Hugos, Oscars, and Turtles? - Intentionally Blank Ep. 140

Рет қаралды 26,147

Күн бұрын

This week on Intentionally Blank, Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells discuss the Hugo Awards along with various other award shows and how they are run. On top of that, Brandon talks about tortoise care and Dan ponders British slang.
Check out our previous episode of Intentionally Blank: • Caribbean Island Adven...
Listen to Intentionally Blank wherever podcasts are available.
Sound engineering by Daniel Thompson
TIME CODES
(0:00) - Not Food Heist...Heist?
(2:08) - Brandon Pyramiding Care
(4:15) - Donald Trumps Reporting
(5:09) - Dans Turtle Movie Pitch
(6:25) - British Slang and Dan
(9:14) - Start of Hugo Discussion
(19:49) - Oscar Nominations
(23:45) - Nominations In books
(27:00) - A Better Way

Пікірлер: 97

@theravenswritingdesk 6 ай бұрын

I'm so pleased that you chose my food heist, even if you don't believe it was truly a food heist. This made my day!

@theravenswritingdesk 6 ай бұрын

For those interested, here was the whole food heist submission, with my reasons for calling it a food heist: Dear Dan, This isn't a story about a food heist, but a food heist cover up. Earlier this month-here in the UK-the corpses of seven giant tortoises were found in a forest outside of Devon. Thus far the authorities haven't released any information as to the condition the bodies were found, or how they made their way to Devon, especially given the protected status of the animals, and the fact that they had seemingly been smuggled to the UK from the Seychelles-based on the type of tortoise. I contend that this was a food heist of Wellsian proportions, given that since the discovery of Giant tortoises they have been considered a rare delicacy, and it's even been noted that Charles Darwin failed to bring Giant Tortoises back to the UK with him, because they were too delicious not to be eaten. I suspect that there is a cover up going on, and that these were smuggled to the UK in order to be eaten, and that the corpses were unearthed after the recent storms and foul weather we've been experiencing. They were stolen, smuggled, and then-I believe-slow cooked, leaving only the shells and skin behind. For your consideration, Adsum Try Ravenhill

@groofay 6 ай бұрын

I am in full agreement with you about this being a proper food heist, and thank you for horrifying us with this story and your justification for submitting it.

@theravenswritingdesk 6 ай бұрын

I agree,@@groofay I still reckon they're keeping the more sensitive details from the public.

@ewitsdonovan 6 ай бұрын

There's good eating in one of those.

@pa1degua 6 ай бұрын

if it was a food heist it might’ve just been a food scam like in the movie The Freshman with mathew broderick ie charge money for exotic foods serve normal food instead of

@Jillybeanzxo 6 ай бұрын

“There’s a lot of fly tipping, theres a washing machine in the woods” is the kind of reporting I want to hear more about 😂😂🤣

@dant5349 6 ай бұрын

A tip is another word for a landfill in the UK, so fly tipping means to dispose of the stuff you have to throwaway (especially larger stuff that isn’t easy to get rid of, like the aforementioned washing machines, but fridges are also commonly fly tipped) illegally instead of going to the tip.

@mascot4950 5 ай бұрын

So... going to the tip costs money? If so, the solution seems rather obvious and everyone wins. I remember when I was younger (this would be the 80s, possibly early 90s), there was a recycling facility that had an issue of people dumping things. Turned out that while it was free for private citizens, there was also a really weird arbitrary limit on the amount per trip. You could shuttle back and forth with half a van full every time, but show up with it completely full and they'd turn you away. I think they did away with that rule, because no tip I've been to in my adult life has had anything like it.

@sentientwaffle535 6 ай бұрын

Very sorry to hear about the Tortoises. I hope the tortoise-necromancers are brought to justice

@axiom2472 6 ай бұрын

I love how Brandon can hear a new phrase or slang and immediately piece it together.

@MurakamisCat 6 ай бұрын

Yes, fly-tipping means illegal dumping of trash. The witness statement in that article sounds totally normal and coherent to my British ears.

