Monthy Archive: September 2002
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September 08, 2002

Life : WorldCon 2002 - ConJose

This is a "retroactive blog entry". I attended the 60th Annual World Science Fiction Convention back in 2002 (long before I started this blog) and wrote the following "trip report" on my experience. If I had been blogging back then, this would have been a blog post, so I figured I'd add it after the fact.

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So, I spent Thursday->Monday at the 60th annual World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon), this year known as "ConJose". This was a marathon adventure, and I am in serious need of a vacation from my vacation.

I'd like to start by making the point that if your concept of a "science fiction convention" is something like Saturday Night Live's "get a life" skit, that WorldCon is something different. I've been to "those" kinds of conventions too, and WorldCon is not like that.

First, WorldCon is primarily about written science fiction - novels, short stories, etc. I'd estimate less than 5% of the 600+ events at the convention related to TV or movies. Thus the people who show up to WorldCon are for the most part avid readers. This alone, I suspect, filters out much of the lunatic fringe.

Second, I suspect because it is where Hugo's (the "World Science Fiction Achievement Awards" - SciFi's answer to the Oscars) are presented, WorldCon is a place where the business of Science Fiction publishing meets. It is very well attended by the professionals of the genre, not just the fans. While the person sitting next to you in a seminar (or behind you in line) might be "just another fan", they might also be:

- One of last year's Hugo award winning writers
- A professional illustrator who does SF artwork
- The submissions editor for Dell Books (the person who decides what new books are acquired)
- A literary agent who handles several writers you have read
- A book critic for Analog magazine - A book buyer for Waldenbooks or
- The manager of a small-press publishing company

I had a chance to meet (not just listen to) all of the above over the last 5 days.

Finally, because of the previous two points, the demographics of the conference are a bit different from the "get a life" crowd. I have been to conventions where the median age was probably about 22 years old. I'd guess that the median age for WorldCon is in the low 40's. There were a couple people there who were at the first WorldCon - in 1939! And that's not just the professionals who are skewing the age up. For those of you who know who Bjo and John Trimble are and know their "historic" contribution to SF fandom - remember that they are in their 60's now (that made me feel old).

Now all that is not to say you won't occasionally see people walking around dressed as Klingons (or things much more bizarre), just that convention has a balance between folks like that, "just plain fans" (like me), and SF professionals.

Anyway, that being said, here are a few notes from the conference itself. Obviously my observations are skewed by the people I know, so many of these names will be meaningless to many of you. I hope some of you recognize some of them.

- No one was surprised that "The Fellowship of the Ring" won the "best dramatic presentation" Hugo. The actor who played Samwise was on-hand to receive the award.

- It was obvious that Neil Gaiman was very surprised that we won the Hugo for Best Novel for "American Gods". The last line of his acceptance speech was "F**k, I won a Hugo!"

- It turns out I have been pronouncing Vernor Vinge's last name wrong (it has 2 syllables, not one).

- I learned a lot of interesting things about Swahili and some Australian aboriginal languages in the "creating alien languages" workshop.

- The SciFi channel has optioned to make an Amber mini-series, although it is very early in the process and may be dropped.

- Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta (husband/wife, both writers. He is doing the new series of Dune books) did a very good/useful talk on "Things I Wish Some Pro Had Told Me When I Was Just Starting Out".

- There was a seminar which talked about the variety of sexual behaviors of real creatures on earth as an inspiration on how alien sexuality might work. I learned we've got some really strange creatures living here!

- There was a panel on "Will Tolkien remain relevant in the 21st Century". The only person they could find to take the 'no' side on the panel hadn't read the books!

- Robert L Forward, scientist (inventor of gravity-wave astronomy, laser-powered light-sails, and several practical applications of anti-matter), and SF author (the Rocheworld and Dragons Egg books) is dying of cancer and is not expected to see next summer. He created some of the most physically-alien aliens I have ever read, and may rival Clarke on the number of technologies he invented in his books that eventually end up being created for real.

- One of the best seminars I went to was Orson Scott Card's "1000 ideas in One Hour". OK, he cheated - we actually came up with 2 ideas; but since there were 500 people in the audience and we would all write those stories differently, he counted it as 1000 stories. Nonetheless, it was an excellent discussion of what the difference is between a good concept and a good story based on that concept.

- While I am mentioning Card, I'll say he was in person absolutely nothing like what I expected. Based on his books, I had expected someone with the kind of intensity that they usually get Christopher Walken to pay in the movies. What I found was that Orson Scott card was a very relaxed, humorous, open, and accessible. If he is one of those writers who uses his writing to exorcise the demons of his psyche, then he has obviously been very successful.

- Tad Williams (a local guy - was born in the valley) was the MC at the awards ceremony and did an excellent job with lot so good humor. I also saw a panel with him, Terry Brooks, Orson Scott Card, and Alan Dean Foster that was a riot. The 4 authors playing off each other kept the audience laughing the whole time.

- Speaking of Alan Dean Foster - he must have a painting in his attic. He looks way younger than any 56 year old disserves to look.

- They showed A&E's new production of "Lathe of Heaven" that will be broadcast next week. While I don't think this production really captures the spirit of the book any better than the previous PBS production, it did manage to capture elements that the first production missed and is well worth seeing. The film "feels" right even if they skip too many story elements IMHO.

- Donald Kingsbury is finally (after 20 years) returning to the world of "Courtship Rite" and writing a sequel. Set 500 years after the 1st book, the Getans have a nascent space program and are launching a mission to visit god. If you have read the book, that will make perfect (and intriguing) sense. If you haven't - do so! It is IMHO one of the best depictions of an "alien" society (even though it is populated by humans), with an element of mystery where what you think is happening at the start of the story is actually something quite different.

Finally, a story to give a bit more of a "feel" for what the convention was like. There was a hallway in the convention center - on one side there were meeting room used for seminars, on the other side were doors which led to maintenance areas which we weren't supposed to use. On the second day of the conference, the unsuspecting staff of the convention center put up some signs on the maintenance side of the hall which read "This is not a door". The signs immediately began to accumulate graffiti. Things like:

"It is ajar"
"Of course not, this is a sign on a door"
"This is a pronoun"
and so on
as well as a number of comments in French (those who know art will understand why).

Eventually signs started to show up all over reading "This is not the floor", "This is not a wall", and "This is a sign".

That's the kind of event WorldCon is.

Posted by Steven at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)