Nerd Alert! World Fantasy Awards retire Lovecraft bust; fan fixes Force omission

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      AFTER 40 YEARS OF bestowing upon recipients a pop-eyed likeness of H.P. Lovecraft, the World Fantasy Awards will retire that particular piece of hardware. Since 1975, a bust of the Cthulhu creator (designed in typically grotesque style by cartoonist Gahan Wilson, known for his work in Playboy and National Lampoon) has been given out to winning authors. At the World Fantasy Convention last weekend, however, the WFAs announced that this will be the statuette's final year.

      The announcement comes after a campaign to replace the trophy spearheaded by author Daniel José Older, who was hoping to see a bust of African-American writer Octavia Butler replace the one of Lovecraft, who publicly espoused racist views. Older was not alone. On her blog, 2011 WFA winner Nnedi Okorafor wrote of being "conflicted" upon reading Lovecraft's 1912 poem "On the Creation of Niggers": "[A] statuette of this racist man’s head is in my home. A statuette of this racist man’s head is one of my greatest honors as a writer."

      The organizers of the World Fantasy Awards did not specifically cite Older's campaign as a reason for the change, nor did they announce what will replace the Lovecraft statuette.

      Lovecraft's symbolic ouster has not been well-received in all quarters. On his blog, Indian-born American literary critic and writer S.T. Joshi wrote that the World Fantasy Award organizers had made their decision in order to "placate the shrill whining of a handful of social justice warriors".

      Joshi's opinion on the matter carries some weight; not only has he won two of the awards himself, he is also considered a leading expert on all things Lovecraft, having written the authoritative two-volume biography I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft. (Also relevant is that he is a person of colour, if that wasn't obvious.) Joshi has returned his two World Fantasy Awards, sending them personally to co-chairman David G. Hartwell along with a letter requesting that he be nominated for no further awards.

      "The decision seems to me a craven yielding to the worst sort of political correctness and an explicit acceptance of the crude, ignorant, and tendentious slanders against Lovecraft propagated by a small but noisy band of agitators," Joshi's letter stated.  

      THE LOVECRAFT "KERFUFFLE", as S.T. Joshi has dubbed it, has overshadowed the fact that, yes, actual awards were given out at the World Fantasy Convention last weekend. Lest we fail to acknowledge the winners, here is the complete list:

      Author David Mitchell, whose book The Bone Clocks won the 2015 World Fantasy Award for best novel.
      • NOVELThe Bone Clocks, David Mitchell
      • NOVELLA: We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory
      • SHORT FICTION: "Do You Like to Look at Monsters?", Scott Nicolay
      • ANTHOLOGYMonstrous Affections, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, ed.
      • COLLECTION (TIE):
        • Gifts for the One Who Comes After, Helen Marshall
        • The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, Angela Slatter
      • ARTIST: Samuel Araya
      • SPECIAL AWARD—PROFESSIONAL: Sandra Kasturi & Brett Alexander Savory, for ChiZine Publications
      • SPECIAL AWARD—NONPROFESSIONAL: Ray B. Russell & Rosalie Parker, for Tartarus Press

      Congratulations to all. 

      STILL ANNOYED BY the almost total absence of Luke Skywalker from any promo materials for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Adam Relf fixed that for you:

      ON THAT NOTE, I must admit that I have been as guilty as anyone of possibly overhyping this new SW flick. With that in mind, I'm just gonna leave this here: 

      Follow me on Twitter: @JohnRLucas

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