luscious_purple | Entries tagged with fandom

To continue this entry....

Just one month ago today, some science fiction author (whose works I have not read -- there are a LOT of such authors, sadly) posted on Patreon that a fan forum on a book publisher's site was being used to advocate for political violence. I didn't hang out in that online forum myself, so I have no personal knowledge of this. But, fans being the type to pick over every detail of everything, started pointing out that the head of this publisher -- a Jewish woman named Toni Weisskopf, again, someone I do NOT know personally -- was scheduled to be the Editor Guest of Honor at Discon III. Being any kind of Guest of Honor at Worldcon is a HUGE deal within fandom.

It's getting late, so basically I am going to skip over a lot of the story. Somebody kindly made a Google Docs file with lots of links, and you can read it here.

The timeline, in case that document vanishes:

Feb. 15: the original Patreon post.
Feb. 16: the publisher takes the Web forum offline in response to the kerfuffle.
Feb. 17: Discon organizers post, "We want to thank our members for your feedback and patience while we process the situation with Baen Books' forums."
Feb. 19: Discon withdraws their invitation to Toni Weisskopf as Editor Guest of Honor.
Over the next few days: HUGE blizzard of comments on the controversy.

I mean, the vitriol. Just online screaming and flinging of insults and declaration that Worldcon is over, that fandom is over, etc. etc. etc. Some people bravely thanked the Discon committee for taking a stand to make fandom more inclusive. I hope they were not threatened in retaliation. Lots of people pointed out that, by withdrawing the huge honor, the convention is being anti-woman and anti-Semitic. The First Amendment got dragged in, even though it applies only to Congress and not to private organizations. And on and on and on.

The post on Discon's Facebook page got 521 comments. The post in the Discon FB group got another 69 comments. You can go look for yourself, if you want steam and smoke to start pouring out of the ventilation holes on your computer.

The controversy took a few days to die down. And then somebody posted something to the Discon FB group calling for the original Patreon post writer to be banned from Discon because of the content of some of his novels. The moderator took that post down and said that further group posts will need moderator approval to appear. So the group has lost its spontaneity.

And the hotel issue? No change. The Discon organizers seem to be making good on their promise to issue a status update every two weeks. The latest one came out yesterday and it is very much a non-update. The uncertainty must be wearying to a lot of people. I understand the silence from the lawyers' point of view, but at SOME point somebody needs to make a DECISION because people have to make travel reservations, ask for time off work, etc. Or possibly cancel the travel and vacation plans if the con ends up being virtual.

I really think it's going to be another 47 years before DC hosts another Worldcon, if Worldcons don't cease to exist in a few years.

Over and out.

So, Worldcon 2021. GAAH!

For those who don't follow science-fiction fandom, Worldcon is the World Science Fiction Convention, held each year in a different city. In 2019, Washington, DC, won the bid to host the 2021 Worldcon. DC was the host city twice before, in 1963 and 1974, according to Wikipedia. Yes, that's a gap of 47 years there.

My friend R. (who is not a "joiner" by his own admission, who doesn't belong to any clubs or organizations, who never does volunteer jobs at SF cons, but is keenly interested in SF and SF fandom nevertheless) has always been opposed to holding Worldcon in DC. He claims he would rather travel to distant cities for Worldcon (not that he's traveled to once in 30 years, I think) and that fandom in Our Nation's Capital was tainted by that one time that people dressed in Star Trek uniforms showed up to a congressional hearings on space policy. (He says that was in 1974, which was the year of the second DC Worldcon. Honestly, are any officials who were at that hearing still even alive???)

Personally, when I heard that DC was the only city bidding on the 2021 Worldcon and the bid was approved, I was happy. I don't have much of a travel budget and do not expect to, and even if I did, I have lots of other places I would like to visit for reasons that do not involve SF conventions. I have been to three Worldcons: Boston in 1989 and 2004 and Philadelphia's 2001 Millennium Philcon in 2001. (Baltimore held a Worldcon in 1998, but I spent the week on a job-interview trip to southern California.)

So, yay, the DC Worldcon (also named Discon III) was supposed to begin 10 days after Pennsic 50 ended. Originally. That seemed as if it would be a hectic (and expensive) month for yours truly.

But then the pandemic happened. Pennsic 49 didn't happen in 2020. It may not happen in 2021 -- we shall see. (The next Pennsic will be #49, regardless of year.) And Pennsic is an outdoor event. So, what will happen to an indoor event like Discon III?

Frankly, I have no idea. When the pandemic started, the main Discon hotel, the storied Marriott Wardman Park, closed down. Probably permanently. Which sucks, because it was one of the largest hotels in the city, with tons of convention space. Without dwelling on this, there's some sort of bankruptcy suit going on and the contract between Discon and the hotel is considered an asset.

None of that is the convention's fault, to be sure. But ... other things have been happening. Some Hugo Award policy was changed, which caused lots of anger, so the policy was changed back, and two of the main organizers of the convention, including one of the co-chairs, resigned. You can read about that here. The co-chair who resigned wrote:

In my years of growing responsibility of working for Worldcons, I have become increasingly alarmed and upset at the level of abuse and vitriol spewed at the all-volunteer staff. So much so that I have now abruptly walked away from probably the best chance I had to improve matters ‘from the inside.’

