Time to create our own SF Awards?

POSTED BY: aahhaaa
UPDATED: Thursday, December 29, 2005 15:09
VIEWED: 5204
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AAHHAAA

Tuesday, December 27, 2005 2:43 PM

The more I read the dumb stuff reviewers write, the more I think there should be a really prestigious Oscar-like award that is given by the world Science Fiction community. One that is given by people who can at least claim they understand the genre. One rising above the 'trekkie' zany fan image...

There certainly are enough of us (at least 35 million), but of course that'd quite like be herding cats.

JUSTANOTHERMUDDER

Tuesday, December 27, 2005 4:45 PM

How about the Saturn Awards?

"Always be yourself. Unless you suck." Joss Whedon

JustAnotherMudder=NYPinTA Goodness.

AAHHAAA

Tuesday, December 27, 2005 10:32 PM

I'm thinking of something so LARGE they can't avoid televising it; something that is about SF only and distinguishes it from fantasy, vehicles, things like Kill Bill & Lemony Snicket... just look at the current nominees- http://www.saturnawards.org/nominations.html

We have a real genre here, and its not understood anymore... the genre of Day the Earth Stood Still, The Thing, BodySnatchers, right thru Sliders and X-Files to Firefly.

The people who made Outer Limits and Twilight Zone would not even call many of those nominations SciFi.

No offense to the Saturn, but it isn't what we need. Wouldn't you like to see Joss & everybody explaining dozens of clips before getting something that looks a bit less like a hood ornament?

CAIUS

Wednesday, December 28, 2005 6:56 AM

Um, the Hugo (Dramatic Presentation, Long form)anyone?

-Caius

AAHHAAA

Wednesday, December 28, 2005 7:31 PM

Well, guess I'm not getting this across very well...

lemme tell you a conversation I had with a high-schooler recently:
He was excited to get a couple of Ursula G's dragon books for Christmas. I just assumed he would be interested in seeing Firefly... wrong. He archly informed me it was merely science fiction- not Fantasy. Not interested enough to even look at it. And evidently he's not alone.

Teenagers are the bullseye on target audiences for film and TV series. But there's more proof of what I consider 'marketing corruption' of the genre.
* What is the average age of fans here?
* Look at the shelves in bookstores, the ratio of real scifi versus fantasy has dropped like a rock- without even considering that much printed lately is 'classic reprints'.
* Look at the shelves in video rental stores. More and more monsters, ghosts, comic heroes- fewer and fewer space ships, time machines and the like. Its like we are re-entering the Dark Ages.
* In the real world, the US didn't seem to care if the Hubble fell. Strange to me, as this is the most likely tool we've got for finding a habitable planet.
* The ISS... #1 on the public's who cares list.

* As we start 2006, the CEV replacement for the Space Shuttle is still stuck on the drawing board. Plans aren't even done, & Bush's presentation seemed intentionally designed to turn taxpayers off. Then, the fundy's prob'ly aren't at all interested in meeting aliens- imagine the theological consequences!:]

* In contrast, the Chinese intend to land on the Moon by 2010 -4 years before the CEV could be completed. http://english.people.com.cn/200205/20/eng20020520_96061.shtml

*Space News Upcoming Events: None listed
http://www.space.com/spacenews/upcoming.html

Sorry for the long post... I just imagine that a major spectacular awards show could re-awaken public interest in a way that nothing else could. The Hugo hasn't & can't do that, imho
Imagine who could be on it and the assembled clips... wanna see what Ridley Scott, Spielberg, Joss, Lucas, the Wachowskis have to say? Wanna give them an award that truly says about genre:
ITS ALIVE!

CAIUS

Thursday, December 29, 2005 6:44 AM

All right I get what you are saying, I even wrote a filk about it, last year when I was feeling depressed about the mundanity of it all.

This about cover it?

Title: A Lament for a Future Lost

Lyrics © Mark E. Horning 2004
TTTO: The Piano Man, by Billy Joel
Time signature = 3/4

It's three AM on a Saturday,
The guitars stand ready to play
And all I desire is a melody
that will take me somewhere far away.

The future once was a friend of mine,
but it's former bright luster has paled
for it seems every day,
we get further away
from the promises it once entailed

Bridge: da da da - de de da
- da da - de de da
- da da

Chorus:
Sing out a song of the future now
sing out a song tonight
and you might rekindle a memory
of a future that used to be bright.

The Concord once flew supersonic.
from New York to Heathrow she'd soar.
on the opposite run,
she would outpace the sun,
but now she is flying no more

And this dismal reality's killing me
as the world becomes more mundane
and the glories and marvels we read about
seem to have been written in vain.

Bridge

our moonbase was forfeit to politics
While NASA sings the same tune
and because of our fears,
it has been 30 years**
since a man last walked on the moon

The Challenger perished in smoke and flame
and Columbia fell from the sky
with so many setbacks,
I have finally lost track
but I know that too many have died.

Ch:Sing out a song of the future now
sing out a song tonight
and you might rekindle a memory
of a future that used to be bright.

We have turned our back on the possible
and substituted the tame
for all risk we avoid
and our spirit's destroyed
and the "Cult of the Safe" is to blame.

And the writers are churning out fantasies,
as Science falls from it's throne,
it's a poor excuse for literature
But it's better than dreaming alone.

Bridge

Ch:Sing out a song of the future now
sing out a song tonight
and you might rekindle a memory
of a future that used to be bright.

AAHHAAA

Thursday, December 29, 2005 3:09 PM

Mark- that song is really quite excellent!

If its any hope, there was a Time Before... when Asimov, Heinlein, Niven, etc were writing the paperbacks that defined the genre before Hollywood created the Trek machine.
And there has been great trend-setting work since- Alien, Matrix, etc.
Those times could come again, imho, by educating the audiences. (schools sure aren't) Look how popular the Penguins were- one could make the case that they are the most alien (but cute) lifeform on Earth.

Joss can do genius work; and he hasn't peaked yet. What keeps crossing my mind is that Shakespeare had early fans too. They kept his plays on the boards despite official bans on theatre. And now we have R&J and all the other enduring works... and a tradition of total truth in theatre and comedy- a tradition Hollywood doesn't share. Vancouver did, for while, but that's another story.

bottom line- what's good for Joss is what's good for SF, and what's good for SF is fans with a vision, imho

again- very nice work!:]