Tag Archives: fantasy

Cons 101

by Gail Z. Martin

If you’ve never been to a sci-fi convention, you’re missing the heart of fandom.  Conventions (referred to as “cons”) are gatherings devoted to books, movies, gaming where likeminded people can get together and have a good time.

There is a con somewhere in the U.S. pretty much every weekend.  On several weekends, especially Memorial Day and Labor Day, you’ll have to choose which con to attend.

Cons come in every size and flavor.  Some cons are very small, with only a few hundred in attendance.  These cons have a warmth and intimacy that is hard to find in larger gatherings, but depending on the culture of the sponsoring group, they may seem a little cliquish to outsiders.  Small cons offer a great opportunity to get to meet other fans, have fairly in-depth conversations, and even get face time with the author and artist guests.  Costuming may range from non-existent to intense, depending on the con’s focus.  The vendor room at small cons may not have a wide range of goods for sale, but you’ll have the chance to talk to the vendors and learn more about the products.  Small cons are usually priced inexpensively, and if you’re local and can avoid needing a hotel room, you can further reduce your costs.

Other cons are huge, like Dragon*Con in Atlanta with over 40,000 people and ComiCon in New York and San Diego with well over 100,000 fans.  There’s so much going on at these cons that you won’t build a lot of new relationships.  On the other hand, these cons draw major media stars, bestselling authors, and big-name artists.  Costuming at the big cons is a high art, and you’ll be swiveling your head to see thousands of people who look like they just walked off the set of your favorite movie.  The vendor areas are packed with a huge variety of items for sale ranging from collectible art to pricy costumes and weapons, but it can be difficult to see the merchandise for the crowds.  Because the largest cons draw such a huge attendance, hotels in the area often charge premium rates.  Ticket prices also reflect the scope and depth of the offerings at the event, meaning that the cost to attend the bigger events is understandably higher than for a local con.

While some conventions are multi-media events, catering to books, movies, TV, costuming and gaming, many cons focus on a single specialty.  There are book-only literary cons, all-gaming cons, and cons just for media or costuming.  Make sure you know the focus of the con you’re considering attending before you go so that you’re not disappointed.

If you’re a fan of the genre, you owe it to yourself to try going to a few cons just for the experience.  It can be a wonderful way to discover that you’re not the only one who enjoys certain books, movies or games, and many people have forged new friendships at conventions that last for years.  Give it a shot, and enjoy the experience of having your favorite stories come to life in a whole new way.

 

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Fandom needs its Glee

by Gail Z. Martin

Thanks to Glee, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars and Guitar Hero, my kids know the words to all the songs that were popular when I was in high school, and quite a few songs that made the charts when I was still riding a tricycle.

These TV shows, plus Karaoke and dance video games and the ubiquitous Rock Band have made the hits of the 70s and 80s—and some of the 60s—cool again.  Sure, the songs have an updated sound (no chord organs), and they’re not the original artists.  But as covers go, they’re pretty damn good.  Better than many cover bands I’ve heard.  But what really matters is that these shows and games managed to make songs that were meaningless to teens and  twenty-somethings relevant and relatable.

So how does fandom go about doing the same thing for the favorite books that aren’t on the radar of anyone under 50?

I think one thing that’s important to note about the Glee phenomenon is that no one lectured viewers about the relative merit of the old songs.  Not only that, both artists and performers had to be willing to bend to update the sound.  And it doesn’t work for every song.  I don’t think we’ll be seeing the car crash ballads of the 1950s revived, unless they’re updated for drive-bys. (It’s possible.)

What does this mean for fandom?  Instead of bemoaning the dearth of young people at (some) cons, perhaps some bending is in order from the old guard to entice young fen into the flock.  Media cons certainly have young fans in droves, because they like the fames and the TV/movie tie-ins and the costumes.  How is that a bad thing?  These don’t diminish books; they extend our audience.

At the same time, it’s important to recognize that some stories won’t resonate with readers outside of the time period of the story’s creation because the world has changed too much, even for sci fi.  Stories that are overtly sexist, racist, jingoistic or otherwise exclusive will feel like ancient history, not futuristic tales.  Some stores, beloved as they may be, outlive their time.

The artists whose work has suddenly become relevant to a whole new generation are profiting from the exposure.  The original fans find themselves smiling and singing along, much to the amazement of their kids.  (If you’d have asked me if someday my teenagers would know the songs from Rocky Horror Picture Show, I wouldn’t have bet money on it, and I’d have been wrong.)  In fact, by closing the musical generation gap, these shows have opened a door to a whole new form of togetherness.

Cons can be a terrific forum for shared interests across generations.  I’ve seen it happen.  If it’s not happening at a con near you, tune in to an episode of Glee or fire up Guitar Hero and see if you don’t get a few ideas on how to bridge the gap.

 

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The Graying of the Fan—Or Not

by Gail Z. Martin

I attend more than a dozen sci-fi/fantasy conventions each year, mostly along the East Coast. One of the topics that comes up often in conversation, if not as the actual topic of a panel, is the fear in some areas that fandom is graying and that young people aren’t embracing the genre.

I just don’t see it.

If anything, the Millennial generation—those folks now in their teens and twenties—are the most sci-fi saturated generation in history. They teethed on Buffy, came of age with Harry Potter, immersed themselves playing Final Fantasy, navigated the Twilight phenomenon, and exist in a world where a huge percentage of the books, movies and TV shows have a supernatural/paranormal bent. It’s almost impossible for them to avoid the genre. These young people played with light sabers as kids and went trick-or-treating as anime characters.

But here’s what over-40 fans need to accept—the next generation of fans are a multi-media fandom raised in a multi-media world. Few of them are going to go back and read pulp stories from the 1930s or 1940s—why should they? Not only were those stories, however much they may be revered as classics of the genre, written fifty years before they were born, but the sci-fi in them isn’t amazing to people who played with computers in day care, are indigenous citizens of the Internet and navigate iPads, iPods and cell phones with the fluency of a Borg.

I’ve found that when people lament the decline of fandom, there’s really a wish for fandom to remain primarily book oriented, and, if truth be told, on books published a while ago. Yet, as futurists should know better than anyone, time marches on.
I’ve been to cons that eschew media and gaming where people ponder the lack of young fans. Then I go to multi-media cons like DragonCon, and I see where all the young fans are. The next generation of fans want to celebrate the genre as they’ve come to love it—and that goes beyond books to gaming, anime, movies, TV and the Web. Speak their language, honor their interface with the genre, and they will come—in droves.

Something amazing happens at multi-media cons. Older fans discover elements of the genre that they’re surprised to like. Younger fans get switched on to authors who were published long before the fans were born. And just like on a Star Trek episode where two alien races have a positive first encounter, the whole thing works surprisingly well.

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