We now have two innocent victims giving up their Hugo nominations. None of this has been fair to them, or to us. Marko Kloos gave up his Best Novel nomination (Lines of Departure) because he found it morally objectionable to have been tossed on the list due to Vox Day’s Rabid Puppies. Annie Bellet gave up her Best Short Story nomination (Goodnight Stars) because she was sick of the politics. (edit: That should have been three innocent victims. Matthew David Surridge declined his Best Fan Writer nomination, but he did it when notified, so had been replaced when the list was released. He declined because he disagreed with the Pup’s principles.)
Yes, I blame Rabid Puppies and Sad Puppies for the unpleasantness and pain, and particular, Vox Day and Brad Torgersen. That said, some other unpleasantness is going around. I did some searching on both of them, on forums, and on their own sites, and looked at their words. What I found is Marko Kloos is taking a lot of heat from the Puppies side of things. There is a good deal of just nasty attacks on him. He’s being called “spineless” on his own blog. But he’s taken a moral stance and I applaud him for it. Annie Bellet seems to be a different case. It looks like her harassers have been in the anti-puppy camp. People are lecturing her on why she should resign, on her own blog, after she already did and expressed how emotionally difficult this all is. 90% of all the insults, cruelty, and general unpleasantness I’ve seen has come from the Pups, but here we have a case where the unpleasantness is not on them.
COME ON PEOPLE. We are better than this! Or we should be. Bellet didn’t ask to be associated with the Pups but she’s been treated poorly. As I’ve said elsewhere, I like taking the moral high ground, and it is so easy to do in this mess. I’m not fond of people ripping it out from under me.
Both Kloos and Bellet deserve our support. Might I suggest buying a book or two?