What’s on the Table
So, just wanted to ask a few questions:
1. In nominating works for awards, is it ethical to do so with friends? In what instances?
2. Is it ethical to do so consciously, deliberately, and in a block?
3. Is it ethical to do so with members of your writing group?
4. Where is the dividing line between expressing genuine interest and excitement about the work of one’s peers and compatriots; and expressing one’s ambitions for publicity within, and upon, the field at all costs?
5. What should be the feeling behind navigating through all these questions? What are we trying to accomplish? (OK, that’s two questions.)
6. What are our responsibilities as writers to the field as opposed to our peers? Are they one and the same? Do we have a responsibility to history? Or is it delusional to think that ye olden Grand Masters were anything more noble? (OK, that’s a lot of questions.)
7. And yet the field is very different than it was in 1959, isn’t it?
(OK, not really a question.)
Everyone have a good night!
I don’t know what the ethics are, but I do know one thing: more of us need to join SFWA, damnit. I will as soon as the cost isn’t gutwrenching, which I imagine will be sometime next year when Jan gets some sort of paid work.