Politics and Sausage
January 10, 2003
6:48 a.m.
I received a preliminary ballot for the Nebula awards today. This is always an interesting piece of paperwork. It seems very small sitting there on my desk, I haven't marked on it, or even taken it out of its white envelop for more than a few moments. The creases are still sharp and perfect. It seems almost too clean. Dreams are like that, all of them, really. Of course the Nebula ballot ... oh, I forgot the registered sign. Mustn't forget that -- ® ... anyway, as I was saying, the Nebula ballot represents a lot more than just a set of dreams. As people have been saying about politics and sausage, if you don't want to know what’s in it, don't watch them make it. Or something like that. In the end, I think this ballot -- the preliminary one -- represents all that is good and all that is bad about the Science Fiction Writers of America. It represents excellence. It represents cronyism. Filled with perennial superstars and mid-list journeymen, and a few scattered fresh faces, its roster defines the current status of the amalgam of writers that are working in the field. It represents hard work repaid, or sometimes overall career achievements. Sometimes it represents the gullibility of the organization as a whole. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. I suppose it's not surprising that these few sheets of paper are probably the second most contentious element the organization faces, the first being a lazy Susan of issues that come and go on a period that's somehow synced to the obit of Venus around the sun. So I look at this envelop, and I wonder what will happen to these people that are listed inside in such clean black type that seems so out of place in the messy world of being a writer.   Have a great day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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