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U.K. SF Writers Dominate Hugos
gollum123 writes "The BBC reports that For the first time in its 63-year history, all the writers nominated for the prestigious Hugo award for the best novel are British." From the article: "Mr Stross says that what an author writes is a reflection of his society, and currently US genre writers are mirroring the 'deep trauma' that 9/11 wrought on America. 'What we write tends to reflect our perceptions of the world around us,' he says, 'and if it's an uncertain world full of shadows it's no surprise you get wish fulfilment or a bit downbeat.'"
Well, it doesn't bother me, but then I'm British. The lack of a 'full stop' after 'Mr' is normal style in British punctuation; it is a little inconsistent, but full stops are becoming less common in abbreviations in British English. Then again, some American conventions are strange as well; like inserting a comma before 'and' in a list, such as 'apples, bananas, and grapes are fruit' compared to the British style 'apples bananas and grapes are fruit'. The comma is intended, historically, to represent the omission of the word 'and'; the American tradition would imply 'apples and bananas and and grapes are fruit' as the original etymology. Such is the price of diversity.
/. readers). It was very popular and underwent several versions with different spellings and house punctuation styles; both American and British versions were produced and in both cases they were published on the opposite side of the Atlantic then they were originally intended.
American and British punctuation and spelling differ in many places; I always find US spellings such as 'ax' versus 'axe' or 'color' versus 'colour' jarring. Sometimes a work is re-edited for publication on on the opposite side of the Atlantic to which it was written, but just as often -- as in this case -- it appears that the book has just been imported wholesale without being re-typeset. Typesetting is an expensive activity, and a book will need to be very popular to justify doing it all over again rather than just reprinting and slapping on a new cover.
For an interesting history of the different versions of a book check out some of the prefaces to later editions of the Lord of the Rings (an example that should resonate well with
As for the second point, British writing these days has been tending towards old-fashioned and formal styles, I think as a backlash against the influence of informal American idioms. We are writing ourselves into Merchant-Ivory stereotypes that we have spent the last thirty years trying to escape. Go figure.
I used to find works written for the American market difficult to read, but I got used to it. We may be able to understand each others language, but we should not expect them to be the same. Languages have diverged to the point of unintelligibility in less time then we have been seperate nations. We should get used to each others lingustic foibles, and claim a new fluent reading language on our CVs (or resumes, as they say in the Americas -- a strange, alien land whose tongue I am studying in my spare time).
-- "let's get wild. There's plenty of time to do nothing when we're dead." - Dorothy Parker
What authors write in other languages, and do they ever get Hugo awards?
From the official FAQ:
Are non-American works eligible?
Yes. Any work is eligible, regardless of its place or language of publication. Works first published in languages other than English are also eligible in their first year of publication in English translation.
Actually, the Hugo Awards are explicitly for both fantasy and SF:
Section 3.3: Categories.
3.3.1: Best Novel. A science fiction or fantasy story of forty thousand (40,000) words or more.
3.3.2: Best Novella. A science fiction or fantasy story of between seventeen thousand five hundred (17,500) and forty thousand (40,000) words.
Etc etc.
I'm all for the World Fantasy Awards -- I won one in 1987 and I was a judge this year -- but they're not different from the Hugos in that they're for fantasy and the Hugos are "for SF". They're different in that they're a juried award and the Hugos are a popularly-voted one. You're mixing apples, oranges, prosciutto, and turpentine.
A Chav is roughly the equivalent of the American redneck, in that it's the last cultural group that we're allowed to make fun of (with the possible exception of gypsies and the welsh).
White, lower-than working class (they don't work), benefit scroungers. They are primarly interested in drugs, alcohol, hooded garments and have an intricate knowledge of the benefits system. Their language is a bizarre mixture of estuary-english and hiphop, with a bit of asian patois thrown in 'innit'.