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Retro Hugos
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thelostpianist
Posted 2013-04-15 8:44 PM (#4951)
Subject: Retro Hugos



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Just curious. I know the Mythopoeic Award list is still in the making, but is there a plan to ever add the Retro Hugos to the Hugo page? Or are you guys considering these as "non-canon" because of their Retro status?
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Administrator
Posted 2013-04-15 9:24 PM (#4953 - in reply to #4951)
Subject: RE: Retro Hugos



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No, we're not planning on adding the retro Hugos to the site.  The reason is that the award, indeed all the awards, are a snapshot of what was considered important or at least popular, at the time they were given.  They're very much a product of their time.  If you give an award retroactively you're using the benefit of hindsight to pick the books that still stand up today.  An advantage that the people who voted on the real award never had.

There are many Hugo award winners that would be stripped of their title if we applied that same hindsight to them now.  I'm sure we can all name a few of those and their obvious, to us now at any rate, replacements.  I don't think the Hugo represents the best books but more just a selection of what was trending at the time.  You need more time to pass before you can really lay down a best book for a given year.

I hope that makes sense.  Thanks for asking!

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prcardi
Posted 2020-06-08 8:45 PM (#22117 - in reply to #4951)
Subject: Re: Retro Hugos



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I'd like to voice my support for adding the Retro Hugo Awards to the site. I respect the thoughtful reply from the Administrator but will disagree with their conclusion. Awards are, as the Admin points out, a snapshot of what was considered important or at least popular, at the time they were given. This is true of the Retro Hugo Awards just as it is of the regular Hugo Awards or the other award lists maintained by this site. The Retro Hugo Awards are only different in that they are not given in the same (or next) year after a book's publication. The 1939 Retro Hugo Award is, then, a snapshot of what was considered important in 2014 (the 1941 Retro Award for 2016, the 1943 Retro Award for 2018, and so on).

The fact that a respected body of science fiction and fantasy book aficionados came together and, through an organized process, nominated and then gave awards for genre merit is what makes the Retro Hugo Award (and all of the awards as well) worth recognition and placement on the site. I do not think that anyone is going to dispute that the Retro Hugo Awards are categorically different from the regular Hugo Awards. Having the opportunity to vote for the best science fiction and fantasy books in 1945, from the vantage point of 2020, will undoubtedly produce a different result than if fans had voted in 1945. That is not reason, however, to ignore the award. It simply requires the discriminating awards-follower to think about them differently. The site could even list the Retro Hugo Awards as a separate award, much like the Locus Science Fiction and Locus Fantasy awards are distinct. The Retro Hugos now have 42 nominations across 8 years with an award winner for each year, and there are more planned for the future. As a site that is "dedicated to identifying, reading and sharing the best Speculative Fiction books the genre has to offer" and to making "it possible for you to identify the books you are most likely to enjoy, and to help you keep track of," it would be fitting to keep track of the Retro Hugos. After all, the World Science Fiction Society maintaining the award shares the site's goals to identify, read, and share the best Speculative Fiction books the genre has to offer - that is the purpose of the award after all. We cannot go back in time to start the Hugo Awards earlier than 1953, but fans are doing the next best thing by giving awards retrospectively. I hope to see the Retro Hugo Awards added to the site.
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Returned
Posted 2020-08-30 12:00 PM (#22401 - in reply to #4951)
Subject: Re: Retro Hugos



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Agreed - why not create a separate Retro Hugos award column?
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