dragon Awards in the first place to be
responsive to science-fiction and fantasy fandom in a way which was
intended, in no small part, to help us bind up some of the wounds which
have come to divide us. It is not perfect, it does not always make
perfect decisions, is run by imperfect human beings, but in my
experience with it, it is NOT the enemy.
It should not be addressed or treated as if it is.
Contact the convention. Make your point. Tell the decision-makers you
think this was a wrong decision. Provide RATIONAL reasons to support
that argument, not vituperation or accusations. Show them that despite
the low vote total in the last cycle of awards, there really are A LOT
of military sci-fi readers out there and that this award means a lot to
that readership. And then, if and when decision to delete the category
is revisited, nominate and VOTE to show the convention just how robust
our readership actually is.
If we lose this award permanently because we refused to demonstrate our
support for it in a tangible fashion that cannot be ignored, then it
will be a self inflicted wound.
And our own fault."

Lynn