Update: I am aware that Tom Doherty issued a statement and that Irene Gallo (the one whose comment pushed me over the edge) has made a non-apology apology. Her doing that actually makes me angrier because she’s not sorry at all for what she said. She still thinks people like me (and John C. Wright, Jim Butcher, Sarah Hoyt, Cedar Sanderson, and Kevin Anderson) are neo-Nazis. When she can actually admit that maybe being to the right of Mao does not make you Hitler and can actually write a post that accurately describes the entire Sad Puppy phenomenon, I’ll reconsider my stance. Until then, I’m not going to contribute a wooden nickel towards her salary. Also, if Tor fires her, I will make my avoidance of their books permanent because that’s the only thing that could make me angrier — firing someone for their opinions.
I just want an honest-to-Bob real fucking apology and for her to learn to break out of her little bubble of a universe and make some truly diverse friends instead of the token-diversity she has around now.
I’ve intentionally not said anything about Sad Puppies or Hugogate or whatever it’s being called now because, honestly, I don’t pay much attention to awards these days. The Hugo winners have been books I find tedious and not worth the time for about the past ten years so I generally avoid them. I’ve started treating most “award-winning” books that way in recent years because “award-winning” is so often synonymous with “something a limousine liberal in Manhattan [who’s never come down from their fiftieth floor loft and who thinks they’re progressive because they have an Ecuadorean transgendered nanny and their dogwalker is gay] would find interesting when they try to show how avant-garde they are while drinking chai frappélattéchinos with their lily white (and the token black) quote-unquote with airquotes friends.”
And since most of them can’t read beyond a sixth grade level, what they like is going to be something I’ll find puerile — perhaps juvenile, at best — with tortured language that thinks it’s academic and intellectual when it’s really just pretentious, tendentious, and fucking poor diction and a complete abuse of esoteric terminology.
Still, though, I’m sick and tired of being compared to the guy who caused over 70 million deaths in less than seven years just because I think that openness and diversity is a good thing. I think that anyone who likes science fiction and fantasy should be considered a fan and they shouldn’t have to pass any kind of ideological test. I think that an award that touts itself as “THE sci-fi/fantasy award from all fans” should be more open to those fans participating in the nomination and voting. Otherwise, it’s just another crappy award given by another group of CHORFs. I think that the Sad Puppies have proven their point in that the Hugos are meaningless and controlled by the publishers and not the fans.
If the PuppyKickers want to throw a fit because their picks didn’t win this year, that’s fine. If they want to change the way the Hugos are decided, that’s fine. But they need to act like fucking adults instead of kindergartners. Since they can’t do that, I’m going to do the adult thing and not give them my money.
Hey, I wouldn’t give my kindergarten-aged niece a cookie if she’d spent all day acting out — I’m not going to give a company that has its senior staff call me a Nazi my money, either. However, I don’t want the authors who are locked into a shitty contract to think it’s them or their work that has caused me to make this decision. So, I’ve started contacting all Tor’s authors to let them know that it’s not them — it’s their publisher. I started today with Brandon Sanderson who could easily strike out on his own and publish independently (face it, Tor needs him far more than he needs them). The message I sent to him (or to his assistants, rather), is below.
I just wanted to apologize for this. I’ve been a fan of Mr. Sanderson’s work ever since he started writing the Wheel of Time after Mr. Jordan died. When I heard he was going to be finishing the series, I bought the Mistborn trilogy and soon had every book he’s written. However, I won’t be buying (or borrowing or pirating because that’s wrong) his books published through Tor any longer.
Mr. Sanderson hasn’t done anything wrong — I still love his books and wish I had 1/100000000000000th of his talent. He’s not offended me or anything. I just can’t support a company that thinks that my friends and I are as horrible as the man responsible for upwards of 70 million deaths (Adolph Hitler) just because we think that more than a few dozen people should be allowed to decide who wins the Hugos.
If Mr. Sanderson changes publishers or goes indie, I’ll be happy to grab his books again. I love his work. I’m just not going to keep giving money to Irene Gallo and the Neilsen-Haydens so that they can call me and people I like (such as Sarah Hoyt, Larry Corriea, Cedar Sanderson, and Brad Torgersen among others) Nazis just because we’re not to the left of Mao and Stalin politically and think that it’s more fun to read books with great characters and a good plot instead of polemics that we might agree with but that tell us we can’t agree for $stupidreasons_like_kincolor_gender_religion_beingfromtheSouth.