@Jillybeanzxo 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for consistently filming & posting these sessions! 🙌🙏 I look forward to them every week 🥰

@LiamEryt182 6 ай бұрын

Yep fly tipping is throwing loads of rubbish in a random area

@pickpocket293 6 ай бұрын

I love these podcasts, but I'm sad that they seem to be getting shorter. Bring back the 50 minute episodes of Bran-Dan!

@bradlygray1974 6 ай бұрын

I agree. I'm just glad they upload so regularly. This podcast has helped me in so many ways.

@guesswhosaninja2522 5 ай бұрын

Loved listening to the discussion on what's been happening with the Hugos! Just a note though for the hosts that Xiran Jay Zhao goes by they/them pronouns

@bibliophilecb 5 ай бұрын

I’m a month late here but commenting to bump! Was about to comment this myself.

@GeorgeKinsill 6 ай бұрын

Sad to see the Hugo awards corrupted as they were. I am glad that Brandon highlighted the great potential for coercion that might have been involved. Even if not an outright physical threat, China does have a social credit system that can heavily penalize people that do not max it out. Therefore, it might have been indirect, i.e., "By allowing this book to go forward, it would be associated with actions that traditionally lower scores by x%, which would affect one's ability to make a living" or some such. While it is definitely important to have a diverse array of nations represented, having them in countries where people do not have the basic freedom of expression necessary to meaningfully judge the awards discredits the Hugo awards altogether.

@manaofthe2 6 ай бұрын

It's possible they were Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortoises, and the food heisters stole the pizza and left the tortoises.

@SarcasmFiend23 6 ай бұрын

I need Dan to make his teenage boys watch Barbie because they need to see it too. And then I need a Barbie episode from you guys. My unpopular opinion is that it was a better movie than Oppenheimer because I’ve brought it up more often than Oppenheimer since seeing them the same week. Both amazing, one stayed with me and spoke to me more. I want your long form opinions!!

@kaladongstormguy 6 ай бұрын

If I had learned the lesson of "don't find your value in your relationship with another person/if a girl likes you" when I was a young teenage boy, my highschool days would have been so much better. It really is a great movie for young boys to see and for more reasons than just that one lesson.

@davidhamilton676 6 ай бұрын

Also, on the point Brandon made that after he took off that the awards kind of ignore him. The awards of all industry do have some self awareness. They do recognize that things like The Avengers and Brandon Sanderson don't need their help to drive attention to them. An award can give a much needed boost to people who are doing good work but are just slight under the pop culture radar, and the attention can make all the difference. N. K. Jemisin - i had never heard of her books until awards started mentioning her name. Like, That is not a slight, its a truth. The award, by definition, is fan driven/funded advertising. Brandon Sanderson and The Avengers need no fan funding advertising. We will all be there either way.

@zackattack366 6 ай бұрын

I would love an episode about Bad Story Ideas that became wildly successful.

@eldenking9285 5 ай бұрын

Have yall ever covered the milk heist of April 2023??

@verdanthorizons 6 ай бұрын

I'd be all for making a Dragonsteel Awards

@nonethelesszero7950 6 ай бұрын

I think book awards also try to identify excellent work in contrast to market success. Something like "let's celebrate the excellent writing--and ignore the market success books since they already have their award in the bank."

@michaelbodell7740 6 ай бұрын

On the note of comedy rarely winning awards, Orconomics won the 2018 Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO). The book is really excellent, and the SPFBO is an award worth watching that consistently nominates some outstanding books and I think has a fairly wider range of sub-genres that make it somewhat easy to pick and choose the nominees that you are likely to personally enjoy. FWIW Daniel Greene recently reviewed Orconomics and he thought it was pretty much as close to Pratchett as he's seen, so again to Brandon's reference of Pratchett not winning awards, Orconomics might be worth a read from people as the rare award winning comedy/satire.

@goblinhero2900 6 ай бұрын

So I read up on the Hugo drama, and sadly I think something like this would eventually happen since the "no winner" in multiple categories one year. This is odd too since one of the voting groups (something puppies or something) was formed to allegedly test the awards for oddities happening with votes and after it the person heading that group said they didn't think there actually were the oddities they were concerned about. So given the prior controversies it's sad to see something like this happen, but we know that one person has left from the committee and the organization in charge apparently had words with the people involved. It is clear something that shouldn't have happened did happen, so now it becomes everyone needing to watch and see what happens with the Hugo awards going forward and we have to make our decisions from there.

