SF SIGNAL : „MIND MELD: WHAT'S THE VALUE OF THE SF/F AWARDS TO THE SF/F COMMUNITY ? ”

„The main thing that awards do, however, is get people talking about books.
That’s also what interests me most about them.
As a critic, I like to encourage people to read good books.
Often those books come from little known authors, from small presses, and so on.” - Cheryl Morgan.

Un foarte interesant grupaj de opinii privind rolul, valoarea și perspectivele conferite de premiile SF&F a fost postat pe blogul SF Signal.

La întrebarea „What is the value of awards to the science fiction and fantasy community ? How important are they to you ? ”

au răspuns Jo Walton, Jaym Gates, Heather Massey, Alisa Krasnostein, Teresa Frohock, C.S.E. Cooney, Sissy Pantelis, Laura Anne Gilman, Madeline Ashby, Lynne Thomas, Cheryl Morgan.

„How do we determine the value of the awards that we confer ?
We can look at factors such as the organization conferring the awards, the longevity of the award, and how the award is administered or awarded.
Ultimately, though, much like our system of currency, we have to collectively believe that awards have value for them to be valuable.

In all of these cases, though, awards still solidify a zeitgeist, or provide a snapshot of what is valued in a creative community at a certain time, particularly in those cases when juried and popular awards are selecting similar works. Thus, even when we may debate within our own community whether an award got it “right” or “wrong,” in the long view, there is value in documenting what our community values at a given point in the historical timeline.” - Lynne Thomas (editor, Apex Magazine)


Opiniile au fost polarizate, de la pledarea necesității existenței premiilor pînă la întrebări asupra finalității demersului acordării de premii :

„Cheryl Morgan (and other people –I will mention a few of them in a while) are involved with awards in the genuine and sincere hope to bring improvements in the field of fantasy and SF. Their aim is to promote new books, encourage new writers, innovate the genre.” - Sissy Pantelis

„Having “award-winner” on your cover might get a few more copies on the shelf, and a few more copies into readers’ hands, but I’ve yet to see a single award, even the Hugo – significantly push a career that wasn’t already trending upward, and many writers who never won awards have gone on to have successful – and profitable careers. And yet … value isn’t just a financial call, and awards aren’t about sales. Awards are a way for the community – be it the community of readers or of peers, juried or popular vote – to say “we saw what you did there. We liked it. We’re impressed.” - Laura Anne Gilman

sau păreri tranșante precum cea a Ursulei K.Le Guin (citată de Heather Massey):

„Literary awards are useless for guiding and informing and don’t even make good targets.
In declaring a book as “the best,” a literary award serves that book.
It does not serve literature. On the contrary, it does literature a considerable disservice.” - Ursula K.Le Guin

O abordare echilibrată și civilizată a mecanismelor de valorizare, de ierarhizare, prin reliefarea acelor texte care întrunesc calitățile necesare pentru a fi selectate.

Cred că un asemenea subiect merită să fie discutat și analizat iar la o viitoare întrunire ProspectArt, vom dezbate această temă.