From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Combined reply
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 11:49:02 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 1:41 AM
Subject: [WSFA] Combined reply

> This is a combined reply to several recent messages.  If anyone
> prefers that I reply to each message, or to each message topic,
> separately, please speak up.  Thank you.

Fine with me.

[...]
>
> Ted White wrote:
>
> > I have to wonder on what basis Keith says that "the fact [is] that
> > overseas Worldcons are generally not as well put together as US and
> > Canadian ones."  I've been to five overseas Worldcons ... I have to
> > wonder if Keith has been to *any* overseas Worldcon.
>
> I've been to two.  Glasgow in '95 and Melbourne in '99.
>
> I won't mention the terrible acoustics in '95, since those have
> supposedly been fixed.  I *will* mention the tobacco smoke, the cold
> indoor temperatures, the fact that the tap water was not fit to drink
> in the SECC and that nobody bothered to tell us this until the second
> day of the con (fortunately I suffered no apparent ill effects), the
> lack of people (if I wanted a small con, I could have gone to any
> regional con for a lot less money), and the lack of room parties.
>
> The two main things I go to cons for are to meet people and to go to
> room parties.

There were *thousands* of people in Glasgow (the Worldcon was combined with
the 1995 Eurocon) and I attended parties every night.   Obviously you hung
with the wrong people (or, no one).   I had a room in the hotel adjacent to
the train station, and the place was *hopping* with parties and fans, the
majority of whom I knew.   I had no problem with accoustics, either,
although most of the fan programming was in the exhibition centre in
"rooms" divided by curtains.  Other programming was in separate venues in
auditoriums with even better accoustics.   I think Glasgow was the largest
UK Worldcon; you should have been at the London Worldcon in '65 (350
attended).

On ther other hand, by far the best Worldcons I've been to were those in
the 1955-1965 era -- when some Worldcons had only around 200 in attendance,
and none were over a thousand.   They were totally different from the
modern crowded circuses, had single-track programming and *we all knew each
other*.    (The parties were better, too.)

> '99 had even fewer people, and the same lack of room parties, but at
> least there was good water and little tobacco smoke.

I wasn't in Australia in '99, but in '85 room parties weren't hard to find.
(Since I *never* drink foreign water, that is never an issue for me.)
>
[...]
>
> Ted White wrote:
>
> > But there is a yet more subtle chauvinism.  Language chauvinism.
>
> Is there any significant amount of non English language fandom,
> i.e. not just SF stories but also fanzines and cons?

Of course.  There are conventions (like Eurocon) all over Europe.   You
*must* have noticed at Glasgow the bidding materials (for a Worldcon) from
a variety of non-English-speaking countries -- at least three different
European bids.  I'm amazed anyone would ask such a question in the 21st
century.

--Ted White