Talk:Hugo Award

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[edit] Harry Potter complaints

The complaints about Harry Potter were a combination of "it's not sf", "it's a children's book", and "Rowling didn't care enough to send someone to accept the award." The Hugo rules (http://www.worldcon.org/bm/const-2002.html#hugo) explicitly state that fantasy as well as sf is eligible, though there are few Hugo winners that are unambiguously fantasy. As long as I was about it, I did some other tidying. Vicki Rosenzweig 14:01, 24 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I think perhaps the Harry Potter kvetching doesn't really rate discussion in the top-level article on the Hugo award. It *is* true, and worth mentioning, that the award goes most often to SF, but putting that right next to the mention of the complaints about Harry Potter seems to me to make a much stronger statement. And of course the Lord of the Rings movies have won two hugos, and Buffy won a hugo, so there are *at least* three examples of fantasy winning in just the last couple of years. And examples go back to at least 1959 (Bloch's "That Hell-Bound Train"). I haven't edited the page to do this yet, though. David Dyer-Bennet 16:14 CST 13-Feb-2004.

Yes, but the best-novel award is the one everyone talks about. When someone says "the hugo" they mean for novel. Regardless, there have been complaints about it, that makes it fodder for the article. →Raul654 22:18, Feb 13, 2004 (UTC)

Also the "dramatic presentation" is almost allways for a movie. Altough "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (the radio series) ran second (to "Superman - the Movie"!) one year. // Liftarn

The potter complaint isn't the only one regarding the Hugos. The Hugos are, by the very nature of the voting system, more prone to award popular works versus "good" works. Unlike awards given by peers (for example, Nebulas and the Oscars), it's unlikely that a person is familar with every work in a category he or she is voting for, and if there's only one work he or she read, it's common for someone to vote for that one. This is especially true in the most popular categories, Novel and Dramatic Presentation. //Uhlek

Personally, I gave up on the Hugos when they gave the award to Gollum's acceptance speech. 23skidoo 15:02, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

The facts are that people often don't show up to collect their awards in person. David Langford usually sends Martin Hoare or someone else to collect their awards. Most movies TV shows do not have producers accepting the awards; Craig Miller, Jeff Walker, or others often stand in for them. Flying from Britain to California kills a whole day in each direction, and Rowling earns $100,000 a day sitting at her keyboard, which is not trivial. Nobody thought that Peter Jackson was snubbing the Hugos when he did not interrupt post-production of the third Lord of the Rings movie to fly in from New Zealand to accept an award. Rowling has prominently mentioned winning the Hugo in other contexts since winning the award. Section 3.2.1 of the WSFS by-laws clearly state that the awards are for science fiction and fantasy. The Potter book may be the first unambiguously fantasy book to actually win, though Heinlein's Glory Road and Norton's Witch World were on the ballot in 1964 and Joan Vinge's The Snow Queen in 1981 certainly contained fantasy elements. This small tempest in a teapot does not reach the level of significance to be mentioned here, let alone taking up a large chunk of the history section. Gossip isn't history. There is commentary here which is unsourced and highly POV and which should be removed. Try putting this commentary on the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire page (where it would actually be more relevant) and see how the editors there respond. Avt tor 20:12, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reversion question

How do I revert a page to an older version? The slashdot scum screwing with this page pissed me off.--Tasadar24 23:50, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Picture of a Hugo

Can we get a picture of the Hugo on this page? Anouymous 06:38, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

I have added a picture of the 2005 Hugo Award. VJDocherty 08:56, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Different design

Not to sound like a pervert or a sex-addict but I would propose they redesign the look of the actual award. It looks kind of like a... you know. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.11.97.146 (talk • contribs) 01:37, 14 April 2006 (UTC).

