On separating the creator from the created (in other words, HP Lovecraft made me do this...)
It's been an interesting couple of years to be a fan of SFF, that's for sure. The latest kerfuffle is over the subject of an award, given by the World Fantasy Con every year, which currently is in the shape of what I can only describe as a caricature of the fizzog of said HP Lovecraft. I'm not going to post a pic here, because it's pretty awful,
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I'd love for them to design it after Diana Wynne Jones (which probably surprises no one who knows me.) But even an award depicting Cthulu would be less frightening than that thing.
Is the award actually called the Lovecraft, or is it The World Fantasy Award? If it's just the WFA, then I don't see any problem with redesigning the statue to something less ugly! If it's the Lovecraft, I do understand not wanting to change a literature tradition that has come to mean more than the person it's originally been associated with, but I also don't think there's anything wrong with renaming an award to express more modern sentiments. I guess I can see it both ways. But I think the test is with the recipients. If they'd rather not get it because of the name associated with it, then it's time to change to something else. The DWJ Award, formerly the Lovecraft.
Did that make sense?
I want a DWJ Award! :)
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Apparently it used to be the World Fantasy and Horror Con, which made the Lovecraft connection a little more understandable, and then when the horror folks decided they needed their own con they decamped, leaving the WFC with that little parting gift.
Anyway, yes it's definitely the World Fantasy Award and not the Lovecraft, so for it to look like any one particular person seems a bit odd to me. It's also only been around since the mid 70's, so it's hardly an entrenched thing (in relative terms).
Sorry, the likelihood of it becoming the DWJ Award is pretty slim. ;)
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Now I want a DWJ Award!
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