1939 Retro Hugo Nominees!

[Extollager]

Black Gate » Blog Archive » 1939 Retro Hugo Award Nominees Announced

I'd love to see some discussion here. How would you vote, if you could?

Here's a vote for Out of the Silent Planet for the novel.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

There's a lot of stuff on the list I've never heard of, let alone read.

With that in mind, I might go with Out of the Silent Planet as well, although The Sword in the Stone is a good choice. "Who Goes There?" and "Helen O'Loy" are very famous stories, so seem to be obvious choices. I have to assume that "The War of the Worlds" is the Orson Welles adaptation, so that's a clear winner. I have not read any of the novelettes, but "Pigeons From Hell" is quite famous, so will probably win. Campbell for best editor; that's an easy one. The artist choice is a tough one, but I'll go with Finlay. I'm not qualified to make any comments about the other categories.

 

[Extollager]

I commented on one of the novella nominees, Gold's "A Matter of Form," here:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/foru...groff-conklins-anthologies-9.html#post1778979

Discussion of Out of the Silent Planet has, it seems, been scattered and minimal here at Chrons, e.g. as here:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/foru...kien-lewis-dick-ellison-kirk.html#post1644458

I hope its nomination will encourage many people to read it. It combines the best of the old-fashioned sense of wonder quality with exceptionally good writing.

As for "Helen O'Loy" -- that one ought to be Exhibit A in any feminist critique of benighted attitudes towards women in old-time SF. Amazing.

 

[Extollager]

I'm curious about that Bradbury nomination, "Hollerbochen's Dilemma." No story of that title shows up in Contento's index, but it seems to have been anthologized in Horrors Unseen, edited by Sam Moskowitz. Has anyone read it? It was, apparently, Bradbury's first published story (a 1938 fanzine appearance). Is it really the best short story of its year??
first stories history - Ray Bradbury Discussion Board


Here's a little about the Simak novelette nomination, "Rule 18":

http://books.google.com/books?id=hKFObLxy1f8C&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=simak+rule+18&source=bl&ots=2Mh0sHiBOV&sig=3k26sDvhNAacg3PR0tpdCYxiAf8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=c5ZeU7fCGcPsyQH0uICYAg&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=simak%20rule%2018&f=false

And here's the Kuttner novelette nomination, "Hollywood on the Moon":

http://www.unz.org/Pub/ThrillingWonder-1938apr-00012

 

[Extollager]

Here's some context for the 1938 science fiction and fantasy picture:

timeline 1930s page of ULTIMATE SCIENCE FICTION WEB GUIDE

 

[dolphintornsea]

I've read "Hollerbochen's Dilemma". I'm a great Bradbury fan, but I was taken aback that this was nominated. It's a very short fanzine piece, amateurishly written, though with some amusement value.

My summary of it, posted on the Bradbury forum, was as follows (it contains spoilers, but since the piece is of historic, rather than literary value, I don't think that matters):

"A surprisingly science fictional shortie in which Hollerbochen has the power to foresee his own death. He can escape this by suspending time for a very short while. On a particularly bad day, an elevator accident and a gun-toting mugger are both on the menu. Hollerbochen can achieve a stay of execution by suspending time, but when he tries to do so for too long, there is a massive build-up of energy, a mighty explosion, and the poor hero is blown to atoms. The story evinces the occasional clumsiness of a beginner, and also features the supposedly futuristic abbreviations championed by Forry Ackerman - text messaging language, 60 years too early!"

 

[J-Sun]

A day late and a dollar short on this one. I've only read Carson of Venus, The Legion of Time (which is perilously close to a novella) and Galactic Patrol of the novels. I like 'em all and give it Doc Smith. I've only read the two del Reys and the de Camp from the shorts and give it to "Helen O'Loy". Worse yet, I've only read "Who Goes There?" of the novellas though I can't imagine not giving it to it even if I'd read all the others. And I've read precisely none of the novelettes ("Werewoman" wasn't included in my copy of the Northwest Smith stories. Assuming it's a fair example of those, I'd have no problem with it winning, though.)

For dramatic presentation. I don't think I've heard any all the way through but it would be the greatest upset of all time if the Welles didn't win. Well, second greatest, if Campbell didn't win for Best Editor, though it was still early yet.

Actually, Best Professional Artist is probably the strongest category. I don't know what they were all doing exactly in 1938 but, generally, I have to give it to Frank R. Paul. He's pretty darned good but, much like the early fiction, even where the technical execution may not be perfect, the imagination is brilliant.

But this ballot is likely extremely poor. I have some Rocklynne and Gallun in the Pile and I've read a Robert Moore Williams that wasn't bad and I'm sure there are others and this nominating fan fiction of Clarke and Bradbury just because they're famous now and lesser stories by other fairly well-known authors doesn't look anything like it would have in 1938 and I'm sure it doesn't look like it would if all the voters had read all the stuff available in '38 and voted regardless of names.

Can't wait for next year. Nobody bothered to hold Retros for most of the years and, until this year, opted for the 50th anniversary in those years they did, but next year's 75th is, of course, The Year.

 

[clovis-man]

Interesting. Capek's R.U.R. came out in 1920. A truncated version was broadcast on BBC TV in 1938; the first SF on tv. By all accounts, it was not all that good. Did the nascent tv event spur its nomination? I read it in college, along with War With The Newts. My memory of both is pretty dim.

 

[J-Sun]

And the winners are...

Results

Very disappointed in the novel - can't believe Smith finished 3rd and Williamson 4th. Also in the short story - only thing I can think of is homefield advantage but it's really wrong[1]. I can't really say, but I question Bradbury beating 4SJ and Tucker for best fan writer of 1938. And it's ridiculous that there were more ballots for novel (and short drama!) than there were for any of the story categories (by 5 to 2 in the most extreme case) in 1938. At least Campbell, Campbell, and Welles won and I have no problem with Finlay. If I have a problem with the other categories, I don't know it. So it looks like a reasonable slate otherwise.

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[1] First of all, how are things like this even eligible? Isn't this technically fan writing? Either way, I had to pull out my Collected Stories to read this winner and, only then, realized I'd already read it but had completely forgotten it. This is a "comic" story of an accidental journey to Mars which does show a hard SF mind even in the silliness and has a strange premonition of weaponized rockets without really realizing it, but is a tedious monologue and oddly sums itself up well in one quote a bit past the middle describing a character: "[he was] our tame humourist, but I could tell that his joke was even more forced than usual". This is a story that might be okay if taken as a fannish lark but it had zero impact on the field (never being reprinted until 2000 in the aforementioned Collected Stories) and can't be taken to reasonably beat either of the del Reys or the de Camp. ("The Faithful" is amateurish in its own right but is one of the earlier uplift stories and anticipates aspects of City, "Hyperpilosity" is much more professionally "comic", and "Helen" should have won.) It sounds almost exactly like the Bradbury, based on dolphintornsea's review.