{"id":4852,"date":"2022-08-17T14:37:41","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T19:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=4852"},"modified":"2023-01-06T13:05:06","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T19:05:06","slug":"will-mccarthys-2023-prometheus-award-acceptance-speech-the-nutritional-value-of-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/will-mccarthys-2023-prometheus-award-acceptance-speech-the-nutritional-value-of-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Will McCarthy’s 2022 Prometheus Award acceptance speech: The nutritional value of literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the acceptance speech by sf writer Wil McCarthy, winner of the 2022 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for Rich Man’s Sky.\u00a0<\/em>McCarthy presented his speech Aug. 13, 2022, via Zoom as part of the LFS’ annual awards ceremony, which included two-time Prometheus winner Travis Corcoran as presenter of the Best Novel category.<\/i><\/p>\n

BY WIL MCCARTHY<\/b><\/p>\n

Howdy.\u00a0 I\u2019m very happy to be here, and I\u2019d like to thank all of you for inviting me.\u00a0 Yours is a great organization with a noble purpose, and I can only imagine the energy that goes into it.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s ironic that I\u2019m the one getting recognition today, when you all are the ones doing the work.\u00a0 My only regret is that I\u2019m not able to thank you in person.<\/p>\n

\"Rich<\/a>
Rich Man’s Sky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

When I look back at the past Prometheus Award winners, I have to say, I\u2019m pleasantly shocked to find myself on any list that includes names like Stephenson<\/a>, Doctorow<\/a>, and Stros<\/a>s\u2026 Vinge<\/a>, Varley<\/a>, and Niven<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And that doesn\u2019t even count the Hall of Fame winners!<\/p>\n

Even if RICH MAN\u2019s SKY<\/em> is the worst novel that ever won this award, it\u2019s a huge honor.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how much that means.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to thank (Baen Books editor) Toni Weisskopf for buying an unwritten novel based on nothing but a 7-page outline and her belief in me as a writer.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to thank the rest of the Baen team for making the book happen.\u00a0 You guys are awesome.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to thank Dave Seeley for the jaw-dropping cover art that, in my opinion, perfectly captures the tone of the novel.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to thank my wife, Evangeline, for not only serving as a subject matter expert, sensitivity reader, editor, and love of my life, but also for leaning hard on me to start writing fiction again.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s fair to say: if not for her support, this book would not exist.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to thank all the friends who edited and critiqued the work in progress.\u00a0 You know who you are.<\/p>\n

THE NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF LITERATURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

What I\u2019d like to talk about today is the nutritional value of our literature.\u00a0 In the animal kingdom, one habit that\u2019s unique to humans is that we take the foods in our environment, and we refine their components into an assortment of white powders.\u00a0 Then we remix these powders into glommy masses that nature never intended and that our bodies aren\u2019t really designed to process.\u00a0 Oh, these \u201cfoods\u201d are yummy, but they won\u2019t leave you better off.<\/p>\n

We do the same thing with literature.\u00a0 A little sugar, a little salt, a little flour and cocaine, and you\u2019ve got a highly addictive confection that will keep readers coming back for more.\u00a0 But is white powder really better than an apple?\u00a0 Is a croissant going to feed you the way a bowl of oatmeal and mixed berries would?<\/p>\n

I think some people familiar with my work may sit up at this point and say: \u201cJeez, Wil.\u00a0 You\u2019re a white-powder kind of writer.\u201d\u00a0 And I certainly have been, at times.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Wil McCarthy in the cockpit of some starship (Photo courtesy of Baen Books)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But here\u2019s where I need to digress, and talk briefly about my history.<\/p>\n

In the mid-2000s, I was living the dream of the full-time professional writer.\u00a0 I was a contributing editor at WIRED magazine and a monthly columnist for the SciFi channel, with two New York Times Notable Books under my belt, and standing offers to write for this<\/u> magazine or that<\/u> publisher.\u00a0 It was a stupid time to walk away from my writing career, but that\u2019s what I did.\u00a0 Instead, I founded a technology startup, knowing full well it was going to consume 110% of my time and energy.\u00a0 It ended badly, as such things often do, but that took a long time \u2013 ten years.<\/p>\n

