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Readdressing the Balance
So, after my post on how Media and Lit Natcons were joined, and how media fandom as a whole got thoroughly screwed, general consensus was that the whole situation sucked.
So what are we going to do about it?
Well, as it happens, there is a Natcon in Adelaide this weekend. With a business meeting. That would be a great place to start. I can't afford to go, but I know a fair chunk of you will be there. Do you want to set things in motion, and back each other up?
The fact that the original business meeting notes vanished may be down to accident, incompetence, or deliberate mishandling is neither here nor there. What matters is that it's well past time the situation was fixed. The deal was that in exchange for merging their Natcon with the Lit one, media fandom would get fair representation, in the awards and by extension, the programming. That's not happening.
There's no doubt that there will be resistance. But you know what, fuck it, a deal was made. And it was broken. There's no doubt that it will take years to rebuild things, to get that side of fandom even caring that there's a Natcon, let alone coming to it. And some would argue there's no point. But there is a point.
It could have gone the other way.
The Ditmars could have been lost, the Lit Natcon no more. They easily had the numbers to do this at a time when the Lit Natcon was not doing well, and they still gave up their awards, and their Natcon, with expectation of a fair deal they never received.
I didn't set out to try and get this thing fixed, I just wanted to make the point that we used to have more awards. But fuck it, now I'm angry. Because you know, I read and love books, but if I had to choose which box I fit in, I've always thought of myself as a media fan. Most of us watch films and TV shows, and love them. In our everyday lives, the Lit/Media divide doesn't exist, but our Natcon is skewed ridiculously heavily towards Lit.
Media fandom believed in community, and for over a decade that community has let them down.
And I think that's long enough.
So what are we going to do about it?Well, as it happens, there is a Natcon in Adelaide this weekend. With a business meeting. That would be a great place to start. I can't afford to go, but I know a fair chunk of you will be there. Do you want to set things in motion, and back each other up?
The fact that the original business meeting notes vanished may be down to accident, incompetence, or deliberate mishandling is neither here nor there. What matters is that it's well past time the situation was fixed. The deal was that in exchange for merging their Natcon with the Lit one, media fandom would get fair representation, in the awards and by extension, the programming. That's not happening.
There's no doubt that there will be resistance. But you know what, fuck it, a deal was made. And it was broken. There's no doubt that it will take years to rebuild things, to get that side of fandom even caring that there's a Natcon, let alone coming to it. And some would argue there's no point. But there is a point.
It could have gone the other way.
The Ditmars could have been lost, the Lit Natcon no more. They easily had the numbers to do this at a time when the Lit Natcon was not doing well, and they still gave up their awards, and their Natcon, with expectation of a fair deal they never received.
I didn't set out to try and get this thing fixed, I just wanted to make the point that we used to have more awards. But fuck it, now I'm angry. Because you know, I read and love books, but if I had to choose which box I fit in, I've always thought of myself as a media fan. Most of us watch films and TV shows, and love them. In our everyday lives, the Lit/Media divide doesn't exist, but our Natcon is skewed ridiculously heavily towards Lit.
Media fandom believed in community, and for over a decade that community has let them down.
And I think that's long enough.
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vs.
when our whole culture is geared to 'have fun, but on our terms.'
There's a tension here that I don't think you're addressing - 'our community, our rules, our fun' vs a more corporate con that's more accessible to "outsiders'.
How many people go to the effort of talking to someone who is new at a con?
I don't want to rehash this discussion except to say, again, that it will be pretty much the same proportion of people that would do so in any other sub-culture or community. Probably a greater proportion, in my experience, because the fan community tends to think about those issues a little more than others.
So by that logic, media fandom should have let the Lit Natcon die. Way to build community.
Maybe they should have, but they didn't. But I'd also refer you back to my comment about rose tinted glasses.
Here's my fundamental problem with what you're arguing:
You seem to be casting media fans community as the victims of a conspiracy of an organised and united lit fan group that's dedicated to marginalising their interests and using their money to run Cons full of things they don't like.
I think that's bollocks.
These days more than ever the divide (if there ever was one) is less than it ever was before. To be a hard core media fan in the 90s was pretty hard work - tracking down imported vids, comics, tv shows etc was more work than most people whose primary introduction to the fan community came through books could manage.
Now its easy, and every 'lit fan' I know has easy access to all the movies and TV series they could ever want - the divide has shifted in favour of media fans because you don't have to work as hard to get into the material.
And, similarly, the opportunities to discuss and share experience in those fandoms has also expanded, and cons aren't the only place they happen anymore.
On a programming front, maybe that means the pressure isn't on committees in the way used to be to provide those opportunities at cons - I dunno. Like I said, I don't really accept the argument that programs don't reflect media fandom on a more or less equal basis, but neither of us has any figures to back that up, so it's pretty much a moot point.
I think that divide was always a little artificial, and it's even more so now.
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If the media natcon hadn't been closed down, would east coast media fandom have survived insurance issues, internal fan politics, big companies like Paramount looking over their shoulders, and the impact of the internet? No idea. But with at least one yearly convention actively geared towards pulling them together, it's reasonable to assume it might have kept things chugging along through the hard times. Or it might not. Like you, I have no crystal ball.
The issues of media guest availability and pricing goes back to the 80s, when suddenly US cons started paying people stupid amounts of money because they were in a series no-one had watched in five years. Personally, I find that the vast majority of actors are seriously over-rated as guests. Give me a Howard Waldrop over almost any 'big' genre actor you want to name.
For media guests I would much prefer decent screenwriters, directors, effects people, etc.
Constantinople's carefully balanced program of lit and media panels meant both sides complained they'd been under-represented, so it was seen as a success by the committee. Fans like to argue and complain, as we're both showing :)
With Continuum, we very carefully avoided calling it a science fiction convention, just because of the stigma associated with that term in the general public. People assume a requirement that attendees wear Trek costumes and pointy ears.
We were certainly doing a fair job of getting new people along to their first con, and we got a fair number of those returning to later cons. In fact a portion of the current committee found fandom through Continuum.
That said, I still think we've got a long way to go before I'd say we were anywhere near having a significantly broader appeal. Which is difficult to do without 'mainstreaming' it, which the expos do much better.
I do hope that as we get more and more new folks on board that they'll start to steer things in bold new directions. Of course I may not like the way the cons change, but there were a lot of old farts that hated video rooms when they first came in, too. If their success means that I no longer have a place there, so be it.
And no, I don't think there was a conspiracy to destroy media fandom, nor have I claimed that. I would be surprised if it was anything more than pure laziness on the part of organisers. 'This is what we know and like, other people will just have to deal with it.'
Which is fine to some degree, because you can't please everybody and it's insane to try. But it's also stupid to cut yourself off from the potential bigger audience.
And no doubt that the divide is artificial. It always has been. And while I'm using the terms lit and media, it's mainly because those are terms most people get, plus I don't necessarily have better ones.
Is there any way to sort the situation? No idea. But us disagreeing with each other matters less than the fact we're having the discussion. The only way to get things moving and to find out one way or the other if things need to, or can, be fixed is to talk about it.
Jocko looking for fanzines.