A few more thoughts on FogCon 5

[owlmoose]

I feel derelict in my duties for not having written up more of my FogCon experience, but maybe it's okay that I just experienced it this year, rather than feeling the need to write it down. I did get involved in an interesting conversation about cultural appropriation and assimilation tropes at the last panel I attended. We were a small group in a large room and would probably have been better off sitting in a circle, but it worked out. I got to recommend "The Goblin Emperor" and a Kate Elliott essay, so my work was done. (I also rec'd Goblin Emperor in a conversation in the con suite, and I rec it to everyone reading this post as well. It is just That Good.)

One sort of recurring theme for me at FogCon is that I'm not very good at making lasting connections. I make contributions to discussions in the structured context of a panel, and I'll force myself out of my shell to make conversation during unstructured time, but it's very rare for such an interaction to end even with the exchange of contact information. So I have no way to continue the connection beyond the con, and when I come back the next year, I feel as though I'm starting all over again, even after five years of seeing many of the same people around.

This year, I actually opened up to a few people on my feelings about this, and I discovered other folks who feel much the same way. So I'm glad it's not just me. At the post-mortem session, I thought about saying something, but my thoughts aren't well-formed enough on this point to say anything coherent, and I'm not sure there's much the con culture could do about it anyway -- I have similar feelings about the professional librarian conferences I've attended, after all, so it is at least partly on me! For one thing, I do intend to seek out more folks on social media and see if I can be at least a bit more engaged. So if you're reading this post because I've recently added you on some platform or another, and you're trying to figure out why, now you know. :) Also I renew my semi-regular pledge to attempt to engage on Twitter more, since that's where so much of the sf/f fandom action is these days.

Will it make a difference in future years? Maybe. It certainly can't hurt, and having more cool people in my online social circles is always a good thing. I have hope for it, anyway.

Do others of you who go to cons feel this way? If so, what if anything have you done about it? I'd be interested to hear about other people's experiences.

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

Hmm! It's different for me because Western Australian science fiction fandom is this amorphous mass that intersects with almost every aspect of my life without me even trying. Even my highschool friends go to the local cons these days, and there's social events throughout the year like programming meetings and multiple local cons. On the other hand I am really shy about proactively keeping in touch with people. The two things that most regularly help me keep in touch with people are a regular movie night at my house and, weirdly enough, a monthly meetup for polyamorous people which ended up being WAY geekier than I expected! I don't know how local FogCon is for you, or if there's local meetups you're not aware of, you could check Meetup.com?

Other than that I've found a great way to get to know people and be remembered positively is to volunteer, especially at things like panels and manning the front desk. I also write up my panel notes and then link them on the dreamwidth community/mailing list etc. It's a passive way of putting my online contact details out there :) (That's not my main motivation, but it has that positive side effect)

I really need to read The Goblin Emporer, I keep hearing such good things. But the ebook is $11 so I end up reading something cheaper. Maybe I need to stop being such a skinflint and buy the damn thing.

[owlmoose]

FogCon is very local to me; the con hotel is a half hour drive from my house, which in California terms is practically next door. And though it draws people from other places, at heart it's a regional con, so most of the attendees are from the SF Bay Area. I have been thinking about whether I want to engage with the local fandom community more. My circle of friends, despite sharing many of my fannish interests, is for the most part not really into the con scene, and there are surprisingly few SF/F cons in Northern California. But there are definitely opportunities to connect with folks, and I should take more advantage of them. I'm going to a reading at the local sf/f bookstore on Friday, and this year's BayCon (the largest local con, which I've never managed to get to) has a promising line-up. So maybe that's the ticket.

I've thought about volunteering, and that remains an option, depending on whether I get a real job in the near future.

I caved and bought the Goblin Emperor as an ebook rather than waiting for paperback, and I'm really glad I did. :) If that helps influence your decision at all...

[alias_sqbr]

As you saw from my other comment I bought it myself: I went to double check the price and it was on special :) And yes I did quite like it! I wish it hadn't sidelined the female characters so much for the first 2/3 of the book, though. I'll try and write a longer review post when I'm more awake.

Also I found myself thinking "Who does the protagonist and his fiance remind me of...oh Anora and Alistair! No wonder owlmoose liked it" :)

[owlmoose]

Hah! I didn't make that connection, but now that you mention it... I definitely agree with you on the female characters. They were good characters, but they took too long to become integrated into the story.

[alias_sqbr]

I was going to say "it would be cool if she carried on from there in any sequel" but I see there is not to be one! Ah well.