Misstatements of What Saddens Puppies Makes Puppies Sadder
A reader in the comments box asked a question about the Sad Puppies that was so extraordinarily ill informed, I felt moved, once again, to state our position, which has not changed one iota since the inception of the movement.
So many lies so profoundly false have been spread so rapidly about us, that the gesture, if futile, is necessary.
This has been characterized as a conservative revolt against liberals. It is not. I am the only conservative among the four founding members of the Sad Puppies movement. (The rest are libertarian or mildly liberal).
This has been characterized as the intrusion of outsiders into a warm circle of science fiction fans. It is not. That is the exact opposite of the truth. All of us have been science fiction readers our whole lives, writers for years, and involved in fandom at every level.
Indeed, it is this notion that science fiction must serve political correctness as a tool for social reform that is the intrusion. No trace of such a notion is seen among the award winning stories of our field before twenty years ago.
This has been characterized as an attempt by readers of lowbrow but fun adventure fiction to shoulder aside the deeper and more literate works that address profound social messages. Absurd. What I write is literate in the highest degree, whereas Larry Correia writes pulp fiction, and so we cover the whole spectrum from highbrow to lowbrow and back again. The idea that poorly executed hackwork that serves the dull politically correct lecture of the day is somehow loftier in literary value than my work is risible. These costermongers would not recognize a literary allusion if it bit them on the cullion.
This has been characterized as an intrusion of politics into science fiction. The opposite is true. We Sad Puppies are attempting to remove the political litmus test of ideological purity from the Hugo Awards: remove, not impose.
This has been characterized as ballot-box stuffing, logrolling, and a violation of the gentleman’s agreement not to solicit votes. This again is the opposite of the truth: the previous twenty years are rife with such corrupt practices. We were and are scrupulously honest, obeyed both the letter and the spirit of the law.
This has been characterized as an attempt by White Males to exclude minorities from science fiction. By no possible Orwellian contortion of language can this possibly be true. I am the only White Male among the four founding members of the Sad Puppies movement. (The rest are Hispanic, Hispanic Female, Red Indian, for those of you who are keeping track).
The Sad Puppies slate indeed contained a broader diversity of minority authors than their opposition. Not only is this not our purpose, it runs directly counter to our mission statement and our observed behavior. And it is impossible on its face: how are four writers going to set about excluding anyone who wants to read or write science fiction?
To set the record straight, here is my announcement of the formation of a particular literary movement with a particular purpose, initially called the United Underworld, later called the Sad Puppies. http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/06/united-underworld-literary-movement-manifesto/
At the risk of quoting myself, allow me to point out that I have been libeled by many persons for having untoward or vile motives, when my motives were announced at the outset, and repeatedly and clearly, and by no action and no word showed any insincerity to the statement:
“This new movement shall be one where the writer is allowed to put a message in his story, provided it entertains the reader, and provided he does not sabotage or ignore the story trying to shoehorn a message into it. Story telling comes first in stories.
“All stories will be judged on their merit, rather than on the skin color of the author or authoress.
“The writers are the servants of the readers, who are their patrons and patronesses. We are not the teachers, not the preachers, and not the parents and certainly not the masters of the readers. We are not social engineers with permission to manipulate the readers, nor subject them to indoctrination nor propaganda disguised as entertainment.
“In sum, the three ideas of the so-called reactionary Evil Legion of Evil are that that Science Fiction stories should be workmanlike, honest, and fun. Stories should serve the reader rather than lecture, sucker-punch, subvert, or hector him. Stories should give the reader what he paid for.
“Dear reader, do you understand that these three principles, these three points of simple common sense and common decency, these three principles are what the Leftist ideologues, who untruthfully claim to be fighting for the underdog, untruthfully call evil?
“These are the principles our foes reject, and why we (including you, our readers) are subject to shrill yet tedious tongue-lashings by the scolds and shrews of these craven and no-talent know-nothings.
“Does that sound like a new literary movement? It is older than Homer.”
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
