Retro Hugos

[k1w1taxi]

From the I've Been Reading Thread

And that Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land was groundbreaking when it was written. Forty years later is a different story, but it was a shocker then. I mean religion, cannibalism, internet style reseach(practically). It was influential enough to be one of those books that people referred to with letters SiaSL, or sometimes just as Stranger.

But maybe you had to be there....

Given the above premise reminds me; How do you judge the merit of the contenders in awarding the recent retro awards. And should the awards have even been made so late after the time?

I am not a fan of the idea of retro awards. And much of my dislike is centred on the fact of our attempting to judge 50+ years old books by todays standards.

Cheers
Lee

[Thanatos]

Nice question.

I wonder if the retro Hugos isn't just some kind of atonement, like those lifetime awards that always seem to come a bit too late.

I'm not a fanatical reader of awarded works therefore a book that comes highly praised by some critics whose opinion I respect has more of a chance of being picked by me than a book that won some kind of award. I still think that awards are ego massages and a form of outside promotion. If we gather a large group of people that has little knowledge about the works and authors in a given field there's a far greater chance that they'll go for the awarded works. It works as a kind of hook for the uninitiated.

So I think the retro Hugos will always tend to go to those works that the general opinion goes as "it's a real shame this or that book never got one". It's just an award. We'll give it the importance it deserves, or not. The bottom line is that awards only appeal to the ego and to the publishers.

[admin]

I enjoy the retrohugos -- I've usually read more of the retro nominees than the current nominees. I've heard that there won't be any more, but that can change.

Looking back over the pre-Hugo sf field, here is my "must read" short list:

Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Time Machine
The War of the Worlds
Tarzan at the Earth's Core
Conan the Cimmerian
Odd John
The World of Null A
The Weapon Shops of Ishar
The Foundation Trilogy
Two Sought Adventure
The Green Hills of Earth