From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: 2007 Worldcon
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 00:06:14 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ivy Yap" <yapivy at techemail.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 10:52 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: 2007 Worldcon

> --- "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net> wrote:
> >>>>>
> Despite it being called "the World Science Fiction Convention" or
> "Worldcon," it's mostly American (the majority of attendees -- even in
> foreign locations) and analogous to baseball's "World Series," which has
> *never* left the USA.   It's really the American national convention --
as proven by the substition of a "Nasfic" held in the US whenever the
Worldcon does leave the country.
> <<<<<
>
> Geez, I suddenly feel like the token Asian at an all-white American
party.  You've just made my entire point.  Without participation and
involvement from the rest of the world, the Worldcon will remain nothing
but the "American National Convention".  Do American SF fans actually want
to remain isolated?

===========

Yes and no, depending on which ones you ask.

American chauvinism is nothing new.  Many American fans fought bitterly
against letting the Worldcon go overseas for the first time (to London in
1957), claiming that no one would go because "there are only a half-dozen
fans over there," and voicing the fear that "once *they* get it, we'll
never get it back."   I read and heard these statements with my own eyes
and ears.  I was there (in New York City in 1956) when the battle was
waged.  (Naturally, I was a supporter of the London bid.)

Are such fans in the majority?  No.  When openly confronted in a vote (for
site selection) they've always lost.  But they have been more effective
behind the scenes, lobbying for changes in the Worldcon rules, making sure,
as Mike has pointed out, that Worldcon sanctions a NASFiC on those
occasions when the Worldcon leaves our shores, to ensure that *something*
like the Worldcon will be held *every year* in the US.

But there is a yet more subtle chauvinism.  Language chauvinism.  It's far
more basic and unconscious.  Of all the offshore Worldcons only two were
not held in English-speaking countries:  Germany and Holland.   And both of
those occurred in English-friendly/second-language countries.   No Worldcon
in France or Italy, much less Poland (which once had a bid) or even a
Scandinavian country (also English-friendly).

This originally occurred because English-speaking fandom was the Worldcon's
first constituency.  Worldcons were, up through the '60s, put on by fans
who primarily knew of each other through fanzines, and got together once a
year.   English-language fanzines were circulated throughout a common
fandom.  Fanzines from Ireland or England were as common in my mailbox as
were American fanzines.  And in the '60s Australian fanzines became a
strong presence.  It was inevitable that when the Worldcon left North
America (it went first to Canada in 1948, but has never been to Mexico), it
would be first to the UK and eventually to Australia -- despite Australia
being literally on the oposite side of the world (and thus far more
expensive to travel to -- for not only Americans but Brits as well).

How did it go to Germany in 1970?  Well, German fandom had been interacting
with English-speaking fandom since the mid-'50s, when the Benford twins'
family was stationed there (Greg and Jim Benford put out a fanzine, VOID,
while living in Germany as teenagers).  Several German fans were
contributing (in English) to British and American fanzines by the early
'60s.  When I went to the second London Worldcon in 1965, I met them.  By
1970 a German fan had won TAFF and a German Worldcon had become not only
acceptable but inevitable.

So how about a Japanese Worldcon?    It has two strikes against it for most
Americans and Brits:  First, it's almost as far away -- and expensive to
get to -- as Australia.  And second, it's a distinctly more alien culture,
non-English-speaking, and thus perceived by many as less hospitable.  Plus
(maybe strike three) it's a Damned Expensive country -- at least in the
cities where a Worldcon could be held.  Just one strike might not be a
problem, but two or more strikes are.

But I'm not saying it will never happen.   Just probably not in 2007.

--Ted White