Isn’t that like, part of what makes SciFi as powerful as it is? That it’s talking about political and social issues without naming names?
Maybe don’t hold it in China again if they’re so worried about this sort of thing? They didn’t think that through did they? You think they might with, you know, science fiction often commenting on real life things through speculative analogues. They cowardly caved to just the idea of repercussions. Nothing in the article says the committee was actually under pressure from anyone to do what they did. Weak!
That’s really shameful and disheartening. The science fiction community tends to be exceptionally thoughtful and aware of dangerous precedents. It’s sad to see this kind of political nonsense taint the award.
You might as well just burn the books, assholes.
Another of the writers affected was Paul Weimer, who was excluded from the fan writer category. One of the several points raised about him in the emails is that he had previously travelled to Tibet. But Weimer said he had only been to Nepal, not Tibet. “It’s not even competent political censorship – it’s haphazard bullshit,” he said.
How I yearn for the days of competent political censorship /s