@francesccampos1343 6 ай бұрын

Nobody cares about HUGO awards anyways, they have been politisized for so many years that they lost any credibility. How can anyone consider these awards legit when most widely considered the best authors of fantasy have never won even once? Abercombie, S.Erikson, GRR Martin, Sanderson, Tolkien, P.Rothfuss... NONE of them won HUGO awards for their main series books (only GRR.Martin and Sanderson won it with short novellas, not main books) But SOMEHOW a NK Jemisin who is a NOBODY next to those authors won 3 CONSECUTIVE YEARS, with a saga of books that i have yet to see someone who has it in their top10 books or fantasy series of all time... BS awards.

@danielcoote188 6 ай бұрын

You got fly tipping correct. Mass dumping of waste illegally and irresponsibly. Though I love the comparison between fly tipping and cow tipping. 😂

@plusmanikantanr 6 ай бұрын

At least no one is windmill tilting or poop canoeing 😆

@play_history 6 ай бұрын

One comment on, "what we gives awards to." I think the general conceit of "prestige" awards is that you're trying to find something that pushes the bounds of the medium in a way that something currently commercially acceptable would not do. People are fascinated with finding the pioneers of tomorrow in something that doesn't just follow same old conventions to success. I'm sure Brandon would dissect that definition down, but that's how I see these awards ceremonies *considering themselves*. Whether it's reality or not varies.

@williamkeaton5091 6 ай бұрын

the activity of illegally leaving waste or unwanted objects next to a road, in a field, in a river, etc.: We need to tackle fly-tipping, street crime, and vandalism in our area. Related words. fly-tip.

@nanotyrannus5435 6 ай бұрын

I want to note that Pratchett would have been in the finalists for a Hugo in the early 2000s, (way too late) but he declined nomination on the basis that it would have stressed him too much during the con. I think "literary" is very hard to define. I do think the Hugos (currently) value doing interesting things with format, character, etc. After all, all of Tamsyn Muirs novels have been nominated. But I don't think it's exclusive to these kinds of works. Scalzi was a finalist last year, Andy Weird in 2022. I wouldn't put MRK in a strictly literary category either and 3 out of her last 4 books have been finalists. There might be a disadvantage for very large authors, because the awards are also a way to support an author and raise their profile for the readers, which is likely a consideration for many voters. For a Brandon Sanderson a Hugo is not a huge boost in popularity, for most authors it is. That factor might have played more of a role recently than in the past when it wasn't easy to judge the profile of an author, and maybe it played less of a role then in general (I grew up in the social media age). That might definitely be a factor reducing nomination chance for authors far above the crowd in popularity.

@vispian7688 6 ай бұрын

I never thought my home country of Devon would get mentioned on this podcast lol

@robertkruger5744 6 ай бұрын

Dan, why did you have to ether my elsecallers??? (No that was great writhing and validated the quiz selection for me lol)

@pyredynasty 6 ай бұрын

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that fly tipping is super hard mode cow tipping.

@younktsome2 6 ай бұрын

I guess we need the "BranDano" awards now.

@clauluz610 6 ай бұрын

Am I the only one freaking out about de signing of those texts Brandon is doing, tituled: "The Bands of mourning"?? What is that?? Somebody tell me...

@brokenredflag 6 ай бұрын

The boy and the heron is nominated for an oscar! I have not seen it,... but i hope it wins lolololo....dont destroy me.

@grantstratton2239 6 ай бұрын

Saw it in theaters! I was both really excited and sad to see Miyazaki's last film. I thought it was really good! My wife left the theater a bit annoyed at feeling like things from the book were left out that would have been really helpful to understand the story (I agree with this point, but think it's less important than she felt like it was).

@Duiker36 6 ай бұрын

@@grantstratton2239 Have ... either of you read the book?

@reillyliner 6 ай бұрын

Prisoner of Azkaban MAY be the best single book in the Harry Potter series. Yes it’s short. Yes time travel makes essentially any story broken. But that book is just… incredible for its brevity. Peak HP in my view is Goblet of Fire. But I think Azkaban is my guilty pleasure. They’re all great.

@southpaw612 6 ай бұрын

I have some knowledge of Chinese politics and when I saw that there had been no "official" communication from China, I just laughed. The Chinese state is very sophisticated and they obviously wouldn't repress an international event "officially", but it also doesn't mean pressure wasn't applied. The organisers probably had to have at least someone connected to the Party (disclosed to them or not) as a liaison to even hold the event in a venue, especially since it involves foreigners and it's not a domestic/Chinese event. I don't think they threatened families per se, as it would generate a huge diplomatic PR problem. That would be a last resort, which means their first resort worked: they probably simply said the event couldn't happen otherwise, put up a lot of obstacles and the organisation caved and excluded the "problematic" authors. Most likely, a lot of people involved were quite naive at what holding the event in China would entail.

@tap836 6 ай бұрын

Can't forget the venue was commissioned and built in under a year in order to host Worldcon.

@southpaw612 6 ай бұрын

@@tap836 I had no idea about that. That would possibly mean that the local authorities are even more involved because the venue had to be built from scratch, instead of just renting out a space. Personally I completely agree with Sanderson here, the organisers should have just stood by their decision and reacted more candidly and with more humility to the backlash, admitting fault, extending the eligibility period and deciding not to host future events in China...

@tap836 6 ай бұрын

@@southpaw612 For those directly involved last year, if the CPP actually did exert some form of pressure, there is likely no way they could ever backtrack, admit fault, etc. in the future without suffering the repercussions. Their personal/familial best interest could have been to stand firmly but speak as little about it as possible, and just let the future people running things correct the issue. I imagine there is a good chance something will be done within the next couple years to essentially have a do-over. Although they never ran do-overs for the couple years the two puppies groups pressed their fingers on the scale and triggered the community into breaking the Hugo's. So maybe the results will stand as is this time too.

@joelvburke 6 ай бұрын

I really wish we all existed in a community where these 2 guys didn't have to be so careful about what they say about their own community

@gckari9862 6 ай бұрын

they can freely criticize China, but they tiptoe around the topic of the industry in the States. Sometimes, the Hugos have a lot to do with subjectivity and publishing companies advertising or pushing certain pieces to be nominated. oh well, plenty of excellent books have never been nominated for an award, and we can still enjoy them as they are.

@WasatchWind 6 ай бұрын

I respect Brandon for knowing how to navigate what is professional to say. Some authors that will easily come to mind have no idea how to control their emotions and will say the stupidest stuff online. Brandon just is a chill dude who wants to maintain the freedom to keep writing his fun stories.

@Somna77 6 ай бұрын

Yeah Brandon hit the nail on the head. We call the local recycling and waste disposal centres the "dump" or the "tip" so "taking a washing machine to the tip" is a thing. If you drive out to the middle of nowhere and just get rid of that pesky washing machine rather than waiting for five minutes at the centre (because.... nope, no idea why you'd do that) you're "tipping" on the fly so "fly tipping". I really, really want there to be a tiny restaurant for insects somewhere so it could mean leaving a bonus for the waiters there instead, but sadly we have yet to invent that here yet. Perhaps you Americans have these already?

@lobstereleven4610 6 ай бұрын

A lot of western public (not all) often underestimate the insidious and often subversive methods the CCP (and their departments like the MSS or their propaganda dept) uses to coerce people abroad and within China. They’ve had 70+ years of doing this and have learned from the best (NKVD, KGB etc…) this is coming from someone who have relatives in China that have experienced some of their methods. It’s mind blowing from a western perspective. 😢

@Tirlex 6 ай бұрын

Dan. You should watch a drama called twinkling watermelon. I think you'll really like it.

@ladeanadockery6220 6 ай бұрын

Oh my!

@Apetus 6 ай бұрын

Where does one go to submit a food heist?

@DadBodSwagGod 6 ай бұрын

And Things Like This

@naastyaaaaaaaaa 6 ай бұрын

Great video! One little note: Xiran Jay Zhao uses they/them pronouns.❤

@Magic-zg4ok 6 ай бұрын

Dynamics

@porterwayman8643 6 ай бұрын

Week 12 of persistently asking for an Intentionally Blank Episode on Marching Band!

