Chuck's Hugo Nomination

In August 2015, the waning days of that year’s Hugopocalypse, nonnies idly discussed how erotica with any sort of sf/f angle could technically qualify for a Hugo — including Dr. Tingle’s work. Little did they suspect…

On Jan. 29, 2016, discussing this year’s upcoming Hugopocalypse, one nonny declared, ”Chuck Tingle for all Hugos.” Nonnies seriously discussed his Frankenstein, dinosaur lawyer, and sentient wizard book efforts as candidates, but one jestingly (yet presciently!) suggested Pounded in the Butt by the Very Phallic Science Fiction Award. Next post, a nonny suggested Chuck for the Campbell Award.

On Feb. 3, a nonny urged meme to make Chuck’s Hugo nomination happen. In response, nonnies discussed which title to nominate. Two weeks later, a nonny who is a Hugo voter said, “I’m trying to get Chuck Tingle for best short story. I just haven't picked which one. Pounded in the ass by gay billionaire jet plane? That's SF right there.”

On Mar. 3, a nonny who was apparently unfamiliar with Dr. Tingle reported that he was “listed on the big spreadsheet as a potential Best Short Form Editor, and it looks like Tingle has some works listed as eligible in Related Work (‘The Art of the Tingle’) and Short Story (‘Pounded in the Butt by my own Butt’). Is there some kind of in-joke I should be getting?”

One week later, in the semi-regular “Hugopocalypse 2” thread, nonny reported that Vox Day had posted his preliminary Best Novelette recommendations, which included Chuck’s Space Raptor Butt Invasion. Apparently, “he asked his readers to suggest things to go on his rec sheet. Apparently a bunch of people–who may not actually be regular non-hate readers of VD!–suggested Chuck Tingle. Almost as if bringing in a bunch of people with an agenda to vote for a thing will not end up reflecting the tastes and values of a community.”

Another nonny: “Bless you, Chuck Tingle nonnies, you are doing God's work.” And yet another nonny came up with some appropriate Tingle titles for this situation:

CHORFed in the Butt by the Social Justice Warriors
The Hugos Did Me Doggy-Style
Carjack the Not-Undesirable Sorceror Pounded Me in the Butt with His Magical Wand
Instructed in the Butt with the Wahrkunst
Team-Tagged in the Butt by Mauragh and His Brother Dauraugh (the Exploraugh)
Sodomized in the Rectum by the Sodomy-Loving, Marriage-Hating Pervertess
Some Man-Harlot Copulated Energetically with Me in My Butt
Vergalvebel Stuffed His Tax Rolls Up My Ass

On Mar. 13, meme learned that VD had to remove Space Raptor Butt Invasion from his slate because it exceeds 5,000 words. On Mar. 18, we were told that John C. Wright apparently had nothing to say about the entire situation. (Nonny: “Can we please get Chuck Tingle a Hugo? I want to read Pounded By A Hugo In My Butt.”)

On Mar. 21, we learned that VD “moved the Chuck Tingle work to the short story category, having originally listed it as a novelette until someone told him it was too short to qualify. To make room for Tingle's work Space Raptor Butt Invasion he dropped ‘Tuesdays with Molakesh the Destroyer’ by Megan Grey, published at Fireside Magazine. You might recall TwMtD as the one Puppy work from last year that people actually liked, and which was kicked off the ballot *last year* after having been ruled ineligible (it was released in early 2015).”

Two days later, nonny quoted Kai Wai “Benjamin” Cheah as saying he was “particularly thrilled to be in the company of works like the Chuck Tingle short story:”

Further, I am especially pleased by Vox Day’s inclusion of Space Raptor Butt Invasion. Science fiction is the literature of ideas, allowing radical concepts to be explored in great detail. This story is indubitably a masterwork that skilfully portrays interspecies non-heterosexual relations within a vividly-created science fictional universe, and would surely be a shoo-in for the Hugos among certain quarters.

After a relatively quiet month, April 26 brought us this joyous news:

YES
YES IT HAPPENED
CHUCK TINGLE IS ON THE [Best Short Story] LIST

Another nonny said they couldn’t wait for the new Tingle book Pounded in the Butt by Critical Acclaim and Awards.

The news was repeated in the next post, on the same day. Quoth nonny:

For the next five minutes, I am going to ignore the Rabids and just roll around in the fact that we can now say Hugo nominated author Chuck Tingle.

