[Continued]

In order to rejoin SFWA, I would have to accept the tacit
implication that my work is NOT SF...and this I will never do.

Last year, I realized a lifelong dream, and we received the Hugo
award for an episode of Babylon 5. And I'll tell you a true
thing: I'll take the Hugo over the Nebula any day, because it
comes based on the quality of the work...it comes based on the
understanding that fans have that SF is SF, regardless of the
medium. Where the pro community throws up barriers, and tidal
waves of snobbery, and play political games by defining SF as
whatever is most convenient for them, the fan community is open
to the free debate of one singular question: "Is it good SF?"

In light of that, what possible reason could I have for wanting
to rejoin SFWA? To associate with writers who disdain the form
in which I work? To try and educate them? We tried that...and
got our heads handed to us.

It's not just the Nebula that's the concern...as before, I'm
willing to permanently disqualify anything I write, now or in
the future, from Nebula consideration, to set aside allegations
of self-interest; it's the principle of the thing that matters,
the desire to make this better for the next guy to come down this
road; and it's the attitude behind the current situation that
rankles, that worries me; the open hostility and prejudice
against those working in the visual media.

So thanks, but no thanks.

SFWA has chosen to ostracize film and television...and in the
end, has only hurt itself. By sticking its head, ostrich-like,
in the sand, it has failed to come to grips with these new
media...has become isolated, so that no one in Hollywood thinks
of SFWA members, because SFWA thinks nothing of Hollywood.

The result? Where once many SF novels were chosen as fodder for
movies, now movies and TV shows drive a substantial portion of
the novel market through licensing. All too often now, books are
based on movies, when it *should* be the other way around, which
means that the audience is deprived of visual medium access to
some truly excellent work. The publishing industry has become
more like Hollywood in many ways now, looking for the blockbuster,
losing the midlist, one megacompany swallowing up another. We've
been there, done that, and could've helped.

(Now *here's* an irony I hadn't considered before just this
moment: while an episode of B5 is not eligible for a Nebula, a
novel based on B5 *is* eligible. Where is the logic in that
one? And here's another irony: one of the members who most
vociferously opposed the Dramatic Nebula on the grounds that
everything SF that came out of Hollywood was crap...well, his
name showed up recently on a list of writers asking to be
considered for an assignment to write one of the Babylon 5
novels.)

Because of SFWA's provincial attitudes toward those of us who
work in TV and film, it has lost access to secondary markets
and opportunities, costing its members potentially hundreds of
thousands of dollars.

If parts of this letter seem angry, or frustrated, you should
understand that the two areas of my life which have always meant
a great deal to me are my work in television, and SF as a genre.
I'm proud, have always been proud, of both. Many producers
assigned to SF series deny they're doing SF, as though they were
ashamed of it. I've always embraced the idea. I was proud to
be a member of SFWA. I was proud to write for television. But
finally I had to choose between them, and that was a very
difficult, painful thing for me. It still is. It's like having
divorced parents; you want desperately for them to get along with
each other, somehow put it together again...but it doesn't happen
and doesn't look like it will *ever* happen. So you get upset.

I'm not upset with you, John, or even many members of SFWA, a
number of whom weren't even members when all this went down a
few years ago. It's simple frustration with a system, and a
certain loud proportion of the membership, that is provincial
and parochial. A great deal of good could come out of a tighter
coordination between those of us working in the visual media,
and print authors. To see that frittered away is maddenning.

Television and film are as valid a forum for the exploration
of science fiction as any short story or novel. As long as
SFWA persists in saying otherwise, I will never rejoin that
organization.

Let me know when you folks get serious. Let me know when you
are willing to consider that what we do in TV and film counts as
SF. Then we'll talk.

But not before.

J. Michael Straczynski
Executive Producer/Creator/WRITER
Babylon 5