As of this writing, we still don't know whether the convention will be held in August or December (one of the options discussed, however briefly) and whether it will be virtual or in-person. Putting the whole thing off until next year, as the 2020 Summer Olympics did, isn't really an option because Chicago fans will hold *their* Worldcon in 2022.

And then the feces REALLY hit the fan ... but that will be described in a later entry.

Over and out.

Current Mood: catty
Crossposts: https://luscious-purple.livejournal.com/1299902.html

This weekend I went to Chessiecon just north of Baltimore, following by a couple of weeks the 2017 edition of Philcon. Actually, I spent the whole weekend at Philcon, courtesy of R., who gave me a bit of a financial subsidy. I attended Chessiecon on Saturday only, so I would have to make the drive up to Timonium only once instead of two or three times.

Even though I enjoyed myself at both cons -- picked up some new books, vowed to read books by the Guests of Honor, saw longtime friends -- I have to say: OMG, the graying of fandom is really accelerating. Philcon is SO painfully small, a shadow of its former self. One morning when he was getting some breakfast in the con suite, he looked around and saw all the electric scooters and canes and walkers and heads full of gray hair and thought to himself, "Is this an old folks' home?"

Now, I don't mean this to be nasty to people who are, in fact, getting older and/or who have mobility issues -- I'd be pretty gray-haired myself if I didn't color my hair, and, who knows, maybe I will need assistance in getting around someday. But it's impossible to see the number of scooters and canes and walkers at Philcon and Chessiecon and NOT start asking how many more years it's going to be before these people simply cannot travel to science-fiction conventions any longer. And these "traditional" fan-run cons are simply not attracting the numbers of young people that I see as necessary to keep the cons going without either financial implosion (which may have already happened to Lunacon) or volunteer burnout.

This year I made sure to attend Philcon for two reasons. First, R. wanted to celebrate the 70th birthday of his friend Ira's wife, Becky. Second, it was the 30th anniversary of my first Philcon in 1987 -- which seemed like a huge convention full of endless parties and resulted in my hooking up with a very pleasant guy named Bruce. He no longer goes to conventions and who knows what he is doing these days, but we had a nice relationship and parted on good terms, so he is a special memory. ;-) ;-)

The 2017 edition of Philcon probably had less than half the attendance of the 1987 edition. Maybe a third. I didn't even go to any room parties at Philcon. Few were advertised, and the one time that R. and I showed up at one, the door was shut tight and no one was around. And no one else was hanging out on the "party floor," either.

Likewise, so many people I've seen at past Chessiecons were missing. Dame Brenna and M.B. (T.H.'s sister-in-law), two stalwart con-organizers of the Darkover era, no longer attend. Baron Rorik and Baroness Janina and their grown daughter did not attend. Another couple who used to be active in the SCA weren't there for financial reasons (I won't mention their names). Spam and Fizzgig weren't there (Fizzgig probably had to work at her retail job). CZ and Phoenix weren't there because of the latter's birthday celebration. Tabitha and her family moved to the West Coast a few years back. Obviously Pedro is deceased and Devora moved away. And on and on.

Will either of these cons be around in five years????

Current Mood: awake
Crossposts: https://luscious-purple.livejournal.com/1258197.html

So I've been reading various blog posts, and Facebook links to blog posts, about the Sad/Rabid Puppies slates and how they gamed the Hugo Awards nomination process this year. I hate to start posting links, because I'm sure I'll miss some, and frankly I don't have time. If you don't already know what I'm talking about, Google something like "sad puppies hugo" and wade through the results.

However, I just had a thought: This whole fiasco, on the heels of GamerGate, makes me really glad I don't define myself through science fiction fandom. I don't depend on fandom for my friends and my social networks.

Yes, I like reading science fiction, though not a steady diet of it, and I like watching some SF/F movies, though not all. But I don't define who I am through it, and most of my core friends of associates have other interests in common with me, even if we met through SF or have attended cons together.

"But what about the SCA?" you say. "It's got loads of politics too!" Well, yeah. Every human organization of more than two people has politics. Hell, two-person couples have power struggles that can turn mighty damned vicious too. Been there, done that, got the restraining order to prove it. (Don't panic, folks, that was long ago.)

But I can't recall that the SCA has ever, in its history, gamed its own system in a *national* or *international* way in the manner of the Sad Puppies. And certainly I've never heard of SCA members pulling "swatting" or "doxxing" stunts on their so-called enemies. Anyone who *tried* such things on other members would be thrown out of the organization before you could say "membership revoked."

Also ... it's hard to put this into words, but as science fiction has gotten more mainstream and WAY more commercial, the SCA has not. Yeah, there are a few folks on the periphery who got into the SCA because of Tolkien or other high fantasy, but once they figure out that we don't want them to wear elf ears or satyr horns at our events or to call themselves Tauriel Skywalker, they either get with the historical aspects of the program or go find themselves a LARP.

And we don't have stars from Hollywood blockbuster movies and TV shows, and we don't have huge, multinational entertainment companies controlling our intellectual property. We're small-time artisans and craftspeople, we mostly trust each other, and we like it that way, thank you very much.

So, yeah, I'll continue to enjoy science fiction and fantasy on my own terms, and will occasionally attend a con or two. But to get all emotionally involved in fandom politics? Naaah.