Prometheus Award Ceremony

Amy Rule, Assistant Director of the Libertarian Futurist Society, presented the award with the following remarks:

The Libertarian Futurist Society has presented Prometheus Awards for Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction—our Hall of Fame—for two decades, making it one of the most enduring awards after the Nebula and Hugo awards, and one of the oldest fan-based awards currently in sf. Both awards honor outstanding science fiction and fantasy that explores the possibilities of a free future, champions human rights (including personal and economic liberty), dramatizes the perennial conflict between individuals and coercive governments, or critiques the tragic consequences of abuse of power—especially by the State.

While we have traditionally announced both awards at WorldCon, this year we broke with that tradition. Over Memorial Day weekend, the LFS held its first ever LFSCon as a part of Marcon, a regional convention held in Columbus, OH. While WorldCon provides a very impressive forum for our awards, it was a nice departure to have so many LFS members able to attend and actually get to know one another as people. We reserved the Prometheus Award for Best Novel for today's ceremony at WorldCon; but two awards were presented at Marcon: the Hall of Fame, and a Special Lifetime Achievement Award.

To recap, the 2001 finalists were:

• Orion Shall Rise, by Poul Anderson;
• It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis
• The Survival of Freedom, edited by Jerry Pournelle & John Carr;
• The Wardove, by L. Neil Smith; and
• "The Measure of a Man," a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode written by Melinda Snodgrass

The winner was The Survival of Freedom, edited by Jerry Pournelle & John Carr.

The second award presented at Marcon was a special Lifetime Achievement Award to Poul Anderson. We were very disappointed that Poul had to cancel at the last minute and thus was unable to accept the award personally; however we are gratified that we were able to present it when he was able to appreciate it. Those of you who would like to remember him are invited to join us this evening at the LFS's party, hosted by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster in the Clarion Suites hotel room 314. Shortly after the Hugo Awards ceremony concludes, we will be interrupting our party for a brief memorial service for Poul Anderson.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for. The finalists for the 2001 Prometheus Award are:

• Lodestar, by Michael Flynn
• The Sky Road, by Ken MacLeod
• The Truth, by Terry Pratchett
• Forge of the Elders, by L. Neil Smith
• Eagle Against the Stars, by Steve White

And the winner is: Forge of the Elders, by L. Neil Smith

L. Neil Smith sent the following message of acceptance, which was read on his behalf by Tori Weisskopf of Baen Books:

Ladies and gentlemen of the Libertarian Futurist Society, I'm sorry I can't be with you today. I had a previous obligation to my daughter, and I learned long ago, the hard way, that before anything else—writer, thinker, political activist—I'm Cathy's husband and Rylla's daddy. Nevertheless, I'm happier and more grateful than I can say for the honor you pay me here, especially because it's for Forge of the Elders. When I began writing Forge, the Berlin Wall had just come down and the Soviets were collapsing. I had concerns, expressed in Forge, that American socialists would try to interfere with that process. At the same time, it was my dream to reexamine Social Darwinism—which I'd already written about in essays and speeches—with the idea of learning lessons that a genuine understanding of evolution by natural selection might have to teach us.

It took 15 years for Forge to be published the way I wanted it to be. Endless thanks to Baen Books for that, and to Tom Knapp at Free-Market.net for seeing in Forge what I'd always hoped would be seen.

My earliest recollection of a political idea I could wholly grasp was the story—call it a parable—of a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. According to the story, if, through misplaced kindness, you try to help it, you'll deny it a lifegiving struggle necessary to the process of transcending itself—caterpillar to butterfly—and it will die.

To this day, I don't know if the parable is true. I do know that America has had as much "help" as it can stand, and that it must be our purpose as libertarian futurists, as Prometheans, to put an end to that, so it might have a chance to transcend itself—police state to free society—and allow us to transcend ourselves, as well. Thank you very much again.