Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

whatever.scalzi.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 65 posts

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#11

Post by junon »

gnfargbl wrote: post #6

As far as I can tell, the story here is that 1. the person tasked with introducing an author talked more about her own initiative (getting people to read more) than the author; 2. the person was criticised for this; and 3. the author wants people to know that he doesn't mind not being talked about because he likes reading too, and he doesn't feel he needs help promoting himself. So far, so boring. There's also some m…

I think he was more alluding to the possibility of a language or cultural or political barrier, one of which he was not aware because he is not from there, that could be a driving force behind Hungarian backlash toward this individual.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#12

Post by tibbydudeza »

bowsamic wrote: post #9

I really don't understand how we are supposed to deal with this modern outrage culture

By not being on or engaging social media - if you messed up you could go to the next village and not get tarred and feathered there.

I read about this incident living in a different continent proverbially 8400 miles away from Budapest.

A global village you tell me - meh - it is a curse.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#13

Post by DandyDev »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #2

I really enjoy Scalzi’s books, and to the point: it is nice of him to try to take the heat off of a young content creator who has helped promote his works.

The comment is factual, right? The person is young? Check. She is a content creator? Check. She promoted his books? Check.

Nothing patronizing about that

Edit: meant as a response to sibling comment

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#14

Post by short_sells_poo »

meindnoch wrote: post #10
mkl wrote: post #7

Are there any Hungarians here who can enlighten us about what was controversial?

Author was the guest of honour for the opening panel of a book festival. An influencer was also present on the panel, and was expected to converse with the author. The influencer promoted herself instead of conversing the author. People who were there to learn about the author got outraged and demanded the influencer to apologize. The influencer apologized. The author says he wasn't offended, and doesn't think there…

I suppose it's not just the author who was cheated, but the audience. The author might be OK with not getting as much limelight as planned, but if I went to a book festival to see and hear a favorite author, but instead it was some random instagram goober promoting themselves talking, I'd be pissed too.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#15

Post by NBJack »

Scalzi is definitely one of my favorites right now. While I actually don't like the Old Man's War universe that much, his one-off books and smaller series have been absolute delights. They become even better when he gets Wil Wheaton to narrate his audio releases (I still smile thinking of Redshirts).

Nice to see Scalzi use what influence he has to actually help someone else like this.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#16

Post by chippytea »

I am hungarian and haven't heard of this controversy before. I tried to look it up, it hasn't been in any of the major news sources (yet), except for HVG[1] but they are only referencing an article written in a relatively small online magazine[2].

The only real problem I can see with her speach is that she was asked to give a laudation, but gave a more generic speach instead. Laudation seems to be a custom at this book festival. Also it's kind of funny that she stole the first part of her speach from "rory's graduation speach" in Gilmore Girls TV series[3].

[1] https://hvg.hu/kultura/20230929_Kinosra_sikerult_Szabados_Ag...

[2] https://konyvesmagazin.hu/nagy/john_scalzi_boldizsar_ildiko_...

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MndMDj8uKUY

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#17

Post by madaxe_again »

NBJack wrote: post #15

Scalzi is definitely one of my favorites right now. While I actually don't like the Old Man's War universe that much, his one-off books and smaller series have been absolute delights. They become even better when he gets Wil Wheaton to narrate his audio releases (I still smile thinking of Redshirts). Nice to see Scalzi use what influence he has to actually help someone else like this.

I read “Old Man’s War” a few weeks back, and it left me totally cold - while he’s of course attempting to reach a broad audience, it struck me as so tropeful it made me squirm. Space marines having knife-fights with giant bugs in a thunderdome was right up there. There was also a weird bit where all of a sudden all of the characters are asking each other how old they are over the course of a dozen pages, which felt like an editor had said to him “you aren’t making enough of the age thing” so he jammed in a bunch of references.

I dunno. Sure it’s for plenty of people, just not for me.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#18

Post by kitd »

gnfargbl wrote: post #6

As far as I can tell, the story here is that 1. the person tasked with introducing an author talked more about her own initiative (getting people to read more) than the author; 2. the person was criticised for this; and 3. the author wants people to know that he doesn't mind not being talked about because he likes reading too, and he doesn't feel he needs help promoting himself. So far, so boring. There's also some m…

There's a comment on the blog that mentions the woman is a journalist at an independent media outlet not affiliated with the government.

I am not familiar with Hungarian politics other than there being a right-wing populist leader in charge. They often come with shill hordes who see independent outlets prepared to criticise the gov as "the enemy". I can imagine she could become a target at the slightest provocation.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#19

Post by zrail »

NBJack wrote: post #15

Scalzi is definitely one of my favorites right now. While I actually don't like the Old Man's War universe that much, his one-off books and smaller series have been absolute delights. They become even better when he gets Wil Wheaton to narrate his audio releases (I still smile thinking of Redshirts). Nice to see Scalzi use what influence he has to actually help someone else like this.

I just tore through Starter Villian and accidentally laughed so hard at one point that I woke my sleeping spouse.
Post reply on HN