http://davidlangford.co.uk/2008/05/30/sfx-168-column/ Writer, critic, and editor of Ansible Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:55:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 http://davidlangford.co.uk/2008/05/30/sfx-168-column/#comment-1354 David Langford Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:47:08 +0000 http://davidlangford.co.uk/2008/05/30/sfx-168-column/#comment-1354 I can't disagree with any of that. I suspect that Lord of the Flies wasn't really considered as a contender owing to its lack of overt sf trappings. I can’t disagree with any of that. I suspect that Lord of the Flies wasn’t really considered as a contender owing to its lack of overt sf trappings.

]]> http://davidlangford.co.uk/2008/05/30/sfx-168-column/#comment-1351 Todd Mason Sat, 31 May 2008 00:31:40 +0000 http://davidlangford.co.uk/2008/05/30/sfx-168-column/#comment-1351 The notion that MISSION OF GRAVITY was denied the award by this widely reviled novel is pretty croggling in restrospect...Heinlien's THE STAR BEAST, a juvenile that had been serialized in F&SF as STAR LUMMOX and about as sophisticated as that title implies, would only have been an award-winner under the same sort of We Want to Give Him, Rather Than the Work in Question, The Award spirit that RIGHT apparently benefitted from. But the Clement was probably his most important novel, and a benchmark for the field in a way that none of the others cited, except LORD OF THE FLIES, could be said to be...and Golding, of course, would be recognized outside the Church of SF in a way Clement would not. Ah, well...perhaps the Hugo helped Clifton keep going a little longer, even if he was bitterly disillusioned about sf people by his end. The notion that MISSION OF GRAVITY was denied the award by this widely reviled novel is pretty croggling in restrospect…Heinlien’s THE STAR BEAST, a juvenile that had been serialized in F&SF as STAR LUMMOX and about as sophisticated as that title implies, would only have been an award-winner under the same sort of We Want to Give Him, Rather Than the Work in Question, The Award spirit that RIGHT apparently benefitted from. But the Clement was probably his most important novel, and a benchmark for the field in a way that none of the others cited, except LORD OF THE FLIES, could be said to be…and Golding, of course, would be recognized outside the Church of SF in a way Clement would not. Ah, well…perhaps the Hugo helped Clifton keep going a little longer, even if he was bitterly disillusioned about sf people by his end.

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