WorldCon76 – San Jose

WORLD CON POST TIME! The annual geekening is over; here are my photos and thoughts.

I’ve started to branch out a little, and see a local attraction in the cities I visit. O_O Madness, I know! At WFC it was the Alamo, and at WorldCon76 it was the Winchester Mystery House. Very cool place!! The Winchester widow kept adding random rooms onto her mansion for the entirety of her life, believing it would appease ghosts, and helping to support the local construction industry. She wasn’t the best architect (and/or was intentionally trying to confuse ghosts) and so there’s staircases to nowhere, doors that lead to multi-story drops, and other cool oddities. The whole place is awesome, and you should go if you’re ever in town. It’s like being in a video game house!

I spent a lot of my time with friends I’ve met at past cons, this is almost turning into an annual reunion thing. This is not a complaint, that’s sort of thing is really fun! And I still somehow find time to make a few new friends every year as well. :)

The highlight of the con for me was, BY FAR, Ada Palmer. I got to hear her perform epic viking duets. These literally made me cry. I don’t cry that much. She’s very, very good. I cherish this memory, and bought a bunch of CDs and DVDs as thanks, even though I know they will never have the same impact as being 20 feet away and feeling the physicality of such anger and despair.

Afterwards I got to hear her talk about the Terra Ignota series for well over an hour in a semi-private hotel lobby. Including Q&A and audience discussion. AND she read the first two chapters of the final novel. Guys, this is gonna be fucking epic. Holy shit. We gotta wait until 2020 though. :(

I was invited back to another discussion the next day, and my biggest regret is not going to that. At this point I’d already missed a lot of programming I had meant to go to, either to catch up with friends, or to go to the Palmer events (I found out about them last-minute). And I really wanted to go, but I also felt like I should try to go to some programming for realsies one day? So I ended up sticking with the panels I’d picked out of the guide. That wouldn’t have been a mistake if there WASN’T more Ada Palmer to be had. But there was, and I deeply regret my decision now. :( Best heuristic – always go fan out over/with the person(s) you most admire in a con. It feels incredible because this is how we evolved to make good super organisms. It is doing a good thing to pay your heroes with admiration!

Seriously tho, Ada is so ridiculously smart and erudite and inspiring. I could listen to her talk about anything for hours. Maybe 5% of panelists are in her league, and the fact that she’s written a series I love and seems to be “my tribe” personality-wise is just so much extra awesome on top.

 

On the topic of programming – the rooms were all too small, and didn’t have enough chairs. Seriously, just about every single panel was over-crowded with tons of people against the walls or sitting on the floor. I’m not sure if more programming was added at the last moment and rooms had to be split to make more space? But the con was under prepared.

Also on the topic of programming – ALWAYS GO TO FANFIC PANELS. All other panels are hit-and-miss (unless you know one of the authors on them and are going to see that author. Then go! Knowing a good panelist/author and following them around is generally a good strategy). But aside from the parenthetical, it’s hard to say if a panel will be really good and on point, or if the people up front will have only a passing knowledge of the topic, or lack enthusiasm, or are too shy, or whatever. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t, and I suppose that’s part of the fun. EXCEPT for fanfic panels. The panelists on those are always super informed on the topic, and really enthusiastic on the topic, and gushing to talk about it. Fanfic panels are simply *the best.* I’ve never regretted going to one.

If you heard about the protest on Saturday, it’s basically what you probably expected. A teeny tiny storm in a wee teacup. I think there was more police presence than protestors? I feel kinda sad for anyone who had anxiety cuz of this thing, though. And I hear it gave the con organizers all sorts of headaches. But yeah, a few idiots showed up to do some 4^th-rate trolling. A few antifa came, hoping for a fight. Then it all blew away like dust in the wind, dude.

Interesting, the con skewed a fair bit younger than usual! I was used to the median age of the con being decently above my own in previous years. This year I think I may have actually been near the median! Writing that now, I realize that I’ve also been aging every year, so naturally I’d approach the median anyway, but I mean – it really felt like there were a healthy contingent of Young Whippersnappers there this year, moreso than previous years. I dunno if that’s due to the most youthful demographics of the Bay Area specifically, or if it’s indicative of a larger trend of people growing up with SF-lit-love coming of age.

One thing I did notice about this year though… aside from my amazing experiences with fanfic panels and Ada Palmer, I felt much more detached and less joyful this year. Always before I’ve been super extroverted and fully engaged. This year I had some melancholy. I think… I kinda think it’s because in all previous years I thought of myself as an SF fan. And this year I thought of myself as an author… except that I’m not a successful author (yet?). No novel. Only a few short stories. I’m surrounded by famous authors rocketing into their careers, and I haven’t done much. These people know each other, but no one knows my name, and I feel like I don’t belong. I want to no longer just be a fan of The Thing,  but be an active participant and doer of The Thing. I kinda feel like I should sit out the next few WorldCons until I actually DO something to earn it. But fortunately the next two will be out of country and beyond my financial means to attend anyway, so I guess I don’t have to worry about deciding that.

Like everything else this year, the awards had a strong “reactive against the Trump presidency” component. This is the theme of 2018, and none are immune. That being said, all the winners were absolutely deserved, and Jemisin’s speech was fucking amaaaaazing!!!!!!!! God DAMN! :D

All in all, good experience. :)

(JY Yang on piano in the airport)