Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 19:18:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: dicconf <dicconf at radix.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: The sliding Capclave
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On Thu, 3 Apr 2008, Michael Walsh wrote:
> dicconf <dicconf at radix.net> 3/29/2008 3:08 PM
>
>> If I were going to Capclave again, I'd miss your presence, but since
>> it's been going steadily downhill, I'm not planning to attend.
>
> Since no one else has asked ...
>
> What was the better Capclave?
>
> What could be done to halt this slide?

Backpedaling a little, I admit that it probably
has as much to do with me as with Capclave.

I've been in fandom since 1972 so at every con many
of the topics seem familiar.  I commute to Capclave,
so I often miss the morning program because I'm
not an early riser, _and_ last year I was selling
stuff so I was tending the table. (I won't be in
future. Still got the stuff but I hate paperwork.)

There were a few items on the 2007 program that
sounded interesting and I might have liked them.
The parties were few and not to my taste.  I don't
recall getting into more than one good conversation.

I can't remember what the con suite was like.

A good con suite can make or break a marginal con for
me.  Since I've pretty much heard it all before for
much of a typical program, I really want a place where
I can sit comfortably and get into a conversation.
If there is food and drink available, that's good too.
So I like comfortable chairs arranged in groupings where
people can speak quietly and be heard (no loud music),
and a table to lean on/put a drink or a book on. The room
should be comfortably warm and not an echoing ballroom.
(Ideally it wouldn't be overcrowded with people talking
about games, non-SF tv, and mundane politics in very loud
voices, but this _is_ fandom in the DC area after all.)

A lot depends on mood.

I have the impression that Capclave now has a
restrictive atmosphere.  We don't necessarily
have to go back to home-made cookies but
I think the light-heartedness, the spirit of play,
is missing.  The con is educational, it's full of
social consciousness, but it's not fun. I don't
know what to do to make it fun again.

A major part of the appeal of fandom for me has
always been its uncritical, welcoming atmosphere.
All you had to do was enjoy F/SF and buy a membership.
You didn't have to dress like a yuppie or know anybody.

I also like filk singing, though I haven't been
attending filksings lately, for similar reasons,
really.  The west coast filkers got the
"professional folkie" attitude and they infested
the east coast with it, so filking at cons is
no longer quite the safe haven it used to be for
those of us who just want to sing and aren't
professional quality.  Those of us who now feel
we aren't wanted - won't come.

*  *  *
For what it's worth, here is a detailed list of
the 2007 program items and my reactions to them
as I reread the program book now.
   If you read this, keep in mind that I am chronically
mildly depressed and I've attended conventions
since 1973. My reactions may not be either typical
or helpful.  My opinions are unlikely to be changed
by a con panel, so I attend them to learn about
subjects where I don't already have strong opinions.

_Friday_: urban fantasy, being a small press publisher,
gaming. GoHs at play, the new television season,
neo-pulp, taboos even in horror, movie ideas,
book covers, alternative sexuality, and where's
the comic SF.

   I've read some urban fantasy.  It's often good
when they don't bog down in dated details, but
since few of us live in peasant huts, virtually any
fantasy with a modern contemporary setting will be
"urban".  I'm not a 20-or-30-something so current
allusions will whoosh over my head.
   I don't play board games or computer games. I gave
up tv completely in 1992. Not into pulp fiction.
I hate horror and feel that most taboos have a reason
for being; my opinions on that are unlikely to be
changed by a con panel.  I am deeply cynical
about the results of most movie studios "adapting"
anything not written specifically for them. so my
answer to "what would you adapt to film" is "nothing".
(I exempt many but not all BBC products from this.)
   I might have been interested in the comic SF panel,
but the write-up gives Bill the Galactic Hero as an
example and I don't think that story is funny. I don't
think it was intended to be funny, either.  It's bitter
antiwar satire.  (If the author intended BtGH to be
funny, then I don't think he knows what "funny" is,
either.)