@KuoSketch 5 ай бұрын

6:10 Brandon just dismissed the entire TMNT universe in one sentence :D

@michaelott55 6 ай бұрын

How do I send a food heist to Dan? I saw that on Feb 10th, 133 tonnes of chicken was stolen in Cuba

@pinkofastora 5 ай бұрын

was hoping for a tortuitous route callback :(

@willowpackerthestoryteller135 6 ай бұрын

Gretta Gerwig gets snubbed every year at this point 😢

@ElijahStormblessed 6 ай бұрын

(A slight correction for Dan is that Xiran Jay Zhao uses they/them pronouns)

@finchharper4647 6 ай бұрын

Why were the Hugo's in China?

@roylandrum863 6 ай бұрын

I think this is voted on by members a couple years in advance. In the particular year the 2023 site was voted on, there was a large number of memberships bought based in China. Which gave China a lot of votes.

@masonwheeler6536 6 ай бұрын

The first problem was choosing to hold WorldCon in China in the first place. You know how interest in the Olympics has declined severely ever since 2008, when they took something that was supposed to be a celebration of human dignity and held it in the cesspool of oppression that is China? Watch for the same to happen to WorldCon and the Hugo Awards. _Especially_ after Covid, they should never have chosen to hold the awards there. I really hate to say it, but between this egregious decision and what Brandon describes as "skewing literary" and I would call "losing their way and abandoning the purpose for which they were created," it's starting to look like when Vox Day said it's time to leave a big smoking crater where the Hugos used to be, that he was not wrong afterall; just early.

@mrcliff3709 5 ай бұрын

He was ahead of the curve so to speak

@theresakidd 5 ай бұрын

I’m going to need a British person to explain fly tipping somewhere in these comments.

@tap836 6 ай бұрын

The Hugo's have been mostly irrelevant to me from shortly before the whole puppies incident. Now it is more a list of things I just don't need to bother reading.

@Zach64612 6 ай бұрын

I dont think you can take awards seriously if they're going to disqualify people on the whim of the country in which they're based. its kind of a joke.

@ThatStickFromShadesmar 6 ай бұрын

Too early 😆

@rylanwow 6 ай бұрын

xiran jay zhao uses they/them pronouns btw!

@Richardiii2 5 ай бұрын

I don't know if extending eligibility is an easy answer. Is that fair to people who publish this year? However we certainly can make sure that World Con never takes place in China while its controlled by the CCP.

@BrandSanderson 5 ай бұрын

Yeah. This is the main problem with extended eligibility. Agreed.

@Eval999 6 ай бұрын

the Hugos are organized in such an insane way as to be near meaningless in my opinion.

@douglashufnagel7424 5 ай бұрын

Doing business in/with China, and communists in general, is and always has been awful.

@gubwump 6 ай бұрын

Pyramiding = acute scute crenation?

@zenthepoet. 6 ай бұрын

Adoooonalsium

@TheAmyrlinSeat 6 ай бұрын

ADOOOONALSIUM - the god metal of Adonals.

@user-zy3nk3sp5c 6 ай бұрын

So….now that Brandon has criticized China and effectively eliminated hopes of Hollywood adapting his work, does that mean he’ll have more time for writing and be able to move his timeline up?

@avsambart 5 ай бұрын

Xiran Jay Zhao uses They/Them pronouns.

@HD_Simplicityy 6 ай бұрын

You need to watch Oppenheimer over Barbie.

@francesccampos1343 6 ай бұрын

None cares about HUGO awards anyways. NK Jemisin won 3 times in a row... Brandon? Abercombie? Erikson? Tolkien? GRR Martin? Rothfuss? Terry Partchett? 0 for their main novels and only Brandon and Martin for short stories. The HUGO awards have always been compromised.

@nathancarter8239 6 ай бұрын

Hey, just a quick note that Xiran Jay Zhao uses they/them pronouns! Just wanted to let you know. If someone else mentions it or it comes up in the podcast I'll delete this comment.

@Eval999 6 ай бұрын

why would Barbie be nominated for director...? Is it particularly innovatively made?

@watcherofwatchers 6 ай бұрын

Did you not see it? It was unique in many ways. There's a reason it is quite popular, and it isn't the love of plastic kids' dolls.