So today (Thursday) was my first day ever at a Worldcon, and my second day ever of being in Dublin. For those who don’t know, Worldcon is the world science fiction (and fantasy) convention, which is in its 77th (!) year and takes place in a different location each time. Also for those who don’t know, Dublin is definitely not in the UK (the only boo of the convention so far was for an American author who used the phrase “here in the UK…”).
I won’t go into detail on all the talks I went to, except to say that for anyone interested in South Asian SFF, there’s a handy link here from one presenter with the latest and I presume greatest. I do want to talk about the Opening Ceremony.
Opening Worldcon (after a full day of programming…)
Now, having been to a number of academic conferences, I have certain expectations about opening ceremonies. There’s usually a keynote speaker who talks about their amazing, career-spanning work, and you usually walk away with exciting new knowledge. Plus there’s usually a weird, supposedly native, performance (some are more authentic than others).
While the Worldcon opening ceremony certainly had some interesting performances, there’s not much I learned about it except that it’s very old. As part of the ceremony, they not only held the Retro Hugos (retroactively celebrating the SFF that came out in 1944, a worthy goal except for the fact that most everyone of the recipients is dead and most surrogates had absolutely nothing to do with the winner…), but also gave out fan awards to those who have gone above and beyond as part of the First Fandom, the oldest generation of fans.
It’s only natural that these people are celebrated, as they are the main organisers and proponents of the whole thing, and Worldcon would not have survived this long, being the volunteer-run event that it is, without them. However, I personally couldn’t help but feel like an imposter. This is my first Worldcon, and while I vaguely know a few people who are here, the event is so big that there’s a good chance I will never even run into them. Overall, I feel like I’m too much of a slacker to be here. I have heard Dutch spoken all around the con, and yet I don’t know of a single Dutch SFF community.
There are so many nationalities, that no matter where you are from, dear reader, I can guarantee that at least a few of your countrymen and -women are here. As such, I vow here to endeavour to find out where these SFF Dutchies are hiding so that when Worldcon comes to the Netherlands (hopefully) sometime in the 2030s I will know my own community at least a little better!
My kingdom for a time-turner
Aside from feeling like a complete outsider and a fake fan (an accusation all too often thrown at female fans of any subculture, but I digress), I am mainly feeling overwhelmed. There are so many great talks by so many authors and editors I admire that I can’t possibly see all of them. I really hope I’m making the right choices. It doesn’t help that some of the talks take place in an entirely different venue that is a 15-minute walk away, which means you either have to risk it and miss even more or just give up on those talks altogether. First world problems, I know I know.
So here I am, sitting in my hotel room, thinking about all the things I might be missing out on and the people I could be talking to (I’ve seen Seanan McGuire, one of my favourite authors who really deserves to win the Best Series Hugo for her October Daye books, several times, but we’re always going in opposite directions and I don’t want to disturb her anyway…). Who knows what tomorrow brings.
Valuable resource
It may seem like I’m just complaining and feeling down, but that doesn’t mean I think aspiring (genre) authors should miss out on this amazing opportunity. Every day, there are opportunities to talk in a small group with all sorts of authors and editors (you just have to sign up in advance for these events). If you’re shy like me, you can still sit in panels and take in the wisdom and wicked sense of humour of a lot of talented, hard-working people.
Of course, if you are shy (or simply lacking in funds) then a place like Nine Worlds (which I’m hopeful will come back one day), or your own equivalent smaller fan convention near wherever you are, might be more suitable. It won’t have as many star authors, but it should still have enough. More importantly, it’s a lot smaller, which means less queuing, more chance of actually getting into all the panels you want, plus when I went to Nine Worlds I kept seeing the same people around which makes it a lot easier to get social if you’re not someone who is naturally inclined to go and talk to people.
Anyway, those are my first impressions of the insanity that is 6,000-odd people coming from all over the world to get geeky together. Time for bed.
As an addendum, I met up with an Irish friend yesterday (not at the con) who I hadn’t seen in 10 years, which reminded me that I’m the best at picking friends, so if you are at Worldcon this week and see someone in a NaNoWrimo shirt do say hi and see if you can be one of the best people that are my friends. (I hope that sounded like the compliment to my friends it was meant as rather than as an arrogant statement. Internetting is hard.)
Writing with a hint of Psychology 