Science Fiction conventions

[fbhjr]

Back in the 1980’s my wife and I went science fiction conventions and had a good time.
These days I don’t enjoy it anywhere near as much.

Part of me says “They must have been more fun back then.”
Part of me says “I must be getting old if I don’t like them so much.”

I’m not saying they are better or worse now. They are different. And, the difference is not one that I enjoy much.

There were several things I used to like at the cons 20+ years ago.
I liked that the people who created stories, art, movies and shows would come to them and talk about creating those things. Why they wrote what they wrote, painted what they painted, filmed what they filmed. There certainly were events with people saying “we really love xxx”, but I seemed to be able to find as much about making xxx as folks liking it.
I liked the dealers room and art show. I could find cool stuff there that I couldn’t find anywhere else.
I liked the movies they’d often show. I’d get to see movies I couldn’t see anywhere else.

The parties, even back when I used to drink and such, never did it for me. For me, those events always turned into people trying to prove they were a bigger fan then I was. i could never stand that. I’m not one who thinks fame and fortune rub off on people. What people do matters far more to me then who they know.

The internet has done a lot to rob the cons of reasons 2 and 3 for why I liked them. If I can’t download the movies on Netflix, then I can order it on Amazon. That goes for most of the cool stuff I liked in the dealers room and a fair bit of the art.

For the first one, that seems to have waned over the years as well. Sunday morning while waiting for my wife’s shows to start I read through the schedule for the weekend. I looked for subjects I liked and read the descriptions of the panels on them. All of them seemed to be discussions of fans of those things, no things that involved the people who made them.

I agree that it can be fun to discuss things with people who like some of the same things you do. But, I don’t see why it is worth it to pay quite a bit of money for membership and hotel to do it.

Comments

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about the "I'm a bigger uber-fan than you are", and the "let's just spend an hour gushing about this awesome show we think is totally awesome and how everyone else isn't as cool as us cause they can't gush as hard as we can" sort of panels.

I've also sat and listened to a couple of panels recently where I'm shocked how poorly a social situation is construed, or how poorly social skills are lacking with people, total cluelessness.

But some, like the "Renaissance Glass Blowing" of one artist was a lot of fun, and showing a huge amount of talent and great work.

Overall, I'm not all that impressed with the panels.

I'm thinking of next year, if they offer it, to only go in to the Con for an Artist Table, which means only a 5 hour block, I can set up my work and try to sell it directly. Not sure. The regular Art Show is an advantage because it's a "leave it up and walk around" option, because I do like people-watching and seeing the variety of costumes (although perhaps they'd all come by at some point during the day)

we'll see.

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who has created a con workshop on the art of flirting, but really it's a workshop meant to train attendees on basic social skills. I find it intruiging that there is such a need for this...

[temperlj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's pretty scary. They've also had panels called "Bathing, your first step to social interaction"
*retch*