A Touch of Gray

[sleigh]

I hate to say this, but one enduring image I have of Worldcon is walking down the hall of one of the party floors and seeing a veritable fleet of electric carts parked along the wall. That seems emblematic of the graying of fandom and declining memberships at many conventions (Worldcons being among them). I found it also symbolic of how sf fandom, should it not want to die a slow and fading death, needs to learn how to be inclusive of younger fans, who might have different interests and tastes than ours. It would behoove us to remember that when we were the Young Ones, our tastes were also different than that of the Old Pharts of the time.

We need to embrace the differences and enjoy the discussions that result, not run away from them. At least that's my feeling. What's yours?

Comments

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

There's far too many people invested in the past and acrimonious about their opinions for anything else to happen.

You may well be right, (and I've certainly seen examples of this firsthand with some of the recent turmoil within the CFG) but I still hope that's not the case. It certainly doesn't have to be. I'm certainly seeing a number of writers, given the choice between attending Dragoncon and Worldcon, opting for Dragon because the audience is far larger there, and still receptive to them as writers.

I think that eventually Dragon or Comicon could come out with their own set of a awards, but print sf/fantasy (if there are categories for it at all) will be the "lesser" awards (rather as films are with the Hugo awards), and the "big" awards will be for movies and TV series.

I personally find nothing wrong with that. Certainly the audience for films/TV is far larger than the audience who buys books and magazines.