Posted on 04/13/2025 4:49:17 PM PDT by Angelino97
The time has come to cancel or move the 2025 Seattle Worldcon.
And to cancel or move the 2026 Los Angeles Worldcon.
It has to be done, in order to honor a century-old tradition of science fiction.
From its beginnings as a recognized genre in 1926, science fiction has warmly embraced writers and readers from around the world. Hugo Gernsback happily published letters from foreign readers in his magazines and featured stories by several foreign authors. When he established the Science Fiction League in 1934, he included chapters in other nations. The first major science fiction convention in 1939 was proudly named the World Science Fiction Convention, which has been the case for every subsequent event, including two dozen held in foreign countries. Science fiction scholars have also embraced the international community by inviting foreign experts to visit America and having several conferences of the Science Fiction Research Association in other countries. As David G. Hartwell said,
Internationalism has been appealing to the Anglo-American SF community since the 1940s; for more than four decades the colorful fan, agent, and Esperantist Forrest J. Ackerman, for example, has traveled widely to spread the greetings of American SF. In the 1970s there was a large enough international science fiction community among the peoples of the developed nations for Harry Harrison to call a conference in Ireland in order to found World SF, the world SF professional association, which now awards prizes for translations in many languages and promotes the cross-fertilization of SF literatures, inviting international responses to English-language SF.
In sum, science fiction has always welcomed, and should always welcome, writers and fans from all over the world.
Unfortunately, due to the current political situation, we can no longer welcome them to come to the United States.
Every day, there is some new horror story about a foreign visitor to America who, usually for no clear reason, has been detained at the border, thrown into prison, and subjected to brutal behavior until they thankfully are finally released and deported back to their home country. This is precisely the sort of treatment that we can anticipate some foreign fans may experience if they come to Seattle this year.
And this simply cannot be tolerated.
There are alternatives that should be considered. Even though there will be awkward and expensive cancellations, it should not be too much trouble to move this year’s Worldcon to the nearby city of Vancouver, in Canada, to ensure that none of our friends from other countries are mistreated. If this is impossible, the conference organizers should contact every foreign member, advise them not to come to Seattle, and set up numerous options from them to participate in the conference remotely. And if foreign fans insist on coming, the convention should establish a Legal Defense Fund to assist any of them if they are detained during their stay. As for the 2026 Worldcon, there will be ample time to find an alternate venue. Canceling or moving these conventions will also enable the science fiction community to make its own statement of protest against the government’s unrelenting hostility to all foreigners, including those that come to our country legally.
Today, given recent developments, a resident of a foreign country will have to exercise great care in coming to the United States. Tourists should go someplace else; students should seek advanced degrees in other countries; and science fiction fans should reconsider venturing into our country.
Until our nation returns to treating foreign visitors in a lawful and humane manner, the science fiction community should think long and hard before offering another Worldcon in the United States.
Ray Bradbury is my favorite, though he resisted the "science fiction" label, preferring "art of the possible."
He never seemed like one of those "full-of-themselves leftist echo chamber" types to me, and he foresaw the isolation electronic devices would spawn.
Can you imagine what he'd think of cellphone society?
The Gun question... I lived outside Asheville NC at the time, so of course I had North Carolina plates. At the border they asked me if I had any guns or other weapons on me. I said there was a swiss army knife in the tool box in the trunk. They asked me what the tool box was for, and i said in case my car has any problems, like a good scout, Be prepared. Then they asked me if i owned any firearms. Of course this southern boy replied, i own several. 5 minutes later they did the whole search the car thing. When they were done and i had repacked the car, I said you know if i was a nefarious person I wouldn’t drive to a border crossing, give you my passport and a letter from MDCAN stating my business with them, and then be stupid enough to carry weapons. They said what do you mean. i said you should be focusing on people slipping across the border at someplace besides a crossing checkpoint. I wanted to say more but I realized i was skating on thin ice, and I had a meeting to make in Toronto the next morning. I crossed the border regularly for 2 yrs while machines were rebuilt, retooled, and production turned over to a Canadian plant. The guys at the plant were great, Canadian border guards, asshats every time. Once they didn’t like a SONY computer monitor that had been rebranded by Silicon Graphics that I had with me. I had to either give it to them or show a proof of purchase in America. I checked into a hotel in Detroit , had purchasing fax me the Purchase order for the monitor, and the next day , no one even wanted to see the proof of purchase, I was told to drive on through. I did find good restaurants on the Toronto area.
Heinlein would kick their pansy asses into next month.
L
Oh yeah, the Breendoggle. Long-time SF fan here, was just never a fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley, something seemed off about her. Then I learned of her husband, and what they did to their kids... UGH.
I’m glad Trump is stepping up to make those people act more like the adults they should be.
Hahahahaha!
“Never get out of the boat!”
Ahh. So you went through the treatment too!
In retrospect, it made me wonder if was on some list, but...probably not. Just a-hole border guards.
I wanted to shout at them “WTF IS IT WITH YOU PEOPLE AND GUNS? IT IS NONE OF YOUR DAMNED BUSINESS IF I OWN ANY!” but I realized that was only going to help me out if I was vamping for a cavity search buy some Canadian border guard named “Claude”.
A visitor or an invader, there is a difference.
That was one heck of an experience!! Thanks for sharing.
I have an old friend who has written SF for decades.
Asked her about her career a few years ago.
She said, “I cannot get anything published. If the story does not support the LGBTQ cause, they don’t want to speak to me”.
Note that she was a radical leftist anti war crusader since the 1960s.
The takeover of publishing and writing was deliberate.
Glad I was here to tell it without having to submit to the tender ministrations of “Claude the Canadian Border Guard”!
And I can tell you-if I hadn’t been able to work out some agreement with AT&T on those roaming charges I incurred, my treatment at her hands might have been much worse!
That would have been treatment by my wife when I got back home!
I suggest that this guy and his friends sneak across the border of China and have it there. I am sure that a good time will be had by all.
Okay, those terms are acceptable.
So we have less people walking around in America wearing fake Spock ears. Sounds like a win.
3 & 4 are priceless 😆😆😆
Venezuela and North Korea would work well too, as would China and Gaza.
Thanks!
These people take themselves seriously. Science fiction conventions cater to a small segment of society. All I can say BYE 👋
He is a rather unique talent, to be sure.
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