In the wake of it, I realized I hadn\u2019t made any actual friends during that time.\u00a0 I\u2019d actually lost a few.\u00a0 And yes, when the time was right, the VC\u2019s fired me from the company I\u2019d started in my own basement.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t need R&D anymore, or thought they didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Which is fine; I signed a contract.\u00a0 All\u2019s fair in love, war, and business.\u00a0 But I was<\/u> surprised that nobody stood up for me.\u00a0 Nobody threw me a going away party, or even sent a sympathy card.\u00a0 I was simply \u201cout\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019ll confess to a certain degree of schadenfreude when the company crashed and burned two years later, without ever once asking for my help.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Will McCarthy (Photo courtesy of Baen Books)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was around this time that I finally started writing again.\u00a0 But after twelve years away, I found I couldn\u2019t simply dash off a quick plot, driven by the white powder of bold characters and amazing science.\u00a0 I mean, those things were still in there, but now the characters\u2019 internal dialogues were taking a deeper role.\u00a0 Not just a Korean-American woman on a secret mission in outer space. \u00a0Not just how it feels<\/u>, moment by moment, to be<\/u> a Korean-American woman on a secret mission.\u00a0 But also, I think, a little taste what it feels like to be a human being at all, caught up in the machinations of other human beings.\u00a0 White powder can\u2019t authentically convey that kind of experience.<\/p>\n

Also, this secret mission isn\u2019t happening in a vacuum, so to speak.\u00a0 I wanted to write about a future every bit as complex and ambiguous as the present.\u00a0 White-powder science fiction takes one exciting trend and extrapolates it into the future, but honest<\/u> science fiction, has to extrapolate everything<\/u>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot of work.<\/p>\n

When I came back to writing after that twelve-year gap, the first thing I produced were a pair of novellas, the second of which won an award.\u00a0 Next, I produced two novels, the second of which won an award.\u00a0 This<\/u> award.\u00a0 I like to think this means I\u2019m on the right track.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Novelist Wil McCarthy (Photo courtesy of Baen Books)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I set out to write RICH MAN\u2019S SKY<\/em>, all this stuff was floating around in my head.\u00a0 I\u2019d been watching the rapid progress of various private space programs, and wondering what it would look like if that same astonishing pace were maintained for another three decades.\u00a0 The Four Horsemen of the novel don\u2019t have to answer to VCs or governments, or even shareholders.\u00a0 In terms of getting things done quickly, that\u2019s a really good thing.\u00a0 But that kind of concentrated power is also the very thing America rebelled against in 1776.<\/p>\n

That tension between the positive and negative aspects is what the book is really about.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been criticized as both too sexist and<\/u> too feminist, too capitalist or too anticapitalist, too exploitive or too woke, too sexy or too prudish, too complex or too simplistic.\u00a0 I think all of these criticisms are accurate, because all those viewpoints are present in the story, just as they are in the world.\u00a0 That\u2019s what whole food looks like, and again, these reviews (even if they\u2019re negative) imply that I accomplished at least some of what I set out to do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Wil McCarthy surrounded by books (Photo: Baen Books)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is this a libertarian book?\u00a0 Am I a libertarian writer?\u00a0 Yes and no.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to remember that I\u2019m not a character in the story.\u00a0 None of the people in there have the same background or experiences I have, so their points of view \u2013 all of them \u2013 are different than mine. \u00a0I did my best to portray them honestly.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not Hemingway.\u00a0 I definitely sprinkled some sugar and cocaine over the top of it, and if that keeps me out of literary heaven, so be it.\u00a0 People like<\/u> cocaine, but if you\u2019re going to turn up the metabolism like that, you\u2019d better also have some decent fuel for the fire.\u00a0 Whole foods and blow, my secret recipe.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

Read this earlier Prometheus blog<\/a> about Wil McCarthy’s career.<\/p>\n

Read this Prometheus blog review<\/a> of Rich Man’s Sky.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch the <\/strong>videos <\/strong>of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/strong><\/a>
\n
\n<\/u><\/strong>* Prometheus winners: \u00a0<\/strong>For the list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to the full set of published appreciation-reviews of past winners.<\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital, and in some ways even more powerful than politics in the long run, by sparking innovation, better ideas, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights and differences.<\/p>\n

Through recognizing the literature of liberty and the many different but complementary visions of a free future via the Prometheus Awards, the LFS hopes to help spread better visions of the future that help humanity overcome tyranny, slavery and war and achieve universal liberty and human rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the acceptance speech by sf writer Wil McCarthy, winner of the 2022 Prometheus Award for Best Novel for Rich Man’s Sky.\u00a0McCarthy presented his speech Aug. 13, 2022, via Zoom as part of the LFS’ annual awards ceremony, which included two-time Prometheus winner Travis Corcoran as presenter of the Best Novel category. BY WIL … Continue reading Will McCarthy’s 2022 Prometheus Award acceptance speech: The nutritional value of literature<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[687,31,10],"tags":[1298,1657,150,151,290,97,20,16,1487,1658,69,1484],"class_list":["post-4852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-award-acceptance-speech","category-awards-news","category-news","tag-baen-books","tag-best-novel-winner","tag-charles-stross","tag-cory-doctorow","tag-john-varley","tag-larry-niven","tag-neal-stephenson","tag-prometheus-award","tag-rich-mans-sky","tag-toni-weisskopf","tag-vernor-vinge","tag-wil-mccarthy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-1gg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4852"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5375,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852\/revisions\/5375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}