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GRRM and the Hugo Losers' Party.
Sep. 1st, 2019 09:52 amGeorge R.R. Martin has issued a statement on File 770.
For those of you out of the convention fandom loop (and I listen but do not congo), for a decade or so GRRM has thrown the "Hugo Losers Party", at which winners are welcome to attend but have to wear funny hats and be mocked. For a couple of years those parties became the responsibility of the Worldcon where they were held; GRRM took them back. This year's party was a logistics disaster. People who couldn't get into the Hugo Awards (another logistics problem) went directly to the Hugo Losers Party. That meant that when the actual losers had finished with the awards, the party was full up. People were dropped off by minibus in front of the venue and left to wait until space was freed up by people leaving. There were tweets. There was anger.
I linked to GRRM's statement of what happened. The mood of the piece is that the Hugo Losers Party is a gift he gives congoers, not an entitlement. That's completely reasonable and appropriate. Renting out a floor of a brewery for a party is an extravagant thing to do.
However, wow, were there bad logistics choices made. GRRM rented a venue with a capacity of 450; there were worries that the venue might be too small. The contingency plan was the expectation that the venue would violate the fire code (if there were still a marquee tag, I'd be using it) or allow the party to overflow into space they hadn't rented. Even if he'd offered cash to expand it on the night, it would have been much too late to staff that space.
GRRM was at least annoyed by the discovery that there would be 280 spots reserved for the Hugo losers and their plus-ones. "280 spots of out 450 were already gone, before I had even invited a single guest of my own. " Here's the core problem. GRRM doesn't see the losers as guests of his own. This isn't actually the Hugo Losers' party, and that's just fine; GRRM can throw any party he likes. But being annoyed that the Hugo losers expect to go is dooming yourself to disappointment. This realization would also have been a great moment to reevaluate the amount of space being rented. However, as he amply documents, even GRRM couldn't have afforded to rent another floor, with liquor and the food required by Irish law.
GRRM arranged for a single minibus seating twenty to bring people from the convention center to the party. He appears to have thought of this as a way to slowly integrate new partygoers. Instead, it meant long lines at the buses. He is annoyed that ConZealand decided that there wouldn't be enough taxi space to accommodate all the partygoers, and rented two bus-sized buses to transport partygoers to the party. There went GRRM's only attempt at crowd control.
> They were obeying what we were told was the law.
"What we were told"? I mean, come on, this is basic basic big-party planning that GRRM's team should have figured out months in advance. Fire codes are a thing in every venue everywhere, and when they aren't, people die.
> But much of the outrage about what happened seems to have its root in a mistaken belief that this was their party, intended to “honor” or “celebrate” them, that it was being staged “for” them, that they should have been given preference over everyone else, an assertion that just reeks of entitlement.
GRRM doesn't want to throw the Hugo Losers party. That's fine. But everybody should stop calling GRMM's party by its original name.
For those of you out of the convention fandom loop (and I listen but do not congo), for a decade or so GRRM has thrown the "Hugo Losers Party", at which winners are welcome to attend but have to wear funny hats and be mocked. For a couple of years those parties became the responsibility of the Worldcon where they were held; GRRM took them back. This year's party was a logistics disaster. People who couldn't get into the Hugo Awards (another logistics problem) went directly to the Hugo Losers Party. That meant that when the actual losers had finished with the awards, the party was full up. People were dropped off by minibus in front of the venue and left to wait until space was freed up by people leaving. There were tweets. There was anger.
I linked to GRRM's statement of what happened. The mood of the piece is that the Hugo Losers Party is a gift he gives congoers, not an entitlement. That's completely reasonable and appropriate. Renting out a floor of a brewery for a party is an extravagant thing to do.
However, wow, were there bad logistics choices made. GRRM rented a venue with a capacity of 450; there were worries that the venue might be too small. The contingency plan was the expectation that the venue would violate the fire code (if there were still a marquee tag, I'd be using it) or allow the party to overflow into space they hadn't rented. Even if he'd offered cash to expand it on the night, it would have been much too late to staff that space.
GRRM was at least annoyed by the discovery that there would be 280 spots reserved for the Hugo losers and their plus-ones. "280 spots of out 450 were already gone, before I had even invited a single guest of my own. " Here's the core problem. GRRM doesn't see the losers as guests of his own. This isn't actually the Hugo Losers' party, and that's just fine; GRRM can throw any party he likes. But being annoyed that the Hugo losers expect to go is dooming yourself to disappointment. This realization would also have been a great moment to reevaluate the amount of space being rented. However, as he amply documents, even GRRM couldn't have afforded to rent another floor, with liquor and the food required by Irish law.
GRRM arranged for a single minibus seating twenty to bring people from the convention center to the party. He appears to have thought of this as a way to slowly integrate new partygoers. Instead, it meant long lines at the buses. He is annoyed that ConZealand decided that there wouldn't be enough taxi space to accommodate all the partygoers, and rented two bus-sized buses to transport partygoers to the party. There went GRRM's only attempt at crowd control.
> They were obeying what we were told was the law.
"What we were told"? I mean, come on, this is basic basic big-party planning that GRRM's team should have figured out months in advance. Fire codes are a thing in every venue everywhere, and when they aren't, people die.
> But much of the outrage about what happened seems to have its root in a mistaken belief that this was their party, intended to “honor” or “celebrate” them, that it was being staged “for” them, that they should have been given preference over everyone else, an assertion that just reeks of entitlement.
GRRM doesn't want to throw the Hugo Losers party. That's fine. But everybody should stop calling GRMM's party by its original name.