Then I'll go back to being sad at the world.

That thread included a link to a //Washington Post// article titled “Why erotic novel ‘Space Raptor Butt Invasion’ is up for the prestigious Hugo sci-fi award,” as well as a link to a //Guardian// article that described Space Raptor Butt Invasion as “a self-published parody of erotic dinosaur fiction.” (Nonny wondered, “Is there a serious erotic dinosaur fiction subgenre?”) Another nonny posited, “Best-case scenario: Tingle shows up to the ceremony, is an actual raptor, devours all the Puppies.” Which prompted another to propose a title for such a tale: “Turns Out You Were a Velociraptor, My Love.”

In the same thread, a nonny reported that “Chuck Tingle's already reacted” by releasing //Slammed In The Butt By My Hugo Award Nomination// and Tweeting about it. The blurb follows.

The next day, in a thread titled “Of course,” nonnies discussed this new book, as well as a Reddit AMA by Chuck (see “Is Chuck a Nonny?” for more details). Also linked was this review by Lover, Raptor, Gentleman, “with many choice quotes.”

On Apr. 28, writer Chuck Wendig retweeted a number of tweets from fellow writer N.K. Jemisin that complained about Dr. Tingle's Hugo nomination, claiming that it was keeping “people from underrepresented groups” off the ballet. Nonnies did not approve. Their criticisms of Jemisin's tweets ranged from “the stuffy clique of the Hugo set could use some puncturing sometimes” to the fact that silly works have been awarded before to opposition to Tingle having to break character publicly to how un-nominating him wouldn't fix the underlying problems with the Hugos to Chuck legitimately deserving the award to gay erotica hardly being //over//represented to the Hugos being a popularity contest anyway. One nonny who is “a hugo voter and a con running type. I know people involved in the hugos” said that they'd been talking about nominating Chuck as early as New Year's.

The next day, nonny announced that Chuck had just dropped Space Raptor Butt Redemption, whose villains bear a certain resemblance to a real-life fandom pack of mangy hounds. In the same thread, nonnies reported that Chuck's tweets made it sound like he was about to back out of the Hugo nomination, but it turned out he was just funning with us. The next day brought news of a book trailer for Space Raptor Butt Redemption.

On May 3, in the regular Hugopocalypse thread, there were a short subthread and a long subthread about N.K. Jemisin and Chuck Tingle. The latter linked to her Facebook post in which she said (paraphrased) that “Chuck Tingle is a full-blown Puppy and should be No Awarded.” As another nonny paraphrased, “Even if he isn't a Puppy he is a Puppy in his heart and must be treated as such. Never mind that he hasn't stated any ideology that lines up with the Puppies and is not organized with them despite them mostly being about being organized.” The thread also included complaints that Jemisin didn't regard Tingle's work as "real" gay fiction, that she'd been misgendering him, and that actually reading his work makes it impossible to think he's a Puppy sympathizer. One nonny also linked to a semi-cryptic but clearly exasperated tweet from Tingle.

Two days later, a nonny trumpeted, “VOTE TINGLE/QUINN 2016. DON'T PLAY INTO DEVILMAN HANDS.” Started the very same minute was that post's Hugopocalypse thread, in which meme learned that Chuck had deputized Gamergate ur-target Zoe Quinn to attend the Hugos and, if necessary, accept his award in his place. “So if he wins, she gets to go on stage to collected his award for his butt-related story, and then give a speech on any topic she wants.” That thread also contained a substantive Jemisin subthread. She had written on Facebook, in the comments of this post of hers:

I still wouldn't call it innocent, since “serious” writers have been kept off the ballot by this. (Since that's how CT wants to frame it.) Still, I wanted one or the other – for CT to withdraw or for CT to go into full battlemode against the Puppies. I thought battlemode was the lesser of the two options because a withdrawal might have cleared the way for another writer, but… I stand amazed. I was wrong. This is better.

Some nonnies were gratified by this acknowledgment, while others thought she sounded "snotty as hell" and like “THE HUMAN EMBODIMENT OF SO MUCH PUPPY RHETORIC FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.”

The May 7 Hugopocalypse thread OP mentioned Quinn's deputization, and also linked to a relevant Dr. Seuss parody written by artist and author Ursula Vernon.