Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 21:15:31 -0500 (EST)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at keithlynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Predicting who will be at WSFA meetings
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

"Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu> wrote:

> Paging Hari Sheldon . . . paging Hari Sheldon . . . .

Ah yes.  From Asimov's _Second Association_, about how back in the
1940s Bob Briggs established *two* Associations.  WSFA, which we all
know and love, and the mysterious Second WSFA, "at the other end of
the city".  Second WSFA is filled with pscyho-fan-historians who use
superscience to predict what WSFA will do next.  Second WSFA no doubt
has at least one member planted in WSFA, to report back, and to help
influence events.

When you finish that, be sure to read Heinlein's "By His Handcuffs,"
in which someone is kidnapped into 1997 through a time gate, and it
subsequently turns out that they become the Disclave sprinkler idiot,
then after repeatedly doubling back through time they also become
the person hung on the sprinkler by the idiot, the hotel manager,
Disclave's chairman, and the kidnapper.  It's never explained where
the time gate came from.

When you finish that, be sure to read Heinlein's "Coniverse", about
a WSFA-run con that has been going on for generations.  People have
heard of "closing ceremonies" and the "dead dog party," but think they
are purely metaphorical, and will never actually happen.  Most people
believe the con has always been going on and will last forever, and
that nothing exists beyond the outermost walls of the hotel.  Until
one intrepid young explorer looks out a window and discovers the
outdoors.

And Lois Bujold's _Falling Three_ about a race of beings with hands in
place of feet, making it possible to handcuff them to three (or even
four) sprinklers at once.  All of which unfortunately then fall and
break open.  Oops.

Then there's Greg Benford's _Conscape_, in which a future Capclave
manages to send messages back through time to a past Disclave, to give
them warnings.

And Robert Forward's _Fandom's Egg_, in which an race of fans is found
living on the surface of a neutron star, smoffing at a rate millions
of times faster than normal.  Cons are held several times each minute,
and club meetings about once every second.  Fannish feuds only last a
few hours before they forgive and forget.

Not to mention Ayn Rand's notorious _Fandom Shrugged_, in which all
the smofs go on strike, and cons all fall apart since they're run by
people who don't know what they're doing.

And S.M. Stirling's _WSFA in a Sea of Time_, in which one WSFA meeting
is surrounded by an unusual electrical display, after which we find
ourselves in 1250 BC, and have to re-establish civilization.

Then there's George Stewart's _Fandom Abides_ in which a terrible
plague kills all the fans in the world except for WSFA members, and
we have to try and rebuild fandom.

And Vernor Vinge's _Across Fantime_ trilogy, in which a Capclave is
caught in a bobble which stops time, until the 24th century, in which
nobody else is still on earth, and it's not clear what happened to
everyone.

And Larry Niven's _Ringcon_, about a Worldcon even more spread out
than Intersection, with facilities extending along a billion-mile ring
around a star.  The line to get into the masquerade stretches across
ten thousand Asia-sized continents.

Speaking of "Sheldon," there's always Tiptree's "The Fans Men
Don't See", which examines the ways in which mundane domination
marginalizes fans.

Any I'm forgetting?
--
Keith F. Lynch - kfl at keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/
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