Well most people say it looks like a classic rocket, but it is true that we occasionaly use the 'where do the batteries go' joke. :-) Nevertheless, the design is what it is and is specified in the WSFS constitution, so it's not likely to change any time soon. VJDocherty 12:36, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Who Votes for this Award

I didn't find anywhere in the article where it describes who votes on this award or what the voting procedure is. Certainly how an award is arrived at should be a critical part of the description of that award? --JeffW 23:26, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

The voters are the members of that years Worldcon. Each annual WorldCon has its own open memebership. the voting is unique also as it is austrailian rules elimitation. There is good documentatuon at http://www.worldcon.org/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Exprexxo (talk • contribs) 06:53, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

I think something to that effect should be added to the article. --JeffW 16:03, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

I have updated the article to make the voting procedure clearer. VJDocherty 14:25, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. --JeffW 16:40, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Base Selection

I changed the line that said the Worldcon committee designed the Hugo Bases to say they selected the Hugo bases. The committees may have designed the bases in the past, but at least in recent years, there has been a competition sponsored by most Worldcons, in which members of fandom submit designs and the committee selects the design. I (and many others)submitted a design for Noreascon 4 in 2004. The committee selected my design for the Retro Hugos, and Scott Lefton's for the regular Hugos that year.

Patrick J. O'Connor

Patrick - that's a good point. I think I would add the qualification that the Worldcon committee is *responsible* for producing the base design, and can then choose the best method to create it - by someone on the committee, or by direct commission or by competition. VJDocherty 10:04, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] sffaudio.com extlink

Does it really belong there? It seems to mostly point to online retail sites to get these audio recordings from. Unless someone explains why it should stay, I'd like to remove it per WP:EL. 67.117.130.181 05:59, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] snortyville link

One can find a zillion references to the Hugo Awards with a Google search; I'm not sure the snortyville link is noteworthy. Avt tor 17:49, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine

Why is there no article for Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine? This is one of only two such categories not to have an article. --Orange Mike 17:40, 7 March 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Paging an authority on Hugo Rules as pertain to Semiprozine . . .

Can someone conversant with Hugo Semiprozine rules weigh in here? Talk:Kathryn_Cramer

Thanks. --Pleasantville 02:31, 13 August 2007 (UTC) aka Kathryn Cramer


[edit] Special Hugos

Could a list of the recipients of the special Hugo Awards (Like Watchmen, for instance, be put here? Or does it already exist somewhere else? Marvin the Parinoid Android 03:54, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Someday, the official site at http://www.TheHugoAwards.org/ may have a "sort by category" list (currently the list is only available by year) -- probably if we get it database-driven to make it easier to do the sorts without having to worry about the lists getting out of synch. (One thing at a time; we just launched the new site earlier today!) At the moment it does not have a way to list out the special Hugos as separate categories. Possibly someone would like to go through the list and write an article on Special Hugos and collect them all up there. Kevin Standlee 01:27, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Nebula Award and logrolling

I have removed a queried statement that the Nebula Award has been 'increasingly criticised for "logrolling" since 1990s'. The statement is arguably true and I am sure citations could be found, both for the statement in general and for specific instances. However, any cited sources would almost certainly derive from internal arguments within the awarding body for the Nebula Award, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and would need rather more detailed and careful treatment than is warranted in an article on another topic - such as this one. PWilkinson (talk) 03:07, 12 January 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Hood Ornament?

A D. Gary Grady did a lot of work to prove that the Hugo was not based on the Olds Rocket Hood Ornament. And I would like to correct that in the article. Does anyone have any objection? Rich Dengrove 22 February 2008 (UTC)

As long as you source it to the same sources D.Gary used, sounds good. (Mention the legend, then source the refutation.) Multajn dankojn! --Orange Mike | Talk 04:36, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

The legend is in the article, isn't it? As for sources, I absolutely intend to stick to D. Gary Grady's sources. The only sources I might have a problem with are the ones, like the links to Craig's list, I suspect are temporary. Rich Dengrove 22 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 2008 nominations

The 2008 nominations have been revealed. --Private Sweety (talk) 09:53, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hood Ornament Returned

Previously the article claimed that the original, 1953 Hugo was based on the hood ornament of a 1953 Oldsmobile Here's a picture of the 1953 Hugo trophy [1]

Here are images of the the Olds Rocket 88 hood ornament from circa 1950 [2]

This gives specific years [3]

The hood ornament, for most years looks nothing like the 1953 Hugo, except for the 1951 model. There the base looks a fair amount like it, but the fins are quite different. They are larger and there are fewer of them on the hood ornament. Presuming that Oldsmobile had the same hood ornament on all of its cars that year, the Hugo was unlikely to have been based after it. On the other hand, it could have been machined into the Hugo, presumably by Jack McKnight.

Rich Dengrove 4 May 2008(UTC)