The latest episode of the Coode Street Podcast includes some discussion of political science fiction. Along the way Jonathan makes mention of Adventure Rocketship #1, which he says has some “really strong stories” in it. He singles out Tim Maughan’s story, “Flight Path Estate”, for particular praise. I am a very proud publisher.

Of course, being praised by the Mullahs of Coode Street will ruin Tim’s street cred for all eternity. But I am cruel and heartless, and also I have this new trick of embedding an audio player, so if you want to listen to what Jonathan has to say you can do so here:

Also in the podcast, the boys discuss the short lists for the SF&F Translation Awards. This makes me very happy, and also gives me another opportunity to plug Karin Tidbeck’s wonderful Jagannath. I hope to be recording an episode of Small Blue Planet featuring Karin sometime soon.

Finally the boys discuss how one gets to be an “insider” in the SF&F community. Karen Burnham and I were mentioned specifically by name, and I always try to respond to the Summon Cheryl spell, so I guess I should say something about how it was for me.

I must start by noting that there are all sorts of levels of privilege that facilitated my becoming known by people who might be regarded as gatekeepers (including Gary and Jonathan). I’m white; I come from an English-speaking country; I had a good education, including parents who indulged my reading habit; and I have had sufficient disposable income and work-related travel to allow me to attend many conventions.

On the other hand, I’m also female and trans, which ought to count against me (unless you are one of those people who believe that trans women are “really” men and benefit from male privilege at all times). So how did I get in? Well, I thought to myself, I knew people. Dave Langford and Martin Hoare were friends before I ever went to a Worldcon. I met Kevin at the first Worldcon I attended, and that must have helped.

Then I stopped, because I realized I was telling myself that I only got an in because of who I was sleeping with. And maybe that is true of me, some people certainly think it is, but I refuse to believe that it is true for every woman who makes a name for herself in the community.

(Update: for the benefit of people with over-active imaginations, I should point out that Dave and Martin are just friends. I’m very happy with Kevin and see no need to build up a harem.)

I think it is complicated. And to illustrate that I invite you to consider some of this year’s WSFS business. As many of you will know, someone has decided to propose that we scrap all of the fan Hugos. I’m not going to have a rant about that. Other people have been doing the job for me. What I want to do is note that there are many reasons why people advocate killing the fan categories. They include:

• That they keep getting won by professionals
• That they bring the Hugos into disrepute because they result in non-professionals winning awards
• That they are won by people who are too old
• That they are won by people who are too young
• That they are won by the “wrong sort of fan” (i.e., fans of the wrong thing)
• That they are won by people who are “not part of our community” (i.e., people who might be fans of the right thing, but whom we’ve not heard of before)

What all of these things have in common is that there are people who think that the fan Hugos are being won by people who are, to use the favorite SMOF term, “not worthy”. It is a very common meme, and it doesn’t just get applied to people who win awards. In fandom it tends to get applied by members of one subgroup against any member of another subgroup who achieves success beyond that subgroup.

So yeah, there is plenty of privilege involved. I accept that, and do what I can to make it easier for people who don’t have the advantages I had. But privilege is generally not enough. You do have to be prepared to work at it too.