The song sung in the WSFS Business Meeting

[mneme]

There's earlier version of this song earlier in my feed, but since made a few changes prior to singing this as an argument at the Business Meeting, after being recognized, as an argument at the World Science Fiction Society at the 73rd Worldcon, on the motion of the same name.



"The Five Percent Solution"
TTTO: "I Never Do Anything Twice/The Madam's Song", by Stephen Sondheim
By Joshua Kronengold

Before I was a neo,
The year I shant debate
We made a rule for our premier award,
Even if it made the cut, a nomination met its fate,
If one in twenty didn't think it scored

At first it seemed a good rule,
Avoided the long tails,
But later, when the field ballooned in size,
If our population fails,
To all read the same tales,
Where the ballot's concerned there's too much for the prize,

Then, yes, the genre was small,
Now, though, you can't read it all,
Then, tastes were more concentrated,
The best stories rated,
For the Hugos were slated

We must this rule amend,
At this point, it's hard to defend,
I think that it makes no sense,
To drop works that lack five percent.

Comments

[batyatoon]

Not bad! And well done on the title. ;D

[mneme]

Thank you -- although the title was totally not me! Kevin Stanlee apparently suggested that title for the "drop the 5% rule" motion -- and having overheard this in discussion on Making Light, I was pretty much obligated to write the song.