Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 18:22:16 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Old Schoolkids [was: Old School]
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

At 02:42 PM 3/31/05 -0600, samlubell at verizon.net wrote:

>The real challenge will be to take all the millions reading Harry Potter
and turn even a small fraction of them into con fen.

Good point.  Can we have a Quiddich match at Capclave maybe?

I'm not sure that the forces that led past fans to have cons are still
extant today.  I wasn't around at "the beginning", but I came along not all
that long after the first cons (at least some of those where were around at
"the beginning" were still around in fair numbers at the time), and I've
been to recent cons and the feel is different now...and I don't think it's
just my own distance from the "golden age" of 12.

In the past there was a sense of isolation if you were into SF.  Most
people weren't, and considered "SF" and "Sci-Fi" to be the same
thing...stuff like Godzilla and The Thing or maybe Buck Rogers.  That's the
origin of the aversion to "Sci-Fi" (pronounced "skiffy") when used to refer
to decent SF IMO.  We didn't want *good* SF labeled with the same moniker
as that monster movie crap. If you were into SF you were "weird", and if
you were *exclusively* into SF, seen as a bit pitiful by many.

You could find books to read in most book stores and public and school
libraries, but not all that many.  I read all the SF in my local public
library by the time I was in Jr. High school...some of them many times (I
think the record was _Raiders From The Rings_, which I read 7 times before
I was old enough to check books out from the adult side of the library (12
I think it was).  When I finally had money I could buy books with, and got
a ride to a mall with a bookstore, I found that they had one rack of
SF...though at least they didn't mix it in with horror like they do today.
I bought as many as I could afford and read them.  That was about the time
when Harlan and others were trying to change the face of SF, and most short
stories had titles almost as long as the work.

In high school I found a few more new books, mostly older ones by big
names, in the school library and read those too...again, sometimes more
than once due to the limited selection.  I had a few friends who read SF,
but most kids didn't read for fun at all, and only a few of those read SF.
Those who did were generally not welcome in the social life of the school,
which was mostly centered around sports.  Words like "nerd", "geek" and
"egghead" were applied to such people, so that the rest could feel superior
to *someone* and reinforce their own social bonds.

In 10th grade I met Jacqui Freas.  She told me about cons.  I went to the
next Disclave at her urging (my first solo out of town trip ever), and
didn't miss one for the next 15 years or so, and eventually added Balticon,
Scicon, Lunacon and some others to the list when I could afford to go.  I
got subscriptions to Analog and some other magazines and life was good.

What was so attractive about cons?  Primarily, people like me!  People who
read and liked SF.  People with open minds.  People who thought about
things.  People who saw beyond the bounds of reality into the realms of
possibility...and wanted to go there in some cases, and avoid going there
in others.  People you could get creatively weird with and get a welcome
response, rather than a blank stare.  People who weren't MUNDANES.  In
short, a sub-culture I could be happy in.  It also had books for sale!
Unlike the limited selection at my local stores, the hucksters room was
covered in books!  I generally went home with a stack from every con, and
read them soon after.

Is the above still true today?  Not so much.  SF is generally accepted
these days.  There are lots of blockbuster movies and TV shows with an SF
theme...some even done well.  Bookstores have large selections of SF for
sale (though usually mixed in with fantasy and horror).  The internet
provides access to lots of interesting people right from my own home, as
well as letting me have access to even more books.  I can't say what life
is like for school kids these days...but with all the PC preaching about
acceptance of everyone, maybe things are better...or not (PC still allows
for hatred of some groups, just not those that are PC).

The influx of "media fen" a number of years ago may explain where the
younger fen are for the most part: not reading, watching.  I believe that
there are large numbers of younger people in fandom related to X-Files,
Buffy, Tribes (or whatever that show is called...I've never watched a whole
episode.  It's that one where all the adults are dead and the kids rule the
world, apparently putting 90% of their survival efforts into locating and
wearing makeup), Farscape, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc.  Heck, I
watch some of those shows too, but I wouldn't go to a con centered on them.
 They are just one aspect of SF, not the whole thing, or even the most
interesting part...but that's me.  I have gone to a couple of cons with
more of a "media" bent, like Shore Leave, and found a *lot* more younger
people at these than at the more literary oriented cons.   It's clear kids
have a *LOT* more options for entertainment these days, even SF-centered
entertainment, than we did in the days of 3 TV channels and no computers.

The above may explain why there aren't as many fans, as a percentage, in
the teen and 20-something age ranges at cons as there once were...and the
fact that things are that way then becomes another reason.  Younger kids
want to be with each other, not with people their parents' age...in
general.  Maybe we could look at what parts of current cons seem to attract
the younger folks' attention, and do more of that?  Dances and computer
gaming rooms seem to be two of these.  There may well be others...has
anyone asked the kids?

Is there a cure for the greying of fandom?  I dunno.  The conditions that
resulted in cons being needed may no longer exist.  I don't think that
re-creating them, even if it was possible, would be desirable.  Things are
better now in lots of ways.  If cons die out as a result, so be it.  At
least it won't be because SF has lost its audience, and that's the
important thing.

Or maybe there will be a resurgence as "mainstream SF" gets limited in
scope of ideas by market forces and a desire for "something else" grows
among those who like fresh ideas and no limits thinking?  One can hope...

-- Mike B.
--
Nostalgia buff: someone who finds the past perfect and the present tense.