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Sf writers Cherryh, Hoyt, Fancher and Wilson and LFS leaders explore “Visions of SF, Liberty, Human Rights: The Prometheus Awards Over Four Decades, from F. Paul Wilson and Robert Heinlein to Today” in North American Science Fiction Convention panel & 2020 Prometheus Awards ceremony
Sample excerpt from LFS 2020 Worldcon panel discussion:
“Here is a novel (The Lord of the Rings) about a ring of power, ‘one ring to rule them all.’ What does Tolkien shows us about that ring?,” LFS president William Stoddard said.
“He shows us first that it is a danger to the world, that it enables its possessor to conquer and enslave free people, to go out and subjugate and rule them, according to his vision of how things should be, with no input from anyone else.
Editor-writer William H. Stoddard in his library, with his GURPS book on Fantasy, published in 2004 (Photo courtesy of Stoddard)
But also he also shows us, through other characters, that the ring is dangerous to have. That it is corrupting. Gandalf and Galadriel both dread the thought of having the ring because it would tempt them to use their power in ways that would destroy them…
“We see it has a steadily corrupting influence on Frodo. In a sense, Frodo and and Gollum are spiritual twins. Gollum is what Frodo is in danger of becoming. Tolkien shows us that the drive to power is addictive,” Stoddard said.
“I’m baffled myself why some people read the trilogy and don’t get a libertarian theme out of it.”
Legendary sf writer Harlan Ellison (1934-2018) accepted the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction after the August 2015 Worldcon Prometheus Awards ceremony, which inducted “Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman” into the Hall of Fame.
Ellison’s 1965 short story portrays one man's surrealist rebellion against a repressive future society obsessed with timeliness. The very personal and eloquent video includes a mini-tour of his home and description of many of his favorite awards, some reminiscences about his career, and a few political comments about his sympathy for libertarian ideas.
At the London Worldcon in August 2014 in England, emcee Amy Sturgis presented the Best Novel award to Prometheus Award Best Novel co-winners Cory Doctorow (for Homeland) and Ramez Naam (for Nexus). Each author spoke about threats to liberty, from constraints on the information society to the War on drugs and War on terror.
The Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction went to Lois McMaster Bujold’s novel Falling Free. Sturges read Bujold's acceptance statement.
LFS member Fred Moulton presented the 2011 Prometheus Awards in Aug. 2011 at Renovation, the Reno, Nevada, Worldcon, to Sarah Hoyt (for Best Novel for Darkship Thieves, a coming-of-age saga depicting a plausible anarchist society among the asteroids and a heroic woman’s fight for her freedom and identity against a tyrannical Earth) and to the late George Orwell (for Best Classic Fiction for his 1945 novel Animal Farm.)
Michael Grossberg, who founded the LFS in 1982 to help sustain the Prometheus Awards, has been an arts critic, speaker and award-winning journalist for five decades.
Michael has won Ohio SPJ awards for Best Critic in Ohio and Best Arts Reporting (seven times).
He's written for Reason, Libertarian Review and Backstage weekly; helped lead the American Theatre Critics Association for two decades; and has contributed to six books, including critical essays for the annual Best Plays Theatre Yearbook and an afterword for J. Neil Schulman's novel The Rainbow Cadenza.
Among books he recommends from a libertarian-futurist perspective: Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist & How Innovation Works, David Boaz's The Libertarian Mind and Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress.
View all posts by Michael Grossberg
