How the growing generation gap is changing the face of fandom

The Daily Dot ^ | August 25, 2014 | Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

[EveningStar]

Earlier this month, two fan conventions came to London: Nine Worlds and the World Science Fiction Convention, commonly know as Worldcon.

Worldcon is in its 72nd year, a huge old dinosaur (or perhaps an aging dragon) of science-fiction fandom. This year more than 10,000 people paid for memberships, which included entrance to the annual Hugo Awards. The official guests of honor were revered science-fiction and fantasy authors, editors, and illustrators, all of whom were in their 60s and 70s.

Nine Worlds was smaller, younger, and catered to a more varied crowd including comics, TV, and fanfic followers. But since both conventions took place in London, there was a lot of overlap among the two sets of attendees.

[EveningStar]

ping

[MrEdd]

WorldCon is way overpriced, and the staff is overbearing.
Smaller conventions offer a better experience.

[Moonmad27]

I go to Comic Con (in San Diego and last year in London). Much as I love classic science fiction, and despite being older, I would be bored at Worldcon.

[Lysandru]

As much as I resonate with doing away with snotty behavior towards young women, this writer strikes me as being just as obnoxious and bigoted as the people she criticizes.

Anyone who doesn't buy into current fads about "gender flexibility" is automatically an old-fuddy duddy in her view. Somehow, the concept of having respectful disagreement on these issues eludes her.

Rape culture subtext in Firefly? She needs to skip a few womyn's study classes and watch some news reports on what has been doing down in Rotherham, England or northern Iraq.

I find it tragically ironic how closed minded Progressives really are.

[buwaya]

Oy, she’s a delicate flower.

[wally_bert]

I’d like to try Comic Con one day. I’ve been to a few Dragoncons but not in a few years.

It seemed way more regimented and lackluster the last couple times I went.

[jeannineinsd]

Thank you for posting this.

The author seems to be a bit of a know-it-all, everything has to be her way or the highway. She preferred the Nine Worlds convention because the badges could list an individual’s preferred gender pronoun. At Worldcon, when she started a public discussion about racism or rape culture she had to field noisy interruptions from her peers.

I have very much enjoyed reading fanfiction these past few years. It has been an oasis for me. I don’t enjoy any current TV shows, and the movies and modern fiction books I enjoy are few and far between. Fanfiction is great for me, because there is no politics, no forcing the liberal point of view down my throat.

If I was happily involved in my fandom, and a know-it-all starting forcing “conversations” about gender identity and racism and rape culture, I would be very angry indeed. I would be one of the people noisily trying to get the conversation back to the fandom.

[Jack Hammer]

Used to love science fiction back in the day - all sorts of space ships, aliens, interplanetary travel, and loads of adventure.

Now every third novel/story has a feminist, socialist, environmentalist, and/or pacifist theme.

Good-bye world of my youth.

[Ronin]

Look up a blog called “According to Hoyt” on Wordpress. It’s by Sarah Hoyt, a great gal and a fun author. Also quite Conservative, although with some particularities that make her even more interesting.

Fan Fic is good, but there are a lot of great Indie Publishers out there as well, and she always has the latest on their fun filled antics.

And, of course, if you haven’t already, look for the Baen label. Always good books, no PC crap, and fun!

[jeannineinsd]

I will look into her blog and her books. Thank you for the recommendation!

[icwhatudo]

“To a certain extent, Worldcon’s size is a barrier to this kind of inclusivity. A 10,000 person behemoth may not be able to implement gender pronoun badges or a color-coded social interaction system, not just because of the sheer volume of people, but because half of them would dismiss it as politically correct nonsense.”

Sounds like Worldcon is my kinda place.

[SuziQ]

At Nine Worlds, you wouldn’t feel belittled for not understanding an ancient in-joke, or for being a fan of anime or superhero comics, or for speaking out against racist subtext in a genre favorite like Firefly or Doctor Who.

The hell? Did this chick watch Firefly with some sort of feminist chip on her shoulder? I've watched every episode of 'Firefly' and the movie, 'Serenity', multiple times, and I have NO clue what she means!

