ladybusiness | (Reply)

From:

*stands up and applauds*

Thank you for this. Thank you for the work you did in advocating that Ao3 should be nominated for a Hugo, and thank you for your efforts over the years it took for it to receive that nomination, and then the award.

I was in the audience for the ceremony. It was my first time at Worldcon, and I was there next to two friends (and my not-transformative-fannish husband) who met and fell in love with each other through transformative fandom, and who both met me through transformative fandom on Dreamwidth. When Ao3 won, and Naomi Novik's acceptance speech invited all who felt part of the Ao3 community to stand up, and my friends and I stood up, with so many others (including some people who, incidentally, were professional original fiction authors who had been nominated for, and won, Hugo Awards in other categories), it was like being welcomed home. It was one of the highlights of not just the ceremony, but the entire convention, and it was part of what made me feel at home there, and keen to continue participating in Worldcon, and engaging with the Hugo Awards in years to come.

To be told my joy was unwelcome, my sense of community and belonging was misplaced, and my friends and I were behaving like wreckers, was incredibly upsetting. My only reassurance is that this whole kerfuffle has made the Hugos old guard look ridiculous, and that (given the numerous panels on fanworks and times fanworks were mentioned in panels that ostensibly were only about original fiction, by industry professionals, at the Dublin Worldcon), is that we are witnessing a sea change. The resistance from the grumbly old guard seems to me because they realise this.

[An icon with a quote from Anne Rice arguing with fans/reviewers seemed appropriate here.]