Genreville

November 5, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (5)

In 1988, Dave Barry won a Pulitzer prize for making booger jokes. Sure, the Pulitzer people tried to explain the award as being for his "effective use of humor as a device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns," but you know it was really about the boogers. And also his gift for finding good names for rock bands.

Now look at the novels that have won the Nebula awards over the years. Look at the Hugo-winning books. Not a booger joke to be seen. Why? Because we in the SF/F world take ourselves far too seriously.

It's a strange phenomenon, given our history. We're the ones who started out ...Read More