August 29, 2002
So far, we’ve flown across the country, checked into the Hilton attached to the convention center, discovered that said Hilton has no in-room broadband (lamers), and had a conversation touching on scabrous sexual gossip involving well-known science fiction fans roughly fifty-five years ago. Truly it is said that fandom is a creature with an infinitely short attention span and an infinitely long memory.
Anyway, the 60th World Science Fiction Convention. I started going to these when they were on their 34th. I feel a great need to lie down. [04:02 AM]
SF convention in Silicon Valley. Hmm. I envision an hourly shuttle to Fry's, the Winchester Mystery House, and that great noodle place near CompUSA just south of the Lawrence Expressway & El Camino. Daily excursions to the Pulgas Water Temple . . .
If you want to feel even older still, consider the information passed along to me by Tom Whitmore: that the admission requirement of First Fandom is simply that one has been an active fan for thirty years.
In my case, the magic date is but two years away. [*thumps cane on the floor, utters the godname "CAPT. S.P. MEEK, USA, RET.!" and awaits the approval of the other elders in the circle.*]
Plenty of the Mom and Pop motels along El Camino advertise in big letters "free broadband in every room". What you are seeing is just the standard problem with large organizations. The local Hilton manager probably has no authority to make changes like adding broadband, while the organization as a whole is still stuck in 1990 and won't realize there's something like broadband till five years from now. This is no different from the unbelievably stupid ways in which we see all large companies using (and not using) tech everyday---eg the infamous call up an 800#, punch in some sort of ID number, then get routed to an operator who immediately asks you for exactly the same number.
I have to go check First Fandom pages, Alan. Holy Gernsback! I started reading fanzines in 1971, and attended the first Star Trek con in 1972.
I'm going to direct a coruscating beam of power at you, overflowing your shields, even though you are a blinding flash and a deafening retort, for this news.
Wait, the mantle of SaM descends, and I Expel you! And then I wear the aura of Dave Kyle, and send a runner to say You Can't Sit There.
This will be far worse, you know, after all First Fandom is Uploaded.
Oh, heck, there's G.M. Carr, now. But wait, it's Walter, James, Chuch, and Vincent! It's good.
At the First Fandom meeting that occurred during Worldcon, the group that's recently been referred to as the "Dinosaurs," (and whose members include actual First Fandom members: Dave Kyle, Art Widner, Jack Speer, et al.), strongly urged re-examining the policy of admitting people based on a 30-year history of activity in fandom.
I believe that what's going to come out of this is a system where a sponsoring organization, called "Friends of First Fandom," is created. This organization will have open memberships without a specific date cutoff. The "dinosaurs" are going to reassert their claim to being First Fandom, period.
In fact, here comes Art Widner, now....
71 or 2 just dont cut it, Gary. The cutoff date for "real" FF memship is '38--any kind of "fanac" e.g. i wrote a goshwow letter to ASF Oct 34 for my qualifications. I was surprised that even Dave Kyle axeptd my suggestions for "Friends of". All fandom may be plunged into Peace. Yhos.....
I am in complete agreement with Art Widner on the advantages of the old definition of First Fandom. I enjoy the delusions of youth I get from seeing such a group for people who were active fans years before I was born.
So I assume there must be an Olaf Stapledon pastiche out there somewhere, "Last and First Fandom", right?
Anyway, the 60th World Science Fiction Convention. I started going to these when they were on their 34th. I feel a great need to lie down.
Yeah, I've heard napping is a symptom of old age. :) But you're only as old as you act, and at Clarion you played frisbee like it was only the 44th convention or so. ;)
I cannot tell you how glad I am to learn that First Fandom has returned to its usual "stability." Like others, I began attending conventions in my teens--I may have been 13 at my first Star Trek convention or comic-con, and I'm now 43. I would not in any way, shape, or form, lay claim to First Fandom on the basis of years of observance.
My dad, a long-time reader, would qualify _if_ he had ever gone to a convention or done any fanac in his youth, but despite living in NYC, he was sheltered from such things. Poor dad.
"Dinosaurs," huh?
Maybe I'll take Acclaim up on its offer, take my 500 quid, change my name, and go hunt honkers at the next First Fandom meeting.
Honkers? Hunting for new farts amongst oldpharts?
Yhos,
Hard-Hitting Moderator: Teresa Nielsen Hayden.
Comments on To an ordinary mind, this would mean bookshelves: