LFS announces 2011 Hall of Fame Award Finalists

The Libertarian Futurist Society has selected five finalists for the 2011 Hall of Fame Award from 21 nominated narrative and dramatic works. In chronological order, the finalists are:

• “The Machine Stops,” by E. M. Forster (1909), is a short story portraying the breakdown of a dystopian future society whose inhabitants are dependent on a technology they can no longer control or understand. Forster described the story as a reaction against H. G. Wells’s visions of the future.
• “As Easy as A.B.C.,” by Rudyard Kipling (1912), is a short story exploring the political implications of worldwide freedom of movement, unusual for its time in its bitter condemnation of racial hatred.
• Animal Farm, by George Orwell (1945), a short novel, retells the story of the Russian Revolution in the literary form of beast fable, reflecting the post-World War II disillusionment of many communists.
• “’Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman,” by Harlan Ellison (1965), is a short story about an absurdist rebellion against a future society of enforced conformity. Ellison’s structural and stylistic experiments made him a key figure in the New Wave of 1960s science fiction.
• Falling Free, by Lois McMaster Bujold (1988), is a hard science fiction novel about genetically engineered “quaddies” seeking freedom from their corporate creators and owners. Bujold’s engineer hero embodies not only technological competence but professional and ethical dedication to truth and integrity.

The winner will be chosen by a vote of the LFS’s membership. The award will be presented at Renovation (Worldcon 69) in Reno, Nevada, to be held August 17-21, 2011.

First awarded in 1983 to Robert Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the Hall of Fame Award honors classic works of science fiction and fantasy that celebrate freedom or warn against abuses of power. Since 2000, eligible works have included not only novels, but also short stories, films, television series or episodes, graphic novels, musical works, and other narrative and dramatic forms. Last year’s award went to Poul Anderson’s short story “No Truce with Kings” (1963).

LFS Vice President William H. Stoddard chaired the Hall of Fame screening committee. All members of the Libertarian Futurist Society are eligible to serve on it, to nominate classic works for its consideration, and to participate in the final vote.