Can't speak about Dr. Who, because I only really watched the show during the time Tom Baker was The Doctor, so maybe the really early ones could have been considered racist or sexist by today's standards, but good grief!!

[EveningStar]

A friend of mine called her a SJW. I had to look it up:

SJW = Social Justice Warrior

I think my friend nailed her. :)

[a fool in paradise]

People don’t read anymore.

[Nepeta]

I attended 3 worldcons in the 1970s. I stopped going to cons altogether because too many of the people were just insufferable.

[a fool in paradise]

So I read the article and many of the comments, what is it with the politically correct Leftists trying to run roughshod over 50+ years of fandom?

“Outmoded racial and sexual attitudes”.

These little dictators probably despise the speculative/allegory of George Orwell as well.

Ageism appears to be a problem amongst the young.

Not every convention revolves around them or should shift to having computer kiosks (for gaming and chatting naturally, not schedule revisions), choreographed stage dancing, and costume parades to appease them. The traditions of these conventions (including San Diego Con which goes back to 1970) are bigger than any one person or group. YOU choose to come to the annual event, it doesn't trick you into attending. Read more, discover what it is about. It doesn't need to bend to become what you think it should be, go put together your own event. So blogging has replaced fanzines, REALLY? Zines dating back to the 1920s still exist and are sold. I'd wager that well more than half of all websites (blogs even more so) created since 1994 no longer exist (well, unless you printed out each page and stored them in a binder or saved down the website to your harddrive that miraculously did not crash in all of that time and is still compatible with your current hardware configuration).

Readers read, writers write, and the current generation lives for the moment (the selfie, the laughs, and the nostalgia for last season's tv show).

I'm sick of 1/4-1/3 of the questions at con panels coming from leftists bitter about something they learned in their gender identity studies course. That's not fandom, that's political activism invading the escapist literature realm.

And for bloggers to hope that the holdouts will "die off soon" reveals their own unwillingness to compromise or consider views other than their own.

Forrest J. Ackerman was an attendee at the first world con, and he went in a "man of the future" costume (probably to the embarrassment of at least some of the other dozen attendees). But he built up a vast library and toured many thousands through his home over the years. He also established a new genre of magazine (one devoted to horror and SF films in the 1950s when movie magazines were mostly courting women and homosexuals). But Mr. Ackerman didn't go dressed as Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, he brought his own creativity to it.

I'll believe that the new attendees are in it for the long haul when they begin to create and contribute something of their own.

[a fool in paradise]

In the comments, someone said in essence that the nerds who were picked on in the 1920s and 30s and 40s built a treehouse and wanted to keep others out as they’d been “kept out” by society.

Actually they may have built a treehouse and didn’t want to see it transformed into a soapboxer racer or a fishing boat just because “that’s what the cool kids are into this year”.

Why should a legacied institution like this bend to suit contemporary and fleeting whims? Why should readers of all sexual backgrounds be forced to celebrate “queer” centric (not just books that make reference to bisexual encounters or such, but radical gay authored and focused) texts?

And others in the comment bemoan the lack of panel interest in “slash”(porn) fanfiction. It’s not a sex/porn conference. If one wants to read BDSM tales of Sherlock Holmes and his “gay” partner, well there’s the internetz for that.

To maintain a “credible” stance bequeathing the Hugo awards, perhaps it should remain “stuffy”.

Should the Academy Awards start including various “Best African-American Actor” and “Best Queer Documentary” categories? How about “Best Youtube short feature”? “Best flash animation gif”?

Printed matter will outlive the creators’ lifetime and perhaps be picked up by readers in subsequent eras. Not so old website content. Fail to “resubscribe” or otherwise “abandon” your weblog and even the free sites deactivate your account. The information and text that people create is more ephemeral than ever.

And some may have encountered a snobbery against “self-published” works but those who claim to be successful and are unwilling to take it to a larger audience will be ignored when it comes to establishing who a generation’s significant contemporaries are. If you can present a track record of sales, convincing a publisher to release a compendium or future publication should not be as difficult a task as just showing someone your raw notes.