The OF Blog: Interesting discussion on the World Fantasy Award and just how much "world" needs to be added to it

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Interesting discussion on the World Fantasy Award and just how much "world" needs to be added to it

Lavie Tidhar has a thoughtful, discussion-worthy article up on The World SF News Blog concerning the apparent American-centric nature of the World Fantasy Awards (and asides on Worldcon/Hugos as well). Although I raise a few questions and disagree slightly with some of his prescriptions, I think the points he raises are well-worth discussing and I think dovetail nicely with the growing global conversations about "international SF."

So what do you think of his arguments?  Contribute there or here (or wait until next week, when there should be the piece I wrote for the Nebula Awards Blog that might generate some related discussions) and weigh in with your thoughts, questions, and even your snide remarks or non sequiturs. 

3 comments:

Angelo said...

A really internacional World Fantasy Award would be great. However, anything that isn't in english doesn't have global reach. But if the Nobel Literature Prize is really international, I don't see why the WFA shouldn't be.

Fabio Fernandes said...

Larry, I tend to agree with Angelo. However, I´ll wait for you to publish your piece on International SF before I can comment further on that. It bears a lot of consideration and thought.

Larry Nolen said...

I agree in general with both of your sentiments, although I have some doubts about the efficacy of altering the WFA at this moment. I think there'll have to be more transnational interactions before I'd feel comfortable with matters.

My piece deals with problems of identity and (under the surface) with the question of whether "international SF" is but another way of lumping disparate interpretations of what SF constitutes into a shapeless grouping. More questions raised than answered in the piece and I'm certain that there'll be some opportunities for discussing those questions here, there, and on quite a few blogs, if people are willing to discuss, that is ;)

 
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