_Saturday daytime_: religion. SF biology. assembling
an anthology. 60 years of WSFA. writing point-of-view.
War. About GoH Jeffrey Ford. Inventing SF languages.
Book reviewing technique limited workshop with
preregistration required.  Heinlein and why his
books aren't all movies.  Romance novel SF. Harry
Potter. Cosmology/Dark Energy. Writers' contracts.
Best books of 2007. co-editing.  Why fantasy is
so often pseudo-medieval.  How to get an agent.

   Okay, I might have gone to the reviewer technique
workshop except it was limited and required
preregistration, which takes forethought I don't have
lately.
   Inventing believable SF languages - I'm not a writer
(and I think I got there too late even though it was
at 1 PM) but I think that might have been a winner if
it covered what makes a fake language sound/feel right
so it's believable (I think this varies by culture,
as even some words in English sound weird to me.)
   Best books of 2007 - I really haven't kept up. If
I hadn't been tending the table, I might have tried
that one.

   I don't do tv, romance novels, or religion discussions,
and I've discussed Harry Potter in intense detail daily
for eight years online; I doubt that a one-hour panel
would bring up anything new.  I admit I'm weak on hard
science.  I've attended contracts, editors, and agents
panels; I doubt anything new would come up. I'm pretty
sure I know why most fantasy is pseudo-medieval (because
the expectations are lower so it's easier).

_Saturday evening_:  cycle of pulp topics & is fantasy
faltering, genre guilt, SF/F/H movies, WSFA party,
gender roles in SF/F (feminism).

No, fantasy isn't faltering, it's the main type of
writing, this "realism" stuff is the fad. I choose my
movies myself. I lived through the sixties, seventies,
and eighties - feminism I could discuss in my sleep.
I don't find formal parties fun.  I don't drink.
   Also, having read many British and American novels
of the 20th century, I learned that "fancy dress" means
"costume party" - see Dorothy Sayers, P.G.Wodehouse,
et al.  Even in fandom, "fancy dress" does not mean
black tie - that's "formal wear." "Dressing fancy"
does not mean "fancy dress."
   There were almost no other parties.

_Sunday_: The end of the world as predicted for 12/12/2012.
Is there any new YA SF.  Best short fiction of 2007.
Internet book sites e.g. Library Thing.
   Writing interest: what makes a story keep you reading
after the opening grabber?
   The new weird - defining new ways to look at SF/F and
why bother to do it.
   TV remakes and whether they worked.
   Stereotypical females in YA, especially romance.
   Promoting books - gimmicks vs giveaways

   I get a lot of new age stuff elsewhere, and for the
reality discussion, I can get depressed on my own.
   I think I'm fairly well up on internet sites, and
while Library Thing might be useful eventually, right
now it wouldn't help me.  Typing in a few hundred books
could be done; typing in 20 thousand books, no. (I'm
not kidding.)  Also I wouldn't want information on the
net about any valuable items I might have. I think
"online security" is an oxymoron.
   "Keeping you reading" could have been interesting but
I was at the table... and I suspect the "answers" were
the usual: action, character development, pacing, humor,
something just a little out of the ordinary without being
so weird that the average hardened F/SF reader will feel upset.
   The new weird - the premise was so oddly phrased that
it sounded too avant-garde for me.
   Movies remade into tv - I don't do tv. No, not even
Buffy or Babylon5.
   Why are there timid females in YA fiction - I know why.
(1) it's archetypal and it's not a bad thing for kids
     to learn what the archetypal patterns are.
(2) some people are breaking out of it anyway.
(3) I _am_ a timid female.  I want my representation.
     We can't all be Lara Croft or Buffy, and somebody
     has to point out the dangers in the story.

Re: Promoting Your Book - I was packing up the table
by then.  I think I would have liked to attend that one,
since it suggested that there might be some information
about genuinely effective methods besides the usual.

So that's five items that I might have attended under
other circumstances:

   reviewer workshop
   inventing believable SF languages
   recent book recommendations
   story grabbers
   promoting your book

That's actually a pretty good score; if I'd been able to
attend all of them - or any of them - I might have a
better attitude despite what I perceive as the lack of
anything else to do.

P.S. I miss the Pop-Tart Cafe, too.  Sure, that was
game advertising but it was excellent advertising and
good games.

=Tamar