Thanks (and sorry because I know he’s busy and doesn’t want to get dragged in to crap like this just because his publishing house is run by idiots),
G.K. Masterson
If, like me, you’re tired of the chattering classes calling you a Nazi while taking your money and laughing at you, then feel free to stop giving them your money. If you’re planning to avoid Tor, know that they’re owned by MacMillian who owns the following publishing lines:
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Faber & Faber
- Henry Holt and Company
- Holt Paperbacks
- Metropolitan Books
- Times Books
- Owl Books
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Picador
- Roaring Brook Press
- Neal Porter Books
- First Second Books
- St. Martin’s Press
- Tom Doherty Associates
- Tor Books
- Bedford, Freeman and Worth Publishing Group
- W.H. Freeman
- Bedford-St. Martin’s
- Worth Publishers
- Hayden-McNeil
- Nature Publishing Group
- Scientific American, Inc.
Instead, might I suggest Del Ray Books, Wizards of the Coast, Baen, or indie books? Sure, Del Ray and Baen are owned by other members of the Big Six but so far they’ve managed not to have their spokespeople and senior staff insult anyone to the right of Mao and Stalin.
Just a thought.
— G.K.
- Irene Gallo, Unrepentant Bigot by D. Jason Fleming
- An open letter to Tom Doherty of Tor Books by Peter Grant
- Attack Of The Infinite Stupid by Kate Paulk
- Nazi is not a term you throw around lightly by R.K. Modena
two quibbles
Hitler was to the right of Mao, but then so was Trotsky … of course they were shoulder to shoulder … tightly
and that is just to tease.
The other is I do think she might well need firing because I doubt she is ever going to feel wrong or sorry for what she said, not just about you and I, the potential or current customers, but Authors published by Tor who are Names out there with books Tor needs to to sell and make money on. Between her and the other threats that those on the Puppies ballots will need to look in other industries for work etc. her apology would have to be actually heartfelt and true, for her to keep her position (and be watched like a hawk) so none of her actions are a detriment (okay, further detriment) to the company. The “Gee, sorry that for whatever reason some folks got offended when I blood libeled them and lied through my teeth about them” apology is not now, nor said again down the line, going to cut it, and if they force her to go further with her apology, you know it will be a wordier version of the same because she does not believe (Actually does not care) she is in the wrong.
So, they really will not be firing her for her opinion, they will be firing her for voicing something that reflects very poorly on her employer, and probably (okay, likely definitely) will affect their bottom line. Is anyone who is contracted to Tor, and even vaguely a Pup supporter going to trust them to do the job needed down the road when they know their works are possibly going past these people? I can’t see them keeping her on and keeping their reputation (what there is left of it).
If she didn’t violate Tor policy, they shouldn’t fire her. Demote her, transfer her to a different department where she would no longer be dealing with the public — those are fine alternatives. But firing her is out-of-bounds unless she violated policy or broke her work contract.
Tor should keep her on and, even if she’s not going to give a for-real apology, they should issue one, disavow her statement, and then announce what their new policies are and if she violates those, fire her. Firing her if she’s done nothing more than give them a black eye by being an ass in public is no different than Mozilla firing someone who politically opposes gay marriage or writers getting blacklisted because they’re not out marching carrying the hammer and sickle while singing La Internationale at the top of their lungs or people getting harassed because they don’t think Obama is the messiah.
Thanks for the comment, though. 🙂 I hope you stick around and check out some of my writing.
— G.K.
She violated the policy of “not shitting on the customer or employees”. She violated common sense and pissed off a bunch of people who buy her product.
This is not remotely similar to Mozilla. That case was political speech unrelated to Mozilla’s business. Gallo libeled people who work for her company, and other people in her industry.
I’ve just never been comfortable with the idea of firing someone for making an ass of themselves in public. Tor could handle it better, yeah, without having to fire her. I do get your point, though.
— G.K.
The political Left revels in getting people it disapproves of fired and dragging their reputations through the mud.
Given that climate, I am disinclined to offer the Left an easy checkbox method of avoiding the consequences of their actions that doesn’t make them have some skin in the game they started.
Some might say that view is uncharitable. Others (like myself) might feel that adhering to the Marquess of Queensberry rules while their opponent fights dirty and cheats is a recipe for losing.
They started this thing. We will finish it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN6ngThqMEs
I get how you feel and all. I just don’t agree with firing someone over their opinion (no matter how bad it is). I’m not saying she should be let off with a slap on the wrist but firing should be for something major like punching her boss, showing up at work drunk, or posting porn on the company’s Facebook page.
Also — I <3 your nickname. SumDood is an epic figure. 🙂
-- G.K.
Baen is owned by one of the Big Six? That would be news to me. As far as I know, and please correct me if I’m wrong, Baen is independent. Their FAQ states, “In 1983 [Jim Baen] had the opportunity to start his own independent company, Baen Books, distributed then and now by Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster.” I don’t think the distribution agreement includes ownership, though as I said, please correct me if you know something I don’t.
That could be my mistake then, Robin. I thought they were owned by S&S. I didn’t realize that they were just distributed by S&S. Thanks for the correction!